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CMNS 130 Review
CMNS 130 Course Objectives
• To provide a map to navigate the field of
communication studies
– history & political economy
• 130 outlines how media work, how they are shaped by and
shaping the economic, political and social worlds around us
– Society and technology
• To identify different perspectives on
contemporary controversies
• To teach the design of effective arguments in
academic writing in this discipline
Key Characteristics of Mass
Communication ( wk 1)
1.
Message produced in complex organizations ( sender)
•
•
•
2.
Formally constituted institutions
Rule based
With ‘specialist’ vocations/professions
Message fixed in some form with information and symbolic
content ( technology of delivery is either in digital bits or
commodity form) (material)
Message is sent/transmitted or diffused widely via a
technological medium
3.
Newspaper, magazine, CD or videocassette, radio, television, satellite or
Internet
4.
5.
Message is delivered rapidly over great space
Message reaches large groups of different people simultaneously
or within a short period of time( mass audience of receivers)
Message is primarily one-way, not two way, although this is now
being challenged at the margins
6.
•
STUDY AID: COMPARE AGAINST TABLE 2.1 PAGE 14 CC
The Second National Policy
•
like the railroad, communication seen as important for the
transmission and reception of ideas, goods and services
throughout Canada
• central to:
• Western settlement
• Economic infrastructure
• Social development
– Much early spending by the Canadian State was to connect
cities, peoples and markets
• rail, hydroelectric power, telegraph, post system, heavy
regulation of telephones to ensure extension of service, and
provision of public radio
– An early Tariff Wall until the 1930s to stimulate national
business and manufacture ( See CC: 26-30)
A Multi Party Pact
• The Second National Policy sustained high political consensus
• Overspill of US radio signals and predatory competition,
combined with the social needs of Canadian citizens led to
creation of the Aird Committee and unanimous resolution to
create a public radio corporation
– Widespread public movement’s rallying cry was: ‘The State or the
United States’ ( Graham Spry: see Spry foundation
www.com.umontreal.ca/spry
•
A national royal commission studied the “National Development
of Arts and Letters” ( Massey Commission) and argued for a
national interest in unity and identity in 1952-- values embedded
in successive broadcast acts since with multi party consensus
until the 1990s
Framing the Canadian Media History
• The Mass Media were seen through the lense of a
history of ‘cultural nationalism’, focussed on sending,
and receiving Canadian information, ideas and
entertainment
• But, they were also seen through a lense of fear of
fascism ( CC: 52)
– That new technologies like radio could make the individual
part of a mass, undifferentiated, unsupported, and easy prey
for authoritarian appeals.
– That “mass” media would inevitably carry “low” social status
Contemporary Commercial Press
• Is transition of control from Ruler, to Political Party to Business?
( Chomsky and Herman)
Newspapers and the Rise of Democracy
in Canada
•
( from colonial dependents to commercial independence)
• Earliest colonial papers ( Halifax) in late 1700s were
licenced by the British Crown in the colonies
• Given news from the Imperial Country and local
Lieutenant Governor ( so served as agent for Crown)
• Slowly, allied with political parties ( early 1800s)
some of them republican pressing for:
– No taxation without representation
– Representation by population ( whig and tory parties)
From Colonial to Independent
Partisan Press
• Party papers ( sometime called factional papers) took
money from loyalists and resisted pre publication
censorship
• Covered the rebellion of 1839 in Lower and Upper
Canada
• One editor: Etienne Parent of the Le Canadien jailed
• Famous Case: Joseph Howe, Nova Scotia 1835 (
read Kesterton’s History of Journalism In Canada,
page 20-22)
Principal Differences
• Libertarian Media
• State must not intervene
• Freedom of expression is
absolute
• Ideal type: books,
newspapers, magazines,
also internet
• Watchdog Role ( stop abuse)
• Social Responsibility Media
• State may regulate
–
–
–
–
•
•
•
To protect undersupply
To protect against harm or offense
To ensure universal access
To promote effective, fair competition
Freedom of Expression is
limited only when public interest
is at stake
Ideal type: radio or TV Acts
Fourth Estate: ( like legislative,
judiciary, executive) may
generate policy
recommendations
Critical Theories of the Press
• From critical political economy
– Marx: in every epoch, the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling
class ( courseware, normative theories, page 384)
– Media are central to the operation of capitalism
• they sell goods and services
• They carry economic news
• They are important for coordinating supply and demand
• So essential to economic system, they are controlled by the
bourgeoisie, or ruling elites
Neo-Marxian views
– Argue oligopoly forecloses diversity
– AJ Liebling: Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own
one.
