Area of Media Specialty

Choosing Your “Area of Media Specialty”

Your “media specialty” will be an area of more intense scrutiny in your media studies. Be especially alert for events occurring in your area. The class will be looking for you to bring these items “to the table”.

Try to choose an area of interest. In some cases there may be overlap. Michael Jackson, for example, falls under “Legal & Trials” as well as “Music” and “Celebrity Watch” (not to mention “Realm of the Bizarre”).

Some topics will undoubtedly be more popular than others. Ties will be broken by random chance (coin flip, die roll, etc.). Please indicate your top four choices, by number (1 – 4).

(You can reserve your AMS in advance by logging onto the "Comments" section at the bottom of this blog entry.)

_____ “AT THE MOVIES” Oscar nominations came out this morning (January 31^st). Have you seen any of them? Do you think any of those were any good? Brokeback Mountain won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Will it take the Oscar? What will that do to America if it does? Is liberal Hollywood out to destroy good ol’ Main Street America? (Actually, a lot of people found the love story in King Kong to be much more moving.)

_____ “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING” Not the reality tv show, but George Orwell’s Big Brother from the novel 1984, closely monitoring what the public was allowed or not allowed to see and know. “Domestic Spying” or “Terrorist Surveillance”? Should the government be able to take a look at where you’ve been on the internet lately? Does the American public have the right to know who was on Vice President Cheney's panel setting American oil policy (well before 9/11 or the Iraq invasion)? If you know why Howard Stern is off the air in 2006, or why we probably won’t be seeing any commercials for GoDaddy.com at the Super Bowl – this may be the specialty for you.

_____ “BUSINESS & ECONOMICS” Guess who’s retiring today? Alan Greenspan!! Never heard of him? He’s arguably been the most important man in the United States since he got his present job as head of the Federal Reserve Board in 1987. Will Ben Bernanke do half as well? The world exconomy is a lot more global than it used to be? If your dream is to sometime become a bigtime CEO, this is the AMS for you.

_____ “CELEBRITY WATCH” So what’s the latest with Brad and Angelina? I heard she may be pregnant. How about Jessica & Nick – any hope of a reconciliation. What’s the over/under on Britney Spears marriage lasting the year? And what’s that Paris Hilton up to now? This AMS will focus on our fixation with the famous.

_____ “DEATH & DISMEMBERMENT” The famous headline in the New York Daily News screamed “HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR”. How about the Entwistle case, from nearby Hopkinton, Mass. A man’s wife and child are murdered in their home, the husband’s is away in England (he’s a Brit), and he’s not sure if he’ll come home for the funeral!(Police say he’s not a suspect, by the way.) If you like the gory details, this one is all yours. (And there will never be any shortage of material, believe you me.)

_____ “EARTHWATCH” The polar icecaps are melting, last year set an all-time record for number of hurricanes, and species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. And nobody seems to care! (And if you do, you’re written off as some tree-hugging, New Age wack-job!) Maybe that’s because nobody is bothering to tell us about it. Somebody needs to keep us informed.

_____ “EDUCATION” So, how’s “No Child Left Behind” working out for you? The Attorney General of the state of Connecticut is suing the federal government over it, and other states are joining in. Are more standardized tests the answer? But if they aren't the answer, how else are we going to bring schools in Hartford and Bridgeport more in lines with those in Tolland and Farmington? Are charter schools the answer? School vouchers?

_____ “FEMINISM ON THE MARCH” It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Presidential election in 2008 may be Hillary Clinton v. Condoleezza Rice. And yet somehow I wouldn’t be betting the house on it. Hillary is at once one of the most admired and hated people in America. (Too bad Oprah won’t run). Some women are getting very powerful, but look at Congress, look at the boards of major corporations and what do you see – middle-aged white men!

_____ “HEALTH & MEDICINE” Bird flu? Prescription drugs from Canada? Is malpractice insurance way too high, or is it a way to protect the people? (Ask your grandmother how that new Medicare prescription plan is working out for her?) How many Cialis commercials will we see at the Super Bowl?

