It’s not all bad news about the media
Kathryn Adams
It has made the front page of print media, it is headline news on the television and radio. It is even flashing over the moving Billboards in Times Square. So what is it? Swine Flu. If you haven’t heard about it you have been living under what many call, a ‘rock’.
Everyday, I, like many other people across the globe, criticise the media. However when it comes down to it, where would we be without the media? How else would we be informed about the latest pandemic? Or as Channel Nine reported on Thursday the 30th of April, how would we know if Dennis Ferguson was living next to our child’s school?
In times of global crisis it becomes evident of the growing reliance on ‘Social Media’. Turow described social media as “Sites that allow people to create networks of acquaintances and friends and to share their writings and audiovisual materials with them.” (2009, 221).
On April 28 Facebook released a network where users can report on Swine Flu. As of Thursday at 7:43pm 582 comments had been made. Facebook also released a series of images mapping the user interest in the Swine Flue. Facebook use a service called Lexicon to track the amount of times certain terms are used on wall posts (Hoffman 2009). Lets not forget about Twitter though, almost 2 percent of Tweets have included some information regarding Swine Flu (Nielsen News 2009).
Glen Nowak, media relations chief for CDC (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention) believes Social Networking Sites are “..generally a useful development..” (2009). He also believes that audiences should not rely solely on these as sources. In times of crisis people turn to social network sites such as myspace and facebook to gather information and in some cases let loved ones know they are still alive.
So where did this phenomena start? With the introduction of internet, audiences became more and more dependant on it as a sole source of information. We live in an age where all the information we require is a couple of clicks and a few pushes of a button away. At the beginning of the 21st centuary Napster was the most popular vision of digital convergence (Turow, 2009, 216). Napster allowed people who had an account with them to search for digital media on other user’s databases.
We use our media in a number of different ways but thanks to the introduction of technology such as the iPhone, we use less devices for the one medium. We use media all the time, be it reading, watching, listening or more recently sending short message service (SMS) text messages (Deuze, 2007, 50). Like the iPhone we can use our mobile phone to take a photo and then upload it to a social networking site. Apple summed it up in the many adds for the iPhone.
The affects of social networking sites can be seen globally as discussed in Victoria Yau’s blog, Susan Boyle – Brought by You tube. Social media has provided a link for many audiences with similar interests. The high use of social media verifies the interest in certain subjects such as Swine Flu (Nowak 2009).
Harrison Hoffman (2009) suggested that “social media is likely to be one of the primary mediums” to gather and spread information in times of crisis. Although the role of social media has been long disputed it is definitely significant in the spread of information about Swine Flu across the globe.
Tweet the word.
Reference List:
Turow, S. 2009. Media Today: An Introduction to Mass Communication. New York: Routledge.
Deuze, M. 2007. Media Professionals in a digital age. UK: Polity Press
Mapping the Swine Flu Discussion. 2009. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106392&id=20531316728 (accessed April 30, 2009).
Sutter, J. D. 2009. Swine flu creates controversy on Twitter. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/27/swine.flu.twitter/index.html?iref=newssearch
(accessed April 30, 2009).
Apple iPhone TV Ads. 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lfmlKYZ-vU&feature=related (accessed April 30, 2009).
Swine Flu News and Concern Dominates Online Buzz. 2009. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/swine-flu-news-and-concern-dominates-online-buzz/ (accessed April 30, 2009).
Hoffman, D. 2009. Facebook maps the swine flu hysteria. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/swine-flu-news-and-concern-dominates-online-buzz/ (accessed April 30, 2009).
Monday, May 4, 2009
Women in the media
The Courier Mail, a woman’s best frenemey.
How are the media representing modern women? By Kathryn Adams
Monday:
Page 9 - Barbie Parade has clichéd blonde gaffe (Courier Mail, 2009)
Wednesday:
Front Page - Many Aussie women lack manners and are 'foul-mouthed and loud' (Wallace 2009)
Thursday:
Sweet 16? Wild Child Cassi’s older man. (Mc Whirter, 2009)
Courier Mail website:
Top Model Finalist shock outburst. (Wednesday). (Mc Whirter, 2009)
Who can forget the headlines that arose after Carrie Prejean, a Miss USA Pageant contestant, responded to a question about gay marriages? The headlines were not directed at the fact that she had made the comment and what was wrong with the content of the comment, they were directed more so at the colour of her hair.
Women are subjected to representations daily through all forms of media, be it billboards with near naked women advertising beer, as explained in Sophie Abernethy’s blog A Blonde Mistake, or articles in the paper representing women as particular characteristics.
Could I find an article this week in the courier mail detailing the success of a woman rather than the controversy leading up to her success? No. Perhaps because it is not ‘newsworthy’. But when does newsworthy become more important than the representations of a particular group.
