Customer Reviews

Noise Wars: Compulsory Media and Our Loss of Autonomy

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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.

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.

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.

Noise Wars: Compulsory Media and Our Loss of Autonomy is an outstanding book. It is exhaustively researched, very well-written, informative, interesting, and entertaining. It is extremely useful for the fight against "compulsory media" and other forms of noise pollution.

Robert Freedman examines the explosive growth of "compulsory media," which is now everywhere: buses, airports, gas station pumps, taxis, elevators, sports stadiums, schools, downtowns, restaurants, subways, restrooms, doctor's offices, gyms, stores, and malls.

Freedman points out that there is now "street-furniture TV," in which "media companies install TV screens in 'street furniture' like bus stops, kiosks, benches, and the other structures that make up the familiar landscape. 'People can actually watch movie trailers at bus stops,' says Jean-Luc-Decaux of J.C. Decaux North America, a French marketing group with US operations based in Chicago" (p.27).

I dislike compulsory media intensely. This past summer, I left a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game during the first inning because of the constant pounding from the public speaker system and the organ--even between pitches! (They also blasted rock and roll in the men's room.) I recently walked out of a chiropractor's office because of the annoying 'background music'--even in a treatment room. When I asked the chiropractor to at least turn it down in the treatment room, he refused. I try to go to the supermarket on Sunday mornings, because that's when stores tend to play quieter, classical music. One of the reasons I hate flying is because of the constant, irritating announcements ("Attention passengers. Do not accept packages from strangers. Do not accept packages from strangers"), as well as the ubiquitous presence of television monitors broadcasting CNN.

As Rob Freedman points out, increasingly, there is no place to hide. In terms of shopping, the only refuge is Target, which eliminated "background music" more than 15 years ago. I go out of my way to shop at Target.

I highly recommend Noise Wars: Compulsory Media and Our Loss of Autonomy to anyone interested in social trends, media studies, social psychology, or social activism. It is a terrific read.


Ted Rueter
Founder, Noise Free America
www.noisefree.org

A new book in a new area of investigation is Noise Wars. This book explores the ways that marketing has become more and more intrusive in our lives through various forms. The book has excellent research behind it, much of which is available in the Appendixes. Focusing on the proliferation of television screens around us, as well as the mass marketing message, Noise Wars explores the unintended consequences that result from the bombardment of marketing noise.

As I read the book I stopped and thought about all the media that intrudes on my life, as well as the media I invite into my life. The book points out that this starts with junk paper mail, moves through junk email to junk TV in our homes, in our public places, and even in our campgrounds.

Not only are there issues of noise pollution and the effects of loud effects on our hearing, there are the psychological effects. Children's reading levels can be inversely plotted again number of TV hours watched. Most ads simply build an early form of addiction; an addiction to wanting "things" advertised on TV. We know that over-exposure to TV marketing can result in age compression, satisfaction from getting not doing, and poor social skills.

But Noise Wars points out the adults are not immune. We are subject to boom cars on the road, open office designs full of chatter, cell phones in public places, and TVs in waiting rooms. All of this noise blocks our "inner speech" which helps us problem-solve, resolve issues, think through concepts and lowers our stress level. The book suggests that we are held captive by many of these noise makers.

Noise Wars is an entertaining and educational read. Anyone interested in social changes, social trends, the effects of marketing, the psychology of marketing, or the power of the media will be interested in this book.

Elisa Robyn, author of Pirate Wisdom.

I always knew those airport TVs were annoying. This book shows (by citing research) that they're not just sources of mental stress, but can cause physical stress and illness, too. The book details how the emergence of "compulsory media" in public spaces can be harmful to us.

"Compulsory media" is no exaggeration. Advertising and marketing executives quoted in the book freely admit that marketers "are looking for places we can be intrusive" and where "you can't turn us off," in the words of one. But compulsory media includes not just TV and radio piped into airports, bars, restaurants, gas stations, schools, buses, commuter trains, and taxis for marketing purposes, but also media used willingly by individuals that spills over to their neighbors: desktop audio and video conferencing in offices; those cars with loud, booming, bass-heavy stereo systems (known as "boom cars"); and "outdoor rooms" that are increasingly popular with suburban homeowners and come complete with outdoor TVs and sound systems.

The author details arguments, both legal and philosophical, for and against these systems. Although he's writing from the anti-noise perspective, he gives a pretty balanced and reasonable picture of the issues involved. He doesn't insist that all forms of public noise be abolished, but welcomes new technologies that help make public media less intrusive. Still, he does makes a convincing argument that we don't have to, and probably shouldn't, let intrusive media spread unchecked. For instance, he cites a report by the World Health Organization that links noise to earlier deaths and shows that negative physiological effects are happening even when you think you're used to the noise. A London study ties cardiac damage to loud noise when people are exposed to those noises in their sleep. The end notes cite other studies.

A previous reviewer noted that some of the author's arguments are based on speculation or opinion, which is true, but the book also contains more than enough assertions that are backed by research to make his case credible. The end notes for each chapter and the appendices are listed in the table of contents, so they're easy to find.

When author Robert Freedman declares that "the writing is on the wall" in his new book "Noise Wars: Compulsory Media and Our Loss of Autonomy," it takes a minute for the irony to set in.

