Showing papers in "Journal of Communication Inquiry in 1992"

Television Viewing as a Cultural Practice

Abstract: This paper suggests that television viewing provides a prominent occasion for viewers’ construction of culture. That occasion-watching television domestically, often with a family, during an evening prime time, for entertainment, primarily as an engagement of fiction, and as the offering of a national commercial network-is a highly particular kind of institutional arrangement, one that has become, by social convention, strategically important in audiences’ construction and accommodation of their culture in general. Watching television, indeed, institutes a persistent social practice through which audiences carry out considerable rhetorical, political, poetic, cultural work. That work provides them with a continually problematized store of &dquo;implicit social knowledge&dquo; (Taussig 1987, 303). People inscribe portions of that knowledge into their lives partially and selectively, by their subsequent actions. When their actions are played out as discursive strategies, television &dquo;induces the effects of power&dquo; (Foucault 1980b). When they are played out tactically to nondiscursive (and potentially counterhegemonic) ends, viewers end up &dquo;poaching&dquo; on television, which has thereby served as a &dquo;proper place&dquo; for American culture (de Certeau 1984). In all this, television does not act as a strict cause of social life, or reflection of it, but as material used in making meaning and action, as a component of &dquo;doxa&dquo; used in the production of social practices (Bourdieu 1986,164). A practice which produces other practices, television viewing suggests that doxic materials, far from being inherently static, can circulate, and that their pace and circulation is as fundamental a

American Identities: Nationalism, the Media, and the Public Sphere

Abstract: This paper draws a link between the construction and maintenance of American myths and identities and the nature of mass communication systems in the United States. In it, we discuss some generally recognized but arguable limitations of and possibilities for the use of existing mass media institutions and technologies, and we assess alternatives. Mass media institutions are central to the American public sphere, although it would be technologically deterministic to suggest that they are the exclusive means by which American identities are created or maintained. Other meansthe institutions of religion, family, education, and government, the activities of work and recreation, and the immediate spatial contexts of neighborhood, community, and municipality-are too numerous and complex to discuss in the span of a single paper. Indeed, so are the numerous dimensions and complexities of the media’s role in punctuating and influencing our lives. The more modest goal of this paper is to describe one essential tension which, while it may not be unique to American society, certainly has deep roots here. The mass media, particularly newspapers, magazines, broadcasting and cable, possess a unique capacity to claim national attention and often are considered to be representative of the common needs and interests of the majority of Americans. The resulting tension discussed below is that which stems from the media’s role in representing an &dquo;American&dquo; identity, which by itself is profoundly problematic, and from competing identities which, some argue, are causing the fractionization of American society. In this paper, we characterize a fundamental tension between centripetal and centrifugal forces in American public life as dangerous. This argument relates to a more general topic, namely, the theoretical discourse

Buying the Exotic "Other": Reading the "Banana Republic" Mail Order Catalog:

Abstract: must exist) in relation to a Third World. The paper suggests that this text, the catalog, uses the discourse of the Exotic to construct both an advertising message and a subject for the message, the preferred reader. Along with other cultural forms, the products of the culture industries which &dquo;we&dquo; encounter, the Banana Republic mail order catalog is a map to the landscape of late twentieth century political-economic relations. Research within the advertising field tends to focus on social-behavioral work, which seeks to provide answers to questions that arise from the advertising industry itself (e.g. Ward et al. 1977). Critical research has tended to skirt the issue of advertising, focusing on it either as an ephemeral aspect of popular culture or more economically as tangential to other larger business marketing issues (e.g. Fiske 1982, 1987). Cultural research which is not based on critical analysis examines a cultural milieu devoid of reference to power relations (e.g. Stern 1988a, 1988b, 1988c). Little work has taken the discourses within ads seriously and linked them to other cultural forms, even though creative workers in the field of advertising do just that (Berger 1972). The term &dquo;discourse&dquo; suggests a practice, the social construction of subjectivities and meanings. &dquo;Discourses are the product of social, historical and institutional formations, and meanings are produced by these institutionalized discourses.... [meanings] are always limited and fixed

Greetings from Paradise: The Representation of Hawaiian Culture in Postcards:

