Josh Jackson - Media Studies 10 Midterm

Seven Principles of Media Literacy

1. All media are texts that can be read.

2. All media are representations that help construct our realities. This is how we understand the world and gain PERSPECTIVES.

3. Media are influenced by industrial pressures. They must generate revenue and attract advertisers. Facebook generates data for advertisers to utilize.

4. Media are influenced by political pressures. Gov't can restrict content and ownership- Gov't had to approve Comcast buying NBC. FCC.

5. Media are impacted by format. All media have their own characteristics and conventions- films use montages to show passage of time. Must fill time and space.

6. Audiences are active participants. We filter meaning through our unique experiences- producers show The Bachelor as a road to true love, but many audiences disagree.

7. People believe media tell us who we are as a society and influence who we are as a culture. So many people share mass media that media has larger cultural importance. Stereotypes, etc.

moral panics

fear of new technology or cultural forms negative impact outside of parental control ex: belief that TV turn children into couch potatoes (displace anxieties)

Utopian View and Critique

View: Medium is good or was bad but is getting better. YOU ARE IN CONTROL. There's something for everyone, you can turn it off, it can effect positive change, publicize corruption/injustice, act as an educational/ informational source.

Critique: It is totalizing, employs the myth of progress, ignores commercial interests, ignores production hierarchies, content represents the network more than audience.

Dystopian View and Critique

View: Medium is bad or was good but is getting worse. Medium is passive and addictive, prevents communication/interaction/cognition, exploitative and formulaic, no style and heart, regressive, simple, stereotypical, consumerist, directly harmful to society, makes us swear/disrespect/ mimic TV -> susceptible to children.

Critique: "Totalizing," generalizes, romanticising "good ole days," nostalgic, elitist, dismissive of how consumption can be active (watching TV together).

Mirror View and Critique

View: Medium reflects reality or the audience interests, likes, wants, represents. Mirrors major social changes.

Critique: It ignores the selective process of production (scripting, shooting, editing, framing), the agenda-setting function of media (race, gender, law, etc), and the possibilities that the audience might disagree or interpret things differently.

Cultural Studies and Methods

Definition: Interdisciplinary approach argues that media changes society AND society changes media. It is not just the study of texts but contexts TOO- how and why it was made/consumed. The relationship with media is complex and related (industry, culture, and everyday life are INTERRELATED).

Alternative to the utopian/dystopian/mirror

Methods: Text, Audience, Industry

Textual Analysis: Interpretation of the text itself. Look for formula, themes, representations, etc.

Audience Studies: Study of the reception of the text. Interpretation, role, reason, etc.

Political Economy: Relationship between industrial media power and influence on politics/culture. Mainly consumer/commercial media.

Ideology (FISKE)

Definition: SET OF VALUES. Structuring social relations provides value systems to which we understand and orient ourselves and therefore grants power to some groups over others, but this can be contested.

Ideology are the values and beliefs people have to make sense of the world. It is usually unquestioned and considered common sense.

It can be widely shared, but not universal. Conditioned through family, friends, school, etc. Indoctrinated by culture, government, religion, education system.

Dominant Ideology

Elites have the power to shape ideology through institutional control. Can be considered dominant in two ways:Reinforces the power of the few, yet it is shared by the majority. Always a struggle to possess the dominant narrative.

Hegemony

Definition: The process of maintaining power through the struggles of seeking ideological consensus.

The dominance of one's ideology over another. Multiple ideologies competing to assert dominance over others. It's an ongoing process of maintaining power through struggle of seeking ideological consensus. Must represent your ideology to remind people and counter against counter-hegemonies.

Counter Hegemony

Definition: Reject the preferred meaning for an alternative one.

The Circuit Model of Communication (HALL)

Concept: Meaning is shaped in multiple stages.

1. Production (message is produced).

2. Circulation (message is distributed).

3. Consumption (message is received).

4. Reproduction/Feedback (message is accepted and reproduced).

Texts as Polysemic

Definition: Texts are not fixed in meaning, they can be understood/decoded in a multiple of ways.

The Encoding/ Decoding Model (HALL)

At the level of production, the producers "encode" program with preferred meanings, usually ideologically and economically linked to the hegemonic elite.