Yes, he makes a strong case that the rise of media designed for the captive audience--one forced to watch or hear unwanted messages in taxis; at bus stops; in super markets, schools, gyms, and even maternity rooms(!)--is inexorable. "Like polar ice caps, but faster melting," as Freedman puts it in this lively and well-researched work. (He counts "5.88 million impressions a month" forced on captive customers in New York City cabs, along with 8.64 million in the gas stations of L.A., San Diego, Chicago, Washington and Miami.) And yes, he goes even further: extending those threats to quiet, personal contemplation, so that they include such things as "boom cars," blaring the musical choices of others into your ears, and, of course, those ubiquitous cell phone conversations. ("Mine is indispensable; yours is insufferable," the author quips.)

But, of course, it's also true that many of these unwanted messages are, quite literally, on the wall.

This is hardly a funny book, though. The explanation of how all this affects our civil liberties and our peace of mind is too clear for that. Freedman appends William O. Douglas's wise comments on the matter. ("Compulsion which comes from circumstances can be as real as compulsion which comes from command," said the great spokesman for free speech--as long as that speech isn't being blared to these captive audiences, anyway.) And Freedman notes that fellow Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter was so angry about the issue that he didn't feel he could render a fair opinion at all! By just letting the "defense" talk, the book does have its hilarious moments, though, as well as some stark ones. "I'm so ** irate at your display of compelet idaicy [sic] I cant even put it into words!" one boom-car operator notes in an email to a critic of blaring speakers. "Stop your war on audio, or you will be killed. We have your address," writes another.

There's no doubt which side Freedman is on here--the side of sanity and quiet, of course--and he brings his own contemplative voice to the question, quoting philosophers as well as jurists. And adding a dollop of writer Ray Bradbury and composer John Cage for good measure. (Cage explained his composition 4' 3''--a staged "performance" of four minutes and 33 seconds of silence--with these words: "I have nothing to say, and I am saying it.")

Thanks are due to Freedman for spelling out the problem, and possible solutions, so clearly.

Of course, the final irony would be for an audio version of "Noise Wars" to be played on compulsory media somewhere, sometime. But don't hold your breath.

Best to buy a copy.

I always want to know what people think, especially of the industry I work in (Out-of-Home Advertising). In this case it would be easy to look past Mr. Freedman's writing and argue the points in the book. However, with the way it's release traveled through the industry, I felt compelled to offer an objective point of view.

Clearly, there is a problem here. There is probably not a single person who will read either this review or the book who has not been annoyed by a cell phone, a boom car, or a noisy TV in a public space, so Mr. Freedman's book brings to the forefront situations that have affected all of us. He calls into question the use of audio and video in areas such as public schools and school buses. He shows how far some organizations will go to make a dollar, and the potential backlash to those organizations and the industry as well, which gives all of us a black eye. I do not believe I am alone in this feeling.

Mr. Freedman references two Supreme Court cases from 1949 and 1952 regarding compulsory audio as a founding point for the book. He includes most of the decisions in the endnotes, and they are fascinating to read. However, a 57 year-old ruling is pointless when, even as Mr. Freedman himself writes at the end of the book, "...the environment has changed considerably since 1952. Then, the issue was a single, novel instance of audience captivity."

The book includes several including statistics such as networks, the number of screens and number of impressions. But his argument against these networks is based almost entirely on opinions, comments from blogs, and quotes from articles. I had hoped to read insight into the potential negative impact of these networks. Instead, I read blog comments, such as, "I'm either going to bring ear plugs to the grocery store or just shot [sic] myself in the head when I see one of those TVs. Maybe that'll get them to stop?"

In one very telling passage, he writes:

"...those who don't go to the gyms because of the TVs are never counted, and yet based on the high annoyance level people attribute to the TVs, it would be hard to discount the sizable number of people don't become members for just that reason."

Attributing the "annoyance level" of TVs to a single outlet and a complete lack of supporting evidence make it very easy to discount this argument. This is an assumption, not a argument, and not grounds for a debate.

There are plenty of case studies on the potentially negative impact of television and noise on our health and Mr. Freedman mentions several of them in the book. Yet he seems to take extra effort to try and tie them to societal and public media. The chapter on boom cars exposes how undesirable this feature of our culture can be, and he references a London study about the relationship be between loud noises and cardiac damage, loosely linking it to boom cars. But, he doesn't provide a citation for this research, leaving me wondering how close the study is to the boom car effect.

In the appendices, Mr. Freedman notes that it's beyond his resources "...to identify all of the organizations whose mission is in whole or in part to curb the unwanted intrusion of electronic media..." He lists 13 of them. At the same time he lists 65 organizations affiliated with the Out-of-Home Video Advertising Bureau (OVAB) and the Canadian Out-of-Home Digital Association. I found it strange that he would list only 13 that advocate against media, yet have no problem listing 65 organizations that support it, especially in a book with a clear agenda against the idea. I thought he would make the lists to his advantage.

The book brings to light that our industry is not desired by everyone; there are many people and organizations that do not like media in society. This is important. We need to understand that for every action there is a reaction.

However, I found myself asking too many questions that the book could not answer, or answered with assumptions based on the opinions of others, not evidence supporting the assumption. Because the book has such little factual or direct evidence supporting its claims against media in society, and because almost all of the research is devoted to scouring the internet for citations from anti-media sources instead of providing expert insight and testimony, I cannot recommend this book as a resource to learn more about the debate on media in society.

The effort is admirable, but the execution may have been better suited to a research paper or critique than a full-blown manuscript.