COMM 390: Final question (due Mon., May 4)

As worked out in class today. Write four to five pages (12pt Times New Roman or Verdana) on this question:

Is advertising as terrible as Berger and Kilbourne seem to make it out to be? Kilbourne says the portrayal of women in advertising has a negative impact on society and societal relationships. Is this accurate, or does she give advertising too much credit by exaggerating its impact on society? Throughout the course of this class have your views changed regarding advertising? Positively or negatively? If so, how?

Let's do it as one question. I'll have you post the "Question 2A" reflective stuff to the blog.

'A Gaythering Storm' - parody of anti-gay marriage spot

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6eddb255b2/a-gaythering-storm

Cats

This, shirttailed to the end of the daily Slate.com roundup "Today's Papers," a reference to USA Today's poll of President Obama's approval rating at 56 percent:

In USAT's poll, two percent of people say that getting first dog Bo was the best thing Obama has done as president, while one percent say it was the worst. "Those people are cats," White House adviser David Axelrod said.

COMM 209: Public relations, lobbying

Here's a link to the Advertising and Public Relations Services career profile on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Career Guide to Industries. Updated annually, the BLS website is the best place to get an overall view of career prospects in different fields. Money graf (one of several):

In an effort to attract and maintain clients, advertising and public relations services agencies are diversifying their services, offering advertising as well as public relations, sales, marketing, and interactive media services. Advertising and public relations services firms have found that highly creative work is particularly suitable for their services, resulting in a better product and increasing their clients' profitability.

And this:

Employees in advertising and public relations services should have good people skills, common sense, creativity, communication skills, and problem-solving ability. Foreign language skills have always been important for those wanting to work abroad for domestic firms or to represent foreign firms domestically. However, these skills are increasingly vital to reach minorities not fluent in English in U.S. cities, such as Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston, and Phoenix. New media, such as the Internet, are creating opportunities to market products, but also are increasing the need for additional training for those already employed. Keeping pace with technology is fundamental to success in the industry. In addition, advertisers must keep in tune with the changing values, cultures, and fashions of the Nation.

Success in increasingly responsible staff assignments usually leads to advancement to supervisory positions. As workers advance on the job, broad vision and planning skills become extremely important. Another way to get to the top in this industry is to open one’s own firm. In spite of the difficulty and high failure rate, many find starting their own business to be personally and financially rewarding. Advancement among the self-employed takes the form of increasing the size and strength of their own company.

Here's also a link to a webpage put up by the American League of Lobbyists on how to break into a career in lobbying.

Lobbying? Isn't that nasty, crooked ... bribing sleazebag politics?

In a word, no. I'll say it again. No.

Lobbying is a type of public relations that deals with government and public affairs. According to Wikipedia (at least tonight), it "includes all attempts to influence legislators and officials, whether by other legislators, constituents or organized groups." In Springfield you'll hear it called advocacy or "legislative liaison," and it's one of the home industries in our town. An overview by the American League of Lobbyists:

Most lobbyists are college graduates, and many have advanced degrees. Of these advanced degrees, the most prevalent is legal training, with other common backgrounds being communications, teaching, public relations and journalism. Lobbyists must be able to understand their clients' interests as well as the laws and policies they hope to influence. They must be able to communicate effectively with their audience, both orally and in writing. It is also necessary for them to understand the legislative and political process.

* * *

... The best suggestion we can make is for individuals [wanting to break into the field] to use the contacts they have through previous work or studies, seeking informational interviews and networking as much as possible. As indicated in the paragraph above, political or government contacts are particularly helpful in entering the field.

In short, it helps to know someone. But the way to get to know someone is to take an interest in the political process, volunteer for campaigns and network with people whose politics and philosophies match your own. We have had several students from Springfield College and Benedictine line up internships with local members of Congress, associations like the Chamber of Commerce and social service agencies that do advocacy over the years, and that is probably the best way to get a feel for the legislative process.

