The power of television

 
Greetings to all in my “Mass Media and Society” course.
 
 Hope you are all reading (or by now have read) chapter 8 “Television: Changing Channels” in our textbook. 

Here are some notes and observations about chapter 8—to help shape your study of this important part of our course.

In chapter 8 are such key points/topics as the history and early development of television; TV media mogul Ted Turner (who once declared that newspapers would within a few years become extinct mainly because of the power of TV (But that prophecy, obviously did not materialize); the debut of TV at the World’s Fair in NYC in 1939; the different kinds or genres of entertainment offered by early TV; the quiz show scandals of the 1950s; the Nielsen Company; public televison; the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; the eight departments found at a typical TV station; cable and satellite delivery of TV; DVRs; and HDTV.

Not touched up in this chapter (but a person you should nevertheless become familiar with in terms of the history of TV, is Christine Craft; certain folks in the TV industry said she was too old to work professionally in TV and not sufficiently subservient to men).
 
To learn more about who Christine Craft was/is (and how she relates to the development and history of TV, do some quick research on the Net and find out.)

You should also become familiar with the the television station at Emory & Henry Colllege. Learn how that station’s TV content is produced, by whom it is produced and where you can find/view it.  By the way, where exactly on our campus is EHC-TV headquartered? Hint: it’s quite close to our classroom.

If you plan to pursue TV as a career—either in front of the camera or behind the scenes—you might want to get involved quickly with EHC-TV (or as an intern or volunteer at a TV station in your home community). You, too, may one day find yourself featured in a news segment, feature story or other offering on television.

There have been several landmark or defining points/programs in the history and development of TV.  Be able to name and discuss at least a few of these programs. (We may note a sampling of such programs in our class.)

Related to that, think about what it takes to be successful and/or to break into a career in TV.  Not sure about what it takes? Connect with Dr. Teresa Keller in the Mass Communications Department. She’s general manager of EHC-TV. I’m sure the Internet also has a ton of information about how to get started in television. Or just make contact with a professional currently working in TV. Pick his/her brain on what it takes to break into TV and to be successful.


Here are key points about chapter 8 “Television…”:
 

1.  Television influences people and society in both the short-term and long-term.  Television has reshaped other media.
 
2.  Television content was once labeled a “vast wasteland” by a chairman of the FCC.
3.  U.S. television is organized on two tiers, national and local.
 

4.  Television has expanded beyond over-air delivery.
 
5.  Networks dominate programming to local over-air television stations.
 
6.  Federal money channeled through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting helps fund non-commercial television.
 

7.  Cable today rivals over-air networks and affiliates.
 
8.  Radio was the model for early television entertainment programs.
 
9.  JFK was the country’s first television president.

Key terms/names from chapter 8 include:
 
1.  Major TV networks

2.  CATV

3.  Edward R. Murrow
4.  David Brinkley
5. Philo T. Farnsworth
6.  satellite delivery

7.  prime time
8.  “I Love Lucy”
9. FCC
10. “The Honeymooners”
11. CNN

12. demographics
13. Public Broadcasting System
14. Corporation for Public Broadcasting
15. Sesame Street
16. Super Bowl commercials
17. Telestar I
18. DVRs
19.  Ted Turner
20. affiliates
21. concentrated ownership of stations
22. Univision
23. ratings
24. Sweeps 
25. HDTV 

I hope these notes about chapter 8 will help guide you in your study of this important chapter. Maybe, in a sense, some critics have been a bit unkind or unfair in describing the content/messages of TV as a “vast wasteland.”

Certainly, some TV programs have at least some redeeming/educational value. We should never discount the power of pictures choreographed with sound.

•But for TV, we wouldn’t have had an armchair seat on the news coverage of the assassination of JFK.

•But for TV, the American Civil Rights movement--the marches and suffering of African-Americans campaigning for social justice and equality under the law--probably would not have borne fruit.

•But for TV, which exposed the thousands of U.S. flag-draped coffins coming back from Southeast Asia, America’s military involvement in Vietnam would have dragged on much longer than it did.

•But for TV, we as a nation would have never been able to witness the thrills and chills of the first humans walking on the moon.

•But for TV, we would not have seen the historic (and emotionally wrenching) explosions of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles.

•But for the power of moving pictures, we would not have witnessed first hand the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. 

 •But for TV, we would not have been as emotionally or psychologically touched by the dramatic events of Sept. 11, 2001. 

•But for TV, we wouldn’t have been able to watch first-hand the huge, joyous celebration (in Chicago) of Barack Obama’s election night victory—as the nation’s first African-American president—in November 2008.

•But for TV, many of us (among them yours truly) wouldn’t have been riveted to news of a STILL-MISSING Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 with more than 235 people aboard.

