COMMRC 0320 Mass Media and Society Midterm

What is media literacy?

to be critical consumers of media products and reflective users of media technologies by understanding how media constructs media

Mass media

industries that practice and distribute music, games, tv, news, and other cultural products (to a large audience)

Communication

creation and use of symbols that convey information and meaning

Culture

forms and systems of expression that individual groups and societies make sense of everyday life and communication their values

interpersonal communication

process of exchange of information; ideas and feelings between two or more people

Mass communication

imparting or exchanging of information in a aside range of people

Masspersonal Communication

-new kind of communication how digital social media tools have altered how we communicate

-form of post-modern communication

what key technological breakthroughs accompanied the transition to the print and electronic eras

the printing press

What did the printing press do?

helped foster an feeling of nationalism and nourished an idea of individualism

what are two ways in which convergence has occurred in the digital era

-the technology merging of once distinct and incompatible formats into one format

-trend of media companies merging together in order to better position themselves for a world in which all media can be digital

niche nation

a society in which people navigate a more varied and complex media landscape

what are the three roles we each play in relation to the media

media consumer, producer, and citizen

media consumer

by consuming media (watching a show, listening to radio, social media such as instagram)

media producer

when one posts or creates something that is being shared with a larger audience

media citizen

everyone is considered a media citizen

all members of society that are saturated with media

linear model of mass communication

show and explain how messages/meanings are constructed and communicated in everyday life

what are the dangers of an overly technologically deterministic approach to thinking about our relationship with the media

different technologies can enable encourage or force us to communicate in particular ways that can affect our culture

when we talk about the politics of culture, what does that mean

process by which power, resources, status, and visibility gets distributed in a society (usually unequally)

why are narratives important to media representation?

they are media institutions and outlets

between entertainment and information cultures is narrative

skyscraper model

Culture viewed as a hierarchy with superior and high culture at the top and inferior low culture at the bottom

modern era

coincided with the rise of mass communication industries

-modernization involved experts

post-modern era

period marked by a growing skepticism about expertise and the idea of progress

Five steps in the critical process

1. description

2. analysis

3. interpretation

4. evaluation

5. engagement

Criticism

Pointing out faults or shortcomings

can be used in a positive way(or constructive way)

cynicism

media has a difficult job convincing public/audience of things

what are the two major areas of research

Media effects research and cultural studies

Media effects research

attempts to understand, explain, and predict the effects of mass media on individuals and society

relies on tools rooted in the scientific method

cultural studies

tries to understand the complex relationships among media texts, the people who consume them, the institutions that produce them, the technologies used to create them, and the culture within which all other factors exist

what were the earliest types of media studies

propaganda, public opinion research, social psychology studies, and market research

propaganda analysis

analyzing how symbols were able to greatly affect the public.

public opinon research

gathered opinions during elections and provided insight into citizen behavior

social psychology studies

measure the behavior and cognition of individuals

marketing research

companies gain information about consumers

Hypodermic Needle Model

an early model in mass communication research that attempted to explain media effects by arguing that the media figuratively shoot their powerful effects into unsuspecting or weak audiences; sometimes called the bullet theory or direct effects model

minimal effects model

mass media have limited effects on audiences, reinforcing existing behaviors and attitudes rather than changing them

experiments in media research

isolates some aspect of content; suggest a hypothesis nd manipulate variables to discover a particular mediums's effect on attitude, emotion, or behavior

content analysis

a systematic analysis of the content rather than the structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech, or film

What is strength of modern media research

nailed down research regarding individuals

What is a weakness of modern media research

it has yet to figure out how to do studies on a larger scale

Why did cultural studies develop in opposition to media effects research?

It wanted to know how people interpreted the media rather than what effect the media had on them

How is textual analysis different from content analysis?

Content analysis is more of a quantitative approach dealing with the creation of codes and definitions whereas textual analysis deals more with meaning making processes and interpretations (quantitative)

What are some of the strengths and limitations of cultural studies research?

Strengths:-freedom it affords to broadly interpret the impact of the mass media. Researchers can more easily examine the ties between media messages and the broader social, economic and political worldLimitations:-focused exclusively on meanings of the media programs and ignoring the effects on audience

what are the features of cultural studies

-Textual Analysis: highlights the close reading and interpretation of cultural messages found in books, movies, and TV programs. Qualitative-->focus on meaning and interpretation-Audience Studies: focuses on how people use and interpret cultural content. The subject being researched is the audience for the text, not the text itself-Political Economy Studies: focuses on the production of popular culture and the forces behind it. Specifically examines interconnections among economic interests, political power, and how that power is used.

