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Comm 10 > final > Flashcards

final Flashcards

1
Q

mass media

A
  • the 20th century was the age of mass media-periforation of mass media, invention of a lot of mass media-esp. electronic
  • film and recording industry started late 19th century-but came of age in 20th century
  • stage that is still with us
  • pervasive
  • tv on 8 hrs/day in avg american household-avg american watches 5 hours a day
  • most households have >1 TV set
  • has played an increasingly central role in ppl’s lives
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2
Q

functions of the mass media

A
  • for individuals and for society
  • content functions vs medium functions
  • manifest function vs. latent function
  • societal functions
  • individual functions
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3
Q

functions of the mass media: content functions vs medium functions

A

-some functions tied to the content of the medium (ex: vote guiding function of newspapers during election time), others tied to the general nature of a medium or the conditions of its use (ex: movies provide place for you to go with a date-content irrelevant)

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4
Q

functions of the mass media: manifest function vs latent function

A
  • obvious, surface, intended functions vs. functions that are hidden, maybe even subconscious
  • ex: listening to radio in car for news vs. listening as something to do with husband because relationship troubles, to prevent a fight
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5
Q

functions of the mass media: societal functions

A
  1. status conferral
  2. passing on norms, values, traditions
  3. narcotizing function
  4. services political system
  5. creates a sense of social cohesion/community
  6. services the economy
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6
Q

functions of the mass media: societal functions: 1. status conferral

A

-mass media legitimizes status on ideas, people, organizations (if something like global warming is discussed on CBS news, tells people it’s an important issue)

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7
Q

functions of the mass media: societal functions: 2. passing on norms, values, traditions

A
  • the same values-so homogenous society-to everyone
  • enforces them as well-especially by exposing deviations from these norms-what happens to people who deviate-crime, cheating
  • what is right and wrong in our society-both fiction and nonfiction do this
  • sometimes the mass media doles our the punishment itself-tabloids-embarasses manw ho left woman at alter adn went on honeymoon along by “Meet the Jerk” on over
  • upholds status quo norms and values-if doesn’t, criticized
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8
Q

functions of the mass media: societal functions: 3. narcotizing function

A

-negative function-mass media creates a sense of apathy-flood of too much info-rots our brains, fills them with junk-much of mass media superficial, not important-makes us inert, passive

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9
Q

functions of the mass media: societal functions: 4. services political system

A

-leaders use mass media to put their message out to/communicate with the people-peoples’ choices in elections decided by watching/using mass media-internationally as well, leaders can communicate to other countries by using mass media

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10
Q

functions of the mass media: societal functions: 5. creates a sense of social cohesion/community

A
  • news and even shows like MAS*H, American Idol-communal experience
  • by providing us with a common base of knowledge, common interests, common concerns
  • in particularly dramatic ways during crises-like 9/11
  • TV connects us to other people, don’t want to be alone, scared, anxious-reassuring to know that have news to tell you what’s going on-with familiar faces of anchors-suggests someone in charge-sense of stability
  • countertrends-more and more media outlets-variety-some people argue media pushing us apart rather than bringing us together-many more channels-also the internet-millions of sites-people concerned about this cuz people go to places (channels and sites) where they already agree with views-where they’ll hear what they want to hear
  • but still brings us together-you may be the only person with an interest or hobby in your community, but through the internet can find people with that same interest or hobby-form online community
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11
Q

functions of the mass media: societal functions: 6. services the economy

A
  • through the business page
  • advertising-advertises and produces jobs in the process and supports the media
  • e-commerce
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12
Q

functions of the mass media: individual functions

A
  1. guide our behavior
  2. guide our understandings
  3. develop our self concept
  4. professional tool
  5. facilitate social interaction
  6. substitute for social interaction
  7. aid in emotional release
  8. ritualize our lives
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13
Q

functions of the mass media: individual functions: 1. guide our behavior

A
  • what movies we see, who to vote for
  • a guide to life
  • see how characters behave, build a store of knowledge on how you should behave
  • ex: when I dressed like Blair
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14
Q

functions of the mass media: individual functions: 2. guide our understandings

A
  • helps give us a grasp of what the world is like-helps define reality )and influences your behavior, so connected to #1)
  • mean-world syndrome: the more TV someone watches, the more likely they are to believe that people will do you wrong, world is a mean and scary place-esp. violent TV-so leads to an understanding of what the world is like (and this can influence your behaviors-so don’t walk alone at night anymore)
  • editorial function: helps guide our interpretations of politics
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15
Q

functions of the mass media: individual functions: 3. develop our self concept

A
  • we use the mass media to explore reality, diff people
  • some of these people we identify with (identification)-this can help us create concepts about who we are, where we fit into world-especially pay attention to people who are like us-in gender, race, age class
  • role models-positive and negative-also important in gender and racial stereotypes-lack of role models for them in mass media
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16
Q

functions of the mass media: individual functions: 4. professional tool

A

-help you in your career-keep up with your field-can provide guidance, news-teachers get articles online to use in class-linkedin.com

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17
Q

functions of the mass media: individual functions: 5. facilitate social interaction

A

-gives us things to talk about with others-common ground for convo-TV shows-interact with people online, through their blog, later meet up in person-social networking sites, so social interaction online too, and can cause it to happen in person

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18
Q

functions of the mass media: individual functions: 6. substitute for social interaction

A

-providing you with vicarious companionship-for socially isolated or shy people-watch TV alone to entertain you, so you don’t feel alone-morning news shows especially effective at this-hosts sit on sofa, morning coffee, look out at you and say “good morning”-feel like you know these people

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19
Q

functions of the mass media: individual functions: 7. aid in emotional release

A

helps us move from 1 emotional state to another-we often use mass media to do this-very effective, especially music-anxious, use spotify music to help you relax, funny video to make you happy when sad, watch TV when bored

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20
Q

functions of the mass media: individual functions: 8. ritualize our lives

A

-order and organize and structure our lives-which gives us a sense of security-maybe read newspapers every morning, read book before bed-know what will be doing on those times-organize life around mass media-make sure home tuesday at 8 to watch PLL-changing now, media conforming to our schedules-online, record-but still happens-plan to watch shows you missed during week on sunday afternoon

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21
Q

Storage of Media Content

A
  • most media content is stored
  • only a small portion is distributed live without being stored first
  • 5 important concepts on the nature and storage of media content
    1. longevity
    2. capacity
    3. portability
    4. accessibility
    5. reproducibility
  • quality sacrificed for other things in digital media ((for space/storage/minimizing)
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22
Q

Storage of Media Content: 1. longevity

A

-how long will it last? cave paintings have lasted for thousands of years-but more recently longevity has been substituted for other factors, like portability or facility or accessibility or easy use-VCR home tape, tape

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23
Q

Storage of Media Content: 2. capacity

A

-how much can be stored? Books and print media can retain a lot more info than cave paintings-but decay much more quickly-can store even more content on floppy disk or CD or DVD or memory sticks or USBs- miniaturization of content has aided capacity, also aided portability

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24
Q

Storage of Media Content: 3. portability

A

-how easy is it to move the content around? things much more portable now

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25
Q

Storage of Media Content: 4. accessibility

A
  • how easy is it to access that content? need source of power with electronic things-then access is easy
  • standards of devices change over time-making it hard to access stuff from older devices-hard to find VCR to play, VHS cassettes
  • modern electronic storage has created more access than ever before as long as have modern technology
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26
Q

Storage of Media Content: 5. reproducibility

A
  • how easily and accurately can you make copies? hard before printing press-scribes rewrote to get copies-so texts changed over time, not identical
  • visual media initially had to be copied by hand too until photography
  • now with digital media, everything is incredibly easy
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27
Q

how media content is stored has certain ramifications:

