Annotated Bibliography

Frank, T. (1997). The conquest of cool: Business culture, counterculture, and the rise of hip consumerism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Providing a good overview of the interplay between big businesses and counter cultural groups, Frank describes how corporate cultures adopt or co-opt the tactics of counter cultural groups. The book makes the assertion that oftentimes resistance and "revolution" came from within the corporations themselves, counter to the conventional notions of rebels originating outside the system. Though somewhat dated, with an emphasis of marketing campaigns of the 1960s, it's easy to see parallels to practices today. I'm looking forward to reading Frank's One Market Under God, which should have more contemporary examples.

Frank, T. (2009). "The Tilting Yard: Dissent Commodified." Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, 254(42), A13.
While not a peer-reviewed article, I was searching for more current writing from Thomas Frank, whose Conquest of Cool I very much enjoyed, and came upon this brief article. In it, Frank successfully merges the ideas of Heath and Potter, who explain counter cultural groups as outgrowths of capitalism, with the notions of Klein, who bemoan society's lost of authenticity in its struggle for conformity. Frank's reflection aligns with what most people probably already believe: American culture is becoming increasingly inauthentic, and corporations aren't helping any.

Halnon, K. (2002). Poor chic: The rational consumption of poverty. Current Sociology, 50(4), 501.
Karen Halnon explores how some trends celebrate lower class living, what she calls "poor chic." She cites a host of examples in which companies have profited off of symbols of poverty, such as expensive hosiery that comes already torn or bowling shoes which cost more than one hundred dollars (502). These symbols can be viewed as distortions of reality in that they can be correlated with poverty (such as homelessness) but may also be "representations" without any basis in actuality. Consumers purchase "lifestyle symbols" as a way to identify themselves as cultural experts. Doing so also objectifies the lifestyle of poverty, making it distinctly separate and therefore safe from other class residents.

Halnon, K. (2005). Alienation incorporated: F*** the mainstream music in the mainstream. Current Sociology, 53(4), 441.
Similar to a previous article review I did of the same author, this article expands on the effect of shock music in youth culture. For youth who reject commercialism but are not willing to commit to a severely alternative lifestyle, high underground music offers a light way to engage in cultural resistance. According to Halnon, such artists as Eminem or Marilyn Manson offer youth a way to engage with authenticity. This music is also a way for businesses to commodify rebellion, though fans generally reject musical bands once they become commercialized and are promoted through avenues like MTV.

Halnon, K. (2005). Muscles, motorcycles, and tattoos: Gentrification in a new frontier. Journal of Consumer Culture, 6, 33.
Gentrification, the planned rehabilitation of lower class neighborhoods, can be considered a way for middle class residents to consider themselves "aesthetic consumers" of culture (36). However, Halnon rejects this lifestyle consumption theory, arguing instead that gentrification often serves as a way for people to fulfill personal needs. Similarly, people indulging in what she labels MMT's (muscles,
motorcycles, and tattoos) similarly experience a sort of gentrification. When middle or upper-middle class people begin adopting what used to be symbols of lower class livelihood, their motivations may be more sophisticated than the simple desire to seem like cultural savants.

Harold, C. (1999). Tracking heroin chic: The abject body reconfigures the rational argument. Argumentation and Advocacy, 36(2), 65.

While many decry the use of heroin chic as an unhealthy celebration of an alternative lifestyle, Christine Harold notes the trend's value in that it destabilizes standard norms of beauty. Portraying drugged-out models in dingy apartments serves as a cultural transgression, and in this sense heroin chic  - even when it's published through mainstream businesses - serves as a way to get the audience to become more critical of the images they consume.

Harold, C. (2009). Ourspace: Resisting the Corporate Control of Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
This book provides a great overview of culture jamming and its various methods. Harold begins with an explanation of the Situationalist ideology, the resistance movement that originated in France in the early twentieth century and which was based on detournement. She then explores modern day examples of detournement through the use of parody in public spaces, anti-brands, and computer pranks. Through all these examples, Harold considers how artists manipulate messages to get audiences to critically evaluate the media usually consumed.


