It is increasingly obvious that corporate media is vapid and bland, but this homogenizing influence - extending beyond simplistic 'content' - may require closer consideration. A familiar echo of Huxley's "hypnopaedia" in Brave New World, nationwide repetition of calculated slogans and phrases works to discourage consciousness and support the
status quo.
Corporate radio programming is oriented towards an increasingly devalued "workforce" and is meant to remind us of our place in US plutocracy and how fortunate we are to receive the corporate blessing of a "50-minute music hour." It's not enough that corporations want to copyright our language, now they are redefining our measurement and experience of time.
Corporate media monopoly assures ongoing hype about the contributions to America that corporations have made, obscuring their 'externalized' costs while subtly implying that we could never live without them. A closer look at corporate history reveals a consistent pattern of greed, incompetence and crime - and massive public subsidy. Additionally, it is not hard to prove that corporate diversion of public funds is a central reason Americans don't enjoy the same level of social services as many other industrialized countries do. Non-commercial public access to broadcast media should be one of those subsidized social services as in the idea of a citizen run independent public broadcasting trust.
As a playful antidote and response to the dullness of corporate gruel, I'd like to invite participation in a little project. Inspired by Marshall McLuhan's audio collage "The Medium is the Massage," one of the projects I have in mind for my research is the composition of an audio collage of snippets from corporate radio stations all over the US - slogans, jingles, catchphrases...any of the hypnopaedic mantras repeated thousands of times a day on the airwaves. I would like to take these and compose them in an audio collage that will not only amuse, but powerfully demonstrate one problem with monopoly broadcasting.
Corporate radio programming is oriented towards an increasingly devalued "workforce" and is meant to remind us of our place in US plutocracy and how fortunate we are to receive the corporate blessing of a "50-minute music hour." It's not enough that corporations want to copyright our language, now they are redefining our measurement and experience of time.
Corporate media monopoly assures ongoing hype about the contributions to America that corporations have made, obscuring their 'externalized' costs while subtly implying that we could never live without them. A closer look at corporate history reveals a consistent pattern of greed, incompetence and crime - and massive public subsidy. Additionally, it is not hard to prove that corporate diversion of public funds is a central reason Americans don't enjoy the same level of social services as many other industrialized countries do. Non-commercial public access to broadcast media should be one of those subsidized social services as in the idea of a citizen run independent public broadcasting trust.
As a playful antidote and response to the dullness of corporate gruel, I'd like to invite participation in a little project. Inspired by Marshall McLuhan's audio collage "The Medium is the Massage," one of the projects I have in mind for my research is the composition of an audio collage of snippets from corporate radio stations all over the US - slogans, jingles, catchphrases...any of the hypnopaedic mantras repeated thousands of times a day on the airwaves. I would like to take these and compose them in an audio collage that will not only amuse, but powerfully demonstrate one problem with monopoly broadcasting.
Feel free to send me your suggestions & submissions!
1 comment:
Given the amount of commercial music stations, an easy and obvious one would be the sound of different DJ's playing all the same music.
Or the same DJ announcing the same songs on different days.
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