Definitions: Introductory Lecture

Why study the media?

They are pervasive, a massive industry, influence and define how we

communicate with each other, bring us political and ideological messages all the
time

They offer a version of reality, where a kind of national “common sense” is

produced, maintained, repaired, challenged and transformed

They powerfully shape and reshape notions of identity, especially around

race, gender, sexuality, class

Because they go to great lengths to study you

Between traditional media like television and magazines, and social media
like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, Americans in the first three
months of 2016 spent, on average, over 10 ½ hours a day—a day!—consuming
media, up a full hour from 2015

By 2018, it was up to 11 hours a day

With the advent of Covid-19, According to the data from Comcast, the
average household is watching TV at least 8 hours more per week. That’s a
full workday more. In early March 2020, the average household watched 57
hours of content per week. That’s now up to 66 hours a week.

People are staying more informed during the pandemic. Comcast data
shows a whopping 64% increase in consumption of news programming since
the start of COVID-19.

Basic definitions:

•What are the mass media? The cultural industries that produce and
distribute, through various communication technologies, cultural products like TV
shows, the news, music, magazines, and movies, which have shared meanings,
to large numbers of people.

One-way, One-to-many, mostly passive consumer participation

Mostly centralized, top-down systems of distribution

The term culture industry emphasizes that this IS an industry, that it relies
on the mass production of similar, sometimes identical products, and that it

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standardizes not just these products, but people's tastes and imaginations as
well

•Mass communication is the process of designing and delivering these

products—often called mass culture—through media channels

Mass media offered (and still does) voluntary experiences, produced by a

relatively small number of specialists, for millions across the nation to share, in
similar or identical form, either simultaneously or nearly so, with dependable
frequency. Mass culture shapes habitual audiences, around common needs or
interests, and is made for a profit. Network programming, the nightly news

•medium--one channel

•media--many--thus, media is plural

Magazines and television are mass media; Time or NBC are media
outlets, TV is a medium

The internet, enabled the rise of Social media—forms of electronic

communication through which users create content and online communities to
share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as
videos)

Involves interactive, horizontal networks of communication

Includes websites and APPs like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+,

LinkedIn, Instagram, Snap Chat

Two-way, One-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many communication, users

active, participatory

The major difference between mass media and social media is this; the mass
media puts the audience in a passive position. Social media puts the audience at
the center.
We now have what the scholar Manuel Castells calls the development of a new
form of communication, mass self-communication

But social media has transformed into a landscape dominated by a few major
players—known as the Frightful Five (e.g., Facebook, Google [Alphbet], Apple,
Amazon, Microsoft) that heavily influence the configuration of user networks
using algorithms driven by economic imperatives as much as by user
preferences
A media text—a unit of meaning for interpretation and understanding; any system
of words, images and sounds that can be read, interpreted—within media

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studies, can be TV program, film, video game, website, podcast, newspaper
article, tweet—texts are bearers of and movers of meaning

Important to analyze what various media texts mean, and how they mean—what
techniques are used to convey meaning

And what its themes, messages and explicit and implicit assumptions aim to
accomplish

Which term? popular culture or mass culture?

The choice to use one term or another expresses conflicting political frameworks
and modes of analysis.

"mass culture" emphasizes "the power of the culture industries to shape

audiences and groups of consumers."

emphasizes the homogenizing effects of the media, and to many who use
the word also suggesting a passive, relatively uniform or monolithic audience.

"Popular culture," by contrast, credits the popularity of media fare as

authentic and implies a more active role for audiences in choosing and
interpreting these entertainments.

Purpose of course—to develop media literacy—the ability to access, analyze,

evaluate media in a variety of forms

Trends—

Media consumed outside the home to actually carried around on our bodies

From media gatekeepers—the TV networks, the music industry, advertising

agencies—to challenges to and loss of grip of gatekeepers—

more scripted TV programming than ever, so more choices

DJs and big labels don’t necessarily control or produce hits rise of Instagram
influencers, rise of citizen journalists who capture events on their phones,
bloggers

From mass media to niche and micro-niche media—from mass audiences to

fragmented audiences

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Transformation in trust in the media, especially news media, to mistrust,
skepticism

What are the big themes— media not neutral

media help shape identity

tension between media power and audiences’ power

hopes and fears invested in media technologies

media as business versus media as a democratic force

A Day in the Life

TRENDS

 Entertainment outside the home to inside the home to in our pockets

 From centralization, one-to-many to many-to-many

 Rise and fall and rise of media oligopolies (few firms/major market share)

 From material objects (records, magazines, DVDs) to immaterial files and

resources

 Growing, deepening immersion in media, more ways for media to burrow

into our lives

 Entertainment, culture increasingly mechanically reproduced then

electronically and digitally reproduced

1898

Major transformations in a ten-year period, between roughly 1898 and 1908,

these were major changes in the rise of mechanically reproduced or transmitted
media

Between 1890-1905, circulation of monthly periodicals went from 18 million to 64

million

Print dominant medium, two general styles of journalism—fact based (like the
Times)

And story based like Pulitzer’s The World, and Hearst’s Journal,

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Media and Freedom of Expression

The First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of

speech, or of the press."

A hallmark of American free speech law is that it prohibits the government from
censoring or punishing hate speech. In public forums, the law allows hate speech
and expressions of hate—verbal attacks on homosexuals near the site of a funeral
of a military veteran, burning a cross on the lawn of an African American couple,
calls for the overthrow of the US government by a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
It’s all protected under the Constitution.

