mass com

Mass communication

Information transmitted to large segments of the population

Mass media

Means of communication to reach a large audience

The medium is the message

How message is given is more important then what is said

Culture

Expressed and shared values, attitudes, beliefs and practices that characterize a social group

Media revolutions

Printing press, films, radio

Roles of media

1. Entertainment

2. Information

3. Public forum

4. Watchdog Gov

Modernity

Divine comedy (Dante’s inferno)

Renaissance

Art (Leonardo, michaelangelo) space

Industrial Revolution

Steam engine

Enlightenment

Philosophers

Age of ideology

Radio, television

Postmodernity

Rejection of absolute truth (god)

Media literacy

Decoding messages and symbols transmitted in media

Kennedy/Nixon Debate

• first televised debate

• Radio thought it was a tie, tv thought Kennedy sweep

Disinformation

False information on purpose

Misinformation

Mistake

Walter Cronkite

CBS news anchor - most trusted man

Convergence

Coming together of distinct technologies to share content

Tastemaker

Identifies and influences trends

Influencers

Authority future that influences others

Gatekeeper

Determines what stories come out wand what doesn’t

Crowd sourcing

Using a large group of people to obtain information

Propaganda and Persuasion

• basic form of communication

• influence public perception in war and politics

Influence through bias

• media with political perspective

• social media to share false information

Violent messages desensitize

stereotypes can lead to oppression

Direct effect theory

audience passively accepts and reacts to messages

two step flow

users who consume media and share it with others

agenda setting

media defines what people think about

uses and gratification

people who use media to satisfy psychological needs or desires

symbolic Interactionism

Meaning is created through human interaction - media is way of human connection - media is creator of meaning

spiral of silence

people with a minority opinion silence themselves

cultivation analysis

media influences consumer perception of reality

Methods of Studying Media

• surveys

• interviews

• focus groups

• experiments

• ethnographies (study of culture)

Content Analysis

analyze content of media

Archival Analysis

reviewing historical documents

rhetorical analylsis

anaylze different styles used by media

Book evolution

papyrus - scrolls - codex - guetenberg - digital

Gutenberg Impact

cheaper and faster books

spread of ideas

Literacy rates up

Popular Literature

Books in US

common sense - Charlotte Temple - Uncle Tom Cabin

Global Impact of Books

• Bible and reformation

• spread of new ideas

• communist manifesto

• world culture

Blockbuster Syndrome

revenue over literary value (book to TV)

Convergence in publishing industry

focus on creating franchises out of books and adapting to other forms of media no matter quality

Book formats

hardcover - paperback - ebook - audiobook

Have the population stopped reading?

no

chapbooks

small cheaply made books

why are independent bookstores failing?

cant compare to mass market of chains and their discounts and accessibility

Newspapers face challenges

• internet taking advertising money

• free news available

• long term struggle with tv

• no one cares

Rome 59 BC

first recorded newspaper

First Periodically

german and dutch 1600s

First Newspapers in colonies

1690

John Miller

areopagitica 1644 - first to write about newspaper - free press - press needed to keep in check

Frederick of Prussia

say what you please, do as i please

The Penny Press

cheap accessible

human interest stories, police reports

nonpartisan

18k an hour

Yellow Journalism

sensationalism - sex crime violence - tabloid

Objective journalism

not bias

New York Times

first newspaper to feature impartiality

most influenental

2020s

alternate truths to journalism - objectivity is harder - is truth the media pushes out actually the truth?

Advocacy Journalism

encourage readers to support a particular cause

niche newspapers

for specific ethnic or cultural group

underground press

small budget cater to alt audience

agenda setting

newspapers can choose what they wanna report

priming

newspapers control how stories are told by info presented

watchdog journalism

provide info about gov - 4th estate

Benjamin Franklin

PA Gazette - conceiver of subscription libraries

John Peter Zenger

• trial led to march on freedom of press

• print honest criticism of the gov.

• British became afraid of american rebel spirit

Samuel Morse

invented telegraph

easier to transfer newspapers

Associated Press

wire services - gather news as it broke

Hearst & Pulitizer

tried to outsold each other with sensationalism

Hearst

comic strip

Yellow Kid

attract immigrant readers

gentle wave of hysteria

Stunt Journalism

taking risks for journalism sake

Inverted Pyramid style

most important information in the beginning

interpretive journalism

analysis and context in news

Literacy Journalism

journalistic and fictional elements

Tom Wolfe

Literary journalism - father of new journalism

Precision Jouranlism

factual reporting - Philip Meyer

News Desert

Fall of newspapers

The largest online library

library of congress

The earliest known printed books were made using:

woodblock printing

grand narratives

Large-scale theories that attempt to explain the totality of human experience.

participatory culture

A culture in which media consumers are able to annotate, comment on, remix, and otherwise respond to culture.

pulp stories

Sensationalistic stories from books and magazines that were named for the cheap, wood-pulp paper they were printed on.

Beat Generation

The name given to a group of American writers who came to prominence in the 1950s and who were known for literary experimentation and nonconformity.

multicultural literature

Works that promoted cross-cultural understanding by examining different value systems, histories, traditions, and speech patterns of people in America.

op-ed

An abbreviation of opposite the editorial page.

byline

The credit line identifying the author of the article

Magazine

periodical publication

• articles, stories, photos etc.

• particular topic

• longer reading

• higher quality

Magazines in Germany

1st

• monthly basis

• literary magazine

Le Mercure Galant 

france

• periodical of amusement

The Athenian Mercury

UK

• first for women

Literary Salons

gathering for readings of magazines

US and magazines

• high costs

• world wide information

• newsmagazines

photojournalism

photos, life and look

Role in American Culture

adverting for a national market 

higher ad rates

tell people what they want or need

Literary magazines

for writers to share their works

pulp magazines

cheap and popular

romance, detective etc

concerns at behavioral concerns

fan magazines

bts of film and tv 

teenagers became demographic

• criticism later emerged magazines were creating negative stereotypes for young females over body types

• 1940s

celebrity/gossip magazines

People

glamorous impression of celebrity lifestyles

create celebrity culture