A Very Simple Powerpoint – October 10

7/31/2019 A Very Simple Powerpoint October 10

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A Very Simple Powerpoint

October 10/15 & 10/17

#JTPGWU

Virtual Class with Professor Usher


2/24


3/24

From 10/15

How does all of what we talked about fromBagdikian relate to Adorno & Horkheimer

You only get this because I have a sinus infectionFWIW We can see some massive problems

The culture industry is the news industry

The culture industry is across everything

Media companies are owned by companies like GE

That restricts the power of what they can say

Separation of Church and State gets smaller andsmaller


4/24

Bagdikian A&H

So if we think about what happens to these poorjournalists

Pseudoindividualism seems rife p. 151

Maybe its not even so duped (see Marquette polleditors knowingly doing this)

My old advisor, Geneva Overholser was that editorwho quit the Des Moines Register(and later becameDean of Annenbergs School of Communication atUSC). (Side note: for women in journalism, I cantthink of a better class act to follow.)

You can read her manifesto for journalism here
http://annenberg.usc.edu/Faculty/Communication%20and%20Journalism/OverholserG.aspxhttp://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Overholser/OnBehalfjune2008.pdfhttp://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/Downloads/Overholser/OnBehalfjune2008.pdfhttp://annenberg.usc.edu/Faculty/Communication%20and%20Journalism/OverholserG.aspxhttp://annenberg.usc.edu/Faculty/Communication%20and%20Journalism/OverholserG.aspx


5/24

Bagdikian A&H

Is the fact that journalists are revolting to

advertising sponsored news hope?

Or is advertising too crucial especially now?

In other words, is the American Dream of

journalism just a lie?

Are these journalists just donald duckingthemselves?


6/24

McManus: Market-Driven Journalism

Where does A&H come in?

Public companies exist to make profits,


7/24

[Creditors (e.g. BanksBondholders, etc.)]

Shareholders

= Newspaper

Public companies are publicly owned by

shareholders, who invest money in the company

for certain ownership rights (including the right

to control the company through voting and the

right to share in profits).

In addition to raising capital from equity

investors (shareholders), companies may obtain

financing from creditors (e.g., banks or

bondholders).

Public companies often conduct some or all of

their business through wholly-owned

subsidiaries.

The shareholders do not directly own or control

these subsidiaries, but since they own the parent

entity they do indirectly own/control the

subsidiaries. Creditors may loan money directly

to the public company, or they may lend money

to any one or more subsidiaries.

Though each subsidiary is required to have its

own BOD, practically speaking there will besignificant (or total) overlap with the BOD of the

parent company.

The BOD is responsible for managing the

company (though it typically delegates day-to-

day duties, e.g. to a publisher), but certain

actions by the BOD require approval from

shareholders (e.g., a large purchase or merger).

= Board of Directors (BOD)


8/24

So what matters is the picture on p.

182

Relationship between media firm and news

firm

Norm of journalism v. norm of business

Key decisions occur at three stages: discovery,

selection, and reporting

All take into account $ or do they?

Constraints all the way down

Sources are constriaints two


9/24

Take a look at the following

relationships

Investors and parent corp

Parent corp and firm

Media firm and news department Hire fire publisher, set budget, local newscasts

give local management a lot of control

Halo effect

Remember everyone watches local news


10/24

What do you do?

Advertisers and media firm?

Whats the way out of this?

Are people being duped?

Are they being told the truth

Is there a truth?

Is it all just about consumption? Making us buy

more want more even through news???


11/24

Takeaway

Its pretty complicated news is a command

of special interests that are external and

internal to the newsroom, and becomes a

commodity itself p. 189


12/24

Downsizing the News: Cutbacks at the

Capitol

First some facts: Check out the decline in state

reporters at state capitols and also in DC of

federal agencies and across TOWN

Declines of coverage ofcongress

The San Diego Union-Tribune killed its DC Bureau

even after it won a Pulitzer for tracking down the

corruption of Rep. Duke Cunningham. Just a question Ive been pondering: was news

really always about traditional good news for us?
http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4721http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4877http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4904http://www.journalism.org/print/14682http://www.journalism.org/print/14682http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4904http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4877http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4721


13/24

Kimball

Negative coverage leads to negative responses

about government, generally

TV helps set a national agenda, though I will

argue its newspapers that play part 1

Do you watch network evening news?

