Media Criticism

The Internet: A Credible Resource?

2005-04-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

I found an interesting article today on MSN.com about the Internet. Congressman Tom DeLay recently criticized Supreme Court Justice Kennedy for doing his research on the Internet. Should judges peruse the Web rather than rely on traditional rules of evidence? Is it a viable resource? What do you all think?

Blog Comments

2005-04-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

I commented on this blog as well as this blog. Check them out, they both have interesting things to say about media and issues surrounding media today!

'Today' Too Yesterday

2005-04-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

I found another article relating to media today in the New York Times. It discussses the downward spiral that NBC has been facing with its morning news show, The Today Show, with Matt Lauer and Katie Couric. It blames the failing ratings on Katie Couric's lack of chemistry with her colleagues and the show's lack of sparkle. Staunch competition from ABC with its recent string of successful shows such as Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy has also been a factor. This article demonstrates just how many factors can contribute to the presentation of news and television shows.

I know that I tend to prefer certain news shows over others because of the host of the show. For example, I watch World News Tonight with Peter Jennings over NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw because I prefer Peter Jennings as a news anchor. I think this shows just how important we as an audience feel that the way news is conveyed to us, not the necessarily news content itself. What do you think of this? Do you find yourself influenced by the hosts of shows and the chemistry they have or do not have together? Have you seen this reflected in The Today Show or other news programs?

Peter Jennings and the Marketable News

2005-04-18T12:44:00.001-07:00

The New York Times has an article about the effects of Peter Jennings's illness on their newscasting. ABC network is apparently struggling with deciding what to do since Peter Jennings is going to be absent for long periods of time to undergo treatment for lung cancer. They are debating who will be the substitute for Jennings and who would be potential replacements if it is necessary.

The seemingly simple process is difficult for ABC, which is trying to give popular faces to their news team to strengthen it in the ratings race and determine what move will be the most marketable. This demonstrates how news is not just the facts and events, but is largely based on how it is conveyed and how it will be most appealing to media consumers. Peter Jennings's popularity is going to be difficult to replace, and any move that ABC makes will likely be a profitable and appealing one that will help ABC overtake CBS and other networks with stronger news teams rather than creating a format which will bring viewers the best news.

Ways of Seeing

2005-04-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Reading the chapter in our Channels of Discourse textbook on the feminist critique reminded me of a book I recently read for another class. John Berger's Ways of Seeing, a collection of essays based on a BBC program of the same name, also discusses the media and how it caters to how we are thought to perceive images in advertising and even in art.

Berger states that our capitalist society encourages images to be aimed toward a young white male, and everything in the advertisement is adjusted for that viewpoint. Women are seen as objects and are often presented in ways that are directed toward the white male for ultimate effectiveness. His essay on publicity especially connects to what we are reading. Ways of Seeing makes very interesting and eye-opening reading in terms of how we are led on by media. I'd reccommend taking a look at it if you're interested in this subject!

M e m e f e s t

2005-04-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

When I looked online for a popular media reform movement, I found Memefest, an annual international festival of radical communication. This festival is largely organized by and addressed toward students studying communications, sociology, and visual design and design arts and encourages them to contribute their individual talents to the counter-culture. Memefest got its name from memes, which according to dictionary.com are “units of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another.” This means that memes are like the mores or customs that make up and define our culture. Last year, the organization received over 350 submissions of responses and ideas from 36 countries in every continent in the world.

The goal of Memefest is to explore how ideas can be spread, asking its participants to “generate and replicate more positive and beneficial” memes, instead of the harmful and incorrect memes that tend to spread throughout our society, like stereotypes. Media comes into play here in spreading negative ideas by advertising and marketing industries, wasting the talent and knowledge that is possible for us as a collective society. A portion of last year’s Memefest addressed a book called Cyberwar is Coming, published in 1993, which warned of governmental use of information for ideological control. This ties into the ideas that we have recently been studying about the media reflecting certain ideologies, such as the Marxist model. Media industries themselves cater to society’s most popular memes, which are not always the most correct or beneficial ones, and last year’s Memefest pointed this out.

Memefest 2005 asks for student submissions on Douglas Rushkoff’s Nowhere to Hide. This book examines the attempts of advertisers to convince even the most cynical and angry consumer. This year’s festival also asks for responses to The People’s Communication Charter, which according to the Memefest website is the “‘democratic manifesto’ that lists what needs to be done to right the wrongs of media and technological violence, and the prejudices inherent within it.” This subject again ties into what we’ve been covering in class about the sources of media subjects and the interference and monitoring of media content by governmental organizations and conglomerate executives. The media that is filtered through these sources tend to reflect violence, sex, and prejudices, all of which are issues that, while deemed prevalent by the media and the programming it produces, tend to be in actuality social taboos that are nowhere near as common as the media portray them to be.

This festival appears to be a large-scale, positive movement that asks students going into media or media-related fields to think critically about the way the media affects societies internationally and how media is created to affect audiences the way that they do. In essence, this is precisely what the goal of our class is, as well, demanding the next generation to think and ask questions rather than respond apathetically to the issues surrounding media that we may not otherwise even recognize to be there. I think that Memefest is definitely a step in the right direction, however small it may be, and asking the younger generation to begin thinking of and making changes to our current media problems could help later on when these very students are participating in the running of media outlets. Hopefully, Memefest and other similar media reform movements continue with their goals and eventually have success, however small it may be, in instigating change and a wider knowledge of media.

Check out Memefest’s blog. You can also submit your media-related artwork, designs, or essays to Memefest.

Apparently Homosexuality is Marketable...

2005-04-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

Darryl Stevens as a gay screenwriter
in "Noah's Arc" on Viacom's Logo
network.

I recently came across an article in the Media and Advertising section of the New York Times that talked about the recent move to create new cable services aimed at the gay market, like Comcast's Here and Viacom's Logo. These cable channels include series such as "Noah's Arc," about a gay screenwriter, and "Third Man Out," a show featuring gay detectives. This idea comes on the heels of the recent popularity of shows such as "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" and "Will & Grace." Executives from Viacom say that they do not anticipate negative reactions to these new services.

