Pre-Post for 11/9

As I read this week’s reading by Edward Herman and Noam Chromsky titled, “A Propaganda Model” I felt sick to my stomach. Specifically the section on advertising in regards to do business so to speak really struck me as obscene. “Client Audience Profile, or CAP, will help advertisers optimize the effectiveness of their network television schedules by evaluating audience segments in proportion to usage levels of advertisers’ products and services.” (p.268) When I read this part about CBS’ “sales tool” as they refer to approaching advertisers put a lot into perspective for me. It stuns me that CBS’ sales ideas directly correlate to stereotyping. Basically, CBS feels the best way to pitch their sales ideas to advertisers is to stereotype them. You would think by exposing something like this CBS would lose credibility, but in reality they are more powerful because they used this mechanism to be successful. By targeting audiences that will buy the products correlated with the advertisements of those products, CBS is intentionally contributing to the dominant narrative of this society that we support by watching these programs. Perhaps if we stop watching our favorite shows or leaving our TV’s on when we aren’t home viewers will decrease and CBS will find another way to target audiences inevitably stereotyping the audience in some way. While a large percentage of people leave their TVs on even when they aren’t watching them, the ratings are not adjusted based on who is actually watching and who left the room therefore advertisements aren’t adjusted. The stereotyping and focusing in on one group of people whoever that may be that will benefit the product being advertised will never be eliminated, but being aware of this existence can help our society become closer to reality. Personally, I don’t know how much more CBS I will be watching after reading this article.