Blog 7: Annotated Bibliography of Media Midterm Paper

David Rodriguez Jr.
Louis A. Lucca
HUC 130
5 May 2011

Violent acts, murders, criminal behaviors and the criminal mind, all have been attributed and associated to some type of media. One of the most controversial of them has been the television. For years this addictive phenomenon has been influencing our society; to the point of creating a sort of dependency and or addiction. Whether it is just a local news broadcast or part of a must see TV Monday night lineup, we remain hooked. With the popularity of this source of media and its growing development it has been providing us with maximum exposure to it round the clock in homes, jobs, cars, even now on mobile devices. So with this availability society would naturally become influenced as well. News broadcasts, TV sitcoms, even cartoons can influence us and dramatically change our perspective, thoughts, and emotions. With this immense exposure to such an outlet; this may be the major contributing factor as to why we have higher reports violence within our society.
The 1940’s World War II was the major focal point of the United States, yet at around the same time the Television was beginning to emerge. By the end of the war the Television had become a commercialized product. At first only five thousand units designed with five inch black & white screens and were located in American homes, by 1951 that number had jumped up to an alarming seventeen million units. (Goodwin) America had become engaged. Before then radio broadcasting was the number one source of entertainment. Families would crowd around the radio to listen to these shows throughout the week. However with the increase of televisions popularity and the demand for more television programing, radio had met its new competitor (refer Fig.1 pg.11). A great portion of today’s Television broadcast stations such as NBC and CBS, all started on radio as forms of popular radio broadcasts, which were then adapted for this newer source of media. (Wikimedia) Four years later in 1955, America began to see the development of standard colored television sets. These colored sets however were considered as a premium feature and at that time most of American household could only afford the black & white versions. This really would not make much of a difference since at that point most of the television broadcasts were still in black & white and rarely seen in color till around the 1960’s. (Goodwin)
Television had been in development for a long period of time. The timeline stretched as far back as 1927 to Philo Farnsworth. Farnsworth was the first inventor to transmit a television image made up of 60 horizontal lines. Ironically enough the image transmitted was a dollar sign. His invention of the dissector tube became the basis of all current electronic televisions. After several years of testing it was in the year 1940 which the first television broadcast of The Queens’s Messenger was relayed to WRGB in Schenectady, New York. (Albany) This established the first television network. This became a time of significance with network television on the rise the FCC had to begin issuing licenses to broadcast stations. Now not everyone across the United Stated had received the same programing; however it was in the works. By May 21 1940 Bell Telephone Laboratories began testing the option of coaxial cable from New York to Philadelphia sending signals back and forth. (Wiki: 1940) This again would be another big move in the growth of this phenomenon. The demand for television and more programing is what lead to a greater expansion.
A variety of shows had been introduced in the 1940’s. Shows such as the Ed Wynn Show, the Goldberg’s, the Howdy Doody Show, the Jack Benny Show, the Lone Ranger, and Toast of The Town had emerged. These new shows were the beginnings of a new influence which would affect society for years to come. Variety and comedy talk shows were some of the biggest in not only ratings but also in influence. Imagine yourself a child sitting your living room it is 1949 you turn on your television set and switch it to ABC there in front of you see a man in a blue shirt with a black mask on a white horse galloping along with trumpets blazing his theme song, Yes! It’s the Lone Ranger. You continue watching him closely as he pulls out his gun and fire’s it off. For that very moment or those next thirty minutes he is your hero and you even want to grow up and be just like him. Now move onward to adulthood and you’re now tuned into a variety style of talk show entitled Toast of The Town with host Ed Sullivan. The show not only would host musical acts but also allowed us to gain a glimpse into the lives of stars. This may have been where our society’s infatuation with celebrities first began.
Today we can still see this style with show’s like Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, Jay Leno and so on, all these shows host celebrities and give us a visual of those stars we idolize most. Now with this influence and exposure we could also see how it may have led to violence within our society. Let’s take a child who may see a role model in one of these celebrities growing up whether this celebrity is good or bad, to that child this star may be in fact their hero and they would go to extreme measures to reenact this role model. A child may view a person with a gun on television and say to themselves “Well if they use a gun then so will I” once this idea is implanted into their minds it’s only a matter of time before a violent crime or incident occurs. When we hear of it in the news or read about in article it’s always the same reason “Child was reenacting his/her role model.” Now we can argue that parents need to raise the child not the television or say well parents need to set morals and rules as well as guide their children but let us face reality, television is everywhere and they simply are not. They aren’t alone however; adults are also tossed into the equation. The average adult consumes around 28 hours of television according to research done by A.C. Nielson Co. By the time that adult hits 65 years of age they’ll have be exposed to roughly 9yrs of television this many not seem like an enormous amount but let’s take a closer look at what society is watching today.
Going back to the research done by Nielson Company it states that the numbers of murders seen on television by time the average child finishes elementary school is approximately 8,000, the number of violent acts seen by 18 years of age is 200,000 and the percentage of American’s who believe television violence helps precipitate real life mayhem 79%. The amount of exposure a child has to violence on television may be what is in fact influencing them throughout their lives to perpetuate violence. Some of society has grown up watching public broadcasting programs such as Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers or a replicated modern day version while other may be growing up with violent cartoons or television shows which appeal to a younger audience demographic. This is not the only exposure we have, shows and cartoons are just a portion of the problem the other would have to be the News media; with the News society receives a culture shock which causes different emotions and reactions.
