Screen Culture and Artwork - Essay Example

REMEDIATION: IMMEDIACY AND HYPERMEDIATION Introduction Screen culture and art work is a work of writing that seeks to delve into the world of film and its culture and practices. It seeks to analyze and explain this diverse area of art and give readers a more incisive look at this field. This paper will discuss a number of topics related to this area and give viewers and readers an excellent artistic experience. Rupert Murdoch’s war on journalism film ‘outfoxed’ was released in 2004 to expose and criticize the kind of journalism practiced in his own company Fox news and other media houses today. In Murdoch’s film we see his main focus being his media house Fox news; he basically talks about the corruption that takes place there in terms of what stories are chosen to go on air and which ones are killed, what kind of emphasis is put on different stories and the lack of transparency. He explains how employees such as the news anchors had been pressured into giving untrue stories on air and could loose their jobs should they fail to obey. As would have been put by Lister et al (2008, par 2), this film exposes the ills in media today, by showing how the media can influence the general public’s thinking by placing certain ideas and perceptions into their heads. Though highly criticized over its bias on Fox news, this film is brutally honest about the ills committed at the media house and how it affected may social and political ideas. This film argues that Fox news was majorly responsible for the tarnishing of politician John Kerry during a former US election and in turn praised and encouraged the second candidate George.W.Bush. This bias and favoritism is what brought about the downfall of presidential aspirant John Kerry and he eventually lost to the latter. As is ‘Outfoxed’ is a film worth watching especially for the political elite and the entire political spectrum. This film that drew large amounts of public and media attention mostly consisted of former Fox news employees who narrated the tales that would take place at the media house before the release of a major story. These employees exposed how they would literally be forced to say particular things that were not entirely true, knowing full well that most of the country’s citizen’s opinions were created by the news given by Fox news. Fox news forced especially their news anchors to say particular things, and if they did not they would loose their jobs. Some of these employees giving accounts of the happenings at Fox news even chose to remain anonymous fearing the termination of their jobs at their current work places, due to issues of integrity. The film shows us that as one sided as Fox news was at the time of its controversy, it did not pretend to be otherwise by hypocritically pretending to be truthful. The film gives the most damning evidence of the occurrences at this media house and unlike most scandalous documentaries, the proprietor Murdoch does not exclude himself from the events but rather clearly and openly sheds light on how he himself organized for atrocious omissions and exaggerations to be executed. This film appeals more to liberals as compared to conservatives as it hangs and exposes the personality of the latter but this isn’t entirely its intention, its true aim has less to do with both these parties but rather the lowering of news and journalism standards together alongside political discourse. The film ‘Outboxed’ provides us with a chance to travel out of our normal mind sets composed of naively established stereotypes of the media world into a horizon of truth. Although people often quietly think that the media can lie to us, they too quickly dispose of such thoughts and blindly follow the media’s opinion. The film urges us to ingest media findings from a position of knowledge and understanding rather than of ignorance and stupidity (Torres, 2008). Though hugely bent on hanging Fox news, the film shows us the public our shortcomings of being highly gullible and shows that we could be victims of fraudulent generalizations made by the media. It is a message that is much applicable worldwide as it is the US media houses. As the movie shows how Fox news personifies what they despise, it is a wonderful contradiction that is both entertaining and mind boggling to watch. ‘Outboxed’ is an in-depth look at television news and the ills associated with the acquisition, preparation and production of a story in media. Ever since the discovery of this corruption within Fox news, this has been the only film that has attempted to delve into this sensitive matter. This new found truth has not been given as much coverage as it would have required as ‘Outfoxed’ is the only film that tries to explain it. Being similar to the 2004 film 9/11 Fahrenheit, this film anticipates success due to its closeness to the former in terms of being a show of certain unpleasant truths within our society. The film hammers home the point that media empire owner Rupert Murdoch’s Fox news has never been more than an unfair imbalanced hoax of a network that depicted dishonest reporting and misinformation and many such as Charles Reina, a former employee of the network say that this movie was only, ‘the tip of the ice berg’. This Murdoch film urges viewership not only for media watchdogs and aspiring journalist but the entire public to make sure that they double check any information provided by television, radio, newspapers and even social networking sites. It shows warns against the lies and unreliability that is media production and generally urges us to stop being ignorant. This short yet incisive documentary is the epitome of immediacy and hypermediacy that is in the world of media. In addressing our society’s immediacy and hypermediacy, this film shows the exact and definite examples of these two items (Grusin and Bolter, pg.2). We begin with immediacy. Immediacy by definition can be termed as the condition or quality of being immediate or rather a measure of the importance of certain published facts (Cook, 1999). Outfoxed clearly illustrates the immediacy that is placed on certain stories that do not quite require much hyped attention. As many fast arising corporations that thrive on taking away the publics right to know, Fox news gave stories about the Vietnam/American war massive television coverage that supplied it huge amounts of immediacy, it gave live and detailed analysis and basically influenced the perceptions of many regarding the war. It is known that Murdoch adored republicans and had high admiration for such that controlled congress or capital hill, therefore Fox news often gave the conservatives more coverage than the liberals or any other minor party. Other than being an independent focused and objective ear for the people Fox news was a puppet for republicans that ranked in fuelling propaganda about its enemies. They obsessively researched on damning information pertaining to their rivals and gave it priority in the news room with the aim of tarnishing their