Michael Tracey - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Michael Tracey

One of the lingering issues for journalism is the continuing problem of unethical practices in pu... more One of the lingering issues for journalism is the continuing problem of unethical practices in pursuing stories. This essay looks at this issue by considering the way in which a narrative was laid down by the media about two infamous crimes that received enormous coverage, and that shaped public opinion as to who the guilty parties were. The case studies are the murder of Jon Benet Ramsey and the abduction of Madeleine McCann.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016

Geschichtsfernsehen verantwortlicher gestalten Gespräch mit Silke Satjukow Dr. Silke Satjukow ist... more Geschichtsfernsehen verantwortlicher gestalten Gespräch mit Silke Satjukow Dr. Silke Satjukow ist Professorin für die Geschichte der Neuzeit am Institut für Geschichte der Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg. Sie koordiniert (gemeinsam mit Prof. Dr. Rainer Gries, Universität Wien) den Forschungsverbund "Geschichtsaneignungen in der Mediengesellschaft". Margarete Keilacker sprach am 18. Februar 2016 mit ihr über dieses Projekt.

Humanities, 2015

This essay is an engagement with a series of propositions about literacy and reading in the Unite... more This essay is an engagement with a series of propositions about literacy and reading in the United States: that large numbers of people struggle with what one might call narrative complexity; that they resolve such struggles by falling back onto narrative simplicities which, through a series of cultural preferences, congeal to produce much of the stuff of popular culture; that this condition and process is essentially what the varied critics-from left and right-of the culture of modernity were actually identifying, though from a largely normative, not empirical, standpoint; that what was being critiqued was essentially a condition formed by cognitive underdevelopment; and that we can actually explain this empirically by mining decades' worth of research in reading and literacy studies, particularly in the context of childhood and social class. In short, this paper is an admittedly tentative step in an effort to build a bridge between two knowledge silos that have in part remained determinably apart-reading/literacy studies and cultural/critical theory. The essay also suggests that, in order to understand reading and literacy, it is important to begin to engage research in neuroscience, particularly that which suggests that the brain is actually not designed-in evolutionary terms-to read.

Public broadcasting was the single most important social, cultural, and journalistic institution ... more Public broadcasting was the single most important social, cultural, and journalistic institution of the twentieth century. In the 15 years preceding the publication of this book, it had been assaulted politically, ideologically, technologically, and was everywhere in retreat. This book considers the idea of public service broadcasting and examines in detail the assault made upon it, with specific emphasis on global developments and events in the United Kingdom, Japan, Europe, and the United States. It argues that public service broadcasting has been a vital and democratically significant institution now experiencing a terminal decline brought about by changes in political, economic, and technological circumstances. Based on years of research and extensive contact with leading public broadcasters around the world, the book examines the idea of public service broadcasting and how for the most part it has vainly (and often ineffectually) struggled to survive. It concludes that public b...

The paper examines the possibility that high levels of illiteracy and the continuing decline of r... more The paper examines the possibility that high levels of illiteracy and the continuing decline of reading in the United States will undermine the grasp of, and commitment to, democratic values. ... The aim of the presentation is to show antiquity as an "exemple" (in a Kantian ...

It has become common place to suggest that the concept and institutions of public service broadca... more It has become common place to suggest that the concept and institutions of public service broadcasting (PSB) are being fundamentally challenged by new technologies, new politics and new economics. Out of these challenges, in a kind of noble optimism, has emerged the idea that PSB can be reimagined as public service media, the worth of which can be made measurable and therefore ‘accountable.’ This article suggests that not only is this likely misplaced, it also masks the fact that what is actually in play is a historically defined struggle over the values that will constitute modernity.

Communications has been defined as the conveying or exchanging of information and ideas. This wid... more Communications has been defined as the conveying or exchanging of information and ideas. This wide definition is talc:en as the starting-point for this series of books, which are not bound by conventional academic divisions. The series aims to document or analyse a broad range of cultural forms and ideas. It encompasses works from areas as esoteric as linguistics and as exoteric as television. The language of communication may be the written word or the moving picture, the static icon or the living gesture. These means of communicating can at their best blossom into and form an essential part of the other mysterious concept, culture. There is no sharp or intended split in the series between communication and culture. On one definition, culture refers to the organisation of experience shared by members of a community, a process which includes the standards and values for judging or perceiving, for predicting and acting. In this sense, creative communication can make for a better and livelier culture. The series reaches towards the widest possible audience. Some of the works concern themselves with activities as general as play and games; others offer a narrower focus, such as the ways of understanding the visual image. It is hoped that some moves in the transformation of the artful and the scientific can be achieved, and that both can begin to be understood by a wider and more comprehending community. Some of these books are written by practitioners-broadcasters, journalists, and artists; others come from critics, scholars, scientists and historians. The series has an ancient and laudable, though perhaps untenable aim-an aim as old as the Greeks and as new as holography: it aspires to help heal the split between cultures, between the practitioners and the thinkers, between science and art, between the academy and life.

Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. Public Money, 1984

The BBC is now faced with competition not only from independent radio and television, but also fr... more The BBC is now faced with competition not only from independent radio and television, but also from cable and satellite broadcasting. As the case for a licence fee as the main source of funding looks weaker and weaker, what are the alternatives?

Whitehouse, 1979

In this chapter we look at a singular problem which has bothered Whitehouse from the very beginni... more In this chapter we look at a singular problem which has bothered Whitehouse from the very beginning, childhood sexuality. To be against the sexual exploitation of children is no more exceptional than to be against any other forms of social or personal evil about which there is a massive consensus. The condemnation is implicit within the word exploitation. Attitudes towards childhood sexuality become difficult, however, when one moves into that area, not of direct exploitation of children but where efforts are being made to tackle the irrepressible problem of successfully enabling those young people who have still not reached what is traditionally referred to as the age of reason to come to grips with their own developing sexuality, thereby enabling them to become mature individuals. How children acquire sexual knowledge is never less than controversial. The fear for the welfare of children, repeatedly stressed by Whitehouse, is of course deep-seated and genuine, but, as with any movement, there is a sharp awareness that the real battle for the future society is fought in the hearts and minds of the young. What we want to examine here are some of the ways in which this has been present in Whitehouse’s work.

The Decline and Fall of Public Service Broadcasting, 1998

Communication Booknotes, 1990

Television & New Media, 2003

In this article, the authors explore the relationship between the philosophical principles on whi... more In this article, the authors explore the relationship between the philosophical principles on which the institutions of public broadcasting rest and their contemporary conditions. The questions are, In what ways is public service broadcasting (PSB) changing in the contemporary audiovisual environment? How is the contradiction between commercial needs and the public service mission being articulated? Which paradigms are shaping the practices surrounding PSB institutions? To answer these questions, the authors analyzed the trends toward digitalization and funding in selected broadcasters: the British Broadcasting Corporation, Radiotelevisione Italiana, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. After discussing claims that PSB organizations have been enjoying a period of relative stability, the authors conclude that the broadcasters' resilience is mainly due to their readiness to embrace competition and commercialism; as a result, public br...

The Political Quarterly, 1983