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Published on 06/29/1998 All articles from this issue

Images of a 'village'

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By David L. Grey

Media Watch

A village.That is what Los Altos was, or is, or is kind of perceived to be. After all, this weekend's 19th annual Arts & Wine Festival is put on by the Los Altos Village Association. It is time again to invite more than 100,000 people to wander State and Main streets and to reflect, in part, on "the Los Altos community."

What better time than in a few days to hold up Los Altos and its environs to the looking glass and ponder the images conveyed about what kind of place this might be. Or partly what the downtown merchant's organization, through its efforts, would like it to be.

Not everyone will be participating with the same levels of intensity and commitment, of course. Crowds and traffic literally drive some away or into hiding. But however involved or not, those who live (and to a certain degree work) in Los Altos and nearby will be, in passing, again on display to ourselves and outsiders.

Images. That IS what much of this is all about - what, philosopher-journalist-Renaissance man Walter Lippmann more than 75 years ago called "the pictures in our heads." Another word for the process is stereotyping, without necessarily all the negative mind-narrowing connotations.

We are talking about how public and private opinions, impressions and decisions are largely created and made. Call this Psychology 101, but note its special complexity because of all the mass media bombardments that affect how we try to remember, judge, categorize and label things - such as arts and wine festivals.

This means being aware of possible influences from this newspaper, including real estate ads, the companion Arts & Wine Festival magazine insert, news and feature coverage in other media and such as posters and T-shirts.

Are we strolling a village? Do Foothill Expressway and San Antonio Road suggest a community that might be called remote, isolated, insulated, aloof? Or: friendly for those within an enclave?

How fitting are the media-shortcut adjectives or sound bytes: exclusive, upscale, trendy, tony, or moneyed, pricey, expensive?

Throw in "intimate 'rural' neighbor" Los Altos Hills and parts of Cupertino, the two-three faces (sigh?) of Mountain View and (gasp?) such as Palo Alto, Stanford or Portola Valley and envision the rationalized rattlings in our heads of words and pictures, labels and feelings. To strive for sanity we have to rely at times on imagery even when, alas, too simply sketched and articulated.

Safe? Private? Quiet? Courteous? Relaxed? Busy? Traditional? Understated? Progressive? Restricted? Cautious? Corporate? Staid? Er, dull? None of these choices is an "always" situation.

Walk neighboring arts-wine (and other) festivals, and the general rules for this seasonal image/impression game should be louder if not totally clearer.

Mix in "mid-Peninsula," "South Bay" and "Silicon Valley" with the ever-related verities of weather and boom/cost-of-living climates, racial, ethnic and cultural diversity and changes, high-tech mind-sets and higher education priorities, and our stakes for down-home levels of awareness can be raised even higher.

Whatever. Enjoy the weekend.

David L. Grey, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of journalism at San Jose State University where for 24 years he taught and did research on media law and ethics. He is a Mountain View resident.