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Brenna Manzello
CM 384 Media Criticism
Reading response 1

“Whoever controls the media, controls the mind” (Jim Morrison,). Everywhere you look

media are surrounding you. Whether you are watching Netflix in your dorm room, listening to

the radio in the car or just scrolling through the Internet. Media is constantly around us in our

everyday lives and there is no way to avoid it. The media has gotten rid of old forms of

communication and has replaced them digitally such as newspapers and books being turned to

online. Nowadays “The Internet emphasizes how mass communication in all forms is central to

our lives psychologically, socially, culturally, economically and politically “(Campbell, R.,

Jensen, J., Gomery, D., Fabos, B., & Frechette, 2014).

In order to understand how the media has taken over we need to look back on where it all

started. Back in the fifteenth century the printing press revolutionized society (Campbell et al.,

2014, p.5). “After printing became the most popular form of communication everything changed

politically and economically. As time went on new technologies brought new forms of

communication such as the electronic revolution that brought radio and film in the nineteenth

century” (Campbell et al., 2014, p.5). Now here we are in 2017 with more media than we know

what to do with. In the book Media in Society, Campbell et al. we look at how different media

forms and content connect with the three main themes, democracy, capitalism and technology. In

this paper I will be focusing on how technology has played a big role in creating new media as

well how it keeps it going. Also will be talking about the critical process that helps us understand

how media in our society works. Then I will go over the three types of media criticisms that

these chapters discuss and see how they fit into the other chapters as well.
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Technology is the key factor in making media stand out so much. Before iPhones and all

those apple products became popular, social media barely existed. We had the news and the

radio to hear what was going on as well as the Internet but we didn’t have access to social media

accounts or even have wireless connection to anything. Nowadays most teenagers and adults

have a cell phone with Internet as well as different social media accounts. “We have moved from

oral, to written, to print, to electronic, and now to digital technologies but what is interesting to

us is not how these technologies work but how they work on us” (Campbell et al., 2014 p.6).

From my perspective this quote made me realize that I don’t go a day without checking my

social media accounts constantly as well as going on the internet and watching TV. The media

has become an addiction that gets worst and worst as time goes on and more technologies come

out. “We have known for some time that people who are over-dependent on digital devices

report feelings of anxiety when they are stopped from using them, but now we can see that these

psychological effects are accompanied by actual physiological changes” (Reed, P., Walton, A.). I

wouldn’t be able to go a day without checking media of some sort even if I tried to.

Although technology plays a major part in media, democracy and capitalism have some

affects as well. “Democracy plays a role in media because of how Internet and social networks

have affected fostering democratic hopes and making the overthrow of unelected leaders

possible” (Campbell et al., 2014, p.7). Capitalism also has a connection with media because of

how commerce is connected to contempory media. “The mass media look at us for their

purposes, which are usually economic instead of political, social or cultural” (Campbell,

2014,p.7). So how do these three themes share connections with our current media?

The answer to the previous question would be the critical process for media content. In

order for us to understand why media are the way they are we have to break down the content in
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a five- step process. This process requires description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and

engagement. This process is also known as being uncynical effort to understand what media

means with stories they are telling to us and stories we are telling them (Campbell et al., 2014, p.

8). In the description phase we closely look at the different subgenres and the history of the

different shows and background information to get a better understanding of its history. We then

do an analysis that focuses on different patterns that we get from the description phase. Next we

would interpret questions about what we just learned. Then the evaluation stage would occur

where we decided whether or not it was good or bad depending on how we felt. The last step that

takes place is the engagement step that involves us digging deeper and taking action to question

the media and add our own thought. I feel like the term “don’t judge a book by its cover” fits

within the critical process by not immediately judging a TV show just by its genre and

automatically assuming you won’t like the show because you watched a previous show in that

genre and wasn’t a fan. The critical process makes you dig deeper into what you are watching

and makes you want to watch more depending on if you enjoy it or not.

