Make-up Exam - Wednesday April 6 @ 11:30am in 102 ACE

If you missed more than one exam, you will be writing more than one exam back-to-back.

Essay Writing Questions

Firstly, if you are concerned about page count, the best thing you can do is to write as if your reader doesn't know anything. 

For example, instead of "In an article about synergy "Authors last name" talked about..." really expand on every detail: "In her article on the emergence of media conglomerations in the 1980s, Jennifer Holt, discusses the importance of synergy in both developing and sustaining these nuanced business relationships."  Now, you can dedicate separate paragraphs to explaining what media conglomerations are, how they came to be, and how they affected film and television.  Then you can discuss the concept of "synergy" and how and why it developed, and how it affected film and television.  Then you can provide detailed examples of films, and then you should be able to offer specific examples from films. 

Again, if you are concerned about page count, write out the full title of articles.

Stick entirely to the course material.

A good essay writing strategy is to answer the question in a very concise single sentence. This will act as your thesis.  The questions are pretty broad, so you should be able to write a single sentence, answering the question.  Even if the question is something like: Discuss the development of media conglomerations.  Your single simple sentence should be something like: "Due to the decline of the film industry and Reagan's policies of deregulation throughout the 1980s, media conglomerates were formed, changing the very content and methods films were produced to serve a consumerist agenda."

Now in your paper, you will need to elaborate on each point in your thesis, providing supportive evidence from films, readings, and lectures. 

Try to remember the article authors and titles, at the very least the author's last name, so you can say Holt's article.

Yes, if you don't hit the minimum 4 pages, you will be penalized.  Going above 6 is not as big of deal, but just be sure you are not just providing page fill.  Four, double-spaced, pages is not a lot of writing.

Anyone going to DeVotchka tonight?  See y'all there:

Herman Grey and African American Representation Questions

It has been pointed out to me that Joe mentioned to just focus on Colour Adjustment, but, nevertheless, it would be useful having a solid understanding of both documentaries.

It's too bad we can't discuss Frank's Place, because Grey's article cites it so frequently.  What are some of the most important points in Grey's article?


It's not that you can't discuss Frank's Place, but there just won't be a specific question about it.  If you intend on discussing Grey's article, I think you will inevitably have to discuss Frank's Place because it is so central to his article.  Grey discusses the importance of setting in the predominantly African American programs and hot it can both demonstrate the lower economic class of African Americans on the one hand, while negating the reality of lower class African Americans on the other.  He argues that the Cosby Show was one of the first shows to present an accurate portrayal of an upper middleclass family one reason being the program's use of setting.  The most important aspect of Grey's article is his idea of viewing African Americans through the white suburban middleclass lens.  Namely, a seemingly sympathetic representation of them cannot simply be based on the goals and aspirations of the white middleclass, i.e. the American dream.  African American history in the United States must be accounted for in this representation.

Why did the change in representation of African Americans change?

The civil rights movement coupled with the increased level of media literacy in the general public are two of the most important factors in the shift in representations of African American people in film and television.  It's also important to address the how in the change in representation, as in How did the representation of African Americans in the early 70s change?  Also, the lack of African Americans in prominent positions in the industry played an important, yet damaging factor as well.  A movement towards providing African Americans a legitimate voice in the media saw the upsurge in a more accurate representation.

Don't forget when you are studying, be sure to understand how and why changes occurred and how and why they affected American film and television. 


Please don't hesitate to send me any further questions you may have.  It's crunchy time!  See y'all tomorrow!  Good luck! 

Walker, Sopranos, and The Myth of the Liberal Media Questions

Where can I find the documentary, The Myth of the Liberal Media?

Did you try searching York's library catalogue? Because it's at SMIL.

You can also find the entire documentary here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6ED7BD08E220E9F4


Where does Walker fall into place when discussing media conglomerations' effect on film?


Walker is not a blockbuster, and was produced by independent production companies.  It was, however, distributed by Universal Pictures, which was already part of a media conglomeration in the 80s due to Reagan's policies on deregulation.  Universal Pictures is a production company but distributed this film, which is an example of vertical integration.  Studios got into distribution after the paramount decrees disallowed them from exhibiting their own films.  However, I am sure you are very well aware of Universal Studios, and now Universal pictures is part of the NBC-Comcast conglomeration, which is owned by GE.  This would be a great way to discuss the concept of synergy discussed by Holt in her article.  Walker is a rare insofar as it is critical of media conglomeration.  If you recall, William Walker was sent to the Nicaragua by a railroad corporation to build a canal, but ended up taking over the country, which is more or less historically accurate.  If you discuss Walker you should be able to discuss the Nicaraguan conflict case study.  Walker's ironic use of genres, is a criticism of genre revisionism, which exploit as many genres as possible to appeal to the widest possible audience, an effect of media conglomeration.   Also, in Walker, the ironic use of advertising, consumer goods, and even media itself is an equally ironic criticism of the way films in the 80s had to appeal to a broad range of markets, synergy.  Lastly, you could discuss its blatant allegories of the Vietnam War, which would be a good way to compare the Nicaraguan conflict. 



How do you discuss Sopranos with They Myth of the Liberal Media?

For The Sopranos, you will need to discuss them in relation to pay-per-view television, namely, HBO.  Why wasn't Sopranos, a show that was predicted to be immensely popular regardless of the network, picked up by the big 3 networks?  Why was HBO allowed to air it?  This topic would equally require an understanding of the effects of media conglomeration.

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to send them my way.

