"Thought I Had It, Now I Do" A Discussion On The Need For Media Literacy

Hello again loyal readers! Yet again I will expound on the joys of recognizing and acquiring the skills necessary to become a media literate citizen! Over the course of a semester at my college I have had the privilege of learning about the influences, motivations and effects that media impacts on myself and my fellow citizens throughout the course of our lifetimes. Why do I buy Levi's and Champion sweatshirts? Is it because they are so much superior to their competitors or is it the esteem our culture places on such nominal items? I still don't know why but at least I thought about it. Little things like our daily purchases to the most important of world events are shaped by how and what kind of media we interact with. I have had a wonderful Teacher that has enlightened me to many subtleties of the media. Of most interest is knowing who owns certain types of media and to what extent. Knowing the relations of one media to another and the motivations behind what one form does or says in regard to the other is often influenced by...you guessed it! MONEY! A book that is lauded as phenomenal on a talk show may very well be published by a parent company of the television studio itself. Same goes for radio mentions of products and services as well as movies and even singers/songwriters. Once in a corporation that parent company will ensure that the profits of its entities continue to have every chance to grow as long as doing so remains viable. Whew, if you made it through that little diatribe then thanks for the time.
I wanted to address another important issue concerning the importance of acquiring at least some degree of media literacy. Jane Tallim (an education specialist in Ontario) said it best "Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. It's the ability to bring critical thinking skills to bear on all media-from music videos and Web environments to product placement in films and virtual displays on NHL hockey boards. It's about asking pertinent questions about what's there and what lies behind media productions-the money, the motives, the values and the ownership-and to be aware of how these factors influence content." This indeed is the very heart of what it means to be media literate. Although I can just as easily enjoy a show of "Everybody Loves Raymond" as I could four months ago, now I feel a twinge of resentment when "Ray" turns his little juice box towards the camera so we can all get a good look at the MOTT'S logo emblazoned across the container. Then what do ya know! "Debra does the same thing! What are we? A bunch of morons? Nope. Just mostly media illiterate common folk. Bye for a while everybody, I've had enough.

Am I Making My Decisions?

In my studies of media literacy I have come across several defined factors that affect and influence people interacting with various media types. Developmental maturities, cognitive abilities, knowledge structures and media exposure habits are just a few of the 13 factors detailed in the book Media Literacy by W. James Potter that I have been reading. An interesting activity midway through the text interested me and I thought it deserved more attention. It is an exercise titled "Profiling the Probability of an Effect" and essentially required me to analyze a particular media effect along with its pattern of factors that would influence the probability of the effect actually occurring.

I think I am a fairly typical male, by this I mean most of my interactions with media involve sports and some shows on the Discovery channel and History channel and of course Family Guy. I concentrated my self-analysis on my television viewing, the amount of and type of shows that I gravitate towards. Sadly, much of what I view yields no educational benefit. Advantages to not watching much that would be considered worthwhile programming is that it is seen as such and therefore carries less weight leading to less risk of conditioning me in certain negative ways. This can be viewed conversely but since I am aware of how trivial the shows I watch are, I feel I do not fall into the category of the "manipulated."

One of the most important factors dealing with risk point factors and where each individual sets on this line dealt with the individuals lifestyle. "People who have active lifestyles where they interact with many people and institutions are generally less affected by media"(Potter). Applying this to me I felt this to be true. Thinking about I realized that the more and varied input a person receives the less susceptible that person is to being influenced unduly.

I looked up some studies done by researchers that connected aggressive behavior of adults to them having watched three or more hours of television per day in childhood. "Adolescents who watch more than three hours of TV daily are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior as adults, a new study says"(CNN). Studies like this, even when done by such a prestigious source, yield bogus results to me. Any moron can figure out that if you just set a kid down in front of a television for the better half of their childhood that they are not going to turn out to hot. The "varied"(haha as mentioned above) sources that I perused all led me to believe that; Yes, indeed I am making my own decisions.

Tick Tock

I don't faithfully watch 60 Minutes neither do I think it is aimed at my demographic but if I happen to remember it is showing or if it comes on after an NFL game during the season then I will watch it. I did watch last weeks episode and enjoyed the segment featuring former Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper. It is the shows ability to interview central figures in current public interest that engages my interest. The show is undoubtedly well produced and trustworthy as we all want our source of news to be. This particular episode managed to capture numbers of 8.7/14.0 for its ratings and share numbers with an audience estimated to be around 10 million. These numbers easily landed it a spot on the list of most watched shows for the week with a rank of 7 out of the 20 shows listed.

60 Minutes is an investigative television news magazine which has run on CBS News since 1968. The unique style of reporter centered investigation employed on the show has enabled 60 Minutes to maintain a high level of viewership along with acquiring numerous awards. For over thirty years 60 Minutes has aired at 7 p.m. Sunday evening making it the longest running prime time program currently in production as well as the television program broadcasting for the longest length of time at a single time period each week in U.S. television history. Obviously moving the time slot of this show would not be a wise choice for CBS to make but it would be interesting to see if any other night would be able to produce the ratings the Sunday night slot draws (I think it unlikely).

With all this knowledge I thought it would be interesting to see how other shows have fared against this bedrock of television programming. With the exception of seasonal events such as the NCAA basketball tournament the competition for evening viewers throughout the week seems to be dominated by contest type shows such as American Idol, Dancing With The Stars, Deal Or No Deal and Moment Of Truth. These shows hold about half of the top twenty most viewed shows for the week. The weekedays seem to be dominated by the genre of television and this has probably helped 60 Minutes with its decision to stay where it is.

