Sailing Shark-Infested Waters: A Map for Media Literacy
Imagine yourself taking a walk in the woods. Or trying to spot a bird from the direction of its call. Or sitting on a riverbank with fishing pole in hand. Or lying on your back on the grass, watching the wind blow the leaves on the trees, and measuring the speed of the clouds. Or rolling over, and watching the purposeful daily chores of the occupants of an ant hill. These are the kinds of relaxing activities we used to call "life" or "reality." Now "going outdoors" means getting in the capsule of an air-conditioned automobile to drive on the concrete floors of the canyons between high-rise buildings. We are armchair quarterbacks, chaise-lounge travelers, virtual adventurers and couch surfers.
"Life" today, for most of us, most of the time, is a mediated existence. Our experiences are vicarious, or virtual. Most of what we know comes from media, not personal experience. Media is where politicians campaign, and then govern. It is where consumer demand is created. It's the benchmark for judging our physical appearance, popularity and "success." It encourages perspectives on race, religion, ethnicity and gender.
Think about it. How many waking hours did you spend yesterday totally isolated from all media? That means no TV, radio, music CDs or tapes, computer screens, print, or advertising signs. Were there any? If you fall asleep listening to the radio or TV, the media invade even more than your waking hours.
Media is much more than just television, but TV's influence is disproportionate. All television is really "educational television." The average child upon entering kindergarten, for example, has already spent twice as many hours learning from television as she will later spend in a college classroom earning a B.A. degree. So the question really becomes, "What is TV teaching?"
Because of its pervasive and intrusive nature, television, along with newer computer-based media such as compact disc and the Internet, have spurred an increased demand for what the experts call "media literacy."
The environmental movement raised our consciousness about air quality. Still, we don't think much about breathing. We take air for granted. It's all around us. So it is with language in general and media in particular. We don't actually think about the language we use to do our thinking, nor do we actually think much about external forces that often do much of our thinking for us. We are no more conscious of the sea of symbols through which we swim than a fish is conscious of the waters of the sea.
If challenged, we respond defensively. Advertising may influence others, but we believe we are immune to its virus. And yet an honest inventory of kitchen and bathroom cabinets may reveal that multi-million-dollar advertising budgets have moved many products into our homes as well.
In fact, our brand loyalties, and the corporate logos with which we adorn ourselves (on caps, shirts, shoes), suggest we want to be known "by the companies we keep."
But irrational consumer spending may be the least risk of swimming in media-infested waters with neither map nor life jacket.
The more our lives become mediated experiences, the more difficulty we have distinguishing fantasy from reality. Soap opera stars receive gifts from fans sent, not to the actor, but to the character she plays -- wedding gifts or baby presents for a wedding or birth that never really happened.
John Hinckley, who narrowly missed assassinating President Ronald Reagan, was equally confused between the actress Jodi Foster and the character she played in a movie. He assumed he could win the love of the former by carrying out the story line of the latter.
The phenomenon can touch presidents as well as their assassins. Some years ago the CBS program. "60 Minutes," did a segment called "Ronald Reagan: The Movie." It reported an academic study of the impact of feature films on the president's perceptions. For example, in a public speech he once made, Reagan attributed the award of a Congressional Medal of Honor to an act of heroism that he emotionally detailed. Later, the White House and Pentagon could not document either the medal or the heroism. It turned out the story had come from a scene in the movie, "Wing and a Prayer," which the confused President believed had actually happened. I'm not a psychiatrist, so I'm not diagnosing anyone -- not Hinckley, not Reagan, and certainly not you or me. But confusing reality and fantasy can't be a sign of good mental health. Indeed, my dictionary says "a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment" is the definition of "schizophrenia."
As TV's influence has grown during the last forty years, a "media literacy movement" has taken root as well. Educators, public officials, parents, TV viewers, and kids themselves recognize the urgent need to create some level of public sophistication about the media and how they operate and influence us.
When I put "media literacy" into a Web search engine recently it came back with 3000 hits. Those I saw reveal there are now literally hundreds of online Web sites and list-servers, books and teaching kits, training videos, conferences and seminars, journals, magazines and organizations around the world.
And for those increasingly frequent times when parents can't share mediated experiences with their children, there is hardware like the V-chip, and software like Surf Watch, to block the most blatantly inappropriate subject matter on TV and the Internet.
"Media literacy" covers a variety of subjects. It can involve learning how a newspaper is put together, or "the language of film." It may focus on the dangers of global media monopolies. Perhaps students perform "content studies" on local TV news or newspapers. Maybe they produce local cable access video programs. Or perhaps they organize viewer protest of a local station manager or participate in an FCC rule making proceeding.
But the central aspect of media literacy is understanding the implications of the commercialization of information and entertainment. The media business is just that, a business. And, for the most part, it is not the business of selling content to consumers. Rather, it sells an audience to an advertiser at a "cost per thousand," much like cattle sold at auction at a price per hundredweight. As TV entertainer Tom Smothers once said, TV programming is like the Styrofoam in the box your toaster came in. It's there to keep commercials from rattling around and getting broken. And like Styrofoam, programming is shaped with the commercials in mind.
