247: SOCIOLOGY American Society and Pop Culture Study Guide
Our midterm for American Society and Pop Culture is Wednesday, February 27 . The midterm will contest of some identification, as well as an essay. Pleae review not only this composition of notes, but also your own notes, discussion notes, and readings in order to get a full understanding of the course material thus far. Thank you all very much for helping us to compile this document, and good luck on your midterm!!!
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Lecture #1, January 16 Lecture #2, January 23 Culture- Characteristics of discernment and learning o "Cultivating" Not something dumb, Manet paintings but not ads on the street o Cults- Occult, root words, convey message of having a following. A culture is the sum total of the folkways of a mass of people Not just the best, but can also mean everything in society Populous- Many people, the populace, the people of a society Culturally is socially distributed o Different classes of people experience different parts of culture in different ways People form ranked prejudices on who should be doing what based on their respective backgrounds and occupations o Should your plumber read Shakespeare? All Communication involves media. Media serves three purposes of a message o The Vessel- Simply delivers the message o The Crucible- Shape the message in some way o Process- The media takes part in the event. Lecture #3, January 28 Part One: Introduction and Historical Perspectives Week 2: High and Low Culture The Media can be a crucible. System of Distribution Attributes of communication media: Fixation different media allows for different degrees of fixation with varying degrees of durability.
Reproduction Spatial Distanciation how far can media be carried? Temporal Distanciation - how long is the media going to last? Return backs to the notion of durability. Any process of symbolic exchange typically involves the removal. All culture is distances specially and temporally. 3 Moments: 1. moment is produced 2. moment it is transported 3. moment it is consumed. Media entails different skills, competitors and knowledge. There is some media that all people know how to use. There is some media that you must be educated to use. Consider the Mona Lisa most striking thing about the Mona Lisa is it's small size. Culture in the contemporary period is commodity it can be bought and sold. Valorization: How much we esteem it? Do we value the arts? Most things in our market are subject to the constraints of our market system it is either a hit or a sell. Popular Culture is commodified in the sense that it can be bought or sold in a market. Distorted Process are involved in the market. Structured break between production and reception: This means that cultured in produced by one set of people, and it is consumed by another set of people in another place. You can't talk back to popular culture. Or can you? And in what form? o We produce more of it ourselves. o How much centralization is involved in today's popular culture? o What does this entail for modern society? By enabling messages to be transmitted, mass communications and popular cultures allow individuals to transcend the boundaries of face to face interaction. De-spatialized Simultaneity Simultaneity depends on being in the same place. Uncoupling of time and space changes our understanding of history. How do these changes reflect the notions of primitive society vs. modern society? When you travel from the capitals of Europe to the colonies, or unexplored places, it was experienced as moving back of time. The western world was conceived to be ahead of the eastern world. Think of time and history as standardized across the world. History is distinct from memory: History of human society... History of our country only do so because of the uncoupling between time and place. Concept of a nation. Sense of the Distinction between the home country and the distant war enhanced with the invention of the telegraph, telephone, film. The difference between the self and the other at the political and existential level Do we in fact live in what McGullen calls a utopian village? Are languages dying out? Are more and more
people speaking English? Hollywood movies invade the world. We are all going to have ONE WORLD CULTURE. Is there one world culture emerging? If it is, is this a good thing? Lecture #4, January 30 Spatial Spatiation = space traveled Temporal Spatiation = how long something lasts Plato: the more we preserve the less we remember bc we know its at our immediate access, so why remember?
Technique has gotten easier, we can figure out how to post blogs etc. but in the 1800's most people couldn't read, so the technique was held by few. Now there larger democratization of technique, however, some media is still held by a powerful minority
Is there a distribution problem in production/reception technology? access to knowledge is access to power would it be possible to make cheap computer available for everyone and bring them to impoverished areas? Condition for thinking universtitistically is only obtained through experience and knowledge o This can be gained through the media Commodity valorization = how much we esteem something most culture is restrained through the market. (what culture in contemporary society is) symbolic forms become commodified ex/ creative TV shows cancelled b/c there is no audience who wants to watch it audiences are separated from performers capacity of individual to intervene w/ the process is limited extension of symbolic tokens in time + space calling through satellites o HIGH degree of extension o Consequences: hope for more enlightenment available in principle to anyone who can receive it Private sphere is getting larger -> everything in a sense is private
before modern period, there were NO modern spaces 1800's: strong distinction btw public and private currently there is dissolution between these boundaries everything is moving towards all public! o ex/ webcams Uncoupling of Time & Space space used to mean time o this is no longer the case ! ex/ Instant news what does this create: a radically new social form: De-specialized Simultaneity o dependent on being in the same time/place for communication o now technological coordination that gives us immediate information of spatial and temporal- gives us the NOW o Much more inclusive concept no delay for the NOW to take place we need a social mechanism (originally the railroad) o w/ the train came the coordinate times zones and timing o changed our relationship with the world o primitive vs modern! Rise of media technology leads to increased national identities we wont visit most US cities but all Americans will consume the same culture even in different places perhaps all forms of identification will become more and more general more global perceptions bc of our access to other cultures! Ex/ the immediacy of the suffering of war has a much more effect o We can experience the world more directly! Mediated Wordliness we assume we know more than we do about different cultures what is the difference btw this and Real Worldliness? o Real Worldliness = we actually have to go to these places o Mediated = we are introduced to these "cultures" through the media Ex/ seeing Europe though the Travel Channel we get a sense is this better or worse? These things have a large impact on people's perception of themselves/others and sense of belonging o Ex/ Marshall McLuhan "Global Village" concept Is this true? Romantic myth? Utopian thought? Downside: lots of uniqueness, languages are dying out o Uniformity, homogenization of culture Is there a World Culture emerging? o Is that a good or a bad thing?