Study Guide

To get an A, you will need to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the material by correctly citing articles, screenings, lectures, and case studies.  A good way to approach the material is to ask why changes occurred, how it affected film and television, and how these changes were reflected in the screenings.  For example, what was the change in the representation of African Americans, why did this change happen, and how did it affect film and television?  I am going to assume you were at the last lecture if not, JKK is not testing on Frank's Place or the Prince reading from the Film Reader.  To discuss African American representation, you will need to cite Grey's article, and the two documentaries from that week.  Do yourself a huge favour, and screen them in SMIL, and take notes about how and why changes occurred. 
Another, cause and effect arena to consider would be genre revitalization (word?) and hybridity especially with regards to the blockbuster.  Why were genres revisited and reworked?  What are blockbusters?  Why were they necessary?  This topic will largely need evidence from the screenings like Star Wars (definitely a Blockbuster) and Little Big Man (not a blockbuster, but a satirical, highly allegorical genre revisionist film).  A good approach to this topic would maybe be a comparison in the allegorical representation of the Vietnam War or the American Empire between these two films.  Also, this topic will demand an understanding of the conflict in Nicaragua.
Which bring us to media conglomeration.  Why did this occur?  How did media conglomeration affect film and television?  Who and what were the main players and legislation involved in this the formation of media conglomerates?   How was media conglomeration, Nicaraguan and Vietnam conflicts represented in Walker?   Walker is a complex film that pushes the boundaries of many genres, it would be worthwhile to re-screeening it for evidence.  What scenes in particular reflect media (or corporate) conglomeration, or are allegorical of the Vietnam conflict?  How and why does this film (or Star Wars, or Little Big Man) use genres?  To discuss media conglomeration, and blockbusters, you will need to discuss franchise films, and synergy, which are discussed very plainly in the Schatz and Holt articles. 
Lastly, the myth of the liberal media is a product of media conglomeration.  For this, all of the information is taken from the Noah Chomsky documentary.  If you wish to discuss Sopranos, you will need to discuss pay-tv and how and why it came to be.  Sopranos could also be used to discuss genre revisionism.

I know it's a lot of information, so maybe tackle 2 or 3 weeks.

Please let me know if you have any further specific questions and I'll post any  subsequent student questions as well.

Whaddaya Lookin’ At? Re-reading the Gangster Genre Through “The Sopranos”

Summary Nochimson talks about the gangster sub-genre as well as the classical gangster genre. She talks about the differences between the two citing that that The Sopranos sub-genre is a new hybrid version of old gangster films with a melodrama element. The Sopranos shares some of the standard similarities between gangster films such as viewing crime as a legitimate career path, masculinity is strongly associated with power, the genre having a close connection to reality and finally convinces the audience to be emphatic towards the criminal elements of the flicks. She also goes on to describe the differences of The Sopranos and how it is different, stating that The Sopranos incorporates the middle class society of people such as doctors, lawyers, teachers etc, as the cowardly and morally neglectful. She goes on to describe Tony Sopranos’ weakness from examples from the show, which breathes new life into the genre as he visits his therapist for help, compared to the gangster films where the protagonists are seen as strong brutal mobsters. Other elements of the show include family melodrama which is a more in depth look at family conflicts, physicality of mobsters of the show which are conveyed in more detail that include actions such as drinking, eating, kissing and so forth with more meaning than the films. Finally, the use of religion within the show is displayed as a tool of evil and self- destruction of Tony Soprano’s wife, Carmella. The author talks about the strengths and weakness of Tony Soprano as a character and why he appeals to the audience in general and the many ways they can relate to him.

In Deregulation We Trust: The synergy of politics and industry in Reagan-Era Hollywood - Jennifer Holt

This article by Jennifer Holt talks about the stages of how the media corporations, who were once under intense scrutiny under consent decrees, such as the Sherman Act in the late 40’s, gradually transformed into major corporate conglomerates.

Hollywood went through many changes in the 80’s; newer, more improved technological and delivery systems, and also the neo classical approach to economic policies under the Reagan administration changed the Hollywood landscape forever. It also bonded even closer ties between the government and Hollywood.

Hollywood was undergoing major changes in terms of concentrated power in the hands of a few, and large scale expansions, because of more and more corporation being allowed to vertically integrate.

In the 70’s, because of rising costs of production, film making did decline a little, but came back strongly because of the rising number of billion dollar deal mergers and conglomerates.

The ‘birth of the VCR’ also changed the media landscape. VCR ‘dates’ replaced the social ritual of going to cinemas, and 30-35% of film revenues came from these home theatre sales. This also affected the media landscape, and changed its production techniques significantly.

The Paramount Decree was a U.S Supreme Court anti-trust case that decided the fate of movie studios owning their own theatres and holding exclusivity rights on which theatres would show their films. It changed the way Hollywood movies were produced, distributed, and exhibited. The court had the job of enforcing these laws, but under Reagan’s administration mergers were promoted and the essence of the decree was being manipulated by the studios.

The 5 major studios acquired almost 20 percent of the country’s theaters. Competition from cable and home video was eroding the theatrical revenues but the strategy of releasing films in many theatres on the opening week along with a 120 percent increase in the film’s average advertising cost helped overcome it.

And thus, a ‘New Hollywood era had begun, where 11 of Hollywood’s largest distributors had 96% of the box office revenues.

