978-1319058517 Chapter 1 Part 3

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Tell me what mass media you enjoy, in this order:

Web sites:

Sound recordings:

Radio stations:

TV shows (network and cable):

Movies:

Newspapers:

Magazines:

Books:

Advertisements:

What other considerations should I understand to help you be successful in this course?

Your signature: ________________________________________

—Adapted from Phyllis V. Larsen, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

3. Oral History Project

Interview a person in his or her seventies, eighties, or nineties—someone who likes to talk!—and ask

questions about your interviewee’s mass media experiences in the twentieth century (1930s on). Use

the questions below as a starting point. If you don’t have a family member or other acquaintance in

this age bracket, there are plenty of retirement communities and nursing homes in the area filled with

people who would love to talk to you. (You may want to give your students a list of local retirement

communities and nursing homes.)

a. Sound Recording: What records did you listen to? Who was your favorite recording artist?

What kind of record player did you have, and where was it in your home?

Was there any kind of music you weren’t supposed to listen to? Why?

Were you allowed to play music whenever you wanted, or were there parental

What did your parents think about records and record players?

b. Radio: What do you remember about your experiences with radio?

What kinds of programs did you listen to (entertainment, music, talk, etc.)?

When were they on, and why did you like them?

Do you remember anything about the early radio commercials?

Do you have some specific memories (good or bad) about listening to the

radio when you were young? What are they?

What was it like when FM radio became available?

c. Television/Cable: What was it like when TV became available?

Where did you watch your first TV programs, and what was the viewing

experience like?

How did TV change your home life?

What do you remember about the corporate sponsors of TV shows?

What (if anything) do you remember about the quiz-show scandals?

What do you remember about the first thirty-second TV commercials?

How do your television experiences in the 1950s compare with your television

experiences now?

If you have it, how did you decide to get cable or satellite TV? What factors

went into this decision?

d. Movies: What were your first moviegoing experiences like, and how were they

different from today?

What were some of your favorite films growing up, and why?

Do you remember anything about Al Jolson and the first talkies?

Please organize your interview information according to the following guidelines, trying to make

your paper as readable and accessible as possible:

• Type in 12-point single-spaced Times New Roman.

• Write at least a paragraph (single-spaced) for each category.

—Adapted from Jimmie Reeves, Texas Tech University

4. In-Class Presentation and Discussion Facilitation

With a partner, create an in-class presentation of material from an assigned chapter of the Media &

Culture textbook. You will be responsible for a ten- to fifteen-minute presentation of the assigned

material, followed by a twenty-minute led discussion/activity with the class. Presentations should (a)

illustrate the main purpose and argument of the reading; (b) point to and comment on two to three

important passages and two to three key terms; and (c) propose at least two topics for discussion.

Though you will certainly cover some key aspects of the material, this is not meant to be just a

summary of the assigned reading. Rather, it should function as a guide to the pivotal issues raised in

—Developed by Karen Pitcher, University of Iowa

5. Collaborative Critical Media Inquiry

Begin to develop an understanding of the critical process as a class and move to applying it in a

collaborative project with a classmate. Each collaborative team will be pursuing a response to the same

question: “How is sexual behavior portrayed in the media?” You and your partner will select a single

medium to explore, either one of those media covered in the textbook (e.g., recorded lyrics, films,

—Developed by Matthew Smith, Wittenberg University

6. Applied Media Literacy Proposal and Paper

This assignment asks you to demonstrate an understanding of the critical process presented in Media

& Culture and to do so by means of developing a sophisticated response to an original question that

you have about the media, their content, or their role in society.

Proposal

Provide an introduction to the topic, assuming an intelligent but uninitiated reader who has not

consumed the message(s) or is not as familiar with the given issue as you are. Establish a rationale for

the study of this particular medium, issue, or message (you may wish to consult outside sources to

sources used to create this proposal, including any primary sources among the media (e.g., actual

magazines or specific episodes of a television series).