Licensing laws--forbade any printing without a government license

Prior Restraint : the power of the government to prevent the publication or

broadcast of expression

Peter Zenger trial of 1734-35-- changed the terms under which someone could be
held guilty of libel

His lawyer rgued that the mere assertion of libel without proof of a libel was
insufficient to put a printer in jail.

revealed popular support in the colonies for freedom of expression and laid the
foundation for establishing freedom of the press in the Bill of Rights. It
established the right of citizens to criticize government officials.

Certain categories of speech, including obscenity, "fighting words," libel,

commercial speech and words likely to cite "imminent lawless action" receive
limited or no protection.

Free speech “absolutist position,” as expressed by Justice Hugo Black: "No law
means no law." Freedom of expression, no matter how loathsome, is to be
protected at all costs

Espionage Act, 1917--any statement that might interfere with the success of the
armed forces, incite disloyalty or obstruct recruiting to the Army became a
punishable offense

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Sedition Act, 1918-- made it a crime to write or publish any disloyal, profane, or
scurrilous language about the form of govt. of the US or the constitution, military
or naval forces, the flag or the uniform

Defamation: disreputable or false statement about a living person or

organization that causes injury to the reputation among a substantial group of
people might hold for that person or entity

Two types of defamation, libel and slander

Libel is "the false and malicious publication of material that damages a person's
reputation" and is usually applied to the print media.

Slander is "oral or spoken defamation of a person's character" and is usually

applied to broadcasting.

New York Times v. Sullivan landmark 1964 case (discussed in reading):

This case revolutionized libel law, shifting most of the burden of proof from the
defendant onto the plaintiff in actions involving the news media and growing
out of the discussion of public policy.

 brought editorial advertising--as opposed to commercial advertising--

under the protection of the First Amendment
 established that the First Amendment excuses some falsehoods uttered in
the heat of debate over the public conduct of public officials
 Major change in American law because held that a factual error, on its
own, was no longer the basis for a libel judgment against a publisher.
 The court’s (and the country’s) conception of the First Amendment
fundamentally changed when it realized that America’s most important
news outlets—central to “free political discussion,” in the court’s words—
were in jeopardy of being silenced by libel judgments.

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  Sullivan suit was seen as an effort to abridge freedom of speech, and of
the press in particular, by unduly restricting criticism of conduct by
government officials.

To prove a libel case, private individuals have to prove three things:

1. public statement about them was false
2. that damages or injury occurred--loss of job, reputation, public
humiliation
3. the publisher or broadcaster was negligent

but if the plaintiff a public figure, plaintiff has to prove all three things plus
actual malice--that editor or reporter knew the statement was false and printed
or broadcast it anyway or showed "reckless disregard" for whether the statement
was false or not

1957 Supreme Court case (also discussed in the reading) Roth vs United States,
held that sex and obscenity not synonymous and that “the portrayal of sex in art,
literature and scientific works not sufficient reason to deny such material
constitutional protection” still affirmed that obscenity—defined as dealing with
sex “in a manner appearing to prurient interests” not protected

Brandenburg v. Ohio, 1969: Supreme Court case that created the modern test for
the protection of speech that has a tendency to lead to violence.

Established the Brandenburg exception or Brandenburg standard for restricting

free speech:

1. plaintiffs must prove that the speech was intended to produce "imminent
lawless action,"

2. was likely to produce such action, and

3. that the producers of the speech knew that the speech was indeed likely to
produce such behavior.

Because Mr. Brandenburg’s words fell short of calling for immediate violence in
a setting where such violence was likely, the Supreme Court ruled that he could
not be prosecuted for incitement.

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The Supreme Court upheld prohibitions against prior restraint in New York Times
v. United States also known as Pentagon Papers case

Pentagon Papers marked “top secret” by Nixon administration, Daniel Ellsberg

leaks them to the New York Times which starts publishing them in June 1971

After three installments, Nixon's Justice Department, citing national security

reasons, got a court order barring further publication.

The Times took the case to court and on June 30 the Supreme Court ordered the
Nixon administration to end its restraint of publication.

Prior restraint is allowed:

1. national security
2. military operations
3. clear and present danger to public safety
4. courtroom proceedings
5. obscenity
6. copyright
7. commercial speech

1978 indecency ruling, in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, upholding the FCC's

sanctions against George Carlin's famous 'Filthy Words' monologue. The
primary basis for the 1978 decision was the court's view that broadcasting is
uniquely intrusive, and that viewers or listeners would have no way of avoiding
in advance the language or images that might offend them.

Cable television and the Internet are not subject to government regulation of
ostensibly indecent material.

First amendment has been tested around violence and sex in the media.
Do violent movies make people commit crimes? Can those who make films or
TV shows that depict especially gruesome and innovative acts of violence be
held liable if someone imitates those acts in real life and innocent third parties
suffer? Should the First Amendment protect this form of speech?

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The Knight First Amendment Institute in 2017 sued the president, his director of
social media, and his press secretary because Donald Trump was blocking those
who posted dissenting opinions on his Twitter account

Debate about whether his account is a public forum or a private account

In May of 2018, in Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump, U.S. District Judge
Naomi Reice Buchwald of the Southern District of New York held that this
opinion-based blocking violates the First Amendment rights of those who are
blocked.

What about Facebook? Should it b banning hate speech, as its terms of service
claims it does?

