Category Archives: Chapter 2

Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Ralph Hanson

How did Google pass Apple to become world’s most valuable company? Bad question, because most of the time it isn’t – but Google is sometimes.  Investors bullish on Google/Alphabet’s future; wondering what Apple’s next big product will be. Why is … Continue reading →

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Where’s Rey?

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Ralph Hanson

Sitting in my garage is a plastic storage bin full of old Star Wars action figures that belonged at one time to my kids. If you dig through it, there will be Darth Vader, a Luke Skywalker, a Han Solo, … Continue reading →

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Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Ralph Hanson

What’s going to happen now that Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox now owns National Geographic magazine? National Geographic magazine, long known for its serious presentation of complex scientific issues, is now owned by a climate change skeptic.  What could possibly … Continue reading →

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When Words Matter

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Ralph Hanson

The words we use matter intensely.  Sometimes they tell others a lot about who we are.  Sometimes when we use the wrong words we hurt people we hadn’t intended to.  And sometimes we don’t have any idea what the actual … Continue reading →

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Why Media Bias is Complicated

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Ralph Hanson

If you want to ever get involved in a no-win scenario argument about the media, start talking about media bias.  Critics on both the right and the left maintain that there is either a liberal or a conservative bias in … Continue reading →

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Link Ch. 2 – Revisiting Dr. Gerbner and TV Violence

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Ralph Hanson

By and large, most people who aren’t media scholars would be hard pressed to name a single media theorist who isn’t Marshall McLuhan. But the one possible exception would be George Gerbner because of his cultivation theory. Dr. Gerbner testified … Continue reading →

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Link Ch. 2 – Applying the Spiral of Silence to Social Media

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Ralph Hanson

German media scholar Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, with her spiral of silence, has raised the question of why people become unwilling to express what they perceive to be a minority opinion. Central to Noelle-Neumann’s argument is that when people believe they are in … Continue reading →

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Ch. 2 Link – Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and the NSA

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Ralph Hanson

Here are links to several in-depth articles about the NSA whistleblower/leaker Edward Snowden and Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who reported on Snowden’s documents. Snowden and Greenwald: The Men Who Leaked the Secrets Great article by Janet Reitman from Rolling Stone. … Continue reading →

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Talking About Media & Body Image

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Ralph Hanson

This morning in class we’re going to be talking about the connection between body image and how our media portray beauty. I asked my students to take a look at some of my earlier posts about media and body image, … Continue reading →

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Questions Worth Asking (Maybe)

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Ralph Hanson

How are News Corp. and the Fox Group doing post corporate split? Better than expected.  Bigger is increasingly not necessarily better. Is there more than one standard of beauty out there? Increasingly, it looks like the answer is “Yes.”  British … Continue reading →

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