Kimberlee Eason made reference in her blog about the changing trend in the media and that celebrity gossip and in this case discriminatory views on women constitute headline news. Gone are the days were women were seen as submissive, stay at home mothers who spent their days in the kitchen and in come the days where women are as represented as rude and aggressive.
Stereotyping is the key element in representation. As Kate Bowles wrote stereotyping is ‘replacing the particular with the general, by misrepresenting the general as an imaginary particular’ (2006, 70). The Courier Mail is side lining the success of women, stereotyping them as ‘blonde’ and aggressive.
Kate Bowles explained that representation has a relationship with reality (2006, 64). However what reality is involved in representing women as rude, evil and feisty? Perhaps most women possess these qualities but so do men and to what extent do these qualities take precedence over the success of a woman. Defining reality depends on elements such as gender, age and racial background but in the above articles no emphasis is placed on age and race. The selected articles depict ‘reality’ in relation to gender solely.
Representations are used in an aim to communicate with audiences and are not entropic (Bowles, 2006, 68). So who is the Courier Mail communicating with? I know that readers of the Courier Mail are not solely males as I, a woman, often enjoy flicking through the pages of the paper.
As Andrew Beck writes, “Representations are extremely powerful in society” and although the representation of women in the media has changed, women are still given dishonourable representations. Reading an article with aspects of controversy has become more interesting that reading one without, evident by the articles in the Courier Mail over the last week. There is no focus on Prejean or the Australia’s Next Top Model finalist getting to that level in the competition. The focus is on their ‘not so attractive’ personal characteristics.
Media professionals are continually being selective in their material to represent people and events in relation to one or two characteristics (Andrew Beck, 2009). As they saying goes ‘you can not judge a book by its cover,’ so surely you can not judge a person by one aspect of their character.The representations of women are changing daily by the media, especially the Courier Mail.
Courier Mail.. Why don’t your headlines read like this….
Monday:
Miss USA Contestant – how she made it this far.
Wednesday:
Real women achieving real success.
Thursday:
Model makes the runway at 16.
Reference List:
Bowles, K. 2006. Representation. In The Media and Communications in Australia, ed. S. Cunningham and G. Turner, 64-77. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.
Mc Whirter, E. 2009. Wild child Cassi’s older man. Courier Mail. April 23.
Wallace, I, 2009. Many Aussie women lack manners and are 'foul-mouthed and loud'. Courier Mail. April 22.
Mc Whirter, E. 2009. Top Model Finalist shock outburst. Courier Mail. April 22.
How are the media representing modern women? By Kathryn Adams
Monday:
Page 9 - Barbie Parade has clichéd blonde gaffe (Courier Mail, 2009)
Wednesday:
Front Page - Many Aussie women lack manners and are 'foul-mouthed and loud' (Wallace 2009)
Thursday:
Sweet 16? Wild Child Cassi’s older man. (Mc Whirter, 2009)
Courier Mail website:
Top Model Finalist shock outburst. (Wednesday). (Mc Whirter, 2009)
Who can forget the headlines that arose after Carrie Prejean, a Miss USA Pageant contestant, responded to a question about gay marriages? The headlines were not directed at the fact that she had made the comment and what was wrong with the content of the comment, they were directed more so at the colour of her hair.
Women are subjected to representations daily through all forms of media, be it billboards with near naked women advertising beer, as explained in Sophie Abernethy’s blog A Blonde Mistake, or articles in the paper representing women as particular characteristics.
Could I find an article this week in the courier mail detailing the success of a woman rather than the controversy leading up to her success? No. Perhaps because it is not ‘newsworthy’. But when does newsworthy become more important than the representations of a particular group.
Kimberlee Eason made reference in her blog about the changing trend in the media and that celebrity gossip and in this case discriminatory views on women constitute headline news. Gone are the days were women were seen as submissive, stay at home mothers who spent their days in the kitchen and in come the days where women are as represented as rude and aggressive.
Stereotyping is the key element in representation. As Kate Bowles wrote stereotyping is ‘replacing the particular with the general, by misrepresenting the general as an imaginary particular’ (2006, 70). The Courier Mail is side lining the success of women, stereotyping them as ‘blonde’ and aggressive.
Kate Bowles explained that representation has a relationship with reality (2006, 64). However what reality is involved in representing women as rude, evil and feisty? Perhaps most women possess these qualities but so do men and to what extent do these qualities take precedence over the success of a woman. Defining reality depends on elements such as gender, age and racial background but in the above articles no emphasis is placed on age and race. The selected articles depict ‘reality’ in relation to gender solely.
Representations are used in an aim to communicate with audiences and are not entropic (Bowles, 2006, 68). So who is the Courier Mail communicating with? I know that readers of the Courier Mail are not solely males as I, a woman, often enjoy flicking through the pages of the paper.
