Exam 2 Flashcards
The “Three Eras” of Magazine History
- The early industry - Elite Readership Era
- Mass-Circulation Era
- The Era of Specialization
The early industry - Elite Readership Era
By mid-1700s, magazines become a favorite medium
among the British elites.
Andres Bradford & Benjamin Franklin duplicated that
success in the New World.
Early magazines
Saturday Evening Post (1821), Harper’s (1850), Atlantic
Monthly (1857)
Mass-Circulation Era
(1870s)
McClure’s (-1929)
The Saturday Evening Post
Ladies’ Home Journal
Cosmopolitan
10–15 cents for working people.
Served for social change, esp. in the muckraking era of the first decades of the 20th century -Theodore Roosevelt
What was the first national mass medium? and what helped circulate…
Magazines
Railroad helped mass-circulation
magazines
Help developing national brands
Means to spread message nationwide = Magazines
What is the mass distribution of ideas
Magazine ads
(vs Mass Production & Distribution of Consumer Goods)
Mass consumer vs mass market
The top magazine ads
Toiletries & Cosmetics
Apparel & Accessories
Drugs & Remedies
Foods
Media
Retail
Direct Response
Companies
Where does the most magazine business revenue come from
ads
Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC, est. 1914) – Now
Alliance for Audited Media (AAM)
Providing reliability to announced circulation figures
Why are accurate figures important?
Pricing ad space based on circulation/# of people
Historically publishers often fabricated circ. #s to sell ad space at a higher price
What else matters?
Subscription vs. single-copy sales
Pass-along readership
Demography (e.g., socio economic status of readers)
3 types of magazines
- Trade, professional & business
for specific professions - Industrial, company & sponsored for within organizations
- Consumer
Controlled Circulation (Custom Publishing)
Providing a magazine at no cost to readers who meet some specific set of advertiser-attractive criteria.
ex. Hemispheres (United Airlines) for travelers
Free to take; airlines (and advertisers) expecting pass-along readership = bigger ad reach! (Day’s idea again!)
What’s wrong if this ad is in Hemisphere?
Expensive meat next to not expensive meat - makes it look bad
Advertise lots of destinations
Custom Magazines
Brand magazines:
consumer magazines by businesses & aimed at demographics that are similar to those of the businesses
Magalogue:
Designer catalogue looks like a consumer magazine
Advertorials
Ads that appear in the magazines, taking on the appearance of editorial content.
Complementary copy
Content that reinforces advertiser’s message, or at least does not negate it—is problematic if it becomes major influence in publication’s editorial decision making.
Ad-pull policy
Advertisers demanding right to prescreen content
Convergence with internet – Magazines as an online medium
80+% magazines produce online editions w/ interactive features.
Most online-only contents are free; contents appear in print are for fee.
Print ads are more effective than online ads.
Readers prefer print over online.
Online magazines’
competition with:
1) printed magazines
2) other online contents (NPs,
other websites).
QR codes (quick response)
embedded in print magazines
Where are people of color in magazine ads?
serving or entertaining, working
vs served and entertained, etc.
The Media Effects Debate
Argument 1:
Media content has limited impact on audiences because it’s only make-believe; people know it isn’t real.
Counterarguments:
News – Real
Ad - Supposed to tell truth
Kids confront the world through TV
= The early window (of social learning)
To enjoy the media, we willingly suspend disbelief.
The Media Effects Debate
Argument 2:
Media content has limited impact on us b/c it is only play or entertainment
Counterarguments:
News is not entertainment.
Even if media are for recreation, recreation is very
important to the way we develop our knowledge of
ourselves and our world.
The Media Effects Debate
Argument 5:
Media only affect unimportant things in our lives, such as fads & fashions
Counterarguments:
Fads & fashions are not unimportant
If media influence only unimportant things, why are billions of $ spent on media efforts to sway opinion about social issues?
The Media Effects Debate
Argument:
If media have any effects at all,
they are not the media’s fault.
Media simply hold a mirror to
society and reflect our world as
it is.
Counterargument:
Media = a very selective mirror,
and some things are
overrepresented, others
underrepresented, and some
things disappear altogether.
Agenda setting!
