Week Four: Santa Barbara NSO

Gate Keeping and Concepts of Self:

In the presentation and ensuing conversation, we discussed the idea of gate keeping, and how the news now presented to the general public is often being shaped and re-packaged in a clearly biased wrapping. A recent study (9.2009) by the Pew Charitable Trust found that "Just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate (http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=55012, viewed (9.20.2009). I think an overriding reason for this view is the perceived bias, real or not, of the media. Personally, I think there is a bias in many media outlets – compare the same topic, like health care reform, as presented on Fox News vs. MSNBC.  

The options where news is presented without a clear bias, or with viewpoints representing multiple opinions, is getting harder to find, although I feel are available through NPR, PBS and the BBC / BBC-America.

 CriticalThink.Info presents a diatribe on why people should be suspicious of news stories (http://www.criticalthink.info/infoeval/misleadingnews.htm, viewed 9/20/2009), citing a particularly amusing anecdote about a fake, meant-to-be humorous story of the "shaken, not stirred" martini's beneficial anti-oxidant properties that then got picked up as real by more than 100 publications, including the NY Times, Reuters, and Knight-Ridder.


It also discussed an interesting point around the reporting of Science News in the mass media…"Science stories usually fall into three families: wacky stories, scare stories, and "breakthrough" stories…" (para 4) . They later go on to say, "The central theme: there is no useful information in most science stories.""Why? Because papers think you won't understand the "science bit", all stories involving science must be dumbed down…" (para 8, 10). As a former scientist, I agree with their "gate keeping" theory on reported science news. To find a thoughtful treatment of scientific topics, you need to stay away from mass journalism and look to specialized journals, such as "Nature" and "Scientific American". 

We also discussed the concept of Self and the three Bs prevalent in today's advertising media: beauty, body, belonging.

Media has increasingly become fixated on presenting a narrow view of the ideal physicality of a person, most pronounced for women and young girls.

The issue is that people naturally come in all shapes and sizes, noses and chins, and to hold up one version as an ideal is harmful. The worst aspect is that this ideal image is almost exclusively fake. Women are hopefully old and wise enough to see through the fraud, but for young girls, they only see an image plastered across the print media, which is unattainable, and causes physical and emotional issues, like anorexia. G!rlpower (http://demo.fb.se/e/girlpower/retouch/retouch/index.html, viewed 9/20/2009) presents a wonderful example of a false ideal, as did Dove's video from their "Campaign for Real Beauty" (http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/bblank.asp?id=6942, viewed 9/20/2009).

Since the advent of commercial advertising, there has been the indirect association that a company's product "makes" you into something else: Marlboro cigarettes endow you with a more manly image; Dos Equis Cerveza can make you into one of the 'most interesting men in the world", Victoria's Secret underwear will transform your shape into a supermodel's. This is a strategy not likely to change in the near future.

Just as a note, I watched "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" when it first came out in 2006, and was amazed to learn about all of the secrecy and power behind the MPAA ratings board, and how movie makers kow-tow to this select group of people (who often don't even meet the stated criteria for board membership) because their rating can make or break a film. An R rating or above can mean "death" to a film, as these days the target audience for most films seems to be adolescent males. It also reflects, for me, the utter hypocrisy of the American culture that any form of sexual encounter/language is taboo, and incurs the wrath of the ratings gods, while chain saw massacres and other forms of extreme violence and torture are considered acceptable!

The Persuasive Role of Music:

In the presentation on the role of music in media and emotions, we learned that music presents the emotional framework across media – television, film, and others. The particular notes and chords chosen at pivotal moments of the movie, or show can influence the emotional response. This power can be used to enhance, even manipulate, the public. It can be subtle, or even go unnoticed, as music has been shown it can affect people at a subliminal level.

While you would think that culture may have an influence on the perceptions of music, since there are different scales utilized (example, the diatonic scale characteristic in Western music (global reference) vs. the pentatonic scale (reflective of Asian music). A recent study has shown that three basic emotions – happy, sad, and fearful – can be evoked by Western music, even in non-Western cultures (Fritz, T., Current Biology, vol. 19, pp. 1-4, as cited in WebMD Health News, March 20, 2009, http://www.webmd.com/news/20090320/emotions-evoked-by-music-are-universal, viewed 9/19/2009). It speaks to concept that there is something primal in music that can evoke true emotion across cultures and despite no previous exposure to that form/scale of music.

I have been interested in music's ability to elicit strong emotion – what makes us describe a combination of notes as "haunting", such as the score composed for the movies "Schindler's List" (John Williams) or "Out of Africa" (John Barry).


The ability to make me cry by combining a set of notes, even when I have not heard the piece before and so have no memory connection, is fascinating to me. From our class discussion, it seems that minor notes have a stronger effect than major. This finding can be manipulated with media, using minor phrases to evoke one emotion, and then ending on a high note – literally, a major one.