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 The News—part 1

The news is a product, a commodity that for hundreds of years people

have paid for

The news is socially constructed—meaning various actors, some more

powerful than others, interact in often routinized ways, and often through
debate, discussion and conflict, to determine which meanings, which stories,
which versions of reality will be the dominant understandings of reality

As of August 2017, two-thirds (67%) of Americans report that they get at least
some of their news on social media – with two-in-ten doing so often, according to
a new survey from Pew Research Center

Since 2013, at least half of Twitter users have reported getting news on the site,
but in 2017, with a president who frequently makes announcements on the
platform, that share has increased to about three-quarters (74%)

But now they are more likely than ever to get news from multiple social media
sites. About one quarter of all U.S. adults (26%) get news from two or more of
these sites, up from 18% in 2016 and 15% in 2013

Overall, four-in-ten Americans report following national news very closely, has
increased during Covid-19

In all, an average of 32.2 million people watched the evening newscasts last
week, a 42 percent increase from a year earlier. Younger people have tuned in,
too: There was a 67 percent rise among adults between the ages of 25 and 54,
according to Nielsen.

PBS Newshour viewership up to almost 3.4 million

(In the 1970s, more like 40 million viewers of all three news programs)

News often reflects the political, racial, class-based and gendered

hierarchies of America, but also often magnifies and exaggerates them

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Objectivity--an unattainable but theoretically conceivable condition of unbias
Objective journalism--seeks to distinguish factual reports from opinion
columns, to maintain a neutral attitude toward the issue/event being covered;
seeks out competing points of view among sources for a story

Yet there is no fundamentally non-ideological, apolitical, non partisan

newsgathering and reporting system--all news is views

Agenda setting--when the news pays more attention to particular stories,

they determine the major topics of discussion and concern for individuals and
society

• News doesn’t necessarily tell us what to think, but tells us what to think
about

“Dark Ages” of the Press, 1789-1808, highly partisan press, newspapers basically
political organs, vicious attacks on their opponent

The penny press--starts in early 1830s with Benjamin Day's The Sun--sold on
street corners, cheaper than six-cent political papers, increased coverage of upper
and lower classes, increased coverage of crime, emphasis on events rather than
opinions, more emphasis on local news

Penny Press encouraged people to become literate

Associated Press (AP) was formed in 1848 by a group of American newspapers

that sought to pool resources in order to better collect and report news; then sold
its stories to regional newspapers without comparable resources

Now a multi-national news agency, sells its content to other media

By 1890s, two ideals of journalism emerge--factuality v. entertainment, or

the ideal of the story and the ideal of information

In post-Civil War period, major contradictions emerge around the press:

watchdog over government corruption and corporate greed and wrong doing,
yet also capitalist enterprises designed to maximize profits--so simultaneously
tied into the profit motive, yet critical of it

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sensationalistic, exaggerated, ill-researched, and often untrue reporting,
came to be known as “Yellow Journalism.”

News on the radio raised questions about objectivity, whether reporters

could air opinions

1960s-1990s, rise and importance of network television news

Why do we get the news we do?

Standards of newsworthiness--with a bias toward conflict in public

moral disorder, social disorder, natural disorder

What makes a story newsworthy?

Its impact on the nation and national interest

Its impact on large numbers of people
Significance for the past or the future
Novelty--is the story new?
For TV and most social media--availability of good pictures

What kinds of stories are important?

government conflicts and disagreements
government decisions, proposals and ceremonies
government personnel changes
crimes, scandals, investigations
wars or regional conflicts
disasters--actual and averted
innovations and traditions
health breakthroughs/health disasters
national ceremonies--political conventions, elections, inaugurations
rites of passage--births, weddings, deaths
unusual activities

rise of pseudo-events-- Circumstance or event designed to gain media

coverage; an event that has been planned

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 What kinds of people are important?
the president
the higher the actor in the governmental hierarchy, the more his or her
activities are of importance
other high-ranking officials--Cabinet members, Congressional leaders
world leaders--especially when meeting with the president
Alleged and actual violators of the law or of customs
Celebrities
Victims
Participants in unusual activities--weird fads, unusual hobbies
Voters, poll respondents

What kinds of people are newsworthy?

Major, unusual achievement; Breaks a record, makes a discovery

Violates established norms; Says inflammatory things

Becomes a victim of a terrible crime

Commits terrible crimes

What Shapes What we See and Hear?

Agendas of public officials--news management

Journalistic ambition and corporate competition--desire for the scoop
Ratings and conceptions of the audience
Recent pressures, especially in TV, to show a profit
Press releases/video releases
Increased entertainment values
Pressure from advertisers
Self-censorship and censorship
Technological and economic constraints
News routines

News peg--a recent event or public official's statement which is used as a handle
on which to hang other, related stories

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 Trends in the news

More infotainment and soft news

—Less international news

—More competition over ratings, more pressure to earn a profit

—Internal self-censorship and self-advertising as news

—More branding of news

Rise of tabloid-style celebrity news (includes “grief television”)

Rise in celebrity journalism accompanied by rise of celebrity journalists (while

everyday working journalists earn low salaries)

Substitution of talk, opinion and argument for news

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Rise of Yellow Journalism; these two papers dominated NYC market, 1.5 million
circulation

Influence of newspapers enormous, sought to set the agenda and influence

national and presidential politics

Rose of newspapers in getting us into the Spanish American war in 1898; early
example of “fake news”

Magazines and newspapers supported and dominated by advertising

Beginning of product branding

Beginning of use of psychology in ads to influence sales; use of guilt

Then the electrical and electronic media revolution begins, surrounding people
with new mechanically produced sounds and images;

diffusion of phonographs, rise of film and nickelodeons, diffusion of telephone

By 1909, about 25% of homes had a telephone but this varied very
much by location, with adoption in the South almost non-existent—by
1920 between 34%-39% of households had a phone

This was dramatically reshaping how people thought of contacting others, about
privacy, an example of how a once optional device became necessary

By 1905, nickelodeons emerged—usually in converted storefronts,

mostly working class and immigrant audiences

1928

TRENDS
By now, with movies, magazines, newspapers, sports and radio a central part of
people’s lives, a full-blown national media culture in the U.S.