A

-civilizations that favor stone tablets favor centralized system-info in 1 space-papyrus led to decentralization cuz laws and info could be easily distributed-commerce was affected as well-commerce records could be moved-affected trade-recording police brutality, conversation in murder trial-these being used and distributed has social consequences

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28
Q

Movies

A
  • film provides us with a giant mirror-shows ideals of our culture
  • appeals to our emotions
  • influences our conceptions of reality-like romance
  • a visual image is retained on the retina of the eye for a fraction of a second after it’s gone-persistence of vision
  • motion pictures series of still images presented to eye in rapid succession- persistence of vision allows them to blend together, seem like moving
  • projector invented in 1890s-Thomas Edison and Lumiere Bros
  • 1st subject of film: pictoral realism: realistic pictures where movement was emphasized
  • 1 min films-saw at arcades
  • eventually told stories with sustained narrative-one of the 1st was The Great Train Robbery-10 min.-didn’t think people would stay still for much longer than that
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29
Q

Film-1906-1916:

A
  • Age of Griffith-Birth of a Nation, Intolerance-editing, natural acting, close-ups, symbolic imagery, parallel narratives
  • 1st feature length film, 1st film stars, 1st well known directors, 1st movie palaces-birth of Hollywood, films as dynamic art medium, 1st permanent motion picture theater (a nickelodeon), films got longer, more costly, more profitable-film became successful business
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30
Q

move to Hollywood and growth of film

A
  • 1910-MPPC controlled virtually ever aspect of production, distribution, exhibition-limited length of films to 1 reel-blocked actor identification so actors wouldn’t get too much power-people didn’t like this, go independent, move west to Hollywood-cheap land, get away from MPPC, weather
  • by 1919, Hollywood established as film universe center-80% films made there-cuz international places had to curtail or shut down during war
  • Hollywood absorbed foreign talent
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31
Q

Hollywood in 20s

A

studio system-grew-movie palaces, star system, westerns, comedies, scandals, subject matter of films was bulgar-major religious groups actively against/protesting Hollywood/the film industry-industry forced to police itself-censor-to avoid gov. censorship

  • competition from radio and cars
  • sound: The Jazz Singer-1st successful sound film-late 20s-gradual process-by 1930s moved to total sound production-expensive
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32
Q

effects of sound

A
  • some stars didn’t transition
  • comedy changed-physical comedy before-verbal comedy after
  • people excited about movies-extremely popular-big boost for industry
  • diminished film’s popularity abroad-now needed expensive dubbing or subtitles-silent films had been more unviersal
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33
Q

Golden Age of Hollywood

A
  • 1930s-after WWII
  • hard times-Great Depression, leading up to the war/the war
  • escapist films-musicals, screwball comedies-Busby Berkeley films
  • patriotic war films
  • golden age of studio system-7 dominant film studios-MGM, RKO, WB, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Columbia-each had own stars and styles
  • by early 1940s, avg. household going to movies 2.5x a week-movies incredibly popular
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34
Q

Post WWII decline of film

A
  1. rise of TV caused decline of film-film attendance fell by more than 50% in 50s-1/3 movie theaters closed
  2. red scare-Mccarthyism-thought communists in media (as media industry was usually more liberal)-went to film to root them out-question them in HUAC-blacklisted in industry if labelled communist, so lost a lot of talent, esp. writers-also chilling effect-people afraid of being branded a communist-influenced content of film
  3. Paramount Decree-Paramount brought into court for restraint of trade case-ruled that the 7 big studios formed an oligopoly-controlled film industry-vertical integration-had to give up 1 aspect-chose exhibition-sold movie theaters
  4. foreign film-strong int. film movement formed, giving Hollywood competititon
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35
Q

response to post WWII decline of film

A
  • with attendance going down, industry worried-frantically responded-they tried to improve product (stereophonic sound, revamped movie theaters with bigger screens/cinemascope, ploys like 3D), ordered actors in film to stay out of TV-refused to acknowledge things had changed-TV now biggest mass media
  • “the spectacle film”-reaction to TV-focused on epics on wide screens to distinguish themselves from TV-ex: Cleopatra-expensive failure-many studios approached bankruptcy-led to takeover of Hollywood by non-Hollywood business interests-huge corporations from other fields-even more interested in money rather than creative aspects
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36
Q

United Artists

A

-revamped in early 50s to again provide distribution for indie films-gave new hope to independent filmmakers-set down roots for new kind of film

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37
Q

Film 60s-early 70s

A
  • time of great change in America and in film industry-socially relevant films, freedom of expression-new audiences, new films for them-more arty, experimental
  • ex: Easy Rider-convinces studios that these types of films (social commentary) could be very successful-broke many of Hollywood’s rules-no stars-cheap-so studios followed
  • this didn’t last very long-particularly as studios increasingly taken over by corporations-studied who going to films-real money to be made with youth audience-16-30 year olds made up 3/4 of film audience-to attract them, studios tried youth-oriented films-disaster films-then people got tired of that-then 2 wildly successful films in mid 70s that led to a new trend-Star Wars and Jaws-blockbuster trend-wildly successful films that people saw multiple times-most released in summer
  • changed nature and aesthetic of American movies-from plot and character driven to sensation driven-for young people and foreign markets-they can get indie films from own country, can only get these spectacles from Hollywood-don’t need to understand language
  • heavy emphasis on sequels-to optimize money made-also prequels, remakes, reboots (telling the original story in a new way/take, usually with a new cast-reboot refers to a series of films whereas a remake is 1)-none of these as risky as putting out a new original film-all these strategies to minimize risk-sometimes sequels do better than original starting in 80s (would make 2/3 original profit before that), so use of sequels only grew-also films based on content from another medium-based on video game, book, comic book, games, toys, TV show-bring in fans of the story from other mediums-easier to make films based one earlier content-familiarity-easier way to make money more quickly-budgets and profits grew and grew
  • became much more difficult to make personal and offbeat films under studios
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38
Q

Film-money

A
  • budgets so high that risk high, movies couldn’t fail
  • studios join with other studios to finance films
  • financing more global
  • the more movies cost, the more they have to appeal to everyone-the lowest common denominator-more people can relate to-aim low, so everyone can understand-less intelligence, creativity-wide and shallow films
  • cash break 0
  • all related to super concentration on bottom line-when corporations took over Hollywood
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39
Q

Film-Actors

A
  • their power has led to them making more money-made deals to get cut of profits-not just upfront money like before
  • why are they paid so much? important to open a movie strong-1st weekend-big actors help this
  • Hollywood not as dependent on actors as used to be-can use concept or character or book now to draw in audience-salaries in decline
  • DVD sales have shrunk
  • younger viewers of movies not going to see movies as much as before
  • stars now forgo big upfront and no longer get cut of profits of first run-CB0-cast break zero-stars collect share of profits but only after studio has broken even
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40
Q

Internatonal audience

A
  • Hollywood relying more and more on this market
  • American films dominant worldwide
  • actors get paid a lot if big international stars
  • why have more and more international stars in fils coming out of Hollywood-Jackie Chan
  • action films powerful internationally-boys with toys travel-big guy with big gun killing people enjoyed worldwide-minimal subtitles cuz not dialogue based-flashy visuals and special effects transcend cultural differences, more physical comedy works better
  • international markets growing-China
  • American dominance around globe decreasing somewhat but still dominant
  • sometimes films flop in US but still successful if do well overseas
  • goal for studios is to have films go worldwide
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41
Q

Jaws

A
  • used a new release pattern
  • before, would open in NY and LA-then 2nd tier cities, 3rd-can take a year to make it to a small town-still do sometimes but faster
  • Jaws: high profile nation-wide release-750 theaters on same day
  • distribution and advertising campaign-nationwide-especially on thursday before movie opened
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42
Q

Film now (in comparison to Golden Age)