name. Healthy competition was replaced with malicious, slanted attacks to the enemy; I am in fact inclined to agree with Stephen Stromberg’s review that Outfoxed is a scathing and compelling indictment of America’s most watched cable news network. Fox news allegiance to republicans was more like a propaganda movement whose objective was the spread of lies, fear, and confusion, destined to destroy the democratic regime that was the American political system. Diana Winthrop, a former producer at the network recounted Murdoch’s refusal to highlight issues such as poverty, Aids, globalization but instead focus on stories regarding the president at the time, Ronald Reagan. He highly publicized and supported any decision made by the controversial president, and in turn hated and despised any views and principles regarding the liberal Kennedys. It is remembered that when Reagan went out of office, Murdoch gave strict instructions that Reagan’s story should be highlighted and in the best possible way. Employees were ordered to cut off normal regular news to focus on Murdoch’s ally, Ronald Reagan. On the other hand, the tycoon’s long time enemy JF Kennedy was on the receiving end of Murdoch’s brutality and wrath. The authors from the book Remediation: Understanding the new media successfully depict how technologies are helping users understand the media and how it works. In this highly endowed study, Grusin and bolter explain the evolution of radio, photography and film into more complex entities that are able to take the viewer into an in depth world of media (Grusin and Bolter,2000). Clearly depicted and not entirely technical as most in depth books, remediation appeals to many as readers, writers, scholars and technological experts interested in the evolution of technology. Media critics and analysts remain enthralled with the work of writing of these various artists that intend to create a link among the media, public and technology. The book examines how immediacy was once fuelled by the unsophisticated forms of media that once misguided our society. The connection between the book Remediation and the movie Outfoxed is an insightful one that informs as well as educates. The book can be termed as a recommendation curbing the ills that once gripped Fox news. As informative as most publications and forums may be, they should incisively give both sides of the coin to the public and let them decide for themselves instead of giving them pre-disposed opinions to believe, this however is hard as the general public is popular for following any story that it is given and do not really care about what happens in the society. Hypermediation in context can be defined as the ability of the media to give unnecessary and undue coverage to a story despite it not being worth anything to the public. In the Fox news exposed film, there are instances we see memos being distributed to the employees ordering a particular story to be highlighted no stop till its very end, pitching a story in an editorial meeting that did not meet Murdoch’s criteria was an obvious rejection for publication. We see most of these stories being inclined to the conservative party and should a story about a rival party be covered, it would mostly be negative and derogatory value. On one instance employees were informed that the reverend Jesse Jackson, who was also a close ally of the democrats, was one of their targets and anything to embarrass or discredit him was highly appreciated. As explained by Musashi, (2001), the book, New media: A critical introduction is a book that is also very relevant and connected to the scandalous happenings at the Fox news house. Though not directly related to the film both this book and the formerly mentioned Remediation, both discuss the ills of Hypermediation and how they affect the society as a whole. These books are contrary to what had been happening at fox news for a number of years; Fox News’ website is a remediation of a newspaper. However, there are ways that the website differentiates it from a newspaper because of technological advances. Fox News has used their website to attract viewers is by using interactive blogs. A blog is a web page that is publicly accessible for one to leave their views and opinions. They are updated daily and often reflect the personality of the blogger. When access the Fox News website, you will find one of the main headlines titled, “Opinion”. This headline is similar to the opinion section in the newspaper (Fox news). The difference between the two is one can actually click on the link, “Respond to the writer,” and post an opinion popularly known as a blog. These blogs offer internet users an alternative newspaper that has advantages in accessibility, formatting, and networking (Introduction to blogging). Because the ability to connect does not exist in print, one cannot easily state their opinion in the newspaper and make it be known. Furthermore, a number of blogs usually end up as discussion boards which provide Fox News with a variety of opinions from many different individuals. Conclusion In conclusion, it is safe to say that remediation has revolutionized the media today and has exposed the ills that were and still are in the fourth estate. It favors the general public; in that it specially synthesized to help the public better understand their society and the fraudulent activities that often than not go unnoticed or are simply ignored. We can not hope to explore the roots of remediation in detail, what concerns us is remediation in our current media in North America and the entire globe (Bolter and Grusin, 2000, par, 4). Bibliographies Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin.2000 Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Bolter, Jay David, and R. Grusin.2000 Remediation: Understanding New Media. Retrieved October 21,2010 from http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=3468 Cook, Patrick J. Rev. 1999, of Remediation by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin. Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies Accessed 21 October 2010 from Fox news blogs,2010. http://www.foxnews.com/blogs/ Introduction to blogging.Web,2010 http://codex.wordpress.org/Introduction_to_Blogging Lister, Martin; Dovey, Jon; Giddings, Seth, 2008, New Media : A Critical Introduction Rutledge, Hoboken, ISBN: 9780203884829 Musashi,2001. New Media: A Critical Introduction. Customer review. Retrieved October 21,2010 from http://www.amazon.com/New-Media-Introduction-Martin-Lister/dp/0415431611 Outfoxed-Rupert Murdoch’s war on journalism,2004,video recording,Youtube,October 21, 2010http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuPk37oRBbU Rupert Murdoch and Glenn Beck exposed,2004,video recording,youtube,October 21,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjwJ2JSEjzM&feature=related Torres, jr J, 2008. eye on ethics. Unethical practices are threatening journalism. Retreived October 21,2010 from http://www.eyeonethics.org/2008/07/18/unethical-practice-is-threatening-journalism/ Read More