Paper

This paper should build on your proposal and should account for each step in the critical process

(description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and engagement). This means that you will create

an original piece of criticism. If you consult outside scholarly sources, be careful not to be unduly

—Developed by Matthew Smith, Wittenberg University

7. Carrying the Critical Process into Civic Engagement

This assignment is designed to work as a course final project paper with a twist. You will be asked to

take a position on an issue in the media (pending instructor approval) and prepare a well-researched

argument defending that position. But unlike a regular persuasive piece for a class, you will be asked

to prepare a cover letter for your argument and to send both parts to an appropriate lawmaker,

community leader, or organization to ask them to take an action or endorse a position. For example,

you might investigate the success or failure of community Wi-Fi systems around the country and then

• Give you a chance to explore who controls vari ous aspects of the mass media, a vital component

in knowing to whom you should send your letter/argument

• Give you a chance to prepare a re search paper fo r someone other than an instructor, which can

motivate extra care in your writing

• Drive ho me t he concept o f engagement as pa rt of th e critical pro cess, hopefully igniting your

that at least some of the st udents will get a r esponse, which can t hen be shared and discussed

during class.

—Developed by Shawn Harmsen, University of Wisconsin–Superior

USING MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM

Media examples are crucial when teaching mass communication. We have provided numerous video

suggestions, PowerPoint slides, and Web links (compiled over years of teaching) for you to use in your

classroom as well as a list of “tried and true” video documentaries that we and other instructors swear by

and urge you to acquire for your personal or university library.

When playing an audio or video segment, you will often find it helpful to provide a guiding summary

beforehand so that students have a critical framework as they’re watching it. Using a video example to fill

up an entire lecture or discussion section is not as effective as leaving time at the beginning and end of

class for clarification and exploration. For those occasions when a video does fill the entire class time,

make sure students take notes or write a short response for discussion in the following class.

In addition to using the resources provided here and purchased or library-loaned videos or DVDs in

class, you will also probably be recording television news shows, documentaries, news reports, and

commercials for classroom use. We have noticed, though, that across the United States instructors and

media lab directors are confused about the legality of using programs and segments taped from television.

You might be surprised to learn that there is no national law on using self-recorded programs in class.

and Paul Parsons (Journalism Educator 49, no. 4 [Winter 1995]: 11–20). Based on the interpretations of

three legal scholars, Speer and Parsons conclude that most off-air recording for classroom use is fair, even

if the instructor archives videos for future classroom use. If a recording is available for purchase (e.g., a

broadcast documentary), the instructor (or the school’s library) should indeed buy it. To assist instructors

in locating videos, the list of video resources at the back of this manual includes contact information for a

large number of video distributors. If the program or excerpts aren’t available for purchase, however,

recording, archiving, and making copies for other instructors is permissible because these activities are for

educational use and cause no harm to the copyright holder.

Chapter 1

Mass Communication: A Critical Approach

In this chapter, we will:

•Address key ideas, including communication, culture, mass media, and mass communication

•Investigate important periods in communication history: the oral, written, print, electronic, and digital

eras

•Examine the development of a mass medium from emergence to convergence

•Learn about how convergence has changed our relationship to media

•Look at the central role of storytelling in media and culture

•Discuss the skyscraper and map models for organizing and categorizing culture

•Trace important cultural values in both modern and postmodern societies

•Study media literacy and the five stages of the critical process: description, analysis, interpretation,

evaluation, and engagement

Preview Story: The 2016 presidential campaign seemed at times like a reality show: a combination of a

political survival program and a beauty contest. Donald Trump set the tone for the Republicans, and

Bernie Sanders was the agenda setter for the Democrats. Much to their delight (most of the time),

journalists and media organizations were caught in the middle. The hype, spin, money, and sometimes

“fake news” about the candidates fed ratings and traffic to Web sites and on social media. The discussion

frequently revolved around candidates’ personalities and the spectacles engineered by their campaigns.

Nuanced dialogue and deliberation about key issues and policies were often missing from the public

discourse. Few people—including those working in media—paid careful attention to the analysis and

interpretation of the candidates’ policies. Many citizens were caught up in the political circus, and media

figures focused on the “horse race,” money, and polls. If ever there were a time for students, and the

public, to use media literacy skills to evaluate the candidates and our political process from the

perspective of citizens (rather than consumers), that time would be now. The “critical process” elaborated

in the textbook offers that prospect as the presidential campaign transitions to the Trump presidency.

