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Just as technology influences society, society in turns influences technological development. On a blank sheet of paper, identify a technology that has evolved/emerged from within our American culture and explain your response.
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Just as technology influences society, society in turns influences technological development. On a blank sheet of paper, identify a technology that has evolved/emerged from within our American culture and explain your response. Would this technology exist in a third-world culture? How would it be different?
TECHNOLOGY& THE MEDIA Purpose: To familiarize you with the subtle and overt influence/manipulation of the media
Technology and the Media • One of the most prominent characteristics of modern technology is how rapidly it is developed and infused into society • Technology is welcomed and absorbed • Extending life, entertaining, increasing production/standard of living • Society is changed
Categories of Communication Technology • Earlier categories • Public: television, radio, film, the press, cable/satellite TV • Private: telephone, telegraph, fax, other technologies used to transmit private messages, closed business networks, etc. • The computer and digitalization have hastened the collapse of these categories
How has the media changed over time? • Before writing was developed, ( a technology in itself) communication was primarily auditory; now it is predominantly visual. • A shift away from church and government control; • Who is in control now?
4 Significant Functions of Communication • Surveillance: Gathering and dissemination of intelligence (hard news) • Correlation: Selecting, placing, deciding which stories are important, emphasizing, de-emphasizing news • Socialization: Media giving messages about right and wrong. • Entertainment: Is the news entertainment?
Effect of the Media • Sets public agendas/exerts political agendas • Media does not tell us “what to think” as much as “what to think about!” • Media does not lead society, but does have an influence • Played a part in American revolution • Printing press, newspapers from England • Mechanization of printing • 19th Century development of the popular press, telegraph, telephone. • Dominates our culture
Current Trends in the Media • The media: a dominant socialization force • We see/hear the same stuff • Time of exposure greater • Development of virtual entities: commercial/ entertainment - v. reality; communication - de-centered v. communities • News: • more visual, less linear; visuals make it news; also more color (USA Today = McPaper?). • “Quasi journalism” = news as entertainment (20/20, Dateline, etc.) • More superficial, less in depth; commentary. • Again, not just what to think, but what to think about
Technology and the Media • Technology has allowed the media to focus (quickly) on things that would not be “news” in the past. • TMZ • Reality television • Kanye • Change from information to entertainment
MEDIA TECHNIQUES • Psychological manipulation (subtle) • Media impacts language structures • Media impacts cultural assumptions • Perception becomes truth • Perceived events • Perceived relationships • Perceived truths (toward self & about world) • Symbolism
BIAS IN THE NEWS • Through selection and omission • Through Placement: Examples • By headlines & captions • By photos and camera angles
BIAS IN THE NEWS • Use of names and titles Example: Gentleman • Through statistics and crowd counts • By source control Example: Only Liberal • Word choice and tone: Example: Terrorist
QUESTIONS • How has the media changed political races? (distinguish between paid ads and news) • How has the media changed the presidency? • How might the media influence the public’s support for a war? Consider both government releases and news coverage. • What drives news programs?
TV: Significant Stages of Development • 1936: BBC formed (3 years before U.S.) • 1939: “Dawn of Television” Roosevelt at the world’s fair. • 1946: TV progress picks up after WWII • 1949: 2,000,000 Americans buy TV’s • 1953: First international event (Coronation of Queen Elizabeth • 1960: Nixon/Kennedy debate (TV vs. Radio) • 1963: Kennedy “Cut down by assassins” • Civil rights, Vietnam, Olympics, Terrorism, Satellites, Dallas in 90 languages, CNN
Television History (continued) • 1970’s: Sports on television • 700 cameras at 1972 Munich Olympics • Terrorists capture Israeli team (even more viewers tune in TV sets) • Other terrorists start using TV to “sell” message • 1975: “Dallas” dubbed into 90 languages and becomes worlds perception of the United States • Many people around globe unable to distinguish between TV and reality
Television History (continued) • 1980’s – Today • Cable News Network (24 hour news) • Changed the way we see current events • MTV: Changed the way we listen to music • Shock TV: Cops, Jerry Springer, etc. • Reality TV: Big Brother, Survivor, etc. • TV changes values and alters culture (taking a portable TV on vacation)
Media & Truth • There is your truth, there is my truth and there is ‘the truth.’” • Most of us are convinced that “my truth” is “the truth.” • Increasingly, the media uses techniques to convince us that someone else’s “truth” should be ours. • Objective TV reporting is a myth. Every TV personality brings his/her own biases • A few well placed adjectives (alleged, so-called) can wind up a definite ideological twist
Does Television Turn Children to Violence? • What responsibility does the media hold? • We are all used to seeing greed, jealousy, and dashed hopes turn adults to murder on TV • Does this cause children to be less sensitive to violence • Not a single answer to this complex problem
School Violence • Over the past two years, children as young as 14, have killed classmates or teachers in a dozen schools across the U.S. • However: • In 2011, the homicide rate was 7.8 deaths per 100,000, the lowest it has been since before 1970. • Crime is actually rare in American schools • Between 1995 and 2009, the percentage of students who reported being afraid of attack or harm at school decreased from 12 to 4 percent. • Is this how it is portrayed by the media?
A Lack of Parental Involvement • Has the television become the babysitter • Children may not re-enact TV violence • But experts agree that a constant diet of mass entertainment can warp children’s sense of the world • Everybody does it • Access to weapons makes it easy to carry out revenge fantasies • 200 million guns in the U.S. • What responsibility does the media hold?
Perpetuating Rural Myths • Small town shooting sprees attract a great deal of attention in the media • Teenage murders are much more common in urban areas • 9 times higher than in rural areas • Growing up without loving, capable, responsible adults who teach right from wrong • Growing up surrounded by delinquent and criminal adults • Where self-respecting young men aspire to get away with murder • 4 in 10 inner city children have witnessed a murder • So why do all of the TV cameras show up when something happens in rural or suburban areas? Is it bias?
Media Response • The media routinely blames violence on videogames, violent television programs, southern gun culture • The New York Times, published in a region where the most common use of hand guns is “sticking up” grocery stores, ran a front page headline reading: • “Born to Kill” over the picture of six year old Andrew Golden after the Jonesboro shooting. • What message was the media trying to sell?
Media Responsibility • Have you seen anything on television, in a movie, or in a magazine in the past month that you would be embarrassed to show your grandmother or watch with your grandmother? • Is the media responsible for: • A coarsening of American society? • Violence among the nations youth? • A society that is increasingly “shock free?” • Public acceptance of violence/immorality?
Media Liability? • Should the media: • be required to sensor content? • Be held accountable for people who commit crimes while re-enacting? • Be held liable for copycat crimes? • Be required to show both sides of the story? • Be subject to governmental regulations?
Responsibility of Advertisers • What television advertisements bother you the most? • Are media advertisers responsible for the coarsening of our society? • Should media advertisers be held responsible for: • The content of their advertisements? • The actions of people responding to their advertisements? • Strict governmental regulations?
Media, Schools, and Education • Most children spend more time with media than in school • Negative correlation between TV viewing and academic performance • Declines in academic achievement in American can be tied to media habits • What about the benefits?