Sociology, communication, media. --- .This section is about the media. Topics include: ( ) Independent media. ( ) News. --- 1/24/2006
Sociology, communication, media. --- (1) Media floods us with information both true and false. Wrong information at wrong time, organized poorly. Impermanent: we throw it out, we forget it. (2) The Notes: organize important information permanently. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- (1) Radio and television are free. That is the most important thing. (2) Radio and television are often used as "background" media. That is the second most important thing. They are on all the time. You absorb it passively by osmosis. You do not have to devote full attention to it. (3) Any other successful media will have to do the same. If you charge money or demand full attention then you are lost. --- 8/8/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- (1) The mass media has a homogenizing affect, and destroys regional color. (2) More specifically, it has a leveling affect. It raises (educates) those who are below its 12 yr. old mentality. It fails to challenge (stunts) those who could easily rise above its 12 yr. old mentality. (3) It can be argued that it has a civilizing affect. Those below its 12 yr. old mentality learn by watching the behavior, vocabulary, emotional reactions, of the characters on television. --- 01/23/1997
Sociology, communication, media. --- (1) The media shapes the message that the public receives. The media transmits what is convenient for them (the media) to transmit. The media transmits what they can sell and what can make them money. The media does not necessarily transmit what the public needs most to know. The media likes to give air time to "one idea" spokespeople who have simple, short messages that fit neatly into a soundbite. The media does not like to give air time to spokespeople who say that "things are complicated" and who take a lot of time to sort out many issues. (2) An example of the tendency of the media to use single-issue messages are the "diet gurus", each of whom writes a book on a single diet issue and then go do the mass-media talk-show rounds in order to promote that book. What happens is that these so called experts cause the public to go on a mad, diet merry-go-round, by switching from one diet to another. (For example: Vitamin C diet. Beta carotene diet. Low carbohydrate diet. High protein diet. Low fat diet. High healthy fat diet.) The truth is that almost all these diet elements are important. Almost all these nutrients are essential for health, and they need to be balanced. But the media knows it can make more money if they tout merely one nutrient at a time. The result is that the consumer is the one who suffers the confusion, panic and loss of money. --- 9/18/2000
Sociology, communication, media. --- (1)(A) Newspapers and TV news have a finite amount of time and space available to use. (B) They must sell ad space, attract viewers, and in general be profitable. Thus they cater to what is popular. (C) Therefore you get 50% of their space and time dedicated to sports and Hollywood, both unimportant entertainment. (2)(A) The news reports on what is, not on what we should do. (B) By focusing only on where we are, and not where we are headed, we may get into a situation which is irreversible, and from which we cannot go back, such as ecosystem destruction. (3) The media takes a centrist position. When a movement or idea starts out it is small and extreme, and thus gets little coverage. Then it becomes big and popular and is covered by the media. (4) The most important subjects, issues, questions in life are not kept in front of our faces by the media. Instead garbage is. The news focuses on what is new, not necessarily what is important. --- 03/03/1998
Sociology, communication, media. --- A healthy media is important for a healthy society. If the media is not working well then the society will not work well. There are many problems that can beset the media. Excessive corporate influence. Excessive government influence. Propaganda and censorship. In America today, the media does not work as well as it could. (2) In addition to having a healthy media, the public needs to use the media. It does not help to have a healthy media if the public does not make use of the media. People need to read. --- 12/11/2005
Sociology, communication, media. --- Academia today rewards you the more you publish. In my world you would have to pay money for every word you publish. Thus the flow of bullshit would hopefully slow. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Any written work. Scope/breadth and depth. Density (complete and tight vs. holes and gaps). --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Before the development of mass communication technologies like printing, radio, film and television, the media were less influential, with fewer messages reaching fewer people. Today, technology makes the media more influential, with many more messages reaching many more people. To some extent society today has become more media dependent. The media today is much more a part of the way we live than it was hundreds of years ago. --- 8/24/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Commercial media is afraid to bite the hand that feeds it. Afraid to antagonize the advertisers who support it, and afraid to antagonize the customers who watch it. The truth is the first casualty. --- 9/21/1998
Sociology, communication, media. --- Computer and media. How will the computer change the way we communicate? Hypertext, and multimedia. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Computer. What could nonfiction hypertext do better than textbooks and encyclopedias? Could it handle logical and historical outlines? Elementary, high school, college, and graduate levels? --- 10/20/1993
Sociology, communication, media. --- Critical thinking about the media means not only thinking critically about what you read in the media, but also thinking creatively and critically about what the media is not telling you. The media leaves out a lot of important things. --- 8/23/2005
Sociology, communication, media. --- Criticisms of the media. (1) Sensationalism. Stories about violence. Stories about sex. Stories about personal scandals. (2) Invasion of privacy. (3) Slander and libel. Printing gossip and rumors. Unconfirmed stories. Just because it sells. (3) Self censorship. Just because it doesn't sell. (4) Sound bites. Slogan-neering. Refusal to think in depth. Refusal to think. --- 6/23/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Degree of power, how used, how they affect, how much they affect, which directions. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Effect of mass media on individual and society. Effect of individual and society on mass media. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Explicit and implicit values conveyed by media. (1) Explicit: this is right/wrong, unimportant/important (editorials). (2) Implicit: amount of coverage implies how important it is. Nuances of word choice say right/wrong. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Finding out everything prevents you from developing ability to figure out things. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Forces on the media. (1) Government can control or manipulate the media through censorship. (2) Big business can influence the media via advertising dollars. (3) The masses can influence the media through their thirst for sensationalism. --- 11/25/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- How do I know I am not reading lies and sub-optimal truths? I don't. I can only expose myself to as many arguments as I can. --- 06/15/1994
Sociology, communication, media. --- How it comes out is media. Talk, art, diary, letter, notes, action. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- If we can't trust the media, how do we know what political reforms to back or push for? --- 04/30/1993
Sociology, communication, media. --- Implicit and explicit values: important/unimportant, good/bad. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Increasing corporatization and monopilization of media. Clearchannel is taking over many radio stations. Rupert Murdoch is taking over many newspapers. Independent bookstores are being driven out of business by Barnes and Noble. --- 1/4/2006
Sociology, communication, media. --- Independent media. Why is independent media necessary? PART ONE. Just as a few big corporate superstores have swallowed up or driven out their competitors and taken over the production and distribution of physical goods, so to have a few big corporate conglomerates taken over the production and distribution of information and entertainment. They have their own profits and self interests at stake. They want to either absorb or destroy the competition. They want to gain money and power. They want to survive at all costs. PART TWO. However, all is not lost. Independent media lives. Independent media is non-profit, non-commercial, viewer supported media. The types of independent media include: independent newspaper and book publishers, retailers and writers. Independent record labels and recording artists. Independent movie studios, distributors and film makers. Independent television stations. Independent radio stations. Independent news. Independent galleries and visual artists. And we also must have independently thinking consumers, rather than fully owned corporate subsidiary consumers. --- 5/17/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Independent media. Why is independent media necessary? Without regulation, corporate power quickly goes out of control, screwing shareholders, consumers and the public. Corporations have proved themselves unable to police themselves. Corporate media is unable to report the stories of its own problems. Corporate media has proved itself unable to report stories that go against its own self interests. Corporate media is unable to engage in self criticism. --- 5/17/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Individual's or society's total mass media complex. Types of media, number of each. Variety of subjects dealt with. Variety of views on subjects. Quantity of ideas and quality of ideas. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Introduction to the media. Basic ideas about the media. (1) The media does not always tell you everything you need to know about any specific issue, nor about life in general. (2) The media sometimes makes mistakes, honest errors. The media may leave stuff out or gloss over something. The media may even occasionally lie, knowingly. (3) The media has biases. Personal biases. Corporate biases. (4) The media bends to pressure. (5) You can't believe everything you read. You have to be a critical thinker and reader, independent. (6) The media is better than nothing in most cases. --- 1/23/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Magazine articles are to both peer review journal articles and art literature, as Muzak is to Beethoven. Dumbed down repetition of better stuff, that has been sanitized for the masses. --- 07/30/1996
Sociology, communication, media. --- Magazines and news are more biased than books due to advertisers. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Magazines are interested in selling themselves, and their world view. Therefore you will never hear from magaizines vital arguments against themselves, or anything that would imply that their subject matter is not important, or that another subject is more important. --- 04/30/1993
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media and fame: doing something great or not vs. getting media attention or not. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media as reflecting society vs. media as creating society. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media has the power to (1) Change the subjects that the masses think about. (2) Change the views on subjects that masses hold. (3) Change masses philosophies. (4) Change masses actions. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media in the USA in 2000's is not a leftist biased media, as the right claims. Media in USA in 2000's is a corporate owned media biased toward corporate interests. Big media. A monopolist media, where a few big corporations own most of the media channels. --- 8/24/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media is a distorted reflection of society; a funhouse mirror. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media listed in terms of increasing amount of imagination required: television, radio, book. --- 4/20/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media manipulation: if what the media shows is all you know, and you accept it wholly as true, then they'll fu*k you. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media needs to be free from control by governments, corporations and other meddling groups or individuals. --- 5/21/2005
