Often hero and villain (stars), supporting players. Actions

1
Media, myth, and conversation

• October 11, 2006

2
Jack Lule says

• News is myth
• What does he mean?

3
First, a look at story

• News is understoodby producers and audiencesas
  a story
• Structure
• Beginning, middle, and end
• Characters
• Often hero and villain (stars), supporting
  players
• Actions
• Settings

4
Paradox

• News reports on what is new
• Yet (Lule says), reporters and editors dont have
  to conceive brand new stories for each event
• Stories already exist
• Journalists approach new events with (old)
  stories already in their heads
• And then interpret todays news within
  framework of known stories

5
With this in mind

• How does the Mark Foley news fit into framework
  of familiar story?
• How does what happened in Amish country fit into
  familiar story framework?
• How does whats going on in Iraq fit into
  familiar story framework?

6
The lesson

• Watch/read news, looking for existing story
  frames into which todays news fits

7
What is a myth?

• As defined by 20th-century scholars
• Not fantasy or fairy tale
• Not (necessarily) fiction
• Rather, a foundational story
• Specifically, a story we tell ourselves about
  ourselves (as nation, society, culture, ethnic
  group, subculture, etc.)

8
Lules argument

• The stories journalists tell (and call news)
  are often drawn from a cultures myths
• Its foundational stories about itself
• So lets define myths in a bit more detail

9
Myth

• Societal story (told within society/culture)
• Expresses prevailing
• Ideals
• Ideologies
• Values
• Beliefs
• Draws on archetypes fundamental patterns,
  images, character types

10
Examples of archetypes

• Archetypal characters
• hero, villain, saint, sinner
• underdog, dark horse
• bad person who becomes/makes good, good person
  who suffers fall from grace
• coward, brave person
• winner, loser

11
Archetypes (ctd.)

• Archetypal events creation (of world, of
  culture), destruction (fire, flood), reward,
  punishment, victory, defeat, birth, death
• Archetypal values (binaries) good/evil,
  right/wrong, light/dark

12
Lules claims about news and myth

• Daily news is the primary vehicle for myth in our
  time
• Much of journalism draws upon its societys myths
• in researching story
• in constructing story
• in delivering story

13
How is daily news like myth?

• Repetition
• Rhythmic recurrence of the (same old) themes and
  events
• Reliance on repetition as source of meaning
• Mere fact that same old stuff happens over and
  over signals its importance!

14
In Lules words

• News tells us not only what happened yesterday,
  but what has always happened
• Flood and fire, disaster and triumph, crime and
  punishment, storm and drought, death and birth,
  victory and loss
• Daily, the news has recounted and will recount
  these stories.

15
Purposes of myths (and thus, of news)

• To explain origins/existence (why were here)
• To show us what different types of people are like

16
Purposes of myths/news (ctd.)

• To teach us how to live
• To warn us about how to avoid/prevent evil
• To provide examples/models to follow
• To celebrate shared joy
• To mourn shared loss
• And, in so doing, to promote order

17
News/myth as moral tales

• By showing us
• How to (properly) live
• What to do
• What not to do
• Who to emulate and not to emulate
• News offers moral instruction
• The right/proper way to live

18
This shapes news selection

• Lule argues that most news stories that get
  selected (remember agenda setting?) are those
  that
• Support social order
• Sustain the status quo
• Defends the dominant social consensus

19
What news (like myth) does not usually do

• Challenge core values of society/culture
• Question the structure of society
• Dispute system of governance
• Challenge power balance/imbalance
• Question distribution of wealthWhy not?

20
Consider news medias own status

• Day after day, the news upholds the social order
  in which it holds, after all, a prominent
  position (Lule, p. 108).

21
News, myth, and interpellation

• Lule argues that news media understand public
  life too narrowly
• Either see public life (proper focus of news)
  as civic affairs
• We are merely citizens, interested in politics,
  government, taxes
• Or see public life (proper focus of news) as
  business/markets
• We are consumers, customers, interested in buying
  things

22
Myth offers broader understanding

• News can be understood as all the wide-ranging
  issues of human existence
• All the stories we tell and listen to
• Not just civic duties or purchases
• And the news media today fail to see this!

