Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Bwahahahahaha
Monday, February 27, 2012
From an Audience to a Director
I totally agree the idea that the arise of network media is the birth of e-democracy. Citizen journalism is craving a space in mediascape. How technologies like Web 2.0 and Internet could change our mass media to what extend is still remind to be discussed.
Is there any way to integrate different media with our own control and contribution? One interesting case is The 84th Academy Awards last Sunday Night App. I could image how people watched the first Oscar show on a black and white TV or through radio, but this time we can view it from iPhone.
The Oscar app is not only just an on-line video app that allows you to watch a live stream, but an app that allows you to be the director at the backstage. People who downloaded the app already have access to original video from last year’s show, photos and Twitter integration in its new magazine-style format. Additionally, all video views are tracked through iCloud, so viewers can stay synched across multiple iOS devices.
There are four special camera views that is available to users. they car watch all of the cameras on a grid at all, or watch through a specific camera, such as the backstage, the speech camera, or the photography shooting camera. Also, this app is highly associated with twitter, you can watch the show at the same time play some games through twitter.
This app provides a fun interaction to the audience, and also let the audience contribute to it's own Oscar show (they call it "Oscar My Picks"). This is the first trial of putting a format of media which usually belong to TV to a smart phone platform. So can we still call mass media as "the end of conversation"(Ferrarotti, 1988)? I'd rather call it "the start of new conversation by mass contributions", at least a TV show that directed by the audience themselves.
I think it is just a beginning of how we can integrate different media together, on a new platform. And I am also looking forward more interaction on this platform.
Citizen Journalism
Gillmor definitely foresaw the future when he wrote this, because today corporate journalism is put in check by citizen journalism.
According to Layla Revis (November, 2011), citizen journalism is changing media and democracy. She said that, "these citizen journalists fight to create a well-informed public in which media also serves as moral education. This philosophy radically departs from mainstream journalism, an overarching goal of which is to sell its product. Citizen journalism, on the other hand, allows marginalized people to reclaim their voices, to tell their otherwise silenced stories firsthand." Campaigns such as Arab Spring, Occupy Wallstreet, SOPA, and the revolution in Egypt have benefited from the safety of anonymity and freedom of speech that characterize social media. Social media enables citizen journalism to speak up and out when the major news outlets are blocked by the government e.g. China and Iran and even in instances when time and resources get in the way of the traditional and corporate journalism. These new journalists now act as a conscience to the corporate journalism.
read the article by Revis »
Cyberculture and Identity
Digital Media: A curse or revolutionary?
Douglas Rushkoff (2003) described developments as renaissance, and acknowledged the shifts in our capacity to understand and in our perspectives. I agree with this idea, and I believe that these shifts are altering our conception of how the world functions.
Education is a large part of my life, and I see this influence when we look at the education system. People would rather believe this idea of digital mythology that Steve Woolgar (2002) presents. People fixate themselves with false information and these tales that come from the internet. Social media especially become a main influence on our work, home lives, social lives, and interactions we have with others. There is a shift in what we once understand as normative. Digital media enables us to talk, but does it help advance us? I feel educationally it has the ability to offer us things, but also it can be problematic. Students are becoming more reliant on their laptops and feel the need to be on them in class, not always to look at powerpoint lectures, but to be on facebook. They are no longer present.
This video sums up my views.
"All" shapes and sizes...
I stumbled across this today and it falls in perfectly to part of last weeks discussion... women, sizes Small, Smaller and Smallest... Levi's curves
A more comedic commentary from Tina Fey...