At level of consumption, texts are "decoded" in 3 ways:

1. Dominant/ Hegemonic: Accepts/understands the preferred meaning.

2. Negotiated: Partially accepts/understands the preferred meaning.

3. Oppositional/Counter-Hegemonic: Rejects preferred meaning in favor of an alternative one.

Encoding/ Decoding Criticism

- few perfectly dominant or oppositional readings

-neglects to recognize multiple motivations behind production

-works better for ideological texts not scripted

Encoding/ Decoding's Value

All messages contains more than one potential reading. Producers can't close off all decodings. Our experiences color the reading. Leads to the struggle with getting people's ideological agreement.

Celebrity

Definition: A person who attracts public and media attention.

Three narratives:

1. "Magic and Talent"

2. Industry and Manipulation

3. Audience Fascination

GOAL: Convert star text into capital and add value to a product.

Star Text

Definition: Sum of everything we affiliate with them. Also what we've come to know about celebrities through interviews, pop culture, etc.

1. body of work

2. promotion (image construction)

3. publicity (generated by press)

4. audience practices (discussion, fandom)

Intertextual

Definition: What is presented on the screen. What the star has a hand in making. Ex. their movie or music video

Extratextual

Definition: Private life outside of stars' media contribution. Ex. tabloids and magazines, Angelina Jolie's UN work.

TV and our Conception of Celebrity

1. TV responsible for a boom in celebrity industry because of space filling needs and enormous reach.

2. TV changed our conception of celebrity by "downsizing" it, tying it to advertising images, and promoting familiarity through repetition (talk shows, soaps, sitcoms).

3. Celebrity is audience-driven:

Identificatory fantasies= desire star's/ character's life

Identifactory practices= consume s/c's products

4. Industry chooses stars based on perceived bankability.

Reality TV and Celebrity

Reality TV can rejuvenate celebrity careers and manufacture new celebrities.

Pro = normalizes celebrity, fans become active and invested.

Con = celeb no longer based on talent, culture of humiliation.

Genre

Definition: "Content sharing the same conventions and codes." An attempt to manufacture success. A means of creating familiarity in new texts.

Genre Conventions

Definition: Specific narrative elements (STORY).

Examples: Setting, character type, plots/ narrative structure, iconography (common images), emotional affect, ideology/ social values.

Genre Codes

Definition: Modes of productions external to the narrative (STYLE).

Examples: Length, visual style: lighting, camera work, editing, animation.

Utility of Genre

Definition: Industrial role of genre = management of consumer interest/expectation managed through promotion.

Reason:

1. Attempt to make success predictable. Production trend = if people like the genre, make more. Reduces risk and organizes production

2. Contract between producers and audiences. We use genre to suit our mood.

Genre Mutation

Definition: to add different elements to genre to increase interest

Ex. Sitcoms are now similar to before but can now be office family or friend family

Result: Adds difference and solves problem of repetition.

Genre Imitation

Definition: Follow established codes and conventions.

Result: Risks audience bordom.

Genre Recombinants

Definition: Combines elements of two established genres. Genre provides predictability and surprise. Generic elements can be mixed and combined. Media makers use, change, subvert, codes and conventions. Ex. Shaun of the Dead

Risks: Can confuse/alienate the audience.

Genre as a Cultural Category (MITTELL)

Old Approach: Compare a set of shows belonging to a genre. Predetermined categories. Problem = circular reasoning.

New Approach: Genre is a cultural category. Genre = interrelations between texts and industries and audiences.

SO: Our understanding of genres change with how they're defined, interpreted, and evaluated. Because discourses change, genre categorizations change

EX. Animation (Flintstones). Considered "for kids." South Park = controversial because it defies that. Acceptable once animation = adult.

"Realism"

Measured in plausibility. All media representations impacted by commercial concerns, creator bias, the acts of recording, editing, etc.

SO: no unbiased, objective representations of reality.

Constructing Realism

"Realism" is produced by codes and conventions, "apparent spontaneity"

Example: The Office. Handheld camera and loose compositions, available lighting, acknowledge recording, verbal spontaneity, and narrative spontaneity.

Hyperreality

Definition: Constructed to suit audience expectations. Reality TV is manipulated to be exciting but also retain the appearance of reality. "More real than real." Shaped through codes and conventions.