 Advertising increasingly in people’s homes

 Rise of celebrity culture

 More sex in movies and tabloid journalism

 More African Americans in media

 Music more central to people’s lives

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More advertising everywhere, ads much more psychologically driven, exploitation
of anxieties and fears

Newspaper chains—early example of media consolidation—when paper owns

more than one newspaper, called a chain--giants included the Hearst chain
(William Randolph Hearst) and the Scripps-Howard chain—

Also new form of journalism called “jazz journalism,” focus on crime, sex and
scandals

Reflecting the great migration of African Americans from the rural South to the
urban North, rise of black newspapers

From about two hundred in 1900 to a peak of five hundred by the 1920s

In the 1920s four large black newspapers in the North developed circulations of
more than 200,000

By 1928, average weekly movie attendance was 90 million with an average

household attendance of 1.56 movies seen a week, far more frequently than
today, 25 cents to see a double feature.

Rise of jazz and the blues, more African Americans on radio, their music coming
into people’s homes

By 1928, average weekly movie attendance was 90 million with an

average household attendance of 1.56 movies seen a week

Rise of the first generation of movie stars, celebrity culture becomes full blown

Movies increasingly risqué, backlash against such depictions and against

Hollywood scandals

Radio “boom,” by 1928 in 27.5% of households

1938—depths of the Great Depression

TRENDS
Radio dominant medium, national markets, national mass medium

Further consolidation, radio an oligopoly (two major networks, NBC and

CBS)

Entertainment, sports, the president in your home

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 Rise of Production Code (1934), censorship in film and on radio

Media consolidation in film industry, studio system, monopolize production

and distribution

Concerns about media’s power

Media hugely important, people still read newspapers and magazines, were
surrounded by ads and commercials, flocked to the movies, and went to sporting
events, especially baseball

79% of households had radio—radio brought entertainment, news, gossip, soap

operas, sports, music, children’s programming into people’s homes

More media consolidation—oligopoly control of radio with 2 major networks, NBC

Red and Blue, CBS

New oral/aural culture in America; Centrality of listening, verbal

storytelling

Rise of the photojournalism based magazine, Life in 1936, which was selling
more than one million copies in just a few weeks, and Look in 1937, which was
selling 1.7 million copies before its first anniversary.

Movie attendance—People devotedly went to the movies, during the depression,

sometimes twice a week or more, more than 65% of the population went to the
movies weekly.

Production Code of 1930, with enforcement beginning in 1934, major impact on

movie content

Now sound and music in films, rise of the movie musical

More media consolidation—Big Five--Warner Brothers Pictures, Paramount,

RKO, Metro Goldwin Meyer, and 20th Century Fox, each of whom owned their
own film production sets and studios and their own theaters—and the little
three—Universal, United Artists, Columbia—a true oligopoly, controlled 95% of
films exhibited in the U.S.

Over 60% of American listening regularly to news on the radio

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Also listening to sports, especially baseball and boxing—one the country’s major
sports heroes was Joe Louis, known as the “brown Bomber,”
his boxing matches on radio revitalized prizefighting and turned him into one of
the first African American national sports heroes.

By 1938, media deeply interpenetrates people’s lives, but almost all of it from
central media corporations to individual people, celebrity culture firmly
established, president/politicians can now be heard in people’s homes

Major media panic, “War of the Worlds” controversy

1958

TRENDS
Television dominant mass medium

Oligopoly control of TV, 3 major networks

Fears about media power=Red Scare

Overly safe, homogenized images

Rise of youth culture

1958--83% of households have TV, which is all black and white

TV dominates family entertainment, only three networks, oligopoly control

People watching, on average—5 hours of TV a day, listening to radio almost 2

hours a day

Movie attendance drops—from 90 million a week in 1946 to 40 million by 1960—

attendance down almost 50% from 1946 peak

Rise of Red Scare, hysterical fear of communist influence in the country, what
today would be called left-wing bias, especially the media, leads to blacklisting of
actors, writers, directors

New device, transistor radio, so much smaller, portable, battery operated

12 million transistor radios in use, more radios than households; 65% of cars
have car radios

Phonograph back in the home, Hi Fi craze, music even more centrally in people’s
homes, in young people’s lives

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Rise of Rock’n’Roll on radio, effort to address young people in a way that TV
wasn’t, radio least segregated of the media, African American performers get on
the radio

Quiz Show scandals, Payola scandals

1968

TRENDS
 More media saturation than ever

 Explosion of record industry, driven by youth culture

 Quest for richness in sound; FM, stereos

 Dominance of TV news

 Social movements brought into people’s living rooms

 Assassinations brought into people’s living rooms

TV dominant medium, people watching on average 6 hours/day, listening to radio

nearly 3 hours/day

still 3 networks, continued oligopoly control, PBS established

People more media-saturated than ever

Baby boomers coming of age, changing the music industry with the Dominance
of LPs—spread of FM radio, much greater sound fidelity, stereo

Dominance of TV news, TV news had been 15 minutes until 1963, now ½ hour,
highly trusted and respected

Brings major, highly dramatic stories to Americans, into their living rooms

1988:

TRENDS
 Rise of cable, CNN, MTV

 New networks, FOX

 Beginnings of more audience control, cassettes, VCRs

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  Diffusion of home computers

60% of homes have multiple TV sets, TV on an average of 7 hours a day in

households

Nearly 50% of homes have cable service, anywhere from 12-20+ channels

Fox a new network to compete with the “big three”

There were 79 cable networks, these included BET, Home Shopping Network,
Nickelodeon

CNN started in 1980, has revolutionized news business, now 24/7 news, by 1988
nearly 54 million viewers

MTV started in 1981, revolutionized music business, breakout and even

established bands needed music videos, convergence of sounds and image

Cassette players in homes, cars, allow people to make their own playlists

People also have this revolutionary device called the Walkman, on which you
could play cassettes—

58% of homes have VCRs—allows for recording as well as going to someplace

called the video store and renting movies

More choices, beginning of user control with VCRs, allows viewers not to be
chained to the broadcast schedules

Americans purchased 15 million home computers in 1988

1998:

TRENDS
 The Internet!!

