Showing papers in "Critical Studies in Media Communication in 1990"
TL;DR: This paper argued that local television news simultaneously depresses the legitimacy of old-fashioned racism (beliefs that blacks are inferior and should be segregated) and stimulates the production of modern racism (anti-black affect combined with resentment at the continuing claims of blacks on white resources and sympathies).
Abstract: Assessing the role of television in mediating cultural change, this paper hypothesizes that local television news simultaneously depresses the legitimacy of old‐fashioned racism (beliefs that blacks are inferior and should be segregated) and stimulates the production of modern racism (anti‐black affect combined with resentment at the continuing claims of blacks on white resources and sympathies). The effects are not intentional; rather, the paper suggests, it is partly because they seek to overcome old‐fashioned racism and respond to the viewing tastes of black audiences that local TV news programs reinforce modern racism.
351 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines the news paradigm as an occupational ideology whose major feature is the principle of objectivity and the larger hegemonic function of that paradigm, and an anomalous case is analyzed to illustrate paradigmatic repair: A. Kent MacDougall caused a controversy in the journalistic community and threatened the paradigmatic norm ofobjectivity when he revealed that he had been a radical socialist during his ten years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal.
Abstract: This study examines the news paradigm as an occupational ideology whose major feature is the principle of objectivity, and the larger hegemonic function of that paradigm. An anomalous case is analyzed to illustrate paradigmatic repair: A. Kent MacDougall caused a controversy in the journalistic community and threatened the paradigmatic norm of objectivity when he revealed that he had been a radical socialist during his ten years as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Three types of repair are examined: (a) disengaging and distancing the threatening values from the reporter's work, (b) reasserting the ability of journalistic routines to prevent threatening values from “distorting” the news, and (c) marginalizing the man and his message, making both appear ineffective.
271 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines how journalists have used three narrative strategies (synecdoche, omission, and personalization) to assert their authority in their retellings of the Kennedy assassination, and concludes that by giving themselves a central position within the story, journalists have helped make the assassination story a tale as much about American journalists as about Kennedy's death.
Abstract: This paper examines how journalists have used three narrative strategies— synecdoche, omission, and personalization—to assert their authority in their retellings of the Kennedy assassination. By giving themselves a central position within the story, journalists have helped make the assassination story a tale as much about American journalists as about Kennedy's death.
94 citations
TL;DR: The dominant discourse on science and the media is itself fraught with conceptual and methodological problems as discussed by the authors, and it has been at its most efficacious in its ideological import, which has worked not only to promote a science coverage dutiful to scientific interests, but to inhibit a truly critical appraisal of popular science communication.
Abstract: Over the past two decades, the popular representation of science has emerged as a special problem within the field of communication studies. This essay critically reviews what has become the dominant discourse on science and the media, examining its tacit assumptions and assessing its prescriptive agitations. The essay finds that the dominant concern is itself fraught with conceptual and methodological problems, and argues that it has been at its most efficacious in its ideological import. It has worked not only to promote a science coverage dutiful to scientific interests, but to inhibit a truly critical appraisal of popular science communication.
92 citations
TL;DR: The authors used the concept of hegemonic masculinity to analyze the representation of men in thirtysomething, a prime-time series, through its specific articulation of a new view of manhood, represents a negotiated version of masculinity that is able to express and contain elements of liberal feminist ideology while remaining complicit with dominant gender ideology.
Abstract: This article utilizes the concept of hegemonic masculinity to analyze the representation of men in thirtysomething. This prime‐time series, through its specific articulation of a “new view of manhood/’ represents a negotiated version of hegemonic masculinity that is able to express and contain elements of liberal feminist ideology while remaining complicit with dominant gender ideology. Moreover, in its relations to other popular texts, thirtysomething’s vision of self, friendship, and loving is articulated to middle‐class, therapeutic culture and ideology.
88 citations
TL;DR: The authors define the major theoretical influences on interpretive approaches in mass communication, examine the central concepts of these perspectives and provide a critique of these approaches. But they also hold that researchers often have unquestioningly adopted premises and concepts from a variety of disciplines.