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media: agent of socialization. Media shapes what public thinks about (subjects). Media shapes what they think (views). Media shapes behavior and shapes values. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media: for a buck they (1) Beat stories to death. (2) Make mountains out of molehills. (3) Make molehills out of mountains. (4) Blow things out of proportion. (5) Coverage = a value decision. (6) Thus they give a skewed view of metaphysical reality, and ethics system. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media: shit values, warped metaphysics, crappy epistemology. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Media. (1) What is media? Media is channels of communication. (2) What is mass media? Mass media is media that reaches many people (the masses). For example, print (books, magazines, newspapers), radio, television and the Internet. (3) What is non-mass media? Small presses. Self publishers. Web pages. Web blogs. (4) The Internet has traits of mass media in that a web page can be read by many people. The Internet has traits of non-mass media in that a web page can be created by an individual. --- 8/24/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- More coverage says more important. Choice of words and ideas reflects good/bad. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Must be selective: (1) keep false out, (2) keep unimportant in general out, and (3) keep unimportant to situation or problem out. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- News (paper, radio, TV). These media go on regardless of if there is much or little news. They try to sensationalize stories (make them sound bigger, or more important, or worse, than they are). It sells papers. --- 11/06/1993
Sociology, communication, media. --- News (TV, radio, newspaper) (see also: Arts, literature, journalism). If news media is powerless and not free. If they unconsciously or consciously print lies. If they can't analyze a situation properly. If they can't search out important questions and answers. Then the people are lost. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- News in the various media. (1) News on the television and newspapers is apt to be compromised by advertisers. (2) News on the Internet is apt to have more hearsay and less confirmation of sources. Also, it is apt to have more opinion rather than just facts. (3) News on television is short. News on television usually has only a few stories and a few ideas on each story. Newspaper news is longer, has more stories, and has more ideas in each story. --- 11/19/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. (1) Can you learn everything you need to know from the news? No. Most news is bullshit. Even if the news was good, it is necessary but not sufficient. Some people mistakenly think the news is all you need to read. (2) Can you get along without the news? Not very well. One should read a good news source daily, because ignorance of the world is not a good thing. --- 9/8/2005
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. (1) Ideal. The media has a very important role to play in democracy. Its role is to educate the populace by asking hard questions in order to uncover truth. And cover all sides of an issue equally. (2) Reality. The media suffers from problems like (A) Softball journalism, fluff. (B) Sleazy journalism, sex. (C) Lies. (D) Bias. --- 3/30/1998
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. (1) The news only shows the bad. (2) Gives only fact, not commentary. (3) Doesn't give history or future implications. (4) Doesn't put things in perspective. (5) Makes no judgments of ethical importance. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. (1) Why does it seem like the news reports more "bad" events than "good" events? (2) Why does it seem like the news reports rapidly changing events than slowly changing events? --- 4/4/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. Contra of news media. (1) Saying something is important (by giving it coverage attention) when it is not important, just to use as fill on a slow day. (2) Saying something is not important (by not giving it coverage) because it is too boring. (3) Half truths and fabrications. Lies, libel, and slander. (4) New(s) does not necessarily mean important. --- 12/30/1996
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. Do you want to sell newspapers or tell the truth? Degree you hide or warp truth to sell papers. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. Due to commercial pressures, the news has become entertainment. That is a bad thing. --- 11/8/2005
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. Free press. Various conceptions of the term "free press". (1) Does free press mean free to print lies, or is the press ethically obligated to print the truth? (2) Does free press mean free of charge or no cost to the reader? Or does free press mean free to charge the customer as high a price as you like? --- 11/25/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. Not only is a free press important, but a competitive press is important as well. To be able to prove wrong a rival publisher competitor is key. --- 3/30/1993
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. Pressures on free press. Desire of reporters and editors to please the owner of the paper. Owners inevitably have a bias. Today, right wing corporations own many papers. Thus, today the media has a right wing, corporate bias. --- 4/15/2005
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. See also: Arts, literature, journalism. --- 12/30/2003
