Media criticism

Chapters 11, 12 & 13

Chapter 11 was about advertising! Oh how excited I was to read this chapter. Funny that once again everyone seem to have bashed advertising so much that I had to comment. Yes, once again biased – but in my defense I know what goes on behind the scenes of advertising and it isn’t as cruel as many may think. The fact to the matter is that people cuss advertising all the time, yet EVERYONE buys into it. How many people have an iphone? How many people choose Mac over PC, or even PC over MAC? Your decisions and opinions about consumer products are all to do with advertising whether you like it or not. Even if you choose not to listen to the Nike ad on TV, and decide to buy Adidas advertising played a role. As much as I don’t like groups or categories when it comes to people the fact that certain products and marketed to a certain group of people are just a way of life. Take for instance, Barbie dolls are marketable to age range of 5 – 15 seems entirely acceptable. It is a fact that women in some Asian countries like the idea of whiter skin than darker so certain whitening products will sell better in this countries. People are scared on the worlds, ‘category’ and ‘group’, they much keep in mind that there are groups of people that need some products more than others. Consumer sellers will not promote to a market that they don’t see fit, because sales wont grow. It just all makes sense.

In 2007, there are 15 minutes of ads every hour in primetime, up from 13 minutes in 1992. ¼ of every hour. Commercials back in the day used to be on average a minute long, now commercials are shorter but we see a lot more them in longer periods of time. The truth is there is not of good advertising out there – which is why this becomes more of a hassle than something informative. There were many tricks of the trade back in the day, with advertising, one of which was repetition. ‘Head On’ advertising was a good example in the book about this. It was proven that sales did improve because it was so annoying this meant that word was spread about the commercial.

Head-on. Apply directly to the forehead.

The books talks about advertising being around since 3000BC. It makes me wonder what kind of advertising they were really talking about because there wasn’t much competition between consumer products due to the fact that the options were very limited. If you for instance needed to buy soap, you went out and bought it. You didn’t stop to wonder what kind of brand you would pick from – if you could afford it, if you needed it, you would buy it. Therefore in terms of the book talking about advertising back then, there were probably signs like ‘Buy Milk here’. The industrial revolution is what spurned the growth beyond basic advertising into more sophisticated ads. The industrial revolution meant that factories were able to make masses, which in turn made room for variety. Advertising than took its place in differentiating one product from the other. There was more competition.

Chapter 12 was about Public Relations. Edward Bernays of Lucky Strike was able to convince the women that smoking was absolutely and entirely all right with no health consequences. Simultaneously he did not allow his wife to smoke. Something isn’t right here. It is the fact that companies similar to that are able to deceive people’s minds – in a way that they could be life threatening. Public relations in some cases have helped the economy grow and helped inform citizens on various issues through public announcements however it is scary to think that they have great power and influence on people that if used in the wrong way could be a major downfall. It isn’t right to attempt to cover up and sugarcoat a company’s wrongdoing in order to keep a positive image.

Public relations are essentially to manipulate opinion, depending on what organization or company the PR works for. They are there to manipulate facts in order to see the company in the most favorable way. A video release may be mistaken for an advertisement, however it is a video trying to sell an image. It attempts to persuade the viewer by believing what they believe about a certain company/organization.

Chapter 13 was about Media Economics. The more money is spend on media the less need there is for things like news papers, and book due to advancements of technology. People spend more days now watching Television than they ever have – this means that there is more room for advertisements, and less room for public individual opinion. Many of these companies and organizations are conglomerate. Rather than being individually owned by smaller cooperation there are many businesses that are group under one umbrella organization. Take for instance Disney. Disney has their theme parks scattered globally, retail stores, TV channels, TV productions etc. This enables the organization to gave great economic power and in some cases political influence.

Take for instance the Australian Rupert Murdoch. This is a man who owns Fox news, several newspapers and TV stations around the world. Because he owns many large co-operations’ worldwide he plays a great role in influencing the mind of the public – most of the times when the public don’t even realize it. It is a fact that America is only run by a few giant media corporations, and due to this fact it only makes it more evident that citizens really do not have much choice or power but instead to lives by what the media is fed to us. It is up to us whether we want to believe what we see or question. The sad fact is most people don’t questions.

