The Media, Technology and Society

1
The Media, Technology and Society

• The purpose To familiarize you with the subtle
  and overt influence (manipulation) of the media

2
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

3
Categoriesof 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

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HOW THE MEDIA HAS 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?

5
4 Significant Functionsof 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?

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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

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Current Trends

• 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

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Current Trends

• News
• more visual, less linear visuals make it news
  also more color (USA Today McPaper?).
• Quasi journalism news as entertainment
  (Rescue 911, 20/20, Dateline)
• More superficial, less in depth commentary.
• Again, not just what to think, but what to think
  about

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Technology and the Media

• Technology has allowed the media to focus
  (quickly) on things that would not be news in
  the past.
• Robert Blake
• The War in Iraq/Afganistan (The media war)
• Scott Peterson (Do we need to know his name?)
• Reality television (Amazing Race, Survivor)
• Entertainment Tonight
• Change from information to entertainment

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HOW DOES THE MEDIA MANIPULATE?

• Psychological manipulation (subtle)
• Media impacts language structures
• Media impacts cultural assumptions
• Perception becomes truth
• Perceived events (NASA)
• Forgery
• Perceived relationships
• Perceived truths (toward self about world)
• Human physiology
• Symbolism

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BIAS IN THE NEWS 1

• Through selection and omission Examples
• Through Placement Examples
• By headlines, captions Examples
• By photos and camera angles Examples

Would this picture have the same impact if shot
from above?
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BIAS IN THE NEWS 2

• Use of names and titles Example
• Through statistics and crowd counts Example
• By source control Example
• Word choice and tone Example

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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 publics
  support for a war? Consider both government
  releases and news coverage.
• What drives news programs?

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Mediated Communication

• The most prominent two
• Television In use over 7 hours per day
• Telephone Near-saturation
• Nearly ubiquitous in America

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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
• Virtual technologies help re-establish
  communities

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Personal Problems

• The information poor Should we use tax dollars
  to make it be available to all (like telephone)
• Information overload People unable to deal the
  amount of information and choices?
• Privacy Can we keep information to ourselves
  (what do others know)?

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Is There a Role for Television?

• Should we limit television?

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A Short History of Television

• April 30, 1939 President Roosevelt introduced
  America to the TV during opening of the World
  Fair
• 1946 Interest in TV picked up after WWII
• No commercials on television
• 1949 2 million Americans had purchased TVs
• 1952 Eisenhower first politician to use TV
• 1953 Number of TVs in America doubled
• Commercials began (T-I-D-E)
• Soap Operas

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A Short History of Television

• 1955 Research indicated initial results of
  television
• Increased vocabulary, fewer library loans, empty
  movie theaters, church attendance down,
  housewives reported fewer social gatherings,
  people working longer to pay for new TV
• 1960 Kennedy/Nixon debate
• TV viewers thought that Kennedy won debate
• Radio listeners though that Nixon won

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A Short History of Television

• 1960s Television news gains popularity
• Kennedy assassination marked a turning point
• Civil rights movement (radio newspapers could
  not show brutality)
• Vietnam War (Police Chief shoots Vietcong in
  head)
• U.S. pulls out of Vietnam
• Communication satellites
• 1969 Space travel seen in 47 nations
• 723 million people saw the space walk (1/5 of
  worlds population at the time)

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A Short History of Television

• 1970s 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

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A Short History of Television

• 1980s Today
• CNN Fox News (24 hour news)
• Changed the way we see current events (different
  perspectives)
• MTV Changed the way we listen to music
• Shock TV Cops, Jerry Springer, etc.
• Sleaze TV Strip Poker
• Reality TV Big Brother, Survivor, Apprentice
• TV changes values and alters culture (taking a
  portable TV on vacation)

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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 elses 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

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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

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School Violence

• Over the past two years, children as young as 14,
  have mowed down classmates or teachers in a dozen
  schools across the U.S.
• However
• The homicide rate among teens is actually down by
  1/3 since the early 1990s
• Crime is actually rare in American schools
• 43 of 1,234 elementary schools surveyed in 1997
  reported no crimes
• Most crime in schools are only minor offenses
• Is this how it is portrayed by the media?