Lecture #5, February 4 I. Critiques of Popular Culture a. Empirical i. Very numerical and descriptive method of evaluating ii. ex. There are 12,000 people in a city that are poor b. Normative i. A subjective evaluation of the conditions ii. ex. The situation in the city with 12,000 poor people is bad iii. You need to start with a valued neutral description c. Wage Time Labor i. leads to alienation and social unrest ii. Conditions were usually unfavorable for the masses II. Mass Media fuels the distraction of alienation a. keeps people from starting a revolution i. does this through a method of uniting the people, but not causing unrest ii. mass media does this by keeping people entertained as well III. Social Concerns with regards to critiques a. Commercialist Critique i. Mass produced with a profitable motive. To do this, you make it unsophisticated and basic. ii. ex. Reality TV 1. It is relatively cheap to produce and appeal to the mass, lowest common denominator b. Aristocratic Critique i. What happens to elite culture? ii. Views popular culture as a threat to high culture 1. Concerned that popular culture effects those who produce and participate in high culture c. Psychological i. Popular culture can act as a narcotic ii. Popular culture provides a false image of reality iii. ex. Creates unrealistic expectations for appearance of partners 1. romantic comedy for example Lecture #6, February 6, 2008 4th and 5th critique of Popular Culture 4)Sociological-oldest critique. Radio invented, compelling way to convince people to help causes. Radio addressed people as a mass. Newspapers were local. Radio bypassed opinion leaders, it eliminates a middle man. Radio was seen as an instrument of propaganda. Fear=radio would act like a hypodermic needle. Hypodermic needle theory-interject messages without any sort of medium. Leaders can interject messages to you. Power is more strong with a radio. This theory is not very accurate.
2 step model-message still shaped by community leaders in well established democracies. If you don't question reality, this would undermine a democracy. ---concerned with role of popular culture in democracy. 5)Anthropological-newest critique. Popular culture is bad because it destroys cultural difference. IE-On the news, the anchorman is always from no-where and the weather people are always local. IE-star bucks is everywhere, so it ruins local culture, and local coffee shops. Worried about the negative impact of global village Everyone is touched by global media. Loss of cultures, identity. There are now movements now to stop this.
Are these critiques of popular culture correct? We have to analyze these claims in 3 stages: 1)Production/Supply side analysis 2)Interpretation-look at pop. Culture texts, how to interpret meaning 3)Look at effects/demand side considerations 1)First stage: Production/Supply side analysis-pop culture produced by people with jobs Concerns: A)Occupational analysis-how are they organized? What do producers believe about what they are doing? B)Organizational-look at organizations, what kind of constraints they face. What kind of tools do they develop to face these constraints/uncertainty's? C)Institutional/regulatory Environment. Lecture #7, February 11, 2008 I. 5 Basic Critiques-Response A. Herbert Ganz's Popular Culture vs. MacDonald Mass Culture 1. MacDonald- high culture snob, worried about the degradation of culture 2. Ganz- populist: one who's politics aims at the broadest inclusion a. against tech, belief everyone's experience in society is equivalent b. there is elite culture (high) and popular culture (low) c. distinction between high brow and low brow culture, and middle brow culture~ phrenology 1) high brow: avant garde 2) low brow: lowest common denominator (LCD) 3) middle brow B. Ganz's 5 Taste Cultures with 5 Taste Publics: culture corresponds to society; people who critique popular culture are snobs, anti democratic
C. Ganz's polymaths 1. we can now access more culture for cheaper Lecture #8, February 13, 2008 Organizational Framework: Within in this framework, we could start by doing an occupational analysis Example: Gatekeepers Gatekeepers are those people/industries responsible for the filtering and selection process o Questions to consider: Who are they? Qualifications for gatekeepers? Grounds for selection? Typology of Gatekeepers? Financial backing? Type of control over outcome? How are the occupational groups organized? o Case study: - TV and Popular Print Journalism in news media Career Requirements ? TV-degree req.; verbal skill set ? Print- degree req.; writing skill set Characteristics ? TV-tend be young and attractive; good-looking ? Print-older; no relevance Ideology- set of core/beliefs; or a collection of political proposals; or integrated assertions and theories We want to look at ideology from two different lenses: o 1. Critical concept of ideology- subjective; distorted opinion of ideology o 2. Neutral concept of ideology- everyone has a set of ideological commitments as a way to interpret the world; looks at how ideology is developed according to the social environment Ideology of Journalists- tenuous claim for objective ideology; suggests a neutral stance; or a distrust of values and strict adherence to facts only o Not allowed to advocate for or against a story o Report only on the facts; moral commitment to eliminate personal bias of reporter; do not let your values effect the facts Root Causes/Origin of Objective News o Partisan Press up until 1850s o Shift from subjective to objective news during the Progressive Era 1920s-19402 Explanations for the Root Causes of Objective News o 1. Technological Determinism: Telegraph contributed to the boom in information dissemination. In order to be commercially viable, needed to print cheaply for greater distribution to a wider audience Outcome: Objective Ideology is born Problem with argument: 1. Cultural lag- long lag before the effects are felt 2. Same technology was available everywhere else in the world,
particularly Europe, but did not produce the same results o 2. Introduction of Radio- development of mass movements through its media WWI- a different war; this news could be heard in all homes w/ radios As a result- a form of distrust and legitimation of power grew o 3. Professional Socialization learn values, history, ethics of journalism set of beliefs are inculcated inside the profession Lecture #9, February 18, 2008 Lecture #10, February 20, 2008 SOC247 NOTES 2/20/08 Midterm Two Parts ID Questions, 5 of 8 Essay Question Structure of Newspaper / News Network Different Roles: Editor, specialized reporters Why? Different spheres call for different experts Another Explanation: response to uncertainty news always needs to fill time/paper, always need content different reporters = many reliable suppliers of news, there will always be content from someone Two Problems: how does one produce enough news to fill everyday? how to choose among all possibilities? Centralized Sources of Information News Net, catches some things, excludes others decline in size of news nets in recent decades rip and read: read news straight from centralized source no filter or analysis cut back in amount of news bureau, too expensive Easiest way to produce content? day book - planned events which occur and are easily covered develop relationships with other agencies and report their stories Biases Sensationalism more important than politics just report on things that will get people to watch Commercial biases are the same across ideologies experts: really just celebrity endorsements
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just want easily packagable sound bites cheap, easy and competitive
Rise of Rock and Roll Standard Explanation: change of values in post WWII era, rise of youth culture etc Organizational Analysis Explanation 1920s to 1950s Era of Dominance great deal of concentration in the music industry major strategy is vertical integration: companies own artists, producers, manufacturing, distribution, marketing Sources of Uncertainty: how to get airtime? pay of DJ, own radio station cover popular songs with famous artist low innovation, keep with what sells Three Events Change the Industry 1. LP appears - cheap to produce, easier to distribute 2. television - drop in radio advertising income, major producers drop radio stations, radio stations become more autonomous 3. Cheap Transistor Radios - More radios, more stations Results: large companies lose control to many smaller companies more variety more independence can cater to niche audiences smaller stations, smaller audiences, more variety, more sales
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Lecture #11, February 25, 2008 Thompson Olick Popular Culture Popular Culture is unlike mass culture in that it is mass produced. It is unlike folk culture in that it is mass consumed. The industrial revolution had a homogenizing effect in that it created in people a shared sense of fate (also people coordinated times, urbanization, etc). The notion of popular as distinct from folk and elite implies not just largenumbers of ordinary people but large numbers organized as people. The French Revolution created this image of people. Culture industries arose to meet the aesthetic and practical demands of the middle class. people developed the perception that life was a project that needed to be filled.