Abstract: Described by their proponents as an alternative to positivistic perspectives on media effects that ignore audience activity, interpretive approaches center on the interpretive processes employed by audience members in their decoding of media content. Meaning is viewed as a product of the interaction between media texts and the varied, at times contradictory, interpretive strategies employed by audience members. This article defines the major theoretical influences on interpretive approaches in mass communication, examines the central concepts of these perspectives and provides a critique of these approaches. In criticizing these perspectives, this article holds that researchers often have unquestioningly adopted premises and concepts from a variety of disciplines. More broadly, the adoption of interpretive approaches in mass communication has ignored varied critiques of interpretive social science.
87 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that the feminist premise of The Mary Tyler Moore Show is contradicted by the patriarchal relationships and role definitions developed within its narrative, hegemonic devices that are bolstered by the conventions of the situation comedy genre.
Abstract: This essay claims that the feminist premise of The Mary Tyler Moore Show is contradicted by the patriarchal relationships and role definitions developed within its narrative, hegemonic devices that are bolstered by the conventions of the situation comedy genre The conclusion explores the ideological tension produced by the show's narrative that allows for differing evaluations of the program's message, and discusses the implications for feminist criticism of television's hegemonic patterns
75 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the process of disseminating scientific information to the public and examine the particular steps and strategies (on the part of scientists) in taking research findings to a...
Abstract: This article examines the process of disseminating scientific information to the public. In general, the particular steps and strategies (on the part of scientists) in taking research findings to a...
60 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that cultural studies often loses much of its critical edge due to the fact that it overestimates the freedom of audiences in reception, minimizes the commodification of audiences as analyzed by a political economic approach, and confuses active reception with political activity.
Abstract: This article argues that, as imported to the United States from England by scholars like Lawrence Grossberg and John Fiske, cultural studies often loses much of its critical edge. Its misleading affirmation of the power and independence of media audiences derives from several problems. First, it overestimates the freedom of audiences in reception. Second, it minimizes the commodification of audiences as analyzed by a political‐economic approach. Third, it fails to differentiate between mass advertising and specialized media. Fourth, it confuses active reception with political activity. Finally, it takes the exceptional situation of progressive readings promoted within oppositional subcultures as the norm.
59 citations
TL;DR: The turn toward interpretive media research is often said to portend a break with various media research traditions, including uses and gratifications and social-structural approaches as discussed by the authors, and a comparison of interpretivism with these approaches suggests that these challenges may be illusory.
Abstract: The turn toward interpretive media research is often said to portend a break with various media research traditions, including uses and gratifications and social‐structural approaches. A comparison of interpretivism with these approaches suggests two things: First, interpretivism's distinctiveness from earlier work is not always entirely clear. In particular, a comparison of interpretivism with gratifica‐tionism in terms of underlying philosophical premises and technique of discovery reveals continuity rather than rupture between the two approaches. Second, an analysis of the challenges that interpretivism poses to preceding traditions (particularly social‐deter minist positions) suggests that these challenges may be illusory. Particular attention is given to the concept of interpretive community, issues of dominance and resistance in relation to media content and reception, and scholarly‐political objectives in theory construction.
59 citations
TL;DR: The PBS documentary science series NOVA dramatizes science for an elite audience as discussed by the authors, and the goal of demystifying science is left behind in this process; instead, a variety of devices are used to maintain dramatic tension and to define the scientist as a special type of person.
Abstract: The PBS documentary science series NOVA dramatizes science for an elite audience. The goal of demystifying science is left behind in this process; instead, a variety of devices are used to maintain dramatic tension and to define the scientist as a special type of person. Since control over scientific information is an important form of power in postindustrial society, the failure of NOVA in this respect has ideological significance.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply the concept of mass-mediated ritual to the media coverage of race relations and mayoral politics in a major American city and apply it to the coverage of events that have had significant consequences for race relations.