23
Evidence our desire for story/myth

• Newspaper sales, TV news ratings, online news
  hits
• All go up during
• Floods, killings, airline crashes, inaugurations
• That is, when storiesdramasoccur
• People want satisfying or stimulating stories
  that speak of life, death, human frailty,
  tragedy, history, fatethe stuff of myth

24
Media as conversation, conversation as media
25
Peterss arguments

• Conversation is an unquestioned good
• It supposedly represents the way we are supposed
  to communicate in democracy
• Media are criticizedfor the last 60 years or
  sofor ending (or at least stifling) conversation
• But earliest scholars of (mass) communication
  argued that media stimulate conversation
• How?

26
Arguments for media as stimulators

• Press cover/critique government
• This stimulates discussion
• Two-step flow theories of 1940s
• Media talk to opinion leaders
• Opinion leaders talk to opinion followers
• Thus, conversation is livelier!

27
But whichever side you take about medias effects
on conversation

• There seems to be agreement that conversation is
  good
• And Peters wants to call this assumption into
  question!

28
Media as conversation

• Throughout the 20th century, media forms have
  become more like 1-to-1 conversations
• Newscasts
• Sportscasts
• Game shows
• Advertising
• Talk showsespecially on radio
• Why is this? Is it good? Strange?

29
Lets look at some examples

• News
• AdvertisingHow do these media texts communicate?

30
Conversationalism rules

• Talk shows, call-in shows, internet pop-ups,
  political campaigns
• Media texts have gotten better and better t
  mimicking everyday talk
• And politicians (esp. presidents) have honed
  their addresses to create this illusion
• Thus the home audience is always a virtual
  (imaginary) participant in the flow of talk

31
A critique

• Pseudo-individualization (Adorno)
• False intimacy, fake personal address

32
Taking this to its logical extreme

• Parasocial interaction
• Do we recall this term from?
• TV showsnot only those with actors playing
  charactersare structured to invite audience to
  feel a personal connection
• News, advertising
• And, of course, soap operas, prime-time dramas,
  and other episodic TV

33
Yet Peters defends parasocial interaction (as
monologue)

• Its not unusual to converse with entities that
  cannot quite reply
• We do this all the time
• When we write
• When we pray
• When we talk to babies, pets, plants
• When we talk to the dead
• When we lecture
• Sometimes even in face-to-face conversation!

34
In other words

• Parasocial interaction is only one of many
  manifestations of disjointed conversation in our
  lives
• We talkand fail to get responsesall the time,
  sadly

35
Peters calls this conversation as media

• Our interpersonal conversations are more and more
  like mediated communication
• Disturbed
• Disrupted
• Disjointed
• They dont connect

36
Our communication technologies might have
originated this problem

• Telephones
• Conversation is cut in two
• Sound recording devices (records, tapes)
• Sound is recorded for later playback time is cut
  in two
• Microphones
• Selectively amplify one speaker
• Radio
• Disembodies voices

37
But now

• Everyday talk takes on these disconnections
  characteristic of mediated communication
• Uncertainty of address
• Delayed response
• Dubious delivery

38
The point

• Conversation is itself, perhaps, unnatural
• It is certainly far from perfect
• It is messy
• It is often dictatorial
• It doesnt always work
• We dont really listen to each other all the time
• Only recently have our machines let us see this

39
Thus, why complain about media being the death of
conversation?

• Conversation has its drawbacks
• And its not the only communication form we need
• We need dissemination as well as dialogue
• Much of culture is non-reciprocal in form, Peters
  saysand this is a good thing
• What does this mean?

40
The drawbacks of conversation

• Can be tiring, impractical, and exclusive
• Rarely allows for extended performance (lecture,
  concert)
• Only lets one voice speak at once (self-denying
  listening)
• As opposed to formats that let many speak at
  once singing, voting, dancing, striking,
  worshipping, protesting, cheering

41
Reminder new paper deadlines

• Foundations paper
• Original due date Mon 10/16
• New due date Mon 10/23
• Global media paper
• Original due date Wed 11/8
• New due date Wed 11/15