Before this time, artists were free from the uncultivated influence of the masses. Artists faced an important decision 1) to appeal to the mass audience or 2) retreat to the esoteric, specialized and often counterculturesettings. Here's where we get the contemporary artist who renounces all worldly goods. The elites responded by funding museums and symphonies in an effort to entrench their cultural values and defend their social positions. They led initiatives to educate the masses. But this led to greater separation of popular culture from high culture. Similar processes were at work in politics as well as in culture. For example, elite theorists warned of danger from the masses (who had no idea what was good for themselves). Later they warned of danger to the masses who were formless and gullible. In culture we encourage general aesthetic expression and bemoan its poverty. It is Janusfaced- page 46. Many identify popular culture with mass culture. Right critique of culture speaks of the middle class as invading hordes; wealthy but without taste. Left critique: the Frankfurt School- culture is industrial, rampantlyindividual, and superficial. There are many don't think that popular culture is mass culture. They argue that ordinary people are capable of reflection and being subjective even when surrounded by the mass media. They argue that there are taste cultures and that the needs of different people are adequately expressed. Walter Benjamin- the redemptive policies of popular culture. It allowed people to appreciate the great works of art (ex. Buying a copy of the Mona Lisa vs. having to go to Paris to see it). The aura of authenticity disappears. It has improved the tastes of people. Through selection, people resist the totality of mass culture (i.e.- working class youths respond to middle class utopia not always in the inscribed manner). Distinctions among kinds of culture are matters of social relations and are not intrinsic aspects of the works themselves.
Davis: Printing and the People
Mid 1500's, all the major centers of publication had been established in France : Paris, Lyon, Rouen, Toulouse, Poitiers, Bordeaux, Troyes, and some forty towns had presses by the 1550's
Those who decided what were beneficial to print were the industrial capitalists the artisans, even sometimes the print managers themselves, which explains the wide range of the types of books that appeared mid-century Usually people in the country and the servants and workers in the city could read, but the unskilled day workers were usually the floating mass of illiterate at the time The illiterate encompassed many, due to the fact that there weren't that many schools around and the few that existed could only garner their resources to the wealthy There were plenty of notaries and such that were happily willing to help the illiterate out, they made a living off of it Also, note that just because somebody at the time can afford books does not mean that they can have ready access to them or need them or even want them There were much cooler things to spend your money on than books at the time, like the latest xbox 360 game or a new Gucci handbag (jk) Honestly, how many books were necessary in a 16th century village? Most of the educated would need to find work in the city anyway One of the more popular printed items was almanacs for farmers and villagers, who used it to predict eclipses, rain, weather, everything an almanac is suppose to report Sometimes, during town gatherings (veillee) where people got together to do random stuff like mend tools or eat food with each other, a literate dude might get up and start reading a book he owns for people, one way the town actually got to hit the books Think of these public readings as the 16th century's own version of the Reading Rainbow Most people enjoyed the stories, adding new metaphors and expressions to their somewhat limited regional dialect, a kind of literature diaspora if you will Sometimes people didn't like what they heard when the literate guy got up and talked during these veillees, so many a times people cursed and beat the dude up, especially in this one case in the reading where a guy brought a bunch of bibles to the town and some of the farmers went nuts and laid a beat down on the poor dude Eventually, evangelical peddlers were able to work the countryside over pretty well since everyone wanted something to do in-between farming or milking their cow, so reading a bible killed the time pretty well Since the bible kind of opened up this new market of readers on the country side, publishers started designing peasant books, books for the average joe farmer living la vida loca on his little plot of land These books were made to bring civility and better language to what was supposedly poor grammar and offensive slang that these country folk used Soon, an astrologist printed a book that allowed farmers to tell the time by looking at the alignment of the stars (I wish I knew how to do that) and a surgeon put out a new book that had illustrations and writings on how to cure sicknesses and how to assist with child birth A lot of the country people took this to heart, and the peasants figured out they were getting screwed on a lot of their deals with their landlords and soon covenants were banding together to form sects against the city churches, and many peasants were uprising against their lords, thanks to a lot of what they learned out of reading or hearing someone read from a book
The actual act of printing itself created a new industry and craft for bookbinders or typecasting, creating an association between the need for literacy and technological and economic developments Reading was becoming a necessity that some jobs required of employees, and was also being used as a sign of professionalism or higher authority. It's like the 16 th century form of going to Grad school, it looks pretty on paper and it ain't bad for your noggin
Here's a good break down of concentration of literacy Very High: apothecaries, surgeons, printers (well duh) High: painters, musicians, taverners, metal workers (including gold trades) Medium (50%): Furriers and leatherworkers, artisans in textile and clothing trades Low to very low: artisans in construction trades, in provisioning, transport; urban gardeners; unskilled dayworkers Also, you have to realize the difference between simple literacy and reading books; some people can read signs for the bathroom or read a ledger and tell you who signed in or out Other people can tell you the significance behind life, philosophy, how to perform open heart surgery and what not (scratch the last one) Most literate did not have extensive libraries of books, just exactly the books they needed to do what they do Books began to slightly increase in price as the century went buy, making people wonder the utility behind some of the books This made it harder for merchants to pitch the sale of a book to the average joe, where is the utility in a bible when I can have a book that tells me when it's going to rain? People were more likely to keep books of their craft or books of reference, like the Hours, ledgers, and the literary must-have of the century, the Bible Due to the new forms of publication and printing, the amount of authors increased as well as diversified Female writers also appeared in print in pretty noticeable numbers, more than 20 actually had a reputation Books eventually started to lean towards influencing the masses, political of course, with pamphlets and what not of ...eh... Soon, there were pamphlet wars, and I don't mean people smacking each other with hand outs on home equity mortgages, I mean people utilizing the press to influence the thought and opinions of the masses The question comes about, who the hell screens books before they're made if any yahoo can grab a press and make a book telling people political lies or convincing peasants they can eat their shoes for nourishment Well, the rest of the reading kind of goes on to describe problems with Catholics and what not, and I mean, it's only like 3 pages left and I really doubt it's going to be on the
midterm. Plus I'm really tired, and my roommate just ripped a big one, so I'm closing my laptop, and emailing this bad boy in my living room. Good luck!