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. The "News" is not just about what is new. It is also about what is true, important and right/wrong. To say that something is news is to say it is true. To say something is news is to say it is important. To say something is news is to say it is a wrong that needs to be righted. --- 4/13/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. The free press plays an important part in a good society. Therefore, the news plays an important part in a good society. Therefore, journalists play an important part in a good society. --- 4/13/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. The new vs. the important. The news reports what is new. The news also attempts to report what is important. Since more things happen than can fit on or in the news, the news must decide which events to report. The news reports what it feels is most important. (2) Criticisms of the news. Instead of reporting the important: The news reports what the customers want to hear. The news reports what the advertisers want to hear. The news reports what the news media owners want to hear. --- 4/4/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. The News is not philosophy. Perhaps people need philosophy everyday as much as they need the news everyday. There should be philosophy programs on television, radio and newspaper. For example, The Ethicist is a column in the New York Times. --- 5/15/2005
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. The news neither picks things, nor puts things in (historical, logical, or importance) perspective. "This is new, this just happened", is what they say. They mostly pick concrete events, and not abstract ideas or trends. They don't get into things in depth. Discussions are disgustingly short and simple. There should be shows that put things in historical, logical, and importance perspectives. The latest and most important in all subject areas. --- 04/30/1993
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. The news wants you to think something is happening. That cataclysmic events are taking place. Drama. The news freaks people out unnecessarily. --- 6/29/1998
Sociology, communication, media. --- News. Three issues. (1) The news should not be emotionless, yet neither should the emotion overpower the reasoning. (2) What if the news only reports the facts without considering ethics? Is it even possible, or are ethical values implicit and inescapable? Is news without ethics a good or bad thing? (an ethical question) (3) Using the terms of science, what if the news only describes without explaining or predicting? --- 11/19/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- PBS has an excellent archive. PBS should make their archive open, free and online. --- 10/27/2003
Sociology, communication, media. --- People rely on the media to know what is going on in the world. If the media does not function adequately then people do not know what is going on in the world. Today the media does not function adequately because the media is corporate owned. A corporate owned media does not function adequately. --- 5/16/2007
Sociology, communication, media. --- People will consume/absorb anything, even empty calories of junk food trivia, and even poison of lies, if it has low cost, high availability (no effort to find), and ease of decoding (no effort to absorb). Two examples of this are TV and newspaper. --- 12/12/1993
Sociology, communication, media. --- People will lap up any halfway decent argument presented to them. They believe what they read. Getting heard, getting airplay, is half the battle. --- 06/15/1994
Sociology, communication, media. --- Pressures on the "free press". PART ONE. Is it a free press? Commercial newspapers are "free to print" what they want in the United States. But commercial newspapers are not always "free to read" because they charge the reader a fee to buy the paper. Exceptions are papers that are free to read on the Internet or in public libraries. "Free to read" took place with the development of public libraries and the Internet. "Free to the reader" took place with free papers like the Village Voice. PART TWO. Pressures on newspapers. (1) Customer pressures. The newspaper wants to keep its readers, so it tries not to alienate its readers. And it tries to entertain its readers. The pressure to please its readers may lead a paper to pander to its readers. (2) Competitive pressures. A newspaper competes against other newspapers for readers. A newspaper competes by trying to find a niche or a target market. The pressure to outdo the competition may lead a paper to appeal to its target niche at the expense of accuracy or comprehensiveness. (3) Advertiser pressures. The newspaper does not want to alienate and lose its advertisers. The result of subscriber pressures and advertiser pressures are the following: The newspaper may feel pressured to stay away from controversial subjects. A newspaper may feel pressured to stay away from controversial truths. A newspaper may feel pressured to stay away from non-niche or non-target subjects. --- 11/2/2003
Sociology, communication, media. --- Problems with the media. (See: news, journalism, advertising). (1) Advertisers pitch junk. (2) The media ignores important issues. (3) Communications that are untrue, unimportant, containing omissions, bias and propaganda. --- 8/24/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Questions for each type of media. Arguments for and against. Technology: tools and techniques. U.S. industry size, structure and mechanism. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Radio is a wasteland. Television is a wasteland. Newspapers are a wasteland. Movies are a wasteland. The mass media is a wasteland. So much fluff. One has to write one's own books. One has to make one's own movies. One has to break one's own news stories. --- 7/31/2005