– That is, the structure of ownership and control if very
concentrated in the hands of a few, runs the risk that the
gatekeepers may freeze out certain ideas in the desire to
maximize profits ( see custom courseware, p. 389 normative
theories)
– The media become tools to maintain the dominant ideology
of capitalist power
Stephen Brooks
– Reminds us that the media are agents of socialization
– Set the contours of modern political discourse
– Agents of social learning
• The process of acquiring knowledge, values, and beliefs about
the world and ourselves
• Contribute to what Walter Lippmann called ‘the pictures in our
heads’ ( CC: 183)
• Especially powerful agents of ideology on issues where
personal experience is unavailable
Propaganda
• Definition:
– The deliberate attempt to persuade people to think and
behave in a desired way consistent with benefiting those
doing the persuasion
• Includes advertising, public relations, and other forms
• Includes censorship
– More formally: an organized program of publicity to
propagate a doctrine or practice
Common Elements of War Propaganda
•
The Big Lie
–
–
•
Demonizing the Other
–
–
•
Private Jessica Lynch raid
Tight communication control
–
•
Deck of 52 most wanted of Saddam Hussein’s colleagues
Axis of Evil: Iraq, Syria, N. Korea
Issuance of Disinformation
–
•
War atrocity stories ( the Operation Desert Storm, 1991, Kuwaiti babies)
WWI the human soap factory ( 1919)
Embedding journalists, news pools, joint bureau
Coercion, pre and post censorship or other uses of totalitarian power
Media as Democratic Propaganda
• Coercion of citizens is not direct
• Ethical and moral claim of the democratic
propagandist is itself to be debated
• Engagement with the propaganda techniques is
open…tends to be ‘enlightened’ ( voluntary,
majoritarian) and systemic ( not individual).
Democratic Propaganda II
• Mainstream media do not set out to control or
persuade,but that the effect is cumulative
– Expressions may be banal:
• Frame all news around conflict/negative framework
• Consumer fantasies
• Male, ethnocentric language or values
• Little proof of a conspiracy or that owners collude
• “it reminds us that persuasion works best when worming
our way into our unconsciousness yet leaving intact the
perception we have made our choices independently” (
Fleras, 2003).
Advertising And the Selling
of Consumption
• Ubiquitous
• Intrusive
• Intensive
– Without precedent in any historical epoch
– Part of a continuum of persuasion in democratic
propaganda
Advertisers Clout on the News
• Canadian Association of Journalists:
– We will not give favoured treatment to advertisers
and special interests. We must resist their efforts
to influence the news. ( ethic guidelines
– Prohibit acceptance of swag: gifts
• Structural separation of editorial and ad
departments
• But journalists aware of the need to sell and
maximize audiences
Advertisers “Censor?”
Classic cases:
1)Advertisers boycott: withdrawal after wardrobe
malfunction, Disney withdrawing from offensive
contents, Bill Maher
2)Efforts to directly influence content
1)Kingston Whig Standard: lost $100 k after realestate
agents pulled ads when article about direct sales
published ( Russell: 52)
2)Tied selling: advertorials
3)The Bay and National Post
Social Issues in Advertising
• Is there a social responsibility accepted?
– Yes; the Advertising Standards Council of Canada sets out
several principles
– Yes, Advertising directed at Children is strongly regulated
around the world
• Prohibited for very young children
• Type of appeal restricted
• In each generation, there are issues of representation
in advertising hotly contested: gender, age, race,
sexual orientation
Definition of Advertising
• How consumers become aware of
potential goods or services to buy (
CC: 339).