The Return of the Hollywood Studio System - Thomas Schatz

In Schatz’s article, the classic and new Hollywood systems are compared and contrasted, emphasizing the changes that the film industry underwent in order to rise from its decline. He also discusses the collaboration of Hollywood films, and the television industry and how it aided in Hollywood’s rise. Studios began selling or leasing their old films to TV stations, which was very helpful, considering the baby boom of post-WWII and how many families wished to stay home, instead of attend movie theatres. Many new generation film-makers like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola, arose and began to create movies which appealed to the moviegoers of that time, that is, the new hip, cine-literate, generation. One of the ways in which this was done, was by using a wide array of genres, which the new audience was attracted to, like disaster, action-adventure, or chase films, such as Jurassic Park, Star Wars and Jaws. A consumerist approach to the film industry began to unfold and a great emphasis was put on “tight diversification”, which essentially means that a media company today, needs to expand and vary its range of products with respect to the media. This can be done through the collected efforts of many different media companies. For example, Jurassic Parc became a “multipurpose entertainment machine with its movie sequels, sound track albums, video games, theme park rides and an endless array of licensed tie-ins and brand-name consumer products.” The companies Disney, and Warner, were also discussed, emphasizing the fact that they have “become the two leading global media powers”. The article goes on to compare the two companies in terms of their revenues and wide array of media forms they present. One of the underlying messages throughout this article, is that the line “between shopping and entertainment should be blurred” and that “to survive, a company must mobilize a vast array of global brands to command both content and distribution.” The Katzenberg memo was also discussed, where Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Disney executive, believed that successful films are “primarily based on two elements – a good story, well executed” and said that the “idea was king”. He urged Disney to stick to smaller-scale projects and believed that modest films should return. This ideology didn’t agree with Roth’s notion that using marketing strategies as weapons is sometimes equal to the movie idea. This new ‘blockbuster’ mentality -making successful films that have a widespread popularity and high sales- coupled with the consumer culture has changed the way successful productions are created.

How the '80s programmed us for war

I stumbled across this very fitting article on the context of the 80s nostagia, Reaganism deregulation, and Hollywood propaganda: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/03/15/sirota_excerpt_back_to_our_future

Some highlights:

"Propaganda is most effective when it is least noticeable," writes public relations expert Nancy Snow. "In an open society, such as the United States, the hidden and integrated nature of the propaganda best convinces people they are not being manipulated."

Reaganism abetted this dawn of the "the military-entertainment complex," as Wired magazine called it. The administration's hawkishess provided the political rationale for parental complicity, and the White House's deregulatory agenda helped television become the most influential -- and most invasive -- marketer of kids products, more and more of which were violent and military-themed.

White House strategists and Pentagon propagandists use information and imagery as strategic weapons, and they are well aware that the most valuable of those weapons is cheery childhood nostalgia.

In a Variety story from 1994, the Pentagon's official Hollywood liaison, Phil Strub, put it bluntly: "The main criteria we use [for approval] is ... how could the proposed production benefit the military ... could it help in recruiting [and] is it in sync with present policy?"

Chapter 18 Summary

Two main reasons for the return to success for the film industry:

1.     The rise of blockbuster film in 1970s and 1980s

2.     The appearance of the home video market which completely changed the economics of the industry

The economic turnaround in the American film industry

·      First during the 1970s the number of movies that Hollywood released began to fall and the amount of money that had to be spent on each movie increased; for example prior to the 1980s the average negative cost of a movie was $1.97 by 1981 it was $11.34

·      The trend was to spend more on each individual film and this trend even continues up until now

·      A major changed also occurred during the 1970s.Hollywood began to release fewer films but to more theatres on opening day which came to be known as “Saturation release.  “Prior to then,like Hollywood released movies  to smaller numbers of theatres and then gradually increased the number

·      The “Godfather” was one of the first successful blockbuster films which was released to 350 theatres

·      Since Hollywood was making fewer films that cost more, they had to do something in order to prevent the risk of huge failure.  So studios began the joint of financing of big blockbuster films.  This way several companies shared the risk in case the film flopped

·      Another way for studios to make more money was to pre-sell additional TV and video rights and to ask exhibitors to guarantee money that wasn’t refundable and to produce tie-ins like books, toys, records

·      The  1970s also aw the rise of talent agencies as key players in the movie business

·      Under the new system, agents representing the biggest movie stars would order scripts, put together production packages and then have a studio finance and distribute the film

·      Talent was hired only for the time it was needed

·      The type of movies that were being made also changed

·      In 1977 the largest demographic of movie audiences was between 12-24

·      Western movies went into a permanent decline while horror and science fiction films grew

·      Home video players and recorders became available and by 1980s almost everyone had one and because of this movies started to have a second life

·      During the 1980s the income that was earned from home video sales and rentals grew from 7 to 38.6 percent

·      Even today box office sales help the industry to indicate how well a film may do in ancillary markets such as home videos, cable...

·      Low budge B movies continue today in the form of straight-to-video market

·      The fact that all these big industries were putting millions dollars of money into a movie helped smaller industries begin to fill the gap and the rise of these “indy” films became a permanent feature of the film landscape in America and allowed a great variety of films to be made

Star wars (1977) and the rebirth of militarism

·      First of all what militarism means is the idea of a political orientation of a people or a government to maintain a strong military force and to be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interest This means that society should follow concepts that can be found in culture, system and people of military.  The most important aspect in militarism is discipline which means to follow a set of rules.

