| Dangerous Omissions and the Importance of Context |
| by Phyllis Haynes, ISP Board of Governors, former ABC News correspondent and award-winning documentary producer. We are growing a civilization that is so accustomed to fast delivery of information that we are conditioning young people to be unable to sit through and absorb more context, even if it were available. Are not the constantly abbreviated "headline" news systems conditioning whole generations to be too lazy to seek deeper meaning? We pour facts into people without asking their brains to interpret, analyze or consider the impact of this information. Do broadcasters have the right to alter the way we take in and process information? Do broadcasters have the right to leave out the stories that cannot always be told with pictures? Some of the biggest stories of our time received modest coverage because there were no sexy pictures. |
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| Desensitization and the Media |
| by Donald N. Michael, Professor Emeritus, Planning and Public Policy, University of Michigan. Why is it, what is it that makes it so profitable for the media to dwell on violence and pain? The author evaluates individual and communal factors to which the media cater and thus reinforce desensitization to suffering.
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| It's Really Burning! |
| An ISP Lecture by Raymond Schroth, Assistant Dean and Journalism Professor at Fordham College in New York (formerly Journalism professor at Loyola University in New Orleans) and author of "The American Journey of Eric Sevareid" (Steerforth Press).
How does a journalist deal with desensitization? Every journalist, if he or she is to remain a sensitive human being, must write to evoke genuine compassion. How and what are the risks? The author anecdotally assesses the problem and what might de done. |
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| Virtual Presences |
| Reed Whittemore, a poet and member of ISP's Board of Governors, has suggested that the Society should focus some of its attention and study upon efforts by some in the "public relations" business to rename their profession "perception management." Reed sees great danger, past and present, in this. He points to "perception management" by tobacco advertisers as but one example of how language and image can be manipulated to be exactly contrary to reality. Remember George Orwell's "1984", in which the party slogan put out by the Ministry of Truth was "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength?" The philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, called the substitution of symbols for reality "misplaced concreteness." Ralph G. H. Siu referred to such symbols as "virtual presences." Back in 1974, he wrote in his book, "Ch'I": "A major part of the present economic world caters to the manufacture, alteration and emulation of virtual presences. Amusements and arts, newspapers and publications, and so on are engaged in their manufacture. Advertising firms, electronic systems, and so on are involved in their alteration. Churches, schools, and so on are concerned with their emulation . "Reputations are built; celebrities are glamorized, social figures are manicured, political aspirants are groomed. It is the virtual image that moves the people to vote for the candidate. "There have been thousands of religious sects, the leaders of each of which have claimed to receive the word of God Each in turn adds modifications and interpretations to the received virtual presence. But now HIS is the true churchthe virtual God has said so. The virtual God's virtual mantle has as much impact upon him and his followers as would the REAL God's mantle. Millions of people swear on it, fight for it, kill with it, and die for it." Ralph G.H. Siu, CH'I, MIT Press, 1974, |
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| PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT: WOMEN AND SMOKING |
| A short summary of a news article about efforts in the advertising and tobacco industries to target women to induce them to smoke. |
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