Trump and Biden Online

In six months, the presidential election will be over. Until then, expect and unusually harsh campaign. President Trump and presumptive Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden have very different styles: one is brash and polarizing, the other is genial consensus-builder. It turns out their online campaigns are very different as well. NPR reports.

Questions...

•What is the difference in approaches between the Biden and Tump online campaigns?

•How is the role of mainstream news media different in the two campaigns?

•What is the difference in approach in regard to reaching voters across the political spectrum?

The Psychology of Selling Cars

The following is a MediaNote Classic. The current version of this MediaNote was first shown to MC101 classes in Spring 2018.

Sut Jhally, a nationally-known expert on the psychological effects of advertising, has said that best ads do not try to sell the product on its merits. Instead, it creates a dream life around the product.

Several years ago, Your Humble Blogger saw the following ad during a Dodger telecast. How much of the ad discusses the merits of the vehicle, and how much of it is a constructed dream life?

More recently, another car ad caught Your Humble Blogger's eye.

Questions...

•What does the ad say about the quality, performance, reliability, cost or resale value of the product?

•Describe the dream life created around the product?

•What role do the visuals play in creating this dream life?

•What role does the music play in creating this dream life?

•Who is the target customer of the product?

Dead Actors, Live Audiences

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to Mass Comm 101 classes in Spring 2018.

If I want to see Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in a movie, I find a copy of their 1949 film, Adam's Rib. Soon I may be able to see them in a whole now movie created many years after their deaths. Movie technology has advanced to the degree that not only do we have trouble telling animation from live action. We now have difficulty telling live actors from dead ones. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Is this technology good for the movie business or bad for the movie business? Why?

•What jobs will this technology eliminate? What jobs will it create?

•You are a major Hollywood star. How do you use this technology to fund your retirement? How do you use it to provide income for your heirs?

•Will the audience want to see new movies (or TV shows or video games) with John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe in them? In 50 years will audiences want to see new movies with a young Jennifer Lawrence or Johnny Depp?

Did Gillette Cut Itself?

The following is a MediaNote Classic. This MediaNote was originally shown to students in January 2019.

Gillette razor blades have been associated with men and masculinity for as long as this blogger can remember. So--in light of the #Metoo Movement--it makes sense that the Boston-based company has given some thought to how men are portrayed in their ads. The result was this video. NPR reports on the backlash among some men.

Questions...

•What do you think of the message in this video?

•Are you surprised that the video has more dislikes than likes on YouTube? Do you think that means that most men are offended by it?

•Do you think this ad and controversy helps or harms the Gillette brand in the years ahead?

•What type of man should Gillette portray in their ads?

Talking About Coronavirus to Kids

It's scary to be a kid. Everyone is bigger and more powerful. Things are hard to understand. And when adults worry, you worry. Coronavirus is one more thing for kids to worry about. Factual information, clearly and calmly stated, can keep the fear that children have about coronavirus under control. NPR reports.

Questions...

•What (besides coronavirus) are kids afraid of?

•Have any of the children in your life expressed fear of coronavirus? What have they said or done?

•How can you and other adults be good role models for kids worried about coronavirus?

ADDITIONAL NOTE: If you need up-to-date, reliable information about coronavirus, visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Screens Great and Small

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in October 2017.

Academic researchers have done a tremendous amount of research over the potential damage that can be done to children if they are allowed to watch too much television. But what about children (8 or younger) who spend a lot a time online? NPR reports.

Questions...

•Which do you feel is worse: letting small children watch a lot of TV, or spend a lot of time online? Does anyone want to make the case that a lot of screen time is beneficial to small children?

•Which is more addicting: TV or the Internet? Why?

•Which is a better teacher: TV or the Internet? Why?

•Under what conditions would you allow an 8-year-old go online?

Coming Up Next ... Watching Paint Dry!

The following is a Medianote Classic. It was first presented on Nov. 25, 2013.

Norwegian TV is apparently quite different. We have TV shows about cops, robbers, teenage sexpots and vampires. They have TV shows about knitting. Are they just desperate for shows, or are they redefining the idea of what a TV show is? NPR reports.

Questions...

•How often do you give TV your undivided (or nearly undivided) attention?

