Questions for Week 4

1. In a previous CMJR course, we discussed product placement and the power it holds in media today. Chapter five of Woodward and Denton suggests that "the person who has been the most effected by a persuasive message is the advocate who delivered it (page 108)." Combining these two concepts together, I'd like to give attention to product placements made by well-known celebrities and big-name films. Many influential figures are paid to put in a plug for a certain product, as Oprah repeatedly has done for Target, and sometimes product placement will take away from a TV show or a movie like "Love Happens," in which the commercials alone that Quest was a big part of the making of the film. In light of what Woodward and Denton suggest that the person who delivers the message is the most effected, how appropriate or ethical is it to have a person deliver a message they are not supportive of? Is the audience hurt more than the spokesperson in this case? What happens when the persuasive message is not supported personally by the person delivering it?

2. Ability is a fundamental factor in determining the quality of a source, according to Woodward and Denton on page 112. We are able to distinguish those who have the "ability to tell the truth or to make intelligent observations about a specific subject" by measuring their "authority." The majority of patients who see their doctors for medical attention would most likely want to see that their doctor has the credentials, expertise and "ability" to treat them. As a part of this class, we are required to blog. Now that we are a part of the rising blogosphere and to an extent, understand the power of a blog (such as the recent raves of food blogs and fashion blogs, etc.), how can we determine a blogger's "ability" to blog truthfully? As many restaurants like to frame their credentials and positive reviews from newspapers and hang them on their walls, should there be some kind of system implemented to distinguish bloggers who blog truthfully with good intentions and notable credentials, as opposed to bloggers who have neither credibility or authority who may even be a secret blogger for a larger organization? Given that anyone can "Google" search any subject and be able to choose their sources, how can we be sure that what we are reading is written by an author of ability?

3. Woodward and Denton mention Katie Couric of CBS of having a well known character and persona compared to that of Bill Keller, the executive director of the New York Times who "arguably has a larger role in setting the nation's daily news agenda (page 115)." Although we read the paper more often than we see Katie Couric's face, we tend to recognize her name because we can put a face and personality to it. Bill Keller on the other, though his "role in setting the nation's daily news agenda" is significantly larger than that of Couric's, is less recognized by name. Is the medium in which we as an audience get our information the determining factor of how credible a source is? Do we lean towards acknowledging Couric more, because we can put a face to the name? Or is print media more favorable because we can fill in that "gap" of the unknown?