Looking Closely at "Virgin" Snows

If we were to look more at American discourse as it is, rather than as it should be, what would we find? Having made such a discovery, what then would our notions of the First Amendment be were they premised on that experience? Tellingly, this culture­centered method­call it a cultural approach to the First Amendment­is still a strange concept to those content with never looking too closely at "virgin" snows.

Ours is primarily a discourse of mass communication. It is a discourse that permeates almost all exchanges in the American culture, including one­on­one and small group conversations. For the character of private talk cannot be entirely sequestered from the integrative forces of mass talk. These forces, which are necessarily related, are identified by wide (even global) dissemination, broad (typically entertaining) appeal, dynamic (and disconnected) images, ever­changing (yet often repetitive) themes, commercial (more precisely, capitalistic) marketability, and by the appropriation (and redefinition) of our most cherished symbols and values. All of this is enabled and enhanced by the attributes of electronic technology. Indeed, the forces of mass communication are arguably so powerful as to affect the very logic of much thought and discourse. ¹⁰

One cannot honestly think about the First Amendment as a way of life without considering the impacts of entertainment and commerce on communication. To divorce these, as law­bound courts and commentators generally do, is like separating Murray Perahia ¹¹ or Keith Jarrett ¹² from the piano­only silence remains.

TV talk is the talk of our times. There is no escaping the fact that television is an essential part of our modern culture of communication. "[I]t has oozed everywhere." ¹³ So much of who we are, what we think, how we express ourselves, and how we perceive and react to our world are tied to television. Above all, television generally frames this world with a surfeit of entertainment. It is largely communication in the service of pleasure. Perhaps more than any other medium, it is our cable to consciousness. ¹⁴

Furthermore, virtually every type of discourse is dwarfed by advertising, which represents a multi­billion dollar investment in linking commerce with communication. The forms of mass advertising­product­image and life­style advertising, among others­reveal the character and direction of much contemporary expression. In the service of selling, mass advertising frequently seizes on our politics, values, and even identities, and translates them into commercial talk. This is a marriage between the marketplace of items and the marketplace of ideas. ¹⁵