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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.
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• 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 modem 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 in
Oregon 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: A tuxedo
Postmodern: A tuxedo T-shirt
Modern: NBC Nightly News
Postmodern: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
IV. Critiquing Media and Culture
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• 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 and Displaying Images
• News coverage of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and other ongoing Middle East conflicts has
dropped dramatically in recent years. The decline in war reporting is a result of many factors,
including the overall decrease in the number of traditional reporting jobs at daily newspapers.
Instead of sending reporters to war zones, most news organizations now depend on wire
services and a few major news organizations. Consequently, fewer journalistic voices are
available to the public and the impact of photos and videos has expanded. Meanwhile, the
ongoing ethical issues that reporters must face when covering war remain unchanged.
Show students the results of Internet searches for news and images of “Afghanistan.” Note
the presence or absence of American as well as international coverage of a war that has
already continued for 17 years, making it the longest war in U.S. history. Compare
Afghanistan coverage to news and images of “more timely” fighting, such as the 2018
conflicts in Gaza where the U.S. has no direct involvement or troop activity.
What are the main news sources offered by your Google search? Consider what news
coverage American citizens depend on for information and how many (or few) on-site
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reporters provide it. Does freedom of the press exist in Middle Eastern countries? How might
Qatar’s Al Jazeera’s news coverage differ from that of the BBC, the Guardian, the New York
Times, or the Jerusalem Post?
MEDIA LITERACY DISCUSSIONS AND EXERCISES
HOW TIME SHIFTS CULTURAL ICONS AND MEANINGS
Pre-Exercise Question: Who are some media figures whose images have 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 by 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:
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• 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.]
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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
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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?
4. 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?
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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:
launchpadworks.com
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.
Democracy, Civic Engagement and the Role of the Free Press (2017, 124 minutes). Knight
Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen discusses the importance of a free press in democracy
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during a keynote for the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving Latino Endowment Fund on May
18, 2017.
Generation Like: Teens, Social Media & Marketing (2014, 53:41 minutes, PBS). Author and
Frontline correspondent Douglas Rushkoff (The Merchants of Cool, The Persuaders) explores
how teens seek connection and identity through social media, while brands employ social media
to market teens in subtle ways.
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
Pew Research Center-Journalism and Media: www.journalism.org
FURTHER READING
Carey, James W. Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. Rev. ed. New York:
Routledge, 2009.
Dewey, John. The Public and Its Problems. Columbus, OH: Swallow, 1927.
Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York:
Three Rivers, 1994.
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Fiske, John. Understanding Popular Culture. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2011.
Gans, Herbert J. Democracy and the News. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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___________. Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste. Rev. ed.
New York: Basic, 1999.
Hampton, Howard. Born in Flames: Termite Dreams, Dialectical Fairy Tales, and Pop
Apocalypses. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Johnson, Julian. Who Needs Classical Music? Cultural Choice and Musical Value. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2002.
Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually
Making Us Smarter. New York: Riverhead, 2005.
Jones, Jeffrey P. Entertaining Politics: New Political Television and Civic Culture. Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
Kauffman, Linda S. Bad Girls and Sick Boys: Fantasies in Contemporary Art and Culture.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. 20th
anniversary ed. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Part 1
Digital Media and Convergence
The digital turn: we have moved from a world in which each type of media was consumed
separately and in its own distinct format to a world in which we can experience every form of
mass media content—books, music, newspapers, television, video games—on almost any
Internet-connected device. The digital turn has made us more fragmented—but also more
connected—and mass media are more integrated into our lives than ever before.
