Starting the Second Year at Fielding

Second Year Starts...

I just finished my first year in Fielding's media psychology doctoral program and have loved every minute of it...well maybe not every minute. I have never read so many books and articles!! But luckily I have found most of it to be really interesting.


I have finished 24 hours my first year which I think is pretty good and have a passable gpa. All of the classes have been fantastic - even statistics. One of my favorite classes was PSY 724C "Narratives, Symbols and Imagery in Media" which is about how meaning is structured through codes and signs not too unlike "symbology" in Dan Brown's books. One of my favorite books in this class was "Visual Intelligence" by Ann Marie Seward Barry and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in this subject. One of the papers that I turned in for the class was a semiotic analysis of MLK's "I have a dream" speech. That was such an interesting exercise and really showed me Dr. King's intelligence and ability to weave words into luxurious tapestries of mental imagery for his audience. Here is that paper:




Abstract

On August 28, 1963 in Washington DC, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech that many consider to be one of the most important speeches in American history. This speech originally titled “Canceled Check” became known as the “I Have a Dream” speech. It simplistically defined what America should be in terms that the audience would understand, yet the simplistic message was created and enhanced by the physical location full of symbolism and by a rich use of language – through metaphor, Biblical references, and codes. This paper is an attempt to conduct a semiotic analysis of the speech.


A Semiotic Analysis of the Martin Luther King Jr. Speech “I Have a Dream”

On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the “I Have a Dream Speech” to an audience of 200,000 plus people at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. Dr. King was a Baptist minister and civil rights leader who used peaceful methods of demonstration. The occasion for this speech was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The march called for the nation's attention to the injustice and inequalities that black Americans faced because of the color of their skin. “On Aug. 28, the city swelled with marchers. They drove in. They bussed in. They took trains. Three student marchers walked and hitchhiked 700 miles to get there. A quarter million people waved signs and cheered and listened to speakers address the civil rights problems challenging America (Nammour, 2003).”

The march consisted of not only black Americans but also people of other colors and ethnic backgrounds. The marchers assembled at the Lincoln Memorial and the speakers gathered on the steps. Songs were sung by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez and the speakers included Charlton Heston, NAACP president Roy Wilkens, future U.S. Representative from Georgia John Lewis, A. Phillip Randolph, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, Daisy Bates, Diane Nash Bevel, Mrs. Medgar Evers, Mrs. Herbert Lee, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, Walter Reuther, James Farmer, Whitney M. Young Jr., Matthew Ahmann, Rabbi Joachim Prinz and a few song selections performed by a choir in between some of the speakers.

Surprisingly Dr. King was the last speaker, a last minute reluctant add-on and had been warned to keep his speech to five minutes. After he began speaking from his written speech, it is said that Mahalia Jackson, the famous gospel singer, shouted to him “Tell them about the dream Martin!” and he did. Later as he recalled the speech he said "I started out reading the speech, then all of a sudden this thing came out of me that I have used — I'd used it many times before, that thing about 'I have a dream' — and I just felt that I wanted to use it here. I don't know why, I hadn't thought about it before the speech (Sundquist, 2009)."

Perhaps with Dr. King’s background in Sociology (BA), he knew exactly how to communicate to the diverse crowd amassed before him. This paper will examine the meanings of the meanings of the location and the words.
 
The Meaning of Meanings - Semiotics

Semiotics is the science of meaning. Its intent is to investigate, decipher, document and explain the what, how and why of signs. The goal of semiotics is to decipher the meanings that are built into all kinds of human products. The products include words, symbols, narratives, music, art, serious literature and not so serious literature. Semiotics focuses on the use, structure, and function of the signs (symbols, words, images, figures, etc.) used in creative and knowledge-making activities (Danesi, 2007).

Although the speech can be read now and many scholars have analyzed it, it is important to consider the context of it in a physical and intellectual capacity – as if this analyst was transported back in time to 1963, seeing the surrounding structures and the audience of diversity to gain an understanding of the equal importance of the symbolic physical location with the spoken words. To accomplish this journey, the signs of the event will be scrutinized, first looking at the symbols in the physical locale of the event and then the structure and function of the words of the speech.


Symbols
Symbols are signs that stand for something in a conventional way and are the building blocks of social systems. There was significance in the location for the march and ultimately the program for the day. Washington D.C. contains many symbols readily identifiable by those in our (America’s) social system. The particular symbols of that location broadly speaking were monuments to great Americans and American feats of military, leadership and intellectual prowess symbolizing America’s past and promises for the future.

The immediate area where the program was held would have afforded the speakers and the audience a view of the Lincoln Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, the Washington Memorial and the Capitol Building. It was hallowed ground, something that Dr. King recognized in his speech “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.”

The Capitol Building is symbolic of the operation of the government including the very foundation of the U.S. government which passes and enforces bills that ensure the freedom and equality of its citizens. Its architecture is reflective of Greek and Roman influences upon which the government was modeled. Built of materials that have endured for nearly 200 years (brick, sandstone, marble and cast iron) it symbolizes the stability and continuation of that model of government.