This demonstrates something that we recently read about filling supposed gaps for certain programming on television. In this case, executives at Viacom and Comcast found that there was a marketable group that they could address with a new cable service, and they proceeded to create a niche for it. Although there may or may not have been a true demand for a cable channel completely dedicated to gays and lesbians, these media giants have created one, and have even created the belief that there was a gap in the market to begin with.

In the article, Here and Logo are purported to be an ideal venue through which to break the stereotypes of gay and lesbians, and to provide a "home" for homosexuals looking for positive messages and homosexuals living real lives. This relates back to the video that we watched in class today about representation in the media. In the film, Stuart Hall noted that characters who are created as "anti-stereotypes" don't really change the stereotype to begin with. Instead, it changes the stereotype from "natural" to seemingly fabricated.

This is a very interesting topic, and I am interested in seeing how successful Logo and Here become, and if there truly is a market that these services can be directed toward. What do you think?

Stay Free! Magazine

2005-04-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

There are many publications that engage in media criticism, and many magazines are devoted to this very valuable practice. Without their publication and informative articles that raise our awareness of media issues, the public may unknowingly become more desensitized and immune to the motivations behind the messages we get from media. One of these magazines is Stay Free!, a magazine that promotes awareness of media messages and consumer culture through satire and humor, along with some informative articles. Their website even has a blog where current bits of humor and mass media culture are posted. I highly recommend visiting this blog, where some current topics are parodied logos (many of which are highly entertaining) and humorous letters sent to the editors of Stay Free!.

Stay Free!, published independently, defines itself as “a nonprofit magazine covering American culture, politics, and life in South Central Brooklyn.” The magazine has been around for over ten years, publishing two issues a year in May and November. The magazine’s goal is to raise the public’s awareness about the negative impacts of media, our media consumption, and consumerism through satire and humor along with informative articles on important consumer-related issues. For example, in one issue, an article about the negative impact of Wal-Mart on workers and the towns they move into is discussed in a lengthy interview with Liza Featherstone, the author of the book Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart. The humor that is necessary to increase the impact of the topic and interest readers is found early on in this article, like many others, where the author notes: “shopping at Wal-Mart is a little like smoking crack: the low prices undoubtedly fill a need (particularly for the poor) but they only come back to bite you in the end.”

A good example of a more scathing point made by the magazine on the same topic of Wal-Mart is the satirical column that evaluates the costs and benefits of setting yourself on fire as a demonstration for the plight of Wal-Mart workers. Having considered the options available for the workers, like lawsuits, which tend to be tedious and boring, the magazine came up with a more innovative method of setting oneself on fire – a method used in the East but has not quite yet caught on here in the U.S. A cost-benefit analysis chart is used to determine that, in fact, the benefits of setting oneself on fire (media attention and the added bonus of savings from a free cremation) outweigh the costs (with the value of a human life set at around six million dollars, clothing losses, gas costs, a liter of Jack Daniels, and the cost of a match). Satirical looks like this one at a shocking method of demonstration against consumerism and for human rights is an ideal way to garner the public’s attention about a subject, and that is precisely what Stay Free! does.

The magazine is funded only by subscribers. It is distributed by many companies, including AK Press, Bernard DeBoer, Desert Moon (Borders), Tower, Last Gasp, Left Bank, Doormouse, Kent News, Marginal and OneSource. It is an independent magazine, and because it campaigns against advertisers, it does not include any advertising or do any mass marketing. Any advertising it includes is of places like local stores and services, such as a record store in Washington D.C. It also includes notices about media events, such as the National Conference for Media Reform.

Contributors to the magazine are often satire columnists, such as Joe Garden, who writes for The Onion and RoyalJournal.com. Others are stand-up performers, or editors at the Modern Humorist. The editor, publisher, and designer is Carrie McLaren. No contributors are paid for the work they do for the magazine, and readers are invited to contribute to the magazine, as well.

Stay Free! and other magazines like it are important to bring awareness to media consumption and to consumers who do not realize the effects that media has on them. These magazines play upon our desire for humor and even uses elements of semiotics in conveying their messages, such as in their logo parodies, parodying semiotics itself by making alternate meanings to advertisements and logos. Hopefully Stay Free! and other magazines like it will continue to be published to continue to ask the pressing and impertinent questions for society to think about.

Peter Jennings and Narrative Theory

2005-04-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

It was announced today that news anchor Peter Jennings has lung cancer. I don’t know about you all, but this took me aback when I first heard about it, and felt like the news was personal. This made me stop and think – why was I so affected by news about someone whom I do not know?

I began thinking that the answer lies in the way television portrays characters and narrators. The television audience is led to believe that these people, like news anchors, are friends of ours and tell their stories on a personal basis, making the viewer feel as if the character is speaking directly to them. The goal of television and television news is to portray a real person who is talking directly to the viewer (such as when news anchors say the personal closing “good night” to the audience, as was mentioned in our textbook).

This situation just struck me as interesting in light of what we have been discussing in class and what we have been reading in our text. What do you all think? Do you feel personal connections to people on television? How does this reflect the effectiveness of television’s teller/listener connection?

Review of Finding Neverland

2005-04-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

I recently watched Marc Forster’s 2004 film Finding Neverland, starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. This film is based on the story of writer J.M. Barrie and his friendship with the young Davies boys, who became his muses for his greatest work, Peter Pan. After the failure of his last play, Barrie happens upon three brothers, Peter, Michael, and George, and their mother Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, an attractive widow. An instant bond is formed among them when they discover that they all share a distinct love of fantasy and imagination. Barrie’s friendship with Sylvia and her children shields him from the inadequacy of his own marriage, and inspires him to write a theatrical fantasy about the imaginary Neverland.

