Who Owns The Media?

What problems are raised by the media ownership patterns described on this site?
When focusing on a topic like this, I narrowed my research down to one report, The Politics and Policy of Media Ownership. On June 2, 2003 the Federal Communications Commission voted controversially to relax broadcast ownership limits after completing a mandatory review of its regulations. It was a striking change in the structure of the media system. The decision opened up cross-media ownership in the same market, inviting newspapers and broadcasters to operate under one roof in every major city. It also permitted a substantially increased media concentration in local and national television markets. The new rules would permit one company in one city to own three television stations, eight radio stations, the daily newspaper, and the cable system. This market condition leans toward favoring larger firms.

Public response to the new rules was greatly negative. In the last six months of 2003, the FCC waged a campaign to reverse the rule changes made. The policies and regulations, which shape the media system, became political issues for the American people.


Are the criticisms raised in the following article valid?
The criticisms are definitely raised in the following article. Regarding if those criticisms are valid or not; wellI'm not too convinced. "Two things are disconcerting. One is, there's disproportionate amount of profits being reported offshore. And then, even for the profits that are reported onshore, they're paying less than 35 percent," said Martin Sullivan, a contributing editor for Tax Analysts. They aren't paying the amount of taxes that they should be paying because they are taking advantage of the various loopholes that exist in the corporate tax structure. Carney does state in this article that these loopholes being described are legal in order to reduce their tax burden. It is that statement that makes me question that validity of the criticism in the article.
In a statement, General Electric said that it "pays what it owes under the law and is scrupulous about its compliance with tax obligations in all jurisdictions." The company claims that its zero-dollar tax bill is largely a result of losses at its financial arm, GE Capital, die to the Wall Street meltdown. This statement always brings up awareness. GE is claiming that they aren't doing anything that is illegal. So how can this huge corporate business be criticized if the law is permitting what they are doing to keep their taxes lower?

Who Owns The Media?

What problems are raised by the media ownership patterns described on this site?

      When focusing on a topic and issue like this, I narrowed my research down to one report, The Politics and Policy of Media Ownership. On June 2, 2003 the Federal Communications Commission voted controversially to relax broadcast ownership limits after completing a mandatory review of its regulations. It was a striking change in the structure of the media system. The decision opened up cross-media ownership in the same market, inviting newspapers and broadcasters to operate under one roof in every major city. It also permitted a substantially increased media concentration in local and national television markets. The new rules would permit on company in one city to own three television stations, eight radio stations, the daily newspaper, and the cable system. This market condition leans toward favoring larger firms.

      Public response to the new rules was greatly negative. In the last six months of 2003, the FCC waged a campaign to reverse the rule changes made. Remarkably, the policies and regulations, which shape the media system, became political issues for the American people.

Are the criticisms raised in the following article valid?

      The criticisms are definitely raised in the following article. Regarding if those criticisms are valid is not; well I’m not too convinced. "Two things are disconcerting. One is, there's disproportionate amount of profits being reported offshore. And then, even for the profits that are reported onshore, they're paying less than 35 percent," said Martin Sullivan, a contributing editor for Tax Analysts. They aren't paying the amount of taxes that they should be paying because they are taking advantage of the various loopholes that exist in the corporate tax structure. Carney does state in this article that these loopholes being described are legal in order to reduce their tax burden. It is that statement that makes me question that validity of the criticisms in the article. 

      In a statement, General Electric said that it "pays what it owes under the law and is scrupulous about its compliance with tax obligations in all jurisdictions." The company claims that its zero-dollar tax bill is largely a result of losses at its financial arm, GE Capital, due to the Wall Street meltdown. This statement always brings up awareness. GE is claiming that they aren't doing anything that is illegal. So how can this huge corporate business be criticized if the law is permitting what they are doing to keep their taxes lower? 

