Friday, December 11, 2009

Open Source, Open Culture

While I mentioned specific media reform groups in class, and in the previous post, I wanted to emphasize some other aspects of media reform and media activism that don't focus so much on policy, but on cultures which have grown up in the past few decades which put counter-hegemonic ideas about media ownership into practice. In these cultures, which are nurtured by the richness and potential of new media, the emphasis is on sharing, collaboration and the relinquishment of the ownership of ideas in order to produce the best technology and media possible. This is very different from the for-profit, market model of media which characterizes much of the media landscape, but proponents of Open Source and other alternative media cultures, are fierce believers that media monoliths, who are constantly working to protect their copyrights, stifle not only free expression, but the creation of better, more interesting and more diverse media products.

The idea of Open Source comes from the design of computer technology and hacker culture, where "source code" is the actual computer code behind a product. Rather than fiercely guarding the nuts and bolts of a technology you create, so only you can profit from it, the practice of Open Source means that anyone can look at the code, play with it, change it and improve it. The Free Software movement is an offshoot of Open Source, which takes a more activist stance towards ownership of technology copyrights in general. The more dependent we all become on Microsoft Office, for example, the more control Microsoft has over how many of use (and have to buy) their products; the more they can structure our experience of technology. For instance, they can create types of document files that can only be opened on their software, thus forcing everyone to use their software. Open Office, on the other hand, is completely free (and highly functional, thanks to a dedicated community). By challenging the idea that only a big, closed company can create good software, and by presenting a product that works across all formats, such endeavours are both products and political projects.

Another interesting aspect of Open Source Culture relates to media content, and the backlash against corporate ownership of ideas, especially when so much of our shared culture today comes from corporately owned media. In some instances, as in the article we read by Henry Jenkins, this can mean appropriation of copyrighted images and media by fans, either to the consternation of, or supported by the owners. Jenkins draw our attention to the doctrine of Fair Use, which has long protected the limited use of copyrighted material- for commentary, parody, criticism, etc. More than ever, as corporations seek to intimidate around the use of their products, it is important for all of us to know we do have the right to use media to a certain extent. Check out this clever video which explains Fair Use, by "fairly using" clips only from Disney movies!




With increasingly restrictive intellectual property laws in place, which allow companies to restrict how people use their products, open source culture has arisen to encourage the creative use, sharing, and collabortion of media.

Another way to do this, is to NOT use media from big companies, but to share your own creations and borrow from others who want to share with you!

The Creative Commons is a great place to check out. It is a clearinghouse of websites where people upload material, the majority of which is free for anybody to use, legally- to remix music, make videos, create art. (There are various licenses which ask you to do different things- whether you can modify it, whether you need to cite the artist, etc.)

As McChesney says, a corporate media system is not a given- there are other ways to conceive of how to create media, who can "own" ideas, what makes the best, most healthy media system. These cultures are places where these other ideas are being put into practice and being nurtured.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Final Blog Posts

As mentioned in class, all blog posts are due this Sunday, December 13 at midnight.

The areas of race, class, gender and sexuality in media are incredibly broad and rich, and you could do multiple blog posts exploring different areas of this section of the course. I also encourage you to think of other marginalized groups/identities in society, who are subjected to limited inclusion or stereotypical portrayals in the media. Race, class, gender and sexuality are certainly not the only ways people identify themselves, and are not the only identities that face challenges within the media system- they're just some of the big ones we tend to introduce in sociology survey courses.

Possible blog ideas:
• While middle and upper class gay people are gaining visibility on TV, working class gays and lesbians are still absent. How does being gay complicate being a working-class person? Consider the film Boys Don’t Cry, or the documentary it is based on, The Brandon Teena Story, or the essay by Amber Hollibaugh “The Price of Love” in the journal New Labor Forum, Fall 2005, which gives a first person account of what it means to be gay and working-class. Use any of these pieces, or any other example from the media, that examines the experience of being gay and working class. Discuss why creative work like documentary film can bring taboo subjects into public discourse, which may not be possible otherwise. What are some other media spaces where sympathetic representation is possible—for instance, blogs or video diaries? (From the Class Dismissed Study Guide)

• What occupations or positions do women and men hold in the TV shows you are familiar with? Discuss how these representations relate to Butsch's analysis of working class sitcoms or Massoni's analysis of gender and occupational aspirations.

• Why do you think we are seeing a proliferation of "reality" shows? How do they tie into the American Dream? How do they perpetuate or combat stereotypical representations of various groups, such as the working class?

• Sketch out a premise for a television show or movie that you think would represent a view of an experience or identity that is typically not seen on television. Would this be successful?