Cyberculture and the Rise of the Meme
"Cyberculture, cyberspace, and virtual reality remain deeply embedded in very material conditions." - p. 3
"Cybercultures are driven by material considerations of profit and power, and affect people in their real lives. All this goes to show how technology must always be seen as contextual, and treated as technoculture where meanings, values, and functions are integrally associated with the object. Culture and technology are therefore not distinct but linked." - p. 6
For some reason, while reading this, memes kept popping into my mind. If you're not familiar with memes, here's what Wikipedia has to say:
A meme ( /ˈmiːm/; meem)[1]) is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."[2] A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.[3]
In my mind, the definition to meme is found at the website memebase.com. Basically, people take pictures and put funny captions on them. Yep, that's pretty much it. But the fascinating thing about memes is the culture that has developed around them. There are now over 20 niche sites branched off of memebase.com: LOLdogs, LOLcats, etc. There are also more colorful memes, such as Bachelor and Bachelorette Frog, Good Guy Greg, Depression Dog, and Paranoid Parrot, just to name a few. Some people--like my husband, for example--check membase as often as they check their Facebook account. It truly is a cyberculture.
The interesting thing about memes is that, for the most part, they express elements of the human experience, things that we can all relate to because we've experienced them, too. For example, one of the first memes I ever saw was about Google-ing a symptom you are experiencing and thinking, based on the search results, that you're going to die. Because--and let's be honest--who doesn't Google migraine symptoms and think they're going to die of a brain tumor?
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Evolution of the Web
Girl Gamers
How do women use ICT's for their own empowerment?
The above picture is the group of girls known as Frag Dolls
A Frag Doll (according to the Frag Doll website) is "a gamer girl with the skills to dominate in multiplayer shooters. An unabashedly geeky female who is proud to love games and geek culture."
When I got to the Gender and Sexuality section in the Nayar reading I immediately though about Frag Dolls. Now, I am not a female gamer (unless you count my mad skills with MarioKart) and the only reason I know about the Frag Dolls is because I know an actual female gamer who did her senior research on girl gamers.
Her small study affirmed what Nayar said about the role of women in the making of technology. Because women are "rarely involved with the design and research that create the technology" (Nayar, p. 18), the most popular video games are not usually designed with a female target audience in mind and girl gamers are surrounded by a lot of negative/derogatory feedback from those individuals (primarily male) in the gaming cyberculture.
The mission of the Frag Dolls is to "promote video games and represent the presence of women in the game industry" (Frag Dolls, 2012). These girls "are known not only for being skilled gamers in multiple games, but for their advocacy of female gamers" (Frag Dolls, 2012). Which now brings me to my thoughts about representation.
According to Nayar, "stereotypes from the real world pervade even passing, camp, and drag on the Internet, thus suggesting that even cyberspace is as gendered as the real world" (p. 18) It's great that a group of females are standing up for other females in the gaming world but what are they actually saying about female gamers?
The Frag Dolls are using information and communication technologies as an advocate for female gamers. Nayar also said that cyberculture activism runs the risk of remaining "at the level of the virtual, with little or no impact upon the real world" (p. 12) and can create a false sense of empowerment. The girl who I talked about earlier who did the study on female gamers said that the main insults male gamers gave her when she (or her female friends) would play multiplayer games, were insults about her possible appearance and/or her role in life. Players would call her a "fat ugly bitch," or a "dog-faced whore" or tell her to "get back to the kitchen where she belongs." This same girl also did a survey that she distributed to only males about their perceptions of female gamers, and nearly all of the males in the study indicated the prevailing sentiment that female gamers were most likely unattractive.
I am connecting this thought process to last week's readings and class conversation, but if anyone hadn't noticed already, the Frag Dolls are "hot," for lack of a better descriptor. I don't see one greasy pimple or nerdy cowlick on their flawless "geeky" forms. Now, this is where it gets confusing because the Frag Dolls are "breaking" the stereotype in the gaming cyberculture that female gamers are "unattractive" however by doing this they are are inadvertently reinforcing the gendered stereotypes (even in the virtual gaming world where people probably don't see each others faces that often) that your appearance matters. As a female you can be a successful gamer and look totally sexual and feminine while doing it. Empowered?