Role of Evolving Forms of Media on Senior Citizens

CompuKol Connection-
Senior Citizens an Social Media:
http://www.compukol.com/blog/senior-citizens-and-social-media/

To summarize the article up:
Senior citizens have a tremendous influence over social networks and corporate media. Businesses are finding that they are getting involved with similar activities to other groups of people, such as email, social networking, photo sharing, and looking at current news and weather. Facebook and YoutUbe are two of the most visited sides by senior citizens. It is a good way for them to connect with their younger family members and friends. It is a wonderful way to stay connected and to learn about all sorts of interesting things.

Twitter is another popular site for seniors. It eliminates some of the loneliness that many senior citizens experience.

The social media sites are not catering to seniors because of who they are. They are catering to them because of who they represent: a large market share of retail dollars and a constant resource. With our senior population growing in number all of the time, it is important to understand that they generate a great deal of online traffic, marketing dollars, and valuable insight based on their vast experiences. Senior citizens are an extremely lucrative group for businesses to target. If businesses choose to dismiss them as weak or foolishly missing out on an important part of the population that can make a sizable contribution in presence and in sales.

Will Evolving Forms of Journalism Be an Improvement?

A major change emerging in the digital age has been the rise of participatory journalism. "User generated content" is a broader term for all the ways in which individuals have expanded opportunity to produce and distribute their ideas and products across the Internet.

Participatory journalism can take two forms: civic journalism and independent digital voices. Civil journalism refers tot he journalistic practice of engaging communities in dialogue. Many media outlets have tried to strengthen their ties tot he community by encouraging comment and reporting about important civic concerns. The second form of participatory journalism refers to the explosion of voices have have developed as independent news reporting and commentary. There are blogs, digital newsletters, Web sites, YouTube videos, and more, where individuals report and comment on the news.

Deuze, Bruns, and Neuberger offer case studies of three newspapers on three different continents that have adopted different approached to participatory news. Deuze et al. view these as hybrids of the top-down process of traditional journalism and the bottom-up process of grassroots involvement. On the other hand, David Simon readily admits that the industry has harmed itself with its business practices and failure to adapt to the digital environment. His point is straightforward. Journalism is a profession. It requires full-time commitment and consistent attention. It cannot become the province of the occasional commentator.

Eran Ben-Porath argues that the primary change in journalism in this era has been the shift from traditional practices to dialogic formats in which conversationally based news has become predominant. When dialogue, rather than reporting, is the format, the authority of the journalist is lessened, conversationalists are often not journalists but commentators or partisan spokespersons, and the audience changes from receivers of information to witnesses of conversation. Ben-Porath also argues for diminished authority and accountability for the news organization; the organization did not make the "claims"; their guests did. Thus the organization's accountability for accuracy is diminished.

Is Advertising Good for Society?

Professor Dllas Smythe described commercial media as a system for delivering audiences to advertisers. The creation of a consumer society, materialism, and high expectations conflict with many cultural expectations, histories, and social systems in many countries where advertising is considered a Western, capitalist construct. John Calfee takes the yes side on the issue of whether or not advertising is good for society. He thinks that advertising is very useful to people and that the information that advertising imparts helps consumers make better decisions. He maintains that the benefits of advertising far outweigh the negative criticism. Contrary to his belief, Dinyar Godrej defends the no side to this issue. He believes that advertising doesn't really tell us anything new about products, but instead, it acts upon our emotions to create anxiety if we don't buy products.

John Calfee focuses on how the information in ads benefits consumers, Advertising functions in the public's interest, and that even the controversies about ads can be beneficial because they can result in competitive pricing for consumers. A thorough understanding of how advertising functions in society, and as an industry that is responsible for billions of dollars annually, helps form a person's views on the impact of advertising in their lives, and in the lives of others. It also helps to think about what products are advertised and to whom. It should also be noted that there are many forms of advertising.

Dinyar Godrej does a great job of reminding us that there are many subtle styles of influence that go beyond the initial knee-jerk reaction to advertising as a harmless by-product of industry in the twenty-first century.