Heath, J., & Potter, A. (2006). The Rebel Sell: How the Counter Culture Became Consumer Culture. Capstone.
In contrast to Klein's belief that counter cultural groups serve as important sites of resistance (see No logo, below), Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter claim that so-called counter cultural movements are a natural outgrowth of capitalism. The driving force of capitalism is competition, and the popularity of anti-consumer products is a testament to their ability to define themselves as distinct and unique, not rebellious. The way people generally think about counter cultures, therefore, is all wrong. Rather than thinking about counter cultural groups as rebels against the corporate man, we should think of them as niches of the larger capitalistic system.

Klein, N. (2000). No logo: Taking aim at the brand bullies. Canada: Knopf.
In this book, Naomi Klein critiques the use of branding, arguing that while businesses once marketed products, they now market brands, or certain ways of life. She further explains how marketing strategies harm the individual citizen. Anti-consumerism groups and culture jamming, she says, play a valuable role in creating an informed individual and resisting the negative tides of commercialism.

Murphy, J. (2001). Mikhail Bakhtin and the rhetorical tradition. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 87(3), 259.
Useful for his introduction to Michail Bakhtin, Murphy explores the semantic implications of "rhetoric," concluding that although Mikhail Bakhtin denounced the use of rhetoric as a manipulative practice, rhetorical scholars can be informed by his claims within "Discourse in the Novel." The power of rhetoric, argues Murphy, lies in its ability to persuade and define situations. Rhetoric is a social process, and so issues of rhetorical tradition are ultimately valuable in that they actually offer a variety of viewpoints.

Lippman vs. Dewey

According to Lippmann, Americans don't have the capacity to understand the sophisticated, nuanced elements of their environments. They don't have enough time to study public affairs, they must contend with censorship, they have limited social contacts, they have preexisting bias to deal with, etc, etc. As such, they resort to simplistic "pictures in their heads," or stereotypes, to manage their worlds. Lippmann posits that the press often provides people with these pictures, and as such helps people navigate the relationships with their "unseen environment" (320).

Unfortunately, the press is not designed to provide Americans with accurate mental images. Like any other business, news agencies need revenues to stay afloat. To survive, they must cater to advertisers. They must attract and maintain readers to provide audiences for their audiences. And this is accomplished by standardizing issues or signaling events without explanation, not by offering truthful depictions of the world. As a result, publics are left largely uninformed. They can't seek out their own truthful information, and the press isn't giving it to them. Lippmann wonders if a public even exists, so woefully inadequate is the American ability to make sensible, unified decisions. He advocates for "intelligence agencies" instead, groups of scientific experts that advise the government. Democracy requires informed publics, and to save democracy the government must first rely on accurate information.

Dewey argues that a public does exist, it just happens to be a bit "bewildered." While he agrees with Lippmann that the American world is becoming increasingly complex, and that business interests do have the potential to manipulate the news, Dewey argued against the inability of American people to thoughtfully participate in their government. If they are not well-informed, it is because the media has yet to be reformed. Democracy by nature should be participatory, and a group of intellectuals that advise decision-makers smacks of elitism. What is the government made up of, if not its people? Dewey held hope that the media could be reformed to support the formation of well-reasoned public opinion.

Neither Lippman nor Dewey lived long enough to see how communication technologies have refined what the news is and how its effects are mediated. If they had, Lippman may have restored his faith in humanity and Dewey may have felt a bit smug. " To start, Lippmann's described constraints of time, social connections, and censorship have since been mitigated by the internet. While it previously took up a lot of time to research the intricacies of policy, computer users can now Google summaries of particular plans in a matter of seconds. While Lippmann's contemporaries may have lacked the social connections that kept them informed, current sites like Facebook and Linkedin.com ensure that people can reach out to those with particular knowledge and skill.