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
CNN: "What does beauty mean to you?"
http://ireport.cnn.com/topics/751511
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Is this 1959?
One of the more disturbing things I read recently is the surge in young girls having plastic surgery. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 219,000 cosmetic surgeries were performed on people aged 13-19 in 2010. The most popular procedures for this group were rhinoplasty and breast augmentation. Mothers and daughters are sharing the same plastic surgeon for breast implants to help with "self esteem issues." Also on the rise is body piercing and tattooing which has risen from 10% to 25% in recent years. "Advertising is one of the most potent messengers in a culture that can be toxic for girls' self-esteem," says Kilbourne. Do you think those of us entering the advertising have a responsibility to affect change? Do you think it is possible?
Gender, Media and Idenity
Advertising uses "cultural norms" as a paradigm when imagining ads or marketing campaigns. If advertising is to be effective it needs to resonate with an audience. How can advertising work to change culture and society if it is using the same paradigms to do so?
Here are some examples of how gender is used in interesting ways to break up demographics and target audiences for good causes:
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/girls-education-campaign-runs-street-ad-only-women-can-see-138425?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+adweek%2Fadfreak+%28Adfreak%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/06/bus-stop-ad-cha.php
Do these help change society or do they only promote the status quo of gender representation?
What is this?!?!
At the end of the article the author suggests that we shouldn't blame artists for the tension between their words and the image that they project -- they're a commodity and their image is shaped by their record labels.
"Imagine an artist looking lustily into the camera while critiquing the gaze she is giving you, or discussing the sexism implicit in the sexy dress she is wearing. Although the strategy might simply give rise to further conflicted images, there is the possibility that it would force the listener to critically read the image."
Watch Sophie sing Nicki Minaj's Super Bass (with commentary on why she likes the song, and what she thinks it means).
What is this? A little girl -- dressed in a ruffly tutu and tiara with a back-up dancing cousin, singing about a boy who has deep pockets, buys her diamonds, and makes her panties come off... What! How's that for "forcing the listener to critically read the image"?
But wait, there's more! Now watch this.
Enter Nicki Minaj in her own tutu-type getup, belly and cleavage prominent repeating the message for the young girls to stay in school. Again... What!
It's hard for me to take this message seriously, especially after watching her video (see it here) and reading the lyrics. I admit, these are not the nastiest lyrics out there, but still seem quite inappropriate for an 8 year old to belt out in front of a crowd (whether or not she knows what she is singing about). Although the author says we should, it is hard to get past the sexual images and grown-up material present it Nicki's typical presentations to the world.
Nicki Minaj Google image search.
myprinkfriday.com (Nicki's website for her new album).
An example of what the author is talking about in the article -- speaking one way but looking another: Fly.
The opposite *viewer discretion advised*: Stupid Hoe
Monday, February 20, 2012
Don't Worry, Be Happy
(I would embed the video but it has been disallowed by request on the YouTube site) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl9vZYj-aJ4
Neil Postman and The Today Show
Political Advertising Then and Now
I enjoyed all of the readings for this one. Jhally describes in “Image-Based Culture” that the image-based influence has spread to the realm of electoral politics. It being an election year and our recent discussions of televised presidential debates, I found one of Jhally’s statements interesting. Jhally stated that there is evidence that suggests that George Bush won the 1988 presidential race because he ran a better ad and public relations campaign. I think one might argue that same point for Barak Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.
Jhally goes on to say that politics is not about issues; it is about ‘feeling good’ or ‘feeling bad’ about a candidate—and all it takes to change this is a thirty-second commercial.
Negative advertising has been a foundational piece of political advertising for years. However, how many of us would say that we find this method effective or informative? To me the negative tone of political advertising turns me off to the candidate placing the ad than the candidate they are portraying in a negative light. As we are in the middle of the republican primary, negative ads are in full force.
Take this example from the Newt Gingrich campaign aimed at Mitt Romney titled “For the Dogs.”