The readings this week are about the state of the media reform movement and some perspectives on what the issues are when it comes to changing what we don't like about the current media system. Some blog topics here:

• So what are your thoughts now on the media system? Do you think it could/should change? How? What are the most important issues to watch?

• Which independent media did you visit? What did you think of them? How important are alternative/independent media sources today?

• Visit some of the media reform organizations listed below (or find some others targeting issues you are especially interested in). What sorts of projects/efforts are they undertaking? How important do you think such organizations are? Who are they trying to involve and what actions do they urge followers to take?

FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting: http://www.fair.org/
Free Press: http://www.freepress.net/
Center for Digital Democracy: http://www.democraticmedia.org/
Independent Media Center: http://www.indymedia.org/

Finally, as mentioned in class, you may also write a blog about your blogging experience in this course. How did you feel about putting yourself out there? Did it change your mind about blogging, cause you to form an opinion about blogging that you didn’t have before? Most of your blogs were probably seen by just us, but not all of them. How might you have exposed your blogs to a broader audience? Did you grow more or less comfortable with the technical and practical aspects of it as you went along?

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Links for this week

Here are quick links to the links listed in the syllabus for this week, as we wrap up the course and take the temperature of the current environment of mass media.

First, I ask you to check out a few alternative and independent media sources: http://www.projectcensored.org/censorship/news-sources/

Second, please watch this video: Save the Internet!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Toys and Socialization

In light of the holiday season, in which our usual consumer culture gets pumped up into a frenzy of consumerism, and the focus is largely on children receiving toys, it's fascinating to take a look at toys and toy advertising: how they play a role in socializing children into gender roles, and how toys present certain ideals and limited representations to children.

I want to present a curious development in the advertising of children's toys: the increasing gender segmentation of toys. Take these ads from the 80s:




The toys are not presented as gendered (i.e. as a boys' toy or a girls' toy). The girl in the Lego ad is not styled as stereotypically feminine- she is just wearing denim overalls and a t-shirt. It looks like she's wearing the clothes she might be playing in, rather than being presented as particularly fashionable. In the Fisher Price ads, boys and girls are presented as playing together, with the same toy. A red sports car is not presented as a boys' toy. Girls are not the only ones interested in cooking (or, I suppose, working at a fast food restaurant).

However, it doesn't seem like this trend has continued and grown. In fact, we are more likely to see toys presented as girls' toys and boys' toys, with the same toy even coming in different colors and marketed as (or assumed to be) the boys' and girls' version.

We even have previously gender neutral toys/games suddenly being split up into the "original" and the "designer" version, with the "designer" version in pink and purple ostensibly being equated to the "feminine" version.


Does this mean that the original is now the "masculine" version? This doesn't do much to combat the normalization of hegemonic masculinity, if girls are encouraged to use special version of previously gender neutral products. It also serves to separate boys' and girls' play, to segregate them.

Why is this increasing gender differentiation in toys happening? One reason I would suggest is that there is simply more money to be made in creating more versions of products which are tied to more aspects of an identity which is shaped through advertising. If boys and girls aren't going to play with the same toys anymore, then someone needs to buy them their own unique, personal versions of each toy.

Also, take a look at these Nintendo DS titles. Who do you think they are for?

This goes really well with the Massoni article- what kinds of occupations are being presented as viable/desirable for girls? How realistic is it? How limiting for how we encourage girls to approach the world of work?

Finally, I also recommend this column on Jezebel today about the problem with Black Barbies- how inclusion doesn't include everyone.

I would really love to hear from you guys in your blogs. What kinds of critical readings of race, class and gender can you do of some contemporary media?

(Images from various posts on Sociological Images.)

Thursday, December 3, 2009

In media conslidation news...

I wanted to call your attention to the newest potential big media merger making news. It looks like Comcast will be buying NBC. The Free Press is urging people to oppose the merger, with the argument that the merger will further hurt the public interest by severely limiting competition in the online video market by combining a major internet and cable provider with a major content provider. There is concern that this partnership will squeeze out entrants into the online video sphere, where it seems a lot of viewers are moving towards.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Palin on the cover of Newsweek

This week Newsweek is receiving a lot of criticism (from Sarah Palin and Fox News, mostly) for their use of this image of Sarah Palin on their cover:



Palin originally posed for this photo for a feature in Runner's World magazine, where it would seem more in context, though it still features some not-so-innocent ideological associations, from Palin's cheerleader-y stance, to the American flag next to her. On the cover of Newsweek, however, the choice of photo, critics say, is "sexist" and "demeaning." When presented alongside a critical story about her as "bad" for America, this presentation of her in short shorts, pigtails and with a smile seems intended to disempower her, make her out to be a joke.

