7. Today media and its content is driven, and often created by the PR industry

As I mentioned in an earlier post everything I’ve learned this semester has really opened my eyes up the media, but a lot of the in class films have opened my eyes up to my chosen profession, public relations. In today’s media climate public relations is a key ingredient to having a successful business. Public relations is a tool so powerful that it can change the way wars are fought and won. Today many news stations rely on public relations people to send them story ideas or leads. Usually accompanying these leads will be a VNR (video news release) and a wealth of background information. A lot of the news organizations will take clips directly from the provided VNR and weave it into their nightly news cast(s) passing the stories off as real news.

As a future public relations practitioner I hate that it will be my job to dupe the public like this. So many news stories we see are created by public relations individuals, who have a hidden agenda. It seems that nothing is truthfully upfront anymore. Most of the time it is impossible for the average American to tell what real news is and what is a packaged story? I believe that news stations should be required to tell the public which segments from the show were created and which segments were real news. This way the viewer will know which segment to critically dissect and to watch with a grain of salt.

Media and Society grazes over the issue of public relations in the media with a quick blurb, (pg 133) but in doing so raises some interesting questions. If the traditional model of news reporting is suppose to suceede something will need to be done in order to level out the playing field between journalists and public relations people. With so much of the daily news being provided by public relations people it is hard for journalists to maintain an edge. The prepackaged nature of a public relations media kit is hard for more grassroots journalists to keep up with.

Public relations has also taken up a large part of life in Feed. When a new trend or style is reveled via feed there is an instant notification and update available. There is no way that a reporter from a news paper could compete with this type of pre packaged, mass produced media kit. Most of what takes place via the feed is direct unfiltered public relations for products and services. One of the only parts in the book where Titus seems overwhelmed and overjoyed with his feed is when he gets his feed back after it was hacked. He scrolls through dozens of public relations promotions trying to soak it all up (pg 69). Public relations is a powerful medium that should be easy to spot and provide the consumer(s) with information about the company or person that is producing the public relations materials. This way it will at least give consumers a far chance at deciphering real news stories from manufactured public relations opportunities.

Put out by PR-Watch this video gets to the heart of the seamless relationship between PR and the American news media. This relationship not only jeopardizes content integrity, but it also sets a dangerous precedent that corporations must meet in order to get their business or product mainstream media coverage.

6. Social media platforms, are changing when, where, how, and with whom we communicate

This past Friday night a few friends and I were enjoying the warm weather on my porch listening to some music and having some drinks. While we were out on the porch the party our neighbors were having got broken up by the police. Complete chaos ensued and as we were all laughing watching the meley my friend looks at me and says “ohh man this is great, I have to twitter about it!” He then pulled out his Iphone and sent out a tweet saying, “Watching a party get bust on 83 Adams Street…amazing!”

Social media has taken the world by storm in the past five years alone. The social media platforms are changing so quickly that the edition of Media and Society that we used in class doesn’t even cover it. Today almost every aspect of our life is somehow influence by a social media outlet of some kind. Media and Society describes media and reader interaction as a tool or resource that individuals can use as a tool or reference point to help them make sense of current events (pg 255).

Today this description of social media doesn’t even scratch the surface. Social media has become a necessary part of our everyday lives and culture. People are using social media for both personal and professional development. What started as a way to connect with other individuals with similar interests has boomed into a promotional team’s wet dream. Today if you want to reach your target audience you need to know how to manipulate social media and its tools to levy your particular good or service.

The climate in Feed is controlled by social media tools that have almost replaced the need for individual thinking, or almost any kind of thinking at all. The interpersonal communication between characters in Feed is unusual and at times it is almost non-existent. After Titus is attacked by the hacker while visiting the moon, his father comes to visit him in the hospital. Forgetting that his son’s feed is non functional Titus’s father has a hard time remembering how to communicate with him without using the feed (pg.55). My hope is that social media and its related tools will be used as a way to compliment our existing styles and methods of communication. I fear that before to long we will become reliant on our social media tools to do all the communication for us, and I believe when that happens a piece of our culture will be lost forever.