In contrast, look at this example from Ronald Reagan’s 84 presidential campaign “It’s morning in America again.”
That Ronald Regan ad is arguably one of the famously effective political advertisements of our time. It sparks the emotion that Jhally discussed in “Image-Based Culture” without the negative undertones of many of the political ads out there today.
I’d be interested to hear what other members of the class think. Would you rather see the Regan ad versus the Gingrich negative ad? Does negative advertising spark any particular feeling or emotion toward either of the candidates?
Is every American like a gossip girl?
Impact of Different Shades of Skin Color Among African Americans
Lyrics
http://www.songlyrics.com/wale/shades-lyrics/
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhL_aJ3pf8g
Linsanity in Media
There has undoubtedly been huge media buzz surrounding Lin's underdog story with fans' delight in the basketball star even being dubbed "Linsanity." However, despite Lin's apparent positive outlook, his stardom doesn't come without setbacks.
This article from the Washington Post presents an interesting viewpoint that, since a large amount of basketball players are Black Americans, their history is more well known and they are more widely accepted than Asians in basketball. And I think they make a good point.
The article quotes Guy Aoki, head and co-founder of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, saying "Because reporters 'don’t want anyone to think they condone the word’s use, they came up with the ‘N-word,’ ” Aoki said by telephone from Los Angeles. “There’s no such thing as the C-word . . . is there'
When the Madison Square Garden Network flashed a graphic of Lin sticking his tongue out, superimposed in the middle of a fortune cookie, Aoki wondered aloud: “Imagine if 80 percent of the league were Asian American. And a black player’s face was put in the middle of fried chicken and watermelon. How would that go over?"
The point that sticks out to me in all this is that stereotyping can present itself in all sorts of light. In this instance, black Americans are more prevalent in American basketball, and thus, are more better understood in this context. We stereotype Black Americans as being good at basketball the same way we stereotype Asians as being good with technology and the same way me stereotype homosexuals as being fashionable. And while these stereotypes include positive qualities, they are still something America must combat. This seems to happen most frequently through the four steps discussed in the class article.
I think Rob King, ESPN’s senior vice president of editorial, print and digital media sums it up well when he says, “The minute everybody starts patting ourselves on the back over reaching some kind of conclusion on the issue of race, something like this happens and makes us realize how far we have to go."
Misrepresentation of minority groups as one ideological effects of media
Impact Images
Sunday, February 19, 2012
How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native Americans
Saturday, February 18, 2012
An Image-based Culture and the "you can have it all" complex
Miss Representation
Miss Representation is a documentary-turned-movement addressing the current state of how the media portrays women, from movies to fashion to politics and beyond. I'm working on a proposal to try to get the filmmakers to present a screening of Miss Representation here at UNL, and I think once you watch the trailer you'll agree that this documentary--in conjunction with our readings this week--would definitely be a good idea.
Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from Miss Representation on Vimeo.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Group 4 Chapter Summaries
Chapter 56 discusses the communicative and political functions that mail provided between FDR and the mass of citizens.
- Any personal letter to FDR was to receive an individual and thoughtful response.
- Presidential mail allowed Roosevelt to keep a pulse on the issues that were concerning the public masses.
- FDR used content analysis to find general trends in the mail, but that was not a replacement for him to read through letters himself.
- The letters were his form of qualitative research
- This was also a tool, which prompted topics for speeches, fireside chats, etc.
Meyersohn and Katz draw on the interpretation of popular music and fashion in the mid-1950s as a precursor to today’s studies of styles and subcultures (410).
- The process which fads operate is typically confined to subgroups in society (410).
- Each new fad is a functional alternative for its predecessor: this hit for that hit, etc.(410).
Several approaches to the study of fads:
- Function of fashion for society, groups and individuals.
- Fashions examined in terms of specific content and many attempts have been made to relate a trend or style to a Zeitgeist or “climate of opinion” (411).
- Fashion system seen in the interaction among producers, distributers and consumers.
