A Meaningful Gift.,. CKronicle Yourgift to UBC means a greatdeal. For Volume 34, Number 3 Autumn 1980 example, these students receivedalumni FEATURES finded scholarships and bursaries.. .. 4 PRIORITIES OF THE MEDIAvs. PRIORITIES OF THE PUBLIC Fred Fletcher "This bursary means a great dealto me. As a single 8 TELEVISION IS NOT CHILD'S PLAY Dona Sturmanis parent with four children, I found it difficult to obtain a part-time job. My income and financial 10 THE UBYSSEY'S MEDIA MAFIA circumstances were at rock-bottom. I will do my . Product of "The Vilest Rag You Can Imagine" Clive Cocking utmost to maintain your belief in my abilities." Susan, Social Work 3 18 UBC JOURNALISM: More Than aPossibility Susan Jamieson- Mc Larnon 19 BURPY AND HIS IVY-COVERED "My GageBursary helped agreat deal with my LINOTYPE education. It's nice to know somebody cares!" Ron Riter Moya, Arts 2 DEPARTMENTS 21 NEWS "It's a greathonor to be a recipient of a Non&~n 26 SPOTLIGHT 30 CHRONICLE CLASSIFIED MacKenzie Alumni Schdarship. I hope that I can live up to the exppctatbnsthat such an award Editor's NoteThis issuelooks at the media from a UBC view- point:the changing impact of themedia on Canadian life; carries." whatever happened to the graduates of the Ubyssey? - the < '1. ,. best student newspaper west of Blanca - and possibly any- -, Gharles, Scimce I where;the life andtimes of a weekly newspaperowner/ publisher/editor. and a campus research project measuring the effectsof television on children. The deedsof our media - printed and electronic- seem to be more often damned than praised. The Chronicle would be pleasedto hear your views. EDITOR Susan Jamieson-McLarnon, BA'65 PRODUCTION EDITOR Christopher J. Miller (EA, Queen's) COVER Peter Lynde Editorial Committee Nancy Woo, BA'69, Chair; MichaelW. Hunter, BA'63, LLB'67; Alison Beaumont; Marcia Boyd, MA'75; Peter Jones; Murray McMillan; Bel Nemetz, BA'35;Nick Omelusik, BA'64. BLS'66; DavidRichardson, BCom'71; Lorraine Shore, BA'67; Art Stevenson, BASc'66; El Jean Wilson. ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES Alumni Media: Vancouver (604) 688-681 9 Toronto (416) 781-6661 By special arrangement this issue of the Chronicle car- ries as an insert an alumni edition of UBC Reports, the university administration's campuspublication. The UBC information office has responsibility for the edito- rial content and production of UBC Reports. ISSN 0041-4999 Publlshed quarterly by theAlumna Assoclatbon of the Unlverslty of Erltlsh Columbia. Vancouver, Canada The copyrlght of all contents IS reglstered BUSINESS AND EDITORIAL OFFICES: Cecll Green Park, 6251 Cecll Green Park Road. Vancouver. B C V6T 1x8 (604)-228-3313SUBSCRIPTIONS: The Alurnnl Chronicle IS sent to all alurnnlof the unwerstty Subscrlptlons are avallableat $5 a year. student subscrlptlons $1 a yearADDRESS CHANGES: Send new address wlth old address label11 avallable. to UEC Alurnnl Records, 6251 Cecll Green Park Road. Vancouver. B C V6T 1 X8 Return Requested Postage pald at the Thlrd Class rate PermltNo 431 1 Member, Counclllor the Advancement and Supportof Educatlon Indexed In Canadlan Educatlon Index A i-Priorities of the Media “If a mnwere pemzitittd to mke all the ballads, he need not care wh shauld mke the laws of a nation.” -Andrew Fletcher, 1704 oday, it is the mass mediathat makes beliefs andperspectives thatare com- tion, specific programs speakto particular theballads. They present the municated to the citizenry. audiences. For example,teenagers use minstrels,gossips, preachers, The importance of thisgatekeeping radio to tap intoa distinctive subculture, teachers, and salesmen to massive audi- function derives in large part fromthe fact in which rock music promotes values an- ences. Television permitsmore people that the decisions are not random. The tithetical to the mainstream, such as drug than ever before to have accessto the same gatekeepers tend to share certain assump- use and a generally hedonistic attitude to event or artistic experiencesimultanr- tionsabout what constitutesacceptable life. ously. media content. Some ideas andimages In general, however, the media tend to It is the capacity of the mass media - have a better chance of gaining access to reinforce the dominant institutional and newspapers, magazines, radio, film, tele- the large media audiences than others. cultural patterns of authority. By setting vision - to reach such large audiences The gatekeepers tend to share certain the limits to public debate, for example, and to select which ideas and images will professional assumptions about what will theytend toexclude most arguments be communicatedto the population at attract audiences and what each medium which challenge the status quo, whether large whichgives themsuch potential requires. While television stresses visual from the left or from the right. Even as power. dynamism and radio brevity,all the major mild a challenge as that mounted by the In large part,the media form our media tend to prefer the immediate, the New Democratic Party is too much for psychic environment, especially with re- personal and the concreteto long-term many editors. Only four