10/3 Leader

Media Influence on Political World:

Chapter 7 discusses the various ways that media can influence the political world. Mass media aids in fundamentally changing the nature of American Politics, and the use of media as exposure has expanded politics into a different light. Croteau here in this section covers the indirect influence of media on political life, through the influence media has on the images on political actors. Political elites have changed campaign strategies due to a response to media coverage. Their has been a shift in what is  referenced to as a Politics of Image, in which the importance of having a camera friendly style/and appearance enhances chances of political success. Many celebrities have used media/status to pursue politics, i.e., Ronald Reagan, and to influence the public opinion with the use of media. Some political media events are staged in order to produce coverage and influence the public opinion. These staged events allow for agenda control and to construct favorable political images. Croteua also renders in several models and theories for media control, one being the hypodermic model, in which media effects suggest a direct and powerful influence on public with media injecting a message directly into “bloodstream” of public.

Reaganism and the Sign of Blackness:

In this excerpt from Herman Grey’s book he examines Reaganism and signs of blackness in the 1980s, in which was a post civil rights mentality of Regan’s administration that expressed a nativist ideology while demeaning and criticizing the post civil rights entitlements that blacks and people of minority had received. Grey declares that Race and TV were huge pillars of the Reagan era and essential mediums in order to push this idea of Reaganism and blackness. Reagan played on the cultural differences in order to resonant with working middle class white citizens and in order to establish a shift in political, cultural, and social discourse. The 80’s under Reagan sought to define characteristics of blackness through criminality, lack of morality, and irresponsibility in order to create a victimization of rich white males. Grey speaks on Reagan’s ability to appeal to idea that we were past racial discrimination and policies such as welfare and affirmative action were unneeded and exploited by a “undeserving” black lower class. In order to accomplish this goal and redefine post civil rights sentiment, Reagan’s use of TV and media were essential. Social and Cultural representations of Blackness on TV in the 80’s played into the idea of blacks being social menaces, cheats, and drug users, in which aided in consolidating the conservative cultural and political hegemonic bloc.

Key Quotes:

“Television was a central transit point and expressive vehicle through which poplar debates and images about race circulated.”(15)

• Stuart Hall
  • Main sphere of media operations: production and transformation of ideas and ideology
  • medium of which political and cultural shifts occur.

“Resurrecting the nativist language of reverse discrimination, traditional values, and anti-immigration, whiteness in the discourse of Reaganism no longer operated as a sign of victimizer but was repositioned as a sign of victim.”(17)

• Traditionalism or Racism
  • Pre-civil rights movement mindset

“Television and race were again central to the spectacular display and affirmation of this new mood prosperity: race because poor blacks, among others, embodied the discursive and cultural sign against which the new affluence and how to achieve it were measure; television because it functioned as both witness and participant in the new prosperity.”(28)

• TV frames our thinking

“In the spectacular environment of commercial media, especially television news, such racial politics were often expressed without confrontation or bitterness. In the landscape of commercial media, many whites could through their symbolic identification with the figure of Reagan safely press these racial fears without being labeled racist.”(34)

• Inferential Racism

“Television is the medium that surrounds our everyday lives without appearing to do so, intrusive without being obnoxious, a part of our common sense…television can confront, represent, and circulate immortality without appearing hostile, judgmental, or most important, racist.”(34)

• Inferential Racism

Themes/Terms:

1. Reaganism
2. Culture Moynihansim: idea that the inculcation of appropriate moral values, self-discipline, and a work ethic can effectively break the vicious cycle of dependence t hat cripples the poor and disadvantage.
3. Blackness
4. Whiteness
5. Welfare Queen
6. TV representation of blackness in 80’s:
   1. Social Menace
   2. Pregnant teens
   3. Male Irresponsibility

Significane:

Critical Questions:

What is blackness? Who does it represent? Why does Reagan use this?

How has TV representation of blackness in the 80’s allowed for a shift in the political, social, and cultural discourse?

Was Reagan’s ideology racist or more of a byproduct of his want for traditionalism?

Without Reagan’s use of TV and mass media would he had been as successful getting his ideology across?

How did Reagan use media to portray that whites were the victim of this “blackness”?

What can we learn from how media portrays racial issues?

Outside Source:

How media shapes our thinking

• Power of media
  • must use responsibly
  • consume media
  • destructive effect on lives
• TV frames our thinking

Lessons of racial coverage

• We don’t have the right conversations.
• Trying to talk about systemic racial issues during a crisis is always much harder.
• Cable news has sped up the path from news reporting to punditry with disastrous results.
• Each cable news channel fine-tunes its coverage for its target audience, including how that target audience sees racial issues.