Finally, journalism is no longer limited to professionals working for big businesses. Any individual can format a blog in a matter of minutes, or post a comment to a corporate news story for all to see. Audiences are no longer the victim of standardized media messages, but are privy to a wide variety of sources and perspectives. Lippman feared the news would never be able to provide the "truths" necessary for democratic debate; now the public is inundated with a number of different truths. Those participating in public affairs have a myriad of sources of information, as well as thoughtful interpretation, at their disposal.

Both Dewey and Lippmann held that the purpose of the news was to inform the public. As it relates to democracy, they recognized that the news wasn't informing the public very well. Dewey held hope for reform; Lippmann didn't. But neither could anticipate the way news would change fundamentally. It is longer a unidirectional flow of information, but comprises all the different ways people send information to each other. If such a change can be considered "reform," then Dewey seems to have won the debate.

72 hour television ban

Photo Credit: Early Visual Media Archeology

I wasn't too worried about experiencing television withdrawal during last week's 72-hour-ban on moving pictures. Throughout the week my schedule doesn't allow for too much tv time. I already get my news from NPR each morning (I've got a pretty long commute) or I check the BBC website in between emails. So I wasn't feeling disoriented or out-of-touch, at least, not more than usual. I do watch television, but it's usually limited to Dr. Who marathons or Hulu broadcasts of Modern Family during the weekend. My husband watches practically no television, and my friends are all hippies who haven't had a television since they gave up meat in the 80s. Or they're self-proclaimed academics who hide their televisions behind tasteful antique armoirs when they're not watching C-SPAN. Either way, they claim they don't watch tv, and they certainly don't talk about watching tv. So I felt no pressure to watch myself during the past week.

I had more trouble avoiding YouTube videos. One classmate wanted to show me a clip about Miami during an evening course. Twice, my husband wanted to show me a guitar demo; I had to content myself with listening from the other side of his laptop. Even I thought I might want to check out a clip that demonstrates how a teacher might annotate a paragraph, which would have fallen under the purely-educational-and-therefore-exempted-from-the-ban category. The benefit of moving pictures is that you can see what's going on. While a page about how to code a passage might be useful, it can also be vague if the topic is unfamiliar. How helpful it would be, I thought, to see something in action. To see how a process is executed, and how the parts work in relation to each other. Ultimately, I couldn't find a clip about annotating texts, but it did contemplate for a moment about the utility of moving pictures.

Of course, I realize that a lot of moving images are also pretty useless. And it was also online where I noticed how advertisements, pretty devoid of substance unless you count the motive to get us to buy something, often straddle the line between moving pictures and still images. When visiting the IKEA website, for instance, I was met with swirling graphics as price values danced over pieces of furniture. Was this a "movie"? Should I avert my eyes? It only lasted for a few seconds before the photograph stilled, but it still made me feel guilty. I had a similar experience with an Expedia page. While I had expected to be bombarded with film images in my everyday surroundings, I'm not sure that prediction panned out. It was in my cyber-environments, instead, where I felt the sneaky movements of film media.

Now, I don't want to give the impression that the tv ban was wholly uneventful. It was a bit tricky on Friday evening, when my husband suggested we watch a movie that evening. I told him no, the 72 hours didn't end until midnight on Friday. Then I started making excuses: "Although, technically, I haven't been watching any television since Monday morning. So I've gone above and beyond the 72 hour limit. The point, after all, it to go a certain time frame without watching television."

"Nope," my husband countered. "Monday doesn't count because you had the option to watch television, if you wanted to. The point is that its absence should have an effect."

So we didn't go out to watch a movie. We went shopping instead. And yes, I realize that we essentially replaced one form of consumerism with another, more expensive, one. Which probably goes to show that I'm not being persuaded to buy things from television or movie messages. I didn't switch the kind of media I consume because I already spend hours online each day. And it's more likely that's the place I'm being influenced from.