Fear & terror are two big factors which can lead to violence and are conveyed through News broadcasts on television. Looking at recent events that happened not long ago we can see how the News media used this fear and terror to sort of monopolize ratings. However this also led to violence within our very own society. The events of 9/11 were a catalyst for violence within America and the reports were televised with tremendous coverage sparking up a public frenzy. I recall watching reports of American Muslims being beating, shot at, and threaten even though they didn’t have anything to do with the events of that day. Still though the American public was in enraged and the News media fueled this rage even more. Every hour on the hour coverage on the story, followed by video sequence of the planes hitting the towers. The images lived with you throughout the day and would remain with you for the rest of your life. So with this mind television helped push this message of fear and terror which then sparked up violence and you did not even have to have been exposed to it for so many years to feel its affects. Men and Women saw this tragic event and signed up almost immediately for the military, they wanted revenge so now you have even more violence. It was like a trickled down effect everything that was said by the media triggered someone within society. The same way that these people felt passionate and enraged over this event is the same way a child may view his or her programs.
There is certainly a psychological presence that can be assessed between the relationship of television violence and society, and a countless number of studies have been done to help shed light on this very topic. The American Psychological Association did studies on a child’s exposure to media violence throughout a 15-year period. This study was based on 329 youths and was published in an issue of Developmental Psychology, one of the American Psychological Association (APA) journals. According to this studies regardless of a child’s initial aggression levels, intellectual capabilities, social status, or even a parents parenting styles the violence on television would just strengthen this aggressive behavior in a young adult. (APA) So it can be determined that throughout a child’s developmental stage; being exposed to such images and or programing could in fact create a more aggressive behavior. Further studies have shown that such shows as Starsky and Hutch, The Six Million Dollar Man, and even cartoons would hold some identifying characteristic that these children would associate themselves to. According to these studies the results were that men, who were high TV-violence viewers as children were more than likely to have been convicted of a crime or pushed, grabbed or shoved their spouse. Women who were high TV-violence viewers as children were likely to have thrown something at their spouse, shoving, punching, choking the person, and committed criminal act of some type. (APA) With all these images of television violence being presented to children it would only make sense that they would grow up to feel as if this was the correct way to act out in society or be to their loved ones in private. The perception that television programing presents us is a very intimate and personal one. "It is more plausible that exposure to TV violence increases aggression than that aggression increases TV-violence viewing," said Psychologist Dr. L. Rowell Huesmann, Ph.D. (APA)
Not only has television programing created and perpetuated violence, but it has also made society numb to it. Being exposed to violent acts, reports, and shows has made this violence sort of casual or predictable. On March 13, 1964 a murder of a woman by the name of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese occurred. What made this murder so significant was the fact that there were 38 witnesses that heard the screams of Ms. Genovese while she was being attacked and did nothing to help her. The witnesses watched and heard her screams for approximately half an hour. Later the actions of these witnesses would be labeled as the “Bystander effect” or the “Genovese Syndrome” labels which were used to define groups of people whom did not offer any type of means of assistance to a victim in an emergency. This effect may be attributed to violent programing and or news reports seen on television. Programing dictates how society should act or react to certain events. With such constant exposure to violence and it becoming more and more common among society, people may have just simply become apathetic to it.
The events of Ms. Genovese’s death that night could have been viewed by those witnesses as if almost just watching another show on TV or a news report it was not at all shocking. As if this was a common occurrence to hear the screams of a woman throughout the night. This was not the only reason that would cause them to ignore her pleads for help; people just did not want to get involved if it meant a risk of their own personal safety. With television being a tool for the media to dictate society’s views, moods, thoughts, and beliefs, who’s to say that in that time period they didn’t do the same. With this constant presentation of violence or violent acts being given to society round the clock; it could have implanted the idea that this is what happens, so just keep your nose out of what is not your business and you’ll be just fine.
In 2000, a Historian by the name of Joseph De May dug up information about the Genovese murder. With this new information he then critiqued the original article of the New York Times. Joseph believed that there has been 2 attacks and not 3, they were not continuous having 10min. intervals between them while the killer moved his car into a parking place further away. He claims there weren’t 38 witnesses to the attack but rather just 3 who saw the first or second attack. The area of the attack would have made it impossible for anyone to have seen or heard everything in its entirety. (On The Media) This critique and information after careful evaluation would make more sense than what was originally reported. However being that society’s perception of the television media is so high, people simply believe what they hear or see on television rather think and develop a reason onto themselves for the events that occurred. They depend on others to make the first move. It is similar to when you know something isn’t right but wait until someone else stands up first and says “Hey this isn’t right.” To this day we can still see very similar behavior among people in society. I can recall watching reports on several local News stations about a man here in New York that saw a woman getting mugged, he rushed in to save her from this mugger and end up needing saving himself. The mugger wielded a knife and stabbed him a few times leaving him to his death. What was worse were the hours that followed as the hero lied in the middle of the sidewalk bleeding to death people just walked right by him as if he was invisible. Not one of them called for help or assisted him. While watching their reactions you get the sense that to them this was just another day in the big apple.
Television has created a world within our society. The enormous importance society has given to this media outlet throughout the years has given it the power to convey whatever message those in control of it wish to give. The presentation of these messages has been proven to affect our outlooks, moods, beliefs, behaviors, even the development of our personalities. Since it is believed that we contain a certain level of aggressive behavior since birth providing such violent programing could in fact further this aggressive behavior. Even though we grow up and learn new things along the way, we still are learning and adapting to what is being illustrated in front of us. Similar to a child, we may in fact honestly never grow away from that childhood curiosity. Men and Women both being adults still copy one another’s actions. Both watch TV; imitate trends, styles, lives, and even jobs. So with this in our minds the images of violence we see on a day to day basis could in fact be mimicked at a later time or date in our lives.