In conjunction with the Walsh article, this would seem to be another example of how the mainstream media is able to make powerful statement through images- statements which often rely on stereotypical understandings of race, class and gender, as they relate to power. Palin is presented as having less power by being presented in a sexualized manner (despite what you think of Palin herself, and the fact that she posed for this photo in the first place). Just as Hillary Clinton was pushed (and perhaps shaped herself) as having masculine characteristics in order to be taken seriously as a contender, in order to make sense of her as a female candidate, so too did the characterization of Palin as sexualized (maybe even as a "super-mom" who could nurture a nation?) seek to make sense of her as a female candidate.

The main point of the Walsh article is that even supposedly objective mainstream media representations of race, class and gender often serve to reinforce the primacy of white male hegemony. We rely on commonsense understandings of race and gender, which generally aren't that complicated or nuanced. This is true across news and entertainment media.

The general point should be made that it is not that one image is likely to have that much of an impact, but that we can better understand how our society talks about these issues through their representation in the media. How powerful do you think media representations are?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Current Potential Blog Topics

Current blog topics on the table, and some potential ideas to explore:

Globalization and Social Movements (from last week)
• How do you think America relates to the rest of the world in terms of media and globalization? What is your experience with global media products?
• Overall, do you see globalization as a positive or negative trend? Why?
• How do local populations interact with globalization in active and unique ways? What are some strategies transnational media corporations might adopt to recognize this?
• What are some examples of hybridization of culture?

Violence in media, Media effects
• Can you think of other "folk devils," or examples where the effect of media is used to express our concern over other, more complex social issues?
• Can you find other examples of media coverage that blames other media for a social issue? Do you see any problems with the account?

Game Over

Active Audiences and Polysemy
• Think of a current media text, and try to explore how different audiences might interpret it differently. What is it about social context that influences different interpretations?
• Has you interpretation of a media text ever changed over time? What changed?

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Outsourcing Art?


Via Sociological Images

In line with our exploration around the effects of globalization, did you know that there are Chinese painters trained to produce artwork that is then sold to tourists around the world? They copy paintings or photographs of images (at a much lower payrate than artists from the various locales would undoubtedly request), producing them in these workspaces in China. These paintings are then shipped to various tourist location and sold as if they are local products, painted by local artists. These artists produce images of the American West, Venice, etc. They are obviously quite technically skilled, even if they are forced to copy certain types of images, which are in demand as touristy schlock.

This is one example that ties together many of the themes we've been looking at, probably more towards the negative end of things. The interconnection of cultures and economies that globalization brings means that we outsource many jobs to locations where labor is the cheapest. Usually we think of this as applying to factory work, or other manual labor that requires little skill or creativity. But here we see it even applies to work we think of as highly skilled and creative.

It also exposes the blurring of time and space that we talked about with regard to the spread of technology, as well the postmodern idea that we can no longer distinguish between the virtual and the real. When we buy art to represent a place that we have visited, we imagine that it connects us more deeply to that place. But are we really connected to that place, when the image of Venice has been painted by an artist in China, then shipped to the gift shop in Italy?

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Online reading for 11/7

Palfrey, Etling and Faris, "Reading Twitter in Tehran"

Friday, October 30, 2009

Links for online readings next week

Grossman, Lev. 2006. “Time’s Person of the Year: You.”

Hesse, Monica. “Facebook's Easy Virtue 'Click-Through Activism' Broad but Fleeting,” The Washington Post, 7/2/09.

Also, I'd like you to take this quiz from the Pew Internet & American Life Project by FRIDAY: "What kind of tech user are you?"

Please post your results in your blog or as a comment to this post. You could even fashion one of your blog posts as an examination of these results.

Politics, Consumerism, and Technology


Your blogs for this section of the course should cover some of the following topics:
  • Politics
  • Consumer Culture and Advertising
  • Postmodernism
  • Technology
In terms of consumer culture and advertising, you may continue to explore the issues connecting Dan Sarmiento's advertising presentation with the Holt and Schor readings. Some questions you might consider:

1) Can you identify other cultural brands today? What sorts of societal tensions do current advertisements seek to heal?

2) What do you think of alternative consumption movements? What are some examples? Do you think we can change the way we consume?

3) How do you see advertising changing? Can you find some examples of advertising expanding beyond the old boundaries of advertisements and into culture?

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Keep blogging!


Just a reminder that you should still be adding to your blogs. The next blog grade will be on posts made through Sunday, November 8.

