UNIT 1. Living With Media

1. A Defense of Reading, Marie Winn, from The Plug-In Drug: Television, Computers, and Family Life, Penguin Books, 2002

In this chapter from the 25th anniversary edition of The Plug-In Drug, Marie Winn compares mental processes associated with reading and listening to the radio to those used when viewing television.

2. The Suddenly Crowded Queen-Size Bed: A Wake-Up Call to TV and Movie Fright, Joanne Cantor, from Mommy, I’m Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998

Joanne Cantor argues that television and movies create feelings of fear and anxiety responses that persist long after children view traumatic content.

3. Media Violence and the American Public: Scientific Facts Versus Media Misinformation, Brad J. Bushman and Craig A. Anderson, American Psychologist, June/July 2001

Over the past 50 years, news reports of the link between media violence and aggression have changed from claims of a weak link to a moderate link and back to a weak link. In this article, two Iowa State University researchers analyze statistical findings of scientific studies, and they conclude that the link, which has strengthened over time, is clearly a positive one.

4. The Whipping Boy, Jib Fowles, Reason, March 2001

Jib Fowles argues that the belief that television violence causes hostile behavior is “a whipping boy, a stand-in for other clashes, real or imagined.” This article summarizes social conflicts that contribute to misdirected antitelevision violence crusades.

5. The Color of Ratings, Av Westin, Brill’s Content, April 2001

A veteran broadcaster interviews television news executives, producers, correspondents, and crew and concludes that in a ratings-obsessed management culture, stories about minorities are routinely rejected.

6. Gimme a Break!, John McWhorter, The New Republic, March 5, 2001

In his review of Donald Bogle’s book Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television, John McWhorter provides a history of television’s portrayal of black characters and black issues across the last half century. He concludes that there are clear signs that the color line is dissolving.

7. Can TV Improve Us?, Jane Rosenzweig, The American Prospect, July/August 1999

Beginning with a case study of television’s role in the designated driver campaign, Jane Rosenzweig contends that television content can indeed result in positive feedforward effects. Media have power to educate and influence, and advocacy groups are most effective when they are working with television rather than protesting against it.

8. Ozzy Without Harriet, Jonah Goldberg, National Review, June 17, 2002

While government debates giving tax write-offs to television networks for embedding antidrug messages into their programming, Jonah Goldberg finds MTV’s The Osbournes to be an unintentional antidrug message in media.

UNIT 2. Covering News

9. Real-Time Responsibility, Stephen Jukes, Harvard International Review, Summer 2002

Governments are finding it increasingly difficult to control news flow and spin. At the same time, pressures of an accelerated news cycle and demand for instant analysis are challenging core journalistic values of objectivity and accuracy.

10. Explaining the Rage, Alina Tugend, American Journalism Review, December 2001

In this article, Alina Tugend explores how well the media in the United States have done in analyzing the reasons why much of the Muslim world hates us. She finds a plus in the events of September 11, 2001, in the fact that more attention is being paid to events in the rest of the world by both American journalists and readers.

11. The View From Abroad, George A. Krimsky, American Journalism Review, January/February 2002

George Krimsky describes differences in spin and emphasis between U.S. and foreign media coverage of the war on terrorism.

12. The Newsweeklies: New and ‘Improved’?, Cynthia Grenier, The World & I, February 2002

This article reviews the history of weekly newsmagazines, exploring their shift toward soft news that “appears to be firmly entrenched—the post-September 11 lurch toward foreign news notwithstanding.”

13. Where TV Has Teeth, Neil Hickey, Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 2001

Neil Hickey looks at investigative journalism and its yield of outstanding, expensive, time-consuming efforts that have the potential of triggering significant social change.

14. Heeeeeeeeeeeere’s Democracy!, Bruce A. Williams and Michael X. Delli Carpini, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 10, 2002

The authors argue that the blurred distinction between news and entertainment media requires a new definition of political communications and a different set of criteria for assesing them. While most traditional political news is geared toward political elites, an episode of The Simpsons or a Jay Leno monologue “can be as politically relevant as the nightly news, maybe more so.”