The News about the News

Part one and two

The book talks about news in terms of its declining quality, how news itself has evolved and passed on from smaller private own businesses and what role it plays on today’s society. I was happy to find that this text was quite an easy read. It not only had all the facts and details about news, but it gave me a good insight to what goes on behind the scenes. News is simply news to the general public, it is what goes on behind the scenes that really effects people without them even knowing.

The quality of news is one of the issues that Downie and Kaiser speak about in their book. The fact that families once owned newspapers meant that news was more personal, and journalists were able to reach readers in such a way that they were able to connect on a familiar level. Over the years newspapers changed their initial intentions when they were owned by smaller groups of people and had much more of a community approach, to less personal more informative approach by big industrial companies. In cases where news has not exactly reported cases to its best knowledge is for instance 9/11.

There was a lot of attention on the fact that the plane had crashed into the Twin Towers, however very little on the specific details. The fact that this incident alone is such a catastrophe the news was very focused on simply talking about the act, rather than the makings of the act, or what may have been the cause of this situation. People are so caught in what is being given to them rather than questioning anything. This consequently means that the media in terms of the news is able to ‘brainwash’ to a greater extent, because people like to, ‘trust the news’, because the news is suppose to be a documentation of the ‘truth’.

Bad journalism is failing to report important news, or reporting news shallowly, inaccurately or unfairly can leave people dangerously informed. Inaccurate information means that people are voicing their opinions based on the news given to them.

Downie and Kaiser explain why news is so important because it is a way to inform the masses. It is a way of communicating what it going on in the world without leaving your home. It is a way of reaching to the masses to preach about themes like democracy, so people are able to vote. In some ways in is meant for people to be united in a sense that everyone can read and watch what is going in the world, and form their own opinions about things. I am sure speeches that Obama had on television swayed the opinions of some (for the better rather than the worse). News plays a huge role in how society is today, because it affects people.

The quality of news has changed a great deal. Over the years news articles and programs have exponentially becomes shorter, with more summaries and imagery (entertainment) to arouse our minds. Our attentions spans are shorter and we get easily bored. There is more room for advertising now in newspapers than ever, and more often than not do you do you find headlines and summaries of stories being the most prominent when looking through newspapers. People spend more time watching ‘reality TV’ than picking up and reading a paper. But I ask myself if we spend the same amount of time readings papers as we did back them, would that benefit us at all?

The Media lies!

Maxim is a magazine for men. It is Guys' ultimate Guide to women, sports, TV, music and stuff. Cosmo. is a womens' magazine that talks about beauty, love, sex, advice, style etc. Both of these magazines right off the bat are very different. Lets start by the cover of the magazine. Maxim will always have a sexy, half naked dress women on front of the cover - simply dripping with sex appeal, whereas cosmo. will also have a photo of a woman only this time she 'IS' dressed, and more often than not, in something very stylish - (or so they say). So when you first open the magazine, just like many others you will find a heap of advertising before you even get to the contents of the magazine. Most of the ads that go into cosmo. are beauty ads - marketing cream products, fashion ads, perfume ads, birth-control ads, shape-up - dangerous looking pill ads, whereas in the Maxim magazine, you will have car ads, sports advertising, alcohol ad (as seen in this months issue of maxim "Fat Ass Tequila". Who doesn't want a shot of Fat Ass Tequila?

One thing I have noticed that was a great different in both magazine was the way things were written. In the gentlemens' magazine it was very factual. Articles weren't as long, and things were very organized in terms of the editorial layout. With cosmo, there were several long articles, usually to do with 'sex scandals', or how in '10 steps you could make a guy like you'. that had to extend to the spare pages in the back. The layout design was a little more playful and there was definitely a lot more colour in the pages.

Women are obsessed with how they look, or how to turn on a guy in bed - which is why week after week it is the same thing. 'Confessions', 'life advice', 'the next best anti-wrinkle cream for under $100'. Its the same as the fact that there is always some girl in lingerie or a swimsuit on the cover of Maxim - because this is what (for the men that buy this magazine) want to see. Ew to both of these magazines, I am surprised that in this economy they are both still sitting on the stands.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

One minute ads in the sixties

Shocking!

The News about the News and Chapters 11-13

Sunday, October 18, 2009

A comparison between Maxim and Cosmo.

Okay this is about the coolest music video

FYI

Continuation

Media criticism

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