A
  • concentration on bottom line now, making money-especially cuz of conglomerization
  • films based on other content-sequels-lowest risk
  • importance of international audience
  • studio heads had most power in Golden Age, but now not as important as used to be, with corporate owners
  • agents have more power than they used to
  • actors used to be on contract with 1 studio, told which films they’d do-but after Golden Age, actors more independent, not loyal to 1 studio-agents became more powerful in making deals with studio for their talent
  • some important films that don’t follow this corporate, money making system
  • Hollywood is not focused on art-American movies didn’t claim to be art-a popular entertainment, not an art form-but despite this generalization, there have been exceptions, especially in indie films
  • indies and foreign films
  • cineplexation of America instead of just 1 screen
  • studios hanging-now financing and distributing agencies-get together money to make a film, then distribute a film-the actual work of production not really done by them, 1000s of other companies-wardrobe, cinematography, payroll, sets, etc.-back in Golden Age, studios did everything
  • film vs. TV-were in competition, now cooperation
  • home video
  • products
  • audience
  • regulation of film diff
  • digitalization
  • internet
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43
Q

Indies

A
  • films made outside Hollywood studio system-usually lower budget, no movie stars (except sometimes-if want to make art-will work for less pay), mature audience, stray from tried and true success formulas of studios, more provocative, serious, character-driven-come up during awards season-put studios to shame-so studios have gotten into indie game-set up specialty divisions for indie films-ex: Focus Features (division of Universal)-sometimes indie companies will make deal with studio for distribution
  • some of these are very successful, cost little and make a lot (ex: My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
  • started having hard time 6-7 years ago-cuz of competition from quality TV
  • some indies now rely heavily on internet, video on demand-sometimes instead of in theaters or simultaneously
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44
Q

foreign films

A

-US doesn’t pay much attention to-but lessened with rise of indies-similar audiences, subject matter, style-some foreign films do well, many don’t

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45
Q

cineplexation of America

A
  • has helped indie films-given more people more access to indies, especially before internet
  • cineplex: multiple screens (also called multiplex)
  • started in 70s
  • large movie palaces began declining-went out of business or turned into cineplex
  • many in shopping malls-symbiotic relationship
  • also decline of drive-in theater-25% of nation’s screens at its peak-this land could be put to more profitable use-somewhat of a comeback now-but problems now cuz Hollywood stopped distributing 35mm films to theaters-digital now-so movie theaters transitioned with studios’ help, studios didn’t help drive-in theaters with this, so many had trouble converting, went out of business
  • make lots of revenue from food
  • small towns last place that still sometimes have 1 screen theaters
  • theaters changing-place where encouraged to spend time-drive to make theaters nicer-stadium style seating, comfy chairs that recline-also restaurants, shops, coffee shops added-movie theater=overall social experience
  • luxury theaters: sofas, loveseats, side tables, waiters, wine-trying to give people a good reason to leave their home, with people’s increasingly elaborate home entertainment centers
  • movie screens today bigger, use variety of technologies-wraparound screens-vibrating seats
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46
Q

Film vs TV

A

-post WWII decline in film caused by TV-that initial competition has turned into cooperation-studios saw TV as pace to recycle old films-TV networks wanted movies made for Tv-studios would make these-studios started making some shows too-this all made new revenue streams-then home video came along

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47
Q

home video

A
  • VCR-movie studios would sell copy of film to store, store would rent out-this worried studios, worried people would stop going to the theaters-tried to sue but couldn’t-then started to sell films directly to public-sell-through market-especially big on family films at 1st-then in time other films
  • diff financial strategies: high price to video rental places, only sell a few-increased profits-then with sell through market, price decreased, but volume high, so revenue high
  • in time, by 90s, making more profits from video than theaters-2/3 movie’s profit at peak-but not anymore-w/ netflix, redbox, streaming
  • direct-to-video video-sometimes a movie is never shown in theater, goes directly to video-used to be for bad movies, but then for sequels (especially for animated films)
  • video will probably never kill theaters-people still go to the movies, enjoy them more at theaters than at home-when part of a crowd-a communal experience
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48
Q

Products

A

-another revenue stream for studios-selling products, toys related to films-license sale of toys related to film to many companies, so many stores will sell them0Marvel, Pokemon, Frozen, Star Wars

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49
Q

Audience

A
  • at end of Golden Age-1946-4.3 billion movie tix sold in US-in 1962 1.2 billion sold-big decline-1.5 now-gone up a bit-doesn’t mean these films being seen less, just not in theaters
  • the major audience for films in theaters is young people-only group who will go to same movie more than once
  • -teen films tend to cost less, will give repeat business
  • male teenagers used to be especially important, went to theaters the most-impatient group-like to see movie right when it comes out-opening weekend important so wield great power-core group for action, some types comedy, less affected by what critics say, but more food
  • female teens are also less affected by critics and by more food-also have own power-especially in romance films, romantic comedies-like Titanic-also go to movies in packs-films aimed at girls, girl power films now-especially over the last year, power of male teens has decreased-spending more time with alternate entertainment-so females more important-films aimed at male teens not doing as well
  • fastest growing audience=baby boomers-going to movies more than their parents did
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50
Q

the nature of film

A

-persuasive-high impact, high involvement medium-amazing potential to persuade-TV comes into your world-but film draws you into its world-used by nazis in Germany-but usually doesn’t attempt to persuade-less concerned with transmitting info-more for entertainment-entertains us through tried and true formulas

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51
Q

regulation of film

A

-1915 Supreme Court tules film a for-profit business, not outlet for ideas, so not protected by 1st amendment, like the press-so gov. free to censor-demand for regulation in late 20s, early 30s-film industry didn’t want gov. regulation, so decide to set up Motion Picture Protection office and code (Hays Production Code)
-all the studios agreed to submit films to Hays office to be approved-theaters only showed approved films, so no choice
-code quite strict, especially in mid 30s when Joseph Breen came in
-some leeway-could get around some, pay fine
-one of 1st people to successfully challenge code-Howard Hughes-released his non-approved film and was successful
-men coming back from war more worldly, found code ridiculous
-in 1950s, Supreme Court reversed decision-The Miracle Case-ruled film is protected by 1st amendment-Hays office limped along until it died in mid 60s
-had worked well, so sort of kept it-formed MPAA-set up self-regulatory system of film ratings that we have now-G, PG, R, X-has been revised now to G, PG, PG-13, NC-17,
-led to more adult-oriented films-more R films than other ratings-but PG-13 makes more money-bigger audiences
-

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52
Q

digitalization

A

-nature of film changing-gone digital-important to distribution of film- easier than used to be-amazing special effects can now be created-digital distribution brought huge cost savings-this was costly to change to digital though-change theaters, satellites- a lot of theaters closed down rather than pay, even though studios have helped with cost-this change is mostly complete

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53
Q

internet’s impact on film

A

-made things smoother than used to be-on demand-downloads (it’s yours, don’t need wifi) or streams (file not saved on comp.-plays from another source)-DVD business moved more towards streaming-studios prefer you to download cuz making more money-replace revenue lost from DVDs-but streaming is winning-there is a move to decrease time between movie in theaters and available online-the period has been 90 days-but now couple of weeks-movie theaters upset about this-won’t buy film to show if that period is too short

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54
Q

News media

A
  • decides what stories are important enough to make it into the news
  • agenda setting
  • determine what you think about
  • how do they select?
  • people who do the selecting: gatekeepers-ex: publisher, editor, camera person
  • fairness-does someone have ulterior motives or bias in choosing 1 story over another?
  • to defend itself from accusations of bias, news media has used mirror analogy-they simply mirror reality-objective-but that’s too simplistic, as news can’t select everything, have to use some judgement-some argue selection is intuitive-knows a good story when see it-but that’s also too simplistic, ignores all factors that influence selection
55
Q

What factors influence selection in the news?