times in Cana- spect to matters beyond our direct per- processes or abstractideas. Media con- dian history has a major daily newspaper sonal experience. We spend many hours sumersare conditioned to accept these endorsed the NDP. each week withradio as background standards as well. The media cling to the “extreme mid- sound, with newspapers for information, In Canada, the key decisions regarding dle” of the political and social spectrum and with television forentertainment. news, entertainment and advertising tend not so much because theirowners and Television viewing, for example, takesup to be made in Toronto, Montreal and Ot- managers are tied in with the country’s more of the average Canadian’s time than tawa by middle class anglo-Celtic men and power structure (though such ties have anything but work and sleep. to reflect the fashions current in those been well-documented) but because their In the processof selling entertainment, centres, despite the existence of identifi- profits depend upon attractingmass audi- information and commercialproducts, able UBC, Manitobaand Maritimes ences andmass values tend to be middleof the media also sell a view of the world. “mafias” (plus a large but declining con- the road. While informing and entertainingus, “the tingent of British imports). While communications theorists gener- media...define what is normal and re- In trying to attract audiences to sell to ally agree that the media are a major influ- spectable in a society, what is debatable advertisers (or, in the case of the CBC, to ence in modernsociety, researchers seek- and what is beyond discussion by decent, convinceparliament of itsworth), the ing to chart this influence have run into responsible citizens,” as Anthony Westell media incidentally help to shape the val- what has come to be called “the obstinate put it in The New Society. By choosing ues of society. They provide role models, audience.” Audiences, researchersfound, among thevast array of news items, drama images of reality, subjects for conversa- select what they will take from the media scripts, and so on, key media personnel tion, things to worry about and informa- according to their already established in- play an importantrole in determining the tion for the general population. In addi- terestsand values and often misun- ChronicleiAurumn 1980 5 “People use the mdiu to serue thew own needs. They are not passive cmms,easily ‘brainwashed’.. .99 derstand messages which contradict their deal of incidental learningwhen we watch strongly held views. People use the media a television program. We absorb,often to serve their own needs. They are not withoutbeing conscious of it, norms passive consumers, easily “brainwashed” about appropriate dress, the proper rela- to buy a new product oraccept a new idea. tionships between the sexes, dealing with Conspiracy theories, which attributed authority, andso on. A recent study found vast malevolent influence tothe media that Canadian television commercials use through subliminal advertising, systema- white actors almost exclusively, suggest- tic slanting of the news or whatever, have ing that tobe a real Canadian one mustbe tended to evaporate underscrutiny, to be white. replaced by theories which recognize the At a deeper level, a case can be made subtleties of media influence. Although it that themedia influence the way we think has proved difficult to measure the exact as well as what we think about. It is not dimensions of influence, it is not credible excessively McLuhanesqueto suggest that the media could effectively sell pro- that the techniques used by television to ductsthrough advertising and yethave attract and hold attention - rapid pace, little influence on public attitudes ingen- stress on action rather than words, quick eral, as theyhave frequently claimed changes of scene and perspective, drama- when under investigation. tic flashbacks - tend to be antithetical to On a longer term basis, historians have sequential logic and thoughtful considera- been able to trace the influence of new tion of issues. These techniques are in- technologies - from the printing press to creasingly used in presenting news and television - onthe ways inwhich public affairs programs as well as drama. societiesorganize themselves. Political There is, in fact, a growing tendency to scientists believe that the media play an present problems as caused not by social important role communicating social and situations but rather by identifiable vil- politicalvalues, images of authority, lains and tosuggest that theycan be solved awareness of domestic political issues and by siding with the good guys. a sense of shared identity and common Theobsession of themedia with future. Researchshows that even those novelty is also significant. Media recogni- who pay little attention to themedia tend tion and repetition rapidly legitimizes new to share in the values and priorities they ideas. In fact, themedia, especially televi- present, partly because they influencethe sion, use up new ideas very quickly, so general environment and partly because that lastyear’s radical challenge tothe they reflect it.