Posts Tagged ‘barack obama’

The Salahis, Facebook and the Power Wall

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Michaele Salahi getting friendly with Joe Biden

Michaele Salahi getting friendly with Joe Biden

Like everyone else, I couldn’t help but hear about Michaele and Tareq Salahi. On Thanksgiving morning, I was eating breakfast with my parents in the hotel where we were staying, and that same bit of footage–Michaele and Tareq enter, wave, walk; Michaele holds him back for another camera opp–played over and over again. At first I didn’t realize the magnitude of what had happened; that this was a major security breach and not just a publicity stunt or a misdirected invitation. Then reading online today in the New York Times, I learned of still another sin the Salahis committed–they put the pictures up on Facebook!

Now, aside from the obvious stupidity of publicizing pictures of yourself posing with leaders of the free world at a very exclusive party to which you were not invited, I have to say I disagree with part of David Segal’s criticism. He points out that by posting photos on Facebook, the Salahis erred by making public the traditional, time-honored Power Wall (i.e., physical wall of photos of yourself with important people). The Power Wall used to exist only in offices or homes, but not anymore. Years ago, if a photo was to be seen at all, it had to be printed, so the print itself was not a big deal. Now, choosing to print a photo indicates that it is something special, and so the pictures you display in private are carefully curated by you or someone close to you. For the purpose of striking awe in someone sitting across from your desk, a traditional Power Wall is still effective, but the days of owning your image are long gone. That client can walk out of your office, find you on Facebook or Flickr, and see any old picture they want; the word ‘authorized’ means very little. Your real power wall is on Facebook, and you demonstrate power by making sure you are not tagged in photos you don’t like. One would think this would be understood in an Administration which was put in place due largely to its wielding of social media.

While a large part of this has to do with social media and technology, another part of this has to do with media itself. One of the basic points of being media literate is understanding the power of imagery, which is something we generally take for granted. The Salahis certainly did. I have plenty of friends who have posted photos on Facebook from the time they met a famous actor, shook the hand of Barack Obama as he campaigned for President, and even one friend who snapped a shot of herself with the Dalai Lama, but the difference is that no rules were violated in the process. It’s really the very well-known context of Michaele Salahi’s shot with Joe Biden that makes it so inappropriate to share, and the fact that she shared it demonstrates idiocy, naivete, lack of foresight or all of the above. But if Biden–or any other White House officials who allowed personal cameras into the event–didn’t think that photo would turn up later, he was not much better.

–Emily Long

Posted in News | No Comments »

Gaslight: November in Media History

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Tina Fey and Seth Myers picket at Rockefeller Center.

Tina Fey and Seth Myers picket at Rockefeller Center.

November 5, 2007 marked the first day of a strike by the Writers Guild of America-West and WGA-East which lasted one hundred days. The main issue was the compensation received by writers, which was meager when compared with large studio profits, and also how writers were to be compensated for reality and online content. The WGA strike is significant for many reasons: It was a clear turning point in the business of digital media, cost Hollywood billions of dollars, and drew attention to the plight of thousands of people working behind the scenes of media which most of us take for granted as being free (not to mention illegally downloadable). On February 26, 2008, a new contract was ratified by the union, and writers went back to work with new rights and protections. However, that contract is up in 2011, and a lot can happen between now and then in the world of media and entertainment. The issue will linger as long as we have an Internet, but the WGA strike  represented the arguably first big shot across the bow of the online media business.

On November 13, 1969, United States Vice President Spiro Agnew gave a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, accusing the nation’s television networks of using bias and distortion in their reporting. He further urged viewers to “register their complaints on bias through mail to the networks and phone calls to local stations.” Agnew lamented that the media was dictated by a small group of men, informing the opinions of an estimated 40 millions Americans who watched the nightly news, and who had recently seen several newsmen harshly critique President Nixon’s November 3 speech on Vietnam minutes after it was delivered. Forty years later, this event is especially significant amid the conflict between Barack Obama’s White House and Roger Ailes’ Fox News, with White House Communications Director Anita Dunn saying that the Administration is “not going to legitimize them as a news organization.” Then, as now, the White House was trying to define the meaning and purpose of news, and possibly reign in an independent and free press. In both cases, it seems, the Presidents might have been wishing that Americans were just a little more news literate.

