Think of a recent sport crisis; then find a news story detailing the organization’s response. Based on crisis communication (chapter 5) best practices, was the right approach taken? Why or why not? Cite the source for your news story.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34226323/the-case-henry-ruggs-iii-distraught-family-desperate-answers
Category: Communication
Shifting Landscapes: The Evolution of Media and Democracy
In Western media, technological change and media mergers have focused our attention on the perils of homogenization. How possible is it, we ask ourselves, for journalists to express the local and particular when fewer journalists are available to cover local events and issues? Our journalistic tradition marks the health of democracies by the ability of a free and independent press to speak for, and to, its various audiences about things that matter to them. Noam Chomsky has spilled a great deal of ink over this very issue. In Arab states, media have not participated in the democratic tradition; they have traditionally served as a mouthpiece of power. Ironically, as Western media seem to be losing their grip on first principles, Arab media appear to be discovering their role as agents for political and social change. Do you see these shifts as evolutionary? Are they connected? Or do you see these changes from another point of view?
The Evolving Landscape of Journalism: Navigating Truth and New Roles
There is no doubt that the Internet has changed the roles of the journalist in the portrayal of truth and in control over who knows what and how. What effect have these changes had on the journalistic profession, and what role do you predict for journalism in the future?
The Illusion of Mass Culture: Unveiling the Hidden Dimensions
Rowland Lorimer and Jean McNulty claim that “the word mass encourages us to think of the audience as a vast undifferentiated agglomeration of individuals lacking social bonds and alienated from society by unskilled meaningless work, subject to the vagaries of markets” (1992, 36). Do you think the terms “mass culture” or “mass media” and all that they connote tend to mask some important social and cultural dimensions? Why or why not?
Media Influence and Contemporary Examples of Political Shifts
It must be noted that Adorno and his colleagues in the Frankfurt Institute witnessed the near extinction of left-wing opposition politics in Germany, the seduction of the masses into a cesspool of reactionary politics, and the totalitarian and genocidal aftermath. Can you think of contemporary examples that are similar to the situation in Germany in the 1920s? How is the media implicated in your example or examples?
Narcotizing Dysfunction: The Impact of Mass Media on Society
Narcotizing dysfunction has been posited as a serious effect of mass media, especially television. The same charge has been levelled at video games and the Internet. What do you think? Do the media suck out your juices, leaving you empty and stupid on the couch? Can you get up and walk away from these media any time you like? Do you?
The Role of Technology: Inherent Characteristics vs. Freedom of Choice
At the root of the argument about the role of technology in society is the question of inherent characteristics versus freedom of choice.
a. Is technology a value neutral tool that exists simply to be used (or not) in whichever way a member of society chooses? Or is technology inherently value laden, directing (or focusing) a particular use, or set of values?
b. Does society develop the technology it requires, and then employ that technology in ways that make sense at the time? Or does new technology come upon us with its own requirements that we ignore at our peril?
The Intertwined Relationship between Power and Communication Technologies: Innis’ Relevance to Television and the Internet
Do you agree with Innis that power is, and has been intimately connected with, the technologies of communication? Although Innis was primarily concerned with the effects of the printing press, can we apply his theoretical approach to the more recent communication technologies of the television and the Internet? Would you qualify or alter his earlier notions in light of your experiences with these technologies?
The Significance of “Difference” in the Construction of Gender in Advertising
In “Woman Is an Island,” Judith Williamson writes, “Living in liberal democracies, we are accustomed to ‘difference’ appearing as a form of ‘balance,’ as we are shown opposing points of view in controversial TV programs, or in the form of ‘choice,’ as we are able to choose between different brands of cornflakes when shopping” (100). Discuss the importance of “difference” to the construction of gender in advertising.
The Role of Television as a Form of Social Influence: Abandonment and the Emergence of “New” Media
Do you agree that television is intended as a form of social control? If television is difficult, but not impossible, to resist, why have so many people abandoned it? Are there newer forms of social control among the so-called “new” media?