In J. Copley's article on "The Psychology of Music", 2/25/2009 (http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_psychology_of_music, viewed 9/20/2009), several studies were cited around the effects of music. One study investigated the effect of two types of music on mice and their problem-solving abilities – classical (Mozart) music, which improved their ability to solve a maze exit strategy, and heavy metal, which caused cannibalism.

A second study investigated the ability (shown positive) for keyboarding and singing lessons to improve adolescents' ability for verbal memory.

The third study cited investigated the effects of music therapy on autistic students, with the result that the children were helped in remaining calm under stressful conditions and in socializing.

Antonia J's blog provided some interesting insight into the possible connections between music and emotion – it is an area I would like to explore more, when time allows…(http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/333, viewed 9/20/2009)

In the final presentation and discussion, we looked at the concept of a tEcosystem – technological ecosystem – in which we are so immersed that it has become an integrated part of our environment rather than our separate tools. A kind of "background noise" for us. It is only when something extraordinary happens – such as when you receive a letter, as I did, confessing that all your credit information has been potentially compromised – that you realize that you have posted across the Internet personal data, private communications, and secret financial data, with the expectation that it is all 'safe', in the same way you trusted a safe deposit box in the bank until you hear it was robbed.

I remember when I used to travel extensively, and the first few times in an airport when I encountered people talking out loud to themselves and thinking they were a bit bonkers. After all, I am from New York, and we're used to having people walking down the streets, muttering to themselves. I soon learned there were now wireless headphones for cell phones. I figure if I hang out at airports more, I will see the latest in technology being snapped up and exhibited by those on the go. No one wants to stay more connected than those putting distance between themselves and work or home.

We also looked at the concept that technology can both connect and disconnect. When I heard this statement, I immediately thought of my nieces and nephew, who stay connected to their friends with continual texting and phone calls, but distance themselves more from the people immediately around them, like their parents or myself. I imagine it is changing the way people communicate to the degree that the introduction of the telephone did at the end of the nineteenth century. I am still incredulous, though, at the people sharing a meal at a table with other people around, and yet ignoring them totally to communicate on someone else by phone or text. Rudeness is the same – the way it can be instigated can take on more forms now.

I once invited a friend for a cup of coffee. After pushing the date out for three weeks, we met at a café. Upon arrival, she mentioned that she was on a short conference call, soon to wrap up… no problem with me. As I drank my coffee, her meeting droned on for 45 minutes, and then her phone died. So, it was time for us to be able to chat, but instead she was worried what might be happening in the meeting without her, and used my cell to call back in. After about another twenty minutes, the meeting was over. She gave me back my phone, and said, "Now we can talk". I smiled, immediately got up and asked her if she wanted to walk me to my car, as I could not stay any longer. My time was up. Was this entirely true, or was I just so ticked off at being ignored for more than an hour, and yet just expected to sit and wait. More of the latter, I'm afraid. I was never so spatially close to someone who was mentally and emotionally so distant.

The blog by Anthony Doerr, "Am I Still Here?" (http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4234, viewed 9.20.2009) was an enjoyable think-piece about the dichotomy that the tEcosystem presents to those of us who also want, even need, Zen in our lives – a quiet, simple, alone time. I remember reading Thoreau's "Walden's Pond" as a teenager, and although a lack of life experiences could not allow me to fully appreciate the work at the time, it resounded with me – those walks in the woods, alone with your thoughts. Perhaps that is why I live in the mountains now. Quite a contrast to Thoreau's concepts, but as he says, "clearly Thoreau did not own a BlackBerry" (para 4).

The online article by Neil Swidey, "The End of Alone", presents some similar themes (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2009/02/08/the_end_of_alone/, viewed 9/20/2009). "Because of technology, we never have to be alone anymore. And that's the problem.(page 1)".

Wrap-Up from NSO Meeting:
Three things you didn't know before:

• I didn't realize the degree to which the advertising media alters appearances (the g!rlpower and Dove videos were enlightening
• I didn't realize that the percentage of Americans who trust media sources for their news is so low (29%)
• I didn't realize the subliminal effect music can have on emotions, to the degree that it can enhance or alter them

Two things I will tell my colleagues :

• The concept of the tEcosystem and how it functions in our world today
• The pervasiveness of Gate Keeping and information flow across media

One change I will make in my professional practice:

• I will set up clear boundaries about when I am "plugged in" or not... It may be only a short period, having now both work and school, but there will be a space of time when it will be me, the mountain sounds, and the dog, alone
  
 

Acknowledgments:

Watchful Eye logo from www.thewatchfuleye.com 

Dove Real Beauty photo from web site: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/bblank.asp?id=6942

Most Interesting Man in the World is copyrighted by the Dos Equis Corporation 

The Technology Environment picture is borrowed from the web site of the city of Wellington, Palm Beach, FL 

Blackberry image borrowed from ubergizmo.com