Concluding observation: we owe a lot to TV, and it’s shaping our lives—what we think about, what we value, what we do and how we do it, what we talk about and write about, how we relate to others.

We definitely have to acknowledge that TV is an integral part of our psyche AND our culture. (Still don’t believe it’s an integral part of our psyche? How could it NOT be, given how much time we spend watching television. (What does chap. 8 say about how much time we spend watching TV?)

That’s it. If you’re reading this in the evening, you’re probably aching to watch your favorite TV program. 
 And what program would that be? Are you an ESPN junkie? A Golf channel fanatic? Glued to an evening TV drama? A regular watcher of the The Voice? 


One of the most famous early TV programs in the history and development of TV was "I Love Lucy"--starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.  This show is mentioned in chapter 8.

Here's an “I Love Lucy” YouTube clip:
 
 


What will our world be like in 2028? Here’s a thought-provoking clip:




How is it possible for all of us to keep us in this rapidly changing, media-driven world? Watch this YouTub clip:

Movies move us like no other medium of mass communication

Hi MCOM 101 students.

This is a short week for our course. We will NOT be meeting as a class on Friday, March 25 (GOOD FRIDAY).

But we will be focusing Monday, March 21, and Wednesday, March 23, on chapter 7 “Movies: Picturing the Future.”

So be sure you’ve read this chapter by the start of our class on Wed., March 23, and that you can define/describe/explain the “Key Terms” near the top of the page at the end of the chapter on pg. 149.

Also, be able to answer the “Critical Questions” on that same page.

Okay. Let’s dive into movies.

Yes, we’ve all seen many movies, but could you correctly answer these questions about movies?  Try your luck. 

(I’ll reveal the correct answers later).

1. True or False? Sound was not introduced to the movies until the 1920s.
2. What famous movie (from early in the 20th century) is director D.W. Griffith associated with?
3. What state in the U.S. did much of the movie industry move to in the 1920s?
4. True or False? The movie rating or censorship system in the U.S. is state government mandated.
5. Name the first feature-length animated film produced by Walt Disney. Hint: the film was released in late 1937.
6. What did it mean for a movie employee to be “blacklisted” in the late 1940s?
7. True or False? Radio has been the biggest force—of all the branches of the mass media of communications— shaping the modern movie industry.
8. True or False? For a blockbuster movie, Titanic was a low-budget movie (meaning it cost relatively little to make compared to the revenue it brought in).
9. What are “ancillary rights” for a movie? Define/describe.
10. Why is it a challenge or hard for small theatres to convert to digital technology?
11. What is the MPAA?
12. What was the X rating for movies changed to?
13. Name one famous movie that was directed by Stephen Spielberg.
14. True or False? The movie “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (2009) was a bigger blockbuster than “Avatar” (2009).
15. Every movie begins with a story idea, and this idea comes from whom?


We’ll underscore in class the indisputable fact that movies are powerful forms of mass media of communication. 

But think about that assertion for a moment.

What is it, exactly, that makes movies so powerful?

Could it be the content of a movie? The story line of a movie? The actors or stars of the movie? The costumes? The music or songs?

Perhaps it's about sitting in a darkened, air-conditioned cocoon (a movie theatre), and having your total attention (notwithstanding your arm being around your beloved) riveted on a motion picture.  I believe we’d all agree movies have the power (as no other mass medium of communications does) to help define--or take us back to--the key emotional points (the highs and lows) of our lives. Remember who sat next to you or whom you were dating or what you were going through when you first saw one of your all-time favorite movies? My list includes “Jaws,” “ET,” “Titanic,” or the first “Rocky” or the first “Superman.”

What about your list? Where were you and who were you with (if anyone) when you saw your favorite movies? Bet the movie can re-kindle that memory.

Lastly (in terms of this blog post) it’s important in our study of movies to understand the concept of self-policing of the movie industry. The movie industry polices itself, not our government.  Wonder why that’s the case that an industry is policing itself?

Enough for now about movies. More about them (and chapter 7) during our classes this week.

Oh yes. Here’s clip from one of my favorite films—about Vivien Thomas, a hero of the very first open-heart surgery in human history.

Have you or a member of your immediate or extended family had open heart surgery? (I had a double bypass in April 2008).

If so, you should get down on your knees and give thanks to African-American Vivien Thomas; he never went to college, let alone medical school. But starting out as a lab assistant for a noted surgeon, who became interested in doing heart surgery after researching the hearts of dogs, Thomas figured out how to solve the problem of "blue babies." He was right by the surgeon's side in the operating room at Johns Hopkins Hospital when that first open heart surgery was performed--on a blue baby in 1944.

The following clip is from the 2004 movie--"Something the Lord Made.” Turn your sound up and enjoy (and give thanks to Vivien Thomas!)



