Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
173
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
174
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
175
Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition
Ralph Hanson
176
1. discuss different media standards around the world by using four normative theories of the
press;
2. explain the usefulness of a more recent “development theory” for describing the press in the
21st century;
3. explain the importance of social media and other “small media” in the Middle East;
5. discuss whether Marshall McLuhan’s concept of the “global village” is relevant to the media
1. Explain a major outcome of what happens to journalism when countries take reporters prisoner.
2. Why do some people think there should be a development theory to go with the original four
theories of the press? What do critics say is wrong with that theory?
3. How does freedom of speech in the United States differ from that in Canada or France?
4. How do media in Africa differ from media in South America?
5. Why are social media and small media important in the Middle East?
Media Literacy Exercises
Media Literacy Exercise―Cartoons of controversy
Read the material on the lesson page about the Danish cartoons before working on the
discussions question. In his blog, cartoonist Daryl Cagle defends the publication of the Danish cartoons
portraying the prophet Muhammad. How does he defend the creation and publication of deliberately
provocative cartoons? What do you think of the cartoons he published about the controversy? What do
you think about the cartoons?
Muhammad. You can read more about the fuss in a guest blog post written by Charley Reed, who
contributed research to the third edition of Mass Communication: Living in a Media World:
• http://ralphehanson.com/blog/archive_10_01.html#042710_southpark
Media Literacy Exercise―Reporters Without Borders
Every year the group Reporters Without Borders for Freedom of Information issues a report on
the state of press freedom around the world. You find the link to the latest version here:
https://rsf.org/en
Read the opening summary, then use the complete report to write an essay (500–750 words) that
looks at how democratic practices vary in regard to freedom of speech and of the press across the
countries in the study. You will have to read Chapter 15 in your text (especially about the different press
systems and theories, pages 379–383) to complete this assignment. You may find it helpful to use
information from the complete report as well.
In your essay, you should address the following issues:
• Which three nations had the best records on freedom of the press? Why did they get those
high ratings? How do they behave as democracies? How would you describe their approach to
freedom of the press?
• Which three nations were at the bottom of the list? Why did they get those low ratings? What
kind of governments do they have in those countries? How would you describe their approach
to freedom of the press?
• Where did the United States fit on the rankings? Was it up or down from the previous year?
Why is it ranked where it is? Based on what you have read; how would you describe the United
States’s approach to freedom of the press?
NOTE: This report gets updated every year; you will want to link to the latest report available.
Grading Rubric
Levels of Achievement
Criteria
Does Not
Meet
Criteria
Beginning Developing Proficient Advanced
Rankings of
High and Low
Countries
Weight 33.00%
0 %
Does not
meet
criteria
60 %
Answer omits
one or more
significant
details
75 %
Minimal explanation
of rankings
85 %
Includes basic information
about each nation from
the summary report
100 %
Beyond required
elements, includes in–
depth details from the
main body of the
report
Application of
Theories of the
Press
Weight 33.00%
0 %
Does not
meet
criteria
60 %
Answer omits
one or more
significant
details
75 %
Uses a theory of the
press to describe
approaches to
freedom of the press
85 %
Uses appropriate theory of
the press to describe each
government’s approach to
freedom of the press
100 %
Uses well–developed
examples from report
to explain approaches
to freedom of the
press
Analysis of the
United States
Weight 34.00%
0 %
Does not
meet
criteria
60 %
Answer omits
one or more
significant
details
75 %
Has minimal
explanation of
United States’s
ranking
85 %
Discusses United States’s
ranking, includes basic
details from summary
report
100 %
Beyond required
elements, compares
United States to other
countries
Suggested Readings
• Fred S. Siebert, Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur Schramm, Four Theories of the Press (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1956): This is the original book that laid out the four normative
theories of the press.
• John C. Nerone (Ed.), Last Rights: Revisiting Four Theories of the Press. (Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 1995): This is the major critique of Four Theories.
• Alan Wells (Ed.), World Broadcasting: A Comparative View (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1996): An
excellent roundup of broadcasting around the world.
• All of the Chapter 15 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog at
http://www.ralphehanson.com/category/chapter–15/
Lecture Builders
World Front Pages
Read today’s front page news from around the world:
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/
NOTES: The Newseum, a news museum run by the Freedom Forum, has a daily exhibit of 270 front
pages from 36 countries around the world. The pages can be accessed by a set of thumbnail images, a
list of the papers, or a map of the world.
SLIDE HINTS: This is the place to go for examples of international coverage of any issue.
BBC Africa
Get the latest news from Africa from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world/africa
NOTES: This is the website that accompanies the BBC program discussed in the chapter. This site has a
wealth of stories you won’t see anywhere else in Western media. The Newseum front pages’ site also
has two newspapers from Tunisia in North Africa.
