1 Starting Thoughts

Somewhere between January 2003 and June 2005, I taught a course called “Mass Communication” for a now-defunct Communication undergraduate program at a now-defunct for-profit college.  The course met during the evening.  The majority of the students in this particular class had worked in media industries (television and radio) and returned to school to complete their degrees so they could teach the production classes on campus.  Early on in the class, we start to discuss media ownership and how it all works.  As I work through the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, deregulation of the media industry, the “inside baseball” of the FCC, the media ownership oligopolies, etc., one of the students – a TV producer – approached me and stated in no uncertain terms “I never knew this was how it worked.  They control everything.”  And he is right.  It was that moment that I realized there was work to do.  The idea that a person within the industry, responsible for not only creating the products but teaching others how to create the products, had not realized how the industry worked took me by surprise.  I started completing my PhD applications, retook the GRE (again), and ended up starting my program in Fall 2005.  The goal was to focus my dissertation on the idea of media literacy for everyone BESIDES the academy^[1].  Near-20 years later, I am still working on it.

I think back on this now and realize that the need for EVERYONE – not just students sitting in a lecture and not just academics digging into their archives and data – to take a moment and understand where we are at this moment in what I will refer to as our “mediated spaces” is essential.  Parents need to know about it when they are figuring out how to raise their children with media.  Citizens need to understand the reality of politics, advertising, and messaging when election cycles come around (do they ever end?  Really?).  Professionals in the business need to have a quick reference for how this all works and how they may exist within it.  Those who pontificate on how bad the media is should take a moment to disconnect from the maelstrom and really look at it.  After all – the Media is.

The Essentials

During this chapter, we lay down the foundation of the whole book.  If you want to skip the details, here are the basics:

• The Media Is.  Grammatically, this sentence is TERRIBLE.  In reality, however, we need to keep this truism in mind.  Media itself (the tech and the types) are not bad or good.  They simply are.
• We love new things!  Since we live in a culture (if you are reading this in the United States) where consumerism is part of who we are, we need to recognize this and ask ourselves “why.”  Our mediated society relies on this cultural reality to pay the bills, make a profit, and keep us coming back for more (content, devices, all of it).
• The goal of this book is to help all of us become more “media literate” – to be able to talk about, internalize, and make sense of all of these noises, images, and products that we are continually surrounded by.
• I get a little deep in the weeds in this chapter regarding my own philosophy around the ideas in the book.  If you want to check it out, you are welcome to dive in with me.  If not … skip it 🙂 .

With all of that said, let’s get into this in earnest.

The Media Is.

Media is not good.  It is not bad.  It is not helpful or hurtful.  Media is technology.  Media … and “The Media” … exists.  Media is the plural of “medium.”  A medium is a platform (for example: television, Facebook, newspapers, email, etc.) that a message is transcribed through from the creator of that message to the receiver.  It’s the circuit that the information travels through.  It is the television we watch, the phone we use, the movies we enjoy, and the camera we capture the world with.  We have a tendency to treat these (and other) technologies as the people, companies, ideas, organizations, etc. behind it.  That is not the case – unless you are up against HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey or battling the MCP in TRON.  We treat an object or objects like “the something” that can actively interact with us.  In case you were curious – media cannot touch us … unless someone throws their phone at us after an upsetting post on Facebook.  Even if a virtual environment responds to us (or, say, Siri talks back to you), it is a prescribed event.  The message is coming from an algorithm (we don’t have a “Data” a la Star Trek … yet), taking your data and plugging it into a formula to lead to one of several conclusions.  It’s like a recipe with options – but only a few of them.  Predictable.  What we REALLY need to get into is what is behind and because of mediated messages and products. That is what we are going to work on here.

Our need for new things – the link between our media consumption and our buying of stuff

Keeping in mind there is an intimate relationship between our media and the products we use to watch them, it seems only logical that one will be used to offer and sell the other.  After all – we are discussing (for the most part) a commercial and capitalistic environment.  For example: When you go out and buy the latest mobile phone of choice, even though your current phone is only a year old and working just fine, ask yourself “why?” Why do you need a new phone?  Was the phone updated with tech that you can use?  Sure.  Do you have that cursed cracked screen and you are eligible for an upgrade?  Excellent.  These are all possible choices.  Here is one more – did you see an advertisement for it and, for just a second, think that you needed it because it was shiny and new and someone else might have it before you?  Yeah … me, too.  That is what advertising is meant to do.  That is why “the media” is as it is.