Abstract: James Carey's classic call for a ritual view of communication serves as the point of departure for an examination of the concept of mass‐mediated ritual. Ironically, Carey's brief sketch of a news reading ritual emphasizes privatized consumption of mythologized news content and thus yields a “transmission view” of the concept. On the other hand, symbolic anthropology, particularly Victor Turner's concept of social drama, insists upon a view of ritual as a public performance in which conflictual as well as consensual social meanings may be enacted. This conceptual framework is applied to press coverage of events that have had significant consequences for race relations and mayoral politics in a major American city.
TL;DR: The authors examined the role of metaphors in communicating social values associated with new communication technology, through an analysis of magazine advertisements for computing and advanced telecommunications products and services, and paid particular attention to visual metaphors in those texts.
Abstract: This article examines the role of metaphors in communicating social values associated with new communication technology, through an analysis of magazine advertisements for computing and advanced telecommunications products and services. Particular attention is paid to visual metaphors in those texts. The article discusses the implications of the findings for the study of visual metaphors in advertising and research on technology policy discourse.
TL;DR: This paper examined how women and especially men act as parents and spouses in domestic comedies, and found that men are presented differently in women's fiction than women in domestic comedy, with emphasis on males.
Abstract: This article concentrates on how women, and especially men, act as parents and spouses in domestic comedies. The first section concentrates on the background and rationale for studying the portrayals of fathers and husbands in television's domestic comedies; the second section examines the way gender (with emphasis on males) has been portrayed in these shows from the 1950s through the 1980s. The final section proposes that men are presented differently in women's fiction.
TL;DR: This paper explored the absence of a labor perspective in journalism history by focusing on the relationship between newsworkers and technology and the result is a view of mainstream journalism history as supporting an ideological status quo.
Abstract: This paper explores the absence of a labor perspective in journalism history by focusing on the relationship between newsworkers and technology. The result is a view of mainstream journalism history as supporting an ideological status quo. The author suggests a cultural history of journalism that embraces the concerns of a working class history and the understanding of a critical social theory to help provide answers about the status of intellectual work, cultural production, and the nature of class consciousness under conditions of technological advancement in the United States.
TL;DR: The National Enquirer and other weekly “supermarket tabloids” have been branded a “disgrace to journalism” and seen as the epitome of low-taste media as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The National Enquirer and other weekly “supermarket tabloids” have been branded a “disgrace to journalism” and seen as the epitome of “low‐taste” media. But are the tabloids really an entirely different species, fit only to be incinerated? This paper discusses how the tabloids report and write their stories, the relationship tabloid writing has to “straight” journalistic practice and how tabloid writers relate to such journalistic tenets as objectivity and credibility. Despite the fact that tabloids are commonly regarded as deviant “demons”, a case is made that tabloid journalism belongs on the same storytelling continuum as daily newspaper journalism.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors challenge a popular consensus, or mythology, about women's images in contemporary media content and their professional status in modern media organizations, and they also challenge an explicit and implicit assumption, which has been in place since the 1960s, that changes in media messages and structures would contribute to the empowerment of women in the wider society.
Abstract: This essay challenges a popular consensus, or mythology, about women's images in contemporary media content and their professional status in contemporary media organizations. It also challenges an explicit and implicit assumption, which has been in place since the 1960s, that changes in media messages and structures would contribute to the empowerment of women in the wider society.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a qualitative methodology for studying audience assessment of the mass media's service to the public, emphasizing the audience's articulation of evaluations that may point to specific reforms and relevant courses of social action.
Abstract: This article presents a qualitative methodology for studying audience assessment of the mass media's service to the public. The methodology emphasizes the audience‐public's articulation of evaluations that may point to specific reforms and relevant courses of social action. An empirical study of older and younger television viewers suggests that such demographic groups, while constituting distinctive cultural formations or interpretive communities, share fundamental interests vis‐a‐vis media. The findings imply that viewers are capable of a sophisticated critique of television. The methodology raises implications both for the politics of communication and for further reception studies.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the text-centered approach of cultural studies misses much of television viewing's complexity and utilize Lembo's research on the television audience to suggest alternative ways that viewers may become critical of dominant ideas and practices.