The key: Network, network, network.

COMM 390: Zeroing in on a final answer question

What I put on the screen in class today:

Does Jean Kilbourne live on the same planet that we do? Are her points grounded in reality? Why? Be specific.

Does Arthur Berger live on the same planet that we do? Are her points grounded in reality? Why? Be specific.

So what? If their points, or some of them, are grounded in reality -- what do we do about it as media professionals? Why? Be specific.

And a link to the first Adbusters video we watched ...



The second one, the one that quotes ________ Milosz,

NYTimes forum: "Teaching no fallback career"

Posted Sunday in the opinion section of The New York Times' website, a collection of short pieces on midcareer classroom teachers and their expectations. Not

"What does it take to become a teacher," ask the Times' editors, "let alone a good one?"

Answers from:

Pam Grossman, professor of education
Patrick Welsh, teacher
Tom Moore, teacher
Michael Podgursky, economist
Kenneth J. Bernstein, teacher and blogger.

And 85 comments (as of 11 a.m. CDT on Monday). Some of the forum comments are more incisive that the experts' thoughts.

COMM 390: A revised assignment for your blogs

When I said last week I'd like for you to post links to ads that we can discuss in class, perhaps I was being a little too subtle.

I asked you to find ads that tend to prove -- or disprove -- Jean Kilbourne's thesis that advertising, taken as a whole, promotes stereotypes that tend to corrupt relationships and weaken marriages. This, of course, is leading up to a final exam in which you answer these questions: Do you agree with her thesis? To what extent? Be specific. What can we (which also means each one of you, of course, do about it as media professionals? As consumers? However, only one of you so far has posted anything.

So please allow me to rephrase the assignment.

You are hereby COMMANDED to go out on the World Wide [expletive deleted] Web and find a [expletive deleted] ad that portrays gender stereotypes we can discuss in class and [expletive deleted] post a link to it on your class blog.

Do I make my meaning clear?

Notes

1. Thanks to Gina, who has posted a link to a story about a Fetish perfume ad that raised questions about when women say "no" and mean ... what a product spokesman said was certainly not intended to be an invitation to date rape but was "meant to encourage self-expression and individuality." We'll take a look at it later. When we do, let's compare that stuff about self-expression to what Jean Kilbourne says about getting people to rebel against conformity by purchasing certain types of products. Any similarity?

2. While we're at it, I need to update my links at the top of The Mackerelwrapper start page. I noticed tonight I'm lacking links to blogs by Erick Clark, Jeff Hall and Mike Pulliam.

3. If you haven't discovered the joy of embedding links to YouTube on your blog, this would be a good time to try it. I'll demonstrate below with a classic ad from the 1970s involving a stereotype immediately recognizable in my home state of Tennessee.

A. I did a keyword search in the YouTube search engine on "Tennessee Trash," the title of the commercial.

B. Once I decided I wanted to link to the ad, I I highlighted the text in the field at the right of the YouTube page that says "Embed."

C. In the window I had open to the Blogger dashboard for my blog, I pasted the text into the "Edit Posts" field. On the line just below this point in the text:



D. Then I clicked on "Publish Post."

And there it was, embedded in all its glory. How can anything be easier than that?

Business Week story on appreciative inquiry

An article in the April 6 issue of Business Week on appreciative inquiry in the workplace. Fred Collopy, of the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, contrasts it with "deficit thinking," i.e. focusing on problems so as to put a negative spin on an organization. Money grafs:

A somewhat subtler problem with the de facto emphasis on problems is the long-term effect it has on how managers think about our jobs. By focusing so often and so consistently on problems, we come to adopt a kind of deficit thinking. Plans of action that flow from it are concerned with repairing, fixing, and compensating. We spend so much time considering what is wrong with our organizations that we overlook what is right.