A THEORY OF MASS CULTURE o By: Dwight MacDonald Two types of culture o High Culture- found in Textbooko Mass Culture- sometimes called popular culture- manufactured wholesale for the market/ everyday culture Also created its own new media where serious artist rarely venture, radio, the movies, comic books, detective stories, science fiction, and TV. The nature of mass culture o Historical reasons for the growth of mass culture since the early 1800s Democracy and more accessible education broke down the upper classes monopoly on culture. Businesses found a profitable market in the newly awakened people Modern technology- created new media that the average person would be interested in- were easily mass manufatures and distributed. o Mass culture differs greatly from high culture Began as a parasitic growth off of high culture Kitsch- a German term for mass culture Opposite of Avant-Garde Seen as mining high culture- taking from it but giving nothing back Folk art Shaped by the people with no help from high culture The peoples own instuitution walled off from the rest of society Mass culture is created by businesses Exploit the cultural needs of the masses in order to make a profit or to maintain their class rule Fed down to the people, peoples choice to buy or not to buy Mass culture USSR o Even more mass culture just a different form o Used as propaganda and pedagory rather than entertainment o Manufactured by technicians from the ruling class and is not an expression of the individual artist or the people themselves o Exploits the cultural needs of the masses For political reasons GRESHAM'S LAW IN CULTURE o The line between the ruling class and the people is blurred in America. This is where the problem is o Bad stuff drives out the good, since it Is more easily understood and enjoyed (this is a quote form the paper!)
o Mass culture is so much more easily consumed than genuine art, and that genuine
art
o This leads the masses down the wrong path not allowing them to think for
themselves or draw their own conclusions Homogenized Culture o Mass culture is very democratic, it does not discriminate against anything o Mixes and scrambles everything together o It destroys all values because value judgments imply discrimination Academicism and Avant-gardism o Until the 1930's high culture tried to guard itself against mass culture in 2 ways Academicism- an attempt to compete by imitation Avant-gardism- a withdrawal from competition These two ideas competed with each other In the time after 1930, these were merging with mass culture Mass culture took the colors of the old high culture, Academic and the Avant-garde However these things are slowly watered down by mass culture Divioson of labor o The whole field can be approached from the standpoint of division of labor. ( look at the examples on page 60 of your packet this will help! This is in the first part of the paragraph on division of labor) o Art workers are alienated from their work because of restrictions put on the. A director might not be able to edit his own movie, a composer is not permitted to make his own orchestrations o The greatest movies have been directed and edited by artists. Unity is essential in art. It can not be achieved by a production line of specialists. Adultized children and Infantile Adults o Mass culture blurs the age lines Adults read comic books, leads to infantile adults Unable to cope with the strains and complexities of modern life, and the escape using Kitsch Children have access to grown up TV, radio, and movies Over stimulation of children, these kids grow up too fast The problem of the masses o Many theoretical reasons why mass culture can not be any good Only humans can produce culture, when disorganized into masses, the lose their human identity and quality o Masses and people are different things o People believe that mass culture is and expression of the people like folk art (folk or community is linked though values, work, or traditions... something that keeps them together like a family), but in reality it is an expression of the masses (a mass man is like an atom) o The masses or the public is taken as a human norm by the scientific and artistic technicians of out mass culture. The future of High culture: Dark o Restore the high culture by instituting an elite.
Most great societies until now have been elite societies o But even now not all hope is lost, there are still pockets of the Avant-garde out
there, and unless the country becomes communist the will never completely die out. o A writer can even use Hollywood to his advantage, if he is resolved enough. The future of Mass Culture: Darker o Is there a possibility to raising the level of mass culture? o Human beings have been caught up in mass culture and can not be blamed for this o Even the folk artist today lacks the cultural roots, and the intellectual toughness to stand up against mass media o We rely on folk art as a buffer against mass culture, o Staying power is essential to the folk artist standing up against mass media, and for the many virtues that folk artists have staying power is not one of them. o This staying power will be essential to someone who would hold his own against mass culture
High Culture and Popular Culture By: Herbert Gans satisfy the needs of some people but not all *aesthetic urge American society is not homogeneous because it offers a variety of music, art, etc. Choices on what to like are related- based on similar values and choices Aesthetic pluralism- number of taste cultures has been shown in popular writing as high, low, and middle brow Class, religion, ethnic and racial background, regional origin, and place of residence, are all factors that determine a person's taste culture The five publics and cultures to be described are called high culture, upper-middle culture, lower-middle culture, low culture, and quasi-folk low culture Some limitations: o Every taste public is stratified by age o The descriptions exaggerate the extent to which cultures and publics are cohesive and bounded systems o Cultures change over time o The description of cultures and publics does not apply to the distinction between creator and user orientation o Professional taste cultures also exist, which are present in many professions and scientific disciplines o The taste cultures will be described in the most widely distributed products o The descriptions of the five publics and cultures are extremely brief
Dimmagio (not yet complete)
"Apostles of Modernity" Roland Marchand
American advertising men in the 1920's were the most modern of men. Because of scientific and technological advances, change was expected. Advertising men were modernity's town criers and brought good news about progress (pg. 129) Advertisers were viewed as guardians of uninterrupted progress (pg. 130) The consumer was viewed as the most disruptive element in the economic system, meaning that consumers could either build the economy farther up or make it come crashing down (pg. 130) Advertisers were usually city people. Modern society became very fast-paced at this time, which created an economic boom. Modern society wanted independence from traditional mores and maxims (pg. 131) It was a new American tempo (pg. 132) Industrial production doubled during the 1920's. Technological change and economic activity coexisted with anxieties with social disorders such as immigration worries and prohibition (pg. 132) Because of this American culture began to be easily swayed. Advertisings central focus was the merchandising of products. They began to sell war bonds, enlist army and navy recruits on account of the war; they were still concern with the patriotic system (pg. 136) They also began to associate themselves with high culture and business statesmanship (pg. 136) Modern- characteristic of the present time, or time not long past (pg. 137) Advertisers began to connect modern to a personal tone with the consumer (pg. 137) To get more attention, they started selling the benefit instead of the product- illuminating instead of lighting figures, sex appeal instead of mere soap (pg. 138) Created a shift from the factory viewpoint to concern with the mental processes of the consumer (pg. 139) This was a shift from the objective to the subjective. WWI brought an end to the widespread distrust of big business (pg. 140) Advertisers stepped forward to offer their products as answers to modern discontents. Thus what made advertising modern was, ironically, the discovery by these apostles of modernity of techniques for empathizing with the public's imperfect acceptance of modernity, with its resistance to the perfect rationalization and bureaucratization of life (pg. 141) Side-by-Side Approach to consumers. Readers of magazines wanted a personal touch so advertisers made their
advertisements more personal to capture the reader (pg. 142) Three examples of advertisements: Yeast, Listerine and Kotex. Yeast- put photographs in place of drawings to give the ads more realism. Listerine- created a more personal feel. Dealt with humanity more than with the merchandise (pg. 146) Kotex- Goal was to sell life (pg. 148) Ads simply set forward the general value and convenience of the product in an inoffensive, scientific way (pg. 149) It assured women, through the intimacy of friendly chatter, that the correct product would enable them to keep pace with their changing society (pg. 150) The result of this trend toward emphasis on consumer satisfactions was called dramatic realism 152)
Tuchman (pg. Summary: Objectivity as Strategic Ritual
Thesis: Journalistic practice of objectivity serves to insulate organization from outside risks such as criticism and loss of credibility in order to protect profit.