_____ “IN THE COURTROOM” The Ken Lay Trial (Enron) began yesterday. Meanwhile on Court TV “Cody Posey says his parents abused him mercilessly much of his life until he snapped and killed them, and witnesses supported his claims. But his uncle told jurors Friday he never saw any signs of abuse.” This AMS is not only trials, but laws made by Congress, the state.

_____ “IRAQ (& IRAN)” It’s been nearly three years (and 2,000 dead) since President Bush landed on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and assured us that major combat operation had ended. Obviously that’s not over yet, but how’ s it going over there? Should we stay or should we go? And what will happen if we do. Meanwhile, next door in Iran, the government is trying to build nuclear power plants (and nuclear weapons. Can we let this happen? Can we do anything to stop it? I don’t mean to be dramatic, but your future depends on the outcome.

_____ “LOCAL NEWS” If you can find any. “Nothing ever happens in this town” kids tell me, and according to the Hartford Courant, it’s true. (The Courant, owned by the Tribune Company, a media conglomerate out of Chicago, recently axed 54 positions at the paper.) But we also have the JI, and the Rockville Reminder (of which I am a former coverboy, I might add). Do you think Denise D’Ascenzo could find Tolland on a map? What’s being reported in Tolland? More importantly, what’s not? Maybe it’s time for some Citizen Journalist to come to the fore.

_____ “MADISON AVENUE” That’s a street in New York where the bid ad agencies used to be, and it’s shorthand for the whole advertising industry. Of course, we’ll all be watching the Super Bowl. The game usually stinks, but the commercials can be great. Of course, who remembers what they’re selling, but they’re good none-the-less. What do you think of product placement? For an estimated $200 million, Volkswagen will get “the chance to place its cars in movies released by Universal Studios or television programs that appear on NBC or sibling networks like Bravo, SciFi and USA.” Shouldn’t we at least know when we’re being sold?

_____ “MEDIA PERSONALITIES” Edward R. Murrow. Eric Sevareid. Walter Cronkite. In those days giants walked the earth. Those were trusted voices (all male) who brought us the news. Things are changing now. Brokaw – retired. Rather – an early retirement. Jennings – deceased. Ted Koppel – retired. What’s next at CBS? Katie Couric? What about Wolf Blitzer? Geraldo? Did you catch Anderson Cooper in New Orleans? And then there are all the talking heads and bloviators – Chris Mathews, Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann. Rush! But it’s not just news. Oprah, goes here, for sure, and Dr. Phil.

_____ “MEDIAWATCH” The media watches the politicians for us. Who watches the media? Well, there are people who do this for a living. Some can't stand the New York Times, and some can’t stand Bill O’Reilly and Fox News, and there might even be one of two who are neutral! I can give you some good sites if you’re interested in this AMS.

_____ “MIDDLE EAST” Of course, that’s where Iran and Iraq are, but there’s a lot more where they came from. Israel. What will happen there now that Ariel Sharon is incapacitated? Right next store, Hamas won the democratic elections in the Palestinian Territories. (They deny the right of Israel to exist, and they do recruit suicide bombers – but they are democratically elected.) And then there’s Lebanon, to the North of Israel, whose Prime Minister was assassinated last year by the Syrians. And don’t forget Packistan (an ally of ours, with nuclear weapons, but who weren’t too pleased with our rocket attack that killed 18 Pakastanis when we were trying to get – and missed – Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two man in al-Qaida). It’s a happening spot. According to the Bible, the world ends here!

_____ “MINORITY REPORT” Arabs are the new Russians. If terrorists on “24” last year were Arab, was that bigoted, or just realistic? And whichever it is, what is the overall impact? Then of course, we have racial issues to contend with. Is Omar Minaya really trying to field an all-Latin team at Shea Stadium this year? This AMS will look on all sorts of stereotyping in the media: race, nationality, sex, sexual preference, age, etc., etc.

