{"id":11083,"date":"2024-08-25T19:47:45","date_gmt":"2024-08-25T23:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=11083"},"modified":"2024-08-28T11:11:23","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T15:11:23","slug":"august28newmedia2024","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/newmediafall2024\/august28newmedia2024\/","title":{"rendered":"August 28th: Media &amp; American Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Plan for the Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Last bit of Asimov<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Assignments (Canvas)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ways of assessing the truth\u2026\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tastes and Convictions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Opinions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Theories\/Laws<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Facts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Monday&#8217;s Readings<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Today&#8217;s Readings<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Our Public Sphere<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What is our public sphere? In other words, where is public opinion formed and what mediates that communication? This is a perfect time to consider <strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">our class\u2019s definition of rhetoric: how meaning is communicated through discourse, texts, media, etc.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But isn\u2019t <em>reality<\/em> reality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.uncc.edu\/aaron-toscano\/genderdigital\/ourpublicsphere\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">More on our public sphere<\/a><\/strong>&#8211;time permitting<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There was a video from the Daily Show about this, but it&#8217;s behind a paywall: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cc.com\/video\/tlwgqa\/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-cnn-leaves-it-there\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>24-hour news comment from Jon Stewart (10\/12\/2009)<\/strong><\/a>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There were some articles about it, but they don&#8217;t do the segment justice<br><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sfbgarchive.48hills.org\/sfbgarchive\/2009\/10\/13\/jon-stewart-cnn-leaves-it-there\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jon Stewart: CNN leaves it there<\/a><\/strong><br><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/tv\/daily-show-misses-mark-with-cnn-leave-it-there-critique\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Daily Show<\/em>&nbsp;Misses Mark With CNN \u201cLeave It There\u201d Critique<\/a><\/strong><br><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=O7x-dzXVcOw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CNN Fact-Checks SNL&#8217;s Spoof on Obama<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Thomas Jefferson et. al.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I included this reading in order to have us revisit the formal document that establishes (sure, not totally) the United States of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>People should be able to govern based on the consent of those governed (in fact, they are guaranteed this right by nature).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>After the preamble: notice the listing of abuses. There aren\u2019t heavy details, but there are many abuses the writers point to for why the colonies ought to separate from Britain.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In essence, the listing is a group of sound bites that can be used to gather support for rebellion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Natives: notice the one group (besides the British) that the writers \u201ccall out\u201d as particularly aggressive. They seem like\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>David Mervin: &#8220;The News Media and Democracy in the United States&#8221;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t post a set number of notes on each article. These notes are to guide your thinking but not replace your own reading of the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This article was published over 25 years ago and doesn&#8217;t consider Internet news, but the point to come away with is how powerful the American media are and the perceived impact on democracy. A new conversation didn&#8217;t just come about after online news&#8230;you&#8217;ll notice some things haven&#8217;t changed&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Values apparent in the article<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">Informed citizenry (p. 7): &#8220;A vigorous democracy cannot settle for a passive citizenry that merely chooses leaders and then forgets entirely about politics\u2026.Some kind of public deliberation is required that involves the citizenry as a whole&#8221; (Page, 1996).<\/span><\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Consider this in the context of Curran, Fenton, and Freedman&#8217;s discussion of <em>slactivism<\/em> and <em>clicktivism<\/em>, where users quickly like or donate and then leave the conversation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You&#8217;ll be reading that in October&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Television as less intellectual effort (p. 9): &#8220;As Neil Postman has argued coming to grips with political news presented in print requires a far greater degree of intellectual effort than watching television&#8221; (1985).\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I&#8217;m not sure this is so straightforward, but I have plenty of evidence that multitasking means you do &#8220;simultaneous&#8221; tasks worse than if you focused attention on a single task.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Yes, reading is an example.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(p. 9): &#8220;The primary purpose of television is for entertainment.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>infotainment<\/strong>: presenting &#8220;news&#8221; like entertainment not to be informative.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I use quotes around <em>news<\/em> because, in contrast to well-researched journalism, cable news appears to be factual and well-vetted.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Although journalists are a part of the overall media, I think we need to distinguish between journalism and infotainment that passes a news. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">(p. 10): &#8220;Watching television newscasts clearly does not engage the mind in the same way as reading columns of newsprint.&#8221;<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">(p. 19): Ends on a reference to Adolph Hitler. He\u2019s making an argument, and of all the wars he could have chosen, he chose WWII.<\/span><\/strong><br><strong>Remember this from the Conniff reading?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Democracy and the Media<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Role in politics (p. 7): The media play a more dominant role in selecting candidates.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consider this along with Donald Trump&#8217;s rise to become the Republican candidate in 2016.