The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, in as much as he who knows nothing is nearer the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. Today, we contend with a mass media that extends far beyond newspapers, a media system that is among the biggest and most powerful institutions in the country. Unfortunately, it is also a media system that too often envisions us as consumers of capitalism, not citizens of a democracy. Media sociologists Herbert Gans argues that the media alone can not guarantee a democracy. Despite much disingenuous talk about citizen empowerment by politicians and merchandisers, citizens have never had much clout. Countries as big as America operate largely through organizations.
But in a country as big as America, the media constitute one of those critical organizations that can help or hurt us in creating a more economically and politically democratic society. At their worst, the media can distract or misinform us with falsehoods and errors. But, at their best, the media can shed light on the issues, tell meaningful stories and foster the discussions that can help a citizens' democracy flourish.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Chapter 11
Although media consumers have not always been comfortable with advertising, they developed a resigned acceptance of it because it "pays the bills" of the media system. Yet media consumers have their limits. Moments in which sponsors stepped over the usual borders of advertising into the realm of media content, including the TV quiz show and radio payola scandals, complimentary newspaper reports about advertisers' businesses and product placement in TV and in movies have generated the greatest legal and ethical debates about advertising.
Still, as advertising has become more persuasive and consumers more discriminating, ad practitioners have searched for ways to weave their work more seamlessly into the social and cultural fabric. Products now blend in as props or even as characters in TV shows and in movies. Search engines deliver paid placements along with regular search results. Product placements, some permanent, some networked to change with the user are woven into video games.
Among the more intriguing efforts to become enmeshed in the culture are the ads that exploit, distort, or transform the political and cultural meanings of popular music. When Nike used the Beatles' song "Revolution" (1968) to promote Nike shoes in 1987 ("Nike Air is not a shoe... it is a revolution," the ad said). Many music fans were outraged to hear the Beatles' music being used for the first time to sell products.
That was more than 20 years ago. These days, having a popular song used in a TV commercial is considered a good career move, even better than radio airplay. Similarly, while product placement in TV and in movies was hotly debated in the 1980's and 1990's, the explosive growth of paid placements in video games hardly raises an eyebrow today. Even the lessons of the quiz show scandals, which forced advertisers out of TV program production in the late 1950's are forgotten or even ignored today as advertisers have been warmly invited to help develop TV programs
Are we as a society giving up on trying to set limits on the never ending onslaught of advertising? Are we weary of trying to keep advertising out of media production? Or are we now less concerned about the integration of advertising into the core of media culture?
Still, as advertising has become more persuasive and consumers more discriminating, ad practitioners have searched for ways to weave their work more seamlessly into the social and cultural fabric. Products now blend in as props or even as characters in TV shows and in movies. Search engines deliver paid placements along with regular search results. Product placements, some permanent, some networked to change with the user are woven into video games.
Among the more intriguing efforts to become enmeshed in the culture are the ads that exploit, distort, or transform the political and cultural meanings of popular music. When Nike used the Beatles' song "Revolution" (1968) to promote Nike shoes in 1987 ("Nike Air is not a shoe... it is a revolution," the ad said). Many music fans were outraged to hear the Beatles' music being used for the first time to sell products.
That was more than 20 years ago. These days, having a popular song used in a TV commercial is considered a good career move, even better than radio airplay. Similarly, while product placement in TV and in movies was hotly debated in the 1980's and 1990's, the explosive growth of paid placements in video games hardly raises an eyebrow today. Even the lessons of the quiz show scandals, which forced advertisers out of TV program production in the late 1950's are forgotten or even ignored today as advertisers have been warmly invited to help develop TV programs
Are we as a society giving up on trying to set limits on the never ending onslaught of advertising? Are we weary of trying to keep advertising out of media production? Or are we now less concerned about the integration of advertising into the core of media culture?
Chapter 10
Except for their earliest incarnation as clay tablets, books have been printed on various forms of paper, papyrus, parchment, or pulp. But as the printed word becomes digital, it actually is not printed on anything, just represented on a screen. In this case, will the content still be considered a book? Think about how newspapers and magazines are continually changing, how Facebook has rendered the college yearbook almost extinct, how digital photos have done the same to bound photo albums, or what a recorded music album means in the era of the music download. How has content and accessibility changed with these evolution? In the light of all of this, what is the meaning of the bound book in our culture? How do we interpret a lush paneled room full of literary classics, a large glossy "coffee table" book, or a well worn in textbook? Will we still buy books based on their covers if there is no actual paper cover? If the primary reading medium becomes a screen, will we still want to read text on a screen that reminds us of a book, or will the small screen of an iPod or mobile phone suffice?
In this review of Amazon's Kindle, author Ezra Klein wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review that "just as the early television shows were really radio programs with moving images, the early electronic books are simply printed text uploaded to a computer." If that is the case, what will the coming generation make of books? Will the solitary pursuit of reading, as Klein notes, become a social activity, with immediate connections to other readers and the author? Will a book purchase be an admission fee for an ongoing relationship with updates or new chapters from the author.