Simulating Covering the Iranian Revolution
The videogame 1979 Revolution: Black Friday lets you try making some of the tough choices a young
photographer might have had to make during the revolution from 1979 that overthrew the shah’s rule.
The developer of the game, who has worked on the games Max Payne and the Grand Theft Auto series,
was a young boy in Iran at the time of the revolution.
http://time.com/4364947/youre-a-photographer–covering–the–iranian–revolution–now–what–would–you–
do/
Attacks on Journalists
You can get news about freedom of the press and attacks on journalists around the world at two
main locations:
The Committee to Protect Journalists:
http://cpj.org/
Reporters Without Borders (mentioned in the Media Literacy exercise):
www.rsf.org/
(The organization is French, and the actual name of the group is Reporters Sans Frontieres, hence the
rsf.org website address.)
As an example of violence against journalists, Mexican newspaper editor Misael Tamayo
Hernandez was found dead in a motel room, nearly naked, his hands tied behind his back. The Chicago
Tribune’s foreign editor Hugh Dellios tells the story of how Tamayo refused to back down from writing
about corruption and drug violence, and how that refusal to censor himself probably cost him his life.
Reporters Without Borders says that nine journalists were killed in Mexico in 2006, making it the second
most dangerous country for journalists, after Iraq:
http://ralphehanson.com/blog/archive_07_01.html#011007_obits
Fighting Wars with Social Media
In the section on media in the Middle East, I write about the importance of small and social
media there. I was reminded about this in November of 2012 when I saw that Israel and Hamas were
both making extensive use of social media during their fighting then. You can read more about that
propaganda battle here:
http://www.ralphehanson.com/2012/11/18/fighting–wars–with–social–media–israel-v-hamas/
Arab Spring
When I arrived at my office on the morning of January 28, 2011, I logged into my Twitter
account. The news there was flowing fast and furious about the antigovernment rioting taking place in
Egypt—protests that would eventually lead to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. 138
American cable news networks were giving spot coverage to the story that was dominated by
commentary from American pundits. 139 National media news reporters, such as the New York Times’s
Brian Stelter (now at CNN) and NPR’s David Folkenflik, were pointing their followers to the Al Jazeera
English (AJE) website for continuous live coverage of the ongoing protests.
I immediately fired up my browser and was greeted by stunning images. AJE was showing
protesters throwing tear gas canisters back at police and hurling gasoline bombs at armored personnel
carriers, Egyptian national police being knocked down by objects thrown from the crowd, and praying
protesters being attacked with spewing fire hoses. The best Western media could do was rebroadcast Al
Jazeera’s video.
138 “Egypt’s Mubarak: End of the Great Survivor,” BBC News, February 11, 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/world–
middle–east–12416154.
139 Steven L. Taylor, “The Coverage of Egypt and the Fundamental Deficiencies of News in the US,” January 30,
2011, www.outsidethebeltway.com/the–coverage–of–egypt–and–the–fundamental–deficiencies–of–news–in–the–us/.
At a time when Western networks had virtually no one available to cover Egypt, AJE had
multiple reporters on the ground and numerous video feeds coming in. 140 One of the most fascinating
discrepancies was that between an Egyptian television broadcast showing a section of Cairo at peace
and AJE video that showed sections of the city in flames. What’s more, AJE’s access was not limited to
Egypt’s capital city of Cairo. The network also had reporters on the ground in the Egyptian cities of Suez
and Alexandria.
As the protests continued, it became difficult for even Al Jazeera to report the news, as the
Egyptian government revoked the network’s license to broadcast from Egypt and pulled the
accreditation of its reporters. 141 Along with Al Jazeera, two other major sources of news about the
protests were SMS text messages and social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. Some
commentators in Western media emphasized the role of social media in the uprising, calling the protests
the “Facebook Revolt.” But it’s important to remember, as journalist Philip N. Howard points out, that
while social networks certainly helped the protesters organize and share information, it was the
protesters themselves who put their lives on the line. He wrote: “Overemphasizing the role of
information technology diminishes the personal risks that individual protesters took in heading out onto
the streets to face tear gas and rubber bullets.”142 In his book Three Blind Mice, which is about the
American broadcast networks in transition during the 1980s and 1990s, media journalist Ken Auletta
talks about how the first Gulf War brought CNN to prominence:
It wasn’t until the war in the Persian Gulf began in January 1991 that the cable
revolution became dramatically apparent. Viewers realized that CNN, not the three
networks, was a primary source of up–to–the–minute news. And they were getting the
news the way they wanted it—instantly and without interruption from soap operas. For
as long as the war held their interest, viewers could choose for themselves when to
watch the news as easily as they could flick to an HBO movie, an ESPN basketball game,
or a Disney cartoon. 143
Unfortunately for Al Jazeera English, even the 2011 riots and protests in Egypt and the
subsequent Arab Spring protest movement were unable to bring permanent increases to the number of
American viewers. In 2013, Al Jazeera purchased former vice president Al Gore’s Current cable network
and rebranded it as Al Jazeera America, thus giving the network access to about 60% of American
households. But when that happened, cable providers carrying the new channel insisted that Al Jazeera
stop making its English–language video feed available for free online. So, although Al Jazeera America
now had more cable availability, many of the young, digitally literate viewers who viewed the channel
online were lost to the network. Ratings from the summer of 2014 showed Al Jazeera America as having
140 Alex Pareene, “Al Jazeera’s Egypt Coverage Embarrasses U.S. Cable News Channels,” Salon, January 28, 2011,
www.salon.com/2011/01/28/cable_news_egypt/.
