Strategically Communicating

I echo those of you who said this week’s readings were heavy and left you feeling a bit depressed. It is apparent that just the existence of an advanced media system does not guarantee that it will serve democracy.

Corporate ownership of media is becoming more ubiquitous with more and more First Amendment rights being accorded to corporations. Last week an appellate court reversed the FCC fine against CBS surrounding the Janet Jackson Superbowl “wardrobe malfunction” incident. CBS said that it hoped the decision “will lead the FCC to return to the policy of restrained indecency enforcement it followed for decades.” Duke University law professor Stuart Benjamin, a telecommunications law expert, called the decision “a slap in the face for the FCC.” Lurking behind the case, he said, is a “really big First Amendment issue: Is there really any difference between broadcast and cable, Internet, books, etc.? If we apply the same First Amendment scrutiny to broadcast as we do to other forms of communication, all these broadcast indecency rules are almost certainly unconstitutional.”

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1.  Does this latest court decision send another message that the corporate media is untouchable and can do no wrong?

2.  Is it right for corporations to be considered “people” and given the same First Amendment rights as you or I? What could the future implications of this look like?

“If a society could have either media or government but not both, the sane choice for people is free media.” – Thomas Jefferson

Click to access How_the_BBC_is_run.pdf

While McChesney enlightens us as to the sorry state of our news system, I think it is imperative that we start looking at solutions to the problem.  Frankly, the problem seems so convoluted and hopeless that we need to shed some light on the future.  McChesney suggests that the BBC and CBC are superior to our existing models, therefore why don’t we look at what makes those models successful in comparison.  The government has some hand in regulating and funding those systems, which Thomas Jefferson would warn us against, but is there something to learn from their example?  Obviously our free-market is not producing a news system that upholds the original call to govern our democracy, so what can we learn from other systems in an effort to build our own unique solution to the problem?

How is NPR and PBS different from the BBC and CBC?

Do you think that some form of government regulation and/or funding is the solution?

I know the politically correct thing to say would be “of course media consolidation is bad” and “massive media corporations are brainwashing us into consumer-driven oblivion.” In fact, McChesney puts it very bluntly when he says “Modern marketing is clearly the greatest concerted attempt at psychological manipulation in all of human history,” (p. 277).

However, I am going to swim against the flow and say up front that I love Disney. I love everything about it. I love the parks, the movies and even the mice (and I’m deathly afraid of rodents). My daughter has three different official Disney princess dresses, at least five Disney princess dolls and countless crowns. I have helped pad the bank account of Disney’s corporate kingdom more times than I care to count. Do I know that Disney is playing me with dreams of “happily ever after?” Yes. Do I care? Not really.

Why not? Probably for the same reasons that most of the rest of the general population doesn’t care about the mega-media business. I have issues that are much more real and important to me. I have to work full-time, raise a family, pay a mortgage and, now, figure out how to go to school on top of it. Add in some random fears about terrorist attacks and earthquakes, and I am filled to the top with worry, conflict and troubles.

Maybe in the years to come I will regret my lack of caring. In the meantime, I could really use some pixie dust.

Discussion Questions:

1. In Chapter 14, McChesney says “commercially viable media content Internet sites remain few and far between — and, today, it would be difficult to find an investor willing to bankroll any additional attempts.” Is this still the case? Aren’t there all sorts of content options now (corporate-controlled such as foxnews.com and user-controlled such as YouTube)?

2.  What would McChesney think of the Twitter-driven revolution in Iran and the social-media driven Arab Spring?

3.  McChesney has definite ideas as to how the 1st Amendment has been adulterated through the years. Does his belief of what the 1st Amendment should be mesh with what was originally intended by the Founding Fathers?

Here’s a piece the Pew Center just released about the news consumption habits of people who have tablets. Does it give you hope for the future of citizen engagement or reinforce the problem of consumers remaining unwilling to pay for news delivered in a digital format?

http://features.journalism.org/files/2011/10/The-Tablet-Revolution-Graphic-9001.png

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a movie premiere of “The Rum Diary,” starring Johnny Depp who returns to the role of Hunter S. Thompson, one he played in Terry Gilliam’s film adaptation of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” The movie details the 1950s newsroom in Puerto Rico where Depp brings “blasts of rage” against the greedy bastards destroying Puerto Rico.  According to a critque by RottenTomatoes.com, “a growing number of American entrepreneurs are determined to convert Puerto Rico into a capitalist paradise in service of the wealthy. When Kemp (Depp) is recruited to write favorably about his latest unsavory scheme, the journalist is presented with a choice: to use his words for the corrupt businessmen’s financial benefit, or use them to take the bastards down. — (C) FilmDistrict.” Aaron Hillis refers to Thompson as a “novelist in a journalist’s body” (http://www.ifc.com/news/2008/07/alex-gibney-on-gonzo-the-life.php).

The movie comes to theatres this Friday, October 28.  If you get the chance to watch the movie, please post your comments on how you see the curruption and political pressure from this era as relevant to today’s pressures on the news media.  Just thought I would spark some food for thought.