An alternative to Deficit Thinking is Appreciative Inquiry. When we engage in appreciative inquiries, we focus on what makes us feel most alive, on our successes and their determinants, and on the strengths of our organization. Instead of emphasizing repairs, we shift our concern to creating more opportunities for success.

Appreciative inquiry at Benedictine

Master of Science
Management and Organizational Behavior

History

In fall 2005, the Accelerated Masters of Science in Management and Organizational Behavior Program (AMMOB) and the Ph.D. Program in Organization Development (OD) began a celebration of 40, 30, 20, 10-year milestones. These milestones included:

• The Benedictine University AMMOB and Ph.D. programs are one of the top three programs of their kind in the world.
  
• These programs have given Benedictine University a global influence that is easily measured by the many accolades from top universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Case Western Reserve University.
  
• In addition, the programs have received more than 100 professional awards and special recognitions, both nationally and internationally.
  
• These upper division programs also offer one of the largest national and international alumni networks involving executive leadership at major organizations, such as Motorola, McDonalds and GE Capitol.

The Management and Organizational Behavior Program traces it roots to the Group Work Administration program at George Williams College. The primary mission of that program was the training of administrators for the management of community service agencies.

In 1971, the mission of the Department expanded dramatically when it refocused to include education in the "human side of management" and management for business, as well as not-for-profit organizations.

The emphasis on the human element of management, with its origins in humanism, and the applied behavioral sciences is a constant which characterizes all major facets of the curriculum.

Dr. Peter F. Sorensen, Jr. has been the director of the program since 1970 and has been instrumental in shaping and implementing the highly recognized program.

In 1986, the program moved to Benedictine University where it has flourished under the direction of Dr. Peter F. Sorensen, Jr. Not only does Benedictine's MOB program boast world-renowned faculty members; it is ranked among the top three programs of its kind by the Organization Development Institute.

0 years since the start of the AMMOB Program, headed by Peter Sorensen, Ph.D.
30 years of Contemporary Trends in Change Management Lecture Series
20 years of the AMMOB Program at Benedictine University
10 years since the start of the Ph.D. Program in Organization Development

http://www.sci.edu/academics/programs/grad/ms-ammob-history.html

Appreciative Inquiry: An article and a website - emphasis (bold ital) mine

When is Appreciative Inquiry Transformational? A Meta-Case Analysis

Author: Gervase Bushe , Aniq Khamisa

Academy of Management Conference Presentation 2004

Date: 01/01/2004 Annotation: Abstract

20 cases of the use of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) for changing social systems published before 2003 were examined to look for the presence or absence of transformational change and the utilization of 7 principles and practices culled from a review of the theoretical literature on AI.Though all cases began by collecting “stories of the positive”, followed the “4-D model” and adhered to 5 principles of AI articulated by Cooperrider & Whitney (2001), only 7 (35%) showed transformational outcomes. In 100% of cases with transformational outcomes, the appreciative inquiry resulted in new ideas and knowledge and a generative metaphor that transformed the accepted beliefs of system members. In none of the non transformational cases was new knowledge created and in one a generative metaphor emerged.Instead, non-transformational AI focused on changing existing organizational practices.In 83% of the transformational cases, the “destiny” or action phase of the appreciative inquiry was best characterized as “improvisational”.In contrast, 83% of the non transformational cases used more standard “implementation” approaches to the action phase in which attempts were made to implement centrally agreed upon targets and plans.The authors conclude that these two qualities of appreciative inquiry, a focus on changing how people think instead of what people do, and a focus on supporting self-organizing change processes that flow from new ideas rather than leading implementation of centrally or consensually agreed upon changes, appear to be key contributions of AI to the theory and practice of large systems change that merit further study and elaboration.This paper is the only empirical assessment of AI published in a research journal and was the runner up for the Douglas McGregor memorial award in 2005.

Online Resources: Article Online at Gervase Bushe's website

Emphasis (bold italics) mine.

