These "revelations" are a reflection on what I've learned from the class Contemporary Media Issues. Using the four books as sources, I have put together the most important concepts I have taken away from the class. The videos are to emphasize a point. Thanks to Rob Williams for making the semester so worthwhile and encouraging me to "Meditate on my media."
*Media Revelation #1: We’ve lost the importance and relevance of a message.
Just because we can send a message doesn’t mean that it is relevant. Postman channels Henry Thoreau and Walden in Amusing Ourselves to Death; when the telegraph was invented we thought we should send a message from
The type of news and programming we receive depends on the ownership of the media which currently lies in the hands of six large conglomerates. In Media Society, the use of horizontal integration from website to merchandise for the new Harry Potter movie all related back to making a profit for AOL Time Warner (43). The more people who own media sources from TV to radio stations, the more concentrated news sources become, which is why independent news sources are so important. The many contributors of Project Censored 2009 are declaring that the
*Media Revelation #3: Objectivity in the media is not realistic.
Not a lot of news outlets will admit that they are biased, one of the best examples being Fox with its slogan of news that is “Fair and Balanced.” Media Society reflects on the impact of advertising on the news; advertisers only want to pay for messages that will reach a larger audience and media who appeal to a utopian idea of “objective reporting” are the recipients of advertising dollars (70). The Project Censored team delves deeper into this subject while looking at the media coverage of the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus, and which sources are quoted (195). They also commented that the ideal of “balanced” reporting is not always possible, but by quoting “both sides” of an issue they are attempting to frame an issue in a certain manner.
Journalists fear crossing the wrong people might put their jobs on the line. Censored 2009 reveals the internal fight journalists contend with as they decide which truths to tell and which to leave alone as they face criticism from corporate sponsors as 35% of journalists said they avoid reporting on stories that would hurt the pockets of their employers (259). Media Society documented similar numbers; in a 2000 survey of journalists, 41% engaged in self-censorship either by completely omitting a story or toning it down (71). Most of this is attributed to the pressure journalists feel from corporate advertisers who fund their publications.
*Media Revelation #5: The rest of the world is getting more diverse and accurate news coverage than the
Censored 2009 is a series on important stories left out by the American media each year. The first story in the 2009 edition was a report on the one million Iraqi casualties as a result of the
*Media Revelation #6: Events where important topics of public discourse should take place instead emphasize the importance of image in our culture.
Take the most recent election, for example, in the debate our candidates were allotted just two minutes of time to answer each question on economic, social and international issues. Postman tells readers an anecdote about a Senate campaign in
*Media Revelation #7: Advertisers contribute to the bias of media outlets.
Who is advertising affects the content of a publication. According to Media Society, a newspaper ran a feature story with tips on how to buy a new car; as a result local car dealerships conspired to take out 52 pages of ads from the paper resulting in a $1 million loss in advertising for the paper (222). GM used the names of journalists from the Washington Post as bylines in its advertising supplement published in September 2007; the editor didn’t have an explanation for the combination of editorial advertising abused by GM as cited by Censored 2009 (256). PR is blurring the lines between real journalism and slightly altered press releases by taking advantage of their audiences’ trust in credible media sources.
*Media Revelation #8: The epistemological shift from word to image has been exaggerated as a result of Web 2.0.
Images have become more effective than words, and if a message is presented in words, it must be succinct. Postman outlines this shift by stating that a new medium changes where we get our information and our ideas (28). Although Postman was writing about television it is parallel to the internet, a medium which we are dependent on for many needs, where videos are being watched more than newspapers are being read and books are becoming e-books. Our ability to sit and read periods of text is being tested in this fast-paced age of Web 2.0, as highlighted in the article Is Google Making Us Stupid? A moment in Feed illustrates the declining attention span well, when Violet sends Titus a long message about her history and her slow decline, and he said that he didn’t listen to the whole thing at once because he saw it would be long (227).
No matter what the message, there is always more to be found by taking a closer look. In Feed, Titus glorifies the “corps” being good citizens and paying for Schools so that kids can learn things, but what they’re learning is about how to be a good consumer while consuming free samples such as pizza for lunch (110). This is not an over exaggeration, it is probably a grim future of PR for corporations to get the heads of children at an early age, but appears to be for “good.” A chillingly similar example of current agenda-setting is the No Child Left Behind Act provided by Censored 2009. Without further examination NCLB appears to have been passed to make public schools a more “equal learning environment” opposed to its purpose of increasing the textbook industry’s annual profit by as much as $5 billion (74).
*Media Revelation #10: We are taking shortcuts as a result of new technologies.
In order to keep up with our Web 2.0 technologies, there is a new short-hand language being deployed, all of the new incoming messages are saved for our convenience and emails are now considered a “formal” communication since instant messenger has arrived. Media Society reflects on the fact that physical space and social place are becoming less significant because of the visual images and conversation space brought to homes by television and cyberspace (311). We can watch live events happening without having to worry about reading about them the next day in the paper to learn about what happened, and we can connect with friends and family without physically being together by employing computer mediated communication tools. In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman considers the “headlines” of messages sent and received by a telegraph as a language that was shortened and impersonal (71).
