Is that your cell phone or is it Muzak?

Downloading popular songs to use as cell phone ring tones now nets $300 million in the United States and $3 billion globally, according to NPR. Can somebody please shed light on this for me -- why would anyone spend $1-$2 to download a ring tone that sounds no better than the music that was once confined to elevators or department stores? -Leticia Steffen

News Flash: Fake News becomes News

Anyone else out there wondering how the star of a fake news show, one that airs on Comedy Central and whose lead-in is, "puppets making crank phone calls," has become a spokesperson for journalistic ethics? In case you've missed the 60 Minutes report last evening, or the buzz in the blogsphere about his appearance on Crossfire, Jon Stewart has taken to lecturing cable news journalists, and anyone else who will listen, about the failings of television news. Not that I’m one to run to the rescue of an industry that has bent over backwards to give itself a spanking (now there’s an ugly word picture), but since when does a news satirist get to suddenly shift gears and become deadly serious about a problem that has been around since Edwin R. Murrow (if you don’t know, look him up).

Besides, I’m not sure that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is convinced of its own identity. John Edwards announced his candidacy for presidency of the United States on this “fake” news show. And nearly every important political figure, except George W. Bush, has appeared as a guest. In what may be the most alarming factoid, the National Election Annenberg study from the University of Pennsylvania showed that males ages 18 to 34 got their political information from The Daily Show more than from any other news source.

Take a few minutes and watch his performance—yes, it was a performance—on Crossfire last week. The video stream and transcript is available from mediamatters.org and the transcript from CNN.com. Then judge for yourself—is this a serious wake-up call for the major news outlets, a marketing ploy to sell more copies of Stewart’s new book America (The Book): A Citizen’s Guide to Democracy Inaction, or just a guy making jokes at the expense of anyone who is willing to give him enough rope?

Niche Programming

The growth of cable television (it owns the prime time television viewing audience) is not only going to create niche audiences interested in their own brand of entertainment, but niche audiences only interested in their own political perspective. I see this as a great threat to a political system based on an educated voter who understands all sides of an issue, and then arrives at a decision.
Increasingly, as CNN and FOX are proving, audiences are attending only to those media channels which support their political perspective. This is resulting in programming that increasingly simplifies the issues in an effort to appeal to the viewer's lowest common denominator. I believe this is partly responsible for a kind of "demonizing" that some do to those who disagree with their political perspective. Simplifying issues with messages based primarily on emotional appeals, target those who want easy answers to complex questions. It seems the television audience thinks that 60 Minutes isn't anywhere near as exciting as Bill O'Reilly.
Yes, I believe niche programming is just following through on the advertising and public relations concept of targeting the audience. The problem is that we never have thought that mass media was a vehicle for advocating a particular entertainment, social, or political perspective. Not unless somebody was paying for that time with an identified sponsor.
I worry that we're going to see an increasingly opinioned audience, yet their opinions will be based on simplistic and one-sided views. It's pretty frustrating to discuss something with someone who has a strong opinion, yet they can't articulate it logically, but still maintains a passionate fervor about that position.
-Jen Mullen

Indecency and the demassification of the media

By now you’ve heard the news that the FCC is proposing to fine Fox broadcasting a record $1.183 million for airing an episode of Married by America, a reality TV show aired in 2003 that apparently crossed the line by portraying sexual situations during prime time. The fine is actually a $7,000 fine against each of the 169 Fox TV stations that aired the program. This announcement comes on the heals of the $550,000 fine against Viacom/CBS for Janet and Justin’s antics during the Superbowl halftime show. And in other indecent news, Howard Stern will be paid $500 million over 5 years to take his act to Sirius satellite radio network. Stern’s move is both about money and about the move of “edgy” content from the closely regulated broadcast media to the much more relaxed arena of cable/satellite/internet delivery. Sirius is gambling that Stern will bring at least one million (of his current ten million) listeners with him to pay radio. If he doesn’t, Sirius, which lost $1 billion in the last five years, will likely continue to loose money as they compete with XM for the satellite radio market.

Regardless of the outcome, a larger issue is the continued demassification of the media. Niche programming is targeting smaller and smaller markets and delivering customized content. The FCC has decided that Stern is not suitable for the masses…so now Stern will produce his show “his way”, but for a much smaller market. Is that the future of "mass" media…allowing consumers to select their content based on clearly labeled packages? And is that what we really want…the ability to “dial in” the amount of sex, violence, left/right political bias, etc., without any surprises?

It takes a village to raise a blog...

The move to weblogs, or blogging, requires the input of the entire Mass Comm community. Will blogging replace the salon as the centerpiece of intelligent thinking and discussion. Should we call our blog a salon? Perhaps the Village Salon.....This is just a practice entry.

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog. For those of you who might be new to our department, the Mass Communications Department and Center for New Media at the Colorado State University - Pueblo is a professionally-oriented major comprised of several emphasis areas; advertising, radio and TV broadcasting, new media studies, news editorial journalism, and public relations. Colorado State University-Pueblo is accredited at the bachelor and master level by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

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