I'm surprised no one has written about the "Balloon Boy" story that's been dominating the media (or as one of my friends said, Shouldn't we start calling him "Attic Boy"?) Isn't this just a perfect example of a news cycle that promotes non-news? Why did the news outlets cover it intially? How is it that this story got so big, and why are we still talking about it? What else aren't we paying attention to while we keep looking into the strangeness of the Heene Family?

I'm listening to a Talk of the Nation segment on media hoaxes right now, addressing some of these very issues.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

More Sociology advice

Another helpful video from Karen Sternheimer: advice for students taking sociology exams and writing sociology papers, just in time for mid-terms.



I especially like what she adds at the very end:

"You never want to include these words in a sociology exam or term paper: 'It's just human nature.' 'That's just the way it is.' or 'We shouldn't read too much into things.' Sociologists read things into things. That's what we do. We dig deeper. We look to find connections between sociological phenomena and everyday life."

Friday, October 16, 2009

Politics in the Media

There are many issues you might want to explore in your blog posts on the intersection of politics and the media. Think about the different relationships and levels of relationships at play:
  • -the relationship between politicians and the state and the media: How do politicians use the media? How does the media relate to politicians? What do Clayman et al. and McChesney have to say about this?
  • -the relationship between the media and the political views of the public: How much influence does the media have on people's political attitudes? Do you think there's a difference between news coverage of politics vs. entertainment coverage/commentary of politics?
Further explore some of the questions and concepts we didn't get to spend much time on in class. What do you think of McChesney's overall analysis of Iraq War coverage? What are Clayman et al. looking at when they study Presidential news conferences? How do these two articles compare?

You might also write a blog post (now or perhaps next week) sharing your findings from the assignment that's due Monday.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Protests and Power


In other news, you may have heard about the Gay Rights March that happened on Sunday in Washington D.C. (partly to send a message to President Obama that he hasn't delivered on his promises to the cause of gay rights). That event, and the reaction to it by openly gay Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, highlighted some of the issues we have looked at recently, with regard to power, the media and pseudo-events.

We generally regard a protest like the Gay Rights March to be a way for media and political attention to be brought to important but marginalized issues, whether we deem it a "pseudo-event" or not. What is more powerful than thousands of people coming together in solidarity to make their voice heard? This march certainly garnered some mainstream news media attention. Yet Barney Frank called the march "a waste of time" and said the cause would be better served by lobbying elected officials, if they really want to pressure Congress. The march, he said, would fall on deaf ears, especially seeing as most lawmakers were not in D.C. because of the holiday.

What is really interesting is who Frank said the gay rights movement should be more like:

"Gay rights advocates should borrow from the playbooks of the two most effective interest groups, the National Rifle Association and the AARP, said Frank.

'Call or write your representative or senator, and then have your friends call and write their representative or senator,' Frank said. 'That's what the NRA does. That's what the AARP does.'"

Does Frank have a point? The NRA (National Rifle Association) is undoubtedly a powerful lobby in D.C.- power accumulated through money, organization and connections. They don't have to hold rallies in D.C. because they are already on the inside. Their pseudo-events take the much more cost-effective and repeatable form of press releases, conferences, etc., coming out an office with ties to the government and the mass media. Basically, Frank is telling gay rights advocates to work within the system- write letters, develop a lobby. Is that really the most effective way to go? Are protests and marches useless when it comes to changing legislation?

The other question is whether the gay rights movement is even in the position to acquire the type of power leveraged by the NRA (or the AARP)? Both groups have constituencies that are already dominant in society: largely white, middle to upper class, male and heterosexual. Can a group coming from a position of great marginalization in our society, like homosexuals, form an equally powerful lobby?

SNL and the End of the Obama Honeymoon?

As we talk more about the connection between the media, politics and the masses, I wanted to bring a couple of items to your attention.

First, a news media interpretation of the importance of another mass media form's political influence: the comedy sketch show. Here, CNN considers whether a recent sketch on Saturday Night Live that seemed to be critical of President Obama meant that his "honeymoon" period was over, presumably because during the election season, SNL was much more critical of his competitors. Here is the sketch in question:



I know many of you are aware of the growing prominence of parody, satire and comedy in political media today (and that many of you are fans of The Daily Show). What I find interesting about this article is not so much whether Obama's honeymoon really is over, but that shows based in comedy/entertainment are so powerful and relevant when it comes to political discourse and public opinion. Is this because shows such as these are where most people get their political information? Do the opinions of comedians more accurately represent the pulse of America than the news media? Or, as the pop culture professor in the article, Robert Thompson says, is comedy just about going after people in power, whoever they may be? How powerful is humor in political criticism?