- Fourth approach studies the origin of a given item—conditions of acceptance, characteristics of those whom the innovators influence, shifts from minority to majority acceptance, its waning and where it goes to die (411).
- Stages of a fad can be isolated and studied. Each stage has been described as paving the way for the next stage.
- Fads are not born but rediscovered. Meyersohn and Katz give the example of R&B music rising to the top of pop or mainstream music charts.
If the primary function of mass media was to spread information among the masses. Breed theorized that media had a secondary function in society that served the latent function of enforcing the status quo.
- By expressing, dramatizing and repeating cultural patterns, both traditional and the newly emerging, the media reinforce tradition and at the same time explain new roles. (p. 418)
- Literature reflects, shapes and controls society by omitting certain aspects of society or culture. Without representation in media, society can effectively ignore on culture or norm.
- Reverse content check found most of the omitted ideas in mass media were politico-economic significance, religious significance, justice, health and family issues.
- Individuals who have stature within mass media can use undemocratic means to their ends.
- Media not only protects ‘pressure’ groups but also protects the community from ‘pressure’ groups.
- Overall Findings:
- Values and behaviors highlighted as well as individuals; doctors, leaders, judges, mothers, clergymen, GIs overseas, etc.
- Values of religion are linked to social processes taking the form of ritual (p. 423).
- The stating of unpleasant facts maybe be prevalent in all forms of social communication.
Daniel Lerner documents ways in which the modern social life is seemingly displacing the ancient regime of tradition in the Middle East.
- “I am thankful that the good God created us all ignorant. I am glad that when we change His plan in this regard we have to do it at our own risk.” –Mark Twain
- “The people of the area today are unified not by their common solutions but by their common problems: how to modernize traditional life ways that no longer “work” to their own satisfaction. “
- “Middle Easterners more than ever want the modern package, but reject the label “made in the U.S.A.”
- …millions throughout the Middle East are yearning to trade in their old lives for such newer ways in what modernization promises to most people. The rapid spread of these new desires, which provide the dynamic power of modernization, is most clearly perceived in the coming of the mass media.”
- “A complication of Middle East modernization is its own ethnocentrism—expressed politically in extreme nationalism, psychologically in passionate xenophobia.”
- “The expansion of psychic mobility means that more people now command greater skill in imagining themselves as strange persons in strange situations, places and times than did people in any previous historical epoch.”
- “Thus the mass media, by simplifying perception (what we “see”) while greatly complicating response (what we “do”), have been great teachers of interior manipulation.”
- Three different covers used in the experiment: One with only the verbal material (Group V), one with only the cover girl’s picture (Group P), and one without any alteration (Group T).
- Group V perceived the cover girl more negatively (Bad, false, foolish, unsuccessful, powerless, unimportant, and a hard creature), and wrote short and negative essays about their perceptions of the cover girl’s personality
- Group T perceived the cover girl more positively (good, kind, true, successful, soft, wise, powerful and important) and wrote lengthy essays with the most positive assertions and defended cover girl’s personality.
- Picture of the cover girls designed to the specifications of the romance-confession market transforms the impressions created by the supercharged verbal context of the cover (p. 438).
- Effects of verbal context on her image are subtle. When the verbal context was absent, the girl’s success rating went up the most (p. 438).
- Mass media content reflects, in ways both explicit and implicit, the imprint of concrete circumstances of its production (p. 439).
- The dominant cover girl image appeals to society as a representative heroine who overcomes the surrounding negative verbal context that shares her cover space.
- Art-editors conceive of the romance-confession cover girls as a projection of the readers’ self-image. Her function on the cover appears to be analogous to the inside heroine’s function of identification. The editorial prescription calls for a heroine who may be outwardly plain and sinful, but not unsympathetic. (p. 440).