The Washington Memorial is in memory of the nation’s “father”, the first president and symbolizes strength and masculinity perhaps due to its phallic shape. The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool can be symbolic in several ways. As a reflecting pool, it resembles a mirror. The mirror reflected the reality of the situation. It reconfirmed the existence of the participants, the area, and the situation. The contents of the reflecting pool (water) symbolizes life, purity, fertility, and most importantly for this occasion transition.

The Lincoln Memorial was the focal point of the occasion. The speakers were on the steps of the memorial so the general focus would have been the impressive monument and even more impressive statue of Lincoln “The Great Emancipator.” Dr. King acknowledged this in his speech “Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”

Lincoln was culturally symbolic to the black Americans in the audience as he is recognized as the one who freed the slaves. Others in the audience no doubt viewed him similarly yet probably in their own unique cultural ways. The denotative meaning of the statue of Lincoln would be a likeness of someone real or imaginary. This would be the case if the observer was not familiar with American history or presidents. However, if the observer was familiar with American history and or American presidents, the statue would have a connotative meaning in that the observer would note that it was a statue of (depending on the observer’s real-world relation to Lincoln) Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, Lincoln the guy on the five dollar bill, Lincoln the greatest president ever, so on and so forth.

For some people in the audience, the statue of Lincoln could have been symbolic of the actual Lincoln, there among them participating in the historical occasion and becoming aware of how the progress made in 100 years was not enough and that his promise (and the country’s) to them had only partially been fulfilled. Emancipator and emancipated were there to discuss the state of the union.
 
The Speech
Structurally and content-wise, the “I Have a Dream” speech is spectacular in its simplicity, repetitive phrasing, familiar quotations and the cadence in which Dr. King spoke. But more importantly are the words, the codes that were immediately understood by many people in the audience. Dr. King told a story. It was not so much a speech but a narrative meant to be understood and identifiable by the audience. It was meant to communicate ideas not provide a pedantic discourse on the obvious situation. According to Barthes, narratives function both at the individual level as well as at a cultural level. The individual level allows for self-discovery and the path the individual will take. At the cultural level the narrative gives cohesion to shared beliefs and to transmit values (Polkinghorne, 1988).

The speech was certainly transmitted by a speaker who was telling people that this was what he believed (his dream) and the recipients shared the foundational/cultural beliefs he spoke about. King set about early by providing a plot that caught the attention of the audience “So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check ("I Have A Dream Speech - Text, Audio and Video of Martin Luther King's Most Famous Speech," n.d.).” The speech is organized into a series of chronological events reinforcing the story. King speaks of the past “Five score years ago” the present “One hundred years later the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty…” and the future “I have a dream that one day…”

Codes

There are three general features that define codes. Representationality (signs and rules for combining them represent something), interpretability (implies messages can be understood by someone who understands the rules), and contextualization (implies that message interpretation is affected by the context in which it occurs. As sign systems codes are characterized by opposition (Danesi 2007). The speech contains many examples of this; black and white, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, discords and symphonies, mountains and molehills. The significance of the opposition is that they are culture-specific ways of reacting to contextualized realities.

Genres are part of the signifying system and encode cultural values, myths, and ideology. In the speech, Dr. King refers to many cultural values – those at the American level and those at the black American level. Specifically for black Americans, he talks of manacles and chains, persecution and police brutality. At the American level, he speaks of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and uses banking codes such as bad check, and bankrupt.

He also paraphrases biblical passages which can be interpreted as myths. “justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream (Amos 5:24),” “It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity (Psalm 30:5),” and “I have a dream that every valley shall be exalted..(Isaiah 40:4-5).” Dr. King’s ideology (and that of the speech) was formed by his religion, education and his culture and is summed up as the content of people’s character is more important than the color of their skin.
 

Iconographic codes are used throughout the speech in particular to create a map of the nation – Rockies of Colorado, peaks of California, Stone Mountain of Georgia, Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. An example of a stylistic code is the last sentence in the speech. It evokes a mental image along with a spiritual feeling “…when all of God’s children…will join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” This analyst interprets this as a stylistic code because it resembles the ending of a movie, such as a celebratory scene which then fades to credits.

One can argue that the dream motif represents codes of the unconscious. Dr. King uses the word “dream” but as discussed later in this analysis, the word “vision” is a more cohesive fit with the tense used. Although they are dreams, they are spoken about rather than visually projected to the audience thus allowing the audience to imagine, perhaps project their own versions of the dreams such as the desert state of Mississippi transforming into an oasis of freedom and justice. What would that mean to an individual? Would it conjure up literally images of oases replete with palm trees and camels or would the individual envision being able to sit at a drugstore counter and order a soda?

Interpretive codes are found in the speech in particular as in the ideological codes such as gradualism. However the glaring omission of one is most notable to this analyst. Although the speech is essentially about it, it is not mentioned once - racism. It is alluded to (racial injustice) but seems to be a deliberate omission perhaps because of its incendiary potential and negative connotation.