• Thus: integral to persuasion
• In business, one of the costs of
marketing
Two Ideological
Perspectives
• Libertarian
• Essential to inform
consumers
• Builds demand for
products
• Enables sellers to
maximize sales and
reduce costs
• Essential for efficiency
of the market
•
•
•
•
Reform Liberal
Information is biassed
Creates wants not needs
Leads to oversupply of
goods
• Passed on in costs to
consumers thus inflationary
• J.K. Galbraith
There is no free lunch
• Ad supported media appear ‘free’ to
consumers
• But, the costs of ads are passed on in
the end price of the good
• Marketing and ad costs can reach 1015% ( almost like a private ministry of
information GST)
Market Research
• Advertising is built on market intelligence
• Identification of potential consumers by
demographics, behavioral and attitudinal
factors
• Endebted to social psychology
– Study of what attracts, appeals, provides a sense
of identify, pleasure
• The trend to “passive people meters” and universal
barcodes: tv/exposure to ads/retail purchases try to
simulate
• “complete data shadows” of consumers
Consumerism, Identity and
Resistance
• Difference may be aestheticized, with the effect of
assimilating or emulating “Otherness for its exchange
value” CC 390
• Difference as a marketing tool attempts to strip it of all
social and political antagonisms
• Allows both the reinforcement of traditional identities based
on age, religion, taste an ethnicity while facilitating the
production of new, increasingly narrow identities based on
taste and lifestyle: a culture of naricissim? A culture
defined by fragmented public sphericules?
The Peculiar Nature of the
Media Commodity
• Ephemeral: high risk
• Renewable: consumption does not destroy
availability of use to another
• Characterised by high creative labour costs
which, as yet,cannot be wholly substituted by
labour
• The paradox in media:
– Costs or producing the first prototype are high, but very low
to zero for additional copies
– This is called zero marginal cost: suggests a difficulty in
trapping exchange value
The Public Good Problem
• Implies media goods may tend to be ‘freely’
exchanged: eg. MP3 file sharing
• Businesses respond by creating laws to ‘trap’
exchange value: eg. Fundamental basis of
entertainment law is Intellectual Property
– Which establishes a monopoly for the creator for 70 years on
products of the mind
Rationale for Intervention
-
Doctrine of national sovereignty(spectrum)
Natural Monopoly ( spectrum)
Market Failure
- History of spectrum chaos
Other case of Market Failure
- Diseconomies of scale in certain productions
- 40% time spent with drama
- Average US drama $1.2-2 million US per episode
- US market recovers cost and can sell into Canada
at 1/10th the cost
- Thus, private commercial broadcasters can make
no profit on domestic drama
The Canadian Broadcasting
System
- - mixed: with public and private
elements
- Competitive
- Highly regulated by the CRTC
- ( Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission)
- Which licenses and monitors
- Classic case of social responsibility model
The Canadian Broadcasting
Act (1991)
- The Canadian Broadcasting System will serve to
safeguard enrich and strengthen the cultural,
political social and economic fabric of Canada
- Each element will contribute to the creation and
presentation of Canadian programs
- Each.. Will Make Maximum use and no less than
predominant use of Canadian creative resources
Do we Need the CBC?
- You Decide
Turn the tables and question
private broadcasters
- They are Strong in local news
- But act only as Resellers of US programs
- 5% of Global’s prime time audience is to Canadian shows
(eg. BCTV)
- CTV/Global Schedules are set in New York by US networks
- Spend 400 m annually on US programming,$ Just 50 on
Canadian drama
- But eligible for over $500 million in subsidy and
protections ( Nordicity, 2006)
Review: The Economic
Problem
- Underdeveloped Ad Market
- TV ad revenues are 66% the size of
their US counterparts on a per capita
basis
- Why? Overspill of US ads
- Underdevelopment of sectors of ads which
are in the public realm in Canada (health,
education etc)
Economic Problem 2
- Global can go to Hollywood and buy rights to air
Greys’ Anatomy in Canada, and pay 100 K or less
per episode
- But costs to produce a Anatomy here would be 2
million per episode ( 10 to 20 times more)
- Why? Economies of scale in the US: US product
recovers most of its costs in the home market,
can afford to sell below cost in foreign countries
- Cheaper to import license than make
Identity
• Characteristics by which a person or thing/group of
persons or thing is known
• Recognizable as the same or different
• Multiple identities possible
• Now, politically morphed into ‘identity politics’: the
strategic assertion of a unity
