Dr. Andrew Wood Office: HGH 210; phone: (408) 924-5378 Email: wooda@email.sjsu.edu Web: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda

Chapter Five: The Mass Media and the Public Sphere

Reading:

Sturken, M, & Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of looking: An introduction to visual culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

In Chapter Five (pp. 151-188), the authors examine the role of mass media in the communication of visual images. Initially, they describe the prevalence of media in our everyday lives. Subsequently, they note the rise and potential fall of mass media, starting with small local-scaled publications and regional broadcasts that reflected the sentiments of small geographical regions. After World War II, mass media technology advanced to the point in which critics could bemoan the rise of mass society, a corporate swath of "men in gray flannel suits" unified by common media more than interpersonal connections. The rise of television and radio "narrowcasting" as well as the use of internet technologies by individuals seeking to craft their own "spaces" on the WWW made it possible to imagine the end of mass society. However, one may not similarly anticipate the end of mass media. The convergence of formerly distinct media types such as AOL and TimeWarner suggests that fewer people control more forms of access to public dialogue, news, and entertainment than ever before.

How might convergent media empires deploy their power to shape public opinion? The authors explore the role of spectacle as a means to galvanize mass attention before commenting on the power of simulated spectacle to craft experiences not based on reality. The authors also describe the power of media-as-narcotic, the experience in which immediate broadcast of images and sounds anesthetizes people to their abilities to play active roles in public life. After all, the folks on TV seem to have everything fairly well worked out. As an extension, the authors note the Frankfurt School critique of media as a means to inspire "false consciousness" on the part of viewers who are duped into believing television "reality" over the realities of capitalist societies. A similar power emerges in the form of cultural imperialism, a process through which mass media perpetuate inequitable relationships between industrial and developing nations by making them appear natural and/or desirable. These powers of mass media form the core of critiques against their dehumanizing and alienating potential. However, as noted above, the growing fragmentation of media and mass culture provide the potential for counter-hegemonic activities.

After discussing the changing manners in which television sponsorship changed the ways people view that medium, the authors explore the paradoxical notion of public sphere as a counterpoint to mass media. As imagined by Jürgen Habermas, the public sphere invokes an ideal space where free individuals may interact for the greater good of their community. Might mass media such as television craft such a sphere? The authors describe scenes in which the assassination of President Kennedy and the death of Princess Diana formed a cathartic space where people might share grief. Even so, they note the media's use of these crises, their transformation of public grief into profitable ventures, suggesting that the mediated-public sphere may be a phantom after all. Here, one might reflect on media coverage of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In what ways did the search for ratings shape what we saw and continue to see on various broadcast and narrowcast media? In contrast, one must question the very existence of the public sphere at all, imagining instead the existence of overlapping microspheres or even counterspheres. Ultimately, we must ask, if "the public" does not reside in shared media, where might it be found?

Activity

Identify an example of a group or individual employing visual communication appropriated from the mass media for individual or small group purposes.