Brave New World?

Recently I read a book! Not really a big deal to me, but it seems in our age of television this has become a rarity. Neil Postman's 20th anniversary edition of Amusing Ourselves To Death, asks a question still relevant now if not prevalent. “What happens to journalism, education, and religion when they become forms of show business?”

Many times throughout this book I found myself nodding along with the author in complete agreement. It is quite obvious that Postman has a serious problem with the decline of print media and its influence in today's (or yesterday's) society. More enlightening was the many examples of how media was failing in its attempt to be a medium for serious public discourse.

Midway through the book Postman addresses the 1984 presidential debates and how in a circumstance like that lacks documentation and logic plays no role (97). He posits that the issues discussed are almost irrelevant when the main concern of the candidates is to “win with style” or deliver a “swell one-liner.” Postman claims that this leads to a scenario where “the leader of the free world is chosen by the people in the Television age.”

Of course the whole book does not take this tone, in fact Postman is a fan of television as an entertainment source only. When the boundaries that used to exist with education and religion are crossed are where Postman has the biggest disagreements. Sesame Street is mentioned and its detrimental effects on children learning from the television. Postman has many mentions of how education and multimedia have become synonymous throughout the book he acknowledges that the two can no longer be separated. Postman ended the book with these thoughts and mentioned two notable authors who were leaders in their fields; Aldous Huxley author of Brave New World, and H.G. Wells author of War Of The Worlds. He mentioned these two men because he agreed with them that “we are in a race between education and disaster” (163). These men wrote relentlessly about the need for us all to keep thinking and I am glad for that.

Where's The Big Story?

The City of Toledo, Ohio five days prior to historical primaries.
http://toledotalk.com/



“News is not a reflection of actual events; it is a construction by news workers who are subjected to many influences and constraints” (Potter p. 101).

With this key idea in mind I set out to analyze a certain style of news media found on the Internet, grassroots media efforts. Going through a list of sites that fit this criteria I found one I thought would be very interesting at this time in our nations political history.

The Toledo Talk ( http://toledotalk.com/) site primarily covers the happenings and concerns of the Toledo area but doesnt' limit itself to this. With historic candidates available to Ohio voters I was excited at what the citizens might have to say about their choices. And then...

Wow! On the site there was a complete lack of reporting on what I would consider a prominent issue concerning Ohioans right now; this was astonishing. Although many relevant topics were in this compilation of blogs and short reports there was an absence of reporting on the upcoming primary that has the potential to affect each issue important to Ohio's citizens.

I am unsure as to the reason for this, maybe the Toledo Talk site wants to limit any inflammatory issues on its site? The one mention of Clinton is just a joke and refers to a street named Clinton that intersects with a street named Toledo and displays a picture of these street signs conjoined. Is this all the people there have to say about the topic?
http://toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/tt.pl/article/12901/Signs_indicate_Toledo_prefers_Clinton

Reading posting after posting made it obvious that the people posting reports on this site were knowledgeable and interested in the news. There was not a complete absence of articles mentioning Obama, Clinton, or McCain but the news-framing that occurred was puzzling to me. http://toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/tt.pl/article/12506/Obama_Drama This article received the most comments of any in the last two weeks and thus created more puzzlement for me.

The resources in the news gathering for this site seemed quite considerable and the many contributors posts seemed well backed with facts. The patrons of this site are not bombarded with excess images and forms of commercialism thus leading one to believe this is truly a forum created to share and comment on news directly affecting people that interact with the site.

All these reasons inform me that the contributors are genuinely concerned with their communities and the site seems disinterested in playing to any particular profitable influences; again adding to my confusion regarding the lack of serious political discussion.

http://toledotalk.com/

Alexis

"I think the fans versus favorites setup is the ultimate challenge because we have the favorites who have obviously played the game before, coming in here with experience. But at the same time you have us (the fans) and we know their game. We know not only their strengths but weaknesses too. So I think that puts us at a huge advantage."
Alexis Jones-Survivor: Micronesia

Alexis made several valid points in her encouraging quote. She is obviously smart in her attempts to establish unity with her team by making a statement like this. She also does well trying to build rapport with her references to “We” and “Us” throughout the statement.

However, Alexis either does not realize or chose to ignore that the portrayal of the returning favorites is by no means indicative of their true behaviors and abilities. As attentive and discerning members of the media audience we know that reality shows such as “Survivor” manipulate the time frame of events and the context of discussions in order to put forth entertaining television. So if Alexis was aware of the fact that much of what was shown on television will probably not aid her team in dealing with the favorites then she did well by not mentioning it.

Either way Alexis could not have said anything better than what she did say. Her comment helps to portray her as a team player and one with a positive attitude.

Max Headroom "War"

Despite its over the top nature and its production date of 1987, the Max Headroom episode "War" managed to make an accurate commentary on the nature of news and how it is currently conveyed to the public. The following quote exemplifies this point.




Carter: "Since when has news been entertainment?"
Murray: ". . . since it was invented?"

The purpose of watching this episode in class served a dual purpose for me: it allowed me to draw parallels between the motives of the producers all while addressing the media's ability to desensitize the public with its proliferation. The entertainment value of the episode was there but watching it with a critical perspective allowed me to enjoy the underlying cynicism throughout. Overall I enjoyed this episode being played because I know I would never have come across this on my own.