CSMM 700

Week # 2 Discussion: Pardun & McKee’s ‘Strange Bedfellows: Symbols of Religion and Sexuality on MTV’

Pardun and McKee’s ‘Strange Bedfellows: Symbols of Religion and Sexuality on MTV’ is an interesting study on the use of religious and sexual imagery in rock music videos. The research, which was conducted through content analysis, aims to examine how frequently these images are used at the same time in the same video.

The methodology involved aims to answer two questions: How often is religious imagery used in rock videos? And when religious image is used, is it used alone or is it combined with the use of sexual imagery?

Previous research in this field focused on Madonna, who’s music videos at the time blended both sexual and religious imagery. While this article does make some interesting points it is important to note that the article was published fifteen years ago in 1995.

It would be interesting to take Pardun and McKee’s methodology and apply it to music videos that are featured on MTV today. After reading the author’s literature review, where the authors quote Larson’s description of Madonna as someone who “wears a crucifix around her neck, see-through blouses, and fingerless gloves. She admitted the crucifix was because of her affinity for ‘a sexy man on a cross’ “, I couldn’t help but think of Lady Gaga’s ‘Alejandro’ music video and how this ties into their research.

One can see Madonna’s influence in this video and I would argue that Lady Gaga adds to Madonna’s critique of religion, most notably Christianity’s repressive viewpoints on sexuality and gender. The ‘Alejandro’ video contains scenes of Gaga wearing a nun’s dress made out of red leather, a white hood covered with red crosses, and a ghostly-looking Gaga swallowing a rosary.

Pardun and McKee state in their discussion that the ‘majority of the videos used religious images with no apparent connection to the story line of the music video’. Perhaps sexuality and religion that are found in music videos are simply outlandish ways to express an art-form – or maybe artists in the 1990s were critiquing religion like Lady Gaga is doing today.

Do you feel that displaying images of both sexuality and religion in music videos somehow motivate youth to change their viewpoint on sexuality or religion?

If this study was done today, do you think the research would find that music videos would portray more or less religious and sexual imagery than in 1995?

Link to ‘Alejandro’

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Week # 2 Discussion: Carrie Rentschler’s ‘Expanding the Definition of Media Activism’

Rentschler’s ‘Expanding the Definition of Media Activism’ examines four typologies of media activism: media reform movements, the alternative press, flak, and the use of public relations and news writing techniques. Rentschler examines what these practices are designed to do and how they can effect the media coverage of certain events, such as the national crime and antiviolence social movements.

Rentschler states that media activists want access to media outlets, they want to provide sources for news, and they want to encourage news stories that promote their specific policy agendas. Media watch groups are generally not financially backed by large media organizations because they advocate for media reform and an open, free media. This is troublesome because what media activists actually want is mainstream media attention. Activists will turn to alternative press to get there message out, which is also problematic as people who consume alternative media are already supportive of media reform.

What Rentschler fails to examine is the role that advertising plays in the role of media activism. The author states that media watch groups are resource-poor organizations. I think this is partially due to the fact that alternative media’s messages and ideals do not appeal to advertisers. Advertising is what financially backs big media. Since media advocates occasionally use flak to direct negative responses towards the media, its no wonder of why these organizations are resource poor.

In comparison to media corporations, media activist groups do not have a large following. They have limited reach because they have no money to create or fund media that consumers will actually watch. While Rentschler does address three strategies of media advocacy groups (becoming news sources, training journalists, and synthetic techniques that cut across categories), I feel there should be one more strategy added to this list: creating audiences that will attract advertisers.

With that being said, if media activist groups appealed more to advertisers would their messages appeal more to mass audiences as well?

Finally, will media reform and an open, free media ever exist with advertisers providing financial support for media corporations?