• Modern identities have channelled through nation
Myths about Canadian
Cultural Identity
• Defined against the US/ British or French fragments
• Seen as ‘hybridized’, ‘hyphenated’: French Canadian,
English Canadian, Immigrant Canadian, Aboriginal
Canadian
• Seen as ‘regionalized’– Western, Eastern or central
Canadian
• Increasingly seen not as bicultural but more as
multicultural
Other Defining Markers
• NOT American ( the ‘rant’)
• NOT nationalistic ( no anthem in schools)
• MORE deferential to authority (Garrison versus Frontier
mentality)
• MORE public enterprise culture (rail, universal health care,
education, CBC)
• GO BETWEEN:
– international peace-keeper, trusted intermediary,--history of land
mines treaty: self image of a kinder, gentler peoples
• Not Mono cultural: bilingual and multicultural( mosaic versus
melting pot)
Gendering the Media
Key Ideas
• For most people, the identification of oneself as female or male
is the foundation of self-identity
– Men may ‘naturally’ be seen as more aggressive, domineering,
competitive and hierarchically oriented
– Females may ‘naturally’ be seen as more passive, acquiescent,
nurturing , egalitarian and domestically oriented
– These arguments are ‘essentialist’: that is, they assume a kind of
biological determinism or universal pattern of culture
– BUT:
• Biology may determine our sex as male or female but culture
shapes the content and conduct of what it takes to be a woman
or a man (Fleras,2001:112)
• Gender identity is socialized: it is a cultural construct that the media actively work
to promote
• Sex/gender distinction is a matter of social power
• Therefore: media representation of gender important
Theoretical Basis for Critique
• Based on Cultivation Hypothesis
– Repeated exposure to stereotypes of women may
‘condition’ a world view where
• Women are subordinate
• Women are defined by sexual display
• Women are sexually available ( see Signorelli of the
Annenberg school)
– Reinforcing patriarchal social values (
hegemonic/dominant cultural power)
Theory 2
• Effects studies
– Tannis McBeth Williams
• Experimental study Notel, Unitel, Multitel
introduction of TV to a Northern Canadian
Community
– Found children’s play exhibited more sex-role
stereotyped behaviors after introduction of TV
– Perceptions more traditional
• Judge stories on the basis of what they look
like rather than what they do
Theory 3
• Studies of Social Psychology
– Emergence of self esteem
– Body Image
• Trend to thinner and thinner models
• ( average more than 30% underweight)
• More and more young women would like to
look differently, are dieting for ideal shape
• Rise of eating disorders, both genders
• Fetishism of appearance: extreme makeover
Theory 4
• Stereotype: a reduction of persons to a set of
exaggerated, usually negative, character traits
• How measured:
– ‘content analysis’
– Textual analysis: roles
• Madonna/whore dichotomy
• Other common stereotypes ( Meehan)
– Matriarch, goodwife, witch, bitch,decoy, victim, courtesan, siren or
temptress.
– Concern with images of women, tries to make assertions about
the truth and falsity/fairness of representations or their social
justice
Politics of Representation:
•
– When minorities struggle for recognition/rights/sharing of power in
political, cultural and media institutions ( another variation on
identity politics)
– Media and culture play an important role in drawing clear
distinctions between who belongs and who doesn’t
Presupposes a level of political organization: mobilization around a
social problem
– Discloses fundamental human need: drive for identity: to escape the
“psychic prison” of a world view that excludes or denies( Fleras:307)
•
Presupposes media form an important function in:
– Framing
– Recognizing
– Representing Cultural/ethnographic groups
– Thus: media both reflect and shape social justice
Proof of Problems
• In media:
– Analysis of ownership & control
– Analysis of workers/work routines in news manufacture
– Analysis media contents/reception ( latter scarce)
• In society
– Socio economic studies
– Social dysfunctions ( conflict, threats to social cohesion)
– Anti social behaviors: stereotyping/hate/social exclusiveness
Allegations Against Media
• Aboriginals, people of colour, immigrants and refugees tend to
be underrepresented
–
–
–
–
Invisible
Irrelevant
Victimized
Trivialized
• Or misrepresented
–
–
–
–
–
Race-Role Stereotyped ( Fleras:CC 423)
Demonized
Scapegoated
Ridiculed
Whitewashed/Tokenized
• Or marginalized
– Ethnic media enclaves
– No public subsidy
– Limited international imports
Definition of
Pornography
• Porno: from the Greek root
meaning prostitution or captive
– I.e. subservient position
• Graphos: writing about,
depiction
– I.e. separation, distance between
subject and object
• CC: 541.