The Hollywood Ten with their lawyers

The Hollywood Ten with their lawyers

November 25, 1947: A group of ten screenwriters and directors, known collectively as “The Hollywood Ten” are fired from their jobs in the first systemic Hollywood blacklist. Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, Lester Cole, Edward Dmytryk, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott and Dalton Trumbo were all held in contempt of court one day prior for refusing to testify before the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC). Ultimately, 41 artists were called to testify, and over 320 people were eventually added to the blacklist that kept them from working in Hollywood. HUAC feared that these artists were  Communists, imbuing their work with propaganda designed to recruit members to the Communist Party. Those who refused to “name names” of anyone they knew who might be a Communist were added to the list, leaving many prominent voices silent, livelihoods destroyed and promising careers cut short. Those who did testify were despised by many of Hollywood’s elite, including Elia Kazan, who, when honored with the 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, was met with protest; many Oscar attendees refused to stand when he took the podium to accept the award. The blacklisting of the Hollywood 10 was a pivotal moment in American cinematic history, both acknowledging and condemning the power of film.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Death Panels and Media Literacy

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Today I got an email from BarackObama.com, titled simply, “The media.” I opened it up, and here is what it said:

“Over the past few months, two things have become clear about the fight for health insurance reform:

1. Our opponents will create and spread outrageous lies to try to stop President Obama from creating real change.
2. We just can’t count on the media to debunk them.

As President Obama described recently:

“If somebody puts out misinformation… then the way the news report comes across is, ‘Today, such-and-such accused President Obama of putting forward death panels. The White House responded that that wasn’t true.’ And then they go on to the next story. And what they don’t say is, ‘In fact, it isn’t true.’” “

The email then goes on to ask for money to combat the smears by staffing phone banks, canvassing door-to-door and running counterattack ads. All well and good; this is the equivalent of donating to any other public awareness campaign.

But what Obama is really asking for in this email is media literacy. He’s pointing out that just as the media isn’t ending the story with “It isn’t true,” neither are media consumers thinking critically and asking whether the claim is true or false. Instead, they’re absorbing the first part of the story in which some impassioned politican makes inflammatory accusations, or protestors are shown carrying pickets depicting Obama with a Hitler mustache.

The administration is not happy that so many people are so willing to swallow whatever hype the media feeds them, and with good reason. But, this is what happens in a media illiterate society, not to mention one that is in the midst of a polarizing debate on how to spend taxpayer dollars and restructure one-sixth of our country’s economy in a recession. Short term, as far as Obama is concerned, the solution is to throw money into a counter-campaign. The long-term answer is to fund and mandate media literacy in our school curriculums and communities. How about if the Obama administration starts raising money for that?

–Emily Long

Posted in News | No Comments »

Dan Rathers’ Call to Arms

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Yesterday’s Washington Post included a column by former CBS newsman Dan Rather, calling on President Obama to form a committee examining the current and “perilous” state of American news media.  He is very specific about the fact that he is not calling for a bailout of troubled media companies, but that instead,  journalism has been so bastardized by the news industry that it now threatens the core of our democracy: “We need news that breeds understanding, not contempt; news that fosters a healthy skepticism of the workings of power rather than a paralyzing cynicism. We need the basic information that a self-governing people requires. The old news model is crumbling, while the Internet, for all its immense promise, is not yet ready to rise in its place — and won’t be until it can provide the nuts-and-bolts reporting that most people so take for granted that it escapes their notice.”

I wholeheartedly agree with Rather that a standard of poor journalism is both insulting and dangerous. What I’m not sure of, though, is his prescription that the President or any government-appointed commission be tasked with ”fixing” the news. Perhaps this is just cynicism on my part, but even with the best intentions, putting the government anywhere near the news industry only invites more trouble.  And–now, this is definitely cynicism–I’m tired of commissions making recommendations and putting out reports. If we as news consumers want more honest reporting, more investigative journalism, we have to demand it.  The change comes from us.

When the line between news and propaganda becomes increasingly blurred, as it is now, news literacy is our greatest tool. This may sound oversimplified, but when I watch the news on TV I frequently wonder if people understand the difference between a fact and an opinion. Most news shows are really just stretches of editorial content asking you to do little more than sit back and follow their single stream of logic–nevermind the presentation and validation of opposing viewpoints or facts. We have to ask questions. We have to demand better. We have to turn off the snake oil salespeople on both sides of the political spectrum who report from a place of fear that even-handed journalism is not profitable.

One way to do this is to read a variety of media. Back in March, New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof wrote a great piece called “The Daily Me.”  In it, Kristof implies that we as news consumers may be at fault for a poor newsscape, citing a condition where “we generally don’t truly want good information — but rather information that confirms our prejudices.” If I’m only going to read what I agree with, if I’m not ready to listen to a plausible and intelligent argument that might change my mind on something, then I’m at fault for not demanding a better product.