And the case may be that the suggestion that this sketch matters that much is just something being stirred up by those in the media who would like to see more criticism of Obama. After all, they note, the sketch wasn't that funny, and didn't get great ratings.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

All the news that's fit to print

(click to enlarge)

For your blog posts this week, here are some suggestions of things to think about. Your blogs this week can also easily tie into the work you will be doing for your assignment.

1) Think more about the pseudo-event. Can you find any more example of pseudo-events? Who or what is behind the event and why? What is its purpose?
2) Where is the line between entertainment and news these days? Between publicity and news? Should there be a difference?
3) Draw on Gilliam and Iyengar's experiment and results to think about other examples of how the construction of "news" can affect how audiences interpret the world.
4) What do you know (or what can you find) about the current problems in the newspaper industry? What do these problems have to do with the system we have been looking at?

Monday, October 5, 2009

Interesting posts about media as business

*Note* - Please give your blog post a title. It helps with linking to the post.

I wanted to highlight some of the posts recently about the media industry:

Logan talks about the death of the album as a result of a new emphasis on downloading single songs as result of technological changes. This is an interesting example of how technological change results in changes in cultural products. It's also interesting how we attach nostalgic value to technologies of the past, and tend to distrust the effects of new technologies even as we embrace progress. There are more and more collectors of vinyl records these days, for instance.

Chris explores the potential of the internet to aid new artists.

Matt takes a look at MTV, while Logan also examined the current Billboard top 20.

Friday, October 2, 2009

For Monday

In the syllabus, I ask you to check out two censored stories from Project Censored.org. Here is the link for easy clicking: http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/category/y-2009/

You just need to check them out, pick a couple that look interesting to you, and note them.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tickle Me Elmo and the Gangster Meme



Tickle Me Elmo and the Gangster Meme

Shared via AddThis

A really interesting post from Sociological Images, on how the idea of the gangster gets depoliticized and commodified, and eventually ends up as 6 yr olds making gang signs in a commercial for Tickle-Me-Elmo Hands.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

For-Profit Media?


This week we are looking at how media consolidation and the business practices of big media affect the content that is produced. This has different meanings and effects across different media- whether we're talking about music, the news, television, the internet. In your blogs this week, you might try to find your own evidence of the various concerns and effects Croteau & Hoynes bring up. Do you agree that media consolidation limits diversity of content? Do you see evidence of vertical and horizontal integration? How does media's dependence on advertising and the for-profit model infiltrate media across the board? Can you illustrate an example of synergy?

You can also contrast the for-profit, market model of the media with an alternative vision: the media as a public resource, an important place for different views to be expressed and for dialogue about important social issues. This is where the Habermas reading comes in- what does he mean by the "public sphere?" Do you think today's media can embody the public sphere? Or has the market model ensured that the view of the mass media as a public resource is lost?

If you want to focus on our viewing of Money For Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music, and our look at research in music diversity, here are some things you could do:

1. Test Robert McChesney’s argument in the film that MTV is basically a 24-hour infomercial. Watch MTV for a full hour and keep a running log of everything you see. Did you see anything in the course of the hour that wasn’t trying to sell something else? Was the so-called “content” itself a kind of commercial? If so, what do you think it was selling? What differences did you notice between “official” ads and this “content”?

2. Check out Billboard Magazine’s hit list for this week (http://www.billboard.com).Check out the top songs. Can you find out which record companies these artists are on? What do you find about music diversity?

Sunday, September 27, 2009

What Not to Wear...to be a good citizen


Here is another example of ideology operating in entertainment television.

Gitlin (1979) notes that one of the formal conventions in primetime TV that supports the larger hegemonic structure is genre: the types of shows we tend to see a lot of at any given moment say a lot about popular taste at the moment, and highlights shifting moods and sensitivities. Are we watching a lot of crime shows? Shows about young urban singles in the city? Gitlin suggests popular genres acknowledge our new concerns, while placating them.

Kristen brings up reality shows- which are certainly a hugely popular genre today! Which leads to the question- why? What are reality shows telling us about ourselves? What do they teach us? How do they reinforce hegemony?

Let's look at the makeover reality show (because we might not want to lump all reality shows together- there are many subtypes.) One interesting interpretation comes from "Better Living Through Reality TV," by Ouellette and Hay (2008). The suggest that these shows tell us how to be a good citizen in today's society- and what that means is ever more emphasis on individualism. We are more and more responsible these days for taking care of ourselves, as we come less and less to depend on the welfare state to do so.

