Socializing American media

As I promised in my last blog, I will discuss the plausibility of socializing media in America, and the success of Britain’s socialized media, the BBC.  I will first begin by stating my belief that even if it were beneficial, I do not believe that our country would ever even consider socializing our media.  There are several reasons why I do not believe that this will occur.  First of all, our constitution stresses the importance of freedom of press.  This sentiment, which is one of our highest ideals, would prevent our government from ever even considering touching our media.  The second reason why I believe this could never occur, at least in the near future, is because socialism in general is a predominately unpopular system in America.  Just 39% of Americans have a positive view of socialism, compared to 61% who view capitalism positively.  Unless public opinion shifts vastly, Americans will never allow their media to be heavily influenced by the government in the near future.

If America were to adopt some form of socialized media, it could resemble the BBC.  Although American media is certainly frighteningly biased, the BBC has drawn ample criticism of its own.  In Great Britain, many conservatives are livid about the BBC’s coverage, believing that there is ample bias against their party in favor of the Labour party.  One instance of bias that they point to is the BBC’s description of reduced spending as “cuts” rather than “savings,” which is how the Conservative party would prefer it to be thought of.  They also accuse the BBC of covering just one side of changes to the welfare program, only showing the difficulty that the poor will face if welfare changes are enacted. David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, has even outright accused the BBC for behaving “badly” and “stupidly” in its coverage of the Eastleigh by-election.

The BBC has been accused of bias ranging from anti-Muslim, to anti-Catholic, to Indophobic, to anti-Sikh, and most commonly, as pro-liberal.  Clearly, although the profit motive has been removed from this organization, it is still tainted by a considerable degree of bias.  Unfortunately, even removing the profit motive may not cleanse media in America.

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The Iraq War: American media’s largest fiasco

In the previous few posts, I discussed the rampant bias that appears to be an intrinsic property of American media.  Due to the free-market manner in which our system of media is established, news corporations are not urged to present the facts impartially; their sole purpose is to increase dividends.  Therefore, American media has become a circus of talking heads attempting to rile up, scare, and entertain their audience to ensure that they will tune in the following day.  It is nearly impossible to rile up an audience without presenting a clear message; simply stating facts won’t energize anyone.  Therefore, our media has gradually shifted from a presentation of fact to a presentation of opinion.  One example of our media distorting reality and horribly failing in its purpose in order to increase ratings was in the aftermath of September 11th, during the debate over the Iraq War.  American media stations each attempted “to outdo each other in patriotism and hawkish support for the administration.”  Rather than present both sides of the controversy, news anchors felt like they had to prove their undying loyalty to our nation, and therefore were restrained from presenting any criticism of the government or the war.  Our media didn’t stop at distorting the news with subjectivity; they essentially “functioned as an electronic arm of the Pentagon and the Bush administration,” urging their viewers to attend pro-war rallies.  One of the most harrowing instances of media bias during this period was the firing of a technical employee working for the San Fransisco Chronicle for walking in an anti-war rally.  Former BBC director Greg Dyke examined media in the United States, and returned to London with the conclusion that “if Iraq proved anything, it was that the BBC cannot afford to mix patriotism and journalism. This is happening in the United States and if it continues, will undermine the credibility of the US electronic news media.”

What is the solution?  Is is possible to legitimize America’s media?  I believe that the answer may be yes, although the solution may not be popular.  If we remove the profit motive from American media, news anchors will no longer care about who has the highest ratings.  All that will matter will be reporting the news honestly.  How can we remove the profit motive?  By socializing American media.

In my next civic issues blog, I will discuss the plausibility of this solution, along with the success of other socialized medias, such as the BBC.

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How does the media influence public opinion?

In my opinion, the media in the United States is in a very decrepit state.  As Jon Stewart points out nightly on the Daily Show, the bias presented by various networks is appalling.  News has become less about informing people about facts, and more about telling people what their opinions should be.  People tune in to the network that matches their already established political ideology, preventing them from seeing the world from more than one viewpoint, and making them less perceptive to the viewpoints of others.  Although I obviously hold opinions of my own, I think that it is incredibly important for people to be capable of actually challenging what they believe, and to enter every argument with the knowledge that their opinion might actually be swayed.  If people are so stubborn in their beliefs, arguments will devolve into pointless shouting matches that only serve to make both sides hate each other more.  Unfortunately, this sentiment is provoked by our media, who often insult their counterparts on opposing networks, rather than attempt to intelligently refute their arguments.