A
  1. Newspeople
  2. Organizational Pressures
  3. Technology
  4. Factors Within Story
  5. Audience
56
Q

What factors influence selection in the news? 1. Newspeople

A
  • humans are subjective-have POVs, beliefs, values, that influence our selection
  • political bias-some people argue news media is too leftist, or too conservative-certain media sources clearly 1 or the other-Fox vs. NBC
  • those at the bottom of hierarchy in news more liberal, at top more conservative
  • usually cater to biases of their audience
  • even liberal sources don’t challenge the status quo-underpinnings of American society
  • criticisms of media tell us more about the critics than the news media itself
  • subcultural bias: subculture within news media itself with certain worldview-journalists share subculture-so ideas of responsibility, what constitutes a good story-people at the top in news know each other-share POVs
57
Q

What factors influence selection in the news? 2. Organizational Pressures

A
  • beat system-need to predict are going to occur with their limited resources-so assign reporters to certain places-supreme court beat, white house beat, defines what people say and do in these places-duly covered-news is produced
  • pack journalism-certain elite journalists (NY Times) define a story as important and everyone else fathers pack and follows same story
  • news is a regularized phenomenon-a certain package of a certain length has to be put together every day (or week for a magazine) regardless of how much is happening that day
  • deadlines-stories have to be submitted before deadline-early enough to get it in shape for that day’s news-if misses deadline usually won’t be covered at all-not ready in time for tonight, tomorrow it’ll be old news-this is all messier than it used to be-instead of having 1 deadline have 1 every half hour-w/ 24 hour news (CNN in 80s)-sped up the whole process-internet also wreaked havoc with deadlines, people know event happened right away
58
Q

What factors influence selection in the news? 3. Technology

A
  • new technologies have made for faster and easier gathering and distribution of news
  • smaller portable cameras-can film in new places-easier to film war
  • satellite technology-more and more reporters covering more and more stories-national and international stories
  • some tech is expensive-if buy it, gonna use it-ex: helicopter-even if story not that important, if have chance to use expensive item will do so-or even if not expensive item, just tech
59
Q

What factors influence selection in the news? 4. Factors Within Story

A
  • media has desire for certain types of stories-discrete events in specific time and place-ideas and concepts, not so much-probably not in-depth look at policy issues
  • often leads to creation of pseudoevents-events that would not happen without news media-like press conference, staged demonstrations
  • timeliness of event important-media doesn’t want old news-won’t even continue with big story unless something else happens, another event-otherwise gets 1 day coverage-wants things covered from the now
  • drama-must tell a good story-with beginning, middle, end-or part of an extended dramatic story-presidential campaign
  • we like stories as humans-especially with conflict-makes the story more compelling-especially with identifiable opponents-also the reason scandals obsessively covered
  • we also like unpredictable or unusual factors-helps if occurs at predictable time and place cuz we like predictability-presidential mistakes or mistatements sure to be on news
  • also helps if events close to home-proximity-we tend to be more interested in what’s happening in our own backyard
  • also the closer something is, the easier it is to cover-why events in NYC and DV covered the most-though this is changing with new technology
  • also personalization-helps if events can be presented in personal way-focus on people-human interest-they engross us-we identify and sympathize with people-allows news to sometimes cover policy issue-especially helps if the people covered are famous-names make news=enhance news value-but dangerous, could lose important elements of the story if it just focuses on people
  • another factor is desire for good film-talking heads not exciting, now what news (esp. TV) does well-interesting and big and good sound and picture/images more important-video of car chases, war
60
Q

What factors influence selection in the news? 5. audience

A
  • how a news organization perceives its audience affects what story choose-Wall St. Journal will select for a much diff story than MTV news
  • particularly important to get big audience-which gets more prestige and profit (through advertising)-so to do this, make news more entertaining-critics complain substance replaced with sensationalism, scandal, surface issues, stars
  • most people get heir news from local TV news more than from anywhere else (except teens, who use internet)-filled with sensationalized news and violent stories and murders and very little thoughtful coverage of local issues-especially bad during sweeps period-when local audience measured
  • network TV news affected too-fewer and fewer stories on government and public affairs-more and more on entertainment, sensationalized news-goals/standards have changed-now to have $, not for public interest
  • broadcast TV news have jumped on Monica Lewinsky, stars, Princess Di’s death, etc. over the last few decades
  • even our most serious media outlets have been affected-like newspapers
61
Q

Newspapers

A
  • have become more sensationalized-front page story of LA Times when American Idol cancelled, when Charlie Sheen fired from 2 1/2 Men-OJ Simpson trial-in 1 day more space for that than all other national and international news combined in that issue
  • cuz of circulation-have had to cut back worldwide, less successful-have seen with TV too-less reporters assigned to a place, less investigative reports-no overseas reporters-affected seriousness and coverage of news-rely on US citizens that happen to be there
  • to exacerbate the problem of Americans not getting serious enough news, more and more people getting their news from local TV, blogs, where there’s more opinion involved-instead of newspapers
62
Q

The Internet

A
  • definition of news changing-Twitter feeds nonfiction, is it news?
  • really changing how people consume journalism-most people come to journalism through social media, or your homepage-depend on algorithms, determine what think you’ll like-so increasingly readers are encountering individual news pieces and not whole newspapers or site
  • will this process mean that readers will just live in their own little world? only read that which confirms what they already think?
  • even traditional sources creating diff articles for diff people-personalized news experiences
  • not all of it is trivial-NY Times cooperates with FB
  • pieces taken as standalone fragments-similar to music-individual songs instead of albums
  • news wasn’t created to be consumed that way-supposed to consume together, like album
  • news media sources increasingly ceding power to FB-deals with FB-not big or strong enough anymore to force independent digital distribution-need to be steered there through fb
  • many of the news stories we get are passed onto us by our friends online-this has become the new word of mouth
  • these old gatekeepers being bypassed-you’re determining what’s an important news story and sending it to a friend-more than ever, audience determining news-personalize news
  • people get news from late night comedy shows-links sent often from these-and these have substance
63
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media

A
  • the media is concerned about ethics-want to be trusted, seen as credible
  • sometimes you get bigger audiences by being unethical
  • historically, the news media has claimed to be the social conscience of society-required to serve the public interest
    1. Privacy
    2. Basic obligations to our fellow humans
    3. conflict of interest
    4. trials
    5. gifts, payola
    6. reporting on crime
    7. stereotypes
    8. accuracy of information
    9. undercover reporting techniques
    10. checkbook journalism
    11. risk reporting
    12. war photos
    13. taste
64
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 1. Privacy

A
  • individual’s right to privacy vs. public’s right/desire to know
  • scandals revealed
  • funerals and weddings ruined by press
  • paparazzi screws with personal lives of celebrities
  • technology has made this all the easier, with helicopters, long range cameras
  • how private is your info online? not very
  • cookies used online to monitor what you do to advertise later to you
  • can track location online
  • they sell this info to others
65
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 2. Basic obligations to our fellow humans

A
  • should journalists intervene/help in an event they’re covering?
  • clash between what is good reporting and what is a good human thing to do sometimes
  • ex: record man setting himself on fire rather than try to stop him
66
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 3. Conflict of interest

A
  • diff interests collide-them doing their job and something that could make them money
  • being paid to advertise thing expert in-obvious financial interest in doing that-should advertise what is really best
  • news often afraid to report on stories that show bad side of/are against their advertisers/sponsors
  • news and business should remain separate-but don’t always
  • duty to yourself, your family, your audience (don’t embarrass/expose, don’ show sex and fore and sad news to children), your employer (should you avoid pursuing a story if it makes your employer look bad?), your profession (can you criticize troubled state of your profession/problems with it), society (depicting horrors of war-society should know costs of war)
  • a lot of diff interests people have, push and pull them in diff directions, can conflict
67
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 4. trials