While hilarious, this video’s content is accurate and presents all you need to know about all the new social media platforms. I provided the lyrics below because I had a hard time hearing what SEO Rapper was saying.



Song One:
Addicted to the power
cause I'm online for hours
10 tabs open on firefox browser
24 hours like my name Jack Bauer
conference call with the boss so I use Calliflower
but back to the topic
I just can't stop it
another album sale for the Poetic Prophet
look like this one came from MySpace
so I log in post a comment tell the dude thanks
then login to Facebook and accept friends
thats the same dude who hit me on Linkedin
sent me a message with a link to his page
had a Wordpress blog that talked about J's
peeked my interest
my favorite tennis
so I dugg it, stumbled it, and add it to delicious
then post a comment said I gotta be trippin
I ain't never seen those I must be slippin
said if you buy those I'll give you free shippin
told him size 13 and put some socks with it
a couple days later my package was delivered
so I took a picture
and put it on Flickr
Social Media is for the more than partying
network with those interested in what you are in
that's what I call social media targeting
gotta do it right for social media marketing


Song Two:
got an Facebook message from an unknown girl
said check my profile my name is Pearl
said I saw you on YouTube
I like what you do
I found you on Twitter and I follow you too
I like big guys and I think that you cute
so hit me up and I can get closer to you
cause in my world
I'll make your toes curl
get on my Tweetdeck and I'll show you how it Twhirl
sent her a message that said hold on Pearl
you moving way too fast and plus I got a girl
I love her so much and I think she so sweet
and if she see you she gonna bust your BubbleTweet
you trying to get a hook
I can show you where to look
click on one of them ad's on the side of Facebook
all kinds of places where you can go and mingle
you probably need the one that say Christian Singles
my phone rang, Chuck, you got it all wrong
like Marvin Gaye, lets get it on
your Imeem playlist got my favorite song
gomightyeagles.ning.com
that's your high school, I know what you got
I did my research, I found you on Spock
you voted for Barack and you use Firefox
you like Jay Z and anything from the Roc
sent a message on Virb but you haven't logged in
you use Gtalk so what your IM
I know where you at so stop playing hard to get
you left Pop Labs and you went to StomperNet
you signed up for Plurk but didn't really like the style
you got 2 blogs but haven't posted in a while
Chuck you need to stop it
gone and get it poppin
I want you to like me just like you like the Rockets
I'm a big girl I got love by the bundle
I said girl you look like Scarlet took a tumble
and how you get my number
you need to get it lost
your feelings is all false
man I'm finna log off
cause I'm...

5. Media is controlled by an elite few

Almost every movie we watched this semester addressed the issue of media regulation and ownership and I hate to admit it but I was generally unaware of the limited ownership of the media networks. I think that it is one of the most important things that I’ve learned this semester; you need to know where you are getting your news from before you can take it for its value. Everyone has an angle they are trying to play, including those who are controlling the media that is being broadcast in your home. The few who control the media can dictate and change our culture without anyone keeping their actions in check.
Media and Society addresses this issue in their Political Influence on Media chapter and in Concentration of Ownership section. While media moguls and mavens preach that media regulation is needed to protect “public interest” it is becoming clearer that regulation can be directly linked to shrinking content options as well as an even more narrow point of view when it comes to the news (Pg 85). I can already notice how radio stations now owned by clear channel have changed their content. As local and independent radio stations are being bought out by large conglomerates the station content is rapidly declining.
This feeling is echoed in Censored 2009 when authors Janine Jackson and Peter Hunt contend that US journalist are now not only having to check their content with their bosses, and the advertising people, but journalists must now consider how their reports will affect the companies bottom line (255). With newspapers loosing readers by the day it is crucial to please the advertisers with the content so they will continue their ad accounts with the paper.
The pressure to keep readership up and to please advertisers small independent news paper, radio, and television stations are being bought out by larger corporations. Corporate ownership means corporate sponsors. These sponsors who have specific expectations for content have a lot of pull when it comes to content. The loss of independent media outlets is dangerous and spreading. The end of independent media means the end of true journalism and in-depth reporting.