Metaphors
Rhetorical codes abound in the speech. These include metaphors that are so impactful in the human experience allowing for rhetorical flourishes and poetic imagination. The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Metaphorical expressions in everyday language give us insights into the metaphorical nature of the concepts that structure our everyday activities (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Orientational metaphors are used throughout the speech. These give an idea a spatial orientation such as rise up, stand up, and speed up which are physical aspects. Ontological metaphor is used to represent the racial injustice. That metaphor is the check. King uses this to deal rationally with the experience of unfulfilled promises in terms that everyone in the audience understands. He equates the promise (of the Emancipation Proclamation) to a bad check that has come back marked insufficient funds. They are there to “cash that check” and “a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

Container metaphors are used in the speech. Some examples are “the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity” and “corners of American society” in addition “a cup of bitterness and hatred.”

Personification is another type of ontological metaphor where the physical object is further defined as being a person “your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.” In addition, “the curvaceous peaks of California!” is another example of personification as it is assigning human qualities to a non-human object.
A challenge to metaphorical coherence within the speech is the tense used for dream. “I have a dream” speaks of the present when normally, a dream (if considered literally) occurs in the past tense such as “I had a dream last night, or last week…” With this in mind, Dr. King might be using the word “dream” as a replacement for “vision” or “hope for the future.” Why would he use the word “dream” in place of “vision” (if that is what he did)? Hypothetically, a vision could be connected somehow to clairvoyance and discounted immediately. However, a dream could be words from God, inspiration, a better signifier because dreams do come true?

Another important metaphor used in the speech is one that ideas or discourses are light-mediums “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.”

Finally, with the diverse audience, Dr. King had to ensure that he described events that perhaps some people in the audience had not experienced or did not understand and he did this in terms that meant something to the common denominator which was human. This would ensure mutual understanding and would create rapport with the crowd. An example of this is when he uses a heat metaphor to connect several passages in the speech regarding injustice. These examples will be ordered as they occur in the speech “seared in the flames of withering injustice”, “This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent.” This image of an unbearable heat and perhaps thirst can be quenched with water “we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” The heat metaphor creates an image of a dangerous situation for humans – any humans no matter the color of their skin and the water is a metaphor for a life-saving substance. The message was understood by all.
 

Conclusion

In retrospect and in a historical context, the “I Have a Dream” speech turned the tide in the pursuit of civil rights for black Americans. Why is this speech remembered as “the speech” at that march and not the many others preceding it? What did he say that made it memorable? This situation brings to mind, ironically enough, Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg. Edward Everett delivered a two hour formal speech to the assembled crowd. Lincoln followed him and spoke for a little over two minutes. Yet, Everett is rarely remembered ever being at the Gettysburg dedication. Content-wise Lincoln’s speech (like King’s) mentions the past, recognizes the dire situation of the present but through the artistry of language, delivers hope and change in a succinct manner and one that is understood and memorable.

The analysis of the “I Have a Dream” speech revealed that the content was important but more so the structure and use of language. The metaphors used were remindful of a Southern Baptist preacher yet, King did not go the way of fire and brimstone and hell as their destination. He, throughout the speech used examples of redeeming the situation and shared his “dream” of the future. It was a simple message of hope.
 
References

Danesi, M. (2007). The quest for meaning: a guide to semiotic theory and practice. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

I Have A Dream Speech - Text, Audio and Video of Martin Luther King's Most Famous Speech. (n.d.). MLK Online - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speeches, pictures, quotes, biography, videos, information on MLK Day and more! Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Nammour, C. (2003, August 27). NewsHour Extra: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom -- August 27, 2003. PBS. Retrieved July 24, 2010, from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec03/march_8-27.html

Polkinghorne, D. E. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Sundquist, E. J. (2009, January 16). First Chapter, King's Dream. The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/books/chapters/chapter-kings-dream.html

[Woman with books]. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2010, from lib.umd.edu

Prestigious Prizes - Think Again

The Nobel Peace Prize


Has anyone else noticed that our (the human community) once prestigious prizes have changed over the years? It used to be that someone was given the Nobel Peace Prize because of something that person had done that was an extraordinary accomplishment such as those accomplished by the following:

• Albert Schweitzer
• Mother Teresa
  

Last year Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize. Was he given this prize because it was extraodinary that he was elected president? Or that he was a non-Bush?

Obama wasn't given time to earn this recognition. I think this cheapens the prestige and dilutes the importance of this prize.

Pulitzer Prize

On to the Pulitzer Prize. I looked at the winners for "General Reporting" and found winners reporting on high infant mortality rate in Alabama that lead to policy changes, and serious flaws in the Massachusets prison system that lead to reform.


The Enquirer a Contender

Now I see on cnn.com that "The Enquirer" is a serious contender for this year's Pulitzer Prize because of breaking the news about John Edwards' affair and love child. The only problem that the awarding organization had with this decision was to determine whether it was a magazine or a newspaper.