Abstract: This essay critically addresses the issues of culture, cultural politics, social power, and the television audience in cultural studies. Although this approach has become a dominant one in media studies, its theoretical assumptions have not been sufficiently scrutinized. Our criticism focuses on two major themes. First, we argue that cultural studies tends to analyze all cultural interpretation in terms of struggles between dominant and subordinate groups. This reductionist perspective does not adequately conceptualize the formation of shared meanings nor the possibility of innovative cultural creativity. Its discussion of oppositional cultural politics lacks a strong normative dimension. Second, we argue that the text‐centered approach of cultural studies misses much of television viewing's complexity. We utilize Lembo's research on the television audience to suggest alternative ways that viewers may become critical of dominant ideas and practices.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze the discursive and media practices used by the major institutions involved in the Better Homes in America (BHA) campaign: The Delineator magazine, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the discipline of home economics, and the Girl Scouts of America.
Abstract: Better Homes in America (BHA), a national reform campaign during the 1920s, mobilized institutions with diverse interests in defining the modern American home and in addressing an American public as consumers. BHA constructed a modern ideology of home ownership, housework, and consumption built on specific gender, class, and racial differences. This study critiques the discursive and media practices used by the major institutions involved in the campaign: The Delineator magazine, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the discipline of home economics, and the Girl Scouts of America. The analysis has implications for the discursive constitution of ideology and the social construction of gender.
TL;DR: This article extended Tuchman's concept of symbolic annihilation by applying recent power/knowledge research to the issue of gender inequality in news work and used this integrated position to illustrate how women are constructed or deconstructed as legitimate authorities in local news reporting.
Abstract: This study extends Tuchman's concept of “symbolic annihilation” by applying recent power/knowledge research to the issue of gender inequality in news work. In political and feminist theory, power recently has been conceptualized as inseparable from the production of knowledge, involved in the production of the very meaning of scarcity and the meaning or necessity of conflict. This study integrates the power/knowledge perspective into the ideological conception of news work and uses this integrated position to illustrate how women are constructed or deconstructed as legitimate authorities in local news reporting—in this case, a routine story about child care.
TL;DR: This article argued that television convention mitigates against depictions of technology as socially destructive, and argued that the presentation of science as television fiction is a conservative act, which reinforces the socially constructed technological imperative of industrial societies, effacing its own role in the preservation of the technological society.
Abstract: Science fiction programs created for prime time television present images of future society and the relationship between technological and social progress. This article argues that television convention mitigates against depictions of technology as socially destructive. It also argues that the presentation of science as television fiction is a conservative act. In this way, television reinforces the socially constructed technological imperative of industrial societies, effacing its own role in the preservation of the technological society.
TL;DR: This paper explored the relationship among these variables and suggested that communication researchers must adopt a flexible methodology capable of considering all relevant forces, such as institutional economics and cultural ethos, to understand the media meaning process.
Abstract: Determining the “meaning” of a media event is a complex and mutlifacited endeavor. Recent communication literature has argued that meaning can be elicited and/or inferred from media consumers. While consumers certainly are a very relevant part of the process, other issues, most notably institutional economics and cultural ethos, are very important in understanding the media‐meaning process. This article explores the relationship among these variables and suggests that communication researchers must adopt a flexible methodology capable of considering all relevant forces. The case of Norway's broadcasting of the U. S. television series Dynasty is used to help illustrate certain of these premises.
TL;DR: This paper examined how television can be seemingly progressive but substantially conservative in its construction of reality and examined the affirmation of traditional views of family, patriarchy, and gender roles in terms of the series thirtysomething.
Abstract: This article approaches fictional television programming as hegemonic rhetoric and examines how television can be seemingly progressive but substantially conservative in its construction of reality. Particularly, affirmation of traditional views of family, patriarchy, and gender roles is analyzed in terms of the series thirtysome‐thing.