15. “Live” with TAE: Bernard Goldberg, John Meroney, The American Enterprise, March 2002

The American Enterprise associate editor John Meroney interviews longtime CBS news correspondent Bernard Goldberg about his book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News.

16. ENRON: Uncovering the Uncovered Story, Scott Sherman, Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2002

Scott Sherman analyzes media coverage of Enron before and after its fall, providing a hindsight lesson in gatekeeping choices and asking tough questions in business reporting.

17. The Real Computer Virus, Carl M. Cannon, American Journalism Review, April 2001

The Internet provides access to an immense cache of information that anyone, including reporters, can acquire—and that anyone can post. Journalists have not been immune to picking up and passing on misinformation. This article examines the case for and state of fact checking.

18. On Message: A Theater of War at the Pentagon, David Samuels, Harper’s, January 2002

David Samuels’s detailed account of Pentagon press briefings provides an inside view of the complexities of reporters’ interaction with and dependence on government sources in covering war news.

19. The Priest Scandal, Carl M. Cannon, American Journalism Review, May 2002

Thirteen years ago, Carl Cannon received an award from the White House Correspondents Association for his investigative reporting on the Catholic Church’s efforts to cover up reports of sexual molestation by priests. In this article, Cannon dissects coverage of the issue over the years since, analyzing why it took so long for the story to gain traction.

UNIT 3. Players and Guides

20. Media Mergers: The Danger Remains, Catherine Yang, Business Week, April 29, 2002

Michael Powell, new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is looking hard at rules limiting media ownership. Catherine Yang summarizes deregulation changes and their implications.

21. Behind the Mergers: Q&A, Neil Hickey, Columbia Journalism Review, May/June 2002

Columbia Journalism Review editor at large Neil Hickey gives perspective to implications of changing rules limiting cross media ownership and market reach.

22. Media Consolidation: What Now?, Michael M. Epstein, Television Quarterly, Winter 2002

Michael Epstein, a media lawyer, interviews Andrew Jay Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, a Washington-based advocacy group, about deregulation. Topics for discussion include economic and political forces, vertically integrated media companies, antitrust laws, and public interest obligations.

23. Media Money: How Corporate Spending Blocked Political Ad Reform & Other Stories of Influence, Charles Lewis, Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2000

Charles Lewis examines the increasing influence of the media industry on FCC policy and the progress of legislation dealing with issues such as intellectual property, violence, “must carry” provisions, media ownership, and political advertising.

24. The Reinvention of PBS, Gay Jervey, Brill’s Content, April 2001

The Public Broadcasting Service is not a network; it is a private nonprofit corporation owned and operated by 347 local affiliate stations, with a “bottom-up” rather than a “top-down” management model. This article provides insight into how PBS works and how it fits into the current broadcasting landscape.

25. Children, Entertainment, and Marketing, Rhoda Rabkin, Consumers’ Research, June 2002

In April 2001 Senator Joseph Lieberman introduced a bill to prohibit the marketing of “adult rated media” to young people under the age of 17. Rhoda Rabkin summarizes the history of voluntary regulation of media, from the Hollywood Hays Code to self-regulation of comic books and music, then raises concerns about current attempts to identify the entertainment industry as a health threat to young people.

26. Ethically Challenged, Lori Robertson, American Journalism Review, March 2001

Lori Robertson looks at recent cases of plagiarism and fabrication in news reporting, exploring why reporters cross the line, describing fact-checking policies, and reporting on the potential consequences of cut-and-paste journalism.

27. The Information Squeeze, Charles Layton, American Journalism Review, September 2002

Charles Layton explores current tensions in the debate over distinguishing government secrecy from protection of privacy, as it influences access to information available through the Freedom of Information Act.