"Objectivity" is defined by the practice of three "Strategic Rituals": Form Quotation Attribution Inverted Pyramid Structure Presentation Layout Content Multiple Viewpoints Supporting Evidence "Common Sense" Assumptions Interoroganizational Relationships Hierarchical Chain of Command Editing Lachmann
Barnes and Thompson Power to the People( meter): Audience Measurement Technology and Media Specialization Relationship between media organizations and advertisers. They site social and technological forces behind the move toward media specialization. In the U.S. media content producers and advertising agencies subscribe to the report produced by various audience measurement services. Producers use these reports to make decisions about programming and editorial content and to set advertising prices. Measurement of audience behavior, not audience behavior per se, changes the media
Ex. Specialization in Magazine publishing in the 1960s: In an advertising media selection context, an emphasis on segmentation would lead to the selection of media vehicles on the basis of their ability to deliver members of the desired target audience rather than the selection of those vehicles that merely deliver the largest number of people overall. Initially all advertising was targeted toward Life, the big market magazine. The development of technology, especially computers, helped determine effective reach and frequency for a company's desired target audience. In today's advertising marketplace, however, a narrowly targeted publication still cannot get the attention of advertisers unless it can provide third-party documentation of its audience delivery TV IN THE 1980S: While the impressive growth of cable television penetration across the 80s provided would-be cable programmers with larger potential audiences, a change in audience measurement technology provided another strong impetus for the viability of cable network tv as an advertising medium. 1987 A.C. Nielsen Company introduced the people meter that could collect data on the viewing behavior of individual members. The audiometer was a passive monitoring device attached to the tv set in participating homes that recorded when a television set was turned on and to which channel it was tuned. Nielson's decision to make the change from audimeters to peoplemeters was primarily a competitive marketing decision. Advertising agencies finally had access to the kinds of audience measurement numbers that they needed to include cable in clients' media schedules, and cable advertising revenues began to increase steadily. The peoplemeter measurement system has provided cable networks with a means to document their delivery of specific audience segments. It is the history of changes not only in audience behavior but in advertisers' conceptions of audiences- a story not only about what audiences wanted but a bout how to segment and reach those audiences.
ARTICLE: The Problem of Knowing (Todd Gitlin) 1. Gitlin tries to address the "unwritten rules and values that governs the filters" of Hollywood/TV shows/etc. a. when asking how they chose certain shows/how they planned, Gitlin found that the more powerful or influential the execs or writers, the more they claimed there was "no pattern" and it was an arbitrary, mysterious process even to them 2. "Axioms...are flimsy, flexible, ad hoc" - the rules by which executives make decisions are constantly changing and not written in stone. They both adhere to and avoid these rules. 3. Executives are in it for the money - for profit. High audience turnout means more advertisement demand and thus more money. The overall quality, meaning or message of a product doesn't amount to very much in their plan. "The networks problem is how to get people to rely on the networks" - so a driving force is profit BUT they still must rely on information about what works and what doesn't for their audiences.
4. Shows we see have gone through a difficult hierarchy of choice - at each step up anyone can say no; only the ones at the top can say yes. The glimmer of hope for that rare no is why writers/producers keep making shows and why there is a constant supply of them. 5. "Networks fall back on certain traditional genres and styles that predate giant corporations, broadcasting and the culture of consumer capitalism in general." This goes along with the lecture point that success breeds success. 6. We as consumers love instant gratification and convenience and as such the "practical, processed culture" that surrounds us is easy to digest and thus well-received. MAIN POINT: Television reaches a mass audience and because it is such a profitable endeavor, TV "caters to a hypothetical least common denominator" and may even go lower than that. TV doesn't have many outlets like radio, music, magazines, etc. do that allow them to cater to specific niches. TV is consumed by the masses and thus has to be produced for the masses. It is a cultural tradition unlike the other forms of pop culture. 7. Relevant discussion additions: Producers giving us what we want because it gives them what they want profit, Gatekeeping concept/commercialist critique of culture production; executives sometimes let their personal taste affect their decisions and sometimes they'll take risks - but normally they stick to what works. But the process is unpredictable and they claim that there is no logic or method of selection.
Bagdikian 5 corporations control almost all media Each corporation contains an executive, a board, and stockholders. Often board members are on multiple boards Bagdikian believes the corporations are ultra-conservative. He is worried that media are going to become biased because the 5 corporations will start using it to convey their opinions. He has concerns about our democratic process. He did not invoke any counter-arguments. His opinion was the only opinion. Problem of Mass Media: Centralized power Example of a Sociological Critique: o Concerned because mass media are bad for democracy o Media have transformed elections into a war of funds o Example for Text: The Big Five have become major players in altering the politics of the country. They have been able to promote new laws that increase their corporate domination and that permit them to abolish regulations that inhibit their control. (p. 10) Example of a Anthropological Critique: o Worried about the homogenization of culture caused by media Example of Commercialist Critique: o Profit destroys culture
He argues our perception of reality is changing. Media are creating a perception that does not include us. o Example for Text: Our picture of reality does not burst upon us in one splendid revelation. It accumulates day by day and year by year in mostly unspectacular fragments from the world scene, produced mainly by the mass media. Our view of the real world is dynamic, cumulative, and self-correcting as long as there is a pattern of evenhandedness in deciding which fragments are important. But when one important category of fragments is filtered out, or included only vaguely, our view of the social-political world is deficient. (p. xviii) The Big Five o Time Warner Richard Parsons The largest corporation Time Warner and America Online merged in January 2000 o Disney Michael Eisner Walt Disney was a country boy from Missouri Disney studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago o News Corporation Rupert Murdoch Intimidated larger systems by offering home gadgets that could record his programs via DirecTV without commercials Short-lived Murdoch used his power to promote conservative politics o Viacom Sumner Redstone Fourth largest media conglomerate Made CBS a powerful media organization o Bertelsmann Reinhard Mohn Fifth largest corporation Largest printer of English-language books How are corporations run? o Theoretically: Media corporations are led by a board of directors who select executives who run their enterprises. The board should be solely obligated to the stockholders. By law, stockholders elect the board of directors, who theoretically oversees the executive they appoint to do their duty to stockholders. This does not actually happen. o Actuality: Executives often select their board of directors. The board members are usually top executives of other large firms. Sometimes the board consists of family members. The Internet o Bagdikian has a problem with spam o Everyone uses the internet, so power is in the hands of the people. o The internet remains ambiguous as a mass medium because of its multiple functions and individualistic usage. On one hand, it does not fit the usual definition of a mass medium because it has no centralized control deciding what shall be disseminated to the general public. On the other hand, it is a medium that has demonstrated its mass effects in news, in general information, and in its growing impact on a large portion of the population. (p. 56) Government gives the media too much power.