The power of the media to influence public opinion, and even to provoke an entire movement, was demonstrated recently by the emergence and popularization of the Tea Party.  One network aggressively promoted this movement, encouraging viewers to get involved in the movement by providing attendance and organization information such as protest dates, locations, and website URLs.  The network’s website disseminated various information about the movement, and popular figures for the channel urged viewers to join them at Tea-Party events.  This network was also rather one-sided in its support of the movement, blatantly attacking one political party with statements like, “in the case of the current crisis the blame appears to have been assigned almost totally to Obama, at least by the thousands of U.S. taxpayers attending near-spontaneous ‘tea parties’ in protest of the Democrats agenda of more taxes, increased spending, higher deficits and a surge of borrowing to pay for it all” (Peter Roff).

The bias in the media is certainly not one-sided.  One television network was analyzed in the week leading to the election, and was found to have literally provided no positive coverage of the Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

pew-romney-obama

 

I think that the bias in the media is the root of one of the deepest political issues that we have in this country, as it prevents civil discourse between individuals of separate ideologies, inhibiting compromise and progress.

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Civic Issues Blog #1

Although I initially chose the environment as my topic for this blog, I have decided to switch to the topic of politics, as I wrote my passion blog about the environment last semester.

In this blog, I will discuss my opinion about the affect of social media upon civic discourse.  In my opinion, social media has a tremendous impact upon civic discourse.  It allows politicians’ campaigns to more readily communicate their message, but it also readily allows the dissemination of misinformation.  PolitiFact.com, which is a Pulitzer Prize winning fact checking agency, has rated 54% of political chain-emails “Pants on Fire,” with another 31% garnering either a rating of “false” or “mostly false.”  Unfortunately, these emails gain much traction, spreading false information to millions.

I believe that social media allows groups of people to unite together who might otherwise not.  People who have fringe views are normally unable to find like-minded individuals in their physical vicinity, but social media allows them to connect with people sharing similar beliefs from all around the country.  It also provides an easy way to communicate between members of the group, allowing them to organize events that might not otherwise occur.  The success of social media in mobilizing movements was observed during the Arab Spring, when it was used to rapidly spread the uprising in Egypt.  The social media cite Twitter was used as the central platform for organization of the protests in Egypt.  People in the crowds were able to communicate quickly and effectively, allowing them to notify each other of actions taken by the military, and respond faster than the government could follow.

Social media has had a similar effect in the United States in mobilizing movements like the Tea Party and the Occupy movement.  I know members of both groups, and they both receive information about the activities of their group primarily from social media.  Social media allows them to converse with like minded people, cementing their resolve in their own opinions.  It also allows them to determine meeting places and times easily, enabling events that are far more massive.  As Ben Rattray, the founder of the activist cite change.org, once stated, “you can’t organize thousands of people in New York City [the way Occupy Wall Street has] without the web.”

The increasing significance of social media in politics is having deep repercussions all across the planet, both negative and positive.  It enables grass-roots movements to form much more readily, and it proliferates ideas that may have otherwise been ignored.  However, it also enables the dissemination of misinformation, and it allows certain hate groups to gain more prominence than they would have otherwise.  Social media has become an integral aspect of contemporary politics, and it will likely continue to have deep effects upon political discourse for the foreseeable future.

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“The Forgotten Millions” – Paul Krugman

Since I generally read Paul Krugman’s blog anyway, I decided to write my RCL blog about his latest opinion piece again.  Krugman’s latest blog, “The Forgotten Millions,” concerns the fiscal and job crisis.  Krugman begins by trivializing the fiscal crisis, stating that it is an insignificant issue when compared to the job crisis.  Krugman quickly injects politics into his argument, crafting a negative ethos surrounding the Republican party, and stating that “Republicans have been using blackmail as a bargaining strategy.”  Krugman makes his blatant message clear immediately from the offset of his essay, portraying Republicans in a negative light, and the President in a positive light, stating that “the president seems ready to call their bluff.”