The media is now officially being recognized for distributing mind numbing, IQ reducing fluff.

"honoring excellence in journalism and the arts since 1917" (pulitzer.org)

Difficult Conversations in Creative Environments ~ IA Summit 2009

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Difficult Conversations in Creative Environments ~ IA Summit 2009

View more presentations from Daniel Brown.

The Official Social Media and Mobile Glossary of 2010

Pretty recognizable yet funny stuff from Ad Age Daily:

SPURNED MEDIA: Just like it sounds, earned media that goes horribly negative, invades otherwise pristine search results or bleeds into traditional media. Bad customer service is a top driver of "spurned media."

MOBILENECKING: The alarming tendency to have our necks titled down or shifted sideways -- ever glued to our mobile device. This anywhere, anyplace epidemic is increasingly common in cars, airplanes and crosswalks. Closely related to term "Eyevoidance," where no one looks at anyone anymore.

JACK RIPPER: The device warriors who hog outlets anywhere they can find them -- in the airport, via the USB port of a colleague's computer, even a restaurant reservation desk. They get a charge from a charge.

WIKI WART: A bad piece of news or an embarrassing brand episode (e.g., an activist protest or a social-media campaign that backfired) that just won't go away in a brand's Wikipedia description. PR pros often give false hope to brands of removing the warts, but relentless Wikipedia editors put them right back.

OEDIPOST COMPLEX: The curious neurosis that compels folks to sleep with their Blackberry or iPhone. The afflicted can't stop checking -- even in late hours -- for responses to tweets or blog and Facebook posts.

DECIPROCITY: When everything you post actually decreases your friend and follower count. Even when you friend or follow others, the rules of reciprocity just don't apply. Soul searching is typically in order here.

FAUX POST: When you are talking to someone on the phone and they notice an unrelated tweet or Facebook status update from you showing up in real-time. Bad form -- don't do it. (Trust me!)

APPFUSION: An inevitable outcome of app overload. Very common among iPhone users who download so many apps they can't find their address book. Appfusion can lead to as many problems as the apps solve.

BRAND TEASE: A consumer who "friends" or "fans" a brand, only to never return for a second date. Brands feed the cycle by forgetting to court the consumer with engaging, interesting or sustaining content or value.

CONVERSATIONAL DIVIDE: The huge gap between what marketers preach about social-media "conversations" and the brand's actual customer-service or call-center operations. Stems from cost vs. profit-center tension.

SHELF STORM: When organic search results suddenly go haywire, or shift to the dark side, thanks to the link-love logic of social media. Consider Tiger Woods' search-result shift from 95% positive to 60% hostile (in a matter of days). Or how brands with highly publicized service failures quickly acquire shelf-venom.

APPTOSTERONE: The mojo that fuels intense "mine's bigger/better" conversation about mobile apps. "Dude, you got Bump, but I've got FourSquare." Marketing techies are loaded with Apptosterone.

BUCK SUCKED: The condition that typically slaps you in the face when reading your credit card bill and you see dozens of "dollar" charges for music and "what the heck" iPhone or mobile apps. Expect much more of this as it gets worlds easier and more convenient to pay for online content. (Good news for publishers!)

TRUST LAPSE: The frighteningly popular tendency we have to "open up" our friend network to a cool, unknown social-media service or app. Ego, vanity and impatience often collide with rationality here.

RUNWAY REBEL: That guy (or gal) who keeps the "electronic device" going well past the airline warnings and prohibitions. We see them everywhere, and no one is innocent here.

BLOG DODGER: Someone who has abandoned his or her blog for Twitter or some other lower-hassle social-media substitute. This was big in 2009, and we'll likely see much more of it in 2010.
QUAD STALKERS: Folks from your past who "friend" you (e.g., folks you marginally knew from the high-school quad) and who seem to comment on everything you post on Facebook. Mostly benign, but a tad curious.

TWEET-SHIFTING: Delaying or mixing Twitter posts so axe murderers don't know you're miles from home. Increasingly common as a spousal and family covenant among folks who travel with high frequency.

CURBCASTING: The almost unstoppable cacophony of loud voices barking all manner of silliness into the airwaves thanks to Bluetooth devices. You see this on every street corner and curb.

TWITSTOP: A bathroom detour from a meeting or conversation in order to check e-mail, Twitter or the latest and greatest via an app. (Swear on the Bible, I don't do this ... but I'm told lots of others do.)

DIGITAL DETOX: What we all need -- at least in doses. As we've learned, total digital immersion has side effects. Let's all pursue a roadmap for balance in 2010. (This is likely the topic of my next book, so send feedback.)




*Image from http://www.piercemattiepublicrelations.com/social_media_clutter.jpg

Keep Your Graphic Designer on a Short Leash - Website Magazine - Website Magazine

Keep Your Graphic Designer on a Short Leash - Website Magazine - Website Magazine

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Interesting Shopping Experience

Path to Purchase
I tried Best Buy's "shop online, pick up in store" shopping model on Friday. I needed a new laptop, hadn't owned a computer (that worked) for years so I browsed bestbuy.com, found what I thought would work for me and then started doing some research online regarding the laptop in terms of specifications, user feedback and price.