After hearing about how the critical process helps break down media now we must look

at the three different criticisms. Out of the three criticisms: reflectionist, constructionist and

Narrativist, we will be focusing on Narrativist the most. Beginning with reflectionist criticism,

which focuses on how well or badly the media can represent the real world (Campbell et al.,

2014, p. 13). This criticism focuses on how advertisements do a terrible job of reflecting real

people and real life concerns. There are many ads out there that affect people in different ways,

one that I can relate to is advertisements for certain clothing companies that only show tiny little

models that give the impression that all girls should be as thin as those models and make a lot of

females have body issues because of those campaigns. The second type of media criticism is
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constructionist, which focuses on different ways media tries to involve individuals as well as

society. “This type of criticism wants us to avoid the toxic and self-serving media that exists in

the world and wants us to break through those ideological messages that we are stuck in”

(Campbell et al., 2014, p.16). The third and most important is Narrativist criticism, “which views

the media as society’s central storytellers” (Campbell et al., 2014, p.17). Stories are everywhere

in the media, they are on the television in the news or your favorite TV show or even your

favorite song. Story telling is a big factor in media and can either make you or break you.

According to the article Millennials high on digital and friends, millennials are more

probable to watch shows on their laptops than non-millennials with a 42% vs 18% (Loechner,

2011). I hate to admit it but I fit in with most of the statistics stated in that article. My parents

have no idea how to watch movies and such online and don’t bother to try. However I noticed

that I am not part of the 70% of millennials who would like to go to every continent in the world,

I myself have no want to travel all around the world. “23.5% of millennials interacted with

content from a brands facebook page at least once daily versus 18% older adults who did the

same” (Loechner, 2011). This didn’t surprise me because I am one of that 70% that do that more

than once a day but its because most businesses use facebook and other social medias to promote

their businesses, which makes it easier to see what products are being sold.

The second chapter of Media in Society Richard Campbell et al. talks about how media

metaphors play a role in story telling within the media. With these metaphors in our media we

are able to determine how the media affects our lives and how the media can influence us. Media

as propaganda is important to me because there is propaganda all over the media constantly and

sometimes it’s hard to determine what is real and what is not. Michael Schudson argues that

“Advertising is much less powerful than advertisers and critics of advertising claim, and
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advertising agencies are stabbing in the dark much more than they are practicing precision

microsurgery on the public consciousness” (Schudson, 2014,p. 38). Letting propaganda get in the

way of our minds makes us miss out on other cultural and impacts that are personal to us we

could be looking at instead.

The other metaphor that I think is important is how media are distractions to all of us.

Media used to be an escape from reality but now it has made us become addicted and have

become our new reality. “When we use the media-as-distraction metaphor, we are adopting a

modern belief about the different between work and leisure” (Campbell et al., 2014. P.44). I

think this quote makes a lot of sense especially when people criticize others for spending too

much time on their phone or watching too much television, however everyone deserves a break

in their lives and should be allowed to catch up on their favorite TV shows latest episode or

scroll through facebook and other social media accounts. Although in Marxist theory “A

constructionist perspective suggests that most of us are being harmed by the media that is giving

us pleasure” (Campbell et al., 2014, p.44). The last metaphor I think is important would be media

as narrators. “This metaphor treats the media as truly mediating or moderating cultural, social,

political, and economic processes and change” (Campbell et al., 2014, p. 46). Storytelling is key

in media, without a good story advertisements wouldn’t be able to draw people in, movies

wouldn’t have any audiences and there basically would be no point to the media.

In order for a picture to tell a story you must know the deeper meanings behind the

image. In the media literacy chapter we learn about how lines, vectors, colors and etc. have a

deeper affect on what an image means than just looking at it and thinking its pretty or a cool

picture. Advertisers need to pick images out to promote their ads and have to dig deeper into

what the image means to them and what it means to their audience. An example of advertisers
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using media literacy to sell ads would be for car advertisers to show an image with cars driving

left-to-right and downhill to show speed of a car. The reason for this is because of Western

cultures use left to right orientation (Campbell et al., 2014, p.60). Another form of media literacy

that is important within media would be semiotics. There are symbolic signs that are very

complex and are used in advertisements all the time. “This includes collective practices, styles of

dress, defined gestures, cultural innuendo and national emblems” (Campbell et al., 2014, p.65).

Semiotics is very important because they fit in with narratives because some semiotics is hidden

amongst media as well as narratives being shown.

