Below is the term paper I wrote for my Critical Issues in Journalism class, in which I discuss the media biases applied to and exploited by John Z. DeLorean. I got a perfect score on it. (Yay!) Please let me know what you think of it.
John
Z. DeLorean and the Media
As a captain of industry, the late John DeLorean was not
a stranger to the media and the biases with which it operated. As an ideas man and skilled promoter, he also
used those media biases and prevalent practices to his advantage. DeLorean was a target for cueing, an
exploiter of framing and possessed the credibility to support that framing.
It should come as
no surprise that DeLorean, a successful engineer with Packard and lucrative division
manager at General Motors, was the subject of rampant media cueing. One cue applied to DeLorean was the sort,
using a variety of words, which painted a picture of him as a flashy, jet-setting,
glamorous playboy. DeLorean’s obituary
from the New York Times in 2005 included a description of him as a “flamboyant automobile industrialist” in its first line. Houston station KHOU-11’s coverage of the revived
DeLorean Motor Company several years ago called the DeLorean DMC-12 “a sports
car built by the rich and famous for the rich and famous” and DeLorean
himself “a jet-setting ex-GM celebrity.”
Hemmings Muscle Machines magazine described his lifestyle as
“extravagant” and “rockstar-like.” The
documentary “Anything to Win: The Crash of John DeLorean” called him “an
international playboy” and “an iconoclastic celebrity businessman.”
Another
type of cue used for DeLorean was that which depicted DeLorean as a rebel or
nonconformist. As far back as 1969, Sports Illustrated said, “Yet
there are those who predict that General Motors will clamp down on its
house rebel and that he will accept the clamps if he harbors any thoughts of
gaining the corporation's presidency—a job at least 10 years in the future if GM tradition means
anything.” People magazine published the
1980 article “G.M. Renegade John Delorean Toots His Own
Horn with a New Life, New Book and a New Car.” In 2008, The Detroit News ran an article
titled “The rise and fall of John DeLorean, dashing, maverick automaker.”
The third cue
the media has used for DeLorean is that of conman, although he was never
convicted in his notorious cocaine trafficking case. The New York Times Style Magazine described
him as a clarinet-playing former engineer that turned into a hipster
conman. In 2005, The Guardian summarized
DeLorean as “a
world-class conman” for his association with fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion
and defaulted loans in its article “John DeLorean: American car-maker and
conman whose victims included the UK and the US governments.”
It is clear that DeLorean was a bountiful source of cueing opportunities
for the press and that the press indulged in those opportunities often. Cues such as “jet-setting”, “maverick” and
“con man” are quick, easy ways of not only gaining an audience’s attention, but
of emotionally involving the audience in the story.
Given DeLorean’s well-known history of legal troubles, it
seems appropriate that his story is one rife with framing - albeit media
framing, constructed by those at DeLorean Motor Company and the media itself. The DeLorean DMC-12 print ad and commercial
featured the tagline “Live the Dream.”
This frame tapped into consumers’ inner Walter Mitty complexes. Automobiles inspire visions of freedom,
independence and unforgettable journeys and the gullwing doors swinging up as
the line is superimposed on the screen and gulls flying over the ocean only
serve to entice viewers to chase those visions and live their dreams behind the
wheel of the DeLorean DMC-12.
Automobiles are also glamorous status symbols and the DMC-12 print ad
showed DMC’s awareness of this by stating that other drivers would be envious
as a DMC-12 owner drove by.
Another
example of framing lies in the media stating that DeLorean “broke the mold” in
the automotive industry. Forbes magazine
said DeLorean “broke
the mold” when he founded his eponymous motor company in 1975. Fox News’ obituary for DeLorean said, “DeLorean ‘broke the mold’ of staid Midwestern auto
executives by pushing General Motors Corp. to offer smaller models, auto
historians said.” Such a frame is
comprehensible and familiar to most news viewers and implies that DeLorean is
exciting and revolutionary, which is, conveniently, the kind of person viewers are
likely to tune in to see and learn more about.
DeLorean had the credibility to justify his
self-imposed framing. One could argue
that he lived the dream suggested by his company’s advertising. He dated glamorous movie stars Raquel Welch
and Ursula Andress while he was a free-wheeling bachelor. DeLorean was married to Kelly Harmon and the
successful model Christina Ferrare, undoubtedly the objects of many a man’s
desires. He also had lavish estates in
New Jersey and New York and socialized with celebrities such as Johnny Carson
and Sammy Davis, Jr. Luxurious homes and
high-profile friends are typically envied possessions - much like a DMC-12
would appear to other motorists. Perhaps
this credibility is what caused the DMC-12 to be such a highly anticipated
release and DeLorean to be such a successful automobile promoter.
Although the media filtered the picture of John DeLorean through its
prism of cueing, he was able to appeal to customers by making them see the
DMC-12 in the favorable light cast by advantageous framing and shined brightly
as a beacon of credibility.