Link to this article: http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/classicsDetail.cfm?coid=5218

* * *

Claiming the Light: Appreciative Inquiry and Congregational Transformation

Author: Paul Chaffee

Paul Chaffee is the Executive Director of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio. This Web resource is based on an essay he wrote for the 2004 book published by Alban, http://www.congregationalresources.org/.

Introduction

Re-Grounding Relationship

AI's Potential

How to Begin

Social Constructionism

Quantum Physics

Pastoral Leadership

AI Principles

AI Practice

AI Culture

AI in the House of God

Learn More

Bibliography

Resources

Feedback

COMM 209: Looking into the crystal ball ... jobs, careers for writers

On the Daily Kos website this week, an analysis of the political blog's sources of information. Interesting. Daily Kos has political axes to grind. It's liberal philosophically, and I'd consider what it does as commentary rather than news. But it draws on a variety of sources.

Most of them aren't newspapers.

But I don't want to turn this into another newspapers-are-dying rant. There's enough of that around already, without my adding to it. I'm more interested when "kos" screenname for the blog's founder ) says:

While newspapers were the most common source of information, they accounted for just 123 out of 628 total original information sources, or just shy of 20 percent. ... [T]his doesn't mean I'm gleefull or happy or even neutral on the sorry state of the newspaper industry and the demise of so many great newspapers. It's always sad to lose a good source of journalism. But we live in a rich media environment, easily the richest in world history, and the demise of the newspaper industry will simply shift much of the journalistic work they did to other media.

The Daily Kos, like so many blogs, needs a copyeditor, by the way. "Gleeful" only has one "l."

Copyediting quibbles aside, he's right when he says we live in "easily the richest [media environment] in history."

In class today, I'm handing out a print article called "Journalism History is Merely a List of Surprises" that was in The Quill, trade magazine for the Society of Professional Journalists, last month.

I posted a couple of quotes to the blog last month (before the article went behind a subscription firewall. Here's a link to that post:

COMM 209: "Life After Newspapers ... if the [print] New York Times disappears, there will still be news."

COMM 390: Stereotypes, values and gay marriage

In "Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications," Kenneth Clow and Donald Baack say advertisers appeal to their customers' rational ("cognitive") and emotional ("affective") attitudes shaped by the consumer's value system. They cite a comfortable life, equality, excitement, freedom, a fun and exciting life, happiness, inner peace, mature love, personal accomplishment, pleasure, salvation, security, self-fulfillment, self-respect, a sense of belonging, social acceptance and wisdom.

Media critics like Arthur Berger and Jean Kilbourne take it a step further by saying ads typically feature attractive spokesmen whom consumers can identify with. We're more likely to buy stuff from people like ourselves, in other words, or people who are a little cooler than we are. And we tend to give our political support to people who share our values.

An especially stark appeal to values comes in the debate over gay marriage. Like any other political debate, it's marked by extreme rhetoric. Let's try to ignore it.

We'll watch several ads. As we watch them, let's be analytical. In other words, let's try to keep our own opinions out of it and comment on how the ads get thier message across instead of our own opinions on the subject.

The first ad is called "Gathering Storm," and it's put up on the Internet by the Organization for Marriage (NOM), a nonprofit a self-described mission "to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it." In other words, it's against gay marriage. It's different from product ads in that its appeal is to values that are seen to be threatened. As you watch, ask yourself: (1) Who is the target audience here? (2) What are their values? (3) Are the characters in the ads like the people in the target audience? Or people the audience can admire?



Next we'll watch parts of a rebuttal of the NOM ad by a filmmaker named Sean Chapin who does media for the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) movement. It's called "Gathering Storm? What Storm?" Which gives you a good idea of its tone? Same questions: (1) His target audience? (2) what values are affirmed or threatened? (3) Does Chapin come across as being "normal," i.e. like the target audience? Note at the end he says he's not a paid actor, unlike those in the NOM ad. Why? What's the purpose of the bird calls and barking dogs in the background?