Works Cited
Albany: History of Schenectady.
Albany.com, 2003-2011. Web. 21 April. 2011.
http://www.albany.com/schenectady/history.cfm
Albany’s main site which lists the history of the city and states that it is the birth place of the first television broadcast network.

Berkowitz, Edward D. Mass appeal: the formative age of the movies, radio, and tv. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.
In this book: Information on the stars on both radio and television during the 1930s. The culture and trends between the 1930s to the late 1940s.

CSUN: “Television & Health” http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html
California State University, Northridge © 2007 web. 7 April 2011
Site contains information from Nielson Research on the average American household television usage.

Goodwin, Sue. American Cultural History. Lone Star College-
Kingwood Library, 1999. Web. 7 April. 2011. http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decade40.html
Number of television units across America and at when it increased. A few mentions of popular radio broadcasts at that time which would later move onto becoming television shows.

Nobleman, Marc Tyler. The television, Minn.: Capstone Press, 2005. Print.
In this book it follows televisions popularity throughout the years, and current day.
On The Media: “The Witnesses That Didn’t”
WNYC Radio, 27 March 2009. Web. 21 April. 2011.
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/03/27/05
Article of an interview between Brooke Gladstone and Joseph De May on the Kitty Genovese murder.

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. “Television in the United States"
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 7 April. 2011.
This site has a few good articles on the adaptation of radio to television and the birth and growth of major Television broadcasting networks.

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. “1940 in television"
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 July 2004. Web. 21 April. 2011.
A list of events which took place in 1940. Great links to the numerous companies that developed or were involved in the development of broadcast networks.

Special Activity: MOMI

So I was on a tour at the Museum of the Moving Image yesterday and picked up a few fun facts. The building was once a part of Paramount studios. It is now home to different props, wardrobes, and collectables from movies and television shows within our history up to current day. You can also gain a glimpse of the progression of cameras and gain a visual how these such cameras also changed going from a small box setup to a more advanced 3 color film strip setup. As I continued to walk about the building my tour guide sort of rushed the group I was with so to truly appreciate the content I will have to go back a second time. What I did get from this is a better sense of how film developed throughout time. Also saw a demonstration of how music in a movie can help illustrate a scene. I was a bit disappointed that the tour guide did not touch more on the special effects within movies. For me the best part of the whole tour was the section of the of these special effects even though we did not get a chance to really touch basis on this section it was still nice to be able to see these effects close up.

