Mass. Comm Chapter 1

Communication

• The process of using messages to generate meaning

• Process of creating SHARED meaning

• transmission of a message from a SOURCE to a receiver through a medium → produces an EFFECT

• when the receiver produces feedback, they become a source and the initial source becomes the receiver

Ways to describe communication

1. Who

2. says what

3. through which channel

4. to whom

5. with what effect

Mass Communication

• the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences

Interpersonal communication

• communication between 2 or a few people

• ongoing and reciprocal

decoding

• interpreting sign/symbol systems

• listening

• assigning meaning

encoding

• speaking

• translating ideas

• carried by a MEDIUM

Medium

• ways to encode a message

feedback

• receiver’s verbal and nonverbal response to the source’s message

culture

• learned behavior of members of a soical group

1. how people make sense of their lives and the ways in which they move through life with eachother

2. medium through which all life events flow

3. culture is learned

4. dominant culture: holds sway w/majority, normative/mainstream

5. co-cultures: groups w/ specific, but not dominant cultures, bounded-cultures (ex: lgbtq community)

6. culture and communication are inseparable

• common culture - result of mass comm

• moral distinctions: allows us to know how to behave w/out thinking about it

• can be limiting

-50% of 13 y/o American girls are unhappy w/their bodies

-disney movies- villains tend to be fat, protags. thin

BUT culture can be CONTESTED

• Differentiation v. Division

Media literacy

1. be a critical thinker

2. understand the process of mass comm. + how it impacts what you consume

3. understand the impact of the media on the individual _ society to not be controlled by it

4. analyze media and don’t allow the interpretation to fully be in the hands of the producer

5. understand media as a way to provide insight into our culture + lives

6. enjoy, understand, appreciate

• multiple points of access

7. create useful media messages

8. understand legality v. ethicality when it comes to the free will of producers of media

• third person effect- thinking others are influenced, but that you are not

• hostile media effect- thinking that media is always against your position

What are 4 evolving media industries

1.    convergence - the erosion of traditional distinctions among media

2.    concentration of ownership - ownership of different and numerous media companies concentrated in fewer and fewer hands

3.    conglomeration - the increase in the ownership of media outlets by nonmedia companies

4.    globalization - ownership of media companies by multinational corporations

how does the difference between comm + mass comm change the comm process?

mass comm includes feedback…needs to be more direct, less dependent on social cues like in interpersonal

content producer + message

1. independent musicians, bloggers, content creators, influencers

2. the information the media outlets are trying to disseminate

What year is the Gutenberg Bible

• 1456

• Gutenberg Bible (historical significance): the earliest major book printed in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg, a German inventor

what did Johannes Gutenberg invent?

• movable-type printing press

• combines technology, printing and typography that uses movable components (metal pieces or porcelain) to reproduce elements of a document

• 49 copies still exist today.

why did so much time elapse between the Gutenberg Bible and the first printing press?

1. Not a necessity for early settlers.

2. Books were wealth and status symbols.

3. Portability issues.

what were early books centered around?

• Early books were largely religious-oriented and/or documented official government activities

• secular printing and any criticism of government regimes were punished with jail time

The Stamp Act

• 1765

• mandated that all printing be done on paper with the government's seal.

• control and limit expression of the people at the time (colonists who led anti-tax protests, boycotts, demonstrations, riots, etc.)

• Revolutionary War

when does Amazon go online

• 1995

when do amazon sales spike

• 2020

Why were coffee shops and taverns the cornerstone of reading havens?

• Many of them were attached to print shops at that time

Novels post American Rev

• more intellectual and cultural reading

• more readers, more demand, advancements that made for more refined printing technology

• Offering something new for reader's digest

• First great novels:

1. The Scarlet Letter: explores adultery, sin, guilt, content about adultery…wears cloak w. big red letter “A” for adulteress…misogyny

2. Moby Dick: explores revenge, mental health, man chases whale in a journey of revenge…suffers mental health episodes…first time this topic was addressed

3. Huckleberry Finn: explores child abuse, alcoholism and race-relations, child abuse…alcoholism…race relations…alcoholic father beats him, TKAM

• paper backs make portability easier, cheaper…accessibility + exposure

Paperbacks

• dime novels - paper covers instead of hard copy

• Some suggested it cheapened the book and perhaps the integrity of the contents

• greater accessibility and exposure due to low cost

• comic books and graphic novels followed

Maus

• initially thought it was pro Nazi, but it was really anti…swastika…don’t judge a book by its cover!