141 “Egypt Shuts Down Al Jazeera Bureau,” Al Jazeera, January 30, 2011,
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/01/201113085252994161.html.
142 Philip N. Howard, “The Arab Spring’s Cascading Effects,” Pacific Standard, February 23, 2011,
www.psmag.com/politics/the–cascading–effects–of–the–arab–spring–28575/.
143 Ken Auletta, Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way (New York: Random House, 1991), 4.
a miniscule 17,000 viewers a night. 144 Al Jazeera America shut down in the spring of 2016, though the
news service is still active on English–language social media as AJ+
https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglish/?fref=ts
Tony Burman, who was the managing director of AJE in 2009, told NPR that part of the challenge
has been the lack of awareness within the United States of Al Jazeera English. Obviously, another aspect
has been the political stigma that has been attached to Al Jazeera Arabic, and a kind of assumption on
the part of some people that what they’ve heard about Al Jazeera Arabic (a) is true and (b) applies to Al
Jazeera’s English service.145
The notion of being able to print or broadcast almost any kind of news is central to the ideal of
free speech in the United States and the democracies of the West. But just because it is legally available
doesn’t mean that a given channel will actually be available. Controls on the marketplace of ideas can
come from private industry, as well as the government. Different countries and cultures have differing
ideas as to what constitutes the proper form for the media to take. In this chapter, we look at ideals of
how the media ought to behave and how the media function in different societies around the world.
Finally, we consider what it means to live in a world with such a wide range of media.
You can see video from Al Jazeera here:
http://www.ralphehanson.com/2011/02/03/al–jazeera–arabic–carrying–video–of–police–running–over–
protesters/
Media Activities
CLASSROOM DISCUSSION: Dealing Globally with Free Speech
• http://www.ralphehanson.com/2014/07/14/dealing–globally–with–free–speech/
It’s one thing to talk about free speech rights in a relatively stable Western democracy. It can be
more complex when we look at the conflict between public safety, ethnic violence and civil wars, and
free speech around the world—especially in Turkey and MENA (Middle East/North Africa). I’m not able
to come up with a good link to send you to better understand the issues going on here, but the link
above is to a sampling of the Tweets I read one morning during the summer of 2014 from Zeynep
Tufekci, assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science at University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill. These tweets give a nuanced look at the difficulty of balancing rights in these
circumstances. Read these tweets (the oldest are on the bottom of the list), along with some of the
pingbacks to the post, then—
144 Dean Starkman, “Al Jazeera America Struggles to Get Off the Margins,” Columbia Journalism Review, August
20, 2014, http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/al_jazeera_america_struggles_t.php?page=all.
145 David Folkenflik, “Al–Jazeera English Struggles for U.S. Audience,” NPR, February 4, 2009,
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101071599.
Questions: What are the main issues about free speech discussed in the Tweets? How do conditions in
Turkey and MENA differ from those in the United States and Western Europe? How do you balance the
need for public safety and protection with the need for free speech? Are there times when free speech
is more dangerous than not having free speech? Why or why not?
CLASSROOM DISCUSSION: Why Gangnam Style Matters
• http://www.ralphehanson.com/2012/10/02/guest–post–what–is–gangnam–style–anyways–part–1/
• http://www.ralphehanson.com/2012/10/03/guest–post–why–gangnam–style–matters–to–us–part–
2/
The global phenomenon that is Korean pop singer Psy’s “Gangnam Style” is YouTube’s most
watched video, with more than 2 billion (with a b!) viewings. Like it or not, we need to be looking at a
cultural product that has gotten that much attention.
The two blog posts above look at the history and impact of the Gangnam Style video, both in
terms of its meaning in Korea to its implications for global media. I should note that the two posts are
not by me, but rather are guest posts by Charley Reed, who does public relations work for the University
of Nebraska at Omaha. He’s also the guy I turn to when I need critical analysis of pop culture issues such
as censorship and the show South Park or the status of video games as mass media.
Questions: What is Gangnam Style and why is it so popular? What is Gangnam Style about? What has
made the video so popular? Why does the video matter to the rest of the media industry?