Arthur Berger's main points in the book

What is he trying to get across
The United States is a consumer driven society and therefore advertising is especially important and lucrative in this society.
"Most advertising works, whatever the development process, just because all advertising works"...
"Is the power of advertising and marketing used ethically and for socially constructive purposes."

Notes: tags and attribution

-everything you didn't see with your own two eyes you attribute.

ex) if you discover news about a break in at a location by viewing police records you muct attribute the source.

ex) if you see someone stumbling around seemingly drunk you cannot say "they were drunk," but you can say "they appeared to be intoxicated."



-In general, write about what you see but do not draw your own conclusions

Peter Ellertsen-something learned by having made a mistake

What’s the dumbest thing you have ever done? “I don’t do dumb stuff.” Cause I’m perfect.

Worst thing I ever did..I was writing a story about the county clerk in Anderson County Tenn. He had been charged with official corruption. The states atty presented the evid. To GJ. GJ returned what is known as a no true bill… When written I left out a word…NO.
Were you fired? No
Were you heavily reprimanded? Didn’t have to be…I saw it before everyone else

I convicted the poor SOB of something he wasn’t found guilty of.
What kind of trouble did you get in? I didn’t really. I felt bad enough. They couldn’t make me feel any worse.

How old were you? Early twenties.

Where did you work? Oak Ridger. Daily paper in Tenn.

What kind of response came from the mistake? It made it out to the street…we ran a big correction the next day. I had to write the correction. Maybe the hardest hing I’ve ever written.

What did you learn? That’s a tough one…maybe that you should never think your so good or get so busy that you don’t look over your stuff to make sure you didn’t do something really really dumb.

Not since 1991. That’s when I left the newspaper business. You always make mistakes and you keep learningfrom them. Usually if you correct it right away…people will let you screw up once.

I left in 91 to work for the state treasurer. Did public relations for a couple of years and then began teaching. I still make mistakes and I still go back and try to fix them

Instructor in journalism at SCI

Courthouse reporter at Oak Ridger

NUT GRAF: main point,

Assignment for 209 (2/20/09)

750-1000 word story due Monday
Interview a classmate
Write a profile of the classmate using an incident in their life that caused them to learn something from really screwing up...learned something good from having messed up or experienced something bad
Get background information
-Name
-Age
-Current Work
-Where they are from
Ask evergreen questions to find out more about their personality

How to Interview effectively

1) Ask questions that start with "what" or 'why." These questions often promote more dialogue from the speaker rather than answers consisting of simple "yes" and "no."
2) Ask for examples
3) Coax the interviewee by prompting them to continue with words like "and..."
4) Get people to open up with evergreen questions. These questions help you to understand your speaker on a deeper level and can help you to add a unique perspective to your story
5) Don't be afraid to slow the speaker down and take them back over things they have already said
6) Always stay neutral

7 not so deady sins--What makes something newsworthy?

Impact
Timeliness
Prominence
Proximity
Conflict
Weirdness
Currency

Which came first, demographics or pop culture?

Demographics are the categories used to group people for marketing purposes. Demographics can include, but are not limited to; age, generation, race, religion, economic status, marital status, child rearing status, education, and location. These factors are very important to advertising. Ad/marketing researchers use these categories to try to increase the success of their advertisements by concentrating their efforts on a very specific group of people. Where ads are placed and what stations they run on is not accidental. Advertisers attempt to place their ads in a place where their target audience will be most exposed to them. The ads are designed to impact this specific primary audience. As an overall rule, most ads are constructed to appeal to the lower to middle upper class because they represent the purchasing power of the majority of the products that are being marketed, however this large group is broken down into sub categories as mentioned above for the purpose of specific target marketing.

I feel that the American idea of demographics significantly affects pop culture, or more accurately, they affect one another. It is a question of "which came first..." and more often than not, there is no correct answer. It stands to reason that they influence each other and feed off one another in a cyclical and symbiotic sort of relationship.