Home Improvement

     As I was looking at all of the information on Fractracker.org, some things stood out. The image gallery really grabs your attention and makes it hard to ignore what hydraulic fracturing is doing to communities around the country. Facts, data, reports, or research studies are fine, but people cling to images. Pictures capture scenes that are hard to express with words alone.

       The fracking process rips into the ground, tears apart rock formations, and blasts harmful chemicals into the void. A similar process is mirrored above ground. The drilling teams rip apart forests, tear apart serene wilderness, and spread harmful chemicals across acres of a drilling site. This is natural beauty destroyed by human intervention. Theses are large swaths of pristine forest we should preserve for future generations, ravaged by the pursuit of profits.Why should we stand up to stop this now? Fracking joins capitalism as something that "destroys your water, your air, and your food" (Seitz).  Capitalism has done the same thing to the country for our entire lives. The system in place won't stop until the top 1% holds 100% of the wealth. Here we can sleep easy, because fracking will stop just as soon as the natural gas is gone and your community is unlivable. Chesapeake Energy will leave the land once it is of no use to anyone or anything. But don't worry. Here is their plan to make it all better.

       They'll reduce the zone of devastation above ground to a measly acre. They'll make the area pretty by putting dirt back and making roads better than before. This is to mention nothing of the long term impact to groundwater and all of the chemicals left underground.
     They aren't the only gigantic corporation to step up and try to make us feel good as they obliterate the environment. Exxon Mobil is an ever-present figure in the fracking game. Any search of hydraulic fracturing on YouTube is greeted by Exxon videos at the top and bottom of the results. Take a look at the rest of their video library and things get disturbing. Many of the pro-Marcellus Shale exploration videos claim the energy found here will release us of our dependence on "foreign oil". Foreign, in this instance, is always evil. It always seems to imply the money we spend on oil imports goes directly to the pockets of terrorists and radicals. Maybe it goes to Canadian terrorists and radicals. Canada is our top supplier of oil after all. This mad grab for energy at any cost is global too. The Exxon YouTube page has videos in other languages, targeting potential victims across the globe. Of course, no hydraulic fracturing commercial would be complete without mentioning our current economic situation. Don't fret, the same large corporations,bankers, and wealthy elites who helped ruin the economy will now save us with their divine mercy.  Never fear. We wrecked your financial system, but you can have a few jobs back as long as you don't mind destroying your environment and community. A few of you can get off of unemployment if you give us "a five-year option to drill among the headstones of the faithful departed" (Seitz).
     Who will save us? Chomsky shows us that these important issues will never make it into the media's agenda. There are small, local efforts to educate people about fracking, but raise your hand if you listen to The Allegheny Front or watch fracking documentaries. Wait. Governor Corbett is stepping up to fight for us.

     Maybe this was an elaborate joke of some kind by Mr. Corbett. It is quite funny. He starts by telling us that drilling for natural gas impacts communities and the area around the sites. He knows, he's been there. Yet, instead of mentioning one single chemical people are exposed to in this process or raising one single environmental concern, he manages to make "impact" into a good thing. The drilling sites impact the area, but it's only an increase in school attendance because of all the glorious jobs fracking provides. Move over Tim Allen, Tom Corbett is now the funniest man in America. Maybe he isn't funny. He's just really good at his job: serving the interests of the myriad of energy companies who, in one way or another, gave his campaign massive sums of money.

Works Cited

Seitz, Daivd. "The Sacred and the Propane." Explosion Proof. 01 Jan 2011:11-14. Print.

If No News Is Good News, Then WPXI Is Great!

Viewing Log:

WPXI
Saturday October 15, 2011
11:00 PM to 11:30 PM

Top Story-- Occupy Pittsburgh (3:30)

• Reporter in field
• "Man-on-street" interviews (how are theses people selected?)
• Highlights good of capitalism

Collections for slain officer

• Tribute to officer
• Field reporter again
• Quick cuts (constant change, short attention span?)
• Community coming together, police force is "good"

"Breaking News" (:20)

• House fire (does this count as breaking?)