·      Star war is the quintessential example of a blockbuster. In addition to its financial success, this film was also an important text in cultural and political transformation of American society in 1970s because it represented a return of hero figure to film story

·      This wasn’t the first film with heroes in it; instead it was the most successful one just like any other films the hero of the film was also a good-looking military hero, Luke Skywalker

·      In the time when this movie was made, the image of military was changed to the

·      So all the military recruiters had to work really hard to make the military an appealing career choice for young people and so many expensive advertising campaigns were run for many years

·      The appearance  of military heroes in films such as top gun also helped too and their popularity was because of the positively overwhelming of the can-do attitude

·      In order to repair the image of military, many various branches of U.S military made their resources available to filmmakers, and in order for military to have access to scripts they had to let filmmakers to borrow equipments such as ships, planes and by doing so they did saves many dollars

·      Star wars in part is a reflection of the way in which American culture addressed the defeat in Vietnam.  This film is a deeply conflicting film that has both liberal and traditional attitudes set in it.  In part of its success is because of its ability to settle opposite views and clearly depict good vs evil

·      The film tried to restore older genres by blending a number of them together

·      The film also tried to put up with some similarities to WWII combat films which involved multi-ethnic bomber crews who worked together to accomplish a mission so instead of having actual people it used unfamiliar beings and robots but the whole structure was the same

·      Elements of western genre could have been found throughout the film

·      The film also included the simple structures of B science fiction serials of 1930s and 1940s

·      It’s the simplicity of the film that is conforming what it does is it constructs it’s adult audiences as children reminding them of simpler times when the world was easier to understand

·      It also shows a simple view of the world where good and evils were really easy to recognize and it’s star’s war most obvious cultural gift as it was mentioned before it also offers traditional male heroes

·      This film helped to popularize the idea of “sanitized high-tech war” which has become one of more dangerous aspects of US military

·      In star wars the results of combat was never really seen

·      Keller suggests that the empire in the film is represented as totalitarian and characteristics of society similar in appearance to Nazi Germany.  The generals of the empire in the movie do also wear uniforms similar to those of Soviet Union during WWII making this some kind of Hollywood image of Evil

·      Peter did saw similarities between the film and Vietnam War and he believes this one done consciously by the director.

·      The overall story of the film talks about a war between the old republic (a government with no king and queen) and the imperial successor to this political order

·      Like the empire in star wars films, American empire crudely tries to hold back the tiniest uprising against its control.  So it shows how U.S.A government is caring too much about its military, weapons, and how this new American empire has a military presence it has major military bases nearly in 40 countries all around the world.  It shows how a country that has the nerve to questions US policy and that doesn’t have the means to defend itself will be attacked.  The director of the film included all of these similarities which is a pro-American film.  This could explain why this film is very popular even in places where American empire is not well considered. 

The Movies Come Back I-Revisionist Genres

• The movie industry rebounded in the 1970’s after the post World War II decline 
• Burst of creativity in American movies in the late 1960’s led to the economic rebirth of the movies 
• People, which included older adults that stopped going to the movies due to the baby boom and younger audiences, started going to movies again, to see films that were not shown on television, and spoke to the issues that concerned them 
• This period also coincided with: 
• The Civil Rights Movement (set the way for the transformation of the representation of African Americas in the movies)
   
• Women’s Movement 
• Native Rights Movement 
•  Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movement 
• Green Movement

• In the 1960’s, the vibrant youth culture flourished and was one of the inspirations of the national peace movement in response to the Vietnam war 
• The transformation of Hollywood’s genre system was the result of Hollywood turning it’s attention to the youth culture and changing the way it told stories to remain relevant to the audience 
• For example, filmmakers attempted to speak to the concerns of people questioning political, business and military leaders’ honesty. This broke social conventions of society that the genre system created, and led to a crisis within that system
  
   Generic Crisis
   
• Definition: When a society enters periods of social upheaval, flux and change, generic conventions tend to fall apart; they can no longer perform their conservative function of rationalizing the status quo and providing comfort in
• Through the 1960’s and 1970’s, genre films became different from their predecessors in several ways:
  
  
  •  Crime films: main heroes become counterculture, going up against the government. The criminals are bad and police are good dichotomy is reversed. The criminals are seen in a positive light, and even If they are taken down by the law at the end of the movie, the audience learns to sympathize with them.
  • Examples are Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
  • Film Noir: now part of a consciously constructed genre, “neo noir”, which are crime films with film noir elements, which is the depiction of a corrupt and unredeemable society.
  • Examples are Point Blank (1967), Chinatown (1974) and Night Moves (1975)
  •  The Hollywood Musical: in the 1970’s, this utopian genre was challenged by musicals like Cabaret (1972) and New York New York (1977), which portrayed a darker, and more pessimistic point of view.
  •  Generic Hybrid-The Conspiracy Film
  •  In the 1970’s, the traditional detective story (a loner or outsider, usually an ex-cop who could not stand the corruption within the force, who used his street smarts and intuition to get the job done) was combined with the political thriller to create the conspiracy film. 
•  
• The conspiracy film does not work to reaffirm American Institutions and individual heroism, unlike the two genres that it is made up from 
• In these films, the search for the truth in an increasingly complex and byzantine world becomes next to impossible 
• Example: The Parallax View (1974), an investigative reporter, Joe Frady, who wants to uncover the people responsible for the assassination of a prominent politician. However, he finds out that the Parallax Corporation has been carrying out assassinations for hire, so he goes undercover as an employee. It ends with Frady being murdered and his implication in the murder of a second politician. He becomes a patsy, like many believed J.F.K’s assassin was.
• This film appeared at a time there were many events leading to the mistrust of government and business
  
  Frederic Jameson attempts to map the changes of film within the last 25 years, and to make connections of these changes to the changes of structures of global capitalism in its present form in his book The Geo-Political Aesthetic. His conclusions are:
• Because of the triumph of the collective values of modern capitalism over old style American individualism, the generic and formal structures of film narrative can no longer contain the traditional styles of storytelling, which results in the crisis of the hero figure. 
• This is evidence of the infiltration of capitalist values into every aspect of social life
  
