Mass Communication: A Critical Approach Flashcards
News Media and Our Political Process
“We now watch the news media—mostly on cable and the Internet—transform important debates like health care reform into highly partisan narratives of good vs. evil in an effort to serve smaller, specialized audiences.”
The Media Storytellers
At their worst, the media’s appetite for telling and selling stories leads them to exploit or misrepresent tragedy.
Hurtle from one event to another
Lose their critical distance
At their best, our media reflect and sustain the values and traditions of a vital democracy.
Engage and entertain
Watch over society’s institutions
Cultural Contexts
Mass media consists of cultural institutions/cultural industries: Media Schools Art Beliefs
Eras of Communication
Oral communication Written communication Printed communication Electronic communication Digital communication
The Age of Convergence
Convergence refers to the appearance of older media forms on the newest media channels.
Convergence also refers to newspaper, broadcast, and Internet outlets existing under one corporate roof (also known as cross platform).
Evolution of a Mass Medium
Novelty, or development, stage: inventors and technicians try to solve a particular problem
Entrepreneurial stage: inventors and investors determine a practical and marketable use for the new device
Mass medium stage: businesses figure out how to market the new device as a consumer roduct
Linear Model of Communication
Sender—message—mass media channel—(gatekeepers)—receivers
Cultural Approach of Communication
Individual cultural component
Selective exposure
Storytelling
Schramm’s Model of Communication, 1954
Message -> Decoder-Interpreter-Encoder-> Message -> Decoder-Interpreter-Encoder
Concentric Circle Model
Content Communicators Codes Gatekeepers Mass Media Regulators Filters Audiences Effects
Narrative Model of Communication
Developed by Harold Lasswell, the Narrative Model uses words instead of diagrams to explain the communication process. The model has four questions: Who says what? In which channel? To whom? With what effect?
Cultural Landscapes
Culture as a skyscraper:
High culture
Low culture
Different media for each, but many people consume both.
Skyscraper Model:Hamlet vs. Wheel of Fortune
Some enjoy high culture (Beethoven) and low culture (American Idol).
Did The Munsters rip off Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?
Does popular culture cheapen public life?
More refined culture struggles to compete with mass appeal of TV.
Popular media may inhibit social progress by transforming us into cultural dupes.
The “Big Mac” theory: We have lost our discriminating taste for finer fare.
Culture as a Map
Culture is an ongoing, changing process.
Map is a metaphor for the centers of culture and niche areas consumers enjoy.
Our culture contains some stories that are conventional and comforting, others that are innovative and challenging.
Map Model: Shifting Values
Four values of the modern period: Working efficiently Celebrating the individual Believing in a rational order Rejecting tradition/embracing progress
Postmodern Values
Four features of the postmodern:
Celebrating populism
Diversifying and recycling culture
Questioning science and revering nostalgia
Acknowledging paradox
Postmodern culture (present) changes modern values.
Media Literacy
A critical, not cynical, approach
Involves an analysis and interpretation of facts
Ethical/moral evaluation of meaning
Take action to shape the cultural environment
Benefits of a Critical Perspective
Reassess and rebuild the standards by which we judge our culture
Recognize the links between cultural expression and daily life
Monitor how well the media serve democratic practices
Five Key Questions of Media Literacy
- Who created this message?
- What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?
- How might different people understand this message differently than me?
- What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented in, or omitted from, this message?
- Why is this message being sent?
Five Core Media Literacy Concepts
- All media messages are ‘constructed.’
- Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.
- Different people experience the same media message differently.
- Media have embedded values and points of view.
- Most media messages are constructed to gain profit and/or power.
Media Literacy and the Critical Process
Description Analysis Interpretation Evaluation Engagement
Functions of Mass Communication
Surveillance
Correlation
Cultural Transmission
Entertainment
Benefits of Digitization
Easy and cheap to create, reproduce, and distribute media products
World Wide Web makes everyone a potential publisher
Problems of Digitization
Erosion of privacy
Uneven access to the internet among groups
Easy access to objectionable material and pornography
susceptibility to crimes such as identity theft
Convergence and the Relationship of Media Organizations with Their Audience
Audience increases its media consumption
Audience becomes more active in media production and distribution than with analog media
Audience fragmentation into smaller audiences and highly personalized content
Convergence and Communication Professionals
The role and function of journalists may well change as more people can record witnessed events and report on them through the Web.
Online news credibility is as high or higher than some traditional news forms.