Abstract: woman dressed in revealing Hawaiian attire smiles at us while swaying to the implied music. Beckoning with her outstretched hand, she welcomes us. &dquo;Aloha from Hawaii,&dquo; her message, appears in large letters across the photograph. On the back of the postcard the standard message is scrawled-&dquo;Having a great time. Wish you were here,&dquo; which also encourages a visit to the tropical paradise of the Hawaiian Islands to experience firsthand the enchanting culture depicted on the front. Although postcard imagery is a major vehicle by which understandings of various cultures are constructed for a general mass audience of potential tourists, it has largely been ignored by the scholarly community as a focus of academic research.’ Given the pervasiveness of the ritualistic practice of sending postcards while on vacation and the public nature of this medium (e.g., the lack of an envelope), the power of such visual representations to construct public perception and to encode specific val-

A Place to Resist: Reevaluating Women's Magazines

Abstract: Because traditional history has centered around the lives of great men or exploits on the battlefield or boardroom, women absent from those arenas have been excluded from much of history, including history of mass media and journalism. Mass media historians today need to widen history’s frame to embrace the private sphere in which women have lived out their lives. A wider frame brings into focus women’s magazines, a form of mass media that have epitomized women’s roles in the private sphere. One particular puzzle in the history of women’s magazines in the United States is that representatives of the women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s vehemently indicted these publications as contributors to women’s oppression (Friedan 1963). This indictment is hardly a surprise given that women’s magazines were full of images of women fulfilling their domestic destinies with unfailing good humor. Yet there were other images too, sometimes subtle undercurrents that told of less than total acceptance of the norms for women. What was going on in these magazines? Although history can provide a context for the answer to this question, it cannot totally solve the puzzle. Theory relating to the construction of meaning, as well as tools to extract these meanings from texts, can help. Recent poststructuralist and feminist theory provide insight to questions of contradictions or breaks in the presentation of what seems to be a domi-

Fighting Objectivity: The Illusion of Journalistic Neutrality in Coverage of the Persian Gulf War:

Abstract: Much of the public discussion about the mass media’s role in the Persian Gulf War focused on conflicts the press had with the military and politicians. Should the Pentagon have controlled so closely the ability of reporters to work in the field? Should Cable News Network have continued to broadcast from Baghdad once the war was under way? Did reporters unnecessarily badger Pentagon briefers at news conferences? Despite these criticisms, the public gave the media generally good marks; more than 80 percent of respondents in one poll rated news coverage of the war as good or excellent (Star Tribune 1991b, A7). But from a different perspective, opponents of the war saw the media as engaging in &dquo;blatant Gulf War cheerleading and marginalizing of the peace and justice movement&dquo; (Z Magazine 1991, 2). Which view is the most accurate assessment of the press’ performance? Did the mainstream media, struggling with a restrictive Pentagon system, do a good job of providing objective coverage? Or did it help &dquo;manufacture consent&dquo; in support of the war?’ I

Manufactured Silence and the Politics of Media Research: A Consideration of the "Propaganda Model":

Abstract: The discipline of media studies in the United States has coalesced around specific types of research, promoting itself as a scientific study of social phenomena (Chaffee and Berger 1987). There remain controversies about whether interpretive research is part of the field, and about whether all cultural research (e. g. the work of James Carey or Richard Pollay) is substantively different from social-psychological research. Thus there are arguments of theory (liberal-pluralism, Marxian, critical, postmodernism), arguments of method (quantitative, qualitative), and arguments about subject matter (physiological responses, intrapersonal and/or interpersonal communication, mass media-meaning print forms, television, radio, public relations, advertising, news but also film, video, public cultural forms). It is significant that in a discipline as diverse and perhaps interdisciplinary as media studies, it remains possible for the field as a body to remain distant from work that engages with the theory, methods and subject matter of the field.

The Kennedy Assassination Through a Popular Eye: Toward a Politics of Remembering:

Abstract: Both within and beyond the academy, we intuitively regard collective memory as having a piggy-back effect on the past. Collective memory attaches itself to historical record, by reshaping, negotiating, and challenging the received version of the events that comprise it. This happens both through primarily &dquo;historical&dquo; and &dquo;popular cultural&dquo; forms of representation. Publics can access versions of historical events as easily through television, the cinema, or the local toy store, as through the historical textbook, thanks to the collective memories that embody each of these versions.

