How do the “tricks” presented by Jackson and Jamieson affect the way that we view, consider, and believe appeals involving non-commercial products? In other words, how do these elements of spin influence more than just the goods and services that we buy?

           Spin not only influences our opinions on products, but it also affects our perception of reality and the quality of life that we strive for. The spin made by the media paints a picture of a perfect, untouched, desirable world, but they don’t tell consumers that this world does not exist. By portraying simple daily products in a glamorous way, consumers are left to believe that they should be consuming these simple daily products in a glamorous way. With all of this spin in advertising, consumers are left striving to reach this world of perfection believing that their current reality and life is not good enough.

         Take self-esteem and body image for example. Due to the constant publicity of female models and the dazzling reviews they receive on their thin bodies, the perception of “beauty” in the eyes of young girls has been extremely skewed and modified from what was once reality. Since tall, skinny, tan models walking down the runway are now considered beautiful, being short, fat, and pale is considered ugly. In comparison, Marilyn Monroe was a major sex symbol in the late 1950’s and was much larger than the current average model. By the media simply calling something else beautiful, it affects the standards set by the rest of society as well as our perceptions of perfection. 

- Caroline Ferguson

Respond to the following assertion: The “warning signs” discussed by Jackson and Jamieson in Chapter 2 of unSpun should not be viewed in a negative light; on the contrary, they are necessary filters that advertisers must use in order to market and ultimately sell a product.

While I agree that the “warning signs” from unSpun are both necessary and unavoidable filters that advertisements use, I disagree with the claim that they should not be viewed in a negative light. Tricks like making a story sound much more scary than it is, using words like “best” or “fastest ever,” or using vague and general ideas only serve to subtly deceive and mislead consumers. They “clutter” up the consumer’s brain with all kinds of false claims and make-believe stories to obscure part of or all of the truth. This makes the usage of these “warning signs” inherently negative in nature, but even though it is undesirable, there are times where it is both crucial and necessary for the advertisers and consumers. Take, for example, commercial advertisements for cosmetics. As it is pretty well established that most cosmetic products rarely differ from one another, the “warning signs” needs to be used by advertisers to distinguish their product from everyone else’s. They will tell stories and associate their products to certain ideals (like the Old Spice or Gillette ads from class), and to an extent, this will mislead the consumers about the true nature of the product. Yet at the same time, consumers also need these make-believe distinctions between the products as they choose which to buy. This is why people don’t really buy shampoo for its smells; they will buy it for whatever seemingly outrageous claims it makes. Cosmetics is only one of many areas where the usage of “warning signs” is harmful, yet also necessary in other ways. In all of advertisements, there is a huge grey area between how some “warning signs” are simply detrimental, and how others are inevitable to the consumption process. Consumers have to do their best to sort advertisements out between these two poles. In the end, they should exercise caution and view the “warning signs” in a negative light, while also keeping in mind that sometimes the “warning signs” can also be essential to them as consumers, especially when they seek to buy near-identical products.

Win Eiamsakulrat

In The Influencing Machine, Gladstone seems to present the following ideas as her thesis: "The media machine," and the news establishment by extension, "is a delusion. What we're really dealing with is a mirror" (xxi). As a result, "we get the media (and the news) that we deserve" (156). What is (are) the counter-argument(s) to Gladstone’s thesis? How would you defend it (them)? How does it (do they) compare in terms of strength/validity?

The mainstay of Gladstone's thesis is that the media is a reflection of its consumers; therefore, consumers are responsible for the media machine. But, the mirror that Gladstone describes is only a mirror in the sense that it reflects the apparent interests of the audience. And, this mirror is not an accurate mirror but rather a funhouse mirror. To argue with Gladstone, I think it is important to focus on how drastically the interests of the audience are distorted before they are reflected in the news. As we have discussed in class, most readers and viewers do not have the time to seek out the very best information. For the sake of convenience, consumers simply grab the nearest newspaper or click onto the most popular website or TV news channel. So, the media is not so much reflecting the interests of consumers as it is reflecting the limits of their time and effort. 