As Andrew Beck writes, “Representations are extremely powerful in society” and although the representation of women in the media has changed, women are still given dishonourable representations. Reading an article with aspects of controversy has become more interesting that reading one without, evident by the articles in the Courier Mail over the last week. There is no focus on Prejean or the Australia’s Next Top Model finalist getting to that level in the competition. The focus is on their ‘not so attractive’ personal characteristics.
Media professionals are continually being selective in their material to represent people and events in relation to one or two characteristics (Andrew Beck, 2009). As they saying goes ‘you can not judge a book by its cover,’ so surely you can not judge a person by one aspect of their character.The representations of women are changing daily by the media, especially the Courier Mail.
Courier Mail.. Why don’t your headlines read like this….
Monday:
Miss USA Contestant – how she made it this far.
Wednesday:
Real women achieving real success.
Thursday:
Model makes the runway at 16.
Reference List:
Bowles, K. 2006. Representation. In The Media and Communications in Australia, ed. S. Cunningham and G. Turner, 64-77. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.
Mc Whirter, E. 2009. Wild child Cassi’s older man. Courier Mail. April 23.
Wallace, I, 2009. Many Aussie women lack manners and are 'foul-mouthed and loud'. Courier Mail. April 22.
Mc Whirter, E. 2009. Top Model Finalist shock outburst. Courier Mail. April 22.
This week in the media..
A B S * I T
Are you filling in the star for your child? By Kathryn Adams
Are you filling in the star for your child? By Kathryn Adams
“The people here sucked, back stabbing, manipulative, two timing, fame hungry, dim witted, certifiably insane, really weird. Psychotic, red necked, over bearing, goody-goody, know-it-all, party obsessed jerks.”
This is an excerpt out of the ABC’s newest children’s show, cartoon network reality show, Total Drama Island airing at 5:30pm on Monday. I may be turning into my mother when I say this but, do you really want to allow your children to watch this show? During one single episode I witnessed blurred nudity, bleeped out words, juvenile criminals and ‘red necked jerks’. I can not recall any of my early childhood television viewing being centered around such characteristics. The characters, who receive prizes for different challenges on the island, are developed to represent different stereotypes within society, the bully, the tom boy, the criminal, the ‘obese’ boy, the surfer girl, the DJ, the try hard and the list goes on.
Surely a G rating would mean that you could leave your child in front of the TV screen without worrying if you should turn the volume down or cover their eyes? So where does the responsibility lie. Should the media be responsible for the rating, time slot and its own affects or should it be up to the parents to protect their children from these discriminatory shows.
In 1999 in the wake of the Columbine High School Shootings many audiences claimed that video games and music were the main responsibility for the actions of the gunmen. The effects of media have been debated long before this event. It was the Payne Studies in 1928 that brought the awareness of media effects to the forefront of public opinion (Sparks, 2006, 46). Glenn Sparks writes that according to Albert Bandura, the author of the theory of social learning, children are more likely to imitate characters that receive rewards for their behavior and are seen more attractive than those who are not (2006, 48). According to Andrew Beck in his blog, How to Misrepresent Game Players -or- How to Stop People from Reaching Level 80 “Representations are extremely powerful in modern society,” authors deliberately misrepresent reality for their own benefit. The creators of Total Drama Island are deliberately misrepresenting the reality of their characters to construct them as more appealing to for viewers. The show promotes bullying through the use of degrading words and rewards.
Glenn Sparks explored the magic bullet model in his book, A Brief History of Media Effects Research. He identified that the effects of the mass media can be compared to that of a shooting gun in that “once the message reaches the audience, it will exert powerful, relatively uniform effects on everyone who processes it” (2006, 51). It was when McLeod and Reeves studied the effects of media that there was a more specific connection between the effects of content specific media. They argued that people who were exposed to a certain genre would develop attitudes similar to that of the genre (1980, 17-54).
Although many may argue that it is the responsibility of the parent to monitor their children’s viewing habits it can not be over looked that although not everyone is affected by a single message there are a select few that are. The messages underpinning Total Drama Island may not generate reactions in all viewers there will be a select few that will react.
But where can the line be drawn, when does it become the responsibility of the parent for their own child's viewing habits. Bring back the days of Teletubbies and Playschool and give the children a chance to grow up with out the prejudice.
Sparks, G. 2006. Media Effects Research: A Basic Overview in A Brief History of Media Effects Research, 43-62. Belmont USA: Wadsworth.
McLeod, M., B. Reeves. 1980. On the Nature of Media Effects In Television and Social Behavior: Beyond Violence and children, ed. S.B. Whitney and R.P. Abeles, 17-54. Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
Beck, A. 2009. How to Misrepresent Game Players -or- How to Stop People from Reaching Level 80. http://blackboard.qut.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_52794_1 (accessed April 16, 2009).
Thursday, January 1, 2009
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