Sociology, communication, media. --- Sex and violence in the media. Isn't it better to see sex than violence? Sex is healthy. Sex is good. Sex is natural. Nudity is natural. Nudity is healthy. Nudity is good. --- 6/23/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Sex and violence in the media. Including movies and television. Including video games. Including rock music lyrics. Four views. (1) Does sex and violence in the media cause sex and violence to be committed in real life? (2) Or, on the other hand, does sex and violence in the media alleviate sex and violence in real life by providing an outlet? (3) Or, alternatively, does sex and violence in the media have no affect either way? (4) Or, alternatively, does sex and violence in the media have a dual affect, both causing sex and violence in some cases and preventing sex and violence in other cases? --- 6/23/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Some technophiles make a big deal out of the promise of interactive television. However, maybe people do not want interactive television. On the one hand, maybe the main use of television is to "veg out" in a passive mode, to let the mind go blank, in a state very close to that of sleep. On the other hand, maybe people use television as a type of background noise, similar to the way people play the radio while working. PART TWO. Using the radio as an example, what would you call interactive radio? Answer: the telephone. Or perhaps the telephone chat lines. Or perhaps talk radio. We have all three of those technologies today, yet people continue to use the radio. In the same way it would be silly to think that interactive television would completely outplace ordinary television. PART THREE. To use another example, when ten ancients sat around the campfire, each one probably only spoke ten percent of the time (if each person got equal speaking time). Each individual spent ninety percent of the time listening. And probably a great deal of time was spent passively staring at the fire in restful reverie, half asleep and half awake. We still have some of those tendencies. PART FOUR. So why should we expect the Internet to be 90% interactive? We should not. We should expect it to be 90% passive, which it is. --- 8/4/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- Somethings we know about only through the media. Somethings we know about only through personal experience. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Television matters less today because of other audio/video media (Internet, DVD's, etc). Major television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS) also matter less today because of other networks (UPN, WB, cable, etc). --- 6/23/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Television. (1) Americans watch too much television indoors passive alone instead of physical exercise outdoors in nature engaging with other people in active thinking and active conversation. The result is obese people, detached from nature, isolated from other people, passive quiet unthinking recipients of information. --- 9/12/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Television. (1) Commercial television vs. non-commercial television. (2) Pay-per-view television vs. no-fee television. (3) Viewer supported television (ex. PBS). Corporate supported television (ex. ABC, NBC, CBS). Government supported television (ex. BBC). (4) Television vs. other audio/video media like movies, Internet, etc. --- 6/23/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Television. Censorship on television. Censorship of words, like "obscene" words or sexual words. Censorship of subjects, topics or issues. --- 6/23/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Television. Norman Lear, good television. Aaron Spelling, bad television. --- 6/23/2006
Sociology, communication, media. --- The media gives the masses instances of people to like and dislike, to love and hate, heroes and villains. The masses are fueled by unconscious feelings of love and hate. --- 12/28/2003
Sociology, communication, media. --- The media manipulate and take advantage of the young, impressionable, and ignorant, just to make a buck. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- The reason why it is important that media be able to play in the background and be passively absorbed is because no one has time these days to give their attention to art. No one has the time. What, are you kidding, no one reads anymore, unless its for work. --- 8/8/2001
Sociology, communication, media. --- Today there are fewer professional journalists and more amateur bloggers. Can the latter make up for the former? --- 4/30/2007
Sociology, communication, media. --- Today, people rely on the media to find out about the world. If the media is compromised then it affects everybody. --- 6/23/2006
Sociology, communication, media. --- Too much data, not enough assimilation. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- Types of media. (1) Big media. Commercial media. Corporate owned media. (2) Small media. Non-commercial media. Not beholden to advertisers. Not beholden to customers. --- 8/21/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Types of media. (1) Commercial media vs. non-commercial media. (2) Independent media. Viewer owned and viewer supported media. --- 8/24/2004
Sociology, communication, media. --- Types. Print: sheet, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, journals, books. --- 12/30/1992
Sociology, communication, media. --- We are seduced by a portion of the culture that uses the media to preach mindless, excessive consumption, which only makes advertisers rich. The advertisers pitch an entire lifestyle, weltanschauung, and the pleasure ethic. The problem is not the media, it is the advertisers. Or is the problem capitalism in general? The free market leads to too much snake oil salesmen and fly by nighters. There must be laws to protect the buyer. --- 12/30/1996
Sociology, communication, media. --- We experience the world in large part through the media. What keeps the media true and accurate is inter-company competition and inter-reporter competition. Each reporter and news company knows the next reporter or company down the line can prove them wrong and ruin their reputation if they are inaccurate. --- 12/29/1997
Sociology, communication, media. --- Why are sports and movie people the stars? Sports and movies are simple and visual (immediately perceptible and apprehended by the masses). The media can use them easily. The masses take what's given to them, and don't have the courage, brains, or memory to think of anything else. The artist (romantic emotional appeal) stars over the engineer, even though the latter contributes more. Romance and emotion and sex is sold above utility and reason and work. It sells better, it makes more money quicker. --- 11/02/1993