In the November 2008 election, Proposition 8 enacted a law that defined marriage as being "between a man and a woman." Here's an ad, modeled after the Microsoft "I'm a PC" ads. What's the target audience? Which character would they be expected to identify with? What values are being appealed to here?



Here's another. What are the values here? Who are we expected to identify with? How does the straight couple with kids change it? How about the silly Roman helmet on the culture warrior? Is humor being used here to disarm viewers in a way that's similar to the use of humor in beer and cigaret ads?



An ad from the other side, the anti-gay marriage advocates, also uses people we can identify with. Which ethnic groups -- black, latino, Asian, etc. -- are shown? What values are cited?



Here's another. It shows San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom at a LGBT rally. What's the likely target audience? (I think it's going to be rural and small-town voters. People in the rest of California feel about San Francisco and LA about the way downstate Illinoisans feel about Chicago.) What values are being threatened "whether [they] like it or not?"



And, finally, another film of another rally. Remember Sean Chapin, the film maker who did the low-tech "I'm not a paid actor" rebuttal to "Gathering Storm?" Well, Prop 8 won, and he filmed a LGBT rally in San Francisco last month featuring speakers and marchers who pledged to fight the gay marriage ban. Production values are very professional, by the way. Who's the target audience? How many diverse people are reflected among the speakers? In the march? By race? Ethnic heritage? Males? Females? Different generations? This is a well-done propoganda piece. But it seems to be targeted -- where would you show it? What effect would it have on an LGBT audience? Uncommitted voters? Opponents of gay marriage?

COMM 209: Dogged pursuit of a photo-op

Let's watch a photo-op ...

This afternoon, President Obama and his family introduced their new dog to the White House press corps. The photo-op lasted 11 minutes and 11 seconds, and C-SPAN covered it live. As you probably know, C-SPAN is the cable TV network for news junkies, and it's known for its gavel-to-gavel coverage of meetings ... it just lets the cameras rolll, in other words, from beginning to end.

In this case, there were no gavels. But C-SPAN let the cameras roll just like they always do. And we got an unedited picture of the press corps in action.

As you watch, listen for quotes you could use in a story. Maybe three or four, tops. Notice how much time it took for the reporters to get these four or five quotes. Since it's outdoors, C-SPAN has to use a "wild" mike rather than tapping into a sound system, so you can hear the reporters' comments, too, and sometimes you have to strain to hear the Obamas. Be on the lookout for potential sound bites and visuals, too. It's an age of convergence, as you know from reading this week's chapter in the text, and as media professionals you'll work with all three. Sound bites, also known as actualities, are nothing more than quotes caught on camera. But some of the best visuals here are silent. Which images would you edit into a TV report?



Now let's see how the story -- and, yes, it is a story -- got written up on a couple of newspaper websites.

Michael Mcauliff of The New York Daily News filed a fluffy little color story ... which is about all you're going to get out of it anyway.

By way of comparison, Maria Puente of USA Today filed a ... well, another fluffy little feature story. What else can you do with it? How do her quotes compare to Mcauliff's? What else can you do?

COMM 209: Interview/availability in class Monday

In class Monday Joanna Beth Tweedy, novelist, poet and associate dean of academic affairs at Benedictine University, will speak about her new novel "The Yonder Side of Sass and Texas," just published by Southeast Missouri University Press. She'll be available to take questions on her novel, and about writing in general.

Your assignment: Take notes on Tweedy's presentation, ask questions, take some more notes on her answers ... and (I'll bet you saw this coming), write a 750- to 1,000-word story on the publication of her new book. Due at the beginning of class Wednesday.