A
  • TV cameras in courtrooms-can interfere with person’s right to a fair trial-hamper functioning of trial-scare some witnesses away, or attract fame hungry liars as witnesses
  • ex: OJ Simpson trial
  • media can prejudice a jury before trial occurs
68
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 5. gifts, payola

A
  • sometimes people give you gifts to influence coverage-in exchange for favorable coverage-food critic given free meal from a restaurant
  • payola: 1 famous type of gift-relates to recording industry and radio-certain record stations would go to radio stations, give money and record to get station to play it, which would sell records-became illegal, so started giving gifts instead of money
  • reverse payola: radio stations contacting artist, invite to concert-play for free-insinuation that if don’t come, won’t play their music as much
  • giving junkets for new movies-movie studios fly in movie reviewers and pay for flight and hotel and give gift basket-so will give positive reviews-if don’t, won’t invite next time
69
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 6. reporting on crime

A
  • should rape victims’ names be made public-if not, does it further stigmatize rape?
  • what details should you publish about crime? can influence copycat crimes, give people ideas
  • what’s important to include vs. what’s titillating-is it necessary to mention gender, race, sexual orientation, or will that just reinforce negative stereotypes?
70
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 7. stereotypes

A
  • we get these from mass media
  • many groups complain about the way they’re portrayed
  • negative stereotypes related to race and ethnicity most common
  • whitewashing
71
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 8. accuracy of information

A
  • you’re not supposed to fabricate evidence, make up quotes, manipulate misleading photos and videos, focus on story about hypothetical individual
  • some stars pay others to run their twitters
  • people fabricate memoirs
  • people fake sources, interviews, quotes in journalism
  • reality shows sometimes reshoot, use body doubles, edit together cleverly
  • native ad-ad presented as regular article-blurring line between advertising and journalism-confuse reader
  • won’t revel something in series until end-ex: 5 part news special series on woman with cancer-shows her battle-don’t reveal until last 1 that she’d been dead for 2 months-thought people wouldn’t tune in if knew from the start
72
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 9. undercover reporting techniques

A
  • is it acceptable to use dicy methods to get a story, to lie, to deceive-especially about identity-that you’re not a journalist/reporter
  • hidden cameras
  • to expose abuses, unsafe and illegal conditions in important places, scams, discrimination
  • but is the ruse ethical, necessary, justified?
  • is it ethical to pose as someone other than the journalist you are to get info online?
73
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 10. checkbook journalism

A
  • paying for stories-accepted principle of journalism that you shouldn’t pay for info-encourages lies/exaggerated or embellished stories
  • tabloid news does pay for info-but not seen as as credible
  • but lately mainstream news and sources have been paying for stories more-home videos of murderers, accidents, interviews
74
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 11. risk reporting

A
  • should the media be responsible for providing an accurate depiction of the risks it covers?
  • amount of coverage usually unrelated to seriousness of risk and likelihood of it happening
  • focus is on things that’ll bring the biggest audiences-plane crashes, school shootings, serial killers
  • makes people afraid of the wrong things-flying instead of driving-the media does this
  • risks wildly blown out of proportion-that are really rare
  • people who watch more coverage more scared-stresses people out
  • what responsibility does news media have in providing a realistic picture of the risks we face?
75
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 12. war photos

A
  • pics of war rare in American media
  • is the American media showing an incomplete portrait of the reality of war?
  • but people criticize when show pics-too gory, unpatriotic, hurts morale, insensitive, invading on private moment
  • we’ve spend trillions on war-shouldn’t we understand horrors of war, its consequences
76
Q

Ethical Issues with Mass Media: 13. taste

A
  • graphic images-show or no? edit to make more tasteful?
  • people dying on live TV-police chases
  • death hoaxes-distasteful jokes-live graphic sex descriptions on radio
77
Q

government regulation of mass media (to help with the above ethical issues with mass media)

A
  • regulate their broadcast media more than anything else-because of scarcity of electromagnetic spectrum space
  • accessibility of broadcast media to children worrisome
  • recently, the main reasons to regulate broadcast media has been dissipating-thing of past-move towards deregulation
  • spectrum space not an issue like it used to be-satellite TV, cable, internet-tech changes
  • tech has also stepped in to regulate/censor, for accessibility to kids issue-like for parents to block programming from being seen on TV-V chop-and ratings system
  • Telecommunications Act of 1996-updated 1934 act-greatly reduced regulations on media
  • also relaxed/reduced limits on number of stations 1 TV/radio entity could own-used to be only 3-now can have as many as want as long as don’t reach over 39% of American population
  • not that no new regulations added-but mostly deregulation
  • the ratings system, V-chip
  • but mostly toothless, people not aware of it, don’t use it
  • in the US, much regulation is self-regulation (non-gov., like film)-each media industry has a code of ethics-here the pressure is moral, not legal-Standards and Practices departments for TV networks-but can be overruled by management-sites regulate themselves-users report and block and flag things
  • interest/advocacy groups-lobby the media to have certain types of content and not others-Parent’s Music Research Center (warning labels on records), one for TV too-boycotts on companies that advertise during inappropriate show-but these are not always successful-can even help ratings
  • parents groups-especially in regard to schools-especially books used in schools-censorship big issue in schools-complaints often from conservative religious folks, pressure from right wing-2 s’s (sex, swearing, satanists)-but parents from the left as well, they want to ban stuff that’s culturally offensive (Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Huckleberry Finn)-the #1 reason for such attempts is sex in America-over 1/2 of all censorship attempts by parents are successful
  • certain major retailers-like Walmart-#2 leading seller of popular music in America-Walmart refuses to stock albums with offensive cover art-affects music production-producers change songs/lyrics and cover art so won’t need warning label/so can be sold in places like Walmart-film/video stores used to refuse to stock NC-17 films, so films would have to change stuff to get R rating-chilling effect-record companies have review boards-screen everything-people who buy don’t usually notice but sometimes big change
  • but still, American media among least regulated in world-cuz of 1st Amendment-the US is a liberal democracy
78
Q

First Amendment-The US as a liberal democracy

A
  • democracy: voting, majority rules
  • liberal-we have certain rights that cannot be violated or taken away regardless of what majority thinks-most in bill or rights
  • rights that ensure our freedom, protect us from the tyranny of the majority
79
Q

First Amendment

A

-congress should make no laws prohibiting freedom of speech or press-other parts, but this is the part we’ll focus on

80
Q

philosophical basis of 1st amendment

A
  • came from ideas of 3 men
  • John Milton
  • Thomas Jefferson
  • John Stewart Mill
  • combine all these and get classical liberatarianism: you can say and print whatever you want without any gov. regulation-gov. can’t prevent you from saying anything-also gov. can’t force you to say or print anything-at the end of the day things will work out, truth will be revealed-you should not try to restrict harmful speech-the preferred remedy for harmful speech is more speech, not forced silence-these were radically new ideas at the time, embraced but he founding fathers-press serves as watchdog for gov., reveals its mistakes to citizenry-keeping an eye on gov.-citizens decide who is in gov.
81
Q

philosophical basis of 1st amendment: John Milton

A

-formulating marketplace of ideas-said best economy not gov. regulated-created discussion-best test of the truth is power of thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market-gov. can’t control these thoughts-good ideas and truth will fight out lies and bad ideas-gov. should not restrict of regulate marketplace of ideas

82
Q

philosophical basis of 1st amendment: Thomas Jefferson

A

-role of ideas in the political realm-son of enlightenment ideas from Europe-humans are rational-the majority will reach right decision if given all info-so press v. important to provide info to the people so they can govern themselves