I. Culture and the Evolution of Mass Communication

A. Oral and Written Eras in Communication.

B. The Print Revolution.

C. The Electronic Era.

D. The Digital Era.

E. The Linear Model of Mass Communication.

F. A Cultural Model for Understanding Mass Communication.

II. The Development of Media and Their Role in Our Society

A. The Evolution of Media: From Emergence to Convergence.

B. M edia Convergence.

1. The Dual Meanings of Media Convergence.

2. Media Businesses in a Converged World.

3. Media Convergence and Cultural Change.

C. Stories: The Foundation of Media.

D. The Power of Media Stories in Everyday Life.

III. Surveying the Cultural Landscape

A. Culture as a Skyscraper.

1. An Inability to Appreciate Fine Art.

2. A Tendency to Exploit High Culture.

3. A Throwaway Ethic.

4. A Diminished Audience for High Culture.

5. Dulling Our Cultural Taste Buds.

B. Culture as a Map.

1. The Comfort of Familiar Stories.

2. Innovation and the Attraction of “What’s New.”

3. A Wide Range of Messages.

4. Challenging the Nostalgia for a Better Past.

C. Cultural Values of the Modern Period.

D. Shifting Values in Postmodern Culture.

IV. Critiquing Media and Culture

A. Media Literacy and the Critical Process.

B. Benefits of a Critical Perspective.

Examining Ethics: Covering War

Case Study:

Is Anchorman a Comedy or a Documentary?

Media Literacy and the Critical Process

LECTURE IDEAS

I. Culture and the Evolution of Mass Communication

• Help students understand, as early in the semester as possible, that “media” are not one thing, one

entity, or even one industry. That’s why the word is plural (always say/write “media are,” not “is.”

The word “medium” is the singular of “media,” and each medium is capable of producing worthy

products or pandering to society’s worst side. Ask students if it makes sense to group all of the

following into only one category: Snapchat, their Media & Culture textbook, Pandora, the print

version of the New York Times, Netflix, e-mail, a press release, Verizon FIOS, Macbeth, and

Microsoft Word.

•

Describe the five eras of media and communication: oral, written, print, electronic, and digital. Explore

their impact on cultural history as well as their continued cross-reliance on one another. In other

words, explain why one form of communication has not completely supplanted another (e.g., e-mail

is a form of both oral and written communication, with electronic and digital components). You may

want to refer to the interactive timeline on the LaunchPad to help students situate the various eras of

mass communication and to illustrate the accelerated adaptation of communication tools.

The invention of the alphabet was an enormous leap in human communication. The simple notion

of using a graphic symbol to represent a sound meant that suddenly any utterance could be recorded.

Writing was first used as a memory aid before evolving into a primary communication tool.

Describe the cultural impact of the printing press in terms of the Protestant Reformation and the

Industrial Revolution.

Industrialization in the United States required a more educated workforce and provided

opportunities for women, who generally stayed in high school longer than men and tended to have

more proficient writing and reading skills. These skills would come in handy for dealing with the

burgeoning amounts of paperwork generated by the industrial bureaucracy.

We like to stress the drastic shift from agrarian to industrial society because it is such a

significant period in the development of electronic media. If you have a large lecture class, you may

ask 20 percent to stand (representing the city-dwelling population in the 1880s) and then ask them to

sit while the other 80 percent stands (representing the city-dweller population by the 1920s). You may

want to talk in general about the Industrial Revolution and the changing roles of literacy during this

period.

• Explain how the Internet and social media have changed the ways in which media culture is engaged

and consumed. Examine the ownership implications of media convergence by using the foldout chart

“Media Ownership: Who Owns What in the Mass Media?” at the front of the text. Ask students to

consider how much of their daily media consumption is produced and controlled by such

corporations. Discuss the implications of media multitasking.