A show like What Not to Wear, they argue, teaches us to view our selves as commodities "to be molded, packaged, managed, reinvented, and sold" (7). They show this to be an empowering process, in which you revamp your looks, even your personality, to better compete for jobs, or even love! In a world of outsourcing, job loss and corporate restructuring, it becomes each individual's personal responsibility to improve one's position, and keep oneself current (so we don't have to address those much more complex problems as a society!) And these shows instruct you exactly how to do it. That this happens to be through consumer culture (clothes, makeup) is not surprising. Yet shopping is reframed from being simply for pleasure to being highly rational: "...shopping ceases to be a recreational venue for escaping the drudgery of work...and becomes instead a route to carefully building an image that is salable in the marketplace of work." (115)

What are the other types of reality TV and what do they teach us?

Friday, September 25, 2009

Ideology and Hegemony

I encourage you to use your blog posts this week to continue to explore the concepts of ideology and hegemony in mass media, especially in the context of the readings this week. Feel free to ask questions, and incorporate them into your posts if you wish. And don't forget to comment on one of your classmates' posts!

I especially encourage you to discuss one of the questions that perhaps we didn't get to today in class. Certain issues that we didn't get to that I think bear more discussion:
  • Mass media as a site for competing ideologies and cultural contestation- what role does the media play in these instances? What are some of the competing ideologies today, the controversies?
  • How do the 5 areas of TV and film that Gitlin explores maintain the hegemonic ideology today? What are some modern day examples? (Can use one or two.)
  • Are there hegemonic and/or counter-hegemonic representations and ideas in mass media? Or evidence of hegemonic struggle between the following, or any others you can identify?
    • Patriarchy (traditional male dominance) and liberal feminism (gender equality)
    • Ethnocentrism (and whose ethnicity ) and multiculturalism (respecting difference)
    • Heterosexuality and homosexuality
    • Liberalism (individual freedom) and conservatism (traditional ‘rules’ and morals)
    • Importance of ‘image’ and importance of ‘intelligence’ (or ‘body’ and ‘mind’)
    • Environmentalism (valuing environment) and environmentally ‘careless’ consumerism
    • Free trade (no trade rules or concerns) & fair trade (a fair price for producers of goods)
    • Religion and secularism (rejecting or ignoring religious concerns)

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Blog tip- Knowing when someone comments on your blog

Blogger doesn't automatically give you a notification when someone comments on your blog, which can be annoying. It means you need to be constantly checking your blog to see if anyone says anything. But, there is a way to set it so you will get an email recommendation when someone comments. I recommend you do this.

When signed in and looking at your blog, you should see "Customize" in the upper right corner. Click this.

Click the tab in the upper left that says "Settings."

Below the Settings tab, you will see a number of links. Select "Comments."

The very last option on this page allows you to enter email addresses that should be notified when someone posts a comment. Enter your preferred email address and click SAVE.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Nice to meet you

I enjoyed your introductory posts, for those of you that did them. We've got an array of interests and specialities but it seems like most of you consume an array of mass media.

(And just a note, when we use the word "consume" or "consumption," we're not simply talking about the act of purchasing something, but about consumption in a larger sense. We mean the act of using something, the manner of receiving and interacting with media and other products. There doesn't even need to be an act of purchasing in order to consume many media texts.)

Some highlights from your posts:
  • Andy identifies himself as a producer of media. He directs and edits a student TV show (Would love to know more about this!) and writes for The BC Observer.
  • Chris ruminates on the future of 3-d movies. It's interesting how this retro-fad technology has made a new and improved comeback, but Chris questions whether it will stick around this time.
A number of you acknowledge how much TV you watch, or your dependence on other forms of media, while also questioning how much control you have over its presence in your life, or the messages you encounter. Others portray themselves as fairly casual media consumers, yet once you list everything you regularly consume, realize that the list is much longer than you thought it would be! This speaks to how media is woven into our everyday lives in such a way that we often don't notice it. It is like the air we breathe.

I love hearing about the experiences many of you have of other cultures, and difference in mass media from the U.S., and I hope we'll continue to hear about them. (Jen has lived in Egypt, Joakim in Denmark, Mi Seok from South Korea, among others.)

For those of you who have been in the U.S. your whole lives, it is also possible to notice how mass media's role changes depending on the social world you are inhabiting at a given time. A number of you note how mass media plays into college life- whether it means there is always a TV on somewhere in your dorm, or perhaps your media consumption shifts away from entertainment to more school-oriented purposes once you're on campus. Logan talks about having to go to the library if he wants to be able to get away from media bombardment and be able to focus. This is a good example of how we each have the opportunity to shape our own relationship to the media, and the tensions we often feel, not just with the messages themselves, but the sheer volume of them. It also shows how living on a campus like BC is its own, interesting microcosm of a social world. You're living in close quarters with a LOT of other people your age, you have a lot of media at your disposal 24/7. You also have many opportunities to be creative and productive. How is your experience of media while at school different from when you're away from school, in the "real world"? How is it influencing you?