Advertising can be factual. Full-page supermarket ads are an example. But most national advertising is designed, like the programming packaged around it, to distort perceptions of reality. Nor is the effort limited to commercials as we typically think of them. There is also "product placement," when advertisers pay to have a product featured in a photograph, television show or feature film without identifying it as a commercial.
Advertising is often created after deep psychological probing of research subjects, which makes it easier to manipulate potential consumers. Why else would grade school girls start smoking cigarettes? Research confirms the obvious: tobacco companies' media influences them. An industry that kills 400,000 of its customers each year has to create "replacement smokers." The younger they are, the more easily and permanently they can be addicted, and the more profitable is their product loyalty during shortened lifetimes. TV programs, magazines, T-shirts, Internet sites, films and CDS can reinforce the addictive process.
Nor is the pitch limited to individual products. As I explained in a book I wrote 25 years ago, Test Pattern for Living, the media also sell a philosophy and lifestyle of personal identity through products -- lifestyle of hedonism, conspicuous consumption and consumerism.
So what self-defense is available? There are hundreds of suggestions in the available literature. Here are a few. Education For starters, become informed. Whether educator, parent, or viewer, begin to explore the media literacy resources available to you. Urge schools to start courses. Become conscious of your media environment. Talk to your friends and children about it. Try media literacy exercises at home.
News Analyze the stories in your local paper, or local TV evening news. How much is "happy talk," weather, sports, commercials, criminal activities, trials, fires and accidents? How much is useful information, or"investigative reporting?" Are stories ever critical of major advertisers, executives of large firms, or other wealthy residents? Compare local journalism with BBC radio news, or a major newspaper from another country (many are available off the Web). What stories have your local media omitted?
Consumers Distinguish between what you need and what some advertiser is trying to make you want. Inventory your cabinets for highly-advertised products. Can you do without? Find a generic? Do you really need all the media and communications services you're paying for? Remember your video options: over-the-air stations, cable, satellite services, video rentals. Don't like the local cable company? Cancel the service, or cut back to "basic."
Viewers It may be the best TV is none at all. Evidence suggests that's true for kids under age eight. They need human interaction and physical activity. Plan your TV watching, and theirs, like you would theater attendance. Watch TV and Internet sites with your kids. Talk it over. Your goal should be to help them develop the standards to make their own choices -- not just obey yours. Ration kids' time with TV and the Internet. Offer alternative activities.
Activists Congress and the FCC may seem hopeless, but each is worth a 32-cent stamp or e-mail. You can organize friends, build a coalition of local groups, and call on your local station manager, record store owner, or Internet service provider.
You wouldn't think of sailing across the Atlantic, or exploring a tropical rain forest, or driving through a big city, without a map. We're now traveling through territory that is even more alien and potentially dangerous to the human species: a "reality" that is "virtual." Road maps are available. We fail to use them at our peril.
Nicholas Johnson, former FCC Commissioner and author of "How to Talk Back to Your Television Set," now teaches communication law at the University of Iowa College of Law in Iowa City.
Nicholas Johnson: http //soli.inav.net/~njohnson
Media Awareness Network: http //www.screen.com/mnet/eng
Media Literacy Online Project: http://interact.uoregon.edu/medialit/homepage
Adbusters, The Media Foundation, 1243 West 7th Ave. Vancouver BC V6H IB7 Canada, 604-736-9401
ETC., International Society for General Semantics, Box 728, Concord CA 94522, 510-798-0311
Extra!, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, 130 W 25th St., New York NY 10001, 212-663-6700
Telemedium, National Telemedia Council, Inc, 120 E. Wilson St., Madison WI 53703, 608-257-7712 (journal, books, resources)
Robert L Hilliard and Michael C. Keith, The Broadcast Century (Focal Press, 1997, 2nd edition)
Nicholas Johnson, Test Pattern for Living (Bantam, 1972; available free from author's Web site, above)
Jeffrey Schrank, Understanding Mass Media (National Textbook Company, 1986, 3rd edition)
Ned White, Inside Television: A Guide to Critical Viewing (Science and Behavior Books, Inc. 1980)
Center for Commercial-Free Public Education (UNPLUG), 360 Grand Ave. (385), Oakland CA 94610, 510-268-1100 (newsletter, campaign)
Center for Media Education, 1511 K Street NW (518), Washington DC 20005, 202-628-2620 (materials, newsletter, action)
Center for Media Literacy, 4727 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90010 (catalog, publications)
Communications and Society Program of the Aspen Institute, 1333 New Hampshire Ave. NW (1070), Washington DC 20036, 202-736-5818 (publications, public policy seminars)
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, Box 717, Palo Alto CA 94302, 415-332-3778 (public policy analysis and advocacy)
Cultural Environmental Movement, 3508 Market St., Philadelphia PA 19104, 215-387-8034 (materials, meetings, advocacy)
Project Censored, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park CA 94928-3609, 707-664-2500 (books, each year's "Ten Best Censored Stories")
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