Media Analysis and Journalistic Applications Flashcards
Media
Various kinds of entertainment and information channels that have become such an important part of modern world. Includes Visual, audio, and print mediums, including television, film, radio, books, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, billboards, DVDs, CDs, video games, Internet websites, and social media. Each medium plays a different role in communicating, informing, and persuading its target audience.
Media Literacy
Enables students to use and interact with a variety of media forms.
Gutenberg’s press in 1400s allowed for mass production of books and pamphlets. First newspaper in 1605. Invention of type writer in 1800s. Process of mass producing paper from wood pulp also was created. New age of literacy in the West.
Newspapers and magazines are struggling to survive in digital age. Funded mostly by online adverts.
Radio
Invented by Tesla and Marconi in 1896. By 1920s, radio became the first electronic mass medium and a growing source of news and entertainment. Today radio is a source of news with political talk radio gaining an audience.
Film
Began 1889 after Edison and Dickson invented Kinetoscope. Movie business established itself in Hollywood because weather allowed for year round filming. Silver screen affected fashion, manners, and slang across the globe. Changed propriety and decency standards. Profanity, nudity, sexual situations, and drug use all policed. Rating system in the 1960s. Film echoed political and social realities (wars, oppression black peoples).
Analyzing Film Aesthetics
Camera shot, camera movement, lighting, composition, editing, sound, Mise En Scene (Putting the Scene Together)
Camera Shot
Long or establishing shot, close-up, medium show, angle, reaction, zoom, freeze frame, slow motion, soft focus, sharp focus, deep focus, subjective shot, POV shot, and special effects.
Camera Movement
Stationary, fixed axis (pan or tilt), dolly, tracking, trucking shots, crane shots, hand-held camera or steady cam
Lighting
Back lighting, front lighting, highlighting, natural or artificial sources, black/white contrast (chiaroscuro), harsh/soft, cold/warm, high key, low key lighting
Composition
Position of characters in frae (foreground/background, center/off center), view of character (unobstructed, hidden, profile, silhouette), decor and setting as mood setting or commentary on character or situation, balanced/unbalances, arrangement of shapes, arrangement of colors
Editing
Pace or tempo, rhythm, disjointed/continuous, dissolve, fade in or fade out, cross cur, jump cut, flashback or flash forward
Sound
Dialogue, music, sound effects, off-screen and onscreen, use of silence
Mise En Scene (Putting the Scene Together)
Setting and props (architecture and exterior design), costumes, hairstyle, and makeup, body language and facial expression of actors, overall use of color and design
Television
early systems black and white, expanding to color in the 1960s. NTSC standard stabbed by the Federal Communications Commission. Much sharper resolution today. Video Cassette Recorder allowed viewers to record and playback programs. Today DVDs replace VCRs. Began strictly as broadcast medium with three networks. Cable networks began in 1950s. Specialized networks.
Like radio, early television broadcasts focused on scripted programs. Mass audience gave oversized influence on styles, opinions, tastes, and fads. Major news events were screened (JFK, moon landing, Vietnam). Trusted news anchors (Cronkite and Murrow). Cable news programs have polarized public opinions. Public Broadcasting System educated children. Television influenced position of blacks, giving them media attention with shows like Roots. Due to fragmentation of national media, television’s ability to impact society has waned.
Advertising
Greatest effect through television commercials. Creation of voice acting industry. Advertising jingles/songs. Political adverts. Government pressured to curb advertising of harmful products (cigarettes), banning of tie-ins to shows. Infomercial invented in the 1990s. Long program with celebrity feature to advertise product. DVRs have negatively affected advertising.