- Communication research is withering/dying
- Past research stems from 4 major approaches
- Political approach - Lasswell
- Base - Broad politico-historical approach; concern with power
- Propositions:
- Propaganda pushes the intensity of the situation to extremes: facilitates catharsis if interest is low, and precipitates crisis if interest is high.
- Political symbols circulating among the power holder correspond more closely to the power facts than do symbols presented to the domain.
- Sample survey approach - Lazarsfeld
- Base - Social psychology moving toward sociology
- Propositions:
- People tend to expose to communications whose content is congenial to their predispositions.
- Communication exposure “pushes” people to a decision, but mainly in line with their latent attitudes
- Small-groups approach - Lewis
- Base - Experimental psychology moving toward social psychology
- Propositions
- Pressure to communicate within a group on a given topic increase with the discrepancy within the group, the cohesiveness of the group, and the relevance of the issue to group moral
- Pressure to communicate to a giving individual within a group decreases to the extent the member is not wanted in the group
- Experimental approach - Hovland
- Base - Experimental psychology moving toward social psychology
- Propositions:
- One-sided communications are more effective with those initially favoring the position taken; both-sided communication are more effective with those initially opposed
- Recall of factual material fades with time, but initial opinion changes are strengthened, especially when in line with prevailing group attitude (sleeper effect).
- 6 minor approaches to communication research
- The reformist approach: represented by the Commission on the Freedom of the Press; concerned with organization, structure and control of the mass media, and particularly with considerations of public policy.
- The broad historical approach: represented by David Riesman and Horold Innis. Concern - “Is it science?”
- The journalistic approach: represented by the professional schools and such people as Casey, Nixon, Schramm, and others. Concern with control aspects of the media, characteristics of communicators and “practical” interests.
- The mathematical approach: represented by Shannon and Weaver
- The psycho-linguistic approach: represented by Osgood and Miller
- The psychiatric approach: represented by Ruesch and Bateson
- The last three define communication differently and lead to different problems
- Researchers greatly expanded the field of communication but many researchers have either died, left the field to explore other fields or are no longer teaching
- Future major points of focus include: Combinations, Comparative studies, Economic analysis, Socio-historical analysis, Popular culture, “Mass” communication, Practical affairs
Schramm focuses on a more pessimistic approach to the future of Communications research. He describes the founding communication approaches (448):
- The political approach represented by Lasswell
- The sample survey approach represented by Lazarsfeld
- The small-groups approach, represented by Lewin
- And the experimental approach, represented by Hovland.
- Schramms argues these approaches are “playing out” and the outlook is dark for communications research.
- However, communications research has helped make a bridge between the professional teachings of journalism and political science and ancient intellectual strengths of the university.
- He argues that work in the field of communications is inviting because of its very ambiguity and lack of structure. There is room for people with an interest in literature, social sciences, economics and aesthetics (449).
- Reisman also asks if mass media is creating a homogenous national culture.
- Argues that early approaches carried with them necessary over-simplications which have become clear because the approaches were pushed to the point where they exposed their own limitations (453).
- A shift now to primary concern with the substance of the problems with less commitment to a particular device of investigation (453).
- Communications shaping attitudes and behavior.
Wright discusses audience, experience, and institutional mode of production as a means of defining what mass communication is.
- “Mass Communication as it is used in this Study is not simply a synonym for communication by means of radio, television, or any other modern technique. Although modern technology is essential to the process, its presence does not always signify mass communication (455).”
- The audience should satisfy three requirements to be considered mass communication:
- Large: Somewhat a subjective term, and may be difficult to justify what is considered “large”
- Heterogeneous: “…occupying a variety of positions within society (455)”
- Anonymous: Recipient ultimately remains unknown to the communicator
- The experience for a receptor could be portrayed as transient, rapid, and public
- The communicator is usually a large complex organization
- Technology has driven this new form of human interaction—mass communication
- The major challenge to social theory in the field of communications lies in healing the breach between the disciplines of communications studies and urban studies. These two bodies of knowledge are inextricably related. (p. 457)
- Discussions of urban life present a picture of interpersonal relations in marked contrast. Face-to-face relationships are disappearing. Traditional communication is perceived as an “art” or a discipline to be learned. (p. 458)
- Mass urban society, then, is secular society; and it reveals itself most typically in the erosion and deterioration of the informal face-to-face relationship (p. 458).