II.The Development of Media and Their Role in Our Society

• Demonstrate the presence of media convergence in the classroom by examining the technology that

students carry with them, such as smartphones, e-readers, laptops, or tablet devices. Explain how

these devices tie into the theme of media convergence by asking students to list the types of media

content they have on one device.

• To illustrate media convergence, you may want to discuss the latest breakthroughs in smartphone and

tablet development since the revolutionary iPhone was released in June 2007, with a multitouch

interface that connects users to the device’s phone, camera, and music and video libraries as well as to

the Internet.

The growing popularity and market dominance of the iPhone and iPad have led other companies

to create their own counterparts to Apple’s gadgets. As these and other tablets and phones gain more

popularity and add to their capabilities—more apps, better user interfaces, streaming media, and

higher-resolution video recording—what role do they play in the changing habits of our media

consumption? How might NYT VR from the New York Times

(http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2015/nytvr) and Apple watches

(http://www.apple.com/watch) alter our daily lives?

• Discuss a third type of media convergence (type one: content that appears in more than one medium;

type two: corporate ownership across platforms). This third type examines convergence by device

(e.g., a phone is not just a phone anymore, cable television offers widgets for weather and sports, and

Netflix is accessible from gaming consoles).

III.

Surveying the Cultural Landscape

• According to historian Lawrence Levine in his book Highbrow/Lowbrow (1988), the works and

performances of Shakespeare enjoyed wide popularity in nineteenth-century America. Audiences

were a loud and boisterous mix of every class, much like audiences at contemporary sporting events.

Shakespearean performances were often part of an entertaining spectacle that included dancers,

jugglers, singers, and acrobats. But in the late nineteenth century, Shakespearean drama began to

become a symbol of cultural hierarchy in the United States. By the twentieth century, Shakespeare

was considered high culture for “polite” society. Performances of Shakespeare required audiences to

embrace a more formal churchgoing demeanor.

• Consider the various high-culture arguments of E. D. Hirsch (Cultural Literacy, 1987) and Allan Bloom

(The Closing of the American Mind, 1987). Hirsch calls for a back-to-basics approach to education

and culture, and he lists five thousand “essential names, phrases, dates and concepts” that every

American “needs to know” to contribute effectively to American society. Bloom, a translator of Plato

and Rousseau, calls for a return to “the great tradition of philosophy and literature that made students

aware of the order of nature and of man’s place in it.” Both are nostalgic for “the good old days” of

American culture when the cultural canon was much simpler, much whiter, and much more male.

• An antidote to Hirsch and Bloom is Lawrence Levine’s The Opening of the American Mind (1996),

which describes the canon of high culture as “a living thing—shifting with the politics and society of

the times.” Levine views culture, in other words, as a map that is open to interpretation and demands

new critical criteria.

• Consider this seeming “contradiction”: Jerry Springer: The Opera was a hit musical that opened in

London in 2003. The production won numerous awards, including Best Musical and Best Actor in a

Musical. Opera is clearly high culture, as is musical theater. The Jerry Springer Show, which began

its twenty-fifth season in 2015, is anything but high culture.

• Describe the classic tensions between high culture and low culture and ways that the determination of

high and low can easily shift.

• Explain the notion of “culture as a map.” Ask students to design their own cultural map. You can also

have students debate advantages/disadvantages of considering culture as a map vs. culture as a

skyscraper.

• Illustrate “Shifting Values in Postmodern Culture” by comparing these modern and postmodern

symbols:

Modern: The Willis Tower (formerly called the Sears Tower) in Chicago, because it is sleek,

unembellished, and “wholly practical”

Postmodern: Philip Johnson’s AT&T Building in New York, a sleek skyscraper topped with an

eighteenth-century Chippendale pediment, and Michael Graves’s Portland Building and his

Humana Building in Louisville (Ky.), each of which features a wild pastiche of decorative

elements

Modern: John Travolta in Grease

Postmodern: John Travolta playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray

Modern: An advertisement for a can of Campbell’s soup

Postmodern: An Andy Warhol painting of a Campbell’s soup can

Modern: Charlie Rose, who interviews prominent personalities and news figures on his PBS talk

show

Postmodern: Space Ghost, a recycled Hanna-Barbera cartoon character who “interviews” real

celebrities on “his” Cartoon Network show

Modern: A tuxedo

Postmodern: A tuxedo T-shirt

Modern: NBC Nightly News

Postmodern: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

IV.Critiquing Media and Culture

• Discuss the implications for society when serious political issues are as likely to be debated on talk

shows like The View or satirical news shows like The Daily Show as they are in the editorial section

of the New York Times or on NBC Nightly News.