• banned in Russia in 2015 because the modified swastika on its cover was categorized as violating anti-Nazi-propaganda laws

• Jews are drawn as anthropomorphic mice; Germans are cats, Poles as pigs

• Used to convey the author’s father’s experience in a concentration camp

how are libraries established

·      Coffee shops overrun with readers

·      Book clubs !

·      Leads to libraries…

Scope of the Books Industry

1.    Categories

2.    eBooks

3.    Smartphones, Tablets, Audiobooks

The Earliest Newspapers

1.    The Colonial Newspapers

2.    The Bill of Rights

3.    The Modern Newspaper

4.    Wire Services

5.    Yellow Journalism

colonial newspapers

• broadsides: single sheets

• publick occurrences

Modern newspapers

• less elite political + business info

• penny papers

• new york morning herald

• inspired AAs to make papers

• becomes mass audience

• Abbott + the Defender encouraged many to leave the south

wire services

Sun, the Herald, the Tribune

organize memberships

news gathering

NY Associated Press

Yellow Journalism

• Early 20th century journalism emphasizing sensational sex, crime and disaster news.

examples of yellow journalism today include (categories)

1. Sensationalized headlines: Headlines that are designed to grab attention rather than convey well-reported news, such as "ALIENS STEAL NEIGHBORHOOD PUPPIES".

2. Television promotions: Promotions that promise an update on a story that may not be true, in order to hook viewers and achieve viewership.

3. Social media: The use of sensationalized headlines in big, vivid fonts on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

4. Online startling links: Links that people can't help clicking on the internet

specific examples of YJ

1. spanish american war in the 19th century

• USS main

• joseph pulitzer and william randolph hearst

2. TV promos…lose weight quick

number of daily newspapers - both being circulated and read

 

1.    In 1990, 1,600 newspapers

2.    Now (2023), 1,200 and falling

3.    Over 360 papers shut down during COVID

Why the decline in newspapers

• Technological and digital changes

• advertisers recognize worth as ad mediums

• online news subscriptions

Misinformation

mere falsehoods

disinformation

falsehoods designed to achieve a political goal

how does social media, smartphones, tablets impact news

• easy to share, disseminate falsehoods…important of MEDIA LITERACY

Postal Act

1879

allowed mailing magazines at cheaper, second class postage rates, and the railroad, which carried peope and publications westward from the East Coast

when does TIME come out

• 1923

Why are the audiences important?

For targeted advertising

what are some of the first magazines

Saturday evening post, PA gazette, Harper’s Bazaar

when do magazines take off

post civil war

suffrage and magazines

• magazines often highlighted women’s issues like suffrage

• afraid to put too much to deter sales, but most of magazine audience is women…

how much were magazines

• 10-15 cents

how did early magazines highlight targeted advertising?

-       Women is audience…targeted advertising…housekeeping items

-       Furniture, radios ( for whole family b.c women have to ask husband first)

what magazines are hybrid

• digital + print

• sports illustrated, harpers bazaar, time

What is the benefit of online magazines

Interaction

magazines

• periodical

• less urgent

• visual

• moderate length articles

• concept ties together across

what feminist movement was sparked by a magazine

#Metoo movement, launched by alyssa milano

Which magazines became obsolete?

• tv guide

• entertainment weekly

Which adapted and transitioned into online content instead of print content?

xxx

What is the benefit of online magazines

Interaction

Lumiere brothers debut cinematographe

1895

first color film

1947

golden age ends

1960’s

birth of a nation

1915

in theater exhibitions stop, universal offers direct to viewer distribution

2020

amazon buys mgm

2021

how did the movie industry differ from the book/newspaper industry

• While early newspapers were developed by a small group of business people for only the elite that could read, the movie industry was headed up by entrepreneurs who simply wanted to make money and weren't as concerned about exclusion.

persistence of vision

• Cinematic scenes first began with a series of photos or slides

• When watched quickly and in succession, the slides would almost appear animated - as if they were in motion

• The result is a phenomenon called persistence of vision: images our eyes gather are retained by our brains for about 1/24 of a second, producing the appearance of constant motion

Lumiere Brothers’

• Cinematographe…device that photographed and projected action…depicted reality…fixed frame (no camera movement)

1. wanted to project images on a large screen (kineographs used for peep shows only one can view)

2. film dragged down

3. more lightweight than prev

4. show workers of lumiere factory leaving at the end of the day

5. screening in Paris…first time gen public could see film w. admission being charged

6. the gardner = first comedy

Kinetograph

• William Dickson’s early motion picture camera

• kinetoscope used to view

Daguerreotype

• process of recording images on polished metal plates, usually copper, covered with a thin layer of silver iodide emulsion. Emulsion etched image onto plate.