Are they all the same?

Serious consequences for Watchdogging


14/24

What does Kimball have to say about

A&H

Think a little bit about what it means to havecontrol over the means of production at the levelof the firm

Think also about what it means that people learnfrom each other

Think also that most newscasts are the same

Think also that there is a need for reporting

Many conflicting ideas. Your choice is to argue foror against the overwhelming presence of A&H, orto see the influence of their argument in certainplaces and not others.


15/24

The New York Times Lonely War

Dangers of War Reporting AND AMAZINGCHALLENGES

Can a newspaper really afford this?

You cant cover a story only when interest peaks,says Bill Keller, the papers executive editor. Youhave to walk the beat all the time. This is sointegral to what readers expect in The New York

Times that if we stopped covering the war in Iraqwe should just go out of business.

THE RAT DEN v. a lap pool


16/24

Expat life.in a time of diminished

resources Today, neither CBS News nor Time magazine has a full-

time correspondent in Iraq. The heady days whenhundreds of journalists, diplomats, and NGO stafferswould drink and smoke and pair off by the pool of a

local hotel are gone for good. Making a social call tosomeone outside of your compound is now virtuallyimpossible; no one wants to risk his or her own life, orthat of a driver or guard, for the sake of a hookup. Atwisted piece of metal sits in the living room of the

main Timeshouse in Baghdad as a reminder of whatsat stake. Its part of the radiator of a cement truckdriven by a suicide bomber; it landed in the yardfollowing an attempt to destroy two nearby buildings.


17/24

What I had seen in Iraq was a small band of

reporters from a shrinking number of outlets

doing remarkable work under increasingly

difficult conditions. What Id seen at homeeven among many of my colleagues and

friends and among some media executives

was an American audience that largely didntcare... Culture industry? Much?


18/24

If you want to be good

Read more Seth Mnookin. Interesting fact: he

was at one point a serious heroin addict. Do

not do this part. But write like him.
http://www.salon.com/1999/08/27/heroinson/http://www.salon.com/1999/08/27/heroinson/


19/24

Now we get the NYT of Today

A publishers Mexican girlfriend detracts from

the public service mission?

Janet Robinson gone?

Stock decline (Public Company)

NYT troubles what does that mean for

reporting. So far?

The Sulzberger commitment to reporting???


20/24

The NYT of Today

The Paywall. How many of you all legitimately have digitalsubscriptions???

In the era of Arthur Sulzberger Jr., when newspapers have flailed undernew digital realities, the New York Times Company has shrunkdramatically. Once it was a wide-ranging media empire of newspapers andTV stations and websites, and even a baseball team, that was worth

almost $7 billion; today its essentially two struggling newspapers and amuch-reduced web company, all worth less than $1 billion (forcomparison, consider that the Internet music company Pandora is valuedat almost $2 billion). Despite the shrinkage, the company has retainedessentially the same top-heavy management, which it has kept wellcompensated. Even though the paper froze executives pensions in 2009,

as it is threatening to do with union employees, the company created twoloopholes, called the Restoration Plan and the Supplemental ExecutiveSavings Plan, which allowed certain high-earning executives to take moneyout anyway. As a result, Janet Robinson received an additional lump-sumpayment of over half a million dollars upon exiting the Times.


21/24

How does this fit into A&H

What does this say about high art v. low art(actually what do both articles say aboutthis?)

What does this say about the cultureindustrys movers and shakers?

What does this say about the power to create

and shape news. Is it any less? What does it say about whether it matters

who is in charge?


22/24

A real life 30-Rock: NBC AND GE

During its Friday broadcast, NBC NightlyNews With Brian Williams had no time tomention that Americas largest corporation

had essentially avoided paying federal taxes in2010. Or its Saturday, Sunday or Mondaybroadcasts, either.

Did NBCs silence have anything to do with thefact that one of its parent companies is GeneralElectric?


23/24

Dude, whom do we trust?

News organizations often wrestle with how

to report on their own mistakes and those of

their parent companies. ABC and Fox, for

example, have been chided by critics over theyears for glossing over unflattering news

about their parent companies, the Walt

Disney Co. and Rupert Murdochs News Corp.,respectively.


24/24

Obviously, the only answer is.

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A Very Simple Powerpoint – October 10

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