• Outline the sequential steps of a critical process and explain why an open, critical perspective on culture

can often be more satisfying and democratic than a cynical perspective that skips the critical process

and goes straight to evaluation.

V. Examining Ethics: Covering War

• To better understand the U.S. occupation of Iraq, many people in the United States have looked to

international news sources for alternative perspectives. Web sites of news organizations such as the

British newspapers the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk) and the Independent

(http://www.independent.co.uk), the BBC (http://www.bbc.com), France’s Le Monde

(http://www.lemonde.fr – in French), Israel’s Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com), and Abu Dhabi

TV (http://www.abudhabitv.ae – in Arabic) have become increasingly popular. The Arabic satellite

news network Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, launched an English-language Web site

(http://www.aljazeera.com) in March 2003 to cover the war. The site quickly became one of the most

popular—and controversial—sites on the Web.

Show students the results of searches on a few prominent news Web sites for the word

“Afghanistan.” Note the presence or absence of coverage of a war that continues to involve thousands

of U.S. troops.

MEDIA LITERACY DISCUSSIONS AND EXERCISES

HOW TIME SHIFTS CULTURAL ICONS AND MEANINGS

Pre-Exercise Question: Who are some media figures whose image has shifted up and down and back and

forth during their public careers?

One example could be John Travolta, who has gone from popular young sitcom actor and teenage sex

symbol (Welcome Back, Kotter, 1975–1979); to TV actor (The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, 1976); to major

Hollywood star (Saturday Night Fever, 1977; Urban Cowboy, 1980) and recording artist (Top 10 hit “Let

Her In” in 1976 and two hits with Olivia Newton-John from

Grease, 1978);

to washed-up Hollywood star

(the mid-1980s); to comeback star (Look Who’s Talking, 1989),

cult star (Pulp Fiction, 1994), romantic

leading man (Phenomenon,

1996), and top box-office action star (Broken Arrow, 1996; Face/Off, 1997);

to yet another

film star led astray

his own hubris (Battlefield Earth, 2000); and to risk-taking

throwback in Hairspray (2007), where Travolta plays a woman in a genre he is most known for, the

musical.

More recent examples include Miley Cyrus, Miranda Cosgrove, Selena Gomez, and Justin Bieber, all

youth stars who, with varying personal or professional success, tried to shift their public image to be

viewed as adult celebrities.

Consider the different ways we think about people who garner the most media attention, from the

conventional, recognizable, stable, and comforting to the innovative, unfamiliar, unstable, and

challenging:

• How have people with mass mediated careers changed to improve their public image? When did they

change, and what was the change in response to?

• Are there other public figures who make a successful career out of maintaining the same image or

meaning for long periods of their public life?

• How important is it for public figures to change or maintain their image to succeed in different public

arenas (e.g., the movies, television, sports, politics)? Is there a recipe for success?

• Is it easier to think of these public figures and their meanings in terms of a high-low cultural

hierarchy or as part of a cultural map of varying dimensions?

DEVELOPING A CRITICAL APPROACH

[Taught as a means to introduce the critical process in Chapter 1]

Your textbook suggests that developing a critical view is a process involving five overlapping stages:

1. Description: Observing the phenomenon and making notes of those observations

2. Analysis: Mapping patterns that play out in the phenomenon

3. Interpretation: Answering “So what?” or “What does that mean?”

4. Evaluation: Arriving at a judgment based on previous steps, not just taste

5. Engagement: Taking some kind of action

Let’s start with a nonmedia example. Imagine that you’ve never seen a deck of cards before. As I flip

over the cards, describe what messages are present. Are there patterns appearing? What do they mean?

