UCLA Comms 10 FINAL - Jones

Mediated

The exchange of information, ideas, or messages through a technological or physical medium rather than face-to-face interaction.

Meditization

The media is not just a tool for communication but has fundamentally reshaped social life, culture, and institutions.

fundamental assumptions of media and mass comm

1. Pervasive & Ubiquitous

2. Acted upon/act upon people

3. Change people's environment (& individual behaviors)

Mass communication

Messages transmitted to a large audience via one or more media.

Media

The technological and formally organized means of transmission of such messages.

One-to-many communication

When a single sender transmits a message to multiple recipients simultaneously. —> allows for efficient distribution

Propaganda

The deliberate spreading of biased, misleading, or one-sided information to influence public opinion and promote a specific cause.

Gatekeeping

Limit of classic mass comunication

• Old: editors, publishers, producers that filter info

• New: Algoriths, feeds, networks

One-way flow

• Where the leader or broadcast station is sending a signal to the masses, but there is little opportunity for audience response 

  • Makes it very effective as it removes any kind of feedback

Limited participation

• Due to limited response, there is limited participation 

mass self-communication

A digital-age communication model where individuals independently generate content and broadcast it to potentially global audiences. Self-selected, self-directed. Ex. Youtube

War of position

• A slow, long-term way to instill cultural dominance within society

• Instead of directly confronting state power, revolutionary forces must gradually build influence through institutions like media, education, religion, and intellectual discourse

War of Maneuver

Direct, confrontational struggle against the ruling class, often involving insurrection, revolution, or direct military or political action to seize power.

Cultural hegemony

How common sense is manufactured in modern societies. Hegeomy = power. how to individuals beliefs changed through consumerism. The phenomenon of why a group accepts what simply is.

Media ownership - means of production

The conditions of the worker/ producers of the media. The specific conditions of teh works and hwo the work is produced. The relationship between the workers and those that provide the funds.

Mass media

• The construction of reality through the manipulation of media 

1. Communicative purposes, needs, or uses

2. Technologies for communicating publicly to many at a distance

3. Forms of social organization that provide the skills and frameworks for organization, production, and distribution

4. Forms of regulation and control

Homogenization of news

Infotianment

History of media

Started with the creation of the printing press.

• Printers transformed from tradespeople into publishers

• Emergence of a market and the transformation of the book into a commodity

• Government and Church applied censorship to printed matter

• Newspapers were invention of a new literary, social, and cultural form.

• Extension of the state, church, or political party

Imagined communities

Nations are socially constructed through shared cultural experiences

• Newspapers helped create them by enabling groups to share comon experience of reading the same news at the same time

Public ownership

Own by the givernment pay by taxes or funds form government - Voice of america (radio) -

• Advantages: Free from commercial pressures; funded by tax dollars

• Concerns: Potential for government bias and political pressure/interference

Private ownership

• Media outlets owned by individuals, families, or corporations

• Therefore shaped by markets, advertisers, investors, profit incentives

semipublic ownership

Organizations that are partly but not fully funded by the government - PBS

• Mixed public/private financing and operation

• Subsidies to support educational and public service content

• Vulnerabilities: Purse-string control and funding instability

Independents (private ownership)

• Single-outlet owners (becoming rare)

Media chains (private ownership)

Multiple outlets under one corporation (Gannett owning USA today etc.)

Cross media ownership (private ownership)

• Companies owning outlets across various platforms (NBC producing news, shows, and movies)

conglomerates (private ownership)

•  Large firms with diverse (sometimes non-media) interests (GE, Disney)

Watchdog function of media

When the press's function as an independent guardian of the public interest.

• Holds government accountable (exposing waste, corruption, overreach) 

• A free press matters because it gives the public information needed to monitor power

The impact of decline in local news

• Reduced competitiveness in local elections 

• Increased incumbency advantage

• People often get more political information from national outlets and social media

Impact of decline in political news coverage

Leads representatives to be less responsive

• Politics becomes more symbolic, national, and identity-based

The effects of hedge funds and other corporations buying up distressed media companies

Often prioritizes extraction over long-term civic value

• Staff cuts

• Less local reporting

• More syndicated content

• Weaker watchdog journalism

Benefits of big business control

• Economies of scale

• Investigative resources

• Legal protection

• Production/distribution capacity

Costs of big business control

• Homogenization

• Less localism

• Commercial pressure

• Risk aversion

• Fewer independent voices

Prestige (what gives media influence?)