A review from the New York Times gave the film a lukewarm review, saying it had “the potential for a marvelous tale,” but falls slightly short of the mark. The main fault of the film, according to the reviewer, is its extreme politeness and inability to cross any boundaries. The possible scandalous romance between Barrie and Sylvia is ignored, with both characters remaining dignified and keeping a polite, platonic distance between them. Any questions about Barrie’s relationship with the three young boys is scoffed at and swept under the rug. Altogether, the lack of real human quirks and habits makes the movie into a glossy fantasy in itself, much like Barrie’s play.

Roger Ebert at the Chicago Sun Times has a different viewpoint. According to him, the film is “surprisingly moving.” Although the true story of Barrie’s life was manipulated for effect, Ebert believes that it is effective nonetheless. By doing this, the movie creates a better and deeper character sketch of Barrie by providing a chance for the character to experience unconditional love, something that is pure and innocent despite its appearance. The film to him is successful because of precisely what the reviewer at the New York Times disliked about the film – its fantasy and surreality.

After reading these two reviews, I find myself somewhere in the middle, not fully disagreeing with what either review said. I think that the film is heartwarming and effective in its lustrous aesthetic presentation. The deep colors and intensive costumes add to the visual splendor of the film, and attest to the deep and rich themes of life that the film addresses, such as the power of the imagination, forever maintaining innocence, and the value of play. It has a strong aesthetic appeal, with some wonderful cinematography, especially in the fantasy scenes, such as the pirate ship. The narrative follows what we've recently been discussing in class about television. For example, Todorov's equilibrium to disequilibrium and back to equilibrium applies to this film, where the impending conflict drives the film's plot, as well as connotations. At one point in the film (slight spoiler warning!!), a character's death is portrayed only as walking into a magical forest in Neverland. The next scene is a funeral scene, where the family is gathered around the character's grave. This forces the viewer to make the connection that walking into Neverland was metaphoric for death, and although the character's death is never shown, it is implied by the funeral. The story also seems to be narrated by Barrie, though indirectly. Every scene of the film has Barrie's character in it, making him central to the plot and its telling.

One thing that I found disappointing was that the possible romance between Sylvia and Barrie is disappointingly never fully explored or developed, and hardly mentioned. Their relationship seems to be just what they say it is, a friendship and bond over the love of the imagination and Davies’s sons. Like the New York Times said, “The problem isn't the liberties the filmmakers take with reality, but that this isn't an engaging bowdlerization. Barrie and Sylvia don't have to tussle like Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton in "Monster's Ball," Mr. Forster's last feature, but it would have been nice if they trembled once or twice.”

I do have to praise the acting in this film, which I believe considerably helps carry it. Barrie’s character, an eccentric writer who is truly a child at heart misunderstood by many, is flawlessly portrayed by Johnny Depp. Depp is perfect at conveying the character’s light-hearted wisdom and humor, and is always there to hold up deeper scenes, such as when he reveals his traumatic past to Sylvia. He is a wonder to watch, trying on a delightful Scottish accent that never seems forced or false. Freddie Highmore, who plays Peter Davies and seems most sobered by his father’s death, also gives an excellent performance that shows a great amount of depth for such a young actor. The relationship and friendly chemistry between Barrie and Peter feels very real, attesting to the abilities of both actors.

The film's overly-sentimental moments are surprisingly rare, creating more than a few moments of magic, such as when we wonder why Barrie mysteriously reserves 25 seats in the theater on the opening night of “Peter Pan,” only to suddenly discover that he has invited orphaned children to come and watch. Another moving moment is when Mrs. Davies finally gets to see Barrie’s play, and the fantastic, dreamy world of Neverland opens before her. The best scenes in the film come in its second half. Overall, its sumptuously dreamy aesthetics and delightful playfulness create a moving and successful film, despite its few flaws.

"Young boys should be never sent to bed. They always wake up a day older."

The Buzz About Ranting Waiters

2005-03-28T11:04:00.000-08:00

I found an article online the other day about how waiters’ blogs have been generating a lot of buzz recently, and it made me research these blogs further. I discovered that ranting waiters and waitresses are very popular blogs. These blogs belong to people who work as waiters or waitresses at restaurants, and use their blogs as a forum to vent their true feelings about their profession and the people whom they wait upon. Some of them are truly ridiculous, being nothing but an angry person who found another way to whine about their jobs. Others, however, are more unique and engaging.

One of the popular ones that I found was the Waiter Rant. This blog is very entertaining to read and is written more like a story than a list of complaints. He achieves a humorous and tactful anonymous blog that is always interesting to read. A recent article on MSNBC discussing blogging about one’s workplace mentioned this blog, saying, “The author of Waiter Rant, an anonymous blog about life as a waiter in a New York restaurant, writes mostly about bad experiences with customers. ‘The rage had to go somewhere,’ he explained. At first, he said, he did not tell anyone about the blog. He especially didn't want his mother to read it. But he became frustrated the blog was getting no attention so one day he sent a link to a popular blogger in England. Today, the anonymous waiter has more than 1,000 readers a day.
‘At some point, I started to care who read it,’ the waiter said. ‘Anyone who produces anything, you like feedback.’”

It is this feedback that has made this blog and many others such hot topics. Getting your blog “buzzed” about guarantees that whatever you discuss in your blog will become a hot topic. People in the blogging world seem to really enjoy reading the Waiter Rant and other, similar blogs. For example, one blogger posted in their blog called Boviosity: “One thing I like about [the Waiter Rant] is the kinds of diners who drive this guy crazy are frequently the exact opposite of the kinds who would (probably) drive me crazy (I've never waited tables.) His instantaneous judgments of the eating public are hilarious and encyclopedic and remind me a lot of myself when I was in my twenties and thought it a good idea to put people into boxes as soon as possible.”