[Here I use a document camera to help students see the cards.]

Because you know the nature of a deck of cards, it’s easy to recognize patterns and meanings. You

may not know the totality of a medium, but making it more challenging may help students figure out the

context of the messages presented.

Any questions? The process guides one to build a case rather than default to individual tastes.

Let’s turn to a media example while also taking advantage of having a peer’s guidance through the

process.

Match a student with a peer. One student stands with his or her back to the screen while the other

student describes the image. Then the student with his or her back to the screen turns around to see how

good a description was offered.

Repeat the process by changing roles. Introduce a second image. Have students turn around to see

how good a description was offered.

Collectively discuss the patterns of meaning here. What do they mean? How would you evaluate that?

—Developed by Matthew Smith, Wittenberg University

TELEVISION—QUALITY OR TRASH?

This Critical Process exercise analyzes the quality of television programming and what characteristics

determine that quality. In small groups or as a class, write the headings Quality and Trash on the board

or on a sheet of paper. As a group, agree on several television shows that serve as examples of quality

programs and trashy programs. In another column, if necessary, place any programs that are in dispute

(i.e., those that may divide group opinion). (Films, books, magazines, and advertisements can be used

here as well.) Your column headings should look like this:

Quality Trash In Dispute

1. Description. For each set of programs, gather information and evidence. On a separate piece of paper,

describe the programs by listing their narrative features, such as basic plots, central conflicts or

tensions, typical subject matter, major themes, main characters, and how tensions are resolved.

2. Analysis. Now return to your listing of programs. Under each category, name and analyze the

attributes that led your group to classify the programs as you did. Identify as many characteristics as

you can, and then summarize which virtues are essential to a quality show, which vices make a show

trashy, and which elements make a particular show hard to classify.

3. Interpretation. Examine the patterns among the characteristics you have chosen, and interpret what

they mean. Why did you pick the characteristics you did for each category? Why did you associate

particular features with quality or with trash? What made your disputed programs a problem for

different members of your group?

Why do some viewers (or readers) gravitate toward trashy shows (or books)? What might the

programs mean to those audiences? For the programs you could not easily categorize, what led to

their disputed standing?

Evaluation. Evaluate the programs on your lists. Assess whether these shows are good (quality) or

bad (trash). Should restrictions be placed on some programs even if it means testing the First

Amendment protections of the press and free speech?

Discuss the differences that were evident in your group between individual tastes and the critical

standards used to make judgments. Are more categories needed to evaluate programs adequately? If

so, what categories should be added?

What standards did your group use to judge merit? Is there such a thing as a “good” trashy

program? Give an example. Why is it important to make critical judgments of this kind?

5. Engagement. Pick a program from the “trash” category, and organize a group to write a letter or make

a call to the producers of that program. Report your findings, and offer your critical suggestions to

them, engaging them in a discussion of the program and its contributions to consumer culture and to

democracy.

CLASSROOM MEDIA RESOURCES

LAUNCHPAD FOR MEDIA & CULTURE: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/mediaculture11e

Agenda Setting and Gatekeeping (2009, 4:22 minutes). Featuring Richard Campbell, Jamal Dajani, Amy

Goodman, Mickey Huff, Harvey Nagler, and Robin Sloan, this video discusses how the media exert

influence over what’s considered important in public discourse.

The Media and Democracy (2010, 4:42 minutes). Featuring Richard Campbell, Robin Sloan, Jonathan

Adelstein, and Jamal Dajani, this video discusses the role of media in democracy, focusing in

particular on television and the Internet.

VIDEOS/DVDS/CDS

Bowling for Columbine (2002, 120 minutes). Following the massacre at Columbine High School in

Littleton, Colorado, documentary director Michael Moore explores some of the possible causes of the

tragedy and looks at the roots of America’s fascination with guns and its deadly consequences.

Winner of the Academy Award for best documentary in 2003.

WEB SITES

The Action Coalition for Media Education: http://smartmediaeducation.net

Center for Media Literacy: http://www.medialiteracy.com

Media Channel: http://www.mediachannel.org

National Association for Media Literacy Education: http://namle.net