Journalists are charged with keeping voters informed and politicians in check.
Clowns are charged with wearing curly wigs and performing sight gags to the delight of children.
And my cell phone charger is charged with charging my cell phone.
Everybody have their assignment?
Good.
My tag says journalist
so I'll make with the info.
The institutions that bring us our entertainment and news ' the media ' are businesses. They make their money by delivering audiences to advertisers. The more eyes a program or story can snag, the more it is able to promise consumers for advertisers.
The work of journalists tends to bring shorter attention spans to advertisers than clowns, because for the most part, people would rather be entertained than informed.
Today, information and public interest will be flying around in Baker University Center during Ohio University's annual Journalism Day.
The organizers are not alone in their excitement.
The Media Reform conference at Ohio University on May 16 looks to be one of the most important academic events on the media on a college campus in years said Professor Robert McChesney in an e-mail to a Journalism Day organizer. The media reform movement has been growing in prominence in community after community in the United States over the past five years. Our most visionary communication programs are beginning to acknowledge study
teach
criticize and actively participate in this process.
McChesney is a leader in the movement to reform U.S. media, so I had to blush a little when I read the reference to our journalism school as one of our most visionary communications programs.
Anyhow, the panel I was selected to moderate deals with radio.
Was I chosen because of my command of Federal Communications Commission history and case law?
No. I was selected because I had long hair and a band for a while, which the organizers took as proof positive that I would hate Top 40 radio and Clear Channel.
Of course, there's a saying about what it is to assume, but it has no relevance here: They were totally right about me. Top 40 radio pains me on levels that it pains me even to talk about.
But I'll try.
In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act, relaxing limits on how many media outlets one company could own.
At the time, a company named Clear Channel owned 43 radio stations. A few years later, it owned more than 1,200 radio stations, according to portfolio.com.
What happens when a giant, distant company takes over your local radio station? It ceases to be a local radio station.
Clear Channel's modus operandi during its buying spree was to clear out the local voices and programming and fill the air with syndicated programs and familiar music. Britney Spears didn't become famous for the quality of her voice; she became famous because her voice was shoved down our ears.
That saved the company a fair bit of money although it drove most radio listeners away from radio with their heads shaking and the words radio sucks on their lips.
My expectations of radio have been lowered to the point that I was shocked to hear a live recording of my friend's band playing over the PA system at The Union, where the performance was recorded. I was surprised to hear a non-major-label artist playing over the PA in a bar that champions the music of people who despise major labels.
For those of you who remember what radio used to be like, know that the same trends are happening (if not as rapidly) in TV and newspapers.
An observant voice arises: If there were any truth to this ' if this really mattered ' everyone would know about it already.
How would everybody have heard? From friends?
Where did they hear it?
At some point, most of the information we imbibe comes to us through media companies, which aren't interested in reforming media or telling us about the people who are.
For the information they won't give you, go to freepress.net.
And to check out the Journalism Day program, go to scrippsjschool.org/journalismday.
17
Archives
Jeff Smith