Administrative research
asks questions about the immediate, observable influence of mass comm
Transmission perspective
A liner sequential model of the
effect of communication
Ritual perspective
Representation of shared beliefs
Creation of culture
Shaping and reinforcing cultural
values
Mass comm theories
Explanations of social phenomena that attempt to relate mass comm to our personal & cultural lives
Not one single mass comm theory
Often borrowed from other fields of science (e.g., third-person effect & psychology)
(The Era of) Mass Society Theory
Media are corrupting influences undermining the social order
Hypodermic Needle (Magic Bullet) Theory
Media are a dangerous force that directly penetrates a person’s system (everyone’s)
War of the Worlds (1938)
Martians had begun an invasion of the Earth
Limited Effects Theories (The Era of the Scientific Perspective)
Media influence was limited by individual differences, social categories, & personal relationships
Lazarsfeld’s Two-step Flow Theory
Media message
↓↓
Opinion Leaders
↓↓
Opinion Followers
=
“Social context of interpretation”
Attitude Change Theory
Dissonance Theory — (when confronted by conflicting information, people experience mental discomfort), and they consciously and subconsciously work to reduce that discomfort
through 3 selective processes.
Selective Exposure
(or selective attention)— people
expose themselves to only those messages consistent with their preexisting attitudes & beliefs
Selective Retention
people remember best those
messages that are consistent with their preexisting attitudes & beliefs
Selective Perception
people interpret messages in a
manner consistent with their preexisting attitudes & beliefs
Uses and Gratifications Approach
claims that media do not do things to people; rather people do things with media
consider what gratification you are obtaining by using the media
or a specific medium/media content
Social Cognitive Theory
People copy behaviors they see, imitate it and identify with it. Observers do not always have to copy what they see but sometimes make a related response
(Observational Learning
Inhibitory Effect
Disinhibitory Effect)
Disinhibitory Effect
You may be rewarded by doing
something bad! (or at least not punished)
Glamorization of Alcohol
ex., the more you drink, the
more “real man” you are!”
Media being a very selective mirror…
some things are
overrepresented, others underrepresented, and some
things disappear altogether
Alcohol & Drugs x Media
Evidence links media portrayals of alcohol consumption to youthful drinking and alcohol abuse
But, good # of research from alcohol-industry discounts causal link b/w media portrayals &
drinking
Dependency Theory
People become dependent on media to understand what is going on around them, to learn how to behave meaningfully, and for escape.
“The media are a terrorist’s best friend . . .”
The stimulation model
Direct causal relationship b/w violent content & aggressive behavior
Aggressive cues model
media portrayals suggest that certain classes of people are acceptable targets for real-world
aggression
Cultivation Theory
Heavy exposure to media, namely TV, creates & cultivates
attitudes more consistent with a media conjured version of
reality than that of actual reality.
“The more TV you watch, the more you believe the reality
is similar to what on TV.”
Mainstreaming of Reality
Moving individuals toward shared, television-created
understanding of how things are.
Mean World Syndrome
We live in a world in which we are less trusting of our
neighbors & more accepting of violence in our midst, due
to media.
(This is politically exploitable)
(“The medium is the message”)
Concentration - Economies of Scale
Relative cost of an operation’s output declines as the
size of the endeavor grows.
This particularly works well with media industry.
Non- rivalrous Public Goods
One media product can be shared by many people.
Goods that can be inexpensively copied and distributed, allowing many consumers to enjoy product at the same time. Duplication does not cost much.
Stereotyping
Application of standardized images to members of certain groups, usually based on limited
information
Ex. Mickey Rooney, Irish-American acting Japanese
Actors/actresses must be highly skilled to portray stereotyped characters
RADIO (& Music Rec)
Why revolutionary?
- Wireless - Can reach MASS audience simultaneously without physical connection
- Technology really matters!
- Content vs. distribution separated
The only way you could listen to Music in 1850 was?
Live! But not anymore…
1877: Edison’s “talking machine”
a hand-cranked grooved cylinder and a needle duplicating sounds
1887: Berliner’s Gramophone
a flat, rotating, wax-coated disc, could be copied from a metal master
Wireless Ship Act of 1910
All ships using US ports & 50+
passengers must have a working
wireless & operator.
(before broadcasting)
After Titanic, Radio Act of 1912
Wireless operators must be licensed by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
(before broadcasting)
Is Air Traffic Control mass communication?
No!!!
No anonymous audience
Immediate feedback
uses the same radio waves with FM
Radio Act of 1927
Authorized broadcasters to use airwaves and channels.
(broadcasting)
Trustee Model
Regulation based on the philosophy of spectrum scarcity & issue of influence
(broadcasting)
Communication Act of 1934
Created Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
(broadcasting)