o It is the inevitable desire of most large corporations to have a political
environment that is friendly to weakening minimum standards for public service and safety in order to produce maximum corporate profit levels and lower the corporate share of city, state, and federal taxes. But these seldom provide comparable benefits for the common good, like health care, safe environments, and properly funded public education. (p.26)
Chapter One: Common Media for an Uncommon Nation My summary of the chapter: MEDIA POWER IS POLITICAL POWER (25) United states is constantly changing and the speed with which the digital revolution has penetrated our community has been spectacular New technology has a lot of power over the knowledge and values of the country The computer and the Internet have altered the way we live our daily lives Five global-dimension firms operate many medias, most of the newspapers, magazines, book publishers, motion picture studios, and radio and television stations in the USA o Time Warner o Walt Disney Company o Murdoch News Corporation o Viacom o Bertelsmann The dominant media firms are an oligopoly-the rule of a few in which any one of those few, acting alone, can alter market conditions (5) Big-Five competitors are really tied to each other so they really aren't total competitors like we think o They indulge in mutual aid and share investments in the same media products. Its not competition such as each company has unique products and the goal of a winner-take-all victory o They share many of the same methods and goals o They only compete to add new profitable firms to their own company This world is hard for newcomers o It is small neighborhood stores and restaurants that actually compete in products, price, and quality and are at risk of failing in the process o New names, systems, and services inevitably will, like GE, emerge; they add an increment to the media scene but do not approach the magnitude and power of the truly giant all-media conglomerates described in this book (24) Important: The Big Five have become major players in altering politics of the country. They have been able to promote new laws that increase their corporate domination and that permit them to abolish regulations that inhibit their control (10) o Any dynamic democracy changes political direction as conditions and public desires evolve. o Concentrated media power in news and commentary and corporate political contributions have decreased the influence of voters o Big Five have the power to affect politics (is this the democracy that we live in)
The media world plays a major role in the commerce and private life of the entire population American radio has become a powerful organ of right-wing propaganda o Dominant media owners have highly conservative politics and that is how they choose their talk show hosts o Media politics are reflected in the selection of commentators and talk show hosts Important: One force creating the spectrum change has been MONEY o Money has determined which candidate and issues will dominate-which in turn selects the issues and choices available to voters on Election Day o Large corporations are the largest source of political money, giving them ability to protect and expand their power and treasures o The larger the media corporation, the greater its political influence, which produced a still large media corporation with still greater political power Major news media fails to deal with the many social needs of the entire population (like lack of funds for children's education, access to health care, unemployment, homelessness, and deterioration of city and state finances) o Truth is, these issues are NOT high priorities for wealthy contributors to political candidates and parties o This imbalance of issues for corporate hierarchies and issues to the entire population is obscured by the neutralist tone of modern news (25) Important: "It is the inevitable desire of most large corporations to have a political environment that is friendly to weakening minimum standards for public service and safety in order to produce maximum corporate profit levels and lower the corporate share of city, state, and federal taxes. But these seldom provide comparable benefits for the common good, like health care, safe environments, and properly funded public education (26) Internet has given the population a hope to protest government policy
THE NEW MEDIA MONOPOLY: CHAPTER 2 SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS This chapter summarizes and details the owners of the 5 major media corporations: Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Viacom, and Bertelsmann. Each bio about the 5 chronicles their accumulation of power as going hand in hand with political power. Time Warner: a product of synergy (describing the combination of two separate entities producing a power greater than the simple addition of the two) AOL Time Warner is a combo of Time Warner's large quantity of media products from magazines to movies and AOL's pipeline through with to send the media content to consumers Disney:
ownership kept to a single emperor--Michael Eisner Disney has a cartel-like character with 26 joint ventures with other corporations, most of them being Disney's main competitors Murdoch's News Corporation: DirecTV challenged systems like Time Warner with their offer to cut commercial--this still ends up making money however, because once the programs have a large enough audience, the owners sell their audiences to advertisers the power Murdoch has as a business owner of the news media allows him to promote his deep conservative political views--backs candidates of his liking, once in office those candidates allow him special power, like to surpass American corporate laws of ownership his papers and other media promotes candidates, like Newt Gingrich and Jimmy Carter Viacom: originally CBS, it's power and audience base grew to popularity during WWII when CBS war correspondents were the best in the business--produced an arsenal of voices that allowed a personal relationship and are still household names (ie. Walter Cronkite) now headed by Redstone (original owner of Viacom) and Karmazin (the CBS boss), who combined forces against investors who bought excessive amounts of stock trying to take over the corporation by becoming the largest stockholders, only to sell their stock and make millions/billions Bertelsmann: 82 book subsidiaries, magazines, 20 record labels and a half ownership in German TV, Super RTL Overview: Media conglomerates are supposedly run by boards of directors which are to be elected by the stock holders. These boards elect the executives to run the companies and are solely responsible to the stock holders. In reality, however, this is not the case of the Big Five. These corporations are multinational corporations with complex financial and operational structures, and family members of each firm's president sit on the board. Or directors are friends who are also corporate executives. During the 1990s when large corporations were being busted for corporate fraud, it became clear that the boards of directors actually had very little knowledge or influence over the executives of their corporations (think Enron). Indifference/incuriosity being the major reason behind this lack of knowledge, new regulations now call director to sign off personally on their public financial reports of the firms.