The film ‘Outboxed’ provides us with a chance to travel out of our normal mind sets composed of naively established stereotypes of the media world into a horizon of truth. Although people often quietly think that the media can lie to us, they too quickly dispose of such thoughts and blindly follow the media’s opinion. The film urges us to ingest media findings from a position of knowledge and understanding rather than of ignorance and stupidity (Torres, 2008). Though hugely bent on hanging Fox news, the film shows us the public our shortcomings of being highly gullible and shows that we could be victims of fraudulent generalizations made by the media.

It is a message that is much applicable worldwide as it is the US media houses. As the movie shows how Fox news personifies what they despise, it is a wonderful contradiction that is both entertaining and mind boggling to watch. ‘Outboxed’ is an in-depth look at television news and the ills associated with the acquisition, preparation and production of a story in media. Ever since the discovery of this corruption within Fox news, this has been the only film that has attempted to delve into this sensitive matter.

This new found truth has not been given as much coverage as it would have required as ‘Outfoxed’ is the only film that tries to explain it. Being similar to the 2004 film 9/11 Fahrenheit, this film anticipates success due to its closeness to the former in terms of being a show of certain unpleasant truths within our society. The film hammers home the point that media empire owner Rupert Murdoch’s Fox news has never been more than an unfair imbalanced hoax of a network that depicted dishonest reporting and misinformation and many such as Charles Reina, a former employee of the network say that this movie was only, ‘the tip of the ice berg’.

This Murdoch film urges viewership not only for media watchdogs and aspiring journalist but the entire public to make sure that they double check any information provided by television, radio, newspapers and even social networking sites. It shows warns against the lies and unreliability that is media production and generally urges us to stop being ignorant. This short yet incisive documentary is the epitome of immediacy and hypermediacy that is in the world of media. In addressing our society’s immediacy and hypermediacy, this film shows the exact and definite examples of these two items (Grusin and Bolter, pg.2). We begin with immediacy.

Immediacy by definition can be termed as the condition or quality of being immediate or rather a measure of the importance of certain published facts (Cook, 1999). Outfoxed clearly illustrates the immediacy that is placed on certain stories that do not quite require much hyped attention. As many fast arising corporations that thrive on taking away the publics right to know, Fox news gave stories about the Vietnam/American war massive television coverage that supplied it huge amounts of immediacy, it gave live and detailed analysis and basically influenced the perceptions of many regarding the war.

It is known that Murdoch adored republicans and had high admiration for such that controlled congress or capital hill, therefore Fox news often gave the conservatives more coverage than the liberals or any other minor party. Other than being an independent focused and objective ear for the people Fox news was a puppet for republicans that ranked in fuelling propaganda about its enemies. They obsessively researched on damning information pertaining to their rivals and gave it priority in the news room with the aim of tarnishing their name.

Healthy competition was replaced with malicious, slanted attacks to the enemy; I am in fact inclined to agree with Stephen Stromberg’s review that Outfoxed is a scathing and compelling indictment of America’s most watched cable news network. Fox news allegiance to republicans was more like a propaganda movement whose objective was the spread of lies, fear, and confusion, destined to destroy the democratic regime that was the American political system.

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