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The media (including journalists) followed his every move and covered his every tweet&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Quality of Coverage<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Brief and Superficial coverage of politics (p. 10): &#8220;the coverage of political news is brief and superficial: complexities have to be skimmed over and there is no opportunity to debate controversial matters in the sort of depth that informed decision-making requires and that newspapers, <em>theoretically<\/em> at least, can provide&#8221; (emphasis mine).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">Cronkite on TV coverage (p. 10): &#8220;Hypercompression of facts, foreshortened arguments, the elimination of extenuating explanation all are dictated by television&#8217;s restrictive time frame and all distort to some degree the news available on television&#8221; (his biography, 1996).<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pictures distort reality (p. 11): &#8220;Pictures, rather than illuminating complex situations, often distort the reality\u2014oversimplifying and exaggerating, emphasizing the ephemeral and the <em style=\"font-size: inherit\">trivial<\/em><span style=\"font-size: inherit\"> at the expense of the truly consequential&#8221; (emphasis mine).<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong style=\"font-size: inherit\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">Question: Do *we* want in-depth coverage, though? Doesn&#8217;t the media give us what we want? If we keep watching, why would they change?<\/span><\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>*By &#8220;we&#8221; I mean the collective, possibly prevailing mass of citizens\u2014I do not mean a universal exists.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Political coverage as &#8216;horse race journalism&#8217;: &#8220;[TV producers] have relatively little interest in issues, or policy alternatives, instead presenting politics as yet another form of sporting contest with individuals competing against one another for political advantage.&#8221; (p. 16)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Maybe we should make a distinction between &#8220;the media,&#8221; &#8220;journalism,&#8221; and &#8220;the news.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Cultural Norms<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">American leeway in criticizing public officials (p. 13): &#8220;the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution gave citizens and the press an absolute, unconditional right to criticise official conduct.&#8221; (&#8220;criticise&#8221; is the British spelling)<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>UK willingness to tolerate secrecy (p. 12): &#8220;In the United Kingdom\u2026reporters have to operate in a culture marked by restrictive libel laws and a willingness to tolerate secrecy in government.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Secrecy of government officials in US is less (p. 14): &#8220;Populism and a degree of openness, rather than hierarchy and secrecy, prevail in the American political culture. There is a widespread belief that <strong style=\"font-size: inherit\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">the people have a right to know<\/span><\/strong> what is being done in their name.&#8221;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-size: inherit\">Question: What ideologies, prevailing cultural attitudes, support Mervin&#8217;s observation?<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do we need to revisit Asimov&#8217;s &#8220;Cult of Ignorance?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Celebrity Status and Power of Media Talking Heads<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Cronkite and the Vietnam War (p. 18): &#8220;If I&#8217;ve lost Cronkite, I&#8217;ve lost Middle America&#8221;\u2014LBJ&#8217;s statement to an aide after Walter Cronkite said the Vietnam War was un-winnable in 1968.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Christiane Amanpour&#8217;s &#8220;&#8216;nose for death and destruction'&#8221; (p. 18): news deliverers as celebrities who can influence policy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Question: Who do you trust for news? In fact, what do you consider &#8220;news&#8221; vs., say, &#8220;information&#8221;?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Mervin wrote this in the late-1990s, so the proliferation of online news wasn&#8217;t what it is today. Twenty-four hour news channels were quite popular in the 1990s. Do they allow for more in-depth as opposed to superficial coverage of stories?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The events of 2020 have shown the superficiality of news or what passes as news. Some news is really opinion (conviction, in fact). If you want to read an &#8220;article&#8221; to practice finding an obvious bias, check out the one below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2020\/jun\/8\/socialists-george-floyd-get-their-anti-police-wedg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Socialists, with George Floyd, Get Their Anti-Police Wedge&#8221;<\/a><\/strong> Cheryl K. Chumley<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I went to her page at <em>The Washington Times<\/em> and saw a series of brief (around 100 words) pieces&#8211;not articles&#8211;that read like long tweets. In one rant about the protests on police brutality, she claims, &#8220;[George Floyd]\u2019s become the tool by which socialists, communists, anarchists can topple our nation\u2019s police forces.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>But then consider this: She wrote a 2014 book <em>Police State USA<\/em>, which is about how bad it is to militarize police forces. Here&#8217;s a quote from her book blurb:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;The acquisition by police departments of major battlefield equipment emboldens officials to strong-arm those they should be protecting. The failure of the news media to uphold the rights of citizens sets the stage for this slippery slope.&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Obviously, she&#8217;s for police when they attack those she&#8217;s against, but she&#8217;s against the police if they affect her sense of &#8220;freedom.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Have a good Labor Day Weekend!!!<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ll be back in class Wednesday, 9\/04, so follow the syllabus for the readings we&#8217;ll discuss. Also, don&#8217;t forget to do your Weekly Discussion Post before Friday, 8\/30, 11:00pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan for the Day Our Public Sphere What is our public sphere? In other words, where is public opinion formed and what mediates that communication? This is a perfect time to consider our class\u2019s definition of rhetoric: how meaning is communicated through discourse, texts, media, etc. But isn\u2019t reality reality? Thomas Jefferson et. al. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":11036,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11083","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-2SL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11083"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11100,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11083\/revisions\/11100"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}