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VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
VIDEO: CONSUMING IMAGES-BILL MOYERS
CENTRAL THEMES
1. The intensity of our exposure to visual imagery is increasing.
2. Visual images simultaneously present and distort reality.
3. Visual images focus on the logic of emotion not the logic of rationality.
4. Reliance on imagery rather than rationality is a potential threat to democracy-"Americans are a permanent audience waiting to be
amused, they look on more and more, and join in less and less."
5. We need to increase our level of visual literacy.
THE PROBLEM
"The Printed Word Has Been Moved To The Periphery Of The Culture, And Been Replaced At The Center By The Visual Image"
"This Is A Culture Which Is Inundated With Visual Imagery"
Television Images, Posters, Advertising
Has The Intensity Of Our Exposure To Imagery Increased?
"We are moving into a time when the image will become more important than the reality itself, when appearance would be preferred to reality, and it would be ever harder to know the truth"
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Commenting On The Development Of Photography As A Mass Medium
REALITY IS LIKE A DIAMOND:
VISUAL IMAGES PRESENT ONLY CERTAIN FACETS
"Visual Images Are Unreality" Agree or Disagree? Are Preconceived Spontaneity?
Are Synthetic Dreams? Are Counterfeit Emotions? Are Tools of Fiction?
Do visual images seduce us by influencing and raising our expectations? Create images of perfection? Communicate primary through effecting our feelings?
THINK QUESTIONS
What Is The Upside And Downside Of Living In A Culture Which Is Dominated By Visual Imagery?
What Are These Images Saying To Us And About Us And Why Should We Care?
VISUAL IMAGES SIMULTANEOUSLY PRESENT AND DISTORT WHAT IS REAL
The ETC (The Et Cetera) Principle -There Is Always More To See-There Is Always More To Be Said
THE LOGIC OF EMOTION VS THE LOGIC OF RATIONALITY
Visual Images Take Us Out Of The Realm Of Logic And Into The Realm Of Aesthetics And Emotion
Neal Postman, Ph.D., New York University
With Ronald Reagan The Question Was Not The Truth Or Falsity Of What He Said But Do You Like That Image On The Screen? Do You Trust It? Is That Image Sincere To You?
"If one function of journalism is to give us a picture of reality, is this journalism once the picture is altered?"
Bill Moyers,Consuming Images
IMAGERY IN ADVERTISING
"Advertising Tends To Appeal To Feelings, And Discourages Thought"
Stewart Ewing, Ph.D.Hunter College All Consuming Images
"When people create images they are ascribing meaning to their existence, what happens in our culture is those images we produce are tied to merchandising and their validity is almost always dependent on their ability to be transformed into merchandise, in the process the meaning which may have driven us to create that image is lost."
Steward Ewing,Hunter College
"Women Feel The Need To Be Luscious And What The Media Are Doing Are Responding As Fast As They Can To This" By Communicating Images Of Perfection Do The Media Lead Or Follow? Do Women Create The Need To Be Luscious? Or Do The Media Create The Need To Be Luscious?
THE ADVERTISING ETHIC
Many People Are Internalizing The Advertising Ethic
That advertising ethic is "that which sells is true". It's the law of the marketplace, it people buy it, it's right.
IMAGERY IS LINKED WITH THE PROFIT MOTIVE
To Understand The Meaning Of Messages Produced In The Mass Media One Must
Follow The Money
Message Construction In The Mass Media Is Significantly Influenced By The Profit Motive
Almost everywhere we look today creative expression serves a commercial goal
Floats In The Tournament Of Roses Parade Sponsored By Individual Companies
The concentration of media corporations, like of merger of Time-Warner joins together companies who do not manufacture products, but who manufacture images and information,
factories of image-making
factories of cultural symbols
Our understanding and sense of understanding are significantly influenced by images which are acceptable and in the best interests of the corporation
compression of images linking Roger Rabbit With Diet Coke and Big Mac,
suppresses our imagination
extends the powers of media concentrated companies to focus our attention on these relatively few kinds of images-often absorbed by images resulting in a sealing off of a larger sensibility
What is Vicarious Imagination?
Someone Else Creates Our Fantasies For Us-e.g.Prince Video Created For The Batman Movie
ROCK VIDEOS
THE PRODUCT IS THE IMAGE
Rock Video Directors Draw On The Media World Itself For Inspiration
And Content So The Experience is Circular
Music Videos Project A World Consumed By Visual Symbols and A World Learned Through The Visual Images Which Consume It
Rock Videos Present Only Certain Facets Of The Diamond
Do They Tell Us About Trust, Honesty, Love, Responsibility, And The Many Other Values Which Make Us Human?
The ETC (The Et Cetera) Principle There Is Always More To See - There Is Always More To Be Said
HAS VISUAL IMAGERY HAD AN IMPACT ON THE PRINT MEDIUM?
Mark Miller, Boxed In: The Culture of Television
There Are Fewer Newspapers, And Those Remaining Become Increasingly More "Tele-Visual"
Full Color Pictures,Shorter Text
Magazines Primary Goal Is To Look Like Television
To Stand Out Becomes The Primary Goal Of Magazines
To Break Through The Clutter, We Live Under An Astonishing Barrage Of Images
HOW HAS VISUAL IMAGERY EFFECTED "THE NEWS"?
Success of a news programs has every little to do with that fact that the news program provides people with information, that will empower them, that will allow them to think
"The very construction of the news is designed to create the largest possible audience." Agree/Disagree
"The primary goals of news journalism is to play on the irrational, to play on the fears, to play on uncertainties."Agree/Disagree
Can You Accomplish Simultaneous Multiple Goals?
Can You Attract Attention To A Newscast?
Can You Do A Serious Newscast?
"Give Me 19 Seconds And I'll Give You The World."
Jim Lampley,Television Image Presenter
KEY CONCEPT IN COMMUNICATION
VISUAL LITERACY
Advertising Has Become The Primary Mode Of Public Address
Stewart Ewen,Hunter College
Television is an Information Utility which pumps its products into peoples homes
WHAT IS VISUAL LITERARY?
The Ability To Reposition Messages Which Are Aimed At The Senses And Emotions
Within The Domain of Critical Reasoning And Thought
VISUAL LITERACY GIVES YOU CONTROL
"Recognizing The Artificiality Of Something Does Not Give You Immunity From It."
Bill Moyers
"We Should Question The Truth And Falsity Of Visual Images"
Neal Postman, Ph.D.,New York University
"People Have To Be Taught To Question The Truth And Falsity Of These Images In Order To Gain Some Measure of Control."
Mark Miller, Johns Hopkins
What are the meanings, priorities and values embedded in images?
Need to Learn About The Vocabulary And Grammar Of Images
Who Selects The Images?
Who Decides How They Are Organized?
And For What Purpose?
To Empower Us As Citizens Or To Please Us As Consumers Of Images
"We Are Up Against A Powerful Concentration of Forces Who Want To Control The Images We See, We Also Have To Content With Our Own Personal Capacity For Self-Deception,The Comfort We Take In Denial, But Unless We Do Learn To Understand And Analyze This New Visual Environment, Someone Else Will Do It For Us,And Leave Us With No Role In The Life Of This Nation But Of Consuming Images."
Bill Moyers