The tour guide discussed still shot animation. The double-sided figure of the bird and the cage and the concept of how “Rest” was used with this image to provide the illusion on what we had seen. Another one was how a scientific question of “If a horse runs at full speed around a track; is there a point at which all four legs come off the ground at the same time?” This notion led to the development of film animation.

Blog 13: Draft of Archives Project Essay

David Rodriguez
Dr. Luke Vasileiou
ENG 103
2 May 2011
Planned Shrinkage
It was the 1970’s in New York City the birthplace of a new public policy called “Planned Shrinkage”. This proposal was introduced by Roger Starr as a way to restructure decaying urban societies throughout New York City. Neighborhoods suffering from this urban decay included the South Bronx, Brooklyn and Harlem; distinct neighborhoods of which was home to minorities at the time and was considered having the highest crime and poverty levels. In an interview with Robert Fitch on September 9, 1993 Roger Starr speaks about the reasons behind the “Planned Shrinkage” of the 1970’s and makes the statement “The problem is to fill the housing with tenants who are not destructive and who will pay their rent, and who we want to keep there forever because they are good tenants” with this statement you can assess that he had a problem with these high crime and poverty parts of town and the people that resided in them.
Slum clearance or “Planned Shrinkage” as Rodger Starr would have put it was the withdrawing of essential city services. These services such as police patrols, garbage removal, street repairs, and fire services were all removed from these neighborhoods suffering from urban decay, crime, and poverty. By the mid-1970s in the Bronx approximately 120,000 fires occurred per year. 40 percent of the housing in the area was destroyed. As the fires kept increasing the response time of the firefighters depleted less and less. They simply could not keep up with all the fires that were going on at the time. With cutbacks on such services many residents felt the city was doing nothing to help them. This caused many living in these poor neighborhoods to move and begin looking for new places to live. Going back to a report between Starr and Fitch, Starr talks about a conversation over at Randalls Island where he recalled having with Robert Moses and telling him “Bob, you don’t really think that you can treat people nowadays as though they were parcels in the package room.” When “Planned Shrinkage” became a reality in the 1970s it did just that. Areas affected by these cutbacks to public services began to see a decline within its population.

(Page 2 work in progress.)

Rodger Starr’s personal philosophy about human nature and its relationship to populations and housing could be seen as a negative one. In the report held between Starr and Fitch, Starr states that the theory that all people are alike set forth by the “Brook Amendment” was devastating. Starr believed that not all people were fundamentally good and decent. He believed you needed to worry about the character and quality of the people. He felt that people were assumed to be the ideal of the American wholesome family and knew this was in fact not the case. I agreed with his belief that not everyone is alike but I did not agree with his method of execution to deal with these populations.

(The population - Work in progress.)

Housing had become a part of the problem. Edward Brooke during this time introduced a new amendment titled “Brook Amendment” which to Starr was the one thing that could have destroyed a federal program. With this amendment in place housing authorities all over the country had to take tenants who couldn’t pay the average going rental rate. So the maintenance of these public housing deteriorated very rapidly do to this amendment allowing anyone to just move in. Starr felt a major problem with the government process of taking in and filling these public housings with tenants whom were extremely destructive and you could not get rid of. With these tenants now living across from the “good” tenants it would just have led to more good rent paying tenants to pack up and move away.

Blog 12: Gattaca response

The concept that human’s which would have been genetically engineered ending in the result of them being classified as the “Other” has been represented numerous times within our history. We can see evidence of this during Hitler’s rein of terror as he found Jewish people to different; this difference would make them into the “Other”. His belief was so strong he decided to exterminate all the Jewish men, women, and children. Another point in time could be when black slaves where taking and thought to be inferior by slave owners. White slave owners saw these black slaves as their own property and nothing more. To them the slaves had no rights and were not equal to them making these black slaves into the “Other”. During the times of exploration by Christopher Columbus and the Conquistadors, Indian’s that were native to the land were thought as savages and weren’t accepted as equal beings. With Christianity being such an important part of these explorer’s they felt the need to bestow their religion on this savage society to turn these “Others” into just another. Gattaca demonstrates a world based on perfection or at least trying to achieve perfection. The society was developed under a genetic principal. Those humans genetically born where presumed as perfect specimens whereas those born as how god intended where labeled as invalid. Similar to our history with slaves or Indians the views of the invalid humans were negative ones. As an invalid in Gattaca you were limited to what you could do within this society. Vincent the main role in the movie is labeled as invalid and is told all his life that because he is invalid he isn’t capable of as much. He could never believe this though he wanted more for himself and to him it just didn’t make any sense as to why people would stop him from progressing. He was the “Other” in this story the outcast the black sheep. Even though with the odds stacked against him by what people told him all his life he felt like it was wrong and inaccurate. Currently in our society we can see this still being depicted. Whether is it against someone’s sexual, preference, their race and ethnicity, and the level of education they posses. The end result is the role of the “Other” remains and will always remain society.

