Thanksgiving Special Topic: A Closer Look at the Obama Revolution

Hi everyone. Sorry I was sick last class. Today I would like us to look at the revolutionary aspects of the election of President-Elect Obama.

Hopefully this will help us get a better idea of who our next president will be.

1. video from russian TV "New U.S. Administration to clean up the mess"



2. A New Comer that steals the show 8:54
Illinois State Senator Barack Obama's life changes overnight after he delivers an electrifying speech at the July '04 Democratic Convention.

3. The Path to the corridors of power 15:38
As a community organizer in Chicago and then as president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama learns about coalition building, hones his political talents.

4. 12 year political assent 16:20
Obama learned how to play hardball, build coalitions, find mentors, seize opportunities. In '07, he starts his run for the presidency.

5. Hilary and the Primaries 8:18
He had to mobilize coalitions, test whether whites would vote for a black, and confront a formidable obstacle -- Hillary Clinton.

6. Last Laps of the Primary Campaign 9:44
Obama deals head-on with the Rev. Wright issue by delivering a speech on race relations. McCain works to unite his party and gets a key endorsement.

7. The Chicago School 3:53
Since he first ran for public office in 1996, Barack Obama has lost only one election -- to former Black Panther Bobby Rush, a popular incumbent who beat the pants off him in a Chicago congressional race. Ever the quick study, Obama learned valuable lessons about coalition-building, picked himself up, and never looked back. The rest is, well, you know what the rest is.

HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING.
FOR DEC. 1ST PLEASE READ MEDIA BIAS: HOW TO SPOT IT--AND HOW TO FIGHT IT
THE FUTURE OF MEDIA P.51

Growing Up Online

The PBS Frontline documentary, Growing Up Online, is an exploration of the digital world that kids are spending a lot of time in these days. Frontline may tend to put a hard spin issues like this, but this one was SCARY... And I'm not even a parent! If this is not a fair depiction of American youth at present, one can easily imagine it in the near future. Educators take various worthy positions on the form media education should take into schools -- teach about media without technology, teach about media through collaborative production (wink), etc. Whatever position you take, it is clear, evidenced by videos like this, that emerging digital technologies impact kids' identity formation and what it means to be a citizen in our culture, and the it is the responsibility of schools to adapt to that influence one way or another.
- from The Media Spot

1. Watch Growing Up Online

2. Blog Entry for 11/19:

• Write an analysis of "Growing Up Online"
• Possibly Analyzing how advertising is enmeshed and personalized on MySpace
• You could also Investigate the terms target audience, datamining and advergame and make connections to other social networking sites
  

The Center for Public Integrity - Watching the Watchdog

1. Presentation on CPI, and a brief history of the first 50 years of the FCC, as described by the CPI

The mission of the Center for Public Integrity is to produce original investigative journalism about significant public issues to make institutional power more transparent and accountable.

Watch Inside the Center for Public Integrity on youtube

2. For Mon. 18th Read Who is Watching the Watchdog? p. 127 -140

3. Blog Entry due by beginning of class Monday(18th Nov) that:

• a. describes Dunbar's theories of "The Spinning Door", "Frequent Flying", and "What occurs behind closed doors" in regards to the Center's investigation into the FCC
  
  
• b. at the end of the article even chairman Powell says that sometimes industry influence over the FCC has gone too far. Has anything happened since the writing of this article in 2003 to change this?

4. If time permits, I would like for some of you to report on your PAPER/BLOG ENTRY on the Persuaders/Merchants of Cool

The recent History of Wireless Spectrum Space

Read:
Media Ownership Battle of 2003
Discuss Reclaiming the Public Airwaves

Watch:
Wireless Spectrum Auction and Small Business Video

FCC Approves Unlicensed Use of TV White Spaces

A Huge Win for Innovation and the Public Interest

In a 5 - 0 decision, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules for unlicensed use of the televsion white spaces. It is a landmark decision for the Commission, heralding a new era for wireless innovation and more efficient and democratic use of the airwaves. Open and free access to unused TV channels will enable “WiFi on steroids," helping to bring affordable wireless broadband to rural America and underserved urban areas as well as encouraging new and innovative wireless devices.

Since 2004, the Wireless Future Program has been a leading advocate for opening vacant and unassigned television channels, also known as the TV "white spaces", for unlicensed wireless devices. We are pleased with the Commission's decision and thankful to all of our partners in this effort, including the members of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition and the Wireless Innovation Alliance.

FCC Adopts Rules For Unlicensed Use of Television White Spaces.

Read:
Votes are in White Space Wins
White Space Reaction by GOOGLE and the FCC
Motorola applauds the FCC

DUE Thur. November 13th PAPER/BLOG ENTRY on the Persuaders/Merchants of Cool

Further Persuasion

The Merchants of Cool - PBS FRONTLINE REPORT

They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the "next big thing" that will snare the attention of their prey--a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year.

They are the merchants of cool: creators and sellers of popular culture who have made teenagers the hottest consumer demographic in America. But are they simply reflecting teen desires or have they begun to manufacture those desires in a bid to secure this lucrative market? And have they gone too far in their attempts to reach the hearts--and wallets--of America's youth?

FRONTLINE correspondent Douglas Rushkoff examines the tactics, techniques, and cultural ramifications of these marketing moguls in "The Merchants of Cool." Produced by Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin, the program talks with top marketers, media executives and cultural/media critics, and explores the symbiotic relationship between the media and today's teens, as each looks to the other for their identity.

DUE Thur. November 13th PAPER/BLOG ENTRY on the Persuaders/Merchants of Cool

2-3 pages on the techniques and tactics used to by marketers to manufacture desire, appeal to our emotions, and create a branded "culture".

Show how these (and other similar) tactics of persuasion are being used to communicate with consumers today

Think about what types of new communication techniques the future may hold for these marketers.

• neuromarketing ( psychological )
  
• emotional branding
  
• branding/creating a culture around a brand
  
• narrowcasting
  
• rhetorical marketing
  
• under the radar marketing
  
• cool hunting
  
• cultural character
• across-media marketing
• product placement across media

Does the Campaign 2008 Give US what we WANT?

“Political advertising ... is just the artful assembling of nominal facts into hideous, outrageous lies.”
Bob Garfield, Columnist, Advertising Age

By the time it's over, Campaign 2008 will have broken all records for advertising dollars spent in a single election -- no picnic for the bombarded electorate, but a bonanza for the industry that does the bombarding.

So who are these marketing wizards, and how do they decide what works and what doesn't? For answers, we nominate this excerpt from The Persuaders, a 2004 FRONTLINE classic that looks at the sophisticated niche marketing tools advertisers use to customize messages for particular constituencies.

In the excerpt, correspondent and media critic Douglas Rushkoff visits with Republican political consultant Frank Luntz, a venerable practitioner of the persuasive arts and a master at telling people what his research says they want to hear.

HOMEWORK FOR 10/13 THURS:
1. VOTE!
2. Make sure you have READ p. 207 Reclaiming the Public Airwaves