Severe Weather

• Wind damage
• More quick cuts
• How severe is this?
• Trying desperately to make this a story

Severe Weather Center 11

• Wind speeds
• Always called severe weather center, makes it sound more important
• Temperatures
• Forecast

New at 11

• Man in hospital after shooting
• Person thrown from car
• Apartment fire
• These get a few seconds of airtime each (few sentences at most)
• How is this helpful? Why not say more about fewer topics?

Black and Gold Zone (:30)

• Stats
• Player Interviews
• In-show plug for another WPXI show

Stimulus Money

• Spent Overseas
• Yet another story reduced to a few sentences

Commercial Break #1

• Sears
• Huntington
• Trane
• Chrystler/Dodge
• How do these company's fit here? Who are they trying to reach?

Construction Projects

• Lane Restrictions

Hit and Run (:10)

*Logo and music played throughout ("News Coverage You Can Count On")*

Occupy Pittsburgh-- Again

• This segment seems to praise companies for not taking action against protesters

Man Organizes Own Protest

• Socialism and its role in country

Occupy Wall Street

Severe Weather Team Forecast

• Wind-- Again
• Wind speeds-- Again
• Forecast for night-- Again
• Hour by Hour forecast
• *this is more in depth than almost any other segment*
• Game forecast
• *One of the longest segments too*
• Timeline
• 5 Day forecast

Commercial Break #2

• Judge Judy
• Sheetz
• Toyota
• WPXI Weather commercial

Bethel Park Teacher's Union

Sports (3:30)

• Penguins lose
• Detailed highlights
• Player's talk
• Pitt's season
• Todd Graham and players talk
• Penn State Highlight

Black and Gold Zone-- Again

• Players speak

Commercial Break #3

• Highmark
• Jeep
• IUP
• Highmark-- Again

Bridge Jump

END


     We talked in class about the fact that people know very little about the world around them. We took a quiz and people could describe Kim Kardashian's wedding, but they could not identify the governor of Pennsylvania. I thought that this was the result of living in a society full of morons. While that is still true, I now see that there are other factors at work. If a person wanted to learn more about the world, one of the first places they would turn would be to the local news. Indeed, many people still tune into local newscasts as their primary source of information about their city, state, or country. No thought could be scarier after just one viewing of WPXI's 11:00 PM broadcast.
     The viewer is greeted by the theme music and logos that explain that this is "News Coverage You Can Count On". This is in stark contrast to often frightening story lines emphasized by the news. The world is an awful place, but sit down in the comfort of your home with our trusted news team and we'll tell you all about it. You can count on us. The top story of the night is your only hope for any depth of coverage, but even this barely qualifies as an overview. Tonight, we are treated to news on Occupy Pittsburgh, protests against Wall Street, and frustration with the economy as a whole. WPXI's field reporter describes the protests as the audience watches quick cuts between action shots. Then there are interviews with the average person on the street. Mind you, these people are chosen by the news team and their comments are cleared before they make it on the air. WPXI manages to find a person at the rally who is quick to state that the movement is "pleased with capitalism as a whole". How convenient. WPXI is an NBC affiliate. NBC is a huge conglomerate owned by GE. How convenient that a news program owned by a huge corporation would find ways to praise the system that allows huge companies to assume such power. In fact, the whole half hour played like a long commercial: no substance, selling other WPXI programs, and very brief. It would be hard to learn anything other than "buy, buy, buy" from stories so brief. Sports coverage clocked in at three minutes and thirty seconds, plus other sports related stories mentioned outside of the true sports segment. Weather had not one, but two segments devoted to its content. Sports and weather must make us better citizens. Sports and weather must allow us to be more involved in our community. Want to hear more about the teachers' union negotiations in Bethel Park? Good luck catching the few sentences devoted to that topic. In the span of thirty seconds or less, the anchor read a list of stories that included a shooting, a person being thrown from a car, and an apartment fire. That's about ten seconds per story. Ten seconds. That's enough time to scare someone, but not enough to inform them to any degree. NPR might devote five minutes or more to one story. The PBS series Frontline uses an entire hour to cover stories in depth. If Noam Chomsky and the Manufacturing Consent documentary dealt with oversimplification in mass media and other problem of the sort, they have an excellent example in WPXI's news at 11.

