Comm Final Flashcards

1
Q

Functions of the Mass Media

A

Societal, Individual

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2
Q

Societal Functions of the Mass Media

A

1) Status Conferral (media can give status to things/people/tell us what’s important)
2) Pass on norms, values, traditions, and enforce them
3) Narcotizing (negative function)(gives you so much info at once that you go numb to it)
4) Service Political System (helps it work)
5) Social Cohesion/Community (mass media is the base of common focus/interest/communication
6) Service the community (makes our economy work)

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3
Q

Individual functions of the Mass Media

A

1) Guides our Behaviors (weather tells you when it’s gonna rain, so you bring an umbrella)
2) Guides our Understandings (how we perceive the world)
3) Helps develop self-concept (we explore reality)
4) Professional Tool (job career/support info)
5) Facilitate Social Interaction (info to talk about/share with others)
6) Substitution for Social Interaction (porn)(valuable for introverts)
7) Emotional Release (relax, entertain)
8) Ritualize our Lives (gives us structure/order)

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4
Q

Content vs Medium

A

Content: of a function is important, newspapers contain content
Medium: depends on the general nature of the medium and the conditions of its use

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5
Q

Manifest vs Latent Functions

A

Manifest: Direct, intended, obvious
Latent: indirect, hidden, subconscious

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6
Q

Storage Issues with the Mass Media

A

1) Longevity (how long will it last?)
2) Capacity (How much can we store?)
3) Portability (How easy is it to move the content around?)
4) Accessibility (How easy is it to get the content?)
5) Reproducibility (How easily and accurately can you make copies?)

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7
Q

Post WW2 Decline

A

1) Television
2) Paramount Case
3) Red Scare
4) Foreign Film

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8
Q

Post WW2 Decline: Televsion

A

People just stayed home to watch TV, they weren’t going out as much

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9
Q

Post WW2 Decline: Paramount Case

A

Argued that studios controlled the production, distribution, and exhibition (all 3 aspects of film). Courts made studios to leave one of the three, so the studios sold their theaters

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10
Q

Post WW2 Decline: Red Scare

A

The “Blacklist” was created to bar anyone or anyone they associated with from making/being in movies if they were in ANY way associated with communism

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11
Q

Post WW2 Decline: Foreign Film

A

A lot of other countries started developing their own film industries and competing with the Americans

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12
Q

Response to the Post WW2 Decline

A

-Tried to make movies more attractive
-Improve sound, improve picture
-Making screens even bigger
-3D technology started to develop
-Large scale epics were made, spectacle films

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13
Q

New American Cinema (1960s)

A

-Freedom of expression
-More social awareness
-Rise of independent films
-Film was no longer appealing to the lowest common denominator, it was becoming more sophisticated

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14
Q

Blockbuster Phenomenon

A

Started with Jaws and Star Wars
-Youths would see the films multiple times
-Films became less character driven and more plot driven
-Only goal was to maximize/multiply profit

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15
Q

To maximize profit

A

Reboots, remakes, prequels, sequels, films based on novels

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16
Q

Independent Films

A

-made outside the Hollywood system
-films are seen as art in foreign places
-cheaper to make
-no major stars
-attract a more specialized audience
-edgier, more character driven, more serious
-Disproportionately represented at awards time
-Studios set up specialty divisions to release more serious/independent films

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17
Q

Modern Theaters

A

-Late 1990s and on got a quality upgrade
-Bigger seats, stadium style seating, more leg room
-Adding restaurants, shops, adding to the social experience
-Adding luxury theaters too
-Emphasis was the quality of the experience
-Studios got back into the exhibition game

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18
Q

Relationship between Film and TV

A

-Cooperation and coexistence
-Started to show films on TV
-TV would make regular shows air
-Video became important (like video rentals)
-Studios started selling directly to the public
-Sell through market started with family films
-Direct-to-video video: movies that went straight to video, not theaters
-Studios started making more money through video than the box office
-Merchandise selling grew and grew

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19
Q

Audience

A

-Decline in proportion of people going to the movies
-Youth is still the primary audience for films
-Teens have been the most important elements (younger people see the films more than once, they buy more candy)

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20
Q

The Nature of Film

A

-Most persuasive medium
-Films draw you into their world
-People mostly watch films to be distracted/entertained
-Film appeals to us through certain cliches

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21
Q

Regulation

A

1915 ruling said that film was a for-profit business, so it wasn’t regulated by the 1st amendment
-Hays Office and Code was created, then destroyed by 1968 when the MPAA rating system was developed
-Miracle case reversed the earlier ruling of the government, but the film industry decided it liked regulating itself

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22
Q

Digital

A

Replacing the nature of old film
-Special effects
-Computer generated characters
-Distribution became cheaper and easier
-Drive-ins started closing
-Smaller theaters started closing

23
Q

The Internet

A

-Independent makers put their films online
-Films are widely accessible now
-Studios wanted you to go download their films
-Films are streamed more than downloaded
-Disney ended distribution deal with Netflix, everyone followed and now there are over 300 streaming services available

24
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media

A

1) Privacy
2)Basic Obligations to Fellow Human Beings
3) Conflict of Interest
4) Trials/Court Cases
5) Gifts and Payola
6) Crime Reporting
7) Stereotypes
8) Accuracy of Information
9) Undercover Reporting Techniques
10) Checkbook Journalism
11) Reporting on Risks
12) Taste

25
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Privacy

A

The individual’s right to privacy versus the public’c demand to know

26
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Basic Obligations to Fellow Human Beings

A

Should journalists intervene in a possible story if someone is in danger?