Let me add that I don’t know if there ever has been a “golden era” of news, where everything was thoughtful, unbiased and accurate. Tabloids and shock jocks have been around since the beginning of time, and if they’re louder now, then maybe it’s only because there are more ways for them to make their message heard. Whether or not the news industry has worsened or whether its ills have simply become more exposed is difficult to determine, but one thing that remains true is that we are still consumers. We eat what we’re fed, but if we stop ordering the same entree, then, with time and patience, the menu will change.

–Emily Long

Posted in News | 1 Comment »

Fast food marketing studies embedded in the omnibus bill?

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Who knew? According to a piece by Advertising Age’s Ira Teinowitz, the omnibus spending bill signed yesterday by President Obama contains a provision for studying which foods are healthy and can be marketed to teens. The study will be conducted by “The Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children,” which will be comprised of members of the Federal Trade Commission, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and the Secretary of Agriculture. The Working Group is supposed to report back to Congress in 2010 with its findings and recommendations.

Let’s stop for a second and imagine a world where junk food goes the way of the cigarette, and can no longer be advertised on TV, in youth magazines, in theatres showing movies with a rating lower than an R. Let’s also think about how the Working Group will determine which foods are healthy and which foods are not–remember that back in 2003, the USDA determined that frozen french fries should be defined as a fresh vegetable. Depending on how it is prepared, almost any food can be made less healthy; slather an apple in caramel and peanut butter, and it’s suddenly no good at keeping that doctor away.

I applaud measures that challenge advertisers to be responsible in their tactics, but such measures are not enough without the education to accompany it. Where is the U.S. Department of Education in all of this to determine the impact of junk food ads on young minds? Who is going to look at how unhealthy foods and beverages are marketed in public schools? You can censor, ban and regulate all you want, but that doesn’t make junk food disappear, any more than it has made cigarettes go away. Education–in this case, specifically and especially media education–is the key for real and lasting change from within.

Posted in News | No Comments »

The New York Post’s backhanded apology

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Most New Yorkers are aware by now of the cartoon by Sean Delonas in the New York Post, which unites the news of President Obama’s stimulus bill with the story of Travis the pet chimp, who was shot dead earlier this week after attacking his owner’s friend. The cartoon is of two officers standing over a dead monkey, rifle smoking from the shot, and one says, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” The response from some members of the American public has been so strong that last night, the paper issued an apology on its website which was also published in this morning’s edition.

However, using class relationship-therapy speak, the apology amounts to little more than a statement saying, “I’m sorry you were hurt.” In no way do the editors take responsibility for the fact that they made a gross oversight by not anticipating the reaction and offense that the cartoon would elicit from all the Americans who celebrate the destruction of a significant racial barrier. With that in mind, I don’t think the Post’s editors are stupid. Insensitive, yes, but also cunning. They got us to turn our heads in their direction. I believe in free speech, and while the cartoon infuriated me, they do have a right to print it–what really got to me was the so-called “apology,” which feels more to me like a slap in the face with their inclusion of the below statement:

“However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past – and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.

To them, no apology is due.

Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon – even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.”

The accusation that those who spoke out against the cartoon are vengeful opportunists is nothing short of petty and childish. Not knowing the inner thoughts and secrets of every public figure who issued a statement, I can’t say for sure that their response had nothing to do with a grudge against the paper, but this is neither the time nor place for the paper to make that claim. If just one person, or even a few, were leading a crusade against the Post as a result of this column, that would be one thing, but the feeling I get from people I speak with about this is one of genuine disgust. Political cartoons are often meant to rile, and I’m a huge fan of clever satire that exposes something new (see: Thomas Nast). But there’s nothing clever about Delonas’ cartoon. There’s nothing witty. He absolutely has a right to print it. But, the New York Post should understand that we are no longer grade schoolers fighting on the playground, and take seriously the response to their work.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Obama’s Economic Stimulus Package and Media Literacy

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009

Maybe all of our elementary and secondary public schools will finally make it into the 21st Century.

In a recent issue of Education Week, an online newsletter published for K-12 educators, included an article about Obama’s emphasis on technology and K-12 education as a key component of his economic stimulus plan.

Great, I guess.

Of course it’s great that Obama understands the importance of improving access to broadband technology and sufficient computers in all schools so that students can use the Internet in the classroom. And of course that is where education is headed globally. The United States must absolutely improve its education model to incorporate in a significant way the new ‘dominant tool of our cultural conversation’ (to borrow from Neil Postman, who used that term decades ago to describe television).

The use of media technology such as the Internet, when used the right way, can revolutionize education, making it work for everyone, not just for those in schools and school districts with economic means. Obama is right that our hopes of future economic strenghth begins in excellent education for all young people right now.