 More push for audience control, DIY culture

 Websites, Napster

 CDs, DVDs

 Rise of partisan news with FOX News

 Increased sensationalism in news

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  Rise of market segmentation, niche marketing

 Rise of gay visibility

Rapid diffusion of the Internet, 147 million users worldwide

Number of websites starts to soar

Between 1990 and 1997, the percentage of households

owning computers increased from 15 to 35 percent, and the amount spent by
the average household on computers and associated hardware more than
tripled

35% of homes have 2 TVs, 41% have 3 TVs

Nearly 70% of households subscribe to cable

Growth of market fragmentation, niche marketing, as cable channels, advertisers

target particular groups by age, gender, race

2008:

TRENDS

 Rise of Web 2.0, more interactivity

 Rise of Social networking; MySpace, Facebook

 YouTube

 Democratization of celebrity

 Further fragmentation of markets

 Expansion of Reality TV

 Rise of presentation of self on social media

 Rapid diffusion of cell phones

Computers deemed necessary by 51% of American adults, over 90 million sold in

US

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Emergence of what was called Web 2.0, more interactivity, more participation

New phenomenon—social networking, allowed people to build a profile,

especially used by young people

MySpace—largest social networking site in the world, but by 2009 overtaken by

Facebook

YouTube, video-sharing site launched in 2005, over 100 million views per day

Proliferation of cell phones, blackberry—168 million Americans have cell phones

Democratization of Celebrity

2018:

TRENDS
 Dominance of smart phones

 Streaming services outstripping radio, challenging cable and networks

 Return to sound with podcasts

 New forms of celebrity, Instagram Influencers, YouYube stars

 Democratization of Fame

 Rise of distrust—in news, in Facebook

Dominance of smart phones, 77% of American adults have smart phones, for
those 18-29, it’s 92%

2017 a big year for cable news because of interest in politics, Trump so
unconventional and thus newsworthy, cable news breaks ratings records, CNN
most watched year since 2008

Hundreds of cable channels, but also rise in cord cutters

Streaming services (especially among younger people) outstripping cable

Digital media and platforms outpacing legacy media

Streaming music replacing iTunes, decimating CD sales

Democratization of Fame—YouTube celebrities, Instagram Influencers

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MEDIA BURROWED DEEPLY INTO EVERYDAY LIFE

VALUES IN THE NEWS; Criticisms of the news

Important to identify prevalent news values and to think about how

news stories are narrativized and framed

News values: general guidelines or criteria that determine the worth

of a news story and how much prominence it is given by newspapers,
broadcast media, and/or digital media.

News values are often intangible, informal, almost unconscious

elements. News values define what journalists, editors and
broadcasters consider as newsworthy.

So there is a difference between the values in the news and the value
implications of the news

Journalists see news in terms of events, such as murders, accidents,

disagreements, budget announcements, rallies and speeches.

More standards of newsworthiness; why we get the news we do:

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*The more of these elements a story has, the more likely it is to be
newsworthy and even be the lead story

Frequency or immediacy –did it happen today; has it happened or is it

happening a lot; journalism emphasizes the recent event or the re-
cently discovered fact at the expense of that which occurred before;
The bias of immediacy is the rule

Proximity is the closeness to the intended audience.

Magnitude: Stories that are perceived as sufficiently significant

either in the numbers of people involved or in potential impact.

The impact of the story quickly establishes the importance of the

piece to the reader, and the consequences for the reader themselves.

Threshold is the size of the event; the ‘bigger’ the size of the event,
the more likely it is to be reported

Relevance: Stories about issues, groups and nations perceived to be

relevant to the audience

Extraordinariness – rare, unpredictable and surprising events have

more newsworthiness than routine events. Stories that have an
element of surprise and/or contrast. What is unexpected, bizarre—

Here user-generated content becoming more important in news

production especially if the footage is sensational

Reference to elite persons – events surrounding the famous and the

powerful are often seen as more newsworthy, including elite or
powerful institutions. Includes politicians, celebrities, major business
leaders, religious leaders

News organization’s agenda: Stories that set or fit the news

organization's own agenda

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Unambiguity – the simpler the event, the more likely it is to be
reported.

Currency means that an idea's time has come

Competition for exclusives

Ratings/clicks: need to maximize profits by maximizing audiences;

Ratings matter even more now in a far more competitive television
marketplace, and you don’t get ratings if your programming is not
entertaining.

Economic constraints/opportunities: stories that are costly to pursue

are less likely to make it into the news; and news subsidies, such as
well-prepared press releases and photo opportunities, are more likely
to be taken up by resource-starved and hard-pressed journalists, and
translated into news items

Heightens the role of public relations professionals and “spin

doctors”

Negativity is basically, “If it bleeds it leads.” The news focuses on

catastrophes and violence over perceived happy stories.