27
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Conflict of Interest

A

Journalists are sometimes scared to post stories that are critical of big advertisers
- Should you write stories of violent crime that might bring unnecessary panic to your community?
-Journalists have a duty to themselves, their community, and their employer

28
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Trials/Court Cases

A

Could a media report about a crime create prejudice in a jury?
Does bringing cameras into the trial room affect the trial itself?

29
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Gifts and Payola

A

Payola: companies would make music then bribe DJ’s to play it
Reverse Payola: blackmail

30
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Crime Reporting

A

Should rape victims names be made public?
Should you publish the details of a crime?
What is important to include vs not?

31
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Stereotypes

A

-Race/ethnicity stereotypes
-Italians are portrayed as gangster
-Racial erasure
-Colorblind casting
-Reverse whitewashing

32
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Accuracy of Information

A

-Journalists aren’t supposed to lie/fabricate/mislead
-Photoshop fake sources
-Native ad: ad presented as an article
-Deepfakes are getting crazy realistic

33
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Undercover reporting techniques

A

-Lying about your identity
-Using hidden cameras
-Helps expose insane/illegal stuff that happens

34
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Checkbook Journalism

A

-Paying for stories
-Unethical to pay for information from a source
-Encourages fake juicy stories for more money

35
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Reporting on Risks

A

-Mass Media makes us afraid of unserious things
-Coverage is not accurate to the risks portrayed (shark attacks are sensationalized, not common)

36
Q

Ethics in the Mass Media: Taste

A

“Oh that’s in bad taste”
- Gruesome boston marathon images…to show or not to show?

37
Q

Factors Influencing Selection in News

A

1) Newspeople Themselves
2) Organizational Pressures
3) Technology
4) Factors Within the Story
5) Audience

38
Q

Selection in News: Newspeople themselves

A

-show political opinion/bias
-tend to cater to the political biases of their audience
-90% of newspeople live in towns that vote democratic
-News stories now are more imperative and not objective

39
Q

Selection in News: Organizational Pressures

A

-Beat system (each reporter is assigned to a “beat”)
-Pack journalism (One journalist writes a story, and everyone copies)
-Regularized (have to have a story everyday)
-Deadlines have to be met

40
Q

Selection in News: Technology

A

-Satellites allowed national stories to air on local outlets
-Made gathering/distribution of news faster, cheaper, and easier

41
Q

Selection in News: Factors Within the Story

A

-Newsmedia wants events
-Wants timely events
-Wants dramatic events
-Wants conflict with identifiable opponents
-Wants unpredictable/unusual
-Proximity is important (closer to home, more likely to be covered)
-Personalization is key
-“Names make news”

42
Q

Selection in News: Audience

A

a) Different news media has different audiences
b) Desire for large audiences
c) Role of The Internet
-nowadays we get most of our news from smartphones/social media
-Changing definition of news
-Most of what we see is based on algorithms
-News becomes more personalized for us
-Traditional news organizations ceded their power
-Centralization of the internet
-New gatekeepers
-Live streaming (brings stories faster from new places to more people)
-Audiences have an increasing role in creation/selection/passing on of news

43
Q

4 Basic Ways the Media supports itself

A

1) Audience
2) Advertiser
3) Audience/Advertiser Combo
4) Subsidized

44
Q

Advertiser Supported Media

A

Want to know the size, and the composition of the audience
- measure share and rating of shows (share: % of potential viewers watching at that time) (rating: % of potential viewers)
-measure of the audience demographics

45
Q

Economic Concentration in the Mass Media

A

-Media falling into fewer and fewer hands
-Tech advancements have made medias explode with options
-5 companies own most of Americas mass media mediums
-Despite the consolidation, media options have expanded vastly
-A handful of companies control most of the internet connections in the US

46
Q

Ways to Minimize Risk

A

-Reliance on secondary markets
-Sticking to what works (proven genres)
-Overproduce/Focus on blockbusters
-Promote merch to try and increase excitement
-Exploit synergy among various parts of a huge company (horizontal integration)

47
Q

Milton, Jefferson, and Mill’s ideas

A

-government shouldn’t regulate because you need a marketplace of ideas (truth will emerge a victor)
-free speech rights were inalienable
-this would create well informed society’s

48
Q

Mill’s 3 Prong Defense

A

1) as opinion is silenced, the truth may be silenced too
2) even a wrong opinion may contain an element of truth necessary to discover the whole truth
3) even if commonly accepted opinion is the whole truth, people will hold it not as rational belief, but as prejudice if they had not had to defend it

49
Q

Classical Liberaltarianism

A

Government can’t force or prevent you from printing or saying anything

50
Q

Exceptions to free speech

A

-slander, libel
-national security
-contempt of court
-public endorsement of religion
-privacy
-copyright
-false advertising
-certain political statements
-can’t interfere with administration of justice
-compelled speech
-speech codes
-harassment
-threats
-obscenity
-school

51
Q

Free Speech on college campuses

A

The general idea is that college are left leaning, there is a lack of viewpoint diversity, and social studies/humanities especially tend to lean politically left

52
Q

Censorship

A

-strengthens whoever you are trying to censor
-drives them underground
-forces lying
-censoring material makes people want it more (forbidden fruit effect)

53
Q

Free speech is the

A

-best way to learn about society’s problems
-best way to expose views (sunlight is the best disinfectant)
-free speech is almost impossible now because time is consumed trying to protect everyone’s feelings instead of speaking the truth

54
Q

Problems with Safetyism

A

There are no limits to what u can claim, safetyism is silencing, patronizing