Elite outlets set agendas and professional norms

Competition/fragmentation aka market position (what gives media influence?)

Competition affects content & strategy

Market size aka Reach (what gives media influence?)

Large audiences create cultural & political influence

Demographics/data (what gives media influence?)

Media target audiences based on location, identity, behavior, value to advertisers

Digital disruption

• Advertising moved away from newspapers & broadcasters to digital platforms

• Audiences fragmented across websites, apps, streamers, podcasts, social media

• Financial model shifted to subscriptions, paywalls, memberships, philanthrophy, branded content

Financial models (pre-digital media)

Newspapers and Broadcast

Financial models (post-digital media)

Shifted to subscriptions, paywalls, memberships, philanthropy, and branded content

Regulation and its effects

• Positive: Keeps news local and shows different viewpoints.

• The Negative: Can limit business growth and free speech.

Deregulation and its effects

• The Positive: Lowers costs for companies and creates bigger networks.

• The Negative: Big corporations buy everything, making news identical everywhere.

Net neutrality

The principle that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must treat all online communications and data equally, without blocking, throttling, or favoring specific content.

Media-society-culture connection

• Media is both a social institution influenced by economics and politics and a cultural force shaping values and narratives 

  • E.x., Kardashian influence shaped aesthetic 

  • Beauty standards have evolved 

    • In the 80s, the beauty ideal was thin and less curvy 

    • We look to media to figure out who is attractive and how to become it 

    • Now we have seen a shift toward curvier women 

    • Media has shifted 

Veritable punnet square

This diagram outlines four theoretical approaches to the relationship between media, culture, and social structure, based on two central questions of influence.

Idealism

• Media content drives social change

  • Content like “Roots” 

  • Sitcom called Soap, that had the first prominent gay character

    • Your entire attitudes toward gay people would be from media  

Interdependence

• media and society continuously influence each other

Autonomy

• media operates independently of social structures

Mass society theory

Media centralization leads to mass conformity, reducing individual agency and fostering social control

• Ex. Tiktok trends, Stan culture, Algorithmic outrage

• We have the potential for unrest that can lead to violence 

  • Luigi Magione killing CEO 

  • A rising sentiment of angry attitudes about inequality 

Political economy theory

Media is controlled by economic elites, shaping content to serve their interests and maintain power

Who owns your attention? 

• What apps do you use the most?

• Who owns them?

• How do those companies monetize your attention?

Functionalist theory

Media serves essential social functions, e.g. providing information, reinforcing norms, ensuring social stability.

Critiques:

• Assumes stability is good

• Can ignore inequality

• Can naturalize existing power structures

Social construction/ social constructionism

Rather than reflecting reality, media constructs reality by shaping public perceptions and social norms.

• Ex. Beauty standards & ideals

• Crime coverage shaping fear

• “Success”

• Political framing

• Masculinity/femininity

• Celebrity culture

Technological determinism

• Communication technologies shape society and human interactions, often driving social revolutions. 

  • We tend to pay attention to shorter media rather than longer, more complex media  

  • Technology determines what we like to view 

Information society theory

Mediation theory

Medias impact on social change

Medias impact in space and time

Base

Sueprstructure

Where media power resides

Content -

Users -

Systems -

Hyperdermic Needle Model aka Bullet Model

Intentionally simplistic simple idea of how media effects operate. The idea is that I expose to a media signal and everyone would react the same/ be effected by it teh same way. Media brings out emotions, but humans are more complex than that.

Uses & Gratifications Theory

A theory that suggests people actively seek out media to satisfy specific needs and desires, such as entertainment, information, or social interaction. Why did we choose that media?

Cultivation Theory

Media Ecology

Ideological Reproduction

Platform Affordances

Materialism

• media reflects economic and political structures

Context collapse

Agenda-Setting Theory

Issue Salience

Attribute Salience

How media structures political reality (cognitive level)

How media structures political reality (institutional level)

How political messaging adapts to media

Political Elites

Influencers

Partisan media

Framing Theory

Political communication (4 compnents)

7 assumptions of political communication

Interplay model

Micro Effects

Macro Effects

Misinformation

3 Explanations of the spread of misinformation

The effects of moral outrage on the spread of news/misinformation

Use of misinformation to signal identity

The rural community as an extended home/family