Noise Wars: Compulsory Media and Our Loss of Autonomy [Perfect Paperback]

Robert Freedman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"Let me place on your radar screen an issue that for most people goes by unnoticed. Every day it is there for all of us to see and hear— -- but it's drowned out by the noise, so to speak. This is the rising use of media, the use of media in abusive, penetrating ways. Our freedom to choose whether or not we consume that media is taken away from us."
In this book Robert Freedman shows how media companies, with their business model coming under pressure from shrinking audiences, seek to regain their footing by forcing people to consume TV and other digital content outside the home by turning public and private settings into captive-audience platforms. He looks at how consumers are putting up resistance to being held captive to TV on buses, trains, elevators, taxis, subways, office lobbies, schools, stores, and street corners.

Freedman looks at the role of media in society in a unique way— by focusing exclusively on the emerging trend of audience captivity: the relocation of TV and other intrusive electronic media from our home, where we have personal control over it, to all the settings outside the home in which we don’t have control: buses, subways, taxis, elevators, retail stores, hotel and office lobbies, street corners, street furniture, and gas station pumps, among others.
Although the book comes down squarely against audience captivity as a media business model, it takes a conversational, even-handed approach that lets the facts speak for themselves. It does this by showing on the one hand the growth of captive-audience platforms and on the other the rise in people's resentment—even anger—at being made captive to electronic media they haven't asked for and from which they can't escape without personal cost.
By approaching the topic in this way, the book makes a compelling case that the media industry's growing reliance on audience captivity as a business model is setting up a values war not unlike the war between smokers and opponents of second-hand smoke. As the first systematic look at audience captivity from a social perspective, the book makes a crucial and timely contribution to research on and discussions about media and society.
This book offers resources, ideas and tools for people who care about the proper role of television and other electronic media in their lives and the lives of children. Consumers who are interested in media and society, and groups such as the Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood, Action Coalition for Media Education, Commercial Alert, Center for Screen Time Awareness, Center for Successful Parenting, and Parents Television Council, will find this book of high interest.

About the Author

Robert Freedman is a 25-year veteran business journalist. He has a master's degree in Humanities from Marymount University. His previous books include a look at the use of virtual reality in marketing and consequential reporting in business-to-business journalism.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: Algora Publishing (August 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875867146
• ISBN-13: 978-0875867144
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,116,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Public Policy Battles Brewing, August 14, 2009

By	Chris Wright (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Noise Wars: Compulsory Media and Our Loss of Autonomy (Hardcover)

Captive media and noise pollution might not be on your radar now, but they are serious problems and you will be hearing more about them in the future. That makes 'Noise Wars' more important than first appears. With NBC Everywhere and other media companies rushing to carpet-bomb public places with TV screens, present trends if left unchecked will result in a world where, in the words of one company exec, "you can't turn us off." The book, written with a deep understanding of the role of media in our lives by a veteran award-winning print and Web editor, is valuable for several reasons. It confounds the skeptics by marshaling the evidence of noise pollution's physiological and psychological effects (up to and including suicide and murderous acts). It explains First Amendment case law without which the discussion would have been woefully uninformed. It doesn't simply bash the 'evil corporations' but explains the economic pressures that are leading them into captive audience business ventures and pins the ultimate responsibility for outcomes on the political process - you and me. It surveys a wide variety of opinion giving readers a head-start on forming their own. It doesn't stop there but goes on to give an analytical framework for deciding public policy issues. For readers who get hopping mad, the book identifies a dozen organizations fighting noise pollution and captive media, but does not view them uncritically. It contains some brilliant insights into the nature of public versus private space (e.g., backyard TVs recreating the crowded noisy conditions that cause people to flee apartment living for the suburbs in the first place). Finally, you pick up information on several new product and social trends along the way (directional audio and video technologies and TV-B-Gone zappers - who knew?). As Freedman explains, the battle over captive media and noise pollution hasn't really been joined yet. As with second-hand smoke, public reaction may take years to germinate, but these issues are not going away. 'Noise Wars' is like having both playbooks from opposing teams in important public policy contests that will develop in the future.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Probing, Thoughtful Look at a Timely Subject, August 4, 2009

By	Steven D. Roll "b2beditor" (Kensington, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Noise Wars: Compulsory Media and Our Loss of Autonomy (Perfect Paperback)

While most of us are focusing on the transition away from the days of push media (i.e., being forced to watch programs on a limited number of channels), another--more insidious delivery of media--is taking place right before our eyes. Freedman refers to it as "compulsory media," which in all of its forms can be characterized by its ubiquity. Examples are the music and audio advertisements that are piped in at the grocery store, the television that plays above the gas pump, or the commercial that runs when you enter a cab.

In each case, you're being force fed a commercial message instead of enjoying quiet contemplation. As captive media grows more pervasive, it's not hard to imagine a time when there will be almost no opportunity for quiet introspection.

While some media executives are busily working toward this day, few members of the public are aware that this is happening.

Freedman does an effective job of calling attention to the problem and arming his readers with the information they need to do something about it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book that will only become more so, January 27, 2010

By	JHunt (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Noise Wars: Compulsory Media and Our Loss of Autonomy (Hardcover)

I found the book to be smart and well-researched, and as advertisers continue to push their screens and audio into public spaces, using our biological instincts against us, books like these can only become more important.

One of most powerful things this book does is to create a full picture of the shift in our public spaces by drawing together what might appear to be isolated cases.