Peace and the Middle East

Abstract: I’m going to talk about peace in the Middle East, in the context of the continuing Persian Gulf War, since it isn’t really over as you know, but also in the context of the question of Palestine that is most important to me and to I suppose many people in this room and elsewhere in the country The immediate situation at present is rather dramatic There is a persisting conflict between the United States and Iraq There is also, rather dramatically, not only the peace process which was begun in 1991 by the Secretary of State acting on the instructions of the President, but also, for the first time, a rather dramatic conflict between the United States and Israel over the question of $10 billion loan guarantees to Israel

McLuhan's Theory of Sensory Funtions: A Critique and Analysis

Abstract: The problem of how individuals react to the sensory messages they receive from the world around them and how this process is influenced by the diverse cultural and technological context of their society has been of great interest and importance for many students of the human condition. While for most analysts questions relating to sensory process and perception constitute a necessary starting point for further considerations and are not in themselves the central focus of investigation, for some they become the axial hub to which all other aspects of human nature are related. Of the latter Marshall McLuhan is perhaps the most widely known contemporary representative who through his writing, especially his two books The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media, brought the pivotal role of sensory-perceptual experience to the attention of an audience far beyond the confines of scholarly debate. In this paper, I would like to locate

Social Uses of Radio in Germany: An American Perspective, 1924-30

Abstract: The cultural history of an epoch is inconceivable without considering the centrality of social communication, its position in the process of culture, and its impact on the relationship between individuals and media institutions, whose form and substance shape the cultural and political discourse of society. The history of radio, not as an institutional biography of technological or commercial success or regulatory control, but as a social force in the lives of people, remains a fragmentary project in the United States as well as in Germany. This contribution is a reminder of the potential for a cultural history of broadcasting and as such, offers an exploratory cultural materialist perspective on the rise of radio and its social uses within specific historical conditions.

Cultural Diversity and the Perversion of Tolerance

Abstract: The mainstream media’s amplification of the &dquo;PC&dquo; controversy has offered a moralistic way out for anyone who doesn’t like being asked to reflect on systemic harm done to a wide range of groups the political right treats as economic burdens, malcontents and wound-lickers. As they have done in the past, the national media have seized an idea and distorted it through trivialization and exaggeration. The term &dquo;politically correct&dquo; should be buried, as it has been emptied of meaning through over-use and distortion. The purpose of this essay is to show how this popular subject perverts the idea of tolerance and to highlight the national media’s changing role in defining tolerance for the American public. We do not assume the &dquo;public&dquo; is necessarily taken in by the prevailing presentations, but we do view the lack of equally visible intelligent criticism of the distortions

All Faces Are Seen, But Few Are Given Voice: Canonic Generality in Designed Images:

Abstract: The graphic design of printed materials is an aspect of visual culture that receives inadequate attention from scholars, and little thought from most people in general. Yet art directors and graphic designers direct the encoding of most of the commercial imagery that surrounds us every day, from advertisements and packages to magazines and books. This paper examines one particular practice common in graphic design: the use of particular images of people and things as if they were generally representative, an aspect of imagery Roland Barthes labeled &dquo;canonic generality.&dquo;’ According to Fiske and Hartley:

Essays on Culture As a Practice: An Introduction

Abstract: Most media research analyzes cultural practices such as novels, comics, poems, newspapers, films, television shows, advertisements, buildings, and political speeches, as artifacts separate from the actual means and conditions of their production within society. In contrast, this theme issue of the Journal of Communication Inquiry draws on cultural materialism, Raymond Williams’ theory of the &dquo;specificities of material cultural and literary production within historical materialism,&dquo; to encourage research that addresses cultural practices as part of an ongoing social process. Cultural materialism insists that all cultural practices produce meaning and value; they are part of an ongoing social process, produced by a specific society, in a particular historical time, under distinct political and economic conditions.

Rhymes and Reasons: Canadian Victorian Labor Journalism and the Oral Tradition:

Abstract: create a state capable of resisting what he believed were the excesses of American republicanism, notably its unbridled capitalism and its secular liberal-democracy. Macdonald’s &dquo;Grand Canadian Vision&dquo; promoted those institutions which he considered sacred, specifically the British monarchy, the Protestant religion and the Conservative party. Macdonald’s Canada was to be more than the extension of the British ideal on the opposite side of the Atlantic. It was to be more British than Britain itself.