Symbolic signs are also a big part of storytelling because they can hold deeper meanings

than what you would expect. Symbolic signs can also cause controversy in certain

advertisements depending on who the target audience is for the product. An example of this

would be a commercial from Super Bowl 2015; during a break one commercial played was

Nationwide’s “Dead Boy” (Gordon Donnelly, 2017). This commercial was depressing, sad and

made no one want to go to Nationwide. The ad’s first 30 seconds featured the boy doing

everything he will never be able to do such as riding a bike for the first time and then 30 seconds

later we find out he is dead. The reason why this ad failed was because of lazy story telling, “The

effect of dead boy’s deadness- it’s not earned and therefore neither is our sympathy. What we’re

left with instead is a metaphysical gut punch- provocation for provocations sake and a gross

abuse of powerful ad space” (Donnelly, 2017). I chose this example because after looking at

controversial ads this one stuck out to be the most since I don’t enjoy sad commercials and

insurance companies that show these kinds of ads make me more fearful than me wanting to get

their product. So with that being said context is the key to storytelling and any meaning behind

an image.
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In the documentary Bill Moyers: Illusions of News shows us that reporters don’t mind

using manipulated press coverage as long as the number of views go up. Michael Deaver’s quote

“eye wins every time”, shows a deeper meaning of just how much media can manipulate our

thoughts by showing a picture or video that catches our eye and fits more into our lives. That

being said, one of the reporters Lesley Stahl had said that good visuals are shown more, whether

they are important or not. She would report “wallpaper pieces” that were pretty images and eye

catching even if she didn’t fully agree with it or it wasn’t the topic she necessarily want to report.

The documentary really opens your eyes to what happens behind the scene of news reporters.

This video shows that visual impact over verbal is what is important to the news. They used the

term “Jelly bean journalism” to show that people like to see certain people doing things they like

to do. The news shows what it wants and what gets the most views although some of it may be

altered and just used to get the views up and number of people watching higher.

The last chapter of the book continues with narrative formulas and the cycles of

storytelling, with this being said an example of this is presidential candidates associating

themselves with characteristics found in fictional forms (Campbell et al, 2014). “The mainstream

news media- as they also did in the 2004 and 2008 elections played their role in the larger

political narratives by drawing little attention to the actual narrative strategies political

campaigns” (Campbell et al., 2014, p. 79). The narrative is very important when it comes to

media on the TV such as narration during sports events. An example of this was an experiment

done in the 1990’s when NBC took away announcers and let the fans watch the game without

narrative, the network robbed the event of half its narrative-the discourse (Campbell et al.,

2014,p.87). Without a good narrative and discourse the story being told is pointless and takes

away the entertaining aspect. The different story genres that make up narrative formulas consist
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of epic stories and tales of spring, “which are described as the beginnings and founding of cities

and the establishment of laws” (McConnell & Campbell, 2014,p.89). I enjoy epic movies like

this such as the movies Lord of the Rings, Forrest Gump and Avatar. There are also many other

types of narrative story telling themes but I enjoyed the epic tales the most.

Overall, these four chapters in Media in Society had a lot of information regarding how

media is formed and how technology, media criticisms, visual literacy and narratives played an

important role in how media has evolved over the years, as well as the article about millennials

and the documentary. It all began with the printing press and now look how much media has

evolved since then. Without technology we wouldn’t be able to excel with the media we have

now and wouldn’t be able to view the news, go on social media or even have media in general.

The critical process plays an important role by dissecting different films or TV shows so the

audience can determine if that’s a genre they are interested in. Media criticisms let us decipher

what we like and what we don’t like but in a way that makes sense. Without the media we would

be lost but thanks to technology we don’t have to worry about that anytime soon.
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Bibliography

Campbell, R., Jensen, J., Gomery, D., Fabos, B., & Frechette, J. D. (2014). Media in society.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.

Donnelly, G. (2017, July 24). Recent History's Most Controversial Ads. Retrieved September 25,
2017, from http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/06/19/most-controversial-ads

Jim Morrison Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2017, from

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jimmorriso167304.html

Loechner, Jack. “Millennials High on Digital and Friends.” 09/07/2011,

www.mediapost.com/publications/article/157923/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.

Walton, A. G. (2017, September 12). 6 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Health.
Retrieved September 26, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/06/30/a-
run-down-of-social-medias-effects-on-our-mental-health/#1da48d672e5a