Friday, September 18, 2009

"He was such a nice guy."

Pertaining to our discussion about violence in the media, and its effects on behavior, another aspect is the portrayal of violence in the news, and the way in which "factual" violent events are reported. Many of us come to conclusions and beliefs about how violent the world is, and who is violent, through news reports. Even though most of us realize that stories about violent crime often lead newscasts because of their attention-catching nature, we are often less aware of the way standard news reporting misleads us about the nature of violent crime. It seems like such an individual, agentic act, doesn't it? And it often seems totally random. News reporting often does little to dissuade that.

The emerging story of the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le points to one common occurrence in such reports. Once a suspect has been identified, the first move for the news media is to try and find out more about the suspect- what was he like? who knew him? What led him to do such a thing? And quite often, the media can find someone who knew the suspect in some capacity who claims he was "a nice guy," who they never would have guessed would do such a thing. Such reporting makes the violent crime seem even more random and unpredictable, an effect that can lead the audience to believe violent crime itself is unpredictable and therefore, more threatening to them.

Despite presenting as a "nice guy" to some people, stopping there would be a disservice to victims of violent crime and to our better understanding of such crimes. Those who commit acts like this murder more often than not have some past indications of mental instability, tension with the victim or others, reports made against them, or records of previous violent acts. Though it is too soon to say much about Raymond Clark III, other reports have begun to emerge to suggest that though this attack was shocking, there may be a history of escalating issues that led to this point. These issues seem to be related to Clark's role as a lab technician in the lab where Le worked. This leads to interesting questions about the nature of the workplace, a sometimes insular, high pressure environment. How might structure have interacted with agency here?

This New York Times article takes an interesting, more sociological perspective on this incident by focusing on the workplace. By focusing on the relationships between two groups of workers - the lab technicians and the researchers- they paint a picture that is larger than two individuals. There are stressors and competition attached to this world, and perhaps tensions arise as a function of the structure of this microcosm of a social world.

Yet the article still ends with an ominous note of randomness: "The killing 'could have happened in any city, in any university,' [the Yale president] said. “It says more about the dark side of the human soul than it does about the extent of security measures."

One more note: This type of reporting has been a target of those who seek better reporting on domestic violence for quite some time now. It is viewed as a disservice to victims of domestic violence, and an (often inadvertent) effort to blame the victim, when a perpetrator of domestic violence is described as a "nice guy." For those who would like to put a stop to domestic violence, portraying it as random, and as committed by nice guys who were simply pushed over the edge by their victim, does little to address the root structural causes of domestic violence.

A sympathetic view of the perpetrator: "Johnson wrote that many statements about the perpetrators "had an overly sympathetic quality and implied an element of victimization of the murderers, either by circumstances or frequently by the adult female," such as one killer's mother describing her son as "a victim of divorce." A source said of another assailant, "To him [marriage] was a sacrosanct institution and to violate it was the end of his world."

Also interesting is the racial double standard, which is definitely at play in the Le case: "The survey found a racial double standard. When the perpetrator was a person of color, violence was presented as expected and typical. When the perpetrator was white, the violence was presented as unexpected, out of character or inexplicable, as when the Chronicle included the quote, 'Things like this don't happen in Fremont.'"

We are certainly seeing a huge amount of media focus on this one case, when violent crime, and murder, happen all the time. Why?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

For Your Perusal




Here are some other blogs/websites that I think offer good sociological commentary, many of them on the media. You might use these for ideas, or to see how others blog, or perhaps just to add to your roster of regular Internet surfing!

These are at contexts.org, which is the magazine of the American Sociological Association (ASA):
  • Sociological Images: looks at all sorts of images, many of them mass media related.
  • Contexts Crawler: "scans the internet for media reports and other insights offered by sociologists and serves them up in a concise, snappy style."
Also:
Everyday Sociology: commentary from a variety of sociologists about all sorts of issues, many media related
Jezebel: a personal favorite of mine, entertainment commentary with a feminist twist (non-academic)
Pop Matters: a cultural criticism magazine that balances entertainment reviews and interviews with intelligent commentary. They also have a number of blogs that covers different areas of media from music to TV to comic books.

Do you have others? Let us know by commenting here.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Jump in the Water

This week, I'd like you all to do a short post on one of the following topics:

Link (using the link feature) to one recent mass media related news story, blog entry, video, or event that you find interesting. Briefly explain why you chose it and what’s interesting about it. (or) write a blog describing what kind of mass media consumer you are. What is the role of mass media in your life? How important is it to you? Do you think you are an "expert" or very familiar with some area of the media?

