For a glimpse at how professional, objective media scholars view the phenomenon of talk radio, consider the comments of Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications, on why talk show audiences are predominantly male:
[Kaplan] suggests that “the anthropology of talk radio explains its predominately male audience. After all, when you listen to one of these shows, it’s all about screaming and chest thumping — sort of like what you see in those studies of the great apes. Think of the host as the silverback: He screams and thumps his chest, and the listeners call in to emulate him.”
I wonder what Kaplan would say if he weren’t such a non-partisan, objective scholar.
Me Tarzan, you Rush.
it’s all about screaming and chest thumping — sort of like what you see in those studies of the great apes. Think of the host as the silverback: He screams and thumps his chest, and the listeners call in to emulate him
I guess it is okay for the Left to use this type of imagery when talking about (white) males. Image the response if a conservative used this type of language in reference to black males.
Yes, let’s imagine that:
Imagine this from a conservative: “When Rainbow/Push shakes down a business for cash, it’s all about screaming and chest-thumping, sort of like what you see with various simian species. Think of Jesse Jackson as the Alpha silverback: He screams and beats his chest, while his shrewdness of apes hysterically emulate him.”
Yes, I’m certain that would go down without comment by the media.
Gorillas in the midst
By most accounts, men outnumber women in the talk-radio audience, and according to Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear…