Government in the radio

Government regulation and intervention shaped radio in the 1920s by issuing broadcast frequency licenses in 1923 and through the creation of the Federal Radio Commission by the Radio Act of 1927.

When a new media becomes viable for transmission of ideas for commercial, military, or other purposes, the government must choose whether or not to intervene in its functioning. If it does not intervene, the media will continue to evolve without any direction provided by the government. If the government does choose to intervene, which it often does, it can either incorporate the media entirely into its purview and remove it from public use, or it can choose to regulate its function within the public sphere. If the government does choose to regulate the media, as it has with television and radio, it selects guidelines for the media to follow including what content is suitable for presentation.

After World War I, the U.S. Navy returned radio to civilians for public use after a period of military usage. In the early 1920s, as many sought commercial uses for the radio as a medium, there was a flood of interference as a plethora of frequencies were being used in the same areas. In 1923, the Commerce Department decided to intervene and began supervising radio, issuing out licenses for frequencies in order to limit interference. In 1927, the government chose to intervene once again, this time establishing the Federal Radio Commission under the Radio Act of 1927 to regulate the medium for the foreseeable future. The new agency set broadcast bands, limited night broadcasts, and standardized the names for frequencies. These two acts allowed the government to retain basic control of the airwaves and influenced the evolution of radio by keeping some formalized structure and function of the medium in a time when the threat of chaos was imminent. 

Just for grins, here's a link to one of the more popular radio stations back home: http://www.mix1029.com/main.html

Catharsis

The concept of catharsis aids me in understanding the appeal and effects of violent video games such as the Grand Theft Auto series and how it aids people in living out their inward desires that may not be socially acceptable in the real world.

The catharsis hypothesis states that sex, violence, and other unacceptable social actions shown in the media lead to a positive result. It argues that the media allows people to indirectly satisfy these desires by living them out in a non-real world. While other social theories state that the media contributes to violent and sexual actions in the real world, catharsis says that the media instead provides a means of purging emotion and desires unfit for real life in a fantasy setting such as a tv show, movie, or video game.

A good example of this theory is the video game series Grand Theft Auto. The central purpose of these games is to break the law and cause mayhem to your heart’s content. As a citizen of an imaginary city, you can steal cars, shoot at and destroy police vehicles and helicopters, engage in promiscuous activities with prostitutes, and a host of other illegal and a host of other destructive activities. According to the catharsis hypothesis, the havoc produced by players of these games allows them to release their emotion and fulfill their antisocial desires, and judging by the commercial success of the games, people obviously enjoy that prospect. 

Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHzG0bKTa1g&NR=1

Framing in advertising

Media framing as a concept aids me in understanding commercials and ad campaigns such as the Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” commercial and McDonald’s “My Me Time” ad by enabling me to view the contexts of the ads for what they really are: carefully crafted settings designed to illicit a specific response from the viewer.

Framing is the act of presenting a subject in such a way as to tell an audience how to think about the topic. It is a common force in media of any sort to frame a message in order to curry favor or disdain and attain a certain reaction from that audience. Everyone from journalists to screenwriters to directors to advertisers utilize framing by specially composing not only the tone, facts, and images presented but also the context in which they are placed in order to portray their product in the manner of their choosing. 

            Advertising commonly uses framing as a method to present their products in a favorable light and hopefully increase sales of their products and services. One such example is the recent and popular ad for Old Spice body wash called “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”. In the commercial, a handsome African American man directly addresses the women in the audience and tells them that while none of their men will ever be him, if they use Old Spice body wash they can at least smell like him. While the setting of the commercial – changing from a bathroom to the deck of a boat to riding a horse – and some of the actions – diamonds flowing out of the hand of the man followed by a bottle of Old Spice – are intentionally ludicrous, they clearly frame the product as absolutely positive with no possible downsides.

            Another example of framing in advertising is the new McDonalds commercial entitled “My Me Time”. In the commercial, a series of young adults in various situations are portrayed in settings of low desirability, such as a man in the rain, a woman forgetting where she parked her car, and a man on a driving range having golf balls launched at his vehicle. In each circumstance, however, the person involved is not complaining but rather quite happy due to having a McDonald’s frappe drink. This obviously increases the desirability of the frappe drink in the eyes of the viewer by presenting it in such a way that it seems an absolute good and something everyone should want.

The ad does not point out the caloric content of its drink just as the Old Spice ad does not point out any foreseeable negative aspects of its body wash. That information does not serve the purpose of the advertiser and therefore is not included in the frame. It is in this way that advertising frames are utilized to sell their products on the basis of attractive imagery.

The Man Your Man Could Smell Like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE

My Me Time: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_mLSVLByKA