As for myself, I am an avid media consumer, despite my constant questioning/critique of many of the messages, structures and cultural values that bring this media to me. Though I will always try to get you to question the mass media, I am definitely not the person to tell you throw your TV out the window. I enjoy TV as entertainment and escape, enjoy discussing media events with friends, and am very devoted to a number of shows (Mad Men is my favorite right now!). I think there is an enormous spectrum of content out there, from horrible to wonderful, and that even the "worst" of mass media is fodder for dissection. Trainwreck TV is there for a reason.

On the other hand, I have some spots of resistance. Sometimes I feel too dependent on mass media, especially when it comes to my Internet addiction. These days I try to remember what I did with my time before we were on the internet 24/7 (the days of dial-up!), because it often feels like I am in front of my computer all day, and that I NEED the Internet. I think new gadgets that allow me to get on the Internet anywhere, anytime are cool, yet I doubt I really need to be that connected.

I also resent the rising costs involved in being connected- fancy cable services and internet services are not cheap, and there are limited options in any area. Yet the options many of us turn to amounts to "stealing." I stick to basic cable, and rely on the Internet to keep me up to date on the rest of media land. I support efforts to make internet access available to more people, cheaply, such as efforts to wire entire cities (even though they haven't been that successful. See The Trouble With Hooking Up, Boston Globe)

ETA (Edited to Add): I definitely have two hats when it comes to viewing/analyzing mass media: my layperson/audience hat and my academic hat. Sometimes I just sit back and enjoy, taking the content for what it is, while other times I get more critical and analytic.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Taking Sociology for the First Time

I liked this video, which asks professors at the recent American Sociological Association Meeting (ASA), to give advice to students taking a sociology course for the first time, i.e. how should you approach it to get the most out of it, no matter your major. Source: Everyday Sociology Blog




To sum up, here are the take-away points:

1. While reading, always try to ask, "how does this apply to my life?" Try to apply to your everyday experiences.
2. Learn by doing. Get out there and examine the world around you. The world is your sociological laboratory. Don't be afraid to fail.
3. Keep an open mind about society and the new views you'll encounter, both from the reading and instructor, and from your fellow classmates.
4. Approach from a critical perspective, try to absorb the different perspectives with an open mind. A critical perspective will help you in any field you choose.

Also, because we tend to throw the word "critical" around without really explaining what it means, I wanted to briefly define it for you.

To engage in critical thinking means to develop your ability to make judgements about ideas and information, in a deliberate and thorough manner, rather than jumping to conclusions or making judgements based on your immediate experience, or anecdotal evidence.

From Wikipedia (which I don't like to cite often, and don't want you to either, but it has its uses):

“a well cultivated critical thinker":
  • raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;
  • gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively
  • comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;
  • thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and
  • communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems; without being unduly influenced by others thinking on the topic.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Some advice on blogging


For some good general tips on blogging, check out this article from Slate.com. While it's geared more towards people interested in building an audience, it still has some useful tips on writing effective posts.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

How to create your Blogger blog

It's not that hard to create a blog these days. Everybody's doing it! Here are some instructions for creating a Blogger blog, which I encourage most of us to use so we will be able to help each other. However, if you have some blogging software you prefer, that's fine. Everyone should sent me a link to their blog once they have it set up.

One place to get help is at the Support Center for Blogger, especially the Getting Started Guide.

But for starters, here are my basic instructions:

1. Go to: https://www.blogger.com/start
2. Choose "Create a Blog"
3. You will be asked to create a Google account. If you already have one (i.e. if you have a gmail address), you can use that (Select where it asks you to "sign in first" at the top). But you may want to create a separate account for this class, if you don't want your personal and school information mixed together. You can create a Google account with any email address on this page, including your BC email address.
4. Now you get to name your blog and pick a web address for it. Please name your blog other than "Mass Media Class Blog" or something like that. Give it a unique name that is likely to be recognizably different from the others. Otherwise, it will be tough to tell all the blogs apart!
5. Choose a template- how you want your blog to look from the options they present. You can customize it more later.
6. Start Blogging. Play around and start getting a feel for the controls. Try posting! You can always delete it.

Send me the name and address of your blog. Become a follower of the class blog!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Welcome!

Welcome to the hub for Mass Media in American Society! This will serve as an access point to all the class blogs, as well as provide a space for the instructor to give class updates, feedback and suggestions.

I look forward to seeing how you develop your sociological imaginations in the context of the mass media this semester! Stay tuned to this space.