28. Faking It: Sex, Lies, and Women’s Magazines, Liza Featherstone, Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2002

While debate over editorial license usually centers on news reporting, it is relevant in less austere contexts as well. This article looks at media responsibility to “tell the truth” in articles about sex and relationships in women’s magazines.

29. The Vanessa Leggett Saga, Guillermo X. Garcia, American Journalism Review, March 2002

Guillermo Garcia traces a reporter’s legal battle over interpretation of the First Amendment as it related to balancing the press’ obligation to cooperate with law enforcement officials against its reponsibility to protect the confidentiality of work product and sources of off-the-record information.

UNIT 4. A Word From Our Sponsor

30. Meet the Nielsens, Elizabeth Jensen, Brill’s Content, March 1999

Nielsen, the sole provider of ratings data for television in the United States, is a key player in determining what viewers see. Elizabeth Jensen describes concerns with how the Nielsen Media Research system works and how advertisers use ratings data.

31. Primetime Pushers, Lisa Belkin, Mother Jones, March/April 2001

Lisa Belkin analyzes the outcome of a decade of lobbying by advertising agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and television networks that resulted in the lifting of Federal Drug Administration restrictions on “direct-to-consumer” advertising of prescription medications.

32. News for Sale, Marion Just and Rosalind Levine, with Kathleen Regan, Columbia Journalism Review Project for Excellence in Journalism, November/December 2001

This article summarizes results of a survey of local television news directors regarding prevalence and kinds of sponsor pressure on story topics and content.

33. Taking Care of Business, Sharyn Vane, American Journalism Review, March 2002

Sharyn Vane looks at separation of editorial and advertising operations of newspaper publishers: “Despite ample evidence to the contrary, it’s an undeniable part of the journalism culture to view the newsroom as an oasis separate from the messy details of money and business. Yet the truth is very different...”

34. Virtual Product Placement, Damian Ward Hey, Television Quarterly, Winter 2002

Virtual product placement is the digital insertion of a product or product logo into a live or prerecorded program where that product or logo does not in physical actuality exist. It has been around since the early days of television but is attracting new attention in light of technological advances.

35. The Evolution of Gendercasting, Heather Hundley, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Winter 2002

In this article, Heather Hundley traces the history of Lifetime’s successful niche programming strategy.

36. Pay for Play, Eric Boehlert, Salon.com, March 14, 2001

Eric Boehlert describes the influence of payola, independent record promoters, and deregulation of radio station ownership on what songs are played and how hits are made.

UNIT 5. The Shape of Things to Come

37. The Disc That Saved Hollywood, Johnnie L. Roberts, Newsweek, August 30, 2001

DVD players are populating U.S. homes faster than any other piece of home-electronics gear in history, altering the way movies are made and marketed. In this article, Johnie Roberts includes insight into the business deals that set the stage for the growth of the DVD.

38. Interactive Television: Is It Coming or Not?, John Kelly, Television Quarterly, Winter 2002

John Kelly helps readers interpert how “interactive TV” will ultimately be defined and what it will mean to consumers as TV’s one-way, analog infrastructure is replaced with two-way digital delivery.

39. The Great Wi-Fi Hope, Quentin Hardy, Forbes, March 18, 2002

Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) and 802.11, its engineering spec, are current buzzwords among techno-futurists. This article describes the current state of wireless Internet connectivity.

40. HD Production Gets the Last Laugh, Ken Kerschbaumer, Broadcasting & Cable, June 10, 2002

As the United States comes within a few years of its formal transition to a high definition television standard, producers are experimenting with equipment, editing, and production values that will define HDTV.

41. Exposure to Other Viewpoints Is Vital to Democracy, Cass Sunstein, The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 16, 2001

Cass Sunstein discusses “personalized media” in terms of its implications for democracy: a need to understand the meaning of free speech, to access topics consumers may not choose for themselves.

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