83
Q

philosophical basis of 1st amendment: John Stewart Mill

A
  • British philosopher, utilitarianism-laid out 3 prong defense of freedom of speech
  • “as opinion is silenced, the truth may be silenced as well”-necessary to let everyone express their opinion
  • “even a wrong opinion may contain an element of truth necessary to discover the whole truth”-important for people to have their say even if they’re wrong
  • “even if commonly accepted opinion is the whole truth, people will hold it not as rational belief but as prejudice if they have not had to defend it”-need to let everyone say and print their ideas, so people can defend their beliefs when they’re attacked-only then do you truly make this belief your own, figure out why you believe it, not just because it’s what you were taught, not just blindly accepting ideas
84
Q

absolutists

A

-some people believe words of 1st amendment should be interpreted literally-absolutists-people have asked, is that really reasonable, to literally let anyone say anything they want? consensus has arisen that some restrictions are necessary

85
Q

consensus definition of 1st amendment:

A
  • some restrictions necessary, but no restrictions should be allowed simply because the speech is unpopular-what you can say is not decided by majority-purpose of 1st amendment is to foster the widest amount of ideas
  • protecting currently unpopular ideas from suppression by majority rule-freedom for the thought we hate, that upsets us
  • so what can we base restrictions on? ultimately decided by the Supreme Court-based on social harm criteria-if generates great amount of social harm, can restrict it
86
Q

Restrictions on free speech

A
  1. slander, libel (can’t falsely defame someone’s character-you can seek payment for damages if slandered-truth is an absolute defense, if what you say is true, no one can touch you-slander is spoken, libel is written-diff standards for public figures and average people-higher standards for public figures-harder for them to sue-requires “actual malice”-prove defendant knew what they were saying was false and out to get you, not just negligence)
  2. violations of national security (gov. has right to keep certain info secret-but not forever-freedom of info act-after certain period of time, has to be made public-if you find out some of this info, you do not have the right to say or print it, if will threaten national security-courts do realize convenient rationale for gov. to use-so keep eye out for gov. overuse)
  3. privacy (ppl have right to keep certain info private-includes right not to have your name or likeness for commercial purpose)
  4. contempt of court-you don’t have right to say whatever you want in court-cuz interferes with right to fair trial-bill of rights amendments colliding, fair trial wins)
  5. public officials cannot espouse certain religious beliefs in schools (cuz considered gov. establishment of religion, which is not allowed under the Constitution)
  6. copyright (ppl can’t claim your work as their own-main exception to this=fair use-can use excerpts of copyrighted material, especially if for educational or artistic use, especially if not profiting)
  7. false advertising (can’t lie about your product in ads)
  8. certain political statements (you can call for overthrow of gov-violence-that’s protected speech-but 1 exception is if you start advocating very specific actionable violent overthrow of gov., do have right to step in and not allow)
  9. can’t interfere with the administration of justice (can’t say something to influence a jury)
  10. compelled speech (gov. cannot compel you to say to print something-cannot compel you to say Pledge of Allegiance-1 exception: in court of law, judge can sometimes compel speech-compel journalist to turn over notes, etc., if need that info for the trial-can’t withhold info=clash with 5th amendment/right to remain silent)
  11. jurors can’t talk to book publishers about possible deals before trial over
  12. hate speech on college campuses
  13. harassments and threats
  14. school authorities have broad censorship rights (school newspapers, swearing, gang clothing-to maintain discipline-webpages run from school-but sites run outside of school protected, as long as not threat
    - and more
    - supreme court conservative on adding to this list-exceptions create problems
    - (don’t have to know all of these-know 3 or 4)
87
Q

problems with adding more restrictions on free speech

A
  1. defining this realm of exception-subjectivity involved in coming up with a definition
  2. cost-benefit analysis-exceptions based on that more social harm will arise from allowing the speech that preventing it-but there is always social harm in preventing the speech, cuz of first amendment
    ex: obscenity
  3. definition: what is obscene depends on who you ask-supreme court moves from 1 vague definition open to interpretation to the next-usually results in periphery, niche, out-there stuff being censored-violates heart of consensus definition
  4. cost benefit analysis: obscene material objectifies and exploits women-has bad affect on men, causes rape, bias on jury, warps children’s sexuality, bad for family values, violates religious values-inconclusive findings on if it really does-pros to what is considered obscenity too, sexuality is important, artistic expression, basic essential realm of life, entertainment value, educational value, enhances sex-hard to show that costs so outweigh the benefits that must ban/prevent/restrict it-and don’t like to add to restrictions of free speech-literary, artistic, political, and scientific value to things
88
Q

Economics of the mass media-4 basic media support systems

A
  1. audience supported-audience pays for media directly-like books
  2. advertiser supported-radio, TV-selling audience to advertisers
  3. combination of those 2-audience and ad support-newspapers-movie in theater
  4. subsidized-privately or publicly-money comes from private organization or government (cheap mailing rates and permits, tax break)-PBS, NPR-having subsidizing angels for magazines, journals of opinion that are not financially viable otherwise
89
Q

Advertiser-Supported Media

A

-important to know audience size and composition

90
Q

audience size

A
  • a lot can directly measure-how many copies sold, tix/books/CDs bought
  • more difficult with broadcast media-radio and TV
  • TV: hires a company called Nielson Co.-bases # viewers on representative sample of population-17,000 households, make them Nielson family, monitor what they’re watching
  • use People Meter-each family member has a button, must press button when stop and start watching-if leave and come back-records minutes (rating) based on average number of people that watch the show from start to finish
  • rating vs. share
  • deliver these #s every day
  • advertisers interested in these national ratings-but also local ratings, which Nielson doesn’t measure these every day-sweeps
  • portable people meter-in pocket-picks up what you’re watching wherever you go
  • ad rates now based on # people watching commercials, not the show
  • complicating factors-DVR-included
  • C3 #s
  • delayed viewing
  • TV networks want all viewings counted-on demand, streaming, internet-in those can put ads that can’t fast forward through-so Nielson starting to include some online-but right now most TV shows online not counted in rating-cuz ads diff or no ads-Nielson also working on measuring TV watched through cell phones, tablets-work in progress
91
Q

rating vs. share

A
  • rating= (number of TV households watching a particular program)/(total number of TV households in the US)
  • share= (#TV households watching a particular program)/(#TV households with TV turned on at that time)
  • how show is doing vs. how is it doing against it’s competitors-wanna know both
92
Q

sweeps

A
  • collected during November, May, February, and July-Nielson will provide measurements on local ratings-good for local advertisers-collected through using diaries-more old-fashioned, less accurate (people fill in on weekend oftentimes, forget, or lie, rounding errors), but cheaper
  • most stations affiliated stations-owned by someone else-networks want to help both-their owned and affiliated stations-so put best programming on during weeps-finales
  • sweeps not for networks but local stations to set their ad rates
  • but lately people meters are moving into local markets-LA, NYC, Philly-more accurate than diaries, though there are still problems-this could kill sweeps, cuz just daily numbers, not by special months-though we’re a ways away from that
93
Q

C3 #s

A

-now they produce C3 #s-measures both if you watched show when it aired or within 3 days-used to make thursday nights best ad rates-but now wed.