It seems tremendously unfair to blame consumers for being a little lazy and wanting convenient news. It is especially harsh to say that the audience that does not demand better news does not deserve better news. Alone, the individual consumer may simply feel powerless to make any demands of the media. Yet, the individual media producer is not powerless to make improvements in the media.To blame consumers for being content with subpar news is, to argue with Gladstone, just a lame excuse for producing subpar news. Rather than making excuses, the media ought to take on the challenge of producing excellent news without losing popularity. Unlike Gladstone, I think that this is the kind of news that everyone deserves.

Charlotte Cooley

In unSpun, Heinz J. Eiermann (former cosmetics chemist and head of the Food and Drug Administration’s division of cosmetics technology) is quoted as saying that “much of what you pay for is make-believe” when it comes to beauty products (5). Does this apply to all advertising/marketing? How (if at all) do we still see this assertion in effect today? Is this always wholly negative?

Though we come across distorted advertising just about anywhere, I do not believe that ALL advertising is spun by entities with deceitful intentions because many products are self-sustainable and do not need to bend reality in order to compete. The degree of spin and deception truly defines whether any given advertisement is passable or outright unacceptable. Since a marketer’s goal is to gain profit, it is understandable to put one’s best foot forward.

On the other hand political distortions tend to be misleading and oftentimes corrupt. On pages 13 to 20 in “unSpun” authors Jackson and Jamieson prove how the 2004 presidential election was severely distorted. Supporters of both George Bush and John Kerry were deceived to the point of ballot manipulation. More than half of the population was in the dark on fabrications that possibly chose their candidate for them.

Another issue rises when two products are equally competitive, leaving companies even more inclined to lie for the sake of profit. Chemist Eiermann says, “All the cosmetics companies use basically the same chemicals,” leading him to accurately believe that cosmetic companies had to spin their ads to reel in consumers (Jamieson and Jackson 5).

Today we see ad corruption more than ever. While independently navigating the 2012 presidential election I felt more secure of the facts, but when information chanced my way (such as YouTube advertisements) I felt attempts of manipulation and outright lies.

Ad deception in politics is absolutely intolerable. The American political construct is a coalition of elected peoples who are supposed to run our country, of whom I wish to assume are trustworthy and do not spin lies to secure their positions. Yet in reality that is not always the case. However ad manipulation for products is sometimes acceptable because there is a clear difference between lying and trying to make the best of what you have.

- Omar Peña

What responsibilities (if any) do individuals have when consuming media?

            We all know that the media has several responsibilities to the public in terms of how they present news. In the same turn, I think that the public also has several responsibilities to the media in terms of how they consume the media that is presented to them. I believe that most times the media takes the blame for things that they had no control over, things I believe are actually the responsibility of the public and not the media.

A big problem is that the media often takes the blame for “misleading” the public. The media says something and the public blindly forms opinions on matters that they have no knowledge about except for what is said in the article. I think that it’s the public’s responsibility to research more about an event or topic before coming to a conclusion about a situation. It’s not the media’s responsibility to make sure that the public is filled in on every part of a specific situation.

Another responsibility is that the public should be respectful to the opinions of the media, even if they are different than some of those in the general public. In order to make sure that every angle of a situation is reported. After all, the media is controlled to a certain extent by the feedback from the public. If a story is shot down by the public then it will never be brought to light, whether it’s important or not. This makes sure the media is doing its job and the public is better informed.

The last responsibility that a person has when consuming news is that they should read the entire article or watch the entire piece. People should realize that the media puts a lot of work into what it gives to the public so everything that is presented is there for a reason. Important information is contained throughout the entire piece so it should be read from beginning to end. This avoids any confusion in what the author is trying to say and benefits both the media and the public.

These are obligations that the public has that, if followed, will better the relationship between the public and the media. We need to remember that the media is our friend. Most times it depends on the public for help, the same public that often paints the media in a bad light.

- Jahmel Jordon

With a seemingly limitless supply of news at our disposal, how can we (as individual citizens) ensure that we dedicate our time to consuming the most important (as well as the most accurate) information?

