Lecture notes 8

Lecture notes week 8

Review homework and poster session presentation – sign up for different topics

Finish aspects of Free Speech for Sale (example of investigative journalism – Moyer’s background and bias)

Finish Aspects of Rich Media, Poor Democracy (complicated intersection of media, economics and politics)

Focus on three areas – key terms = corporate speech, deregulation, competition, FCC, First Amendment, “balanced” news, monopolistic system (nature of business – health of economies are measured by growth) – corporate arguments about saving consumer’s cost, and to provide choice (competition, not really in their interest).

First amendment = expression, religion, congregation, press; limits against government for the individual (individual rights of enlightenment), founding fathers assumed engaged citizens, marketplace of ideas (favored quantity of quality, allows for societal change without armed conflict), range of interpretations including literal which is currently become rather influential,

history of press – print = anyone who had a printing press, partisan papers (multiple papers in a region), yellow journalism and muckraking (helped sales) and turned into investigative journalism (Watergate and Vietnam war) and tabloids, objectivity (not universally admired), facts vs. opinion (readers make up their own mind), objectivity allowed to reach out to more readers and appeal to more advertisers, eyewitness skepticism, now present more undigested representations of people in power, serving the public interest = letters to the editor

electronic media – spectrum regulation, Public service access and programming, Fairness Doctrine

CDRom – planted stories about Iraq, student journalists, media experts

hope and change –

McChesney’s view

education – media education,

public education (not for profit) – public vs. private enterprise

japan

digital spectrum – serving the public good

journalism ethics – look up

Underreported stories (email and review) – examples of bias

Group discussion questions about media bias text

Katrina images and stories

The Corporation – history of corporation receiving civil rights

Outfoxed – Fair and Balanced

week 7

Lecture Notes 7

Monday

Return Tests – focus on patterns and procedures for the future

Review the syllabus and calendar online – preview the future and successful course of action

Review Ethics Case Study

Brainstorm – what is news – from point of view of general opinion, news organization, informed citizen, government

LA Time lecture

Weds.

Moyers Free Speech video

Key terms = push polls, fronts, issue ads, Free Speech, Telecommunications Act of 1996, Conglomerates, Digital Spectrum

Thurs.

Rich Media, Poor Democracy

Preview questions –

Who do the airwaves belong to?

What is the relationship between information and democracy?

Do you feel as if you, and the American people, are well informed about the issues that matter most, have the greatest impact, in their lives?

Has the increasing number of channels provided diversity of content and perspectives?

Key terms = corporate speech, “balanced” news, deregulation, FCC

Review Poster Session assignment

weeks 5 and 6

Lecture notes week 5 and 6

I wanted us to have some hands on experience with “deconstructing” media. We looked at different newspapers and identified above the fold and below items as well tried to analyze soft vs. hard news. Altogether we were looking at what the audience was for these different newspapers and how they addressed those audiences. We also look at some current magazines and counted the amount of advertising each carried. This led us to discuss the percentage of advertising that is necessary for a magazine to be profitable. Finally we looked at TV commercials from the 50-60’s, 80-90’s and 2001. We compared products being sold, intended audiences, techniques, and sub-texts. We found some revealing differences.