And then, on a funnier note, here's one more movie clip (also from one of my all-time favorite movies "Jerry McGuire"):

Field trip to WEHC-FM radio station at EHC

A big thank you to WEHC-FM station manager Richard Graves for sharing with our class this morning his time, knowledge and expertise. He truly gave us the "lowdown" on what it's like to work in noncommercial radio.

He also took us on a tour of the public (noncommercial) NPR radio station (WEHC-FM) that is located on EMH campus in the McClothlin Center for the Arts.

Richard is a good man to connect with if you're interesting in working professionally in radio. (He's also worked at a commercial radio station).

As I mentioned in class (and again this morning), the general manager and essentially the founder of WEHC-FM is Dr. Teresa Keller of the Mass Communications Dept. at EHC. So we have an excellent resource on radio right here in the Mass Comm Department!

Thank you all for coming this morning and for being good listeners.

Good luck with the NPR podcast homework writing assignment that's due at start of our class Monday.

Later.

LT

FCC and radio

As we noted in class Wednesday, March 16, one of the keys to being informed about radio is to understand how radio--one of the eight major forms of the mass media of communications--falls under the purview of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC is directed by five commissioners appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for five-year terms. The current five commissioners, among the most powerful folks in Washington, hail from Connecticut, Kansas, South Carolina, Washington, D.C. and New York.

The FCC has no control whatsoever over print media (newspapers, magazines, newsletters...) but the FCC does come into play with any sort of electronic media that relies on use of the public airwaves. Thus, radio and TV have to meet certain FCC guidelines or standards. (Important to mention here that neither satellite radio (Sirius XM) nor Internet radio is regulated by the FCC).

Why is it, then, that print media escape scrutiny by the FCC--when radio stations and TV stations do not?

Because radio stations and TV stations are viewed as public trustees of the public airwaves. There's a limited number of frequencies available on the electromagnetic spectrum, and, but for the FCC (which assigns a frequency to a radio station) that spectrum would be a jumbled mess. Radio frequencies would overlap or interfere with one another to such an extent that listeners wouldn't be able to understand anything!

Key point: For a radio station to be on the air in the U.S., it first has to be licensed by the FCC. And every so many years, that same station comes up for re-licensing. A radio station has to operate consistent with the "public interest, convenience and necessity" in order to keep its license. It's also the case, as we noted in class, that the FCC tells a station what frequency it can broadcast on, how much power it can have, and where its transmitter or tower can be located.

As to a radio station losing its FCC license, that is very rare, but it does happen. Some reasons for license revocation include proof that the station:

1. Broadcasts obscenity or profanity or sexually explicit material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. (when the FCC says children are more likely to be listening).
2. Spreads messages that are racist or bigoted.
3. Unfairly treats a political candidate (an example would be a station charging a low advertising rate for one candidate's commercial, while an opposing candidate had to pay a much higher rate for a commercial of equal time and placement during the day or night).
4. Broadcasts libelous, false or defamatory messages
5. Has a manager or owner or other key player who has been charged or with a serious criminal offense.

With regard to #1 above, a station runs the risk of losing its FCC license (and thus its ability to stay on the air) if it broadcasts INDECENT material. But this is a sticky, murky area to get a handle on. Because what, exactly, is indecent material?

(A famous U.S. Supreme Court justice once declared: "I don't know what obscenity is but I know it when I see it!")

At times, it seems to be somewhat subjective as to what the FCC considers indecent.

Consider the half-time show during the 2004 Super Bowl with singers Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. In the heat of the performance, Timberlake ripped off part of Jackson's costume, exposing one of her breasts to about 90 million viewers in America and a much larger worldwide audience. CBS, which broadcast the Super Bowl that year, apologized, but the FCC still investigated. The result: CBS was fined $550,000.

CBS appealed the decision, and the fine was later overturned. But it was still a big hassle and a lot of legal expense for the network. (Better that the half-time show incident had never happened!)

Okay, so what kind of material might be considered indecent, obscene or profane and thus frowned upon by the FCC?

That's always a murky question, but the U.S. Supreme Court has offered a few guidelines:

1. The standard for obscenity is set by "individual community standards." This means there is no national standard for obscenity or indecency. What is declared as obscene or indecent in Abington, Va., might be acceptable in LA or NYC. A local community can establish its own standards for what material should be protected by the First Amendment.

2. The work (or in the case of radio or TV, the broadcast or program) must be "taken as a whole." It's not enough for a program to be declared obscene on the basis, for example, of one sexually explicit statement or one or two references to the "F word." The "work as a whole" must be sexually explicit or obscene.