Examples: The Bachelor, Real Housewives.

Four Ways of Constructing Reality TV (Kraszewski)

1. Selecting participants: Represent a certain character type: extreme, combustible people who will come into conflict with others.

2. Overarching and Mini Narratives Structures: Make disparate events into a narrative structure with cause and effect, resolutions of conflicts, and deeper meaning.

3. Location: Provides opportunity to set up narratives.

Decked out house, desert wasteland, etc.

4. Editing: Cameramen choose what to film, picking those more exciting.

WE MUST BE CRITICAL of reality TV's "reality."

Example: The Real World is constructed in its industrial utility AND narrative.

Characters

Definition: Characters are assigned traits that impact the story. Audiences are encouraged to identify with the character, especially the protagonist.

Externally- "special attachment" and achievement. Internally- voiceover, POV, access to thoughts and feelings.

Narrators

Definition: Can be specific individuals. Inside the story. Anonymous voices outside the story. The camera is a visual media narrator.

Example: "The gaze" (Mulvey). The gaze is not neutral. Identify with the looker. POV, camera, editing, narratives ask aud. to identify with men and objectify women.

Audiences

Definition: Can be inside the story and or real individuals.

Spectator: perceived audience of consumers.

Episodic TV

Definition: Circular closure: return to original status quo. Econ adv. = same characters, similar situations. Audience becomes loyal but can miss/mix-up episodes.

Econ disadvantage = can grow bored w/ quo.

Serial TV

Continual change of the status quo. Accumulation of detail and history. ARCS PREVALENT.

Econ disadvantage = alienate viewers.

Econ advantage = potential for revision/ "loyals."

TV and Multiple Plotlines

Definition: Some stories have multiple plotlines.

Example: "A Plot" = Primary conflict (most screen time) usually with lead character. "B Plot" and "C Plot" etc. = secondary conflicts (subplots) usually with secondary characters.

Beat

Definition: SCENE, build to drama of episode, need their own dramatization. Builds to plots, but also contain drama and purpose.

Episode

Definition: Structured by culmination (building towards resolution) or addressing theme (sex & the city, that 70's show)

Arc

Definition: Storyline continues across several episodes or seasons. Storyline arcs (plot) or character arcs (maturation of character)

GOAL: continued audience engagement.

Narrative Complexity

Complex storylines that appeal to desirable and "loyal" demographics and take advantage of new technology and enable audiences to re-watch.

Economic Utility=keeping people engaged & rising more publicity.

Context for Experimentation (Complexity)

All reasons why people Experiment.

1. Improved cultural clout (tv considered innovative so risks taken)

2. Viability of smaller (but LOYAL) audiences

3. New technologies enable "rewatchability." (netflix)

4. Growth of online engagement. (fandom, forums)

"The Operational Aesthetic" (MITTELL)

Audiences enjoy trying to follow how the plot works. Long arcs and refusal of closure. Analysis of plot and style. Invites long-term (LOYAL) engagement thru disorientation and confusion (LOST) or (PLL).

RESULT: audiences focus on formal analysis (guess whats next) in addition to content.

Results of Consumer Culture

Results: Isolated from tradition and community, we become open to manipulation (through media), and it creates inexhaustible dissatisfaction.

Five Characteristics of Consumer Culture

1. Consumption beyond all other social dimensions (identify ourselves with what we wear, eat, etc.).

2. Produces products for undifferentiated audience (not for individual, but large anonymous audience).

3. Status> Function: Buy things because it'll elevate our social status, rather than because it works well or useful.

4. Allows experimentation of identity and latest thing. Exploits and intensifies the idea that identity is constructed and chosen by individuals. Isn't based on tradition; a continuous self creation.

5. Encourages insatiable consumer desire. Generates a products based on want over need. Never fully satisfied.

Mass Culture

Definition: Commodities produced for maximum profit. Went from a culture debating society to culture consuming. Goal is to promote economy for consumerism, manufacture a sense of desire. Mass media promotes conformity. Deludes people into think that they're in control. Promotes a lifestyle of continuous consumption. Not from the masses, FOR the masses.