- Ideas are reflections of social systems. Knowledge, according to this view, is not autonomous, outside of culture, but socially determined. To be fully understood it must be examined…as a mirror of the aspirations and anxieties of people living in a given social structure (p. 459).
- Freud: Attitudes are only terminal extensions of a deeper personality organization which seeks to preserve itself. Our approach to experience, then is selective: we take from it only those parts which nourish and protect the self…Therefore, propaganda or informational material which “threaten” an individual’s self-image are ultimately ineffective. (p. 461)
- Mass media as a social institution: First, some form of media consumption is almost universal in modern societies, second, the media outlive their audiences. Third, the primary functions of the mass media are socialization and social control. (p. 462)
- The mass media are a temporary substitute for other institutions—institutions which have, for one reason or another, declined but can be made once again to function properly. (p. 463)
- Society is moving towards a trend of segmentation and fragmentation, the unique function of the mass media is to provide both to the individual and to society a coherence, a synthesis of experience…The supreme test of the mass media…is how well it provides an integration of experience. (p. 463)
- Hypothesis: mass media are a social institution created by the demands, social and psychological, in a secular society, demands for an awareness of the connections in modern experience and our involvement in them. (p. 463)
- The real problem for both theory and research is not impersonalized but depersonalized relationships. (p. 463)
This selection was Minow’s first public address given after becoming the chairman for the Federal Communications Commission under JFK’s administration.
- New FCC chairman is worried about the industry’s lack of responsibility in regards to public interest
- Public interest = not what interests the public, but rather what is best for the public (industry responsibility is needed)
- A majority of TV programming is a “vast wasteland” (p. 467)
- Children spend as much time watching TV as in the classroom
- People are likely to choose to watch entertainment (the wasteland), but the industry has a responsibility to provide a healthy programming diet (public interest)
- Sponsors should know that buying a share in this industry means “buying a share in public responsibility” (p. 469)
- Worried about how other countries would view the U.S. based on what they seen on American TV programming
- “Television has grown faster than a teenager, and now it is time to grow up” (p. 471)
This selection uses JFK’s assassination and the public’s reaction to it as a basis for analyzing American’s commitment to politics.
- Historically, a king’s story showed human drama and the king himself stood as a symbol of society and nation
- Engaged people intellectually and emotionally
- However, in the West, politics is viewed differently – leaders (presidents) seems to only be seen as secular
- But Verba argues that Kennedy’s assassination could show a reintegration of the political system
- Americans had seemed detached from politics; however, JFK’s assassination brought the nation together on an emotional level (all people at all levels – politicians, media, etc.)
- American politics had/has an absence of rituals
- The ceremonies associated with JKF’s assassination allowed Americans to come together – through shared information and emotion as shown by the media
- This shared experience allowed Americans to recommit to the democratic system
This selection is critical of American style broadcasting, which relies on commercialization and consumerism. Schiller also posits that the commercialization of broadcasting is spreading.
- Before TV, the US was alone in having a commercial radio broadcasting system
- After the advent of TV, most broadcasting is done commercially
- Consumerism must grow; to expand more, the markets needed leave the US borders
- While other countries tried to maintain a more socially responsible broadcasting system – US advertising continued to push… and eventually was able to establish a hold in foreign markets (“spillover” from countries that allowed for this kind of broadcasting would eventually lead to it being allowed in that country… and it spread from there)
- Attention now on space and satellites
- Commercial beat cultural in the race to space
- Third World countries will not be able to escape the effects of commercialism in their futures either; Western commercialism is already entering their boarders