The purpose of this post is to tout the model, not the brand Best Buy. Or maybe I should tout Best Buy because they do have this model. It was the most pain-free shopping experience I think I have ever had. Here's the model:

1. Found the product I wanted on their site.

2. I researched on other sites about the product. In particular I wanted pricing comparisons with other retailers/etailers, customer feedback and model specifications.

3. Once I made my decision to purchase the laptop, I then needed to decide whether to have it shipped or go to the store on my way home to look at it and purchase it. I decided to pick it up on my way home.

4. bestbuy.com offers a product availability function for its stores so I deteremined that they did indeed have the laptop in the store near my house.

5. I used the "pick up" option and filled out the required information.

6. Upon submission of the information, I received an email saying they would confirm that they had the laptop at their store and let me know that another email would be sent with that confirmation and instructions on how to pick up my purchase.

7. I received the second email shortly there after.

8. I drove to the store, presented the email (via my blackberry) to the store greeter.

9. Store greeter pointed me in the direction of the pick-up area.

10. I showed the clerk the email (via my blackberry)

11. The clerk retrieved my purchase, I signed some papers and out I went.

The in-store process took about 5 minutes.

I did a little research. This shopping model seems to be on the upswing and my shopper behavior is not rare.


The three graphs below tell the story:

Media and Social Psychology - PSY 764b

Media and Social Psychology

This was a really interesting class and I wasn't ready for it to be over. We looked into how media affects us whether we realize it or not which is kind of disconcerting. There were many topics of interest but the one topic that I chose to write my class paper on was the "copycat effect".

The Fort Hood murders had just occurred as we were starting the class. Several other incidents followed those murders and that piqued my interest. What causes copycat murders and suicides? Who is most at risk? What can be done about them? I have copied and pasted my paper below. I know it could be better, it's my first APA style paper. My next one will be better. Practice, practice, practice.




When Life Imitates Life – Media Violence and Copycat Effects

When Life Imitates Life
Humans have moved through various methods of communication starting with verbal, then written, imagery, printed, and finally through electronically distributed communication such as the telephone, radio, television, film and the Internet. In the book “The Media is the Massage”, Marshall McLuhan explores the metamorphosis of communication from simple verbal storytelling to mass electronic media and how the changes affect man. Communication methods were once singular in nature such as the village sage telling stories to educate and entertain a small audience. This was limited in the ability of the sage’s memory and the size of the audience. It was also limited in the abilities of the audience members to visualize the sage’s communication intent. Without imagery to support the sage’s story, audience members had individual liberties to interpret his words with their own mental pictures. As time went on, humans learned to enhance their ideas with images and eventually printed alphabets turned into text. A permanent record of information was now available from a few people to a few people. Once the printing press was invented, mass production of information was possible. However, the audience or recipients of that information were still limited due to the labor involved to print the material and the cost to purchase the material. Electronic technology, particularly television and radio greatly expanded the ability of mass media to cross geographical, racial and socioeconomic borders. In addition, printing presses run by new technologies allowed for greater volume of printed materials to be produced and distributed. No longer were the parents or the village elder the authoritative word, now this multi-dimensional realistic form of storytelling and the medium presenting it has the ability to impact society in profound and sometimes unfortunate ways.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the advent of mass media, understand its ability to persuade and affect its consumers, look at who is at risk from violence portrayed in the media and learn how some people at risk react to it.

Mass Media Extends Our Senses and Transport Us Into the “World”
In “The Medium is the Massage” (McLuhan, 1967), media are viewed as extensions of
man. With media, we can be reached quicker and from farther away. We no longer depend on a
single source (for example, the village storyteller) to inform, enlighten or entertain us. We are
electronically connected to many “village storytellers” now and they are connected to many
listeners and viewers. Mass media are pervasive and available to almost anyone. Because media
are an extension of us (and by us), they have become a part of us. As they are part of us, they are hardly recognized, seldom questioned and ultimately our extension into the world. Or at least what the media want us to view as the world. Media are also very persuasive. Even low
credibility reports can convince us that fictional stories are real. In a study by Appel and Richter
(2007) it was demonstrated that a “sleeper effect” was a real consequence of beliefs being
changed over time. A sleeper effect occurs when an individual may at first not believe a
communicator’s point of view, but after a period of time starts to agree with the communicator’s
position. This is opposed to an individual at first believing a communicator’s point of view but after a period of time reverts to his/her previous attitude or belief.