Definition of Erotica
• From Greek Root: Eros
• Passionate love
• Pleasure, reciprocated
The Cultural & Political
Problem
• There is a continuum of pornography
• In any society, there is a continuum
between freedom of expression and
censorship
• The goal must be to distinguish
objectionable material from sexually
explicit
• Identify when it is legitimate to restrict the
former and not the latter
• Tests:
– If mutual consent
– If no harm
– I.e. positive, life affirming sexual depiction, free
Ideological Perspectives
•
•
•
Social Conservatives
– See pornography as a threat to the social order and morality
– A mockery of family values ( CC 547)
– Often tied to patriarchy, right to life
– “civil pollution”
Feminists
– See pornography as a threat to gender equality and morality
– Tied to misogyny
Libertarians
– See right to pornography as individual choice
– Government censorship as the biggest threat of all
• Source: CC: 544.
• R.A. Hackett and Yuezhi Zhao. 1998. Sustaining
Democracy. Toronto: Garamond. 4.
Alternative Media
• Provide a range of perspectives and forms that are not
readily available through profit driven media
– May offer radical alternatives
– Or may offer small for profit enterprises challenging the
dominant market leaders
– May offer individuals a new avenue for their expression ( DIY)
– Or, may offer community groups/campus radio etc. new
channels.
– In some regimes ( eg. Quebec) there are grants to community
associations or indie media to produce what they would like).
Towards Addressing the Democratic
Deficit
• Enshrine a Right to Communicate in the Charter
– Require universal access to media, media education and
ensure diversity of public, private, commercial, non
commercial, educative, entertaining, individual and group
media
•
•
•
•
Regulate Unfair Media Competition
Provide public access media
Reform the CBC/Public Broadcaster
Widen and make more transparent the system of self
regulation of the media:
– Citizens must decide
– Broadcasting systems are invented in the image of each
generation
– Need a cultural/communication environment movement
The Essence of a Right to
Communicate
•
Communication is basic to the life of all individuals and
citizens
• All people have the right to develop their own skills to tell
their own stories and to learn how to express them
• All people have a right to fair and equitable access to local
and global resources they need to participate in everyday
life
• All have a right to participate in and make decisions about
culture and communication
– (CC: 580)
What is to be Done
•
•
•
•
•
Strikes, complaints and rallies
Media education in Schools
Constitutional Challenges
Boycotts
New forms of policy intervention as global concentration
and vertical integration of commercial media escalate
• Opening up national models of regulation
• Opening up citizen models of deliberation/ of fair,
democratic communication
Conclusion 130
• We are all propagandists to varying degrees, just as we are
victims of propaganda, but the answer is not less
propaganda, it is more, with the wisdom to judge what is
counter propaganda, what is democratic propaganda, and
what is propaganda that will liberate us all for peace and
social justice
Key Review Readings
• 1, 2,4,5,7,10,11,16,18,19,22,25,27,29
• ( Number refers to Course Outline Key for Custom Courseware)
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR
WEEK ONE
• What is the main theme for CMNS
130?
• Watch for 4 key definitions
• What is the transmission model of
communication? How does it differ
from the cultural model?
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR
WEEK TWO
• Why are Canadian media( esp. radio)
central to the stories of Canadian nationbuilding?
• What are narratives and why are they
important in the study of communication
history?
• What is ‘modernity’ and how are
communication media implicated in the
emergence of ‘modernity’?
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR
WEEK THREE
• Is the historical transition of the print
commercial media from ruler, to political party
to small then big business?
• What is the libertarian theory of the press?
• What would be its opposite?
• Be sure you understand the concept of
Ideology
• Identify four areas where classical liberalism
and reform liberalism differ
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR
WEEK FOUR
• What are some examples of
propaganda at work from the Gulf War(
1991) and Iraq War ( 2002-)?
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR
WEEK FIVE
• How does Herman and Chomsky’s
Propaganda Model Work?
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR
WEEK SIX
• What are the special characteristics of
the cultural/communication commodity
and what are the business strategies for
reducing risk?
STUDY TIPS FOR WK 7
• What institutions try to balance the
rights of the consumer with the rights of
the advertiser?
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 8
• Name three stereotypes about Canadian
identity
• What role do the media play in promoting
Canadian identity?
• Can a nation survive without any indigenous
media?
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR
WEEK 9
– Are Canadian Media racist? Or can examples of
media racism be observed?
STUDY QUESTIONS FOR
WEEKS 10 & 11
• What is the problem in media representations
of women and men and how area these
problems manifest?
• What are the classical liberal arguments
against censorship of pornography?
STUDY QUESTIONS WEEK 12
• What are the classic reasons for Canadian
state intervention in Broadcasting?
• How do alternative media differ from public
broadcasting?