   Case Study: The Late Western Film and American Empire
   
• In the late 1960’s and 1970’s, several Western films (The Wild Bunch, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Heaven’s Gate) emerged that questioned the traditional Western narrative. They cast a negative light on (the lack of) American heroes.
•  
• These movies were coined as “revisionist Westerns” 
• American film makers used the Western, which is most closely identified with American myth and history to comment on the war 
• Dichotomy disappears, and conflict is reordered into one between the forces of big businesses and small businessmen trying to survive on the margins of the economy (McCabe and Mrs. Miller) 
• Anti-heroic characters (McCabe) sets standard for most bleak films during that period 
• Heaven’s Gate (1980) is sometimes credited with destroying the Western genre because of it’s unusual form, which violates many of the conventions of the traditional Western, such as it’s prologue set at Harvard University instead of the Wilderness, which was important to demonstrate the growing class divide in post Civil War America and show confidence in its new ruling class 
• Heaven’s Gate was a box office flop, which made filmmakers allergic to the genre for a while after
  
  
  
  Questions:
  
   1. What were some social changes at the time of the movie industry’s rebound? What effect did these social changes have on the generic system? 2. How does Frederic Jameson’s conclusions in his book, The Geo-Political Aesthetic, reflect the plot of The Parallax View? 3. Why is Heaven’s Gate credited as destroying the Western Genre?

10 Tips For Better Essays

Here are some guidelines for planning your essay and looking over your own drafts. They are most appropriate for argumentative essays (the kind most courses require). Although the format for a case analysis is quite different from that of an essay, these questions also can help you assess your case analyses.

1. Does your essay fall within the terms of the assignment? Is it on topic? Does it answer the question? Have you correctly INTERPRETED THE ASSIGNMENT?
2. Does your essay have a clear and explicitly stated THESIS, that is, a clearly stated central idea that the rest of the essay develops and supports?
3. Is there a broad enough base of information? Is there evidence in the essay that you have done appropriate and sufficient RESEARCH?
4. Is your essay argumentative? Is there a body of ARGUMENT presented in a way that supports the thesis? Have you given good reasons for your thesis?
5. Are your arguments supported by appropriate and sufficient EVIDENCE?
6. Does your writing show a reasonable sense of paragraph structure? Is the topic of each paragraph clear and is that topic clearly related to proving the thesis?
7. Is it clear how the evidence supports the argument? Are quotations introduced in a way that make their function in the argument clear? Do you comment on quotations in a way which shows their relevance to the thesis? 
8. Is the sentence level grammar correct? For example, do verbs agree with their subjects, are tense sequences correct, and do pronouns have antecedents?
9. Is there coherence from sentence to sentence and a reasonable transition from paragraph to paragraph?
10. Do you follow appropriate conventions of documentation, footnoting and bibliography?

Source: http://www.yorku.ca/laps/writ/tips.html

Essay Writing and Grammar Stuff that Makes Ben go B-A-N-A-N-A-S

In no specific order:

1) Don't literally mention the class, lecture, screening, or tutorial: i.e. "In the lecture;" "The films we screened in class;" "In that tutorial with all those awkward pauses and I thought you (Ben) were about to cry." write as if your reader (me) does not know anything about the course.

2) Alphabet not Alphabets <-- this is just bananas to me.

3) I heart creative punctuation use, but you have to know the rules before you can break 'em. Picasso can throw paint on a canvas and call it a horse, because he can draw a horse.

What's this? A money, college-approved grammar and punctuation guide? You betcha! Kablam: http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/GramPunct.html


4) Affect vs. Effect
• affect is a verb i.e expresses an action, event, or states of being
• effect is a noun i.e person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea

5) Don't be vague, be specific
• state why something was important for various ways
• avoid passive words like essentially, gernerall
• you are making an argument;use more assertive statements

6) "In conclusion" is bad.

7) Avoid cliches like: like the plague.

8) Don't use expressions, esecially as contractions, like etc., i.e., yadda, yadda, yadda

8) It's only ever means it is; its is possessive: its boat, its house, its car. But this doesn't matter because we are going to...

9) Avoid contractions: don't = do not; doesn't = does not

10) If you aren't confident with a term, word, or theory, contact me or bring it up in class; don't just pretend you know how to use it: Sesame Street is good for kids, oh yeah, postmodernism!

11) Don't just cram the article ideas into a single paragraph. You are already largely discussing the aricles, so mention the authors when you are discussing their ideas to prove that what you are talking has been peer-reviewed. Then provide an examples from one of the screenings

12) Do not make up terms or acronyms, or put things in quotes to express sarcasm.

York Grades

A number of you have asked how grades are broken down



Source: http://www.yorku.ca/laps/students/grading.html

"Recodings: Possibilities and Limitations in Commercial Television Representations of African American Culture” - by Herman Gray

Gray's paper is identifies dominant assumptions in commercial television’s representation of African American culture. He believes that programs of American commercial television views African American culture from the perspective of the white middle class experience. Thus, this gives people the outlook that African Americans are just copies of white culture. “Frank’s Place” is a short lived commercial television series about black life in America, depicting Frank Parrish in a black community of New Orleans. The series was developed as an attempt to rewrite and reposition African American culture and its black subjectivities in the industry.

“Frank’s Place” was a very unique show, as it required viewers to place themselves in the perspective of the black people in the series, in order to fully understand the story and the characters themselves. Due to its distinctive setting, it received great reviews from critics and industry members. But it was not as popular with the majority of the audience, thus was canceled by CBS in 1988. Though it was a short lived television series, it affected the representation of black Americans in the industry in a positive light. “Frank’s Place” challenged the generic boundaries of commercial television, and offered a new direction in representing aspects of black life in America. The understanding of the African American culture to truly grasp the feeling of the show assisted many into recognizing the black’s culture and sensibilities.

