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- Contemporary Media
- Contemporary Media
- Communication Media
- What is a communication medium?
- literally means between something
- sender
- receiver
- e.g., a written note is a communication medium
- The word media is a plural of medium
- “A medium is…”
- “Media are…”
- Contemporary Media
- changing media
- changing industries
- changing societies
- Changing Media Throughout History
- Pre-Agricultural Societies
- oral traditions
- words and signs
- epic stories
- folk tales
- ritual chants
- Agricultural Societies
- writing emerged around 3100 BCE
- record keeping
- books copied by hand
- literate upper classes
- illiterate masses
- Industrial Society
- emerged with Gutenberg 1455
- mechanical reproduction
- mass production of print
- spread of literacy
- the US became industrialized throughout the 19th century
- industrialized and urban by 1910s
- Information Society
- production and consumption of information
- rise of knowledge workers
- emergence of computers, 1960s
- furthered by the invention of the personal computer, 1970s
- accelerated with the World Wide Web, 1990s
- Digitalization
- a signal encoded in binary
- transmitted over a computerized network
- decoded and consumed
- Impacted a variety of communications media
- Telephone
- introduction of digital equipment, 1962
- analog - digital - analog
- today telephone transmissions are mostly computer data
- Print Media
- computer code
- analog page
- proliferation of screens and ereaders
- Film
- special visual and sonic effects
- computer generated visuals
- storage on DVD and Blu-ray disks
- transmitted via streaming
- Video Games
- arcade and home consoles
- personal computers
- handheld devices
- less games and more like interactive movies
- Sound Recordings
- personal computers replacing large recording studios
- compact disks, 1982
- Napster, 1999
- streaming services today
- Cable TV
- direct-to-home wired connections
- direct broadcast satellites, 1995
- digital cable, 1998, enabling more channel capacity and interactive services
- Broadcasting
- HDTV increased visual resolution
- HD radio
- Internet TV distribution
- Sender Message Channel Receiver Model
- sender
- message
- encoder
- channel
- decoder
- receiver
- feedback
- noise
- one-to-many
- mass media
- newspapers, radio, television, film
- produced by gatekeeper
- widest possible audiences
- industrialization of culture
- peer-to-peer
- interact with each other
- social media
- challenges SMCR model
- line between consumers and producers is blurred
- create, share, connect
- Communications
- intrapersonal: with ourselves
- interpersonal: two persons
- group: three or more persons
- small group: < 12 people
- large group: 12 - 1000s
- mass communication: mass of people
- Digital Media
- binary data
- less susceptible to interference
- compressed
- Interactive Media
- two-way communication
- Turing Test
- departs from classical SMCR model
- Social Media
- users contribute content of their own
- strip away the middleman
- walled gardens
- examples
- Facebook
- YouTube
- blogs
- Twitter
- Asynchronous Media
- synchronous: same time
- asynchronous: not at the same time
- time shifting
- examples
- DVRs
- binge watching
- podcasting
- Narrowcast Media
- broadcasting: largest possible audience
- narrowcasting: specific audiences
- subgroups
- market segments
- examples
- cable TV channels
- magazines
- Netflix shows
- Multimedia Content
- convergence
- graphics
- text
- video
- audio
- Media Economics
- distribution of resources to satisfy competing needs
- mass media
- mass production
- mass distribution
- Economies of Scale
- many copies
- lowest price to produce
- first copy spread to more consumers
- marginal (incremental) costs
- big media companies vs. mom-and-pop operations
- when cost of production technologies drop, barriers to entry are lowered
- Competition
- supply and demand
- price decreases > demand increases
- supply increases to meet demand
- supply increases > price decreases further
- Media Consolidation
- monopoly: one
- oligopoly: few
- duopoly: two
- big companies can realize the most savings
- big companies can behave badly
- Monopolistic Drives
- extending dominance to other businesses/markets
- erecting barriers to entry for competitors
- raise prices and “fix” prices with competitors
- affect diversity of content
- interfere with political speech
- Profits
- costs
- production
- distribution
- marketing
- direct payments from consumers
- indirect payments from advertisers
- Mass Media Revenues
- direct sales
- rentals
- subscriptions
- usage fees
- advertising
- syndication
- license fees
- subsidies
- voluntary donations
- Mass Media Economics
- mass media
- greatest possible audience
- lowest common denominator
- Market Segmentation
- target audiences
- tailored content
- Factors
- lower production costs
- small audiences with high proportion of target audiences
- research and databases of consumer information
- mass media respond with narrowly targeted content
- New Media Economies
- personalization
- narrowcasting
- specific individual
- Google search results
- Yahoo! login home page
- Google Ads - pay per click
- Facebook profiles —and ads
- Political Economic Studies
- owners of means of production dominate over workers of those factories
- owners’ interest reflected in media and culture
- underlying consensus = hegemony
- economic class controlling older media generally control new media
- communication media support the political and economic status quo
- commercial media undermine ties to traditional culture
- commercial media accelerate growth of consumer culture
- Feminist Studies
- oppression of women by men
- communication media serve the purposes of the patriarchy
- pay inequality
- underrepresentation of women
- stereotypical roles
- media targeted by gender: soap operas and romance novels
- Gamergate-like video game exclusions and violence towards women
- development of technology
- male: serious business applications
- female: trivial social use
- Ethnic Media Studies
- domination of specific racial/ethnic groups
- Blacks
- Latinos
- Asians
- Arabs
- stereotyping
- ideological reflection of white supremacy
- advertisers undervalue minority audiences
- minority ownership of media channels is relatively scarce
- Media Criticism
- techniques of literary criticism
- genre analysis
- verbal and visual symbolism
- semiotic analysis
- psychoanalysis
- unconscious
- social desires
- Diffusions of Innovations
- sociological roots
- why do people adopt new communication behaviors
- why do innovations succeed?
- cost
- advantage of new media vs. existing ones
- complexity of the technology
- easiness to try out
- experience in using similar technologies
- How do innovations spread?
- we decide when innovations to purse
- continuously monitor fulfillment against expectations
- innovators vs. laggards
- Media Functions
- cultural determinism vs. technological determinism
- surveillance
- interpretation
- values transmission
- entertainment
- Gatekeeping
- media managers and editors
- gatekeepers are influential
- challenge of new media to traditional gatekeepers
- Agenda Setting
- who sets the agenda
- topics of interest to the public
- how it affects public opinion
- Framing
- how to think about topics of interest
- what to include about the story
- what to exclude
- content
- tone
- word choice
- facts to include
- concept
- framework
- context
- interpretation of the facts
- Technological Determinism
- communication media changes everything in society
- Marshall McLuhan
- “medium is the message,” 1960s
- invention of printing press ushered in the scientific revolution
- “global village” entire world shrunk into an electronic mediated small town
- concepts long before Internet and global communication media had emerged
- amputations
- telephone: added voice but subtracted printed communication
- digital: added memories but subtracted originals
- Technology as a Dominant Social Force
- Postman
- Ellul
- technology promises much
- but in fact, delivers status quo
- Castells
- networked society
- rise of information technologies
- Media Drive Culture
- Arnold
- high culture
- media should educate not entertain
- Adorno and Horkheimer
- mass culture replaced high culture and folk culture
- popular culture causes people to think alike
- Others
- Postman’s “Amusing ourselves to death"
- Pariser’s “filter bubble”