Blog 11: The Concept of the Other

The “Other” as defined by me would be a person who is closed minded, judgmental, hypocrite, and full of themselves. I’ve never been a fan of ego’s and demanding figures or leaders. To me this person or character has no role in society but to be the example of exactly what not to be. A closed minded attitude hinders any relationship that person and I could ever have. I prefer to have a sort of two way street in terms of communication. To have a road block do to a person’s lack to understand difference of opinion would truly just aggravate me. Judgmental, hypocritical, and egocentric are other attributes which I would closely associate to the “Other”. These attributes are ones that’s I’ve encountered in people within my life throughout different experiences. From what I have felt and have come to understand a person holding such attributes would not make a good candidate to be around myself. The reason for this is mainly that our personalities would clash and lead to arguments that could never arrive at a common ground. So I tend to avoid it as soon as I see one of these characteristic come fourth in a person.

Blog 10: Reflection

The overall connection and relationship of illusion and the perception of reality among all the content is what caught my attention most. Within each of the stories ignorance of a reality and living an illusion held a strong presence whether looking at Neo from the “Matrix”, the prisoners within the “Allegory of the Cave” and “Oedipus” we can see evidence of this cognitive concept. In the “Matrix” Neo is living in a world, which in fact only exists inside a machine. Trapped in this world for so many years unaware of a reality could be compared to Prisoners in the “Allegory of the Cave” whom were also prisoners to an illusion and yet again could be seen in “Oedipus” who was lied to about his lineage and lived in an illusion. All three characters were secluded and blinded from the truth; all had the idea that what in front of them was in fact real. I found these concepts to be appealing in the sense that it allowed me to sort of “think outside the box.” Within my very own writings I’ve been a prisoner to certain structures and limited my very own imagination do to these structures. I was unaware of this till I came across such a creative concept. Similar to these characters I feel as if I have awoken from an illusion.

I myself as a writer try to find and develop better ways of reaching my audience. I know a weakness of mine has been creating a great way of grabbing the attention of the reader. I can easily grab the attention of a passerby or in a group of people via verbal communication however when it comes to my writing even when I read it over I feel its just does not live up to my expectation and or represent my thoughts to their full meaning. With the blogs I feel as if it has allowed me to express ideas a bit more clear however I still feel it hasn’t been my best work nor have I shown it. I guess another weakness is I truly am my “own worst critic.”

Blog 8: Ignorance, Bliss, and Knowledge in Oedipus the King and The Matrix.

Within the two texts, the concepts of ignorance, bliss/happiness and knowledge are shared equally throughout the storylines. We can see this is evident between the main characters Neo and Oedipus. Both characters depend on an Oracle to help provide insight and knowledge with upcoming future events, both live in a state of ignorance, and up to the point of which the prophesy is developed to be true they were full of bliss/happiness. With the “Matrix” we see the character of Neo who was trapped in a world of lies and illusion to some level his lack of knowledge kept him within boundaries of his ignorance. However he takes it upon himself to learn more about the reality even though this reality is beyond his comprehension of anything which he has ever seen or has believed as presented by Morpheus. Oedipus was too trapped in a world of illusion and ignorance. This world was manipulated since his birth by a lie having to do with his lineage. He believed he was a son to a King and Queen from across the land. To Oedipus those were without a doubt his real parents. That is until he went seeking the truth from a prophet named Teiresias who then caused Oedipus to begin questioning his life. If we were to compare the two stories the prophet Teiresias could assume the role of Morpheus and vice versa both held important knowledge to allow the main characters to continue on in their journey seeking out the truth. Ignorance was show with both characters in opposing ways, with Neo he did not believe he had such power within him, his very doubt he showed a level of ignorance, Oedipus thought of himself as an intellectual he believed in himself to almost becoming that of an egocentric maniac this superior complex was where his ignorance lived. With the use of oracles as representatives for knowledge and wisdom and situations which challenged the bliss and or happiness or the levels of ignorance both characters demonstrated we can see how within these two texts can correspond to one another.