Conflict: central to standards of newsworthiness; one of the

foundational aspects of the news; conflict between different politicians
and political parties; between different individuals or groups of
people; between different parts of the country; between men and
women; between people of different races or ethnicities

Leads to the two-sides-and-only-two-sides to a story; pundits and

spin doctors yelling at and over each other on cable

Presentational strategies in the news:

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•Personalization--the process of making a news story the product of
peoples' actions.

•Personification—having individuals embody issues, policy debates,

debates about values and attitudes

•Narrativization--the shaping of a news story in a narrative form.

Often stories will draw on existing discourses and older narratives.

•Visual Imperative--the use of visual aids such as pictures and video

in a news story. This is especially important for television and online
news.

•Framing-- The basis of framing theory is that the media focuses

attention on certain events and then places them within a field of
meaning; News frame is the angle or perspective from which a news
story is told.
News frames guide journalists in deciding which details of a story to
select and emphasize and which to leave out or de-emphasize.
Frames are usually implicit rather than explicit.

News frames draw from language and images; what words and
images are chosen, how are they organized, who gets the last word?
Are certain metaphors or colorful language used?

Framing is a quality of communication that leads others to accept one

meaning over another.

Framing theory suggests that how something is presented to the

audience (called “the frame”) influences the choices people make
about how to process that information. Frames organize or structure
message meaning.

Frames not only tell the audience what to think about (agenda-setting
theory), but also how to think about that issue (second level agenda
setting, framing theory).

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Three narrative frames — conflict, winners and losers and revealing
wrongdoing

One of the most common frames is conflict. In the conflict frame

reporters structure their stories around a conflict that is often
portrayed as being inherent in the issue being discussed.

Other standard frames for news stories include: the consensus frame,
which emphasizes general agreement

the reaction frame which features the reactions of one or more

important people involved in the story

the wrongdoing exposed frame in which corruption or injustice is

revealed

and the straight news account frame in which the reporter primarily
asks the standard who, what, when, where and how question

Values in the News: Herbert J. Gans

Ethnocentrism-- Judging other countries by the extent to which they

live up to or imitate American practices and values

Parochialism—focusing almost exclusively on U.S. news, minimal

coverage of international news

Altruistic democracy—news implies that politics should be based on

public interest and public service; so focuses on deviations from this
ideal; citizens should help themselves out without having to resort to
government aid

Responsible capitalism—that people in business can and should

compete to create increased prosperity, new goods and services, but
should refrain from unreasonable profits and gross exploitation of
workers or customers

Individualism—icon of the “rugged individualist”—ideal of the freedom

of the individual against encroachments by the nation or society

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Moderatism—discourages excess or extremism

Criticisms of the News

That it is addicted to and overemphasizes conflict, exaggerates it, can even

help create it.

So, with campaigns, obsessed with the incredible horse race.

Reduces complexity to comfortable narratives.

Journalists rush their work …

Pack journalism and group think

News as speculation

Substitution of talk, opinion and argument for news

Talk shows on all news channels present biased opinions as though

they were news

Rise of tabloid-style celebrity news (includes “grief television”); Rise

in celebrity journalism accompanied by rise of celebrity journalists;
(while everyday working journalists earn low salaries)

Reliance on anonymous sources. Readers believe that anonymous

sources are one of two things — it’s either something that’s been
made up or someone that’s manipulating the reporter. And certainly
the latter is often the case.”

— DANIEL OKRENT, former public editor of the New York Times

Sources for the News:

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 Powerful symbiotic relationship between journalists and

sources

—who becomes a source and why:

—those close to power who are eager to be sources, who have

proved themselves reliable, providing good information,
geographically close to the journalist, and discreet

Rule about leaks—the more powerful a politician, harder it is for

a reporter to find someone who will talk/leak; the more leaking there
is from a presidency, it is evidence of a president’s declining power

Matching hierarchies in the news--hierarchy of actors, from the

President, political candidates, high ranking government officials

the news is weighted toward sources who are eager to provide

information

hierarchy of story order--shows what's considered most

important

Sources of political news, in order:

—U.S. Officials, Agencies:

—International Officials, agencies:

—State, local gov’t officials:

—Nongovernmental Americans:

—Other news orgs:

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 Bias in the news--

1. Dominant media firms are large businesses controlled by

wealthy people

2. The news is supported by powerful advertisers who want to reach

a "quality" audience, who want to avoid controversy and to entertain;

Almost all media that reach a large audience in the United States are
owned by for-profit corporations–institutions that by law are obligated
to put the profits of their investors ahead of all other considerations.
The goal of maximizing profits is often in conflict with the practice of
responsible journalism.

3. The heavy reliance on official sources and powerful sources,

including corporate and governmental public relations firms

4. Powerful publishers and editors and news directors move in

similar social circles to political and corporate elites--similar

socialization, broad common interests despite partisan

disagreements

5. Socialization of journalists on the job

Who or what do we often NOT see in the news?

Community activist groups (although this changed in the spring

and summer of 20200

young people who are not victims or criminals

Middle class people of color

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 left of center journalists, politicians

working class spokespeople, activists

Who is generally favored in the news media?

management over labor,

corporatism over anti-corporatism,

the affluent over the poor,

private enterprise over government programs,

whites over people of color,

males over females

Now we get to fake news

Your assignment for today, to watch The Facebook Dilemma

documents Facebook's explosive growth -- there are early clips of a

very young CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his pals -- and its emphasis
on the mantra to "move fast and break things."

presents a chilling portrait of a social media behemoth that cares

more about profits than its users' privacy

The use of the "Like" button became crucial to its main source of
income, which is to gather and exploit as much of its users' data as
possible.

Even while company executives were publicly talking about how

Facebook valued and aimed to protect its users' privacy, they were
figuring new ways to monetize the personal data they were collecting.
The pressure for profitability became particularly intense during the
period leading up to the company going public.

