Final Flashcards
What was the TV quiz show scandal?
(1950’s) Questions and answers were being rigged by advertisers and producers to increase drama and capture audience attention.
What did the quiz show scandal do to the TV audience?
The mystique of the TV as a potentially pure and trustworthy medium was blemished.
Main points of Newton Minnow’s Speech “Vast Wasteland”
(1961) The main points were about poor programming containing senseless violence, mindless comedy, and offensive advertising.
TV ad sponsorship changed from early TV to today
To keep revenues up, major networks have syndicated their programming, sought out independent producers to fund programming, and focused on product placement to keep the dollars up. Product placement is an extension of the early TV single corporate sponsor control but in this case, it involves a cross marketing of products among TV and other media’s.
Order of TV’s evolution by period
Novelty/Development stage
Entrepreneurial Stage
Mass Medium Stage
Novelty/Development Stage
When pioneers tried to make TV work through the airwaves
Entrepreneurial Stage
When innovators tried to find a marketable use for TV
Mass Medium Stage
When businesses tried to figure out how to market the device as a consumer product
What does being media literate require?
Taking action to help shape cultural environment
How does one become media literate?
Through criticism is a critical, not cynical approach. Involves analysis and interpretation of facts.
How does High and Low Culture relate to the Skyscraper and culture as a map metaphor?
Most societies arrange culture in hierarchical categories.
Culture as a Skyscraper
Throughout the 20th century, we tended to organize culture in the hierarchical terms of high, middle and low categories instead of thinking of culture as a social process
Culture as a Map
Culture can be better interpreted as a map, with both recognizable and unfamiliar forms. It is a metaphor that challenges the ‘Culture is a hierarchy’ metaphor. One on hand, culture forms may be innovative, unfamiliar, destabilizing and challenging. People have complex cultural tastes, needs and interests. Cultural forms do and perhaps should contain a variety of messages, ‘ all over the map’ – not just vertical as in hierarchy.
The steps of the critical process
Describe, analyze, interpret, evaluate, and engage.
What does Describe entail?
Who, what, when where
What does Analyze entail?
(How) Seek out patterns
What does Interpretation entail?
(So what) Make sense of patterns
What does Evaluation entail?
(Why) Make an informed judgment
What does Engagement entail?
Taking action
Define media convergence
The tendency for different technological systems to evolve toward performing similar tasks
What can convergence refer to and what happens to these areas?
- Convergence can refer to the previously separate communication technologies such as
- Voice (phones)
- Data (productivity apps)
- Video (capture record, distribute)
- These areas of communication and media now share resources and interact with each other synergistically
Convergence and Audience
- Combined resources can increase the quality and quantity of a media product
- Results in increased customer satisfaction
- Leads to a large audience
- Increased convenience
- Increased breadth of information
- Better experience for the audience
- Audience ma choose which media platform to access for content
Convergence and Visibility
- Cross-promotion
- Extra Content
- Logos and advertising increase exposure
- Increased exposure of other media within an organization or media outlet
Convergence and the Future
- Tech is the driving force
- Computers and devices decrease in size while simultaneously increasing in speed and capability
- Faster and larger converged websites as goto hot spots for all media, bypassing older and outdated forms of delivery such as TV
Media Ownership (Conglomeration)
- Corporate behemoths that control most of what we watch, hear and read everyday
- They own TV networks, cable channels, movie studios…etc.
In 1983 90% of American media was owned by ________ companies
50
In 2011 90% of media was owned by ________ companies
6
What companies comprise the big 6?
- NBC UniversalComcast
- Disney
- 21st Century Fox/New Corp/Rupert Murdoch
- Time Warner
- CBS Corporation
- Viacom
Effects of Media Ownership (Conglomeration)
- Many people do not care but should
- People are deeply influenced by the messages that are constantly being pounded into our heads by the mainstream media
- Many Americans have become addicted to news and entertainment and the ownership of all the news ad entertainment that we crave is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands each year
What are the three conventional persuasive strategies used in creating advertising content?
Famous person testimonial, Association, and Myth Building
Examples of Famous Person Testimonial
George Forman Grill ($150 Million), 50 cent Vitamin Wanter ($100 Million), and Michael Jordan Nike Air Jordan ($60 Million/year)
Examples of Association
Gender stereotypes of girls with dolls and guys with guns, and Boys to Men are associated with the prime example of Masculinity
Examples of Myth Building
Miller lite shows man alone watching game and once he opens beer the room is filled with friends and beautiful girl. This portrays that if you are lonely all you need is Miller Lite beer and the Marlboro man embodying the male spirit, freedom and untamed power.
What is the Traditional Television Classification System?
- Morning
- Daytime
- Early Evening
- Primetime
- Late Night
- News
- Commercial
- Promotions and PSA’s
Early Morning and Late Morning
- News
- Children’s Programming
Daytime/Greatest Change in programming in the last 20 Years
- Daytime TV has seen the greatest shift in overall programming trends in the last 20 years as audiences/demographics change.
- 50 years of Soap Opera programming domination
- targeted to female, stay-at-home mom
- Woman working, two income families
- targeted to female, stay-at-home mom
- Decrease in Soaps - cost effective change for networks
- Increase in Talk Show television
- Cooking shows and networks
- D.I.Y. Home Shows and Networks
- 24/7 News Networks - CNN, MSNBC, Fox
- 50 years of Soap Opera programming domination
Evening Programming
- Local News
- News Magazines
- Game Shows
- Syndicated re-runs
Primetime
- Most lucrative time
- Expensive ads
- 8 - 11 PM
- Comedies and dramas
- Special Sporting events and scheduling for primetime
- Network Competition
- Sweeps
- During Summer new programs are unveiled.
Late Night
- Legacy of The Tonight Show
- Cultural and Intellectual Interviews
- SNL
- Generally comedy and variety programming
News
- 11 PM Local News
- 10 PM competitive spots
- Nightline / 60 Min
- PBS/BBC
- Colbert/Daily Show
- 24/7 News
Traditional Commercial TV
- Advertising
- 30 - 60 Second Ads
- Air time = money
- Something to be sold
- Programming originally had one or two sponsors, usually a household product or like soap or toothpaste or appliances
- Today commercials strive for a viral response
- All programming open to the highest bidder
- Primetime has the highest cost
- Infomercials and Overnight TV
- Political Ads
Promotions and PSA’s
- Promotions: Air time devoted to promoting specific programming on a network
- Critical part of keeping audience “hooked”
- Cross promotions due to conglomerated and media convergence
- NBC Primetime comedies promoted on MSNBC
- PSA = Public Service Announcement
- FCC Requirements for every broadcasting network
- Minimum amount of airtime during every program time slot dedicated to public awareness and social causes.