Media & Society: Radio, Recording, Television, Internet, and Social Media

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, technologies, and industry terms related to radio, recording, television, the Internet, and social media as discussed in the lecture notes.

Localism (Radio)

The shift of radio in the 1950s toward serving geographically specific audiences with locally oriented programming and advertising.

Fragmentation (Radio)

The presence of many radio stations in many markets, allowing highly targeted audience segments.

Specialization (Radio)

Programming strategy in which stations adopt narrow music or talk formats to attract specific advertiser-valued audiences.

Format Radio

Radio programming organized around a specific sound or genre to reach a well-defined demographic group.

Disc Jockey (DJ)

On-air personality who selects and plays recorded music and provides commentary; central to format radio.

Billings

Revenue a radio station earns from selling airtime to advertisers.

Ratings (Radio/TV)

The percentage of the total potential audience reached by a program or station.

Network Time

Commercial spots sold by a national radio or TV network to advertisers wanting nationwide reach.

Telecommunications Act of 1996

U.S. law that largely removed limits on the number of radio or TV stations a single owner could hold, spurring consolidation.

Duopoly (Radio)

Situation in which one company owns two or more stations in the same market.

Low-Power FM (LPFM)

10- to 100-watt non-profit community radio stations with limited coverage areas established to increase local voices.

Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS)

Satellite-delivered subscription radio providing nationwide digital audio, e.g., SiriusXM.

Web Radio

Audio content streamed over the Internet, including simulcasts of terrestrial stations and Web-only bitcasters.

Podcasting

Distribution of downloadable or streamable audio programs stored on remote servers for on-demand listening.

Catalog Album

Recording more than 18 months old that continues to generate sales or streams.

Deep Catalog

Music older than three years that still attracts significant consumption.

Major Recording Companies

Sony Music, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group—firms controlling most global recorded-music revenue.

Independent Label

Small recording company not owned by a major conglomerate; often associated with musical experimentation.

MP3

Audio compression format that reduces file size to about one-tenth of original, enabling easy digital distribution.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P)

File-sharing model in which users’ computers act as both servers and clients, enabling direct exchange of content.

BitTorrent

P2P protocol that breaks files into pieces downloaded simultaneously from multiple users, facilitating large-scale sharing.

Stream Ripping

Illegally downloading streamed audio or video to a personal device for offline access.

Top-40 Format

Todd Storz’s playlist-driven radio format playing a small rotation of the most popular songs repeatedly.

Playlist

Preselected sequence of songs a format station or streaming service must follow.

Satellite Network (Radio)

Content distributor that sends programming via satellite to affiliate radio stations nationwide.

AM Radio

Amplitude-modulation broadcasting band; declining in listenership and eliminated in many new car receivers.

FM Radio

Frequency-modulation band providing higher-fidelity sound and carrying majority of U.S. radio listening.

Nielsen Company

Research firm providing audience measurement for U.S. radio and television industries.

C3/C7 Ratings

Nielsen TV metrics counting commercial viewing within three or seven days of original airing across multiple platforms.

Share (TV)

Percentage of TV sets in use tuned to a particular program at a specific time.

Pilot (Television)

Trial episode produced to persuade a network to order a full series.

Syndication

Sale of TV programs to individual stations on a market-by-market basis after or instead of network run.

First-Run Syndication

Programs produced specifically for syndication rather than for a network schedule (e.g., Judge Judy).

Reverse Compensation

Fee a local station pays a network for the right to be its affiliate.

Basic Cable

Package of local broadcast channels plus widely appealing ad-supported cable networks offered at entry-level price.

Expanded Basic

Cable tier adding more ad-supported channels beyond the required basic lineup.

Premium Cable

Subscription channels such as HBO and Showtime that offer movies and original series without commercials.

Pay-Per-View (PPV)

Cable or satellite service allowing purchase of individual events or movies for a one-time fee.

Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS)

Home television service delivered via satellite dish directly to the viewer, e.g., DirecTV, Dish.

Cord-Cutting

Dropping traditional cable or satellite TV in favor of Internet-only video delivery.

Over-the-Top (OTT)

Video content delivered via the Internet without involvement of a cable or satellite operator.

FAST (Free Ad-Supported TV)

Streaming services offering on-demand or linear channels free of charge but supported by advertising.

VMVPD

Virtual multichannel video programming distributor; Internet service bundling live TV and on-demand channels (e.g., YouTube TV).

Video On Demand (VOD)

System allowing viewers to select and watch video content whenever they choose.

Videocassette Recorder (VCR)

1976 device enabling consumers to time-shift TV and play prerecorded tapes; now obsolete.

Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Optical disc format introduced in 1996 offering high-quality video, menus, and bonus features.

Digital Video Recorder (DVR)

Device or service that records digital television to a hard drive for time-shifted viewing.

Multiplexing (Cable)

Carrying multiple compressed digital channels within a single cable frequency slot.

LAN (Local Area Network)

Network connecting computers within a limited area, such as a building or campus.

WAN (Wide Area Network)

Network that links multiple LANs across broader geographic areas.

ISP (Internet Service Provider)

Company offering customers access to the Internet for a fee.

World Wide Web (WWW)

System of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet using HTTP.

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol; rules for transmitting Web pages across the Internet.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator; the address identifying a specific file or page on the Web.

Domain Name

Readable Internet address ending in .com, .org, etc., that maps to a specific IP location.

Browser

Software application (e.g., Chrome, Safari) used to retrieve and display Web pages.

Search Engine

Web tool (e.g., Google) that indexes and allows retrieval of Internet content through keyword queries.

Social Media

Online platforms functioning as user-generated communities for sharing content and interaction.

Dual-Factor Model (Social Media)

Theory that need to belong and need for self-presentation jointly motivate social media use.

Idealized Virtual Identity Hypothesis

Proposal that social media users present exaggerated, more desirable versions of themselves online.

Extended Real-Life Hypothesis

View that online self-presentations tend to reflect users’ actual personality traits.

Subjective Well-Being

Individual’s self-perceived happiness or life satisfaction, often affected by social media activity.

Slacktivism

Low-effort online activism that can still produce collective social impact (e.g., sharing petitions).

Blog

Regularly updated online journal or commentary site, often linking to source material; influential in public discourse.

Fake News

Deliberately false or misleading stories created to deceive and spread through digital media.

Deepfake

Synthetic audio or video generated with artificial intelligence to make people appear to say or do things they never did.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

1998 U.S. law aligning copyright with WIPO treaties and outlawing circumvention of digital protections.

Net Neutrality

Principle that ISPs must treat all Internet traffic equally without preferential speeds or blocking.

Dataveillance

Massive collection and analysis of online data about individuals’ activities for commercial or governmental use.

Cookies

Small data files stored on a user’s computer by websites to track browsing behavior.

Cloud Computing

Storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of local computers.

RFID Chip

Tiny radio-frequency identification device embedded in products, enabling wireless tracking of items.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Network of everyday objects connected to the Internet, able to send and receive data.

Facial Recognition Technology

AI-based system that identifies individuals by analyzing facial features in images or video.

Technology Gap

Disparity between those who have access to and can use digital communication technologies and those who cannot.

Digital Divide

Socio-economic gap separating communities with high-speed Internet access from those without.

Bandwidth

Amount of data that can be transmitted over a network connection in a given time period.

HTTP Status 404

Error code indicating that the requested Web page could not be found on the server.