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The opportunities to manipulate the platform grew exponentially when
Facebook forged this model that relied on harvesting user data,
raising questions as to whether democracy was one of things
"broken" in the bargain.

The documentary finds that multiple warnings about the platform's

negative impact on privacy and democracy were eclipsed by the
company's relentless pursuit of growth — and its users' data.

Argues that Facebook's success at connecting the world has come at

a very high cost.

In the old days before the internet, people would get their information
from reputable print and broadcast media that was actually curated
and edited. Now the vast majority get the news from a website that
takes almost no responsibility for what it spews into the world.

goes beyond the well-documented concern about manipulation of the

U.S. election and the massive leak of user data to the way Facebook
has been weaponized abroad, including its use to trigger violence
and lash out against political opposition in Myanmar and the
Philippines.

The documentary details how Facebook was exploited by Philippines

president Rodrigo Duterte to harm his enemies and how it plays a
significant role in the ethnic violence and genocide in Myanmar.

Through it all, Zuckerberg -- as the face of the company -- has

appeared resistant to fully recognize the enormous influence that
Facebook wields, and perhaps most significantly, the responsibility
that comes with that.

While his commitment to an "open and connected" world sounds

admirable, even idealistic, "The Facebook Dilemma" makes clear that
those noble ambitions have run into a harsh reality.

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 Zuckerberg -- has balked at labeling Facebook a media company, but
there's no denying that the technology is shaping how media is
disseminated, consumed and yes, manipulated.

But from the company’s failure to protect millions of users’ data, to

the proliferation of “fake news” and disinformation, mounting crises
have raised the question: Is Facebook more harmful than helpful?

HOW DO WE IDENTIFY FAKE NEWS?

 Check the source; What’s the publication’s point of

view? Read the “About Us” section for more insight into the
publisher, leadership, and mission statement. Also, confirm that you
have not stumbled upon a satirical news site, like the Onion.

 What is the domain name? Be wary of unusual top-level

domain names, like “.com.co.” A second-level domain like “abcnews”
may appear credible. But note that abcnews.com.co is a different
and illegitimate site, though designed to appear similar to the original.

 Who is the author? Has he or she published anything else?

Be suspicious if the byline, which names the author, is a celebrity
writing for a little-known site or if the author’s contact information is a
G-mail address.

 Anyone else publishing this? Is the information available on

other sites? If not, then it’s very likely that the journalistic jury is still
out on whether this information is valid.

 Do you notice splling erors [sic], lots of ALL CAPS, or

dramatic punctuation?!?!?! If so, abort your reading mission.
Reputable sources have high proofreading and grammatical
standards.

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 Is the story current or recycled? Make sure an older story
isn’t being taken out of context.

3. CHECK THE SOURCES AND CITATIONS.

 How did you find the article? If the content showed up in your
social media feed or was promoted on a website known for clickbait,
proceed with caution. Even if the information was shared by a friend,
be sure to follow the steps below to vet the publisher’s credibility.

 Who is (or is not) quoted, and what do they say? If you

notice a glaring lack of quotes and contributing sources, particularly
on a complex issue, then something is amiss. Credible journalism is
fed by fact-gathering, so a lack of research likely means a lack of
fact-based information.

 Have you visited a fact-checking website? There are many

good ones, like FactCheck.org, International Fact-Checking Network
(IFCN), PolitiFact.com, or Snopes.com. Do your own detective work
and feel more confident in being able to identify fact vs. fiction.

Non-profit news investigative organizations: FAIR; Project Censored;

Propublica

Technological Determinism, Techno-panics

Moral panic-- occurs when a segment of society believes that the

behavior or moral choices of others within that society poses a
significant risk to the society as a whole,”
technopanic is simply a moral panic that centers around a specific
technology

Term used in your reading by Alice Marwick: a moral panic that

reflects a fear of modernity as represented by new technologies—
focus on new media forms, like computer-mediated technologies,

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public and political crusades against the use of new media or
technologies by the young

pathologizes young people’s use of such media, and attempts to

modify or regulate young people’s behavior—in part young people’s
mastery of new COMM techs can be threatening to adults

Technopanic is accompanied by pleas to “do something” to protect

society as a whole.

Technological determinism--the notion that machines make

history, often on their own; that technology drives history; technology
becomes an autonomous agent of change, and that technology
causes new forms of social relations to come about;

this draws from older S—R, magic bullet, hypodermic needle

concepts of the mass media

Technology is seen to imply a known direction, determined solely by

the properties of the technology

"hard" determinists--the ability to effect change is attributed to

the technology itself, or to some of its intrinsic attributes--technologies
permit few alternatives to their inherent dictates; changes in
technology exert a greater influence on societies and their processes
than any other factor

"soft determinists"--emphasize that the history of technology is

a history of human actions--locate technology in a more complex
social, economic, political and cultural context, see technology as just
one factor shaping society rather than the dominant or only one – but
the idea common to all is that technology itself need not be explained
as, say, the outcome of competing social pressures, or as influenced

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by different ideas about what kinds of technologies ought to be
developed in what kind of way.

technological determinism has been widely criticized by scholars

Because Technological determinism is the naive belief that

technology is some sort of abstract force which influences society to
some degree, but is not itself the product of social forces of any form.