There are many different ways to get one’s daily dosage of news; there’s the television, the radio, the internet, and of course, the newspaper. However, often times people feel that the information they are consuming from the news lacks accuracy and many of the important details. The truth of the matter is that the news isn’t always accurate and doesn’t always have all of the important details on a story. For this reason one must put in a bit of extra effort and do a bit of research on their own in order to obtain the most accurate story that they possibly can. Unfortunately bias is inevitable, and one cannot solely rely on one source to get all of their news from because most of the time they will only be getting one side of the story. The solution to this problem comes with time; there is no quick and easy way to attain a perfectly unbiased, completely accurate, and carefully detailed understanding of any news story. One must be wiling to explore their options, they must be willing to get out of their comfort zone and try reading a different newspaper or watching a different news channel. By doing this they will get a sense of the different attitudes and views of the various news sources available to them. Once one has tested the waters they can then apply their knowledge of who’s biased towards what and seek information from opposing sources to build a more accurate stories for themselves as well as their own opinions. The internet, although it may seem a bit intimidating, is actually a great resource to use because its fast, efficient, and holds an enormous amount of information. By using the internet one can find many different sources, opinions, and stories to help build their own personal and accurate understanding of the news. The key is just being willing to set aside the time to check out a couple of different websites that will provide different views on a certain topic.

-Georgia Nicholas

Is bias/subjectivity an inevitable part of the news? Why or why not?

In response to this question, I am inclined to believe that bias/subjectivity is an inevitable part of the news.  First and foremost because Gladstone, in her work, “The Influencing Machine,” dedicates pages 61-70 for outlining “the biases [she] believes [we] should worry about” (Gladstone 61).  While speculative, I am sure that she would not take the time to do such if she did not believe that bias/subjectivity was an inevitable part of the news.  Secondly, Gladstone goes on to assert that commercial bias is the biggest bias because “news needs conflict and momentum” (Gladstone 62) so that the news stays new. When observing news outlets, they “too rarely follow up on stories they’ve already reported” (Gladstone 62).  In my own experience when watching the news, I too feel as though the stories being reported on last much longer than necessary.  One example is a local tire-slasher in Philadelphia.  Over Christmas break a man was arrested for slashing tires across the southern district of Philadelphia.  By the end of Christmas breaking, having heard this story daily, for more than a week and a half, I thought the story would be put to rest.  I remember going home for mid-Winter recess and hearing a news report about this man’s trial and how he was claiming mental insanity for slashing people’s tires – the story was not terminated for week almost two months, according to my mom.  These stories appeal to the human nature that craves the sensational news deviating from the factual and becoming that similar to a novel.

Finally, bias/subjectivity is an inevitable part of the news because news is a subset of the media, thus it is an enterprise.  The goal of an enterprise is to gain capital, therefore by using the commercial bias or any of the biases, which Gladstone outlines; a news outlet is attempting to maximize their capital gain by obtaining higher viewer ratings.  In short, these biases help to expand viewer demographic thus fulfilling the latter. Bias is inevitable simple because of the nature of the news, human nature and, frankly, because Gladstone asserts such an argument.

-Akaash Agarwal

What responsibilities do media producers have to their consumers?

Media Producers have many responsibilities to uphold to their consumers. The most important responsibility they have is to instill trust. Before becoming a well-known source, media producers need to build a strong growing relationship with the public. If people do not trust the news outlet, they will have no reason to continue watching or paying for that specific program. Why waste time and money to learn falsely reported news? If media producers do not take time to ensure that their consumers trust them, the producers will end up losing consumers and dropping in ratings. People want to watch accurate news. The public does not want to be responsible for spreading a false story that they heard on the news. Naturally, people want to be the most informed first among their peer groups. One gains a sense of self-pride from it. If a news outlet began reporting false stories, their consumers would slowly make the move to another media outlet. Overall, trust is the most important responsibility media producers have to their consumers.

The media producers also have the responsibility to continue providing the public with updates on old news and brand NEW stories as soon as they occur. They have a responsibly to report on stories first before any other news outlet covers it. The faster they report new stories, the more consumers they will gain. For example, on each presidential election night, each news channel is racing to call the results of each state first; however, the media producers must be responsible and careful in what they put on the air. Once put on the air, it can never be revoked. If they are to predict a state wrongly or much later than their competitors, their consumers will be very angry and change the channel. Therefore there is a constant race and battle to be the best and the most accurate.

The media also must be responsible in ensuring that they make their consumers feel safe at all times. This involves interviewing specialists and analysts related to the current crisis that has occurred at the time. This is important in helping to calm the public down after signs of threats or outbursts of crimes or diseases.
- Celine Olcott