3. The work (or broadcast) must appeal to "prurient interests." Prurient means overly lustful or lewd or a perverted interest in nudity, sex or excretory functions. Likewise, a broadcast program that has "serious, literary, artistic, political or scientific value" cannot be outlawed or banned by the FCC. A broadcast, for example, about sexual health, birth control, alternative lifestyles, online dating or teen suicide might offend or upset some listeners. But it would not be deemed prurient. And thus it would be protected by the First Amendment.

As an aside (and you can read about this in our textbook) some people complain that they are offended by messages broadcast by radio or TV. But just because someone is offended doesn't mean that the material disseminated on the airwaves is indecent or obscene. Beyonce, for example, created quite a stir at the half-time show of the 2016 Super Bowl with her "Formation" song and dance performance of that song. Some felt that she was critical of the police and fomenting tensions between the police and certain segments of society. But what Beyonce sang and danced during that show is definitely protected by the First Amendment. Here is her performance, in case you missed it:







Enough for right now about the FCC and radio. Looking forward to our field trip visit to WEHC-FM 90.7 tomorrow!

Footnote about podcasts

We covered this in class on Wednesday, March 16, but here, in writing, is what we said about podcasts:

Q: What is a podcast?

A: It's an audio (MP3) file that can be distributed over the Internet.


Q: How do you listen to a podcast?

A: Can be listened to online or downloaded to a computer or an MP3 player.

Q: What do you need to listen to a podcast?

A: All you need is a basic computer or electronic device (phone, tablet...) that is connected to the Internet.


Q: How do you create a podcast?

A: Very easily with, for example, the GarageBand app on an Apple MacBook computer--or with an equivalent app on a PC.


Q: When was the first podcast created:

A: 2004. Became very common by 2005.


Q: Are podcasts replacing radio?

A: No. Podcast audiences are growing but still are not nearly as big as radio audiences. Think about it this way: How much time do you spend listening to radio very day or every week? How many podcasts do you listen to daily or weekly?


Q: What's the value or utility of a podcast?

A: If you miss a particular program or broadcast on the radio, there's a good chance the station made a podcast of that program. If that's the case, you can go to the station's website, find the podcast and listen to it. So podcasts offer a sort of historical archiving of broadcast/radio programs.

NPR assignment

I gave this NPR assignment in class yesterday (March 14). Here it is, just in case...


Guidelines: NPR is an important part of the radio industry. If you haven't listened to NPR, you are definitely missing out!

For this assignment, listen to TWO podcasts from the following programs on NPR. Your choice on which two podcasts you choose. It could be two from Prairie Home Companion. Or it could be one from Prairie Home Companion and one from Car Talk, etc.

You will be writing about the podcasts you listened to.

Here are your choices (and where you can Google them):

1. This American Life podcast

2. Car Talk podcast

3. Prairie Home Companion podcast (then click on SoundCloud).

4. Fresh Air podcast

Choose your two podcasts, listen to them, then write about them.

For your paper, which you can write in first person, address the following (for each of your chosen NPR podcasts)

A. What did you listen to and for how long?

B Describe or summarize the content of the podcast you listened to.

C. What did you like about this podcast?

D. What did you dislike (if anything) and what would be an area for improvement you would suggest for the creator of this NPR program?

E. What did you learn about NPR from listening to this podcast?

F. Would you listen again to an NPR podcast of this program? Why or why not?


Your paper must be typed (double-spaced) 2-3 pages. The deadline is the start of our class on Monday, March 21. No emails or attachments will be accepted. I want a hard copy by that deadline. I may call on a few of you that day to share your experience from listening to these NPR podcasts.

Criteria for grading:

1. Short graphs very much preferred
2. Mechanical perfection in grammar, spelling and sentence structure
3. The extent to which you followed the guidelines for this assignment. Did you address all the required questions?
4. The extent to which you took this assignment seriously. Done or thrown together at the last minute? Or thoughtfully written? I will be able to tell.
5. Meeting the assignment deadline


Ok. Here, by the way, is a taste of Prairie Home Companion. Turn up your sound and enjoy!

Quiz questions connected to textbook chapter on radio

We had a short, ungraded quiz in class on Monday, March 14. We also went over the answers to the quiz questions. How did you do? How would you do if I hit you with these same questions (or very similar questions about radio) in the near future? Better be able to answer these!

1. About how many radio stations are there in the U.S.?

2. What does FM (as in FM radio) stand for?

3. Define "narrowcasting."

4. Name an early pioneer or inventor or trailblazer of radio.

5. Name two areas (within the division of labor or management structure at a radio station) that you might work in.

6. Name the public radio station based at Emory & Henry College.

7. What federal agency licenses a radio station?

8. Name the satellite radio company in the U.S.

9. What, in terms of radio, is "payola

10. List or name two different formats (for music or songs) that you will find in radio.