What it Provides:

1. No sense of collectivity (isolated, no interaction, don't need a group of people).

2. Absorbs leisure time - watching dance shows instead of dancing.

3. Artificial concerns - promotes disillusionment.

4. Escapist media unhinged from reality - detract from own issues and problems by getting invested in character's lives.

False Consciousness

Definition: Mislead people into thinking that the route to contentment comes from consumption rather than upward mobility.

Standardization

Definition: Strict division of labor, Assembly-line production, ex

Ex. N'SYNC - Bye Bye Bye and It's Gonna Be Me

Pseudo-Individualism

Definition: Same product hidden by a veneer of difference (seems different but in fact is the same)

Ex. Hunger Games - Divergent / Eminem

Social Cement

medium that makes us emotionally obedient for capitalist reasons (not commercials) messages within sitcoms, need to wear this or act like this Ex. Aqua - Barbie Girl Music Video

Frankfurt School/ Adorno

Definition: The Frankfurt School is made up of German thinkers who escaped Nazis in 1930s and 40s.

Beliefs: Mass media was stunted and depoliticized the working class (working class only consume, don't produce media).

Frankfurt School Critiques

Thinking this was Elitist, don't account for agency, don't account for innovation, don't account for failure of mass culture.

Cultural Studies and Quality

The idea of looking at more than just the text, but the context and the audience. looking at everything. Who is allowed to make critiques and why are they being made. Whose taste is being marginalized? Who has power?

Example: Josh and Beautiful by Christina Aguilera.

Material Function VS Cultural Function (FISKE)

Fiske: all commodities have two functions

MF: role in the circulation of wealth

CF: role in the circulation of meaning

BUT: there's a difference between the power of the culture industry and the power of its impact

Popular Culture as a Process (FISKE)

Assembled from mass culture resources. Creates new understandings, identities, experiences, and pleasures. Scholars recognize pop culture as a process and they analyze how audiences interpret meaning.

EX: Jane the Virgin is mass culture, the circulation and the act of people doing stuff w/ this product is pop culture, then the adoption of pop culture by corporation is excorporation

Excorporation

Definition: Popular culture scans mass culture for resources that it can appropriate.

Examples: Jeans.

Incorporation

Definition: Mass culture scans popular culture for tastes/interests that it can commodify.

Examples: Torn jeans.

Popular Culture and Immediacy

Popular Culture texts are "throw away." Tied to immediate social conditions. Represents immediate values and concerns.

DIY citizenship

using media representations as a window on who to be, cultural citizenship that you build yourself

Three Media Production Logics

1. Commodities = paid in full by customer. One time sale (consumers keep product) and price covers all costs (including profit).

2. Turnstile media = sell access to content. Consumer "pays admission at the gate." May or may not cover cost and profit.

Example: Movie theaters, concerts, premium cable.

3. Ad-supported media = "free" to consumer. Advertisers pay cost of media in exchange for access to consumers. Consumers pay in attention and increased product costs. Advertisers buy "impressions." Advertisers pay for the quantity and quality of audience. Can target: large and niche audiences.

Two Hybrid Production Logics

1. Combo of forms: Newspapers = commodities + ad- supported.

2. Economies of scope: Selling a product across multiple revenue "windows" and logics. (Movie → DVD → Cable → etc).

Eight Advertising Persuasive Strategies

1. Famous person testimonial.

2. Plain folks pitch = product fits into lives of everyday people.

3. Snob appeal = product will elevate social status.

4. Association principle = associate product w/ positive image or value.

5. Bandwagon effect = claims being left behind.

6. Hidden fear appeal = plays on anxiety or insecurity.

7. Irritation advertising = produce name recognition by getting into your head.

8. Shock ad = edgy appeal cuts thru clutter.

Rationalizing the Consumption Process

Industry uses proven tactics or formulas in order to better guarantee consumer acceptance.

Example: STARS (hire stars or proven talent), FORMULAS, SEQUELS/REMAKES (have pre-awareness), GENRES, COPYCATS, PRE-TESTING. (Ju

Criticisms/ Analysis of Popular Culture

Populist celebration. Spreads repressive representation (stereotypes, etc.). Validates dominant/ commercial interests. Audience can be active but not necessarily powerful.