To keep the cost of newspapers down, to help deliver "free" TV and radio to the public, ad to help consumers understand what issues were important in society. Many defenses of advertising relied on helping consumers make more informed decisions about how to spend their money. But over the years, the real impact of advertising has been more critically considerate. Since the growth of technologies that are more individually used, like the Internet, the advertising industry has responded with a far more complicated structure to attract attention, and a far more complicated system of appealing to audiences they consider are most easily persuaded.

Hate Speech Recorded Oral Presentation

Lyrics: 

The media is fueling the fire,
Causing ideas of hate to transpire,

Exaggerated stories and wrong information,
It's inflating our minds with a false allegation,

The media is putting influence into their words,
If the story sells, it's abused until it's heard,

It's a virus that's spreading a terrible threat,
It's on your t.v, radio, and especially the Internet,

Reports of political figures being slandered,
Personal attacks to win elections, today, look standard,

It's tearing our communities apart,
The media is careless, it doesn't have a heart,

So, you can't believe everything on the news,
They side with the stories, that are juicier to use,

Societies are suffering, they need to be fixed,
The social anxieties need media reform from post conflicts,

This can be a important element for prevention,
The media-empire of influence needs intervention.

Music, politics and society

The songs on the list posted on our media, politics and society class website, were not current songs. These songs were written during times of political upheaval, gathering, and change. All of these artists may not have intended to present a political standpoint. The artists' vision is conveyed through their song. Songs become political because they convey a message. The viewer or listener has a better connection to the song because of the message. Each viewer looks at the lyrics and message differently.

For an example, I will talk about the song, imagine by John Legend. One of the main lyrics that is repeated and emphasized is the statement, "I am a believer." It may be viewed today as impractical, but being a believer is timeless. Looking forward instead of dwelling on the past is what this song really focuses on. John Legends imagines the world where there is no trouble. He emphasizes how people will have peace, no greed or hunger, and no killing your brothers and sisters. Living life is peace.

Is Hate Speech in the Media Directly Affecting Our Culture?

"Hate speech" often means different things to different people. Although the First Amendment to the Constitution ensures freedom of speech, in general, hate speech is exempted from the First Amendment. The term is meant to convey the deliberate bias toward and discrimination against persons that could be incited because f the form of speech. Hate speech is almost always evaluated based upon the context in which it is presented. This definition becomes more unclear when we think of the political ideology behind criticizing others, or the levels to which persuasive tactics may hide the actual intention of hate. Information and entertainment media normalize a culture of cruelty by discussing meanness and power in entertaining ways.

Georgie Ann Weatherby and Brian Scoggins, who represent the no side to this issue, investigated how four white supremacist Web sites present information that may appear benign but mask the ideologies of the groups they present. By presenting their ideas to the mainstream society, these groups attempt to gain compliance from persons who may be recruited to the extremist group's side.

Our history in the US of hate speech legislation often is targeted toward groups that exhibit bigotry or contempt for racial, ethnic, religious, or gender groups. We have had a long history of extremist groups of all kinds, hoping to se the media to defend their positions and recruit new members.

I think that we should have the freedom of speech, but to a certain extent. The issue of free speech has become even more extreme in the case of the Internet, where there is so much freedom to post information. In both mainstream media and on the Internet where extremist Web sites exist, we can see how hate speech is sanctioned, practiced, and in some cases, endorsed by the public.

Are People Better Informed in the Information Society?

There are tons of people who feel that as we move toward a more technologically oriented lifestyle, as participants in the new information society, are inevitably moving toward a better quality of life. It almost seems logical that better technology is the result of moving from more primitive forms of communicating to more sophisticated, faster, and efficient means. New technologies challenge us to think of new practices, nee values, and new structures.

Linda Jackson et al. found that youth who use the Internet more had higher scores on standardized tests f reading achievement and higher GPAs. This work supports the optimism surrounding the Internet as a tool to level the educational playing field. To contrast, Mark Bauerlein found that the youth spend much of their leisure time in front of computer and television screens, but the information age has failed to produce a well-infomred, thoughtful public.

