Catalog Search Results
Language
English
Description
In a consumer culture, the pressure to buy can be as subtle as it is relentless. This program introduces the craft of advertising, explaining the difference between needs and wants while analyzing the power of celebrity endorsements, the psychological advantage of product placement, and other aspects of the business of steering wallets to cash registers.
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"By the late 1980s, the AIDS pandemic was deeply impacting gay and lesbian communities in America, and disinformation about the disease was running rampant. Out of the activist group ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an art collective that called itself Gran Fury was formed, to create graphics and media that campaigned against corporate greed, government inaction, and public indifference to AIDS. In It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful, writer...
4) Global media
Language
English
Description
Sixties' media philosopher Marshall McLuhan predicted the coming of a Global Village in which telecommunications technology would figuratively shrink the world. Satellites, the Internet, multinational communications giants, and the ubiquity of televisions and computers have more than helped realize his prophecy. Who are the big players and what kind of village have they wrought? As American music, TV, film, sports, fashion, and food spread worldwide...
Language
English
Description
In 1996, diehard fans of the extreme thrash metal band Slayer murdered a 15-year-old girl because she fit a description of a person in the song "Altar of Sacrifice. Having seen the perpetrators imprisoned for 25-to-life, the victim's parents then lodged a civil suit against the musicians. In this program, ABC News correspondent Judy Muller explores the limits of free speech and art with Senator Joseph Lieberman, recording industry representative Hilary...
Language
English
Description
No one doubts the power of social media to create positive connections among people who might otherwise never meet. But that same power has an ominous side. It can draw together individuals who should, in fact, not meet - such as predatory adults and gullible minors. It can facilitate bullying, emotional trauma, and cybercrime. And it can be highly addicting. This collection of five ABC News segments examines the issues in ways that are sure to spark...
Language
English
Description
Some stories are simply too good to be true. In this program, John Kampfner, political editor for the New Statesman (London), skewers heroic reports of the ambush, capture, and rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, calling them misrepresentations designed to bolster wavering support for the Iraq War. Kampfner also scrutinizes the controversial practice of embedding members of the news media in military units and questions the sincerity and overall informational...
Language
English
Description
As globalization of trade rapidly expands, the mainstream media is being accused of inadequately reporting the issues. This program canvasses some of the dissent by exploring conflicts of interest within the media and showing how technology, such as the camcorder and the Internet, is challenging the monopoly of big news broadcasters. Differences between mainstream and "indie" media are highlighted in coverage of the economic summits and related protests...
Language
English
Description
The Center for Media and Public Affairs reports that during the 1990s the homicide rate in the U.S. dropped 50 percent, yet homicide news coverage increased by an incredible 700 percent. In this program, the Center's Bob Lichter and the Threat Assessment Group's Greg McCrary join ABC News anchor John Stossel to examine some of the factors that contribute to the exaggeration of risks and dangers in the news media. Recent stories involving murder, shark...
10) Consuming images
Language
English
Description
This program looks at a society inundated with visual images. From billboards to bus stops, from rock videos to newsstands, mass-produced images have become the very air we breathe. What is this cultural atmosphere saying to us and about us? Why should we care? Ever since the pioneers of public relations and advertising spoke about the "engineering of consent," social critics have analyzed its effects. For some, it reveals pure manipulation-the appropriation...
Language
English
Description
The development of authentic self-esteem and a healthy sense of self has always been a vitally important part of growing up. But this process is a challenge that has gotten even trickier to negotiate due to the widespread integration of digital technology into everyday living. Drawing on the insights of a clinical psychologist/family therapist, an adolescent psychologist, and a number of students, this program introduces the dynamics of child/adolescent...
Language
English
Description
There's a fine art to selling earlobe lifts, inflatable massage boots, and mini-staircases for arthritic dogs. This ABC News program enters the strange world of A. J. Kubani and his New Jersey-based company, Telebrands-a purveyor of quirky household products showcased in late-night TV infomercials. In a one-on-one interview, Kubani discusses his main strategy: identifying a mundane, irksome problem and immediately offering a quick fix. "Preventions...
Language
English
Description
Immersed in technology and caught up in the impulse of the moment, a teenager sends a sexually explicit text message to one of his or her classmates - and ruins a life in a matter of seconds. Exaggeration? Sadly, no. This collection of six ABC News segments makes clear to viewers the dangers involved in what has become known as "sexting" - a form of spontaneous free expression which, all too often, becomes a digital avenue for bullying, harassment,...
Language
English
Description
No single force has changed American politics more than television-especially the television commercial. In this program, Bill Moyers examines the phenomenon of the "30-second president" and the role of advertising in 20th-century American politics. The video features an interview with Rosser Reeves, an advertising executive who worked on early political television campaigns for Dwight D. Eisenhower. Moyers also talks with media pioneer Tony Schwartz,...
Language
English
Description
Those who stand outside our culture often view it with a lens made more accurate by distance and perspective. An Englishman on intimate terms with America, film producer David Puttnam (Chariots of Fire and The Killing Fields ) sees in our movies the reflection of a nation at odds with itself. In this age of the visual image, popular culture can make attractive the vice or virtue that politics then imitates. During his tenure as chairman of Columbia...
Language
English
Description
Tapping phone calls, paying informers, planting microphones, trespassing, purchasing information obtained illegally: it's all in a day's work for the paparazzi. Filmed in England, France, and Italy, this program introduces viewers to unscrupulous photographers prepared to go to practically any length to shoot celebrities and politicians unaware-including Antonio Zappadu, the man responsible for compromising images of Silvio Berlusconi. But do the...
Language
English
Description
The public mind is often deceived by those who manipulate it, and it deceives itself, as well. This program examines how deception has influenced some of the major events of our recent past and how self-deception shapes our personal lives and the public mind. Why do trusted people in public life lie to us and to themselves? Can a society die from too many lies? Do our institutions demand loyalty at the expense of the truth? The program explores such...
Language
English
Description
Out of the tradition of the great 19th-century European trade exhibitions came a 20th-century American phenomenon, one that provided recreation, inspiration, and what amounted to a cultural barometer-the World's Fair. At the time this classic program was produced, the United States had hosted nine of them, from the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 to the sprawling 1982 celebration in Knoxville, Tennessee. Presented by Bill Moyers, the video explores the...
Language
English
Description
In this Fred Friendly Seminar, Harvard Law School's Charles Ogletree stimulates a vigorous exchange on the tension between artistic expression, freedom of speech, and social responsibility. Presented with scenarios involving antisocial and sometimes violent messages in mass media, Richard Dreyfuss, Def Jam Recordings' David Harleston, the ACLU's Nadine Strossen, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), and other distinguished panelists examine the impact...
Language
English
Description
Songs about a certain time and place are more than sentimental musings-they also serve as departure points for cultural and sociological studies. This program uses popular 20th-century French music to explore the rich character and modern-era development of Paris. Juxtaposing commentary from French scholars, performers, and business leaders with classic recordings by Edith Piaf, Brigitte Bardot, Maurice Chevalier, and other artists, the film sheds...