Something I found interesting was how other people find waiter blogs as further evidence that, apparently, humankind is inherently evil. At the Moronosphere, the blogger takes the terrible treatment that waiters discuss on their blogs to heart and chastises people, telling them to leave larger tips so that waiters can make a living. The writer of the Waiter Rant himself says that people’s treatment of waiters brings up larger issues, noting:

“The ultimate test of a society is not wealth and power but how it treats its weakest members. No chain is stronger than its weakest link. We’ve lost sight of that fact. You may snort and dismiss that idea as bullshit. That’s your right. But let me assure you, at one time in your life, whether through illness, age, or economics – you’re going to be that weak link. I guarantee it.

Who will be there to take care of you? The desire to cut pay from waiters and other tipped workers is only a symptom of a larger and pervasive cancer running through society- that survival of the fittest trumps all.
That’s my opinion. Sorry for rambling on. I’m sure readers will shred this post to pieces. If you agree with me, write your local representative and tell him or her to protect tipped workers’ basic minimum wage.
I’ll be back with more entertaining stories. I know you all come here for the laughs but every once I while I just gotta say what’s on my mind.”

Disneyland Blogger

2005-03-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

I found an article today from the Nashua Telegraph about a man who gave unauthorized tours at Disneyland, giving tourists insider information about the park and the company that Disney apparently didn't want to be disclosed. This is an interesting article because it shows how large media enterprises can manipulate their image and monitor just how much information they want released to the public, as well as

This man also has his own blog online about Disneyland, and a website. Check them out, they're definitely interesting!

I also found this interesting link. If you're really into blogging and want your blog to be noticed, Robert Scoble, an avid blogger, has these eight tips to getting a buzz about your blog.

Social Responsibility in Media

2005-03-27T19:08:00.000-08:00

I found the social responsibility movie that watched in class on social responsibilities of media to be very interesting. It brings up good questions about media that we have touched on in class, as well, such as who should take responsibility for the content of media, and whether parents or the media should monitor what their children were exposed to. An especially interesting question brought up by the film is the question of art versus societal responsibility. Since the goal of film is to be interesting, unique, artistic, and provocative, as the producer interviewed in the movie said, it is difficult to temper and censor the artistic qualities in order to provide material that is suitable for younger children to watch along with the adults who can appreciate it.

In the hypothetical project proposed in the film, the element of the artistry of a film was also discussed, and whether art should surpass the importance of censoring films for young children. Later on, the subject of rap lyrics is brought up, and whether the source of rap music – African Americans – is the reason why it is so controversial.

This film brought issues to my attention that I had not previously noticed. For example, they discussed how the music artists that we are exposed to reflect the tastes of the company executives who sign them to their music label. The messages in music produced have been filtered and monitored by these executives, and this kind of non-diversified sources of media messages reflects what we discussed in class a few weeks ago about sources and influences on media production.

Individual responsibility of the actors, writers, and parents was also juxtaposed against the societal responsibility of the film industry as a whole. The impact of real-life experiences weighed against the influence of media experiences on individuals was also brought up. None of these questions seemed to have a definite answer, even to the experts and high-ranking officials. These same questions, however, must be kept in mind while evaluating the media and being exposed to media. They are important questions to be asking to keep ourselves aware of media effects on us individually and societally. The media’s focus on important and artistic subjects and forms has been replaced by lazier, mindless subjects of entertainment, like sex and violence. Identifying the source of these problems is the first step in solving them, and discussions such as the one shown in the video is a good step toward changing these systems and raising awareness about these issues.

The Technology of BlackBerry

2005-03-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

In our society today, new media are constantly being created and infiltrated into our everyday lives. Inventions such as TiVo or Sirius Satellite Radio all create new ways of communication and new sources of information that we use daily. One popular new technology that is swiftly catching on is the BlackBerry of the pocket PC is BlackBerry, a small, handheld computer with wireless Internet access.

According to their website, BlackBerry.com, a BlackBerry is “a leading wireless connectivity solution, providing access to a wide range of applications on a variety of wireless devices around the world. It combines award winning devices, software and services to keep mobile professionals connected to the people, data and resources that drive their day.” With a BlackBerry, you can e-mail, browse the web, make phone calls with a speakerphone feature, access AIM and Yahoo Messenger, and roam over 180 countries worldwide. It’s a quick and easy handheld and manageable way to use the Internet for chatting or e-mailing, as well as for storing and organizing information. The unit itself is about the size of a PalmPilot – another technology that has quickly caught on in the business world.

BlackBerry technology serves many functions because of the seemingly endless capabilities. Companies ranging from construction to legal services to real estate have been utilizing this new technology. The financial industry, government, health care and pharmaceutical companies, and legal industry have all begun to use the technology of BlackBerry.

This technology is new to me, although I have heard a lot about it. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t seem to be an incredibly new innovation, since Palm Pilots and cell phones also have Internet, organizational, and phone call capabilities. This new medium that relies largely on wireless Internet access for its appeal. I think that the implications of this new technology would be more active communication between people. Because they are so convenient and manageable, they would be ideal ways to e-mail friends, family, or co-workers when you are not near a phone or computer.

Overall, BlackBerry seems to be a fast-growing technology for businesspeople, but does not seem to have a practical, everyday function for everyday people, who do not travel often and use phones or regular computers for communicating. One of the negative implications of this technology, however, is impersonal communication – the same problem that all Internet-based communication faces. Seeing someone in person or even speaking with them over the phone creates a necessary human interaction, and constant reliance on text messages, whether in e-mail or instant messaging, loses the personal, human feel of communication. Internet communication with a family member is nowhere near as intimate and effective as it is over the phone or in person. This technology, although useful in some ways, could begin to create an even larger gap in personal communications that the Internet has already instigated.

Media in My Parents' Lives

2005-03-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

Interviewing my parents about the influence of media while they were younger was an interesting experience. I found that many of their opinions mirrored mine, despite the generation gap and the differences between the typical media exposure in the 1950s and 1960s versus today’s typical media exposure. It was also interesting to note the influences of different types of media on their generation in respect to the different types of media in my generation. For example, my dad noted that radio was a big part of his life growing up, since there was only one television set in their neighborhood. He and his family listened to the radio as entertainment and a source of news. He remembers watching shows such as The Shadow with his brother, for example.

