Welcome, Weblog Intro…
This weblog is based on the 2005 publication, “We,the media…”, a history and working practices of US broadcast news, cable news and Reality TV and as represented by Hollywood since the 1970s. Published by Peter Lang…London, Vienna, Frankfurt, Brussels, New York, Berlin, and Oxford.
Further such representations continued into 2008:
REVIEW…
“Alan Taylor’s penetrating study examines how the U.S. media shape the public discourse and, consequently, American foreign policy…
Taylor identifies how cross-ownership is used to reinforce this ideological message – specifically, how film is used to reinforce the legitimacy of another medium: news broadcasting.. .
Taylor takes a historical approach to the evolution of U.S. corporate media, from the beginning of the U.S. broadcast system in the 1920s to the media coverage of the Iraq war, paying particular attention to the events of 9/11. The author declares: “The question to ask is: have we invited a press to witness a war, or have we created a war to prove that this freedom of expression is possible?”…
Taylor employs elements of a number of approaches – Rhetorical resp. Dramaturgical Perspective, and certain key elements of the Auteur theory – sometimes moving from one approach to another. He establishes a historical overview, generating a chronology that demonstrates the development of the concentration of ownership n the U.S. media…
One of the objectives of the book, then, is to encourage a more active citizenry: a “wakeful political literacy” that promotes critical understanding of the current state of American mainstream media. The book also examines the pedagogical implications of this ideological function of the U.S. mass media., calling for a curriculum that encourages critical thinking skills…
Altogether, this is a very thorough, penetrating study that furnishes a valuable perspective into the American media system”
(Art Silverblatt, Dept of Media Literacy, Webster University, Missouri, 2006, see sidebar for full transcription).
A special welcome, therefore, extends to BA and MA students of that organization, as well as visitors from across the five continents…
OVERVIEW.
George Clooney’s independent “Good Night and Good Luck” (2005) takes its important place in an established genre lineage that, since the 1970s, has concerned the developments in U.S. commercial news broadcasting. The film’s focused insight into the strident protests of renowned Edward E. Murrow against the dubious operations of the profiteering networks in the 1950s clearly alludes, as well, to contemporary concerns over the quality and direction of U.S. commercial news operations in the 21st Century.
The film’s critical and commercial success – as topped by 2006 Oscar recognitions – confirm how relevant these issues remain for present-day audiences.
“We, the media…”: This 418-page study helpfully places “Good Night and Good Luck” in a deep historical context by focusing on thirteen Hollywood films that, from the 1970s to the 1990s, also assumed – in various ways – to represent the working practices of the U.S. corporate broadcast & cable news media.
The book argues that such corporate film output – from Disney to 20th Century Fox – became carefully authored public relations manoeuvres – while posing, at the same time, as leading examples of trends from a more knowing post-modern Hollywood.
It becomes a more genuine irony that such corporate films – particularly after the Communications Act of 1996 – became rhetorical counterstrokes to growing public disquiet about media ownership, gender representation, mergers, free speech, new technologies, war coverage, and the influential powers of market journalism itself.
This structured genre analysis is enriched by contextual histories which, since the 1920s, consider relevant legal, institutional and political interventions in the early development of the U.S. public media. Later chapters are dedicated to recent news coverage post 9/11.
2008 UPDATE: U.S. LIBRARY ACQUISITIONS
We are pleased to note the increased sales of the book, particularly across U.S university libraries; these are but a few: Arizona State/Atlanta/Brown/East Carolina/Emerson/ Georgia State/Harvard College/ Indiana/Iowa//MIT/New York/ Ohio/Penn/Regents Rutgers/UCLA/University of California at Irvine, San Diego & Santa Barbara/Central Florida/Illinois/Miami/Oklahoma/Washington, Lee & Yale…
“Since when has the paragon of investigative journalism allowed lawyers to determine the content on 60 Minutes?”.
The following sequence from Michael Mann’s The Insider (1999) should provide a helpful trailer to this on-going study.
This is the Act 2 plot point where CBS 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman/Al Pacino confronts his compromised managers with the seedy side of corporate media mergers at CBS itself (we should note that the film was made by Touchstone/Disney, owner of CBS rival ABC):-
“We, the media…” is designed, therefore, to serve the related interests of media educationalists, specialists in film, and students of U.S. media law and broadcast news histories.
Film titles under analysis in this blog include, Network, Broadcast News, Up, Close and Personal, Deep Impact, and The Insider. These are complete chapters from the published book, copyright retained. Other film titles analysed in the book are: All That Heaven Allows, All The President’s Men, Quiz Show, Independence Day, Mad City, EDtv, The Truman Show, and Wag the Dog.
Where Now?
How about the Introduction?:-
Or A Case Study film from 1998?:-
Finally, in dedication to Charles Swann, American Studies, Keele University
“To be taught by him, to know and care for him was not to be comforted; rather it was to be nudged towards the intense pleasure of rethinking by a generous and courageous intellectual presence.”
UPDATES: http://kinowords.wordpress.com
