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?

Purpose: To familiarize you with the subtle andovert influence/manipulation of the media

TECHNOLOGY& THE MEDIATECHNOLOGY& 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

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?

How has the media changed over time?

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

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

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

Current Trends in the Media

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

•Use of names and titles Example: Gentleman•Through statistics and crowd counts•By source control Example: Only Liberal•Word choice and tone: Example: Terrorist

BIAS IN THE NEWS

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?

Assignment for Thursday *Read pgs. 79-87 in the STLs