I don’t usually read the Sunday New York Times Styles section. This headline, however, caught my attention: Whatever Happened to Mystery? Author Ben Brantley’s thesis is that we live in an age of media over exposure. He rhapsodizes about a simpler time when media constituted film, radio and television, and the occasional paparazzo in vain stalked Jackie Kennedy or Princess Diana. With personal websites, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace and other social media, we and celebrities are exposed to one another 24/7. In a 2010 media world, Greta Garbo could not have burnished her mysterious, sphinx-like image.
Why do we even care about this issue? Mr. Brantley hits on an important point:
“The problem is that, people being people, 24-hour visibility will ultimately breed if not contempt, then weary familiarity. That’s why the tabloids need a new generation of cover girls and boys every year or so, a breeding process facilitated by reality television.”
Media over-exposure leads to boredom, contempt and ultimately disengagement. While Mr. Brantley concentrates on celebrity culture, I worry less about that world and more about our overexposed political and economic culture. Whatever Happened to Mystery?
No Sense of Place
In 1986, Joshua Meyrowitz, now a Professor of Communication at the University of New Hampshire, wrote a profound book, No Sense of Place. Observing the societal effects of television, he looked first at its effect upon children. Television had the ability to expose children to the adult world of secrets. The average soap opera offered a daily peek into sex, adultery, homosexuality, lying and other “secrets” sheltered from children of earlier generations. Second, television broke down gender barriers as women were exposed to sports, war, medicine and other male bastions, and men were exposed to the emotional, private sides of life generally associated with women.
Television, Mystery and Politics
Importantly, Meyrowitz discusses the de-mystification or our political leaders:
…prior to the saturation of television, our political leaders were treated as a “mystified presence,” a status above the common citizen, as it was easier to control the flow of information that represented who they were and what they did. Although television is a useful tool for our politicians in creating this status, it “tends to mute differences between levels of social class.” Meyrowitz terms this “a double-edge sword,” as over exposure of a political leader diminishes his power, with a continuous presence rendering the person more ordinary, with less mystique. Granted, over exposure is difficult to balance with under exposure: without media presence a leader has minimal power, yet with exceeding presence he or she loses power. See Wikipedia entry.
Because of the immediacy of information to all common citizens about all issues, we are now able to closely inspect our leaders’ images, demystifying them as we go.
The white hot intensity of television or film allowed for the presidential victory of a former actor, Ronald Reagan, and probably would have prevented the election of a wheel chair bound Franklin Roosevelt. And who can forget the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of our most populous, most media-saturated state? In his case, can we even separate political power as metaphor or physical reality?
Conversely, television has the power to destroy, as we come to devalue what is overly familiar. The country was ready for Reagan to depart the White House well before the end of his eight years in office.
Obama and the Media
My subjective view is that Obama over communicates. Using a teleprompter, which lessens both spontaneity and credibility, Obama seems to be on television every morning opining about the economy, Afghanistan, the Gulf oil spill, unemployment or some other topic. I also find in his speeches more heat than light, meaning we are getting a lot of verbiage, but not much insight. That I think is the failing of this Administration, the inability to succinctly and candidly educate the public on the need for economic stimulus, health care or financial reform. When one has a torrent of communication from the White House, it is impossible to differentiate the mundane from the meaningful. The public becomes either apathetic or cynical.
Silence is Golden and Effective Too
My father was a war veteran and a quiet man. He always seemed to have many thoughts behind his enigmatic smile. And when he had something to say those around him tended to listen. In matters of discourse, he taught me that less is more.
Meyrowitz pointed out how today a celebrity, even one as beloved as Bill Cosby, could actually last only a short time on television. Perhaps Obama and other celebrities should start ratcheting back their media exposure. Would Roosevelt have discussed the New Deal on ABC’s “The View”?
I don’t need to hear about the latest adventures of the First Dog or the schedule of the First Family’s Acadian vacation, but I do need to know why we are spending trillions of dollars that we do not have, and why the economy is headed for another recession.
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- One Year of Blogging
- Faux Powerlessness
- Abusing the Public’s Trust
- Following the Hurd
- Truth and the Government
Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ben Brantley, Joshua Myerowitz, media, mystery, No Sense of Place, Ronald Reagan