Some background I took from Tweedy's website: She is from southern Illinois, and her novel is about two sisters from that part of the state. She calls it "a place both blessed and cursed by the hybrid footprints of the Appalachia and Ozark regions surrounding it," and you may want to ask her how being from southern Illinois helped shape her fiction. This summer she'll go on a book tour that begins in Murphysboro, her home town (just west of Carbondale), and goes on to New York, Boston, Richmond, St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, Houston, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Madison and Chicago. Tweedy is founding editor of Quiddity, a national-caliber literary magazine based here, and has degrees in education and English from the Universities of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and Springfield. You'll find more background on the website.

Some observations of mine, from hearing her read from the book and talk about it a couple of weeks ago at Brinkerhoff. Tweedy clearly loves writing. And I was struck by what she said about the business of getting a book published (and, yes, it is a business). She believes the small presses, like Southeast Missouri, are better positioned to survive the ongoing shakeout in our industry than the big publishing houses in New York. Even though her style is perhaps more "literary" than what we strive for in newswriting, there's a lot we can learn from her about the craft of writing, too.

COMM 390: Paper No. 2

We'll negotiate a due date for this toward the end of April. (There will also be a final, but it'll be an off-the-top-of-the-head thing that's essentially an elaboration on "Question 2A.") Here's the question for the paper now:

How, according to Jean Kilbourne, does advertising help create a popular culture that corrupts relationships and weakens marriages? Be specific. Do you agree with her? To what extent? Be specific. What can we (which also means each one of you, of course, do about it as media professionals? As consumers?

How does Monday, April 27, sound to you? It's the beginning of the last week before finals.

COMM 309: Gender roles and PCs -- just askin'

RE: Microsoft's "I am a PC" campaign: Here's a male -- Giampaolo -- buying a computer ...

://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRF9-5itZA4

And here's a female -- Lauren ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIS6G-HvnkU

Any differences?

Next: A family, mother and son. (Hmmm. Where's Dad?) Also buying a computer. Same campaign. Any stereotypes? Of boys? Moms? Absent fathers? Let's watch ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qui43P1kztw

Pasted here just so I don't lose it. A link to Jean Kilbourne's presentation "Deadly Persuasion: The Advertising of Alcohol & Tobacco" (7:19). Let's watch. Pay especial attention to the way Marlboro positioned its product in the market. What gender stereotypes were being played to?

COMM 209: "Life After Newspapers ... if the [print] New York Times disappears, there will still be news."

Michael Kinsley, founding editor of the online magazine Slate.com and op-ed columnist for the print and online editions of The Washington Post, had a column Monday that I think is must reading for anybody who's thinking about a career in journalism. It's headlined "Life After Newspapers" ... and, in spite of the headline, it's optimistic.

I'll cut to the chase:

As many have pointed out, more people are spending more time reading news and analysis than ever before. They're just doing it online. For centuries people valued the content of newspapers enough to pay what it cost to produce them (either directly or by patronizing advertisers). We're in a transition, destination uncertain. [Political and public affairs blogger] Arianna Huffington may wake up some morning to find The Washington Post gone forever and the nakedness of her ripoff exposed to the world. Or she may be producing all her own news long before then. Who knows? But there is no reason to suppose that when the dust has settled, people will have lost their appetite for serious news when the only fundamental change is that producing and delivering that news has become cheaper.

It's worth reading in full.

Kinsley is a good guy to speculate about the future. After a distinguished print career as editor of The New Republic, he moved from New York to Seattle in 1996 and founded Slate, initially backed by Bill Gates and Microsoft Corp. He stepped down in 2002 for health reasons and now contributes to Slate and The Washington Post (which acquired Slate in 2004). So his conclusions are worth listening to. His conclusion to Monday's column:

Maybe the newspaper of the future will be more or less like the one of the past, only not on paper. More likely it will be something more casual in tone, more opinionated, more reader-participatory. Or it will be a list of favorite Web sites rather than any single entity. Who knows? Who knows what mix of advertising and reader fees will support it? And who knows which, if any, of today's newspaper companies will survive the transition?