Technological Determinism

Definition: Technology alone is the primary agent of transforming society. You don't use media, you are used by it.

Social Shaping of Technology (SST)

Technology and humans together transform society!

"The Medium is the Message" (McLuhan)

1. The sensory experiences of new media shape our thinking: great evolution through human history.

2. The medium itself is more important than the content. Medium impacts the society not by its content but by its use.

Example: The innovation of light, books, smartphone.

Domestication of Technology

Techologies become invisible as they integrate into our lives and the fear of them diminishes.

Example: Cellphone, Skype, Facebook

Rise of Convergence

Successful because of interactivity for users. This allows active participation. Convergence blurred the boundaries between distinct forms of media into new types of media networks and delivery systems. Changed the way in which we are delivered media.

Technological Convergence

Definition: Personalized content through a single machine. Combines a variety of technologies in a "black box."

Examples: iPhone, XBox, Playstation.

Content Convergence

Definition: Similar content available through a variety of devices. Shared across different media.

Examples: KYLE XY/ Harry Potter Franchise

Transmedia Entertainment

Definition: Draws viewers from TV to other content platforms.

Examples: Affective economics= how emotion drives viewing and purchasing decisions, gets viewers more emotionally involved.

GOAL= create "loyals," foster appointment TV for advertisers, "Brand advocates" who generate buzz/awareness, more likely to pay attention to and recall ad content.

MOVIE TO VIDEOGAME

Advantages of Content Convergence

1) Keeps audience engaged between airings and maintains attention across media.

2) Collects two kinds of viewers; demographically wide(TV) and desirable ("loyals").

3) Requiring viewers to use multiple media → exposed to many more ads.

Convenience Technology and What They Allow more of

Concept: Technologies that provide flexibility in what, how, when, where viewers consume media content

Facilitates: TV w/o subscription, time shifting/re-watching, "binging," control viewing experience.

MORE formats: Utilize the same content for diff screens/ revenue streams.

Content: Can supports greater variety of material.

Viewing flex: Active selection rather than linear flow.

Result: Individualization of the consumption experience.

Seven Key Concepts for Personal Connections in the Digital Age (BAYM)

1. Interactivity: The ability for media to enable social interaction between group or individuals (social), texts and individuals (textual), machines and people (technical)

2. Temporal Structure: Synchronous communication- occurs in real time, must match schedule with others, allows for rapid transmission of messages across time and space, limited by the number of participants. Asynchronous communication- time delays in between responses, able to strategically present yourself, limited by how you wait for the response, able to include large groups.

3. Social cues: Important; provide social context; sparse in digital media, more in face to face;

4. Reach: How many people can it reach and how far? - challenges elitism gate keeping.

5. Mobility: Don't need to carry things with you; enables people to receive or send regardless of location.

6. Storage: Able to store asynchronous media on devices, websites, retrieve it for later dates.

7. Replication: Able to replicate and copy asynchronous media and edit it.

The Digital Divide

Definition: Gap between those w/access to digital texts & those w/o. Also quality of access, familiarity w/ tech and social interactions. In terms of convergence and entertainment media: Creates a "participation gap"

Spatial Convergence

Definition: Blurred lines between public and private & virtual and physical spaces.

Examples: Facebook.

Privatized Mobility

Definition: You are mobile! Private into public. Bring your home with you. Brings comfort of home to work, "set up shop in a coffee shop".

Ambient Awareness

Definition: Blurring the lines between virtual and physical space. Use communication technology to maintain a sense of connection/ proximity.

Examples: Text/ Facebook/ Skype.

Mobile Kits (GOGGIN)

The things that we carry with us when we're away from home or the office. It is the primary essentials you always have with you. Could include your cellphone, laptop, wallet, etc. Can be part of cocooning.

Cocooning (ITO ET AL)

Definition: Shelter from engagement or killing/ occupying time.

Examples: Having your headphones in and playing games on your cellphone while on the train or walking.

Camping (ITO ET AL)

Definition: Temporary workspace in public.

Examples: Studying in café with your laptop.

Footprinting (ITO ET AL)

Definition: Public place tries to create relationship with user, they want you to return and occupy space, establish loyalty.

Examples: Membership cards from certain stores,, mugs at Philz