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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 childrens 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. (16 unlocked and
  loaded)
• What responsibility does the media hold? Parents?
  Government? Gun Industry?

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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 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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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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?

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Parental Responsibility

• Should parents be held responsible for
• The actions of their children?
• The media with which they expose their children?
• The media in which they allow their children to
  participate?
• The media which they endorse through purchases?

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Is the Media Responsible?

• Is the media responsible for a coarsening of
  American values?
• While watching the video clips, ask yourself
  questions like
• What values are portrayed?
• Who is the hero?
• What message is being sold?
• How have things changed in 40 years?
• Is the message more or less offensive to you?
• What social issues are targeted in the clip?
• Record your observations for discussion?
• Roll the video!

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Now, A Personal Question

• To what degree does the media influence your
  perception of the world?
• How pervasive is the influence of media and
  technology on society?
• Record the number of items (below) that you
  answer correctly.

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The High Seas
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Who is the captain who was so brutal that a
mutiny on the Bounty resulted?

• William Bligh

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Who is the fictional captain who helps sell
cereal?

• Captain Crunch

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The News?
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What is the name of one tabloid that can be found
in the checkout lane of the supermarket?

• Star
• The National Enquirer
• The World News

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What are the names some of the most important
political newspapers in the America?

• The Washington Times, The Washington Post, The
  Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard

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Important Historical Figures?
42
Name three signers of the U.S. Constitution.

• George Washington
• Benjamin Franklin
• Alexander Hamilton
• James Madison

43
Name three of the characters from the TV show
The Brady Bunch.

• Marcia, Carol, Greg
• Jan, Alice, Peter
• Cindy, Mike, Bobby

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Famous Animals?
45
What is the name of the largest dinosaur ever
discovered?

• Argentinosaurus

46
What is the name of the dinosaur who stars in his
own popular childrens show?

• Barney

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News Makers?
48
Who is this

• President and General Ulysses S. Grant

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Who is this

• Monica Lewinsky

50
Who is this

• The maker of the first American Flag Betsy Ross

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Who is this

• Hugh Hefner

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Famous Quotes?
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Who said Give me liberty or give me death?

• Patrick Henry

54
Who said Life is like a box of chocolates?

• Forrest Gump

55
Who said We shall return upon leaving the
Philippines during WWII?

• General Douglas Macarthur

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Who said Ill be back during a popular movie?

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator

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The Printing Industry
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Who invented the printing press?

• Johannes Gutenberg

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Who is the founding publisher of Hustler Magazine?

• Larry Flynt

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Famous Women?
61
Name a female participant of the Lewis and Clark
expedition.

• Sacajawea

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Name a female character from Gilligans Island.

• Mrs. Howell
• Ginger
• Mary Ann

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Who was the first woman lawyer in America?

• Myra Colby Bradwell 1869

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Which actress portrayed a single mom turned legal
assistant in a recent blockbuster film?

• Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich

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Who wrote the original Frankenstein story?

• Mary Shelley

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Which actress spends time slaying vampires each
week on a popular TV program?

• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy

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Famous Sports Figures?
68
Who invented the game of basketball?

• Dr. James Naismith invented the game in 1891

69
Who is the former pro basketball player that
routinely changed his hair color?

• Dennis Rodman

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Law Enforcement
71
Who is credited as the founder of the FBI?

• J. Edgar Hoover

72
Name a fictional FBI agent who investigated the
supernatural on TV.

• Dana Sculley
• Fox Mulder

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Transportation
74
Who is credited with inventing the internal
combustion engine?

• Rudolf Diesel

75
Name an actor who starred in a movie about
stealing 50 cars.

• Nicholas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi,
  Robert Duvall, and Will Patton from Gone in 60
  Seconds

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The Theatre
77
Who wrote the words All the worlds a stage, and
all the men and women in it merely players?

• William Shakespeare from his play As You Like It

78
This young actor recently starred in a
Shakespearean film, name him.

• Leonardo DiCaprio

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Is the MediaMore bad than good?More good
than bad?