Media

The 'content' of a medium is like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind - Marshall McLuhan (Understanding Media)

The rules for studying media:

1. All media are constructed!  (Anything which is constructed can be deconstructed)
2. All media have a commercial agenda
3. Regardless of product/service being advertised, all media sell image!

WHAT IS MEDIA?

Media, quite simply, is any technological device or output through which meaningful information is communicated to a large audience.  In other words, media is any means of mass transferring and receiving of information.  It can be visual, textual, aural, tactile, etc. The key is that a relatively large number of people must receive the information.  Thus, a telephone, which is the use of a technological device for communication, cannot be considered media whereas a television can.

POPULAR CULTURE 

Entire BOOKS have been written on this subject and similar topics.  Therefore, as it is very broad, anyone reading this who feels that I leave something out of the discussion ought to remember two things:  (i)  This is a NOTES page; (ii) these notes are for Jr. and Sr. HIGH SCHOOL students. 

That being said, a discussion of popular culture ought to be centered around the study of the things people say, make and do.  That is, it comes from a Folkloristic perspective.  Ben Dan Amos coined the phrase "artistic communication in small groups" to describe Folklore.  This is a loaded definition, and perhaps the most succinct and comprehensive one I have come across.  While this is the case, and it is also true that Popular Culture is often studied in combination with Folklore, the two terms are not synonyms!  They are different areas of study all together, although they deal with similar things. In the introduction of Media Sense: The Folklore-Popular Culture Continuum  Martin Laba and Peter Narvaez (a former instructor of mine) suggest that artistic communication within small groups (folklore) and mass societies (popular culture) may be understood as polar types spanned by a complex continuum of different sized groups in which communications are transmitted via various configurations of sensory and technological media.  Basically, this means that folklorists see popular culture as similar to folklore but only in as much as the north pole is similar to the south pole -- they are both poles.  However, they are at odds with one another.  Now, as folklore deals with small groups interacting and communicating in artistic ways, this precludes media, whereas popular culture depends on it.  I would argue however, that while popular culture is indeed partially defined as mass communication through technological media, that the average person experiences this communication independently.  

What does this have to do with the study of media in an English Language Arts Classroom?  -- Partially, it has to do with the act of defining.  Popular culture is basically the source of all media study in high school.  It is imperative that we understand what it is.  Then, you may ask, why is Ivany beating around the proverbial bush here?  Why not simply state a definition for Popular Culture and have done with it?  Well, it isn't as simple as all that.  Firstly we have to understand what it is not.  We understand thus far that it is not folklore, although they are related topics.  Now let's turn to the more obvious question:  what do we mean by popular culture?  What kind of culture is popular?  What is culture anyway???  Let's move on to there next.

Culture itself is not entirely easy to define -- wait.  Check that.  To state the definition of culture is quite simple, the problem rests with understanding all of the implications that go along with it.  Culture is a term that can be found in virtually every social studies book from grade 5 and up.  It refers to all of the common customs, beliefs, values, laws, attitudes, accomplishments, appreciations, languages, etc. of a large group of people which identifies them as part of that group.  Now, the phrase "large group" is somewhat ambiguous here... but generally, we can say that it consists of any group of people which can clearly be identified as a group in and of themselves -- as separate from other groups/cultures.  Cultures are separated by geography, time, beliefs, etc.  Culture can also be associated with artistic accomplishments, expression and achievements, as well as the appreciation of those things.  Popular culture has to do primarily with this final sentence here.  But what makes culture popular?

High Culture vs. Popular Culture

Generally, when we hear the term "culture" in reference to "the arts" or artistic accomplishments etc. (see above) what we are really hearing about is High Culture.  This sort of expressionism requires a certain level of understanding and education.  It is the sort of thing one would find displayed at an Arts and Culture Centre.  To use a common example which I offer to my classes on this subject, let's consider music.  Pop Music or Popular Music is part of popular culture.  This includes the major artists today such as Avril Lavigne, Brittany Spears, Christina Agulera, etc.  No one will object if I suggest that the music of these popular artists differs a great deal from the works of Mozart, Schubert, Handel, etc.  Nor will anyone object if I suggest that generally, the people who enjoy the one kind of music do not particularly enjoy the other (let's leave out the eclectics among us for the time being, shall we?).  Mozart and his buddies would be considered to be High Culture whereas, obviously, Avril and the ladies would be considered Popular Culture.  Of course, the differences between the two kinds of culture goes well beyond the realm of music, but I think you get the picture here.  So, now that we understand what Popular Culture isn't... what is it?  As High Culture involves a level of higher education, Popular Culture is all those forms of communication which involves technology and which appeals to the vast majority of people in a given culture (in terms of the societal definition of the word).  Popular Culture is, therefore, often considered to be "low brow" by those who appreciate High Culture because it demands very little education or knowledge on the part of its audience.  How wrong these poor misguided souls are.  As a matter of fact, one could argue that in order to intelligently appreciate popular culture for what it actually is, one needs to have a clear understanding of text and contextual deconstruction, the principles and elements of design, advertising techniques -- basically, one needs to be media literate.  Otherwise, one could find him/herself smearing the fat eating cream from page 37 of Cosmo all over his/her body and putting him/herself in the hospital.