Krugman then utilizes logos to back up his claim that the fiscal cliff is not a significant issue, stating that if we were to go off the proverbial cliff, “the worst that could happen would be a fall in the dollar, which wouldn’t be a terrible thing and might actually help the economy.”  He further uses logos to support his proclamation that the jobs crisis is far more pressing, citing the fact that “as of October, 4.9 million Americans had been unemployed for more than six months, and 3.6 million had been out of work for more than a year.”

Krugman also uses pathos to reinforce his argument, attempting to make the lives of the unemployed more relatable, by emphasizing that they are “individuals and families whose lives are falling apart because they can’t find work… homes lost and dreams destroyed.”

Krugman then proposes his solution to this crisis: rather than focus upon immediately reducing our debt, he believes “that spending more to create jobs now would actually improve our long-run fiscal position.”  He then attacks his conservative opponents, stating that “the assertion that government spending creates jobs, but only if it goes to the military, doesn’t make sense.”

Krugman utilizes all three of the primary rhetorical strategies to attempt to convince his reader that espite the hype it is receiving from politicians and the media, the fiscal cliff is not the crisis that we should concentrate on.  Krugman argues that we should instead focus our efforts upon combatting the job crisis.

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“The Twinkie Manifesto” by Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman is an esteemed economist, a Nobel laureate, a professor at Princeton University, and one of the premier proponents of liberal economic policies.  Krugman maintains a blog on The New York Times website titled “The Conscience of a Liberal,” vehemently defending his ideology.  One of Krugman’s most recent articles is titled “The Twinkie Manifesto,” alluding to Hostess’s recent file for bankruptcy.  In his article, Krugman utilizes many forms of rhetoric.  He uses verbiage to create an invented ethos of his political opponents, stating that “contrary to today’s conservative orthodoxy, you can have prosperity without demeaning workers and coddling the rich.”  He uses the words “demeaning” and “coddling” to portray his opponents in a negative light, essentially stating that their policies are “demeaning” to the working class and “coddling” for the upper class.

Krugman also uses logos to convince the readers of his point of view.  He presents several facts to support his position that lowering marginal tax rates don’t strengthen the economy.  He states that in the 1950s, the marginal tax rate for the rich was 91%, and the corporate tax rate was twice as high as it is today.  He also states that during this time period, unions had far more power, with about a third of all workers belonging to a union.  He uses this logos to back up his assertion that the conservative idea that taxing the rich will somehow demotivate the “job-creators” is absurd.  He uses information from a 1955 Fortune magazine, which found that the rich were working “harder than ever.”  He also backs up his claim with his assertion that “the high-tax, strong-union decades after World War II were in fact marked by spectacular, widely shared economic growth: nothing before or since has matched the doubling of median family income between 1947 and 1973.”

Krugman attempts to convince the reader that the commonly held misconception that tax-cuts stimulate the economy is an absurd assertion, utilizing ethos and logos to back up his claim.

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Samsung – “For Your Big Life”

I’ve decided to diverge from the topic of politics this week and discuss the rhetorical content of a popular advertisement.  I have always been interested in what exactly draws a viewer’s attention in an advertisement, and what makes an advertisement either succeed or fail.  Therefore, I decided to do some research, and I found that a television research firm called Ace Metrix actually rates advertisements based upon how effective they are to viewers.  According to this firm, the most effective advertisement of quarter 2 in 2012 was of a refrigerator created by Samsung.

Samsung “Big Time”

The creators of this fridge knew their target audience, and this commercial does a great job appealing to them.  Only relatively well-off, large families would likely have a use for a refrigerator this large, so this ad plays perfectly to this audience.  The entire ad attempts to emphasize the tremendous capacity of the fridge, beginning in the opening scene, which shows a car filled to capacity.  The ad then shows every member of the family working together to fill the fridge, making it appear as if it is quite the endeavor, and adding again to the impression of the fridge’s capaciousness.  The family appears overjoyed, thoroughly enjoying the activity of filling the fridge.  Even the dog appears happy.  This creates a situated ethos for the family, making them appear tight-knit and congenial, and perhaps leaving the impression that any owner of this fridge can be just as happy as they are.  At the culmination of the video, the woman who is ostensibly the mother simply states, “wow,” leaving the same impression of amazement upon the thoughts of the viewer.  The simplicity of the advertisement also adds to the pathos it presents, as for many Americans, the act of refilling their fridge is a timely ordeal.  The ease and proficiency at which the family in the video fills their fridge leaves a lasting impression upon the viewer, creating a sense of desire for a similar level of simplicity and enthusiasm in their own lives.