Printed words on paper, bound together, creates a natural enclosure to the communication of reading. It is just the individual reader interpreting an author's story, long after it has been written. Is that activity the essential nature of the book as a mass medium? Or can the book, with words released from paper, evolve into an entirely new communicative practice?
In this review of Amazon's Kindle, author Ezra Klein wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review that "just as the early television shows were really radio programs with moving images, the early electronic books are simply printed text uploaded to a computer." If that is the case, what will the coming generation make of books? Will the solitary pursuit of reading, as Klein notes, become a social activity, with immediate connections to other readers and the author? Will a book purchase be an admission fee for an ongoing relationship with updates or new chapters from the author.
Printed words on paper, bound together, creates a natural enclosure to the communication of reading. It is just the individual reader interpreting an author's story, long after it has been written. Is that activity the essential nature of the book as a mass medium? Or can the book, with words released from paper, evolve into an entirely new communicative practice?
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Chapter 9
There are more than nineteen thousand magazine titles in the United States. But the largest and most profitable magazines are typically owned by some of the biggest media corporations. Time Warner, for example, counts People Time, Sports Illustrated, In Style, FORTUNE, Southern Living, and Real Simple among its holdings. Even niche magazines that seem small are often controlled by chains. Supermarket tabloids like Star, the National Enquirer, and Globe are all owned by Florida-based American Media, which also publishes Shape, Muscle & Fitness, Men's Fitness, Fit Pregnancy, and Flex.
High revenue magazines, especially those focusing on fashion, fitness, and lifestyle, can also shamelessly break down the firewall between the editorial and business departments. "Fluff" story copy serves as a promotional background for cosmetic, clothing, and gadget advertisements. Digital retouching makes every model and celebrity look thinner or more muscular, and always blemish free. This altered view of their "perfection" becomes our ever hopeful aspiration, spurring us to purchase the advertised products. Yet, the huge number of magazine titles means that magazines span a huge range of activities and thought. Each magazine sustains a community, although some may think of readers more as consumers, while others view them as citizens and several hundred new launches each year bring new voices to the marketplace and search for their own community to serve.
So there is the glitzy, commercial world of the big magazine industry with Time's Person of the year, the latest Cosmo girl, and the band on the cover of Rolling Stone. But the long list of smaller magazines, like Multinational Monitor, Edutopia, and E-The Environmental Magazine, account for the majority of magazine titles and the broad, democratic spectrum of communities that are their readers.
High revenue magazines, especially those focusing on fashion, fitness, and lifestyle, can also shamelessly break down the firewall between the editorial and business departments. "Fluff" story copy serves as a promotional background for cosmetic, clothing, and gadget advertisements. Digital retouching makes every model and celebrity look thinner or more muscular, and always blemish free. This altered view of their "perfection" becomes our ever hopeful aspiration, spurring us to purchase the advertised products. Yet, the huge number of magazine titles means that magazines span a huge range of activities and thought. Each magazine sustains a community, although some may think of readers more as consumers, while others view them as citizens and several hundred new launches each year bring new voices to the marketplace and search for their own community to serve.
So there is the glitzy, commercial world of the big magazine industry with Time's Person of the year, the latest Cosmo girl, and the band on the cover of Rolling Stone. But the long list of smaller magazines, like Multinational Monitor, Edutopia, and E-The Environmental Magazine, account for the majority of magazine titles and the broad, democratic spectrum of communities that are their readers.
Chapter 8
With the coming of radio and television, newspapers in the twentieth century surrendered their title as the mass medium shared by the largest audience. However, to this day newspapers remain the single most important source of news for the nation, even in the age of the Internet. Although many "readers" today cite Yahoo! and Google are only directors that guide readers to other news stories, most often to online newspaper sites. This means that newspaper organizations are still the primary institutions doing the work of gathering and reporting the news. Even with all the newsroom cutbacks across the United States, newspapers remain the only journalistic organization in most towns and cities that still employs hundreds of people to report news and tell the community's stories.
Newspapers link people to what matters in their communities, their nation, and their world. No other journalistic institution serves society as well. But, with smaller news resources and the industry no longer able to sustain high profit margins, what will become of news papers in 20 to 30 years? Who will gather the information needed to sustain a democracy, to serve as the "watchdog" over our key institutions, and to document the comings and goings of everyday life? And, perhaps more importantly, who will act on behalf of the people who do not have the news media's access to authorities or the ability to influence them?
Newspapers link people to what matters in their communities, their nation, and their world. No other journalistic institution serves society as well. But, with smaller news resources and the industry no longer able to sustain high profit margins, what will become of news papers in 20 to 30 years? Who will gather the information needed to sustain a democracy, to serve as the "watchdog" over our key institutions, and to document the comings and goings of everyday life? And, perhaps more importantly, who will act on behalf of the people who do not have the news media's access to authorities or the ability to influence them?
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