Media Literacy – What is that?

A skill that I have been working towards both personally and professionally for a long time is media literacy. I have taught classes about it.  I have written about it.  At times, my students have created a media literacy program for middle and high schools to use and 1) trained teachers how to use it and 2) ran a quick version of it with said middle school students.  There is often talk about media literacy at K-12 curriculum meetings, boards of education meetings, congressional meetings … yet it rarely gets anything but lip service.  In other parts of the world, though, that is not the case.  Canada actively weaves ML into its curriculum across grades while New Zealand has been developing and implementing programs for years.  The United States – one of the top creators of consumable media on the planet – can barely get the concept past committee consideration^[2].  In other words – we live in a media-saturated world and are not ready for it.  Not even close.

Think of the story I mentioned above about my student back in 2004 or so who worked in the media industry but had no idea how the industry worked, who owned what, how decisions were made, etc.  That was one motivation for a project like this. Another one was thinking about anyone who did not have the chance to take a class like the ones I have taught and will continue to teach.  Everyone needs access to this conversation.  I decided to write this because I unfortunately do not think that any of us are as prepared as we should be to exist within these mediated worlds we find ourselves in.  We have work to do.

PHILOSOPHY WARNING!!!  GO FORWARD AT YOUR OWN RISK … or if you want to dive into the deep a bit with me.

“Come on, Adam.  Why is this important?”  Let me give you a reason:  Our televisions, tablets, phones, watches, computers, and smart devices are all “signs” – symbols that represent a particular belief, a practice, a group of people, a language, or a host of other things.  Signs start to represent things when we give them meaning or value or, well, power.  Once we start down the smartphone path, for example, it is incredibly difficult to get away from it.  That little device not only means something to us but says something to those who are around us.  It signifies an idea, a desire, a “need.”  Right now, there is a Samsung phone ad that absolutely uses this strategy to get you to think that a phone that folds is what you must have and, dare I say, need, to simply live your life the way YOU want to. You are not buying a product – you are using it to signify to those around you your class, ability to afford things, intelligence (no, really), being in the “now,” etc..  It tells a story.  It is a sign.  Yes, the ad is a spoof on all of the perfume and cologne ads we have been inundated with over the years.  But … and here is the “but” … you know the ads I just referred to, right?  They stick.  The ad, and the process of signifying, worked.

So … why this book?

At this point, the question has to be asked: “why this book and why this way?”  There are two answers.  First – the job-related one.  Every few years, I am asked by one if not several publishers if I am interested in writing a textbook for an Introduction to Mass Communication class.  Publishers know that I have taught such a class on and off for over 20 years and large lecture, general courses will sell lots of books.  This is a question that any of us that teach a class that is typically a large lecture (think over 100 students) will get.  The class is called different things in different places, but the books all look, well, the same.  Yes, they are updated to reflect the newest technology and cultural moments, but they all end up approximately covering the same ideas … and there are many of them.  I often thank the publishers for considering me then tell them that, well, it looks like the market is fairly saturated.  As I look at my bookshelves in my office on campus, one row is dedicated only to those books.  A quick glance shows seven different titles, with multiple editions of each.  The question that I often consider is “do we really need another one of those books?”  Textbooks serve an important function, particularly when working with new media studies and mass communication students.  However, they are written for a particular audience and very particular space – the college classroom.   I want to create something different – I hope.  This particular book (if you can call it that), instead, is meant to be a resource guide for everyone – not just those enrolled in college courses and required to sit through the large lecture experience.  This is for everyone just living their lives and trying to make sense of this mediated reality we live in.

Second – the personal one.  You heard about my experience teaching a course somewhere between 2003 and 2005 – that definitely is a reason.  The other reason is my parents.  Here is what I mean – I started thinking about what information someone, like my parents, might think about when trying to make sense of all of this.  Chances are, not everyone is thinking about the media nearly as much as I am OR took a course in it.  However, once in a while, a question might pop up.  When that question does show up, where do they go?  Not everyone has a kid who decided to study this stuff, get a bunch of degrees in it, and then teach about it.  However, everyone should have access to those questions and answers that we ask in the hallowed halls of the academy.  My hope here is that this can be a starting point for those answers which will, inevitably, lead to more questions, which gets us into more conversations – and helps to develop our literacy further.