Puppies Sitting In A Wagon

     There is no escaping the "ad clutter", not anymore. As a society, as a culture, we have moved to a place of constant connection. With smart phones, tablet computers, and other new technology we can be reached anywhere, anytime. This means advertisers can reach us at all times as well. New tech joins a long list of old techniques companies have used to sell us things we don't need. As I sit in my room, there are not too many ads to be counted, just a few shoe logos and the like. Oh, wait! What's this? A computer and a television set, you say? Through the Interweb and cable television, we invite advertisements into our homes. Want to watch the local news? Well, here are seven ads for things to make you beautiful. Want to reach a website with information about your favorite European sporting club? Well, here are six ads for products to make you fit in. You can't even watch a Youtube clip without being forced to sit through the covertly racist and sexist ads from corporate America. No one is safe. This is where we come to the puppies and their wagon.

 They may look safe in there, but advertisers are going after your dog next, since humans have learned to ignore the "ad clutter" the best they can. Beneful, the dog food company, has designed an ad aimed directly at Fido. It uses high pitched tones only dogs can hear. You see Spot flipping out when the commercial comes on, assume he/she wants the Beneful, and buy it without thinking. All of this is a step on the road to a company's ultimate goal. They want "loyalty without thinking", as we saw in the video shown in class. Shocking. They use studies of cult behavior to improve their techniques. Even more shocking and hard to stomach.
     What is the end-point here? Does power ever swing back to the consumer/citizen? Will anything be done to stop this war on the public? No, probably not. Not as long as people continue to buy in a zombie-like trance. Not as long as we allow Facebook, Google, and thousands of other entities to collect, sell and distribute our personal information as they see fit. Then they spit it back at us in the form of ads for the latest hip products. There is no escaping the "add clutter", not anymore.

 
     

Sex Sells and So Does Sexism

     Here is an advertisement that won't really cause much of a stir with most people who view it.

     Look! There is another sexy woman used to sell a product. Does it really even matter what the product is anymore? It seems as though advertisers will use sex to get us to buy anything. Yet, this ad is sending other messages too. The man's stance is one of power and dominance over the helpless damsel. The man is fully dressed in a suit, which indicates that he is successful in business or his chosen profession. The ad for vodka eliminates any value the woman may have had. It depicts a powerful man providing alcohol for a lazy woman with nothing better to do than sit around on a nameless, sun-drenched beach. This message is harmful to those who view it. We begin to see this image as normal. Man towers over woman, because this ad and countless others like it proclaim it to be so. The public is fed and becomes used to this scenario because a "complex set of interlocking enterprises that have disproportionate" amounts of money and power display it as truth (West). Huge corporations tell the masses how to feel and how to think over time through advertisements and other media messages so subtle we cannot resist them.
     Here is an advertisement that would cause even less of a stir.

      This man is paraded around to sell a product, with his body shown as his only asset of any worth. The same rules apply in this case. This degrades the value of men. Such advertisements put this image of what it means to be a man in the minds of unsuspecting people. Suddenly, every man is expected to have sculpted abs, buff biceps, and a sultry look on his face. It is important that we talk about mass media issues that impact various groups in the world. We need to discuss the plight of women, racial minorities or anyone else done a disservice by multinational corporations who control institutions too numerous to count. Still, I fear that sometimes these conversations do more to divide us than anything else. Don't the "waters of despair and dread that now flood down the streets of black America" also lap the doorsteps of other groups (West)? We are all human beings, and while our struggles are all different in ways, we all feel the pains of life. We should stand united against the institutions that surely stand united against us. Every human being is a target of their greed and manipulation. The more we squabble about what makes us different, the more ineffective we become against their advances. 

Works Cited:

West, Cornel. Race Matters. Beacon Pr, 2001. Web.