What I want to know is how, specifically, do Obama and his administration envision the use of technology such as the Internet in classrooms? My hope is that a good chunk of education using media technology incorporates critically understanding how media technologies work, how media differ from each other, how message are produced, and how all tools of conversation can be analyzed and critically examined. In short, I hope that media literacy is part of the package. It’s one thing to make it available; It’s another thing entirely to make it useful.

The Education Week article did mention the need for lots of professional development for educators as part of the plan. Yes, absolutely! There are many media scholars and media literacy organizations, including non-profit organizations such as the LAMP, that truly understand how to use media and also how to examine media within larger contexts such as education, social interaction, and even politics and the economy.

It’s time to get the word out to the new administration. If you’re serious about media technology in schools, we’re here to help deliver it the right way.

–Katherine G. Fry, PhD

Posted in News | No Comments »

Who says print is dead?

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

The historic election of Barack Obama to the post of United States President brings to mind the notion that one would like, no matter which candidate one supported, to collect as much memorabilia as possible for posterity’s sake. In fact, it seems that this is what most Americans did. According to Reuters blog, the New York Times printed an extra 50,000 copies of its November 5th issue, and for the first time in a long time, the New York Daily News printed an “afternoon edition” and longer lines than normal were reported at news kiosks in Chicago where people were buying five or more copies of the Tribune and Sun-Times.

I admit that I too wanted to have a piece of history for myself and purchased a NYTimes on my way into work. It just seemed to make sense, that decades from now, it would be nice to have a keepsake, a single relic that indicated the spirit of how people felt the morning after the first African American was elected to this country’s highest office. It got me thinking about a question I pondered earlier, regarding Google’s tool allowing folks to see how some of their favorite sites looked in 2000 as part of their 10 year celebration. How do we record history when our traditional form of memory-keeping is no longer sitting on shelves, behind glass cases or in a scrapbook? There is much discussion about the supposed “demise” of print media. I understand the argument that people read newspapers on their computers and mobile devices, which causes a decrease in demand for the physical printed material. But, that is primarily for the information we seek and then promptly dispose of. What of those editions that capture history or a unified human moment? I find it hard to believe that we’ll someday be capturing our favorite screenshots of web pages to record important, record-breaking, history-making events. That seems cold and not nearly as warm as a tangible, physical archive.

I could be wrong, but I’m nonetheless reluctant to declare the death of print media.

Posted in News | No Comments »

Arena rock

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

After his historic feat yesterday, Barack Obama prepared to give his acceptance speech for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in front of a reported 75,000 supporters. In a year of unprecedented accomplishments for a presidential election, the spectacle of a party’s nominee addressing his loyal pledges in such an open air manner seems almost a daunting moment of ultra-high expectations. Not just for the DNC, but also for the media covering it.

How does one capture such a massive gathering of political agents and spectators to be broadcast on the small screens of all those Americans tuning in from their living room? Surely, the organizers of this event considered the loss in translation of the scale they propose to the home viewers (and I’m sure, if they had their way, they’d have 10 times the attendees to see this speech). It makes me wonder if perhaps with all of the myriad media formats out there, that TV isn’t the proper way to capture this event. Perhaps somewhere in the new media that are emerging, a more appropriate medium (or mediums) exist. This sets a precedent for future acceptance speeches that should it be successful, generations to come may expect their party’s nominee to speak in front of live audiences this large (at least).

Who knows, there’s only the collective imagination stopping us from watching a presidential hopeful give us their leadership vision via Second Life.

Posted in News | Comments Off

Too young to vote, but…

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

The Presidential Election is nearing a point where it will soon occupy most of our news media portals. Right now, we are on the precipice of the first African American presidential candidate announcing their candidate for Vice President. Following that will be a steamroll of activities (Democractic National Convention, then John McCain’s announcement of his VP, then the GOP Convention, and so on) that will be (if the candidates and news media alike have their ways) an endless chain of stories that culminates in the election of the next President of the United States.

Kids under the age of 18 may not be able to vote, but that doesn’t mean they can’t participate in the election. There are numerous online sites out there that provide activities to try to engage youth in the presidential election. I’m skeptical of the aims behind some of these sites that come from major media companies, as I am with most things that come innocuously packaged from media corporations (NBC’s olympic coverage has been the single, greatest branding exercise of any one event and period of time). That being said, I think that some of the election web portals for youth have a real opportunity to engage our children about the election as well as explore the ways media are used to wage presidential campaigns.

Enter scholastic.com.

They have launched an interactive presidential election hub that invites both educators and youth to discuss, explore and critique the 2008 Election. I invite you to do the same. I particularly enjoyed the Create a Campaign Poster under Games and Quizzes, where students are asked to use images and text to convey a political message.

Now that’s right up our alley…

Posted in News | Comments Off

« Older Entries
Grassroots.org
Creative Commons License