•When is watching TV a stimulating activity?

•When is watching TV a soothing activity?

•When does TV let you experience something?

•In the future, when there are an unlimited number of channels, will television be a companion medium, like radio?

Apparently, The Force Was With Us

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in January 2017.

One of the things that makes a great city a great city is that it has cool things that practically everyone can enjoy. That said, Los Angeles bagged another cool thing recently as it was named the site of The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The museum, which will be underwritten by Star Wars Creator George Lucas and his wife, will focus on storytelling through pictures, from cave paintings to present. It will be in Exposition Park, near the Coliseum and USC. It is expected to open in 3-4 years. KCBS News reports.

Questions...

•Name all the ways that we tell stories through pictures.

•What pictures can you think of that evoke an emotion or feeling?

•How do you use pictures to tell stories in your life?

•What academic departments at USC could benefit from having this museum nearby? How?

•Is this museum good for Los Angeles? How?

Moving Movies to Digital

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in Summer 2012.

As we have discussed in class, the major movie "studios" today are largely distribution companies, looking for multiple ways to make money off the content under their control. Also, we have discussed the "atoms to bits" theory, where all physical media--including film--is destined to be replaced by its digital equivalent.

Today's Medianote is an NPR story about converting classic films to digital format, and the artistic and capitalistic decisions that are made during that conversion process. Should a film be made exactly as it was released in 1940, or should it be enhanced by processes that have become available over the last 70 years. At the end of the day (to use a horrible professor phrase), are movies mostly commercial products subject to change to fit consumer tastes? Or are they art works to be preserved in the way they were made? Or are they a combination of both?

Questions...

•Are movies art? How are they and how are they not?

•Is altering a classic film like altering a painting at the Getty Center? What about a not so classic film? Who decides if a film is classic or not?

•Is making a film image lighter or more in focus always a good thing? When is it not?

•If you were in charge of the Warner Vault, what would you do with an original print of a classic film?

•How much does the original artistic vision of the director matter?

Lights, Camera, Sandwiches!

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 classes in February 2015.

One of the tenets of media literacy that MC101s learn is that "all media messages are constructions." They are not reality. They are a selected reality or a stylized version of reality or a pictorial version of reality. Creating realistic-looking food for television and movie scenes is an example of the latter. Here's an example: If ice cream is shown in a TV or movie screen, it is probably mashed potatoes or something other than ice cream. Why? Ice cream melts too quickly under the lights.

NPR did a nice little feature recently about food on the set.

Questions...

•Name all the support businesses that make money off the movie and TV industries.

•Does a healthy movie/TV industry do anything for our local restaurants, dry cleaners, car dealers, etc.?

•Are Hollywood-related jobs good jobs or bad jobs? Why?

•How do people get these jobs?

Free News or Fake News?

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in July 2017.

Al-Jazzera is an interesting news organization. Global in its ambitions, it is funded by the small, oil-rich nation of Qatar. As you might imagine, its English-language broadcasting service is controversial in the U.S.. However, it is the Arabic-language broadcasts that have led to demands by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others that it be shut down. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Why is the news media controversial--both here and in other places around the world?

•Is it possible to have journalism that has no point of view? If that is impossible, what ethics should journalists live by?

•Should we in the U.S. want Al-Jazeera to close, continue, or do something else? Why?

YouTube or TheTube?

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in March 2017.

YouTube viewership continues to grow rapidly, while traditional television viewing has peaked, bringing us very close to the point where YouTube IS television as much as NBC is television. How is that changing what we watch and how what we watch impacts our view of the world? NPR reports.

Questions...

•If TV is more like YouTube in 10 years, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Why?

•Is YouTube more a short head or a long tail media outlet? Why?

•Should YouTube be more of a gatekeeper? How might gatekeeping change YouTube?

•Is YouTube's recommendation engine partly to blame for growing extreme beliefs and rhetoric in American society? Why or why not?

Un-Graying the News

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in March 2017.

Imagine someone watching the evening news on television. Do you imagine someone your age, or someone your grandparents' age? Let's face it: TV news audiences are getting older. One media entrepreneur thinks he has a solution. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Who has seen Vice News Tonight on HBO? What do you think of it?