One of the similarities that I found was that my parents were equally as influenced by visual media as they were influenced by print media, as I find that I am. My mother, for example, said that the most important medium in her household was the newspaper, which her father read constantly. My mother has continued this trend and brought it into my family, in turn making me interested in reading newspapers and magazines as a source for news. I find that I am more likely to turn to a newspaper for news rather than turning on the television. Books are also an influential medium for both my parents and me. My grandmother always read stories to my mother when she was younger, and my mother continued that tradition with my sister and me, and I find myself reading books fairly often. Now that I am in college, I find that I am reading books more often than I am watching television, although my exposure to the Internet has largely increased.

A large difference I noted was the difference in the influence of radio. Both of my parents listened to the radio often when they were younger, both for the music and entertainment as well as for the news. This has changed with the advent of television and the Internet for my generation. The radio, though still a presence in my media consumption, is more for music than anything else when I do find time to listen to it. With the new technology of MP3s and iTunes, I find I am more likely to turn to the Internet as a source for my music rather than the radio.

My parents got their information about politics through television, newspapers, and through everyday conversations. This is the same way that I get my political information. Politics in media did not seem to affect my parents very much, and they did not remember any specific campaigns or political ads. The only political events that they remembered were the death of John F. Kennedy and the media’s coverage of the event and the Dwight D. Eisenhower “I like Ike” campaign, but nothing more specific than that. In my experience, the media has been a large factor in political campaigning, as was seen during last year’s election. I can remember seeing a commercial with circling wolves that caused a stir, though I do not remember which party sponsored the ad. This shows that certain images that the media provide are not always effective when the message that is intended to be associated with the images is not memorable.

Religion in the media was not that big of an influence on my parents, and they were not often exposed to it. However, my mother remembers her father mentioning how ridiculous televised church services were, and saying that religion is intended to be participatory to be effective, and the media cannot dilute it to mere images. Religious figures represented in the media, like televangelists, were seen as “fanatics” and “actors” in my mother’s family, and religion mixing with media seemed to make religion insincere. My parents also believe that the media has had a significant influence on religion in the past few decades. Religion has taken a backseat to other things, and the media’s constant emphasis on the people’s rights and individual opinions has skewed the public’s view of religion and its role in people’s lives. My mother believes that religious issues have been exploited by the media as incidents in which everyone's individual opinion must be heard. Religion does best when there is one source for definite information on the religion, and media does not always allow for this. In Catholicism, for example, the pope is the sole provider of information, but the media gives this information to the public secondhand, sometimes skewing the message. The media has also made religion seem less private and does not allow things to remain in one’s imagination, leaving little room for hope and faith, replacing it with explanations for things that should remain mysteries.

I believe that media has provided an outlet for multiple viewpoints on religion, which is perhaps both a positive and negative event, and has helped to support the idea of individual rights instead of social/religious unity and is a major factor in establishing new forms of religion. Media provides an ideal forum for spreading ideas, and through the Internet, for example, anybody can start a website proclaiming a new religion and find followers. The media seems to have provided multiple messages and viewpoints that has been both a good and bad influence on religion. In one sense, exposing people to other views and other more unique or smaller religions is beneficial in broadening people's worldview. In another sense, however, it has made people unsure what to believe in since there are so many alternatives, and many people seem to pick and choose pieces of many religions that work for them rather than joining a specific group. This may be good for the spirituality of the individual, but hurts religious groups because it does not provide the sense of spiritual community than most religions encourage.

Sports has never been a large influence in my family, but my parents both think that the media has exploited the commercialism of sports, making athletes focus more on gaining fame and money (such as through companies sponsoring them or appearing in commercials for their products) rather than becoming successful at the sport itself for the sake of athleticism. Issues surrounding sports such as team rivalries, violence during games, and drug testing have taken precedence over the game itself. Advertising during sports games and media coverage of sports bother my parents sometimes. They believe it is irritating only when the advertising interrupts the game itself, such as commercial breaks in the middle of an exciting baseball game. Sports have become more commercialized especially in the sense that today, sports fans can buy into the media hype about sports, such as buying hats or jerseys with team logos and paying large sums of money for tickets to games. The ads that are on billboards at stadiums or on uniforms at the games themselves, however, fade into the background and are less important than the game itself when my parents watch a game on television. I agree with my parents on all of their points about sports and media. Advertising can take away from the game itself and the commercialism sometimes can surpass the sport. Media can also create more hype about certain issues, such as team rivalries like the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. By emphasizing these elements of the game rather than the players’ abilities themselves, media can divide sports fans.

Overall, I found what I had expected to find through conducting this interview. My parents and I share many of the same viewpoints on media and media exposure, even though our exposures to media and the very media we were exposed to varied. For example, my parents relied on radio more than I do, and I use the Internet more than they do. Despite these differences, however, the influence of media does not seem to have changed, although it seems that media criticism and the negative effects of media is a current phenomenon. This interview proves otherwise, and has increased my awareness of media and its role in history.

Product Placement in Films

2005-02-28T15:02:00.000-08:00

I came across this article in the business section of the New York Times today. In light of the recent Oscars, the writer cheekily notes that there should be a category for best product placement in a film. It mentions how product placement is not a new concept, contrary to popular belief. It dates nearly as far back as film itself does, to the 1930s. Even films thought of as classic or artistic, like the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch with Marilyn Monroe, are not commercialization-free: in one scene in The Seven Year Itch, Monroe is shown holding a bag of Bell potato chips. The Turner Classic Movie channel will be using this topic of product placement for their themed movie series in March. This is a unique series, since previous themes were more normal, like political thrillers or movies featuring the same actor.