Peter Hart, a media analyst with FAIR, does a great job of summing up how the mainstream media has come to be owned by an elite few without much outcry from the American public.

4. News media has become a form of entertainment

Learning the techniques of persuasion opened my eyes up to all the times I’m consuming media that’s content has been edited to present only one side. Personally I am most susceptible to advertisements when they use music. As much as I hate to admit it when a sad song comes on during a slide show of heartbreaking photos I can’t help but donate money or buy that product. Lately I’ve been watching more of the nightly news and I have noticed a big difference between the news I grew up watching late night with my dad, and the infotainment that I now get from Fox, ABC, and MSNBC.
The stories that we covered in the project censored unit of the class will never reach the mainstream news media no matter how important the story is. Families do not want to sit around their dinner tables watching an in-depth news story about water privatization in South America (66), civil rights violations in Africa (134), or prescription drugs being peddled to under age consumers (107). After working all day no one wants to come home to a depressing hard to understand news story.
As Postman discussed in The Age of Show Business (pg 87) television turns everything in to entertainment. The problem isn’t that television presents entertaining subject matter but that all subject matter on television is presented as entertaining, which is the root of all this trouble. This entertainment aspect has spilled over into the news media. I firmly believe that in order to make the nightly news cast one needs to have a glitzy or gory story. The public doesn’t want to watch news that isn’t entertaining. In fact they don’t want to watch news at all they want to be entertained.

I choose this clip because I felt like the panel, specifically Janeane Garofalo, spoke to the lack of real reporting. Garofalo specifically talks about how it is hard to find a main stream media source that is putting out hard hitting journalistic pieces. I couldn’t agree with this clip more!

3. Product placement drives media content

As a public relations major product placement has become an unstoppable force. Product placement in the media has become the newest and one of the most profitable ways for advertisers to get their product recognized by their target audience. Product placement has become on of the most profitable sects of the public relations and advertising industries. The first huge product placement deal was in the 2000 film Erin Brockovich. Julia Roberts’s character only drank a local company’s coffee, and all the mugs or coffee cups in the film had the companies label on it. For this placement the coffee company shelled out over a million dollars.
In Media and Society they talk about the dangers of letting advertising have such a dominate role when it comes to programming(exhibit 2.8 pg 66). Using the example of music videos on MTV Media and Society discusses how advertising and programming has become so intertwined that it has become impossible to separate the two. The book goes on to discuss how this close relationship has gotten to the point where advertisers have the ability to control some aspects of the media content. With so much money to be made from allowing advertisers to have more pull in the programming it looks like product placement is here to stay.
The world in which Titus and his family live is controlled not only by the media but by the advertising firms that sell their products over their feeds. Like the feed, advertisers today are using special niche channels to zero in on very specialized audiences. This concept is best demonstrated in Feed when Quendy arrives at the party covered with false lesions because of the direct advertising sent to her feed. (Pg 191) The feed records every purchase made by the individual and then sends direct advertising related to their purchase history. With the way that product placement is going this type of advertising is in our future. Soon advertisers will know what we want before we do.

The first video is a great compilation of blatant product placement from a number of networks. The product placement is shameless. I feel like product placement today is not only obvious, but it has become a part of the media experience. The second clip is purely for my own amusement. A journalist asks American cult film legend David Lynch how he feels about the current relationship between movie studios and large corporations, and the resulting product placement. I can only imagine how many other directors, producers, and actors feel the same way about product placement in their films. (PS David Lynch’s Iphone commentary is equally funny and can also be found on youtube)