•What doesn't usually get covered on network TV news that should be covered?

•What does get covered on network news that you don't care about?

Let Me Be Brief

White House press briefings are a longstanding tradition. Reporters shout out questions to the press secretary. The press secretary answers, always carefully. The administration always complains about the aggressiveness of the news media, and the news media always complain that not enough information has been disclosed.

Is this a tradition that has outlived its usefulness? NPR reports.

Questions...

•What responsibility does the president's administration have to share information with the media and the public?

•What does the news media get out of the press briefings?

•What does the administration get out of the press briefings?

•Why not just Tweet directly to the public what the President or the press secretary want to say?

News Drones

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was first presented to MC101 students in May 2014.

First it was the federal government. Then Amazon. And now your local TV news program?

Drones may change how journalists cover natural disasters, sporting events and other stories. But it won't happen right away. NPR reports.

Questions...

•When might a news organization want drones?

•What are the potential problems with news drones?

•Do you agree with the FAA slowing down drone journalism? Why?

Going...Going...Gone!

This Medianote was not presented to the MW 10:45 class.

ESPN, which according to your textbook was the most profitable part of the Disney media empire as recently as 2011, has just laid off a lot of employees. Obviously, its a whole new ballgame for the cable sports channel. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Is television a dying medium? Why or why not?

•Would you prefer to buy cable stations "a la carte," or do you prefer paying for a large bundle of stations?

•Does professional (and college) sports still draw younger viewers, or is the audience mostly middle-aged and older folks?

•What could ESPN do to make its program stream younger and more inclusive?

O'Reilly Silenced at Fox

Bill O'Reilly has drawn a large, loyal nationwide audience by presenting an aggressively conservative spin on political news at Fox. Given his controversial, bombastic image, it has been surprising how quickly Fox cancelled O'Reilly's show after allegations of sexual harassment surfaced. This NPR story offers an explanation.

This MediaNote was not presented to the TTh 9:10 class.

•Why did Fox fire Bill O'Reilly?

•Would his show stay on the air if most of his listeners had stayed loyal?

•Why don't advertisers want to be associated on O'Reilly's show despite his large audience?

•Does it matter that O'Reilly's replacement is 20 years younger?

•Was this a case of censorship? Why or why not?

On-Campus Field Trip, Tuesday April 25

Vrej Agajanian, local Armenian language broadcaster and Glendale City Councilman, will speak to Mass Comm 101 students on Tuesday, April 25 in LB220 from 12:30-1:30. MC101 students can earn field trip credit for this special event if they do the following:

1. The student attends the lecture (a roll sheet will go around), and

2. The student completes a short written assignment. Details are below:

Write a 200-300 word essay answering the following questions based on Vrej Agajanian's talk

a. Why does television cover so many bad things, and what are the psychological effects of bad news on humans?

b. Can television be used as a positive media tool? In what ways?

c. What are the psychological effects of positive or otherwise beneficial television programming?

The written assignment should be turned on paper no later than 2 pm on Tuesday, May 2.

Reality Umpire

The following is a MediaNote Classic. It was originally presented to MC101 students in October 2013.

Storyful may help put citizen journalism on the map. Or it may put full-time photojournalists out of work. Or it may help major news organizations preserve their credibility. Or it may be largely ineffective.

Storyful is a reality verification service for newspapers and other news outlets. Is a video shot by an onlooker to a disaster real or fake? Oftentimes, editors do not have the training to make that judgment. NPR reports.

Questions...

•Is it important for us to know that a news story is real? Why?

•Is Storyful good or bad for free-lance journalists? Is it good or bad for established new outlets like the Los Angeles Times?

•How is Storyful changing how media outlets cover important events?

Money Bowl

A Super Bowl halftime ad cost $5 million for 30 seconds in 2017. This cost doubles for a one-minute ad, and it doesn't include (considerable) production costs. Companies willingly pay these prices, however, to reach the largest audience of the year. Let's look at several of this year's top ads, as ranked by ET Online.

Questions...

•What is the demographic targeted by this ad? What is the psychographic?

•What is the dreamlife created around this product?

•How do the visuals help create this dreamlife?

•How does the music help create this dreamlife?

•What does the ad have to say about the objective features of the product?