Greed and fraud marked the new doctrine of free market which was taken as freedom from responsibility and a misreading of the truly free market in which firms with sufficient size and independence can truly compete withthemselves. Chapter 3: The Internet First recorded computer crash occurred on October 20, 1969 between two computers at UCLA and Stanford The internet is an ambiguous form of mass media because of its multiple functions and usage o Does not fit into normal definition because there is no centralized sourcedeciding what information gets out there o But its wide availability allows it to have important meaning in peoples live to gather info and news Since the internet is not bounded by cable wire to transmit info, it has now available worldwide in speeds that ordinary media cannot travel o This has led to the changing of all mass media - Magazines, newspapers, and even books have their text printed digitally Right before WWII, FDR summoned scientists to develop a computer that would aid military technology against the Nazi's, thus merged Eniac, the world's first computer in 1945(it could handle trig functions and square roots) The Internet: Liberator or Big Brother? Has raised conflicts with copyright laws, amassed real word protests, created struggles with the media giants, and accelerated social change around the world By 2003, 160 million Americans were using the internet A Machine with Its Own Language Internet has its own set of words, like www and http, so forth With the rise of the e-mail, the US Postal system has gained the term snail mail, highlighting the efficiency of the online world Companies and relations with another have been transformed due to the internet Many minority and low-income families lack home internet service, so they resort to using public computers, like in libraries The rise of hackers and programmers who develop viruses has led to companies and individuals to protect their computer information After 9/11, civil liberties and 4th Amendment rights have been curved under the Patriot Act that allows federal agents to make intrusions into our computers and homes without a proper warrant The Ownership of Words Copyright laws were established to protect the creator's art, writing, media, ect o Media giants have pushed for legislation to extend their property rights while critics point out that the arts are diminished when not in the public domain The media giants decry the fact that the digital music, with its ability to overpass copyright laws and the ability to distribute these files at a rapid pace, is cutting into their revenue dollars Movie companies feels as though they are next
Spam-Digital Telemarketing and e-Bank Marketing Spam, or the mass sending of advertising with little value to most, has penetrated the email system Advertisers want to send the most amount of ads to the most number of people for the lowest cost, and e-mail allows them to do so The whole idea that the tangible, postal service will be down away with by e-mail, but often shows up in history is that two similar technologies can exist alongside one another for centuries o i.e. scrolls and books Spam is difficult to stop due to the sheer number sent out, even with professional filters Mickey Mouse Meets Barbie Doll Media giants depend on their copyright laws to increase their revenues o What hypothetically happens is that the copyright has a shelf-life of a certain number of years, so that when it ends, it becomes open into the public domain for anyone to use o But media giants have pushed for legislation to extend their copyrights even further than intended - Disney saw that its copyright on Mickey Mouse would expire in 2003, so they pushed for legislation that resulted in the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act that extended Mickey's copyright until 2023 o Surprisingly, someone owns the rights to the Happy Birthday song - Perhaps this is a commentary on how ridiculous and selfish some copyright laws are o Fine line between copyright infringement and satire - I.e. The band Aqua satirizing Barbie in a song, resulting in a lawsuit by Mattel to sue for infringement, Aqua won The New Media Monopoly, Ch 4 "(Not) All the News That's Fit to Print" "In the autumn of 2002, the major news media faced a historic test of their place in American democracy. The crucial test has always been that, when faced with government coercion or distortion of reality, the news media, protected by the 1st Amendment of the Constitution, would tell the American people the closest approach to the truth that is possible for a human institution. In 2002, the main body of the American news media failed that test." As midterm elections approached in 2002, the Bush White House had mounting problems as trends favored Democrats and all the major papers and TV networks showed stories about rising unemployment, mass layoff, and the economy was suffering. After Labor Day, Bush announced that the country was to go to war against Iraq and its dictator Saddam Hussein, who supposedly possessed `weapons of mass destruction.' After this point, US domestic news disappeared from front pages (despite worsening domestic problems) and was replaced by news of the country's preparation for war.
o Months later, with Iraq in rubble, no one could find the supposed `weapons of mass destruction,' thousands of civilians had been killed, and American casualties still mounted news media had failed to reveal the true facts prior to war The Private Jessica Lynch case: Private Lynch's convoy took a wrong turn into an ambush, she was injured when her vehicle collided with a truck, and she was found by Iraqi doctors, who then took her to what remained of a nearby Iraqi hospital. Later that night at Army headquarters, news correspondents were told that Lynch had emptied her rifle fighting off attackers, had been captured, sustained bullet and stab wounds, and been taken to an Iraqi hospital where she was then slapped and interrogated. After midnight, a special U.S. unit stormed the hospital, rescued Private Lynch, and video taped all of it. The correspondents were also told that Private Lynch had suffered memory loss and thus could not be interviewed. Her story was shown on all of the news networks, rousing horror and fury at the brutal treatment of a wounded American soldier. o Later it was reveled that Private Lynch had no bullet or stab wounds, she received treatment from the Iraqi medical staff which was handled with kindness and propriety, and that the doctors were trying to find US troops to whom they could return Private Lynch. Lynch also had no memory loss according to her father. The army eventually corrected their story, but by then it was too late and the false story had spread to everyone. During the Iraqi war, more than 500 journalists were "embedded" with particular fighting units of the military. But these journalists were inexperienced and forbidden access to the commanders who had the full picture, and thus provided less than a full view of the war. "Fundamental deceptions damage the public's ability to maintain a rational view of the real world. Once a basic truth is rooted, it blurs a society's perception of reality and, consequently, the intelligence with which a society reacts to events." 6 months later, the New York Times finally wrote an article in which it questioned everything Bush had been saying, but it was too late. When everyone was glued to the news, the media failed to provide an accurate depiction of facts, and instead merely accepted official briefings at face value. When they finally did start to question things, the war was well under way and there was nothing that could be done to change the way things were. The war showed that the main media could "still be coerced...into abandonment of their democratic duty and journalistic integrity when high officials challenge their patriotism and wave the American flag at them." The major news media present us with "unnecessarily incomplete news because, with rare exceptions, they take their news from governmental and private power centers
and shun important contrary information because it is considered `too liberal' or `left.'" The rest of the article has other examples of wars in which the news failed to give the complete picture, including the American Revolution and the Spanish-American War