94
Q

delayed viewing

A
  • more and more people waiting longer to watch shows-partly cuz more shows-so now pushing for C7-measure viewings within a week after airs
  • arguments against-delayed viewers skip commercials-but still over 40%-TV watching passive activity, just let commercial roll-TV advertisers want to catch you before the weekend movies-so start ad promotions earlier
95
Q

audience composition

A
  • Nielson also know demographics-advertisers interested in this, direct ads to potential consumers of their products-want to know diff demographic variables to make more money
    1. geography (where you are-snowmobiles being advertised in Florida is useless-and population density/if you live in a city)
    2. age (breakfast cereal ads to kids-reaching magical 18-49 year old audience-advertisers want to reach the difficult to get groups-teen poys-will pay more to reach)
    3. sex (beer commercials during football game)
    4. income (ads for luxury cars on classical music radio stations)
    5. employment patterns (working women more likely to use convenience food to quickly make dinner-hamburger helper ads directed at them-unemployed people watching TV at 2am, ads on at 2am directed towards them-online classes or training programs
96
Q

Economics of the mass media: Media Concentration

A
  • more and more media (not just papers-film companies, record companies, TV news, film libraries, sports teams, theme parks, satellite TV, cable TV channels-all around world) falling into fewer hands-big conglomerates control production and distribution
  • NewsCorp, Viacom, Disney/ABC, TimeWarner, NBCUniversal-all own combo of things
  • is this a problem? yes-concentration, monopoly
  • these 5 companies control almost all media-was 50 in the 1980s, and that’s still a small number
  • but our media options have expanded exponentially-more channels, outlets (online)
97
Q

Economics of the mass media: Profit and Process

A
  • controlled by large corporations-that expect to make a profit-influences media greatly
  • media is big business
  • media’s reliance on profit conflicts with other roles plays in society-like being unbiased, giving all info, enforcing democracy, being fair and equal
98
Q

How do these companies choose what to put out for profit?

A
  • that which minimizes risk
  • 1 way to minimize risk is to go with what’s worked before, cultural conventions, tried and true conventions of diff. films-successful genres that worked in the past-proven talent (actors, writers, producers, directors)-uncommon for media companies to promote original out of the box content-breakthrough genres take years to gain acceptance
99
Q

process of creating media to put out for profit

A

-begins with surplus of creative talent-to eventually succeed, must meet the needs of these profit-minded companies-work on connecting the talent with the company-talent/A&R ppl, agents, managers, casting directors-trying to find safe/good bets-promoting (publicists, sales reps, etc.)-bring to entertainment press and in time to the public-then media gatekeepers (reviewers, critics, bloggers, journalists) who review this product-recommend it or not-sometimes persuaded or paid off to recommend-industry professionals must make multiple decisions when there’s lots of uncertainty-minimize risk

100
Q

secondary markets

A
  • all opportunities to maximize profit beyond domestic sale in original format-no additional development or production costs
  • DVD sales, music sold for ad-international market-reruns of TV shows-in syndication market
  • things made with secondary markets in mind-especially syndication-plot twists to encourage rewatching, same format in shows so don’t have to watch in order-Psych, Law and Order
101
Q

overproduction

A
  • with a focus on blockbusters-elevate to cultural events
  • the hits pay for everything else-so looking for successes that’ll generate most of the profit-try a bunch of stuff and 1 will be a hit (opp. of long tail, where sell a little of many things, adds up-amazon)
  • highly probably any 1 product will fail-so put out surplus knowing many will bomb and not make a profit-a few will hit big, make enough profit to more than cover anything else
  • difficult to predict what’ll hit big-so hard to just put out what’ll hit big, cuz don’t know
  • can try to minimize risk-used “tried and true”method, sequel or prequel or spinoff or series or novel adaptation or remake, etc.-but doesn’t always work
102
Q

merchandising

A

also a way to minimize risk, a part of the secondary market-provide an additional source of revenue upfront-also promote the film
-but all of this doesn’t guarantee success

103
Q

synergy

A

-another way to minimize risk-large media organizations exercise synergy among their various parts-horizontal integration-TimeWarner owned HBO and Entertainment Weekly-use EW to talk about HBO shows-similarly, Fox owned TV Guide-1 part of the company helps another

104
Q

Media Studies

A

-field of study that deals with content and effect of media

105
Q

Media Studies: media culture

A
  • everyday life, the culture we’re constantly exposed to
  • we have unlimited access to media and these influence the way we view the world
  • media portrays diff ideologies of our cultures
  • it also tells us what is good or bad
106
Q

Media Studies: theories

A
  • encoding and decoding
  • every media source has an embedded encoded message and each audience member decodes and interprets the message in their own way
  • Production: where encoding takes place
  • circulation: deliver message to potential receivers (can be diff forms like visual or verbal)
  • distribution/consumption=sender/receiver
  • reproduction-can vary due to diff elements
  • sender-> encoder -> message -> decoder -> receiver
107
Q

Media Studies: Media Capitalism

A

-6 companies own all of it

108
Q

Media Studies: Cultural Hegemony

A
  • literal def: political/economic/military control of one state over others
  • ruling class becomes dominant storytellers by spreading ideas
  • ex: Bollywood from Hollywood, McDonaldization
109
Q

Media Studies: How innocent is Disney??

A
  • 2nd largest empire in the world
  • uses connection to get ahead
  • shapes children’s imaginations-emphasizes and highlights stereotypes, especially in the cases of gender (helpless or evil femme fatale, highly sexualized bodies, only incorporates feminism superficially) and race (powerless or inferior, “white man’s burden”)-doesn’t matter if it’s intentional or unintentional, it has the same effect
  • Mickey Mouse Monopoly: the seductress (even in animal form)-they caricature ideas and sell them to children
110
Q

Media Studies: media literacy

A
  • the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media-blame audience for some stereotypes
  • we must analyze media to see the role it plays
111
Q

Advertising

A
  • every second on TV commercials costs $4,000 to produce-more spent on commercials than TV program-$350 billion spend on advertising in US last year-works-can make consumers think very diff things about 2 of the same product when marketing it to diff groups
  • pays for well over half the cost of newspapers and magazines
  • avg. person presented with 600 ad messages a day in urban center in 1971-had risen to 6,000 by 2006
112
Q

Advertising: earliest form of advertising/ad history

A

-face to face-word of mouth-then flyers (1468-to promote books) and posters, ads in newspapers (1704)-by mid 19th century advertising became popular for American companies-starting in 1860s started with national audiences rather than just local with magazines-joint with railroads-could get products and magazines advertising them all over country-ad agencies born starting in 1869

113
Q

Advertising: Newspapers

A
  • historically referred to as backbone of retail advertising-used by local businesses seeking general audiences-ads often more seriously considered in newspapers-tangible (not ephemeral like broadcast media)-can refer to them multiple times-newspaper readers tend to be older, richer, more educated than broadcast audiences-space can be bought as late as 48 hours before
  • problems: young people buying newspapers less, ads in black and white/low quality images-to counter sunday paper ads with glossy color paper inserts-but many news readers take these out/ignore these
114
Q

Advertising: Magazines

A
  • specialized-gives advertisers narrowly defined target audiences-ads in some copies and not others (copies to rich neighborhoods have diff ads than to poor)-selective editing makes it even more narrow-longer shelf life than newspaper-shared more-higher quality paper/ads-downsides: reservations months in advance-so no last min. changes
  • 2/3 newspaper and magazines is ads
  • big changes as move to digital world
115
Q

Advertising: Radio

A
  • can also be specialized-can offer target audiences-urban music station, advertise urban clothing-can also be bought on short notice, last minute changes-inexpensive-repetition, jingles in ads to drive a message home-introduce ad on TV and supplement on radio to drive home point with repetition (usually supplementary advertising)
  • drawbacks: bad if need to see product-people tend to spend less attention on radio than other mediums-tune in and out, change station
116
Q

Advertising: TV

A
  • TV business not structured to deliver quality programming-especially broadcast TV
  • structured to deliver viewers to advertisers-programming merely the bait
  • the preferred medium for most advertisers-audio and visual-more money spent on TV ads than anywhere else
  • drawbacks: price-most expensive to make and to air-also have to book months in advance-focusing on audiences can be difficult, but can with cable
  • especially important for national companies that want to reach the whole country in 1 fell swoop
  • TV audiences biggest-can reach more people using TV
117
Q

Advertising: Internet

A
  • good for narrow focus on select audience-very targeted-based on gender, age, location, preferences, pat things searched, bought, looked at, posted about-now more focus on ads on smartphones cuz millennials spending so much time there
  • easier to measure (how many times ad is clicked on)
  • sponsored searches-1st page usually paid for
  • spam-extremely cheap
  • mail-ads on side, know what you’re emailing to give relevent ads
  • interactive, click
  • hypertargeting-know what user is up to based on search history, emails-companies have many ads for same product-4000 ads for 1
  • ads allow free internet
  • FLOGS (fake blog, pretending to be made by consumers, really by company
  • companies have social networks (FB, Twitter)
  • Viral marketing-people/friends send ad to friends-goes viral
118
Q

Advertising on TV-what demographic do advertisers want?