2. Today the news media is driven by sound bytes, not real, hard hitting stories

I had this media revelation when we dissected the second half of the postman book as a class. In the chapter “Now…This” Postman breaks down the way in which we are feed the news. A personal example of this that I recently noticed is the news ticker that is constantly flowing on the bottom of CNN. The blurbs of news are constant and make for perfect sound bytes. They offer no background, no links to more information; they are just simple, catchy news headlines.
Postman addresses the issue of this type of shallow news coverage when he talks about the Iranian Hostage Crisis. (Pg 107) Postman talks about how Americans were fascinated with the news coverage surrounding the crisis, but the majority of American’s had no idea about the background of the crisis, despite the almost constant news coverage. As Postman says, it was assumed that American’s knew the crisis was a dangerous and unhappy event, but the majority of the population had no idea about the culture or the people of Iran. Despite this lack of knowledge everyone had an opinion on the conflict and how it should be handled.
A similar situation in the present day media is the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Everyone has an opinion on the topic and the majority of the population has no idea about the background of the conflict or the region of the world. This lack of in-depth media coverage is similar to the news reporting that takes place in Feed. While the feed keeps Titus and his friends sustained are sustained by the information provided by their feeds, but are unable to dig deeper into issues because of the feed. It is twisted that the feed, which makes their lives possible is also the force that is limiting their understanding of the issues facing their world. (I feel like this is an overarching theme throughout the book, so it’s hard to narrow it down to one page number)
I selected this video because it showed some of the worst journalistic techniques used in the media today. Techniques in this clip are the very same techniques that Postman is so critical of in “Now… This” These techniques lead to sound byte journalism and the same shallow reporting that breeds a culture that doesn’t look into anything beyond the surface.
I couldn’t help but laugh at this clip, hiding behind obscure phrasing, this clip really echoes this media revelation. In today’s world of news media there is only enough time for sound bytes and hired consultants. (Note the station, bottom left of the screen.)

Top 10 Media Revelations (in no particular order)

1. There is no liberal media, (policies and politics changing our news)
Before this semester I thought that the majority of the news that I was reading in the Boston Globe, NYTimes, CNN, BBC, ect… swayed further left then it did right when it came to the political spectrum. However that couldn’t have been further from the truth. The material we covered in class, specifically the films we watch (The Propaganda Model, The Obama Deception), helped me start to recognize the tone in which news is packaged for us.
In this sense I felt a lot like Titus in Feed. It was hard for me to understand and critically examine the news media because I’d never really known any other way. I had never been asked to critically examine the media before taking this class, so not only had I become use to the bias, but I’d in some way become desensitized to it. Titus encountered a similar inner conflict toward the end of Anderson’s book when he is forced to confront his media environment after he looses Violet, (pg 293). Titus’s confrontation with his world was much more abrupt and bitter than my confrontation with my media environment, but I could relate to the feelings of confusion and ultimately disbelief that Titus felt. Like Titus I felt that because I’d viewed media as a one sided medium that it had been hard for me to relearn something that I’d been taught for most of my life.
One passage from Media and Society book really showed me how much I didn’t know about the political tone that our media is saturated with. This tone can be traced back to the source, regulation. Liberals and conservatives have long been at odds on the issue of regulation. The issue of regulation is entirely political with “liberals” against content regulation, while “conservatives” say that content control is necessary to protect society from “graphic violence and pornography.” This idea of regulation and politics in the media is ongoing and is well explain in Media and Society. (pg 98)
Now when I read of hear a piece of news I try to trace back the ties. Who owns the media outlet that I am getting my information from? Has the content or its subject been changed or edited because of ownership? I am confident sorting through the news clips and sound bytes now, knowing full well that I will be able to spot both hidden and open bias if it is present in the article. That being said, the clip of Glen Beck that I have chosen clearly demonstrates how the bias in the news media is ultimately changing the face of our news.
This clip is satirical in nature. It opens with Fox news talk show host Glen Beck running a segment on how evil, liberal, and misinformed American media has become. Beck, an open and very vocal conservative, spends the entire segment showing how an interview he did was twisted and mutilated to fit the liberal media’s agenda. I used this clip because it showed how far right “conservative” media outlets really are, and how truly middle of the road the “liberal” media is. (If you are looking for more clips of Glenn Beck making a fool of himself there is a great montage.)