Calotype

• early system of photography using translucent paper from which multiple prints could be made…allowed for shorter exposure times…a negative.

Kinetoscope

• peep show devices for the exhibition of kinetographs…marks beginning of commercial motion picture exhibition.

Zoopraxiscope

• early machine for projecting slides onto a distant surface. Used to display Muybridge’s work…horse on a racetrack

Persistence of vision

images our eyes gather are retained by our brains for about 1/24 of a second, producing the appearance of constant motion.

first motion picture

Roundhay Garden Scene…2 second movie of friends in a garden

Montage

tying together two separate but related shots in such a way that they take on a new, unified meaning…used first in The Great Train Robbery (Porter)…eventually uses to make The Birth of a Nation (Griffith)…protests by AA’s…sympathy towards KKK…racist portrayal of black people

factory studios

• the first film production companies…est. because of the large market for viewing films…nickelodeons were very popular

women filmmakers

• Alice Guy Blache (France)…The Cabbage Fairy…not just everyday life

• handcoloring film

• interracial casts

• used audio

• the birth, life, death of Jesus Christ

• Solax studio

The Big 5

Warner Bros, MGM, Paramount, RKO, 20^th C Fox

Blockbooking

the practice of requiring exhibitors to rent groups of movies (often inferior) to secure a better one

Motion Picture Patents Company

• founded by Edison

• 10 companies under him…people go to California to avoid his iron fist…

Independent films

Independents forming own companies…Triangle Company…Paramount…Fox Film Company…Universal

war in Europe + film

• Europeans stop filmmaking, US starts to distribute internationally

Opportunities for women filmmakers

-       Lack of strict division of labor by gender…but as studios became bigger, women were not receiving as much attention/ability

The Talkies

• sound movies

• first in 1926

• The Jazz Singer (1927)  

• musicals beome a genre

• actors could speak

• becomes more expensive to produce…many studios shut down…big studios have the most influence, remain in business

genres

1.   Documentaries

-       People needing to understand the world in disorder (1930s)…musicals as escapism

2.   Television

Block booking

• the practice of requiring exhibitors to rent groups of movies (often inferior) to secure a better one

red scare + film

• Red Scare limits…post more freedom…especially w/youth counterculture

Who dominates the movie industry?

The Audience, because they are the consumers. Not like with television where mostly advertisers dominate the industry.

What audience, specifically, dominates the movie industry?

Younger audiences

Why and when did the movie industry take a hit

-       After COVID, more people would rather watch from home

-       Too many bad movies

-       Expensive tickets, snacks

-       Commercials before film

-       Streaming

- Generational shift

Oscar Micheaux

films about successful black men and lynchings

Lincoln Motion Picture CO

1st AA owned filmmaking co

told black oriented stories to black audiences

what killed radio

• Streaming services and tv

samuel morse’s telegraph

1844

Alexander graham bell’s telephone

1876

Wireless Ship Act

• all ships w/American ports have to use a wireless operator

, the Radio Act of 1912

• result of titanic…license for wireless operators…eventually stopped b/c too much authority was given to gov’t, but chaos ensued and people were not happy w/how the radio was going

, the Radio Act of 1927

• Broadcasters could use but not own airways

the Federal Radio Commission

regulatory authority of broadcasting

the Communications Act of 1934

the Communications Act replaced the Radio Act of 1927 and established the Federal Communications Commission as the regulatory authority of broadcasting

Radio + WWII

• used to sell war bonds

• content for boosting morale

• war increased desire for news

• GI’s bring tech like tape recorder from Germany

DJ

Someone to play the music + provide the talk

more music less talk

playlist

top 40

FCC begins regulating cable

1963

VCR

1976

taping

video cassette tape

DVD

1996

digital video disk

faster rewind

more delicate

more sales

sold through member ships