This article ties into what we're going to be talking about next week of the history of media criticism. This article brings to light the fact that consumerism and commercialization are not recent developments. The media's presence and effects on our lives has been felt longer than many people think. Needless to say, the TCM series should definitely be interesting!

Slam!

2005-02-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday night, CSC’s English club, Word Order, CAB, and CEC sponsored a slam competition, hosted by New York slam poet Charlie Bethel. Tons of people came and competed, and it was great to see so much enthusiasm for an event on campus. It went really well, and despite some controversy over the judges’ scores, I think everyone had a good time. Everything turned out well in the end, with Zach Cranor winning first place with $200, Aimee Parkhurst taking second with $100, and Kate O’Neil with third and $75.

This event was a great opportunity to learn about slam as a new kind of poetry that has spawned a kind of counterculture that is quickly spreading. Slam could even be considered a new medium of expression. It reflects media as a part of our daily lives in that many poems include references to movies, music, and other elements of popular culture. Slam ties into media in another respect as well because of its roots in hip hop music, and the fact that it inspired two 1998 films about slam culture, Slam and SlamNation.

To find out more about slam poetry, you can go to www.poetryslam.com or http://www.slampapi.com/new_site/background.htm.

Charlie Bethel

Slam winners Zach Cranor, Aimee Parkhurst, and Kate O'Neil

Effects of Media

2005-02-26T14:47:00.000-08:00

Media has effects on everyone, whether we realize it or not. These effects can range from short-term ones, such as the urge to buy a product from seeing an ad, to long-term, such as disillusionment about the society as a whole. All of these effects, however, are brought on by the media that are part of our daily lives. In the January 2003 issue of the Journal of Communication, a specific long-term effect of media was addressed. In the journal, the article “Television News and the Cultivation of Fear of Crime,” by Daniel Romer, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, and Sean Aday was published addressing the impact of television news on the public’s perception of the crime rate.

This article was written about a study performed on the reason why the public’s belief that crime is a major issue despite declining crime rates and the fact that crime is concentrated in urban locations. The researchers were inspired by what they called the “cultivation theory,” which suggests that widespread fear of crime is created partially by the large amount of exposure to violent media programming on prime-time television. They used this theory as a background for their hypothesis that the fear of crime is in part a by-product of exposure to crime-saturated local television news. They tested this hypothesis by administering a survey to 2,300 Philadelphia residents.

The results of the researchers’ study supported their hypothesis. Those who viewed local television news heavily rated crime-related risks more severely than those who did not watch the news as often. Media regions that covered crime more often also showed higher perceived rates of crime by viewers. Increases in the coverage of crime increased the public’s fear of crime. The researchers concluded that the best explanation for the relation between television news exposure and concern about crime is that heavy exposure to violent crime stories on television increased the public’s fear of crime happening to them and led to the belief that crime rates were higher than they actually were.

Personally, I am not surprised with the results of the study. Media effects sometimes go unnoticed, and this study is important in realizing how vulnerable we truly are to the media. I know that in my personal experience, I sometimes watch television news, whether local or national, and feel as if the world is unsafe. After watching it, I feel as though society contains an excessive amount of violence, crime, and other problems. Even the front pages of newspapers online show a large percentage of crime coverage, like the New York Times or the Concord Monitor. However, I know that the media tempers what they cover and the news we watch is only the sensational events that have been deemed newsworthy. The events that we see every day on television news are a select group of specific stories that will capture our interest and arouse an emotional response in us. After repeatedly giving an immediate response in this way, we then begin to have more long-term effects from this exposure, such as the incorrect perception of crime rates that the study addressed.

This study is an important one in making society realize the impact that media has on their everyday lives. Television news and other media can be misleading, and some people in society tend to be gullible and believe what they hear, only to draw improper conclusions from it. As we talked about in class, news tends to focus on the unusual and depicts human interest events, not everyday activities and the more normal side of life. This skewed focus changes our everyday beliefs – a definite and dangerous effect of media. With an incorrect perception of the world around us, we cannot live life the way we potentially could. Only through an active critique of the media can we discover the truth in the news and realize how it can manipulate us.

Journalist blog

2005-02-22T19:42:00.000-08:00

Boston Herald journalist Jay Fitzgerald, the Business Journal editor, is an example of a journalist who keeps a weblog online. In his blog, called Hub Blog, Fitzgerald comments on news occurrences around Boston, where he lives and works. It is, in his words, “a blog about Boston and the universe for which it serves as the Hub.” He posts news items of interest about sports teams, such as the Patriots’ Super Bowl win and the Yankees’ obsession with the Red Sox, as well as political news, much of which relating to the state’s government and governor, Mitt Romney. Fitzgerald spends a few sentences on description of each news item, and then posts links about it or related to it for the reader to follow.

At the Boston Herald, Fitzgerald writes about business and technology. For example, a semi-editorial article he wrote on January 28th addresses Fitzgerald’s concern that the Gillette Company will move out of Boston after it is purchased by Procter and Gamble, causing the Boston area to lose the century-old history it had with the company. The article is impersonal and ordinary, with little added opinion on Fitzgerald’s part, as newspaper articles require.

His blog, on the other hand, is peppered with his personal feelings on issues that he posts about. For example, on a post about the Bush administration’s media ties, he writes “[New York Times journalist] Frank Rich summarizes the Bush administration’s strange media bribery and plant campaign. ... The entire media world is getting stranger and stranger these days. Not just this. Everything. Is this how industries fade away? Into a huge spinning vortex? ... Don’t recall it happening to the textile industry.”

These personal comments make Fitzgerald’s blog much more personal than his articles. While his position at the Boston Herald seems to be business-like and solely reporting news, his blog seems to be a space for his reactions to news as well as a space to share news that he finds interesting with other curious readers online. Fitzgerald is definitely more free in writing his weblog than he is at the Boston Herald, which has the constraints of the journalistic profession that Fitzgerald must follow.