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2012 Election: Proof that Democracy is not Dead

I remember 2008.  I was so filled with genuine hope, that maybe our government could change, and that maybe they could enact policies that would positively influence our lives.  I honestly only have myself to blame for my misplaced optimism.  The rhetoric of the 2008 Obama campaign – which utilized all forms of rhetoric incredibly effectively – drilled that unforgettable message into my head.  I truly believed that we had entered a second progressive era – an era of hope and change.  Obama appealed to my sense of ethos stronger than any politician had in the past, and I succumbed to his powerful rhetoric.

Unfortunately, just as millions were disappointed with the Star Wars prequels, I was disappointed with the presidency of Barack Obama.  Yes, he did have numerous accomplishments, but they were far fewer and less far-reaching than I had unrealistically hoped for.  Therefore, while I am happy that Obama was reelected, it is not the presidential election that has restored my hope in American democracy.  The sentiment that I felt in 2008 has been restored, not by our politicians, but by our public.  In Maryland, Maine, and Washington, for the first time in our country’s history, gay marriage has won a popular vote.  Medical marijuana was legalized in Massachusetts, as was recreational marijuana in Washington and Colorado.  The people of Wisconsin have elected the first openly gay senator, and the people of Hawaii have elected the first female Asian American to the Senate.  More women will serve in the 114th Congress than ever before.  While our politicians might be stagnant, the American people have proven that they are not.  America has finally shown the world that we have a justification for our patriotism – although we may have our outliers, we are more tolerant than at any other point in our history.  This is an exciting point in our country’s history, a point that will be remembered with pride, and I eagerly anticipate the next election, when progressive causes will inevitably advance even farther.

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TED talks

Although I often have trouble presenting in front of people, I am actually very excited about the upcoming TED talk.  I was nervous about the previous speech, but TED talks seem much more laid back and much less controlled.  Since they are more of a conversation than a speech, I feel much more comfortable presenting one.  I also am very interested in the topic that I have chosen, so I think that speaking about it in front of people will come easily for me.

I really like the idea of TED talks in general.  I think that they provide a tremendous educational opportunity, as they engage the viewer in a way that a simple lecture cannot.  First of all, they often involve personal stories that the viewer can relate to, drawing them into the conversation.  The speaker also is engaging and entertaining, rather than immobile and monotone.  This helps maintain the viewer’s attention.  Finally, they usually involve topics that nearly anyone will find pertinent and useful, providing the viewer with a motivation to continue watching.

I think that TED talks are an amazing way to convey information, and I hope that teachers and schools around the country can learn from them how to better engage students.  I believe that if lectures were more like TED talks, students would be more interested in learning, and would perform much better in school.

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Gangnam Style

Although it isn’t in english, the smash hit Gangnam Style has become a pervasive hit among youth worldwide.  The video has blown up on Youtube, amassing over 500 million views, and its catchy tune and dance are now a crucial part of any party.  Although everyone knows the song, many people do not realize the deeper meaning behind the funny dance and video.

Much of the imagery in the music video creates an ethos that is meant to negatively portray the lavish lifestyle of the residents of the Gangnam district in Seoul, South Korea.  Psy, the creator of Gangnam Style, personates a typical resident of this stereotypically wealthy area, creating an invented ethos for himself as an arrogant, womanizing and extravagant man.  As Psy has admitted, the song is also intended to mock the average South Korean who pretends to live this lavish lifestyle, but in reality is barely able to get by.  They wear expensive clothes and engage in gaudy behavior in public, but in private, they are cheap and miserable.  Psy mocks this lifestyle to influence his culture to stop attempting to maintain this facade, as in his opinion, it is harmful and superficial.

Psy demonstrates this double life at several points in his video.  For example, in one instance, Psy appears to be at a beach, but is actually at a children’s playground.  This demonstrates the facade that many South Koreans obsess to maintain.  They attempt to make their lives appear glamorous, hiding the sad reality of their lives.  Psy also attempts to make materialism appear like an absurd concept, which is demonstrated when he walks through a car garage with trash and feathers flying around him.  Psy makes himself appear like a fool throughout the entire video, engaging in ridiculous dance routines, to portray the lifestyle that he is imitating as equally absurd.

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