Network Television Timeline

Boddy, William. “Alternative Television in the United States”

In terms of alternative television in the United States, a sharpening debate has emerged around notions of alternative structures and modes of production for television, a debate which might usefully reflect on the history of independent television work in the U.S. The use of video in gallery installations, saw the introduction of half-inch portable video recording equipment in the U.S. which defined subsequent independent video production. This resulted in video makers from within and outside the art world created a growing production community which formed a bond which was greater than that between the contemporary Hollywood cinema and independent filmmakers in the U.S. Broadcast television rejected independent work on aesthetic, political and even technological grounds, creating a surprisingly close-knit community which took up the tasks not only of production, but also of distribution, exhibition, critical exegesis and publicity of the new work. As a result of this, an early video art show at a 57th Street gallery in New York City in 1969, led directly to the formation of Raindance Corporation. Raindance was a self- described "countercultural think-tank" that embraced video as an alternative form of cultural communication. The activities and discourses of the proclaimed 'video guerrillas' were initially visionary and at times grandiose, promoting storefront theatres, travelling video groups and schemes for electronic democracy via interactive cable, although some of the groups later became producers of video-verite documentaries for public television and of dramatic pilots for the commercial networks. A pronounced strain of technological euphoria and utopianism animated the early guerrilla television movement, and its rhetoric was at times more ecological than political. Most people think of something 'radical' as being political, but we they were not. At times the technological determinism of Guerrilla Television obliterates history and politics altogether in an inversion of social causality: 'Broadcast television is structurally unsound. Through this presentation, I plan to elaborate on the role of guerilla television, interactive television and cable and how they have become more influential over the years.

Cable Television and the Public Interest By: Patricia Aufderheide

In this article Patricia gave a perspective on cable television and how it may have helped or changed the community as a whole. Cable television is a channel made to raise questions of the public interest in telecommunications, it has become the primary delivery medium for television in a majority of American homes. The cable communications Policy Act was passed back in 1984 with few to none public participation, no cable operator agreed with this law and physically did not have the extra money to produce a cable television channel. When the law was first in effect it had many problems like bad enforcement, sloppy language, and confusion over the First Amendment rights. In this article Patricia also mentioned how “cable today has no thriving marketplace of ideas” meaning that what we see on television is always the same and ruled by advertising programs, what we really need is a diversity of sources and viewpoints about the different issues that needs to be raised in our public concern. The access cable is made to give the public news about the public and Patricia said that the access cable should not be measured with the amount of viewers but the ability to make a difference in the community, and should not be treated like any other American public television does. Access cable is used to broadcast government and educational channels such as city council meetings, school board meetings, local high school basketball games, religious programming or community billboard. This may sound like they did an OK job with such little support but throughout the time public access has been under assault in many ways. Cable companies and cities under financial pressure are both assaulting public access because the price to have the channel is way too high for them to afford but the law has been passed that they must provide that channel for their community. The access cable did exceptionally well for the lack of professional staff and the amount of assault they received, but at the end they still managed to hang on and pulled through the rough times because as we can see today there are still channels where local games and news are broadcasted.

Exam Review Questions

Discuss the evolution of the advertising form of American broadcasting, in particular the environment of American broadcasting between 1959-1971 citing examples from No Logo and Advertising and the End of the World and the Spy genre

Discuss the role of American nightly news and other forms of mainstream media during war-times, citing examples from Hearts and Minds (1974), and Ryan and Kellner’s article from the Film Reader

Discuss the evolution of American Public broadcasting and its contested role in American society, citing examples from the Anderson, and Kraidy articles, Sesame Street, and Eyes on the Prize

Explain the rise of cable television and public access television, citing examples from the Aufderheide and Boddy articles, and Paper Tiger Television

Kraidy Article Summary

Sesame Street, one of the most popular children’s shows ever, has been educating children for over thirty years. Its multicultural cast is exceptionally contrasting to other media during the 1970s, which is very praiseworthy, according to the Kraidy and his article, “Sunny Days on Sesame Street? Multiculturalism and Resistance Postmodernism”. Kraidy concludes that Sesame Street has multifaceted dialogues that recognizes other races in constructing identity. In other words, Sesame Street promotes “multicultural identification and coexistence” (Kraidy, 2002).

In examining Sesame Street’s validity as a pedagogical tool for teaching children about multiculturalism, Kraidy examines its portrayal of multiculturalism. In doing so, he uses Peter McLaren’s theory of resistance postmodernism, which addresses pedagogy and multiculturalism.

The show was first produced by New York based Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) in 1969. It won 71 Emmys, and broadcasted in 141 countries, including 19 foreign coproductions where different muppets were made to be introduced to these different countries. So popular is the show, it has 11 million viewers in U.S. Sesame Street succeeds to teach children numbers and letters, as well as social commitment. For instance, it educates and promotes awareness to children about multiculturalism in U.S., and cultural and religious tolerance in Israel.

As an educational tool, Sesame Street was found to serve a significant impact on children’s learning. Rice, et al. (1990), studied the relationship between watching television to pass time and learning. They found that Sesame Street was a rich source for developing vocabulary of children ranging from ages three to five. In other studies performed by Salomon, Cook, and Conner, whose studies were similar, they found that Sesame Street is a supplement to children’s education, where best results are detected when exposed to other educational stimuli, age, and support from parents.

Its sociocultural impact also demonstrated positive results. For instance, Children ages four to seven who watched Sesame Street were tested, and results showed that they were more likely to describe others in a more positive way. Moreover, they often resort to prosocial justifications to resolve conflicts. All in all, Sesame Street’s education impact is not only limited to teaching children about numbers and letters, but it also extends to teaching them the important foundation to cultural scaffolding and social interactions.