_____ “MUSIC” I’m telling you, music was so much better in my day. And you’re too young to remember, but MTV used to show videos – all day long! The Grammies will be awarded on February 8 this year. This how lame the Grammies are: do you know who some of the nominees are? Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young. (What, has Frank Sinatra been dead too long?) Even the “new groups” – Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie, Foo Fighters – I’ve heard of. (Well, not Gorillaz.) Is this the best we can do? What I want to know it who shot who? (I’d ask my neighbor, 50¢, but I haven’t seen him at the Highland Park recently). This can be your beat. Plus, you get to cover all the downloading/copying controversy.

_____ “NEW MEDIA” When I was a kid, things made sense. There were 3½ channels and you always knew what was on TV which night. Then came cable, then video, DVD’s; now you can get Family Guy on your PSP, and this is just the beginning. But that’s just entertainment. Journalism is undergoing a sea-change, with Blogs, and video-journalists. This is cutting edge stuff right here, so we need somebody who’s going to keep us up to date.

_____ “POLITICS IN THE CAPITOLS” That would be Hartford, and Washington, D.C. Will Samuel Alito be confirmed to the Supreme Court today, or will the Democrats filibuster? What’s going to happen to Social Security? Do you care? You better. What role is the media going to play? Will Alberto Gonzales make a good Attorney General. It’s either a great story of a poor minority reaching a powerful position (only in America!), or of a man who condones torture (in America?). Depends on who’s doing the describing.

_____ “POLITICS – FROM THE LEFT” If you think George Bush is maybe the worst President ever, you’re not alone. There are a lot of people out there who agree with you. Certainly out there on the fringes, but you know a lot of people think that the media in general is overly liberal. Fight back!

_____ “POLITICS – FROM THE RIGHT” If you think Fox News is “fair and balanced”; that W. is maybe even greater than Ronald Reagan; that Rush Limbaugh really does have “talent on loan from God”, then maybe this is your AMS. If you do think that the media is full of liberals who hate America (are you listening, Ann Colter?), here you go.

_____ “REALM OF THE BIZARRE” For instance: Boy is accused of cooking and serving pet store animals . The 16-year-old boy allegedly purchased a rabbit and guinea pig from a pet store, killed them at some point, and brought them into the class, where they were cooked and eaten. (Willoughby, OH Herald-News). You don’t have to go around making up stories about Bigfoot and the Batboy – weird is all around.

_____ “RELIGION AND MORALS” Last spring in ComMedia we followed the selection of a new Pope (Josef Ratzinger, a.k.a. Joey Ratz, a.k.a. the Panzer Cardinal). His first encyclical as Pope Benedict XVI is all about the various types of love. (Some are better than others.) This is a hot topic right now – Intelligent Design, abortion, gay marriage, torture, megachurches.

____ “SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY” Just last week they found the smallest vertebrate (a fish in a swamp in Indonesia), and a rocky, kind of earthlike planet about 22,000 light years away. Every time I turn around there’s a new feature on cellphones. They just did heart surgery on a fetus. I guess it’s true: The only constant in life is change.

_____ “SPORTS” ‘Bout time. The Super Bowl! The Winter Olympics! Truck Day! The World Baseball Classic. March Madness! Dodgeball? Steroids? Greenies? Huge contracts (for players and for TV). Athletes as role models? What’s wrong with this picture?

_____ “TV – PROGRAMMING” I don’t watch that much TV, outside of sports and news. I tried watching “24”, but I missed hour #5, so now what’s the point. I don’t watch Desperate Housewives, though, or any of those reality shows, but I know they’re out there. February is a sweeps month, so we ought to expect some especially trashy tv then. We need somebody to keep us in the know.

_____ “THE WAR ON TERRORISM” That’s not just Iraq, you know. It’s going on here at home, too (see “Big Brother is Watching”, above). Say, who’s the Director of Homeland Security, anyway. And does anybody know what color it is today?

_____ “YOUTH ISSUES” Well, from what I see on MTV, kids these days are just promiscuous drunks who can’t say two #%$*ing sentences without saying &#^$#@ half a dozen times. But maybe there’s more to what we see in the media, or more to the media than MTV.

______ “YOUR CHOICE” I can’t believe it. All those choices and you can’t find one that interests you? I suppose you can come up with something better?! (See me if you can.)