The New Media Monopoly- Ben H. Bagdikian Foreword Notes: *Since the 1980s, the political spectrum in the US has shifted dramatically to the right -within the Democratic party, conservatives in the Congressional Leadership Council have pushed for the party to be more towards the so-called "center"- including Bill Clinton *Republican and Democratic parties have continued to overlap, that as Democrats move to the right, Republicans move to the far right (shows Bagdikian's major liberal bias) *Consequences: muffled social justice, granted advantages to the wealthy and large corporations at the expense of middle and lower working classes, reversed important reforms, cut back on spending for conservation and environmental laws *Presents U.S. voters with the narrowest range of political and ideological choices among all industrial democracies- choices increasingly disconnected from most urgent social, economic problems in the U.S. *WHY? Because money from corporations and wealthiest citizens funds political campaigns, pays for law firms and lobbyists to influence legislation- money that pays for television political advertisements comes from conservative sources *Mass media has played central role in rightward shift- daily news Americans depend on uses sources of leaders in the corporate and political worlds, which have large influences- but that only represents one side of the national reality *only small, specialized organizations in media reflect the other side- occasional human interest profiles- but these ideas and views from the outside of the power centers are deemed the "left"- these progressive ideas receive little attention and remain obscure *On the other hand: major news uses conservative "think tank" sources, generated with farright goals and regarded by main media as more "respectable" sources *This imbalance has had fundamental consequences- radical change in wealth distribution since 1980: progressive income has shrunk, and for the most part the most wealthy favor political conservatism, with lower income taxes and reduced government services for the rest of the
population -Mass media has been fundamental in the transformation- news world dominated by handful of media conglomerates *Every person lives is two worlds these days 1) Natural, flesh and blood world, with family, neighborhoods, communities, social patterns, codes of ethics, and general human interactions and encounters 2) Mass media world- new and sudden, transcends differences in culture, language, social classadopted by corporations and government with various goals- from genuine goals for science and education to goals of profit, social conditioning, and control- too short of a period to fully understand it yet *Modern mass media has transformed social relations, politics, and economic/ legal structureshow can we find a humanistic balance between the flesh-and-blood environment and the new media? *This book: to describe nature, impact, actors in the new media world and how it is so quickly evolving
Preface Notes: *Sacco and Vanzetti Case in Boston~Two Italian anarchists convicted and electrocuted for murder- during a time of national hysteria about the Russian Revolution and endemic bias against "foreigners" because of uninformed public notions about anarchists spread by the "Palmer Raids ~Even though there was overwhelming evidence of gross injustices in the Sacco and Vanzetti case, the newspapers were enthusiastic about convicting them- reflected and promoted the hysteria without providing any balance with reason or diversity of opinion ~However, by the time the men were to be electrocuted in 1927, most press had changed its mind- but it was too late for the state to turn back on its stand because to do so would have "signaled a weakness within our social order"- the change in media opinion did not save the men ~this said something about the media- they suffer from built-in biases that protect corporate power and in favor of the status quo, and consequently weaken the public's ability to understand forces in the American scene *Senator Joseph McCarthy gained his power through the support of the newspapers, which had to abandon principals of documentation and critical judgment in order to promote him
*During the emergence of civil rights movement in the 1950s, most regional papers in both the north and south would insist that there was no serious problem in the "colored districts" in the midst of racial explosions of violence *Double standard: the media is sensitive to the failings of public entities, but insensitive to equally important failures in the private sector- particularly in areas that affect the corporate world *Institutional bias in the media robs the public of the chance to understand the real world *since the majority of the population depends on the media to portray fragments of the world scene that make up a larger picture of reality, when an entire category of fragments is filtered out it causes a deficient public view of the social-political world *the media distorts the links between cause and effect, which causes society to repeat its own errors over and over because something is missing in public perceptions that guide social actions *media must express a varied picture through diverse, mainstream institutions- most important are newspapers, magazines, radio, television, books, and movies
Afterword Notes: *Time when new communications technology promised an era of diverse educational, civic, and entertainment choices: fiber optic cable and satellite transmission *These could provide many more channels free of commercials devoted to different categories for education, work-related skills, and non-commercialized entertainment as local programming- discussion about the public good that could be done *Assumed that US would adapt the new technologies to special needs, breadth, and variety of the geography and population- but NOT to be *Commercial media corporations quickly increased control of all new medium- then the hopes for noncommercial use of the new technologies disappeared *Big media were abrupt in obtaining deregulation of everything possible, used political power *Ironies in failure of vision for enlarged public channels - Most new communication technology were established with taxpayers' money
- What were public airways have been expropriated by giant media corporations -American reconstruction efforts in Japan included a noncommercial, un-politicized broadcast system- now very diverse and varied, exact opposite of American media -comparatively small U.S. public system depends on congressional appropriations- commercial broadcast conglomerates have lobbying power and campaign contributions to make sure the U.S. does not adopt the very system that it recommended to Japan *Today, 5 large conglomerates are free to behave as though they "own" every major broadcast channel of communication- do not want any more diversity because it would dilute their audiences *They have used power to create new laws that limit other entry into the national media scene powerful forces in shifting the political spectrum to the right *Media initially underreported the protests against the invasion of Iraq, and only after foreign news agencies reported the numbers more accurately did the American media conglomerates alter their earlier erroneous reports *Media giants are left to do what they wish, develop ever-lower levels of coarsened culture and models- prime-time television reality shows *Most of what Americans read, see, and hear is part of a phenomenon that goes to the heart of American democracy and the national psyche *Major media "socialize" every generation- "educate" people in social behavior and assumptions about the world and about unseen millions of people "Local television news is packed with reports on brutal crimes and bloody murders- and while TV is the most commonly-used babysitter, it has become an instructor on mayhem and murdercaused public fear of crime and violence to rise while actual occurrences decline *1950s and 1960s- Senator John O. Pastore, democrat and chair of subcommittee on communications, regularly called leaders of media corporations to berate them for the sex and violence they present- this caused a certain level of restraint by the major networks- these limits ended with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s and so did their restraint *Conglomerates have power to sustain myths about national policies, cause growing chaos and crisis -i.e. the myth that Americans pay the highest taxes among all modern democracies -in fact, U.S. actually has lowest income tax rates among peer nations for the wealthiest
-major media have been the emphatic voice of politicians and corporate chieftains complaining about "confiscatory taxes" *People power is also political power- in early years of the century there was considerable public protest against the actions of the conservative majority in the Federal Communications Commission that tore down the restrictions to conglomerate growth *Printed media are not exempt from anti-trust law- the immense growth of media outlets continues to progress, but monopolies, which harm the public good, are not beyond the reach of the law nor American voters, who increasingly sense that something is wrong *It is not too late to mandate use of communications technology and anti-trust actions to diminish the domination of the media by the few powerful conglomerates that have eliminated those who speak for social justice from the airways, newspapers, and magazine columns *the remedy of this joining of major corporations and media conglomerates to such a vast extent will ultimately rely on the people voicing their protest through the vote