What’s next?

The book starts with a discussion of what exactly this idea of “media literacy” is and why we need to be thinking about it at all times (Chapter 2).  This is a term that has been in the education sector for several decades, researched over the past 20 or so years in the US (much longer in other parts of the world), and shows up in passing in federal and state-level education policy.  We will be talking about exactly what it is and how we develop those skills to become “critical media consumers.”  This is followed with a discussion of media history (Chapter three).  This may sound boring, but the history of both “media” and “the media” lines up with the history of Western civilization and, particularly since the turn of the 20th century, the history of the United States.  One does not happen without the other.

Chapter four explores media ownership overall, but not just the big companies that we typically think of (for example, companies like Viacom or ABC/Disney) but also the new players in the game (telecommunication companies like Verizon or AT&T) and even those who own the content and the means of production of the content.  When we talk about media in the United States, we have to remember that – for the most part – the media system in the US is a commercial (read “for profit”) system.  This reality has shaped what technologies stay and go (do you remember BetaMax?) and who owns what technology, the production means for that technology, and those that create content for those products.  Following the money is important to understand not only what is produced and where it shows up, but (as chapter four will point out) how audiences are spoken to and sold to by advertisers, marketers, etc.

Chapter five will dive into what advertising is, its history, and how it works.  We will talk about the origins of what advertising was (as product discussion, propaganda, etc.) and what it has become.  Personally, the most relevant discussion for us today is how advertising has become language for us and the implications of it being everywhere all of the time rather than distinct and always identifiable.

There cannot be a book on the media or media literacy without tackling the behemoth that is social media (chapter six).  There is just no way.  Social media permeates our lives at all times.  Chances are you may have even heard about this very book through one or several social media platforms.  Entire areas of study, including trying to understand “FOMO” (fear of missing out) that comes from not being connected at all times, or the conversion of text-based communication to icon/pictograph interactions through emojis (which very well might complete a circle started with hieroglyphics or wall paintings), are just two of the myriad ways that we are working to understand what is the now-dominant form of daily communication (at least for those that have the economic and social means to communicate in those spaces).

“Convergence” (chapter seven) is the fancy term that is used to talk about that moment when all of the media seemed to merge.  Consider, if you own one, your smartphone.  Music player.  Text reader.  Movie and television screen.  Computer.  Online browser.  Oh … and a phone.  All in one.  That is converged media.  Chapter seven is our chance to take what we have discussed thus far and see how all of it is merged together under one umbrella word – Convergence.  We also will take a little time to consider what our responsibilities are within this converged media space, now that we are more overtly than ever both consuming and producing the mediated world.  We need to rework how we see things – not just as passive or active consumers, thinking through our media at every turn, but now as creators of that same media and what the implications are when we post, tweet, like, and upload.

The final chapter (eight) is the always-necessary “how-to” chapter.  The idea for this chapter is simple: offer some tips on how to use this information in our everyday lives, from determining what news feed to pay attention to first to how to make sense of all the different “news stories” that come our way (fun fact – chances are they are mostly opinion pieces, so I would say don’t pay attention to them at all).  Everything from talking with our relatives to NOT talking with our relatives about this thing called the media.  Yep, this chapter is all about taking media literacy from theory to practice … what is often referred to as “praxis” (fancy word alert!).  My hope is that, if you come up with some ideas of your own, send them my way and I will plug them in here.  I certainly do not have all of the answers or ideas … but collectively we might.

At the end of each chapter, I will have a “Resources” section.  This is where I will list publications, videos, organizations, and any other items that I think will be good for children, for parents, for anyone that is interested in learning more and digging in further.  My plan is that, as this project progresses, this section will grow.  As you will see me mention throughout the book – if you come across something, let me know and send it my way.  If it makes sense to add in, I will be happy to.

So, here we go.  It’s time to start working on our skills and how we make sense of this media world around us.  I wrote this for all of us … my hope is that we can all use it.  Let’s get to work.