Jackson and her colleagues demonstrate the potential of the Internet to enhance educational outcomes for low-income children. The Information highway and the Digital Age stimulated hopes for generation able to multitask, plumb and depths of digital information, and create a sophisticated synthesis. Bauerlein states that despite the numbers or sources and technologies available, people are not better educated or more informed today. If he is correct, there is much evidence to support the idea that as time goes by the public's knowledge of basic civics and politics becomes even weaker.

I personally think that people are better informed in the Information society. To use one example, you retrieve news and information so much more efficiently and faster from the Internet, rather than newspapers. I feel as if there is a lag time with newspapers because they have to be written, edited, and then published. We can achieve more, but have become more dependent on it.

Oral Presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNmGOY8tYoY

Do Media Represent Realistic Images of Arabs?

Whenever we deal with issues of stereotypes and whether they do or do not influence our perceptions of people in society, we broach the uncomfortable area of human biases and prejudice. Questioning the images we see in media is one of the most important features of understanding media's relationship to society. There is evidence that U.S. media have improved in terms of portrayals of African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians, and images of gays and lesbians are starting to improve; but as these selections show, accurate representations of Arabs in the mainstream media still have a long way to go.

Journalist Gal Beckerman discusses how Arab bloggers from the Middle East are challenging popular stereotypes of Arab and Middle Eastern culture. Because these bloggers are writing about their lives, the global public can read about their situations and understand them as individuals, rather than racial or ethnic group members. In contrast, Jack Shaheen discusses how Arabs have been the most maligned stereotype in popular culture, and how the images, post 9/11, that conflate "Arab" and "Muslim," have fueled misperceptions about victims and combatants while we are engaged in the war in Iraq. He discusses how Hollywood's images influence politicians and citizens and contribute to public opinion.

It has been said that despite recent sensitivity to multiculturalism and a growing call for respect for people of other races and ethnicity's, the image of the Arab still represents evil. But the conflation of the people of the Middle East with "the enemy" is an example of how powerful stereotypes can be.

This issue brings up more than the question of the power of stereotyping in the media; it makes us ask whether the images in media really matter to us, and whether different types of media can communicate more effectively than others, depending on the content. Anytime we are challenged to question our own beliefs, and how those beliefs may be influenced by the media, we get one step closer to understanding the complexity of media images, media forms, and how we, individually and collectively, understand our place and role in society.

I personally think that the media does not represent a realistic view of Arabs. Arabs remain the most negative and harmful group in our U.S. history. 9/11 was such a devastating event  that will never be forgotten. I think that no matter what the media or Arabs themselves has to say, Americans will never be able to forgive or forget that time in history. There were so many personal and emotional feelings attached to that devastation that will never be able to escape.

City Weighs Medical Pot Ban

This article was posted in The Daily Journal. Medical marijuana businesses could be banned permanently in Redwood city if the Planning Commission agrees with city staff that enforcement will be costly and time consuming, crime could escalate and ongoing conflicts between state and federal policies make regulations challenging. 

City staff has looked at the legal and safety issues of regulating medical marijuana and how other cities have dealt with the issue. San Carlos, San Mateo and San Mateo County permit the facilities while Colma, San Bruno, South San Francisco, Millbrae, Brisbane, East Palo Alto, and Half Moon Bay do not. 

California voters passed the Compassionate Use Act, in 1996, allowing sick patients to either grow their own marijuana or have a primary caregiver grow it got them. In Augusr 2011, the Legislature passed another bill giving local government more power to regulate marijuana districution facilities through enforcement of zoning regulations. 

It sounds to me that redwood city is skeptical of opening more facilities within the city. It seems as if they want to see how it goes with other cities having medical marihuana facilities before Redwood city makes their decision. Redwood city is worried that we will have more crime. The reason why we would have more crime is because teenagers, even though they don't have a medical condition, get these cards to purchase marijuana illegally. There are doctors that will just write up prescriptions for a card, for only $100. If more and more people start getting these cards, there will be more selling and dealing of marijuana on the streets, and isn't that considered illegal?

