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Media Criticism
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The
New Culture War:
Much of culture, from
politics to entertainment, is now about creating spectacles with simplified, exaggerated
images. But a new battle against the culture of the image is emerging.
Letter To
Salon Magazine -
This letter, published in Salon Magazine, summarizes what
fiction has to tell us about the dangers of a media-saturated culture. A link to it also
appears in the Truman Show site, above.
Faking
It: 1992 Boston Globe article on fakes, illusions and an invented world.
The Fake Heaven of
Claritin:
Claritin,
an allergy relief medicine, shamelessly appeals to desires for transcendence to win over
consumers.
The Truman
Show -
This site explores the meanings of The Truman Show and provides a good
introduction to some of the ideas on the site.
Power &
Appearances -
Fiction and nonfiction and how they become tools of truth and
manipulation in contemporary culture.
Hate Becomes a
Commodity: Making people look like fools and villains is now big business.
The News
Media's Effort To Hide From Significant Truth: Instead of merely covering the
way power is used and misused, news organizations have become part of the system of power.
Media criticism is thus essential to protecting democracy.
Culture
of Deception: Culture as simulation and news as fiction and theme park ride.
How Andrew
Cunanan Became a UFO: The media reinvented Andrew Cunanan, so it could tell
an exciting story. Then people around the United States started inventing him in their
imaginations.
Disney,
News, Politics and the Academy The conclusion to the essay
Disney's Distorted Mirror: "What we see in Disney can now be found
not merely in zoos and theme parks but throughout contemporary culture --
in news and television, movies, advertising, museums, politics and
virtually all other institutions and media that are trying to win and hold
large audiences."
The Human
Pixel Who Wouldn't:
The high school student who subverted an effort to turn
himself and his classmates into human images.
Big Media
& Bad Criticism
- A longer idea piece on where the media is today.
Sadism,
Insensitivity, and Grandiosity: Media criticism has to explore the psychology
of journalism.
The Hidden
Ideology of News: News stories contain implicit claims that are hidden forms
of ideology.
Basic Principles of Media Criticism - Seven basic
statements about how power is exercised in America. This is somewhat
outdated now.
Reform Magazine
Topical columns on the media.
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|© Ken Sanes
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