In the study, students were asked to read two versions of a fictional story “The Kidnapping” with each version containing 16 assertions – eight true assertions, and eight false assertions. If a true assertion was in version one of the study, a false assertion was in version two and vice versa. The students read the stories and answered a questionnaire. The students returned two weeks later and answered another questionnaire. The results indicated that the students’ belief change was more evident and more highly held after two weeks. By reading fictional narratives and being transported into the story, our frames of reference are temporarily altered for our thought processes. Due to this, the ability to critically evaluate the presented information is partially blocked, allowing the persuasive effects of the narrative to be affective (Appel & Richter, 2007). As we are transported into stories, especially fictional ones, we are engaged and held because we want to believe the stories are real and attractive and we can almost see them as true (Dill, 2009, p. 13).

Media have the capability to disarm our ability to think critically about the message
without a conscious effort to do so. Combine this with media’s “always on” and “always
available” state, consumers find themselves vulnerable to media’s persuasive effects, and as
discussed later in this document, some of us more than others.

Mass Media Expands in the 20th Century
The electronic media revolution that occurred in the 20th century changed the way media were able to disperse information to the masses. Early on, broadcast models radio and television provided limited information (although broader than before). Twenty-four hour media outlets did not exist in the early years but later on as more channels of communication were added, around-the-clock programming provided more opportunity for media to reach the masses.
The paradigm shift in a broadcast model occurred with the release of the Internet to commercial traffic in 1993 (Feldman, 2002). The Internet provides the multi-dimensional aspect of all the media models; audio, imagery, print, motion and is used by 65% of the U.S. population (Nielsen, 2009). The Internet is unique in a publishing aspect due to a few factors:

1. The low cost of entry for content publishers. There are free blog engines that anyone with a computer can access and use to publish content.
2. A lack of filters such as editors or censors. Any type of content can be published on the Internet. Pornography, extreme violence, and other potentially harmful messaging such as suicide chat rooms are available to anyone with the tools (computer) to access them.
3. The author of Internet content is nearly impossible to trace if that author wishes to remain anonymous. There are no repercussions to the author for publishing content that results in the damage to humans or society as a whole.

Mobile phones followed the Internet and suddenly information could be dispersed
24 hours per day practically anywhere on the planet and it could be dispersed at the speed of electronic transmission. The implication of the Internet and mobile phones joining the other electronic methods of communication was that the control of information being broadcast was lost due to the public now contributing content to the masses.

Due to the numerous channels of content distribution, the public’s contribution of content and the “always on” state, mass media are ubiquitous, pervasive, invasive, infectious and not restrained by morals, ethics, good intentions or facts.

The Rise of Violence in the Media
Along with the expansion of the mass media in the 20th century, whether connected or not, violent crimes also rose. In the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, American children began to consume television programming and by 1999, children were spending about 40 hours per week watching television programs including movies and videos (Kaiser Family Foundation, 1999). In a 1992 study it was found that by the time an average American child graduated from elementary school, he or she would have seen more than 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other serious crimes on network television (cable television would produce higher numbers) (Anderson & Bushman, 2001).

With exposure to this much violence at such a young age and assuming these consumption habits remain throughout adulthood, considerable harm can be done to and by certain consumers.

Does Media Violence Cause Aggressive Behavior in Certain Consumers?
The question often arises if media violence causes violent behavior or those who have demonstrated aggressive behavior tend to consume violent media. Several studies have been conducted in an attempt to answer this question. In a study by Paik and Comstock, aggregated meta-data was used to look at viewing-to-behavior and behavior-to-viewing effects as well as socio-economic statuses (SES) among the test subjects. The results showed that viewing-to-behavior was more likely to cause aggression than behavior-to-viewing (Comstock, 2008).
So yes, media violence does cause aggressive behavior in certain consumers. But why in only certain consumers, why not all violent media consumers?

Who is at Risk from Violent Media?
Before we look at how violent media affects its consumers, we need to discuss who it affects. Does it affect everyone? Does it affect some consumers more profoundly than others? Commons sense tells us that we are all affected by media violence. At the very least disturbed by it because it perhaps portrays actions abhorred by us. Why are some of us abhorred by it and others affected in a way as to adopt what they consume as part of their arsenal of social skills?
If by the time U.S. children graduating from elementary school have witnessed more than 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other serious crimes on network television and assuming by law every U.S. child must attend school, we should see a chaotic society full of aggressive behavior. But we don’t, although one could argue that our society is more aggressive than it should be. To partially answer this, according to Comstock (2008) there are five attributes of a consumer that makes him or her more at risk from the effects of media violence:

1. A predisposition for anti-social or aggressive behavior: surveys (Belson, 1978; Robinson & Bachman, 1972), experiments (Celozzi, Kazelskis, & Gutsch, 1981; Josephson, 1987), meta-analysis (Paik, 1991).
2. Rigid or indifferent parenting; unsatisfactory social relationships: (Chaffee, McLeod, & Atkin, 1971; McLeod et al., 1972b).
3. Low psychological well-being: (D. R. Anderson, Collins, Schmitt, & Jacobvitz, 1996; Canary & Spitzberg, 1993; Comstock & Scharrer, 1999; Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Maccoby, 1954; Potts & Sanchez, 1994).
4. Having been diagnosed or suffering from disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs): (Grimes, Bergen, Nichols, Vernberg, & Fonagy, 2004).