Key concepts of Media Literacy

1.      All media is constructed

2.      Have their own codes

a.       Technical~ camera shots, angles, tone of voice, etc.

b.      Symbolic~ connotative meaning generated by images presented to us.

3.      All media have a commercial agenda

a.       They are selling stuff

b.      Media texts use both technical and symbolic codes to present an idea in an inviting and positive light.

Media has a code.  In order to “read” media we must learn to not simply look at media, but instead to decode it.

 Watching = Passive Viewing

Reading = Active Analysis

Three stages of viewing media:

1. Pre-viewing
   1. Establish viewing
   2. Active prior knowledge
   3. Make predictions
2. Viewing
   1. Question
   2. Predict
   3. Keep a journal/notes
3. Post-Viewing
   1. Evaluate
   2. Analyze
   3. Interpret
   4. Form your own opinion
   5. Reflection
   6. Discuss

Deconstruction

            ~The breaking down of a text into its basic constituent elements or parts for active analysis.

Categories of media:

1. Television
2. Internet
3. Radio
4. Magizenes
5. Newspaper
6. T-Shirt (clothes)
7. Poster
8. Billboard

A newspaper is written for a specific area whereas a newsletter is written for a specific group.

Most big brand companies do not sell products, they sell an image.

Brand ~ A visual image placed on products that are sold by a company.  It is intended to represent/symbolize the ideals and images associated with a company.

Logo ~ A concrete image that is associated wit ha company’s product or figurative image.

Slogan ~ A short, pithy, catch-phrase that is meant to convey some notion about a company’s philosophy, product/service, etc.

Consumer ~ The term applied to anyone who purchases things, or anyone who influences the purchasing of things.

Target Audience ~ The group of viewers that a media text is “intended” fro (officially of course)

Demographic ~ The “picture” that a producer of media texts has of the reader/viewer (who the actual consumers are).

Information Text ~ A text that is created to communicate meaningful and factual information to a large audience.  

Integrated Text ~ A text which makes use of text and visuals and which employs the principles and elements of design to communicate information.

Market Research ~ Field studies conducted by corporations for the purpose of ascertaining consumer trends, likes and dislikes.

The Media Cycle illustrates how corporations draw on market research conducted in "the field" by studying, surveying, and sometimes spying on their target audience and demographic.  That is, through research based on consumers as 'subjects', corporations learn about consumer and market trends -- basically, what people are doing.  They appropriate or take the ideas of the trend-setters of society (because we all want to be cool) and re-construct these ideas in the form of advertising.  Once an advertising campaign is ready they represent their product by Re-Presenting to the public that which the public is already doing.  The cycle is temporarily skunked when new trends emerge, but only for the amount of time that it takes market researchers to report these new trends.

Adbusting and Culture Jamming

We live in a world of images!  This ought to be clear at this point.  These images are presented to us through various media... these images are sold to us... these images are what the general populace aspires to achieve through the purchase of "things."  However, many people are fed-up with this culture of advertising in which we find ourselves!  Retaliation against the brands of our world,  against this culture of advertising and corporate logos, is known as Culture Jamming.  Culture jamming can be anything from scribbling a graffiti message on a poster advertisement, to manipulating the images presented in huge neon billboards.  It is an act of defiance against media... a declaration independence and a reclaiming of public space.  One very popular type of culture jamming is Adbusting.  

Adbusting is a relatively simple kind of culture jamming.  It is a way to make a public statement of your own against brands, logos, and corporations that you feel are communicating false messages in their advertisements in order to convince people to buy their products.  It involves the alteration of an existing advertisement through pun, homonym, oxymoron, (basically any type of wordplay), through graphic manipulation of images such as a corporate logo, images of the people who endorse the product, or even of the product itself.  Adbusting, because of its simplicity, make it possible for anyone with a creative imagination and a bone to pick with what I call Techno-Corporate Barbarians (A term borrowed from Dr. Vance Maxwell of MUN's Philosophy Department) to take a stand.  Click here to see some of my own adbusting adventures as well as some which were created by my students.

The most important thing to remember when creating an Adbust is that in order for it to make sense, you must have a clear purpose that people can recognize.  Busts that are too generalized tend to have their messages lost in translation... criticizing corporations for making money, for example, is a waste of time in most circumstances.  The aim and purpose of every company, firm, corporation, etc. is to find a need, fill it, and thereby earn a profit.  How can one criticize McDonald's, for example, for making money when this is the goal of every other business.  My Walt Disney bust is an example of a situation which will allow this sort of generalization because of the existence of the 100 (easily transfigured into a dollar amount) and the wording of the slogan.  Most situations do not allow for this.  Therefore, make your adbusts specific to the advertisement you are busting and the statements communicated through the adbust particular to a specific and publicly known problem with the company

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