New school of thought in 1980s, the Social construction of

technology, or social constructivism

Social Constructivism--Looks at uncovering the social forces at work

in the creation and development of various technological artifacts and
technological systems.

emphasizes the role of struggle, negotiation, rejection, and

subsequent new directions as inventors, companies and everyday
users—consumers—interacted and competed over what final form
certain inventions would take

Thus, there is no predetermined, natural or inevitable way for devices

or machines to evolve; rather, through this process some technical
variants survive and flourish while others disappear

And there’s another crucial actor, or institution, that plays an

absolutely pivotal role in the uses of and attitudes towards
communications technologies: the press in particular and the existing
media more broadly
How do they frame the promise and problems of the new comm.
Technology?

Technological affordances—what do certain technologies privilege

and permit that others don’t, what communicative affordances do they
offer?

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 Comm techs do have their own propensities, biases and inherent
attributes; simply, there are things that some communications
technologies can do or provide that others can’t
So each communications technology, because of its attributes and
capabilities, “affords” or enables certain interactions and constrains
others.

But those effects do not exist independently of human social action.

So the notion of affordances does suggest that that there are, after
all, some determinate properties to technologies which social
constructivists have argued against, and while NOT to lapse back into
technological determinism, understand that the range of possibilities
for certain devices is not totally open and is constrained in part by the
device’s features

Utopian visions: In the rhetoric of utopian discourses, specific

technologies play a key role in shaping a utopian social vision, in
which their use easily makes life easier, and liberating for nearly
everyone; an idealized, overly optimistic vision of the power of
technological progress

Views communications technologies as the gateway to a new era of

democracy, equity, plenitude and knowledge.

Equates technological progress with social progress

Technological dystopianism—fears that communication technologies

exacerbate human misery as individuals become increasingly
controlled by what they fail to understand

That communication technologies reduce/invade our privacy, affect

our behavior in negative ways

Make us overly malleable and powerfully influenced by media content

as if we have no agency

Case studies of techno-panics:

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Most famous scare about the Internet was about pornography--had
legislative consequences; Cover of Time magazine for July 3, 1995
was a story by Philip Elmer-DeWitt "On a Screen Near You:
Cyberporn

Nonetheless, this story and others like it prompted Congress to pass

the now infamous Communications Decency Act in 1996

The CDA imposed criminal sanctions against those who knowingly

transmit “obscene” or “indecent” messages, as determined by local
community standards, to a recipient under the age of 18 years. It also
prohibited knowingly sending or displaying a “patently offensive”
message containing sexual or excretory activities or organs to a
minor.

The Supreme Court unanimously struck it down as a first amendment

violation

Case Study: My Space

Media stoked techno-panic

site supposedly made it easy for online predators to contact minors;

role of TV Show “To Catch a Predator”

Case Study: The Payne Fund Studies, conducted by a group of

academic social scientists between 1929-1932, funded by a private
foundation, the Payne fund

the most comprehensive early investigation of the social effects of the

mass media on American youth.

Virtually all the current arguments over the impact of media on

children and youth and the nature of cultural power were first played
out in debates over the Payne Fund Studies.

Studied how movies affected children's sleep, attitudes, and conduct

and whether there was a link between movie attendance and
delinquent behavior as well as attitudes about romance and sex

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Hollywood adopted the Production Code in 1930, more than eight
years after Will Hays took the reins of the MPPDA, and only after
circumstances converged to force the hand of Hays and the studio
heads.

Payne studies contributed to this; Enforcement of the Code did not

come until 1934, after the Hays Office created the Production Code
Administration (PCA) and after Roman Catholics formed the Legion
of Decency.

Case Study: War of the Worlds media panic

One of the most notorious events in the history of American

broadcasting
Halloween eve, 1938—broadcast dramatization of H.G. Wells War of
the Worlds—allegedly led to widespread panic that upwards of a
million people were convinced that the country was being invaded by
Martians who had landed near Princeton New Jersey and were
working their way towards New York

Case Study: Dr. Fredric Wertham's 1954 book Seduction of the

Innocent led to a moral panic over the content of comic books
Wertham stated that in his studies with children, he found comic
books to be a major cause of juvenile delinquency

Seduction of the Innocent caused a U.S. Senate Investigation into the

relationship between comic books and juvenile delinquents.

Within months of the book’s publication, comics publishers came

together to effectively self-censor with the formation of the Comics
Code Authority, with guidelines for comic content.

Case Study: Columbine and Video Games—media coverage

suggested (or sometimes charged) that violent video games caused
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris to go to Columbine High and murder 12
students, 1 teacher and injure 23 others

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Murders set off a debate about video game addiction and the effects
of violent video games

Case Study: Sexting--Panics about sexts going viral and leading to

humiliation, ostracism, even suicide—concerns about a technology—
the smart phone—being beyond parents’ control
Participants in a study done at Drexel University acknowledged
sexting as young as 13, but the vast majority were 16 and 17 when
they sexted. And very few reported negative consequences from
their actions. Only 8%, for instance, said they endured humiliation
or a tarnished reputation
Nonetheless, young people who sext to other minors can be subject
to charges of trafficking in child pornography—a wild over-reaction

Another example of concerns about the relationships between new

communications technologies and sexual behaviors

Case Study: Smart Phone addiction (refer to your reading for the
second class)

Smartphones, with their features, are designed to alter our ways of

being available to connectivity as compared to days preceding its
use.
Because researchers, as your readings laid, out, have found a
correlation between excessive cell phone use, anxiety and
depression

Case Study: Hate speech, trolling online

 Techno-panics can lead to censorship, regulation, self-

regulation
 Anxieties about effects of new communication technologies on
children and the vulnerable
 Techno-panics often exaggerated
 So how do these cases exemplify the broader themes we’ll be
exploring this term?


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 These panics/controversies reveal ongoing anxieties about the
impact of new communications technologies, new forms of
media

 Concerns about what’s happening to privacy, public morality

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