Violent media consumers with a predisposition for anti-social or aggressive behavior are at the greatest risk. Consumers (children) who live in an open-communication environment with their parents are able to discuss many topics and view less television thereby reducing their exposure to violence as compared to those consumers who live in a closed-communication environment with their parents. Consumers whose parents are interested in their activities are less likely to be affected by media violence. Good parenting tends to be a mitigating factor.

Television can be an escape mechanism for some consumers who are lonely, stressed or in a less than ideal social situation. These consumers are at risk due to their volume of consumption of television exposing them to more potential to consume violent media.

Consumers who have been diagnosed or suffering with a DBD such as attention deficit or hyperactivity disorder respond more aggressively to violent imagery than others without a DBD thereby increasing the risk to be affected by media violence.

Clearly there are individuals who have committed serious crimes that have at least one of the five attributes listed above. Combine this predisposition with the persuasive effects of media and the results can become tragic.

The Persuasive Effect of Media
Media have an agenda. That agenda is to deliver a message whether it is for an advertiser/sponsor, writer, producer or broadcast company owner. The objective is to make the message attractive (or in some cases not) to the audience. To make the message attractive, often a spokesperson is used. That spokesperson is usually a celebrity, someone that the audience trusts or “knows.” An attractive, interesting spokesperson makes us, the audience, want to emulate that person by using the product that the spokesperson is touting. In the same vein, when we view a movie or television program, we inject ourselves into it, it becomes real, we no longer realize we are watching fiction (or a reenactment of an actual event). Why do we do this? “The mass media artfully, skillfully, and adeptly use knowledge of human psychology to get our attention, and yes, even when we don’t necessarily ‘want’ to give it.” (Dill, 2008, p. 24).

Media are persuasive at the individual level. But what about groups of people? Can they
be affected by media so that they share the same ideas, attitudes and behaviors? The cultivation theory says that people who watch more television than those who don’t tend to view the “real
world” in ways that television programming portrays it. These people are persuaded or will tend to share these views even though those people are geographically and culturally diverse.
Dispersion of thought and identity are narrowed due to the media’s influence.

George Gerbner in the forward of the article Television & Its Viewer: Cultivation Theory & Research (1999) describes this.

"Most of what we know, or think we know, we have never personally experienced. We
live in a world erected by the stories we hear and see and tell. Unlocking incredible riches
through imagery and words, conjuring up the unseen through art, creating towering works
of imagination and fact through science, poetry, song, tales, reports and laws – that is the
magic of human life. Through that magic we live in a world much wider than the threats
and gratifications of the immediate physical environment, which is the world of other
species. Stories socialize us into roles of gender, age, class, vocation and lifestyle, and
offer models of conformity or targets or rebellion. They weave the seamless web of the
cultural environment that cultivates most of what we think, what we do, and how we
conduct our affairs. The story-telling process was once more hand-crafted, home-made,
community-inspired. Now it is mostly mass-produced and profit-driven. It is the end
result of a complex manufacturing and marketing process." (Shanahan, Gerbner, Morgan,
1999. p. ix).

Media Violence and the Copycat Effect
So far we have discovered that:
1. We are all exposed to media violence.
2. Some of us are more vulnerable than others to be negatively affected.
3. The media know how to persuade us affectively.
4. Our attitudes, beliefs and views of the world are cultivated through the media.
5. Violence in the United States started to rise when the first generation of U.S. children raised on television became old enough to commit crimes.

This all adds up to unfortunate circumstances that some consumers of media and/or their victims find themselves. An interesting facet of media’s influence upon us is something called the “copycat effect.” The copycat effect is a pattern that deals with the “power of the mass communication and culture to create an epidemic of similar behaviors.” (Coleman, 2004, p.1).
The epidemic can be non-violent or violent. Non-violent copycat behaviors can be media consumers emulating favorite celebrities (girls dressing like Madonna in the 1980s) or violent behavior such as mass suicides and murders.

Copycat Effect and Suicide
The “Werther Effect” also known as the “contagion effect” is the earliest known example of media’s affect on suicide. In the 1774 novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Goethe, the hero shoots himself over an unsuccessful love affair. Shortly after the publication of this novel, there were reports of young men shooting themselves - hence “The Werther Effect.”

More current evidence was shown when the book Final Exit was written. It was a guide for terminally ill people to end their lives by asphyxiation. In the year the book was written, suicides in New York City rose by 313%, and a copy of the book was found at 27% of the suicide scenes (Stack 2003).

Other evidence includes charcoal burning in Hong Kong as a method of suicide. This method occurs when charcoal is burned in a small, sealed place or room. The burning charcoal produces carbon monoxide which asphyxiates the person attempting suicide. After the first report in 1998 was pictorially depicted, two months later suicide by charcoal burning was the third commonest method of suicide in Hong Kong. Of particular note, suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning was not a popular method until after the media reports. (Lee, Chan, Yip, Lee, 2005).