A
  • advertisers want 18-49 demographic-buying patterns/brand loyalty not yet set
  • many products disproportionally bought by young people-movie tix
  • will be around longer
  • helpful if consumer has family-will buy more-older people more likely to live alone
  • ideal viewer: 35 yr old woman with kids, expendable income, fashionable neighborhood
  • 18-24 year olds spending less time on TV, more on internet
  • baby boomers changing EQ somewhat-too big and rich to ignore -diff than their parents and grandparents-healthier, trying to be youthful, more willing to travel, eat out, try new things-so now advertisers want to target them too-also richer (control country’s wealth). less brand loyalty-spending money on goods not traditionally associated with old people-so up to 64 year olds
119
Q

Advertising on TV-most common format of advertising on broadcast network TV:

A
  • spot ad-scatter plans
  • a spot is an ad-go to network with ad, they scatter on a bunch of diff shows over a few nights-oftentimes advertisers don’t specify which show will appear on-with exceptions of Superbowl, other special programming
  • not always this way-in early TV, was sponsored advertising
120
Q

Advertising on TV-sponsored advertising

A
  • used to be most common format of advertising on broadcast network TV
  • 1 advertiser buys all of the ad space on a show-totally sponsors a show-in many ways supplied programming itself
  • but didn’t last too long-drawbacks:
  • for companies-too expensive and not sufficient
  • for networks-gave sponsors too much power-restrictions on words said (names of competitors)-lots of demand for ad space so wanted to separate and sell to more
  • but still advertisers have power-networks don’t want to upset advertisers and lose that revenue source-so content of media still influenced by advertising
  • companies usually demand separation from competitors-in diff. advertising pods
  • sponsorship has not totally died-broadcast, cable, online-but not common
121
Q

usual length of TV ad

A
  • used to be 1 min. avg. length

- now 30 seconds-but more and more 15 second ads now

122
Q

Other non-mass media advertising venues

A
  • there are hundreds
  • product placement-on TV show, ebook, etc.-product shows up as part of entertainment
  • direct mail/junk mail
  • billboards, benches, grocery carts, sound and display trucks, pens, pencils, posters, the sky, TV shirts, TV monitors in stores/train stations/food courts/etc., movie theater screens, merchandising, floor tiles, sides of buses and buildings and cabs, doorknobs
  • bathrooms, DMV, welfare offices, jails
  • naming of buildings and structures after corporate sponsors-ex: sports stadiums-Staples Center
  • cross-promotional campaigns-2 companies partner, promote each other-Tswift album and diet coke
  • buzz advertising-ask people to talk up a product-in a club-or online, if have online following
  • texts-location based
  • the body-tattoos (for boxers-usually temporary)-ad on shaved head
  • some billboards have camera-can tell who is looking-digital-change display to gear towards that person standing in front of it
123
Q

Institutional Advertising

A
  • most ads sell a product or service, but there’s another type of ad called institutional advertising
  • doesn’t seek immediate sale of product-attempt to develop/shape image of company-develop good will towards company
  • often done by aligning company with noteworthy goals or social issues or philanthropic work, or a certain philosophy (patriotism)/way of life (camping/natural/healthy), or a warning/safety thing (Budweiser ads saying don’t drink and drive)
124
Q

Regulation of Ads

A
  • regulated by gov.
  • most regulation involves the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-protects copyrights, trademarks, logos-punishes false advertising-cease and desist orders to companies that lie (complaints come from consumers or competing companies)-can force them to run a corrective ad in which must point out how misled the public
  • but in some cases Federal Communications Commission (FCC-regulates broadcast media) gets involved-when advertising deals with issues of public importance-force companies to run counter-ads
    ex: smoking in 70s-public health issue=counter-ads insured another side would be heard-broadcast stations had to provide free space to anti-smoking groups=1 PSA for every 3 cigarette ads-so effective that when banned smoking ads, companies not that upset because counter-ads had decreased sales so much
  • a lot of self-regulation-media outlets won’t accept specific types ads-condom ads-many stations refuse to run them-LA Times stopped with strip club ads in sports section
125
Q

Branding

A
  • process of creating in the consumer’s mind a clear identity for a product-differentiate product from similar products from competing companies
  • use of logos and brand names
126
Q

Branding: use of logos and brand names:

A
  • logos used for identification-lifespan of 15-20 years-sometimes keep classic ones or just revamp (like if outdated, racist, but don’t want to lose identifiability)-spend millions to come up with a good logo
  • sometimes need to change logo cuz others have refashioned for other purposes/products-“fuck” instead of “ford” on otherwise the same ford logo on a t shirt-Ford sued and won
  • brand name important-problem if becomes too well known-if enters English lang as word meaning the generic version of that product, company loses rights to that name-ex: escalator, Jell-O, aspirin, band-aid, Scotch tape, vaseline, Xerox, TeVo
127
Q

Techniques of Advertising

A
  1. rational appeal (central route persuasion)
  2. promising status-people will admire you/look up to you
  3. testimonials-tale of a product, good from basic person
  4. simple repetition-increase brand awareness
  5. fear appeal-make you afraid (peripheral rate persuasion)
  6. celebrity endorsement
  7. competitive ads-direct allusion (sometimes name product/use product) putting down competitors (ex Coke vs Pepsi)
  8. use of music-cutting edge artist not so known=cheaper and appeals to younger-cool quotient increases (ex Microsoft-4 mill Rolling Stones, Moby got famous from advertisements)
128
Q

Strategies of Advertising

A
  1. integrated ads-melt entertainment and ad content (going back to old way 4 Texaco guys at beginning of show-unavoidable)
  2. product placement-placing products in shows, music videos, movies (ex: Mad Men-“Jack Daniels”-Reality shows-more realistic-American Idol-all drinking cokes)
  3. native ads (type of integrated ads)-sponsored content/advertorials-blending in with content (newspaper, articles)
  4. TV in context-pair commercials with reference scenes in show (ex: crash scene-car insurance)
  5. making ads extremely entertaining-having multiple parts (ex: Mountain Dew)
  6. Virtual Ads-initially at sports events, brands/slogans are virtually imposed on fields, walls-only on TV-also on news, TV shows)
129
Q

Ads aimed at kids

A
  • in hopes of Nag factor working
  • or sharing brands with others
  • companies have apps/games ads
130
Q

Infomercials

A

30 min, program commercial

  • demonstration, studio audience
  • starts by dramatizing problem you never knew you had
  • bonus product, what would you expect? 10x lower
  • bought by women above age of 40
131
Q

Super Bowl

A
  • biggest audience (100 mil)
  • 1984 commercial Macintosh-all inventory sold next day
  • expectation of great advertisements-viewers want to watch advertisements
  • 30 seconds-4.5 million
132
Q

Stephen Glass

A

American paralegal and former journalist. In 1998, it was revealed that as many as half of his published articles were fabrications. Over a three-year period as a young rising star at The New Republic, Glass invented quotations, sources, and events in articles he wrote for that magazine and others. Most of Glass’s articles were of the entertaining and humorous type; some were based entirely on fictional events. Several seemed to endorse negative stereotypes about ethnic and political groups.

133
Q

Jayson Blair

A

Jayson Thomas Blair (born March 23, 1976) is an American journalist formerly with The New York Times. He resigned from the newspaper in May 2003 in the wake of the discovery of plagiarism and fabrication in his stories.

Comm 10 (2 decks)

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