Weblogs have no required news values or standards to which bloggers must adhere, therefore freeing Fitzgerald from the constraints and values of his profession and providing a liberal space for writing about his opinions and interests. Included in these absent constraints is the constraint of journalistic conventions, such as required leads, a certain form of paragraphs and a clear, concise style of writing, and the pyramid form of writing a news article.

Fitzgerald uses his blog as an outlet for news and opinion that cannot be part of his work as a journalist. However, he does not stray far from his journalist roots, still discussing news events in his blog. Fitzgerald’s blog is a good example of how a journalist can use blogging to their advantage by using it as a forum for news and opinion, interestingly, much like newspapers themselves.

Blogs in the workplace

2005-02-22T13:35:00.001-08:00

The combination of blogs and workplaces has been causing a lot of stir as of late. I found an article on CNN that talks about how workers keeping weblogs is becoming an issue for companies.

Like we talked about in class earlier this semester, this article brings up questions about how personal blogs are and if they are truly damaging to companies. Blogs can be a good tool for advertising for companies, but if they are negative and complain about bosses and co-workers, companies say that they can damage their reputations and be bad for business. It's interesting how much of an impact blogs are causing on society. The controversy created by them seems to attest to the fact that blogs are powerful forms of communication and media.

Response to His Girl Friday

2005-02-17T20:31:00.000-08:00

His Girl Friday is an excellent example of a media critique in film. It specifically targets the newspaper genre, and explores how journalists handle news and what is presented to their audience as news. In the film, journalists Hildy Johnson and Walter Burns attempt to cover a story that is unfolding right in front of them, while competing with other journalists to “scoop” the story.

The film’s story portrays journalists in an interesting light. They are depicted as desperate to do anything to get a story, including taking bribes and falsifying or misconstruing information for a better story. For example, in the film, a woman named Molly Malloy berates a group of journalists for changing her quotes and portraying her in an inaccurate light, but the journalists do nothing about it, since they got the story they wanted out of it.

The film also demonstrates how news is constructed. For example, Hildy is assigned the Earl Williams story because she can add “a woman’s touch to it” and give it an emotional, tear-jerking spin on how pitiable accused murderer Earl Williams truly is. It also shows how journalists use their own story-writing techniques to change the news they are covering. In one instance in the film, Earl Williams is being arrested right in front of a group of journalists and each of them already has a different story about it, making the viewer think that journalists never tell the truth. News is seen as what the public wants, and journalists cater to this desire, spinning news events into a sensational or emotional story. They also release news at their convenience, misleading the public. In the film, Hildy and Walter collaborate on the Earl Williams story/mayorial election scandal, and decide to release only certain information in the next day’s paper to sway voters in the election for the city mayor. The film also makes journalists appear to strive for getting their big story to gain prestige and fame, and therefore their “big break.” This is their main motivation, rather than a search for truth and accuracy in their information.

His Girl Friday can also be evaluated in terms of its cognitive, emotional, moral, and aesthetic elements. Cognitively, the film requires a certain knowledge of the chaos of the press room and the profession of journalists. The viewer can compare what they know of journalism and journalistic techniques to how they are portrayed in the film. This film also requires the viewer to constantly be alert and aware in order to keep up with and understand the fast-paced dialogue. Emotional elements of the film include undertones of romance with Walter and Hildy, as well as comedy with the slapstick and fast-witted humor.

Moral elements can also be seen in the film, with the journalists’ sense of ethics and truth, and demonstrating how distorted events and people can become in a story in journalists’ hands. The viewer can compare this treatment of truth with his or her own ideas of how truthful news should be and the integrity of journalists. In the film, when Molly Malloy accuses the journalists of slander, they do not respond to her, but seem upset by her outburst, realizing the real-life effects of their shady morals. Aesthetically, this film does not have the same stunning visual elements and effects that modern film and television has, but it is still stunning in its simplicity. Being black and white, it automatically has associations with classic cinema that are engrained in modern viewers. The costuming in the film is glamorous and traditional, making the profession of journalism appear prestigious.

Overall, this film accomplishes a satisfying satire of journalism. By exaggerating the actions of journalists, it brings attention to the faults of the news media. News is not simply events, but events filtered through many processes. This film is entertaining, but also does well with depicting the shortcomings of journalism and the media itself – ironically, critiquing a medium through another medium.

NY Times Article

2005-02-14T15:27:00.000-08:00

I was reading the NY Times the other day and came across this article about the impact of blogging.

There has been some controversy over the accuracy of Dan Rather's 60 Minutes report on the president's military service in the past month or so, and Rather has announced his resignation. Now, further pressure from conservative bloggers has caused Eason Jordan, a top news executive at CNN, to resign, as well. It's a very interesting article that shows the impact of blogging and its possible legitimacy as journalism or at least for grassroots campaigns, the power of the audience in media and news consumption, and raises the question of how accurate the news we hear daily truly is.

Just something of interest!

Valentine's Day in the Media

2005-02-13T19:24:00.000-08:00

Valentine’s Day is a very unique holiday, celebrating neither an achievement in history nor a specific person (the identity of St. Valentine has not been proven for certain), but instead celebrating love and relationships. This holiday is important to our society to remind us how connected we really are, and how much we appreciate each other. This holiday, however, like many others, has become increasingly more commercialized through media. Newspapers and magazines run articles teeming with advice of how to ask her out, what to buy him this year, and what to wear for your big date, hoping to attract a shopper’s attention. Businesses take advantage of the day to have weeklong Valentine sales, and card and chocolate companies rejoice when the calendar hits February. Perhaps most especially, companies use advertising to capitalize on the holiday.

Ads for Valentine’s Day are created to play to the public’s emotions, since the holiday itself is built on emotions. The DeBeers website, for example, (www.debeers.com) a diamond and jewelry retailer, advertises its “The Secret of Valentine” campaign. In it, the company notes that in history, young women would step outside on Valentine’s Day and the first bird they see flying overhead indicated the kind of marriage they would have. A sparrow meant happiness forever, for example, and a goldfinch meant marrying into money. Four chirping birds decorate its webpage. Each of these birds and the qualities that accompany them has suggested jewelry to represent it, as well.