Postmodernism’s emphasis and acknowledgement of cultural diversity, bringing the emergence of media like Sesame Street which has a multicultural cast. Peter McLaren encourages educators to develop a curriculum that attends to specificity (race/gender/class), but also acknowledges the commonality of all these diverse groups (things they have in common). Resistance Postmodernism encompasses plurality of truth, and “a means of interrogating locality, positionality, and specificity of knowledge” (Kraidy, 2002). Plurality of truth is exemplified in Sesame Street’s episode where a Olivia goes over to Aisha’s house (cross-cultural friendship). Moreover, it is continually re-emphasized throughout the show because all the characters on the show each take part in being a teacher at one point. It also promotes self-esteem by showing that learning and teaching is essential to everybody’s interaction, moreover, it dethrones authority and makes everyone equal. Another episode a narrated by a girl who lives in a small village in China learns stilt dancing from her grandfather offers more insight into foreign culture. These scenes allow children to question their locality, and specificity of knowledge to a culture that is clearly different from theirs such as Chinese.

Educational Television Is Not an Oxymoron – Daniel R. Anderson

Anderson’s “Educational Television Is Not an Oxymoron” talks about the effects
of educational television on child development. He addresses both sides of the
controversial issue of whether it helps or hinders a child’s cognitive and
social development.

The reading uses Sesame Street as the primary example for comparison of whether
or not educational television is beneficial to children. A Children’s
Television Act was put in place for the purpose of creating television in which
it was designed to benefit children by teaching them valuable information and
skills. However, with that being said there were critics who argued that
children programming is not affect.

Critics of children’s television program viewed “educational television” as an
oxymoron claiming that it does not help, but instead hinders a child’s
development. They expressed that educational television produces shortened
attention span, made children intellectually passive, delayed development, and
produces frantic behaviour.

Anderson furthers his analysis by providing examples of some of the cases
against Sesame Street. He mentioned Jane Healy in which she provides one of the
strongest attacks on Sesame Street. She goes as far as saying that language
skills and the ability to follow or produced extended arguments are
deteriorating. She also argues that educational television fails to provide
children with the appropriate experiences they need in order for the brain to
develop properly in the early years of development.

While some say that educational television, such as Sesame Street, causes
shorter attention spans and lack of thought development. There are also others
who oppose to this saying that it is beneficial to children and especially
those in disadvantage circumstances.

Anderson addresses the flaws of some of the claims made by the critics of Sesame
Street. Critics claimed that after watching the child television program
children exhibited shorter attention spans and appeared to have frantic
behaviour where they would count and recite the alphabet. The core claims made
against Sesame Street posed problems because empirical studies fail to support
the claims that were made. For example the claim of how young children’s
attention to Sesame Street is involuntary or due too primarily to the
occurrence of salient features is untrue because the most obvious component of
attention to television is simply looking at the television screen.

Overall, Anderson acknowledges the fact that television probably has no
consistent effects. But he believes that educational television is beneficial
to children resulting in better graces and other positive outcomes in, which he
linked to studies that were done in elementary schools in Sweden and the United
States. Sesame Street is one of the longest running children’s programs. It has
become the basis for which other children’s programs are created.

Television News

• “Nightly News broadcasts in the early days of America took off to a relatively slow start.” – compared to almost any other television genre

• These News programs drew on two major influences from older media:
1. Broadcast radio news – the way americans viewed the Great Depression and Cold War
2. Theatrical Newreels – advertising on radio and admission prices for newsreels

• Television carried over with them a set of conventions that was adopted by Broadcast radio delivered by an announcer
• Authorative voice, read stories from news paper and wire services
• Live on location in the 30s and 40s also became very popular, allowing listeners to listen as the stories were unfolding. (Radio, not television)
• News station relied on licensing film footage

Early News Television

• Most Television Shower were single sponsor programs 1950’s NBC’s nightly news report “The Esse Television Reporter”, “Camwell NewsReal Theater”, wasn’t till the 50’s, where they would create there own news programs, and switch to a multi-sponsored company.

Politically

• The rise of television news after world war II coincided with the beginnings of the cold war. The nightly news was clearly on the side of the capitialists, and the emergence of the consumer society
• Reporting in foreign affairs “Is this country on our side or the enemys side”
• 50’s – the radio and movie industry was continuing to come to a decline but the television news industry kept attracting American viewers giving the viewers knowledge of what was happening around the world
•  Technological Innovation (new cameras) made it easier and more possible

News Televison Strategy

• In the beginning networks kept pouring more and more money into there news divisions, even though they were not receiving any profits
• Also they would entice there viewers to dedicate there evenings to watching one single news station as opposed to numerous.
• Over time news stations would become very profitable
• Viewed major impacts of the day e.g white American violence on African Americans.
• Civil Rights movement with the help of TV awareness.