But will there be a Baghdad bureau? Will there be resources to expose a future Watergate? Will you be able to get your news straight and not in an ideological fog of blogs? Yes, why not -- if there are customers for these things. There used to be enough customers in each of half a dozen American cities to support networks of bureaus around the world. Now the customers can come from around the world as well.

If General Motors goes under, there will still be cars. And if the New York Times disappears, there will still be news.

The italics are mine. I think Kinsley is absolutely right that the news media of the future will be a lot like the websites of today.

There's a fine article by Philip Meyer in last month's issue of The Quill, trade magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists, that puts a lot of this stuff in perspective. Meyer has been another pioneer, best known for using computers and digital databases for newspaper research, and his thoughts carry weight, too.

It's titled "Journalism History is Merely a List of Surprises." In it, Meyer looks into the future, and here's what he sees:

I believe there will be room for other kinds of specialized newspapers [in addition to politics and public affairs]. Sports and business sections will be broken out and sold separately like chicken parts at the grocery store. That will make print advertising a more efficinet buy than it has been because the advertiser won't have to pay for newsprint that goes unread. Community newspapers, specialized by definition, will coninuue to do fairly well.

A paradoxical development is under way, and that is the trend toward less specialization in the varius crafts of journalism. ... Now reporters are increasingly expected to come back from an assignment with notes, audio and visual recordings, both still and moving, and then upload and edit them in a variety of media forms."

Meyer's article is important, and it will be in Becker Library as soon as I get it over there (I donate my copies of the magazine). Bottom line: We read a lot of doom-and-gloom about the future of journalism, but there will always be jobs for good journalists. When I left academic life for the newspaper business in the 1970s, editors were looking for people who could "do it all." And they're still looking for the same kind of people. The media are changing, but people don't.

Internet joke: Fw: Banking

From my cousin on Long Island, in its entirety (scroll down):

> Subject: Fw: Banking
>
>> The old Native American wanted a loan for $500.00
> The banker pulled out? the loan application, "What are
> you going to do
> with
> the money?"
>
> "Make jewelery and sell it," was the response.
>
> "What have you got for collateral?
> "Don't know collateral."
>
> "Well that's something of value that would cover
> the cost of the loan.
>
> "Have you got any vehicles?"
>
> "Yes, 1949 Chevy pickup."
>
> The banker shook his head, "How about livestock?"
>
> "Yes, I have a horse."
>
> "How old is it?"
>
> "Don't know, has no teeth."
>
> Finally the banker decided to make the $500 loan.
>
> Several weeks later the old man was back in the bank. He
> pulled out a
> roll of bills, "Here to pay." he said. He then
> handed the banker the money to
> pay his loan off.
>
> "What are you going to do with the rest of that
> money?"
>
> "Put in tepee."
>
> "Why don't you deposit it in my bank," he
> asked.
>
> "Don't know deposit."
>
> "You put the money in our bank and we take care of it
> for you. When you want to use it you can withdraw
> it."
>
> The old Indian leaned across the desk, "What you got
> for collateral?"
>
>
> ?
>
>
>
> ?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ?
>
>
>
> ?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ?
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>
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>
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> ?

COMM 390: "I'm just not cool enough .... " huh? to buy a @#$%! computer? Class discussion Wednesday

Let's watch a couple of ads ...

First, to get us in the mood ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElR2QrbV_Cg

Now this ...

We'll read a couple of analyses of Microsoft ad campaigns that do something -- hard to describe, but, well, something, and we'll figure out in class what it is -- with the Microsoft, or PC, brand as it compares to Apple's. First this:

http://www.slate.com/id/2201159/ ... read copy and click on the link to "the company's much-discussed new $300 million marketing campaign ...

