Background Debates

1. Background Debates COM 327 January 9, 2014

2. FIRST QUIZ!!

3. 1. The first half of today’s reading centers on two theorists: Fiske, who thinks we are capable of interpreting and making sense of popular culture for our own purposes, and ________, who thinks we only consume and think what the culture industry wants us to. a) Marx b) McLuhan c) Adorno d) Madonna

4. 2. Gauntlett: “the obvious criticism of Fiske’s work is that it is far too _________ about the challenging impact of mainstream texts” a) optimistic b) critical c) ideological d) liberal

5. 3. Gauntlett: “isolating one particular thing, such as TV viewing or magazine reading, as the cause of a person’s behavior is basically _________” a) scientific b) impossible c) easy d) pointless

6. 4. According to Gauntlett, how does “media effects” research typically treat children? a) as mindless killing machines b) as mini adults with less body hair c) as aliens d) as helpless victims

7. BONUS. Which of the following is not a critique that Gauntlett levels at “media effects” research? a) it lacks theoretical basis b) it is rooted in conservative ideology c) it is not well-funded d) it lacks a clear definition of ‘violence’

8. Today’s plan • Upcoming deadlines • More reflection on central course / project questions • Why today’s reading? • - The production of knowledge (on/about) media • In/famous “media effects” moments • Next week’s readings

9. COM 327 in AMSTERDAM!!!??$@

10. Upcoming deadlines! • Group presentation sign-up!! • 10-15 minute multimedia presentation based on (one of) the day’s readings. • All presentations (except for one) will be on Tuesdays. • i) Outline the key concepts in your own words • ii) Give examples of the concepts • iii) Discuss the limitations • iv) Generate a discussion • 2. Annotated bibliography • Outline your selected topic / issue (250-300 words) • Choose THREE academic journal articles that deal with that issue. • Write a summary (250-300 words) of each article • Write a 100-200 word conclusion

11. Picking a topic – What upsets / concerns you about media & communications technologies? Where do you feel a loss or lack of control with regards to media & communications technologies in your everyday life?

12. Picking a topic – NOT about picking an issue and then asking about how it’s “portrayed in the news”. E.g. you can’t select “animal rights” and then ask how CNN talks about animal rights issues. The goal, instead, is to address an issue about the ways ‘power’ (political, social, technological, economic, sexual) is exercised through media

13. Picking a topic – • From last class: • The cloud – it’s not ‘our’ data anymore • Women in sports / female sportscasters • Women & online gaming communities • Data collection through search engines & social media • Employers & social media presence • WHAT ELSE?

14. Picking a topic – • From last class: • The cloud – it’s not ‘our’ data anymore • Women in sports / female sportscasters • Women & online gaming communities • Data collection through search engines & social media • Employers & social media presence • WHAT ELSE?

15. TODAY’S READING. Theodore Adorno vs John Fiske Who has the power – audiences or producers?

16. TODAY’S READING. From Media, Gender & Identity: An Introduction(David Gauntlett, 2002) “Background Debates” – cogent critique of “media effects” research. We need to think critically about how – and why - knowledge of the media is produced.

17. Media Effects Moment #1 “If it were my task, Mr. Chairman, to teach children delinquency, to tell them how to rape and seduce girls, how to hurt people, how to break into stores, how to cheat, how to forge, how to do any known crime, if it were my task to teach that, I would have to enlist the (....) industry.” “I think Hitler was a beginner compared to the (....) industry.”

18. “Seduction of the Innocent” (1954) By Fredric Wertham(this guy)

19. “Recruitment”

20. Led to the 1953 Senate Hearing on Juvenile Deliquency Creation of the “Comic Books Code” (industry self-censorship)

21. Flaws in Wertham’s methodology • (from Carol L. Tilley, Seducing the Innocent: Fredric Wertham and the Falsifications That Helped Condemn Comics. Information & Culture, 2012) • Described anecdotes about his colleagues’ work with troubled children as if they were “laboratory observations” of his own • Focused on the comic reading habits of delinquent & anti-social youth • Correlation is not causality! • Omits crucial information from accounts of children’s lives in relation to comics; e.g. a young Black girl who loves Wonder Woman & feels anger towards men – makes this about her “latent lesbianism”, and not about the victimization of her family at the hands of male gang members

22. Tilley: “Wertham shifted responsibility for young people’s behavioral disorders and other pathologies from the broader social, cultural, and organic physical contexts of these children’s lives to the recreational pastime of reading comics” Gauntlett: “they start with the idea that media is to blame, and then try to make links back to the world of actual violence”

23. Media Effects Moment #1 "Our kids are learning to kill and learning to like it. The most remarkable example is in Paducah, Kentucky the school killer fired eight shots, getting eight hits, on eight different milling, scrambling, screaming kids. Five of them were head shots” (Lt. David Grossman, 1999) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoHnQFZ5Zhs "murder simulators"

24. EMBRACE COMPLEXITY

25. Next week’s readings Tuesday: Foucault, from “The Subject and Power” Thursday: James Carey, “Communication as Culture”