To analyze this campaign, its cognitive, emotional, moral, and aesthetic connotations must be considered. Cognitively, this campaign requires a comparatively significant amount of reading in order to understand what the ad is about. There is very little product information other than a picture of the jewelry that accompanies the birds and the cost in pounds. For more information, further exploration of the site is necessary, which perhaps is a strategy in itself. An interested shopper may stumble across additional jewelry that he or she may want to buy through spending more time at the website. The products introduced all seem to be new additions, as well, that seem to require more information.

This ad also appeals to emotions, with the general reaction to this being thinking how cute, classic, or touching the story seems. It appeals to a sense of traditionalism and hopeful romanticism in the viewer. This makes it seem as though the ad is directed toward women, although men are the ones who would be buying the jewelry that De Beers advertises. There do not seem to be any significant moral considerations for this ad. It is harmless, and does not preach anything, other than giving a certain piece of jewelry connotes giving “passion” and automatically making the giver “charming,” depending on which piece is bought and given.

Aesthetically, this ad is not complex. There are four simple birds in the corners, and flowery, Romantic-style handwriting describing the bird tradition. The background of the page is maroon, tying in with the traditional colors of Valentine’s Day. This ad probably could have been more effective with better, more eye-catching visuals, though the sentiments and sense of traditionalism surrounding the ad is effective.

Companies’ ads are not the only media that cater to the hype surrounding Valentine’s Day. Even newspaper articles deal with the subject of love and relationships. For example, in the Concord Monitor, an article detailed the history of Valentine’s Day and the possible identities of St. Valentine. Another was written by a teenager, commenting on how different and complex the relationships of today’s teens are from the older generation. An article in USA Today gave “8 Rules for Dating” sure to improve your relationships, and MSN lists “8 Wacky (but Fun) Valentine Ideas,” including playing couples poker and giving each other facials.

The media seems to use Valentine’s Day as yet another excuse to increase sales and gain more buyers. In our increasingly media-saturated society, one has to wonder what holidays like Valentine’s Day truly mean to us. The meaning of the holiday, however - showing someone that you care about them - has not been lost, and the sentiment is increasingly important in the world we live in.

Media Exposure

2005-02-06T13:37:00.000-08:00

When I began tracking my media exposure, I thought my original estimation was fairly accurate. However, when I began realizing that there was more to my media exposure than reading, TV, music, and movies, I noticed that I was exposed to more media than I had thought. My original estimation of media exposure for a week was 77 hours, which I had thought was a reasonable guess. The true amount of exposure I had over the past week was 85 hours, which, considering there are 168 hours in a week, is a huge amount of time. Half of my week was spent being exposed to media, which is something I had never thought much about before.

When I was keeping my log of media exposure, something that I found interesting was that I don’t listen to the radio. I listen to music that I’ve got on CDs or music that my roommate plays, but I don’t really use the radio, especially for news. That disappointed me, because I think that radio is a good source for news and I don’t take advantage of it enough. For news, I use the Internet, like Netscape, MSN, NYTimes.com and CNN.com, or read the newspaper.
I also noticed that I listen to music as an activity on the side of doing something else, just as background noise, and I don’t pay that much attention to it. Media exposure like this, that I do not pay attention to and therefore do not watch actively can be detrimental because I cannot clearly decipher the messages that the media is sending and determine which ones I should believe and which ones I should think about more objectively.

I noticed small things that are media that I didn’t even realize I was exposed to before, such as advertisements and logos, and music playing in the background at the dining hall. I also noticed that my friends and I talk about all kinds of media, like our favorite books, movies, and shows on TV. For example, some friends and I went to see a movie, and along with the direct media exposure of the film, we also talked about the film on the way back, quoting it and mentioning our favorite parts.

I had no idea how much my life was influenced by media, and now I’m a little shocked and feel as though I should be more careful to see how media is affecting me and what I’m exposed to daily. In today’s world, it is very difficult to escape media, since it appears nearly everywhere, from clothing to conversations to homework assignments. Living life without the media is now nearly impossible.

This exercise has made me very aware and skeptical of the media. However, it also brought up some questions for me. If you can’t believe the media, what can you believe, and where can you get information? From what I’ve gathered, media is something that we can listen and pay attention to, but we must do it critically and think about what we’re taking in every time we are exposed, whether we are purposely being exposed to it or not.

Researching the blogosphere

2005-01-25T19:08:00.000-08:00

I've used a weblog before through LiveJournal, so I knew a little bit about how blogging worked before class. Generally with LiveJournal, I find it more for entertainment and opinion rather than for information that anyone could use. Only my friends would understand or care about some of the things I post about, so I'm writing for a very specific audience.

From what I've seen online, some blogs seem to be very informative and journalistic, like we talked about in class. Others are like editorial pages, with the author of the blog discussing some recent news issue, like the war in Iraq. These seem to have a point and a place in media. Blogs like RuminateThis on Blogosphere, for example, is a forum for activism and politics. Blogs that are for people with shared interests, like writing poetry or photography, seems to be a good way to connect with other people online, as well, like an offshoot of a chat group.

Blogging about one's personal life, on the other hand, seems odd to me. One's most personal thoughts and information don't seem like things that should be made public online. In this respect, blogging is the modern, technology-savvy way of diary. I think people blog about their private lives because they want other people's opinions and/or approval on the daily happenings of their lives, to stay in touch with friends, or maybe because it's an easy forum to vent in if you're upset. Personal blogs that are like diary entries do not qualify as media to me.

Overall, blogging seems to be a phenomenon that will be crucial to the future of media. With the Internet being such a significant influence in people's lives, increasingly more people are turning to the Internet as their source for news rather than reading the newspaper or listening to the radio. As already demonstrated with their immense popularity, weblogs will prove a very important tool for media to use.