Then this recent ad ... click on YouTube embed ...


http://www.slate.com/id/2215267/

Here's what the article in Slate.com says about the second ad:

The spots are the end result of a challenge that Microsoft's ad agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, put to a few telegenic young people in Los Angeles. It offered them between $700 and $2,000 to buy any computer that they wanted and let them keep whatever they didn't spend. In the first ad to air, a pretty, spunky redhead named Lauren is looking for a laptop with a 17-inch screen for less than $1,000. She goes to an Apple store and discovers that only the $999 13-inch MacBook is in her price range. Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro goes for $2,799, way beyond Lauren's budget. "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person," she huffs. Then she goes to Best Buy and finds an HP notebook that fits her specs selling for just $699.99. She's elated—"I got everything that I wanted for under $1,000!"

As you watch it, ask yourself: How much of the information here is about the product, and how much is about "Lauren" (or the actor who plays Lauren)? And how much of that is about us? For Monday we were assigned to read a Newsweek profile of marketing and branding maven Peter Arnell. How does this ad compare to what he does? Would you characterize it like he (maybe) characterizes his career? Or did he mean what he said? How does all this stuff fit together?

Lots of questions here. No good answers, are there? Or are there?

Neil Postman, longtime media critic at New York University, used to say ads were like little parables of the good life. (I'll give you a handout from "How to Watch TV News," a book he co-authored with newscaster Steve Roberts, that explains this point.) What effect do these parables have on us? Economically? Psychologically? So what?

Plenty to think about in all these questions. Including the last one.

Bonus link ... it's a YouTube clip, a tease for a video ... because Wednesday's assignment took a direction I didn't ancticipate, and I don't know what to do with it now ... but don't want to lose it.

The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nk2_rk0FLw
2006
In this powerful new video, Juliet Schor scrutinizes what she calls "the new consumerism"--a national phenomenon of upscale spending that is shaped and reinforced by a commercially-driven media system. She argues that "keeping up with the Joneses" is no longer enough for middle and upper-middle class Americans, many of whom become burdened with debilitating debt as they seek to emulate materialistic TV lifestyles.

COMM 209: Monday's assignment - feature story

Who: International Club

What: International Club's Fair and Free Food Fest

Where: Angela Hall Gym

When: 11:15 a.m. - 1:15 p.m., Monday, April 6

That's what the 8-1/2-by-11 blurb says. It adds:

Learn about other countries and eat their food. Free.
Have your name written in Chinese for $1.00

Your assignment: Cover this event and write a news-feature story on it -- in other words, a hybrid story with lots of color. Due in class Wednesday. Here are some details and techniques I want you to try.

Length: 750-1,000 words. More, if you want to write more.

Quote at least three people.

1. Find the person(s) who organized the event. Chat them up, and ask them what the event's purpose is, what they think of the turnout, "how's it going?" Ask them the same things you'd ask them if you were just having a conversation, but take notes and be alert for useable quotes.
   
2. Ask at least one of the international students what it's like to represent their country, what kinds of questions the American kids ask, anything else that occurs to you. When you quote them in writing, you'll have to decide how to quote someone who speaks English as a second language without making them look dumb. Tricky, huh? Let's talk about it in class.
   
3. Talk to some American students, too. Get their reactions.

Use lots of color, descriptive writing. I'd take notes on that stuff, too. You may feel dumb writing down stuff like "walls institutional green" but you may not remember later. (In fact, the walls in the Angela Hall gym may be institutional beige instead.) Are there basketball goals? Bleachers? Does it look like a small-town high school gym? As down-home American as a Norman Rockwell print? You might decide later that details like that would work in a story about international students on a small college campus, but you won't remember them if you decide at the last minute to go with that angle unless you've got a little bit of everything in your notebook. Get a crowd count. That's second nature for news reporters. Always get a crowd count. (The old joke is you talk to the organizers, get their crowd count and take the square root of it. Best to do your own, though.) Are people milling around, any music playing? If you don't recognize it, ask somebody who looks official if they know what it is. If they don't, they can point you to somebody who does.

Write it up. Use a "Jell-O lede" -- i.e. one that starts with a little anecdote or some color writing, seques into the nut graf(s) and goes on with detail from there.