Televised Vietnam War

• The three major networks would televise the first war that did not end in victory for the U.S informing the Americans at war how the battle was going
• Conservative Americans still blame the media for it’s defeat and argue that the American public could not handle the truth.
• Main Lesson learned by American military must watch out for free flows of information that can upset the army.
• Governments set restrictions for reporters

Chapter 12: Chapter Twelve: Network Domination of U.S Television (1959-1971)

Between 1959 and 1971, we witnessed the Big Three networks shift from a single sponsor system to a multiple sponsor system. This brought a decrease in power upon NBC, CBS, ABC, as these network could no longer take advantage of the veto power they once had over a program. As well, during this time period many networks began to co-produce their own programming, which led to a vertical integration in the media industry. Chairman of the Federal Communications Council, Newton Minnow, criticized the networks for their lackluster programs and ideas. Minnow’s actions led to increased funding for new TV construction,
manufacture production of VHF/UHF, as well an increase in documentaries produced. Due to Minnow’s actions, it allowed for the creation of new genres to be aired, which eventually overtake the very popular genre of westerns. In 1971, the FCC passed the Financial Interest and Syndication Rule. This initialized the destruction of the vertical integration structure of the American Television industry, the creation of many independent companies, and refrained networks from producing and owning programs they aired during primetime. During this time period, American television entertainment was the medium of entertainment around the world. As Hollywood is facing a decline, the consist push for sales of many American produced shows to foreign programming allowed for domination of their airwaves. Since these shows were achieving a profitable return, they could be exported at a very low cost. The success of this strategy ensured that American media would be among the most successful of American exports and entertainment
worldwide.

Summary: Chapter 11 – Advertising

Introduction

Chapter 11 outlines the advertising industry’s relation to television and radio.  In starting off more broadly, the definition of advertising is the business of drawing public attention to goods and services.  However, beyond this simple definition, advertising works on many different levels, one of which is to provide us with a glimpse into a utopian world.  A world that is only able to be achieved through one buying into consumerism.  Advertising presents this world, one based on desire.  We desire happiness and these products and services promise this when we purchase the newest and greatest things.  One may at first assume that advertising is a relatively new thing, but it has actually been around since Roman times.  It is really the advertising industry itself which hadn’t developed until the early 1900s.  It is this industry which has funded radio and television broadcasting and is the focus for this presentation.

Advertiser – Broadcaster Relations

            In looking over the history of the advertising industry, one of the first developments was the first “infomercial” in 1922.  Broadcasted over the radio and television, these types of ads remain to this day.  The earliest infomercials were essentially radio and television commercials running over a long period of time – often 5 minutes or longer.  It is important to outline that the main goal in mind was to sell the product, and that there is little to no entertainment value provided to keep the audience tuned in.  Despite infomercials still being run today, companies learned later on that there was a more effective type of advertising which combined entertainment with advertising.  The idea of developing programming that displays the sponsor’s products front and center.  This became a standard for the radio which was adopted by television in the 1940s.

            The standard of advertising did however change in 1959 with the scandals on various game shows.  One example was in 1956, on the show Twenty-One where a specific contestant was rigged into winning the show. 

As due to these events, in 1960, the United States Congress made various amendments to the Communication Act of 1934, which led networks to change the format of advertising.  Instead of a single sponsor running the whole show, TV networks began selling 60 second ads whereby numerous sponsors could buy time.  This format was shortened to 30 seconds by the 1970s.

            The popularity of this multi sponsor format meant that a system needed to be developed to assign cost to certain timeslots.  The A.C. Neilson Company works to measure the specific audiences for certain shows at different times.  This information in addition to the time of day, time of year, the audience, and network reputation are all computed to determine the cost to be charged for certain advertising time.  It is because of this, that advertising agencies have been set up to provide companies with market research, creative development, and account services in developing their advertisements. 

Advertising, Mass Culture and Mass Production

            Further discussed in chapter 11, are the reasons behind why the advertising industry developed into what it is today, that of an ever-growing industry which is continuously upping itself in overall spending.  The reasons are tied to a number of developments in American society with the rise of modern capitalism and mass production.  Mass production meant that products are being made for consumption on a larger scale.  Corporations required mass advertising to spread messages to these larger numbers of people.  These “mass produced” messages began in the 1920s.  The few large corporations which dominated 1920s America wanted to maintain their dominant positions and at the same time increase their market share.  They needed to be able to convince more consumers to buy their products.  They did so by devoting more money to mass advertising.

            At this time, they also discovered that it was far more effective to appeal to the emotions of consumers rather than only conveying the advantages of the product itself. 

In addition to these reasons, the advertising industry’s development worked in favor for the United States as a country itself.  Advertising and consumerism worked to solve the problems of early capitalism which plagued the United States and also worked to go against other ideologies such as communism and socialism.  By promoting consumerism in advertising, the American Dream was being created.  Advertising promoted this dream that regardless of your background or social standing, one should be able to achieve their goals and be successful if one puts in the required effort.  Advertising promoted this ideal that everyone should aspire to that of home ownership, owning appliances and cars, etc.  This promoted a common bond that everyone in the US could look to despite the diversity that immigration presented within the US. 

Modern Times

            In the modern times, the advertising industry is ever-increasing their overall spending.  In 2000, total spending was calculated at 243 billion dollars.  This value increased to 279 billion in 2007.  These numbers describe an industry that continues to dominate what we see, and what we are exposed to.  The newest development is that of product placement in films and shows.  This is where a product or service is included within a show / film and in doing so, the film company or broadcaster is paid by the product company.  This saturation of advertising essentially means that there is practically no where we can turn without seeing advertising. 

Case Study: American Consumer Culture and America’s Image Abroad

            The case study presented in the chapter discusses the Cold war between the United States and the USSR.  More specifically, the propaganda war between the two superpowers with the US promoting the idea that capitalism is better in offering a higher standard of living and a countless array of consumer goods for its people.  It is important to look at this, as we today assume that consumerism is a normal way of life.  It becomes hard to imagine a life without being able to constantly purchase any items we want.  It is important to make aware that this is a relatively new concept that wasn’t really instilled until after World War 2 when people had rising wages and more goods to choose from.  We should be aware that the advertising industry has had enormous affect on bringing about consumerism into new generations.  We should remind ourselves that consumerism isn’t necessarily a normal way of life, but rather only one viewpoint created as a result of living in a capitalist society.