I don't understand why they are looking to have medical marijuana facilities in cities so close together. If they are going to do it at all, I think that they should spread the facilities out within a certain amount of miles. I feel like the more facilities, especially in close proximities, the more the crime rate and expenses there would be. 

Do Media Cause Individuals to Develop Negative Body Images?

Over the weekend we were assigned, as a class, Issue 4, regarding if media causes individuals to develop negative body images.

I strongly agree with this issue. Media is often accused of representing images that result in people's negative behaviors. Although the media is constantly in our face, we as the viewers, have the choice to let it influence us or not. We know that media have some influence over the way some people construct their ideas of reality, but the most difficult considerations have to do with who is affected, and under what conditions.

Fat has become something to be feared, and grooming  practices and fashion are "sold" as imperatives for both men and women. Maintaining a fit body is no longer viewed as a personal choice, but as an obligation to the public good and a requirement for good citizenry. Rarely ever do we see more realistic but still presumably healthy bodies in the media. My big question is, what is so wrong with women who have a shapely body? Advertisements are also going so far as to not only feature slim models, but they are now using airbrush, and photoshop, to make the subject have an hourglass body.

Men are given the status of subjects while women are objects. Both women and girls come to experience themselves as if someone were looking at them as an object and evaluating themselves based on appearance and their successful presentation of self as an object.

Does fake news mislead the public?

Over the past weekend we were assigned a reading on an issue questioning whether or not fake news misleads the public. Julia R. Fox, Glory Koloen, and Volkan Sahin examined the political coverage of the first presidential debate and the political convention on The Daily Show and on network nightly newscasts. Their study found that the two newscasts either has more hype or humor than the substance. To compare to that study, Barry Hollander examined the learning from comedy and late-night programs. He used a national survey to examine whether exposure to comedy and late-night programs actually inform viewers, focusing on recall and recognition. Some support is found for the prediction that the consumption of such programs is more associated with recognition of information.

I found this issue so interesting in the sense that in this age of the internet, the simple descriptions of news are no longer accurate. The shifting trends in media usage see young voters turning to comedic sources for information, rather than traditional media. This new age of the internet has completely changed our society, in terms of the way we view things, the information we receive, etc.

I personally am torn between fake news misleading the public and not. I think it is important that the younger generations have found an interest in some form of media to gather information. Although, there are studies on fake news having more hype, it at least keeps the viewers entertained, and wanted to keep watching for more information.
But on the other hand, traditional newscasts are more straight and to the point, unlike fake news. Instead of focusing on the important message and information, fake news manipulates and dumbfounds the point of discussion.

INTRODUCTORY VIDEO!

Are American Values Shaped by the Mass Media?

YES (Schiller):
-  Schiller argues that mass media institutions are key elements of the modern capitalistic world order
-  Media produces economic profit and the ideology necessary to sustain a world system of exploitative divisions of social and financial resources

NO (Carey):
-  Communication is not simply a process of sending messages as the transmission model would suggest
-  Communication is a symbolic process which is inherently linked to culture and our lives

-  The critical/cultural perspective is advocated by Schiller, the ritual view of communication by Carey
-  Schiller outlines the five myths that structure media content and manipulate consciousness
      -  These myths function to produce the status quo and maintain existing social power structures
-  Mass communication scholars are concerned that the power of the media to shape attitude and opinions, paired with inevitably result in a recreation of current power structures, which inequitably divide social resources
-  Carey defines communication as a "symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed"
      -  Ritual models see communication a directed toward the maintenance of society in time and the representation of shared beliefs

-  Many people do not consider the media as having an observable impact on them or on those around them

-  Schiller was a powerful proponent of the theory that media is structured by the economic conditions under which it operates
-  Carey argues that commitment to the transmission model of communication has inevitably focused our attention on issues of power, administration, and control
-  The ritual view of communication turns our attention to aesthetics, religion, values, and intellect