Summary: This book explores and identifies different tactics media employs in order to trick the public into thinking a certain way. It shows warning signs to be wary of and gives the reader a set of procedures to follow in order to find trustworthy sources of information and create our own objective opinions.
Authors: Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Key Terms: Scare Tactics--> The media's emotional appeal to content that does not allow for objective analysis; Framing--> A way of organizing a reality that has readers locate, perceive, identify and label information. Usually includes the use of "buzz words".
Quotes: "Spinners mislead by means of subtle omissions to outright lies. Spin paints to false picture of reality by bending facts, mischaracterizing the words of others, ignoring or denying crucial evidence, or just 'spinning a yarn'-making things up" (Jackson 1)
"He accused his former employer of using 'FUD'-his acronym meaning 'fear, uncertainty and doubt-to discourage consumers from his new brand" (Jackson 26)
"Darman had explained the basic principle of the 'eye candy' effect: pictures tend to overpower spoken word. It's just the way we human beings are wired" (Jackson 52)
Value: This material helps me with my research by showing the power that media has. By documenting the different tactics used by media outlets, it will be easier to show the influence that they had in the UVA story by the Rolling Stone.
Are you going to argue that the media has it out for fraternities and that there is not any truth to media reports of drinking, hazing, and unwanted sex at fraternities -- these are all made up by the media? But the question arises: why would the media have it in for fraternities so badly? What has led them to conspire together to make fraternities look bad?
ReplyDeleteThe story broke yesterday that the UVA frat is going to sue Rolling Stone:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/07/business/media/university-of-virginia-fraternity-to-go-after-rolling-stone-for-rape-article.html
It is definitely the case that even reporters make the worst assumptions about frats. But those prejudices are based on some history.