Copycat Effect and Homicides
The copycat effect also manifests itself in homicides. The media must certainly play a role when similar mass homicides occur in a short time span across different countries. One such case occurred in Australia, New Zealand and England and was studied by Cantor, Sheehan, Alpers and Mullen in 1999. The incidents included mass commando-style homicides. Guns were used predominantly in the seven incidents.

From 1987 to 1996 there were four similar mass homicides in Australia (1987 – 1996) one in New Zealand (1990) and two in the United Kingdom (1987). The 1987 incident in Australian was followed 10 days later in the United Kingdom which suggests that media coverage of the Australian incident was viewed in the United Kingdom. These types of crimes were virtually unheard of in these countries prior to the 1987 incident.

To include this case in their study, it had to contain the following three elements: the degree of similarity of the events, proximity in time, and statements by the assailants before and after the crimes. The investigators found that four of seven incidents may have been partially modeled after one or more of the seven incidents. The proximity in time element was somewhat met but more importantly part of the findings indicated that media may contribute to modeling up to 10 years or more due to a connection of a 1987 incident with one in 1996. Due to the similar incidents occurring in different countries, modeling is not restricted to continents or countries when mass media reports globally on these incidents.

The media coverage of the Fort Hood murder rampage on November 5, 2009 could have contributed to similar incidents shortly after. On the following day, November 6, 2009 a man in Florida opened fire with a gun on his former workplace. He was upset with his former employer for firing him two years earlier and blamed his employer for his debt-ridden situation. Five people were injured, one died. The following day, an armed man in Colorado took over a school room holding the principal of the school hostage. Ultimately he released the principal and gave himself up. He was upset with the government. Later the same day, another shooting occurred at an office park in Portland Oregon resulting in two deaths. It turns out that this was a domestic situation; however, the media coverage of the initial incident (Fort Hood) and coverage of the subsequent incidents could have been the tipping point that made these other perpetrators act.

What did all of these men have in common or was there a commonality to them? The Fort Hood shooter, U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan aged 38 years, was described as unhappy with his employment situation, disturbed over the wounded soldiers that he treated, conflicted by his religion and military duty, and was unsuccessful in finding a wife. It was also reported that he was bullied at his workplace because of his practice of the Muslim religion.

The Florida shooter, Jason Rodriguez, aged 40, was struggling with divorce, blamed his former employer who fired him for all of his problems, had ongoing mental issues and was angry. The Colorado hostage taker, Christopher Craft Sr., aged 42, was upset with how the military was treating veterans. One of his sons was a veteran. One of the students overhearing him said that Craft said he was angry and confused. Craft requested treatment for his mental illness after the incident.

Although in-depth research is required to thoroughly analyze these men’s common traits, attitudes, opinions, physical and mental histories, the information above does show a few elements in common. Their ages are very close and their ages put them in that group of school age children starting to watch television (and the violence on it) in 1965 and now old enough to act out violence, at least two of them have unhappy love lives, all are angry at either a real or perceived slight against them, and at least two of them had mental issues. One other element not supported in the media reports is that perhaps all of these men had access to some form of media outlet that influenced them. Perhaps Hasan (already upset by the soldiers’ stories of war) was further influenced by the imagery of war shown by the media. After his act, perhaps the incessant reporting of the Fort Hood murders by all media outlets influenced the next shooter and so on and so forth. Although the media reported that these men acted alone, they really didn’t. Ironically, the media were with them long before, during and after their acts.

Conclusion
Mass media play a role in our behaviors, attitudes and viewpoints. They are always on, mostly available to us at any time and on any day, have global reach, have an agenda, and give sensationalistic type headlines prime coverage. Through the media, some people have blurred the lines between fantasy and reality, good and evil, and right and wrong. Some people at risk have a high probability of acting out what they view in the media thereby propagating and perpetuating the copycat effect.

Because mass media have ingrained themselves in our society and our lives, they have an obligation and responsibility to alter the way they cover suicides and crimes, thereby mitigating the copycat effect and reducing tragic incidents of life imitating life. Loren Coleman (2004) offers seven suggestions for the media to implement, which are paraphrased below:

1. Stop using the word "successful" or "failed" when speaking of violent acts. These words lead the audience to believe that they must keep trying to succeed in these pursuits.
2. Stop using the clichéd stories of the perpetrator as being "the boy/girl next door" or the
"lone nut." Perpetrators of violent acts are not so simply defined.
3. Cease endless graphic and sensationalized coverage of violent acts and omit details of
methods and places of the violent acts. These glamorize the violent acts and provide
instructional material for potential perpetrators.
4. Show more details about the consequences of the violent acts as they relate to the
survivors such as relatives and friends grieving.
5. Avoid ethnic, racial, religious and cultural stereotypes of the victims and the
perpetrators. Do not provide a road map for like-minded individuals who may want to avenge or commit a violent act.
6. Never report a story on a suicide or murder-suicide without offering contact information
for helplines, assistance, and so forth.
7. Concentrate on studying their role in creating our perceived increasingly violent society.

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