What is a major criticism about specialization in academic research at universities?

tends to alienate and exclude nonacademicsthe larger public has often been excluded from access to the research process even though cultural research tends to identify with marginalized groupsisolation of researchers from life outside universities

Marshall McLuhan

the medium is the message

different mediums or ways to communicate effect how the message comes across

communication culture

-oral culture

-written culture

-print culture

-electronic culture

-digital culture

Communication Technology

-speech

-writing/alphabet

-moveable type/printing press

-telegraph

-computer

technological determinism

the idea that machines and their development drive economic and cultural change

time bias

media that emphasize time are those that are durable in character, such as parchment, clay, or stone

Space bias

Media that emphasize space are less durable, lighter in weight, such as Papyrus orpaper

oral culture

-based in speech

-interaction is face-face or generation-generation

-meaning in language is local and specific

-memory is crucial

-poetry plays a central role

-myth and history are intertwined

written culture

two kinds of writing

-communication

-syllabic/phonetic

print culture

-moveable type

-Gutenberg Revolution (1446)

-Protestantism

-readin becomes less a luxury and more of a necessity

-standardization and perseverance of knowledge, ideology

electronic culture

-Separation of communication from transportation

-Altered human sense of space and time

-Altered language

-Changed the nature of information- news becomes a commodity

-Previously unprecedented speed of production and organization

-A new brand of imperialism

digital culture

-convergence of media companies coming together

(ex: YouTube is many different things)

the technological sublime

new technologies are met with a mixture of horror and awe

tetrad

laws of media effects

What is mass communication

the process of designing and distributing info to large and diverse audiences

Transmission Model of Communication

Describes communication as a linear, one-way process in which a sender intentionally transmits a message to a receiver.

Ritual Model of Communication

meanings circulate around different cultural texts or artifacts.

subject to culture and times, is therefore ambiguous

Zeitgeist

-the spirit of the time

-labeling, recounting, and defining past and present cultural ages/paradigms

individualism

Rene Descartes: "I think therefore I am"

rationalism

finding the most logical, straight forward way of thinking about things

-idea that reason and logic will get us further than emotion

efficiency

it is rational to be efficient

populism

rejecting hierarchy

paradox

idea that even postmodernism's own principles are not beyond questioning

excess

idea of fast consumption

fragmentation

attention/affect of the media - media is fragmented

pastiche

match up culture - anything doesn't just have to be one thing - it can be bicultural

Jean Baudrillard

Hyper reality - claims that commodities are bought and displayed as much for their sign-value as their use-value

simulacrum

a copy with no original

-editing a photo

hyper reality

we have lost touch with the "real"

Jean-Francois Leotard

-anti-metanarrative

-signifying

enhancement on McLuhan's tetrad

-affordances

-what does it let me do thats new

reversal on McLuhan's tetrad

-constraints

-what it limits and where does there medium constrain me

retrieval on McLuhan's tetrad

-underlying architectures

-what ideas and what media of the past do this media remind you of

obsolesce on McLuhan's tetrad

-value-tanking

-what media items and communication platforms quietly disappear or go away

liberation

actual freedom from stuff, persuasion, authoritative structures

media theory

the more you work with critical tools, the more you will use them

John dewey

more communication

Walter Lipman

better communication

two-step flow of communication

the process by which media influence often occurs through opinion leaders, who in turn influence others

cultivation theory

how repeated exposure to prominent themes in the world of mass media causes people to overestimate the probability and potency of said themes.

spiral of silence

the process by which a majority opinion becomes exaggerated because minorities do not feel comfortable speaking out in opposition

third person effect

is the tendency for individuals to estimate stronger effects of mass communication messages on others as compared to themselves.

quantitiative research

lab experiments, controlled conditions, numbers/statistics

qualitative research

-variables (independent/dependent)

-experimental group (exposed to manipulated independent variables)

-control group

Carl Marx

-structure of social relationship

-determines mode of production

Louis Althusser

regressive state apparatuses

ideological state apparatuses

interpellation

the communication process by which one is pulled into the social forces that place people into a specific identity

hegemony

a process of elites and power holder winning consent

-in society there is consumer choice

-equilibrium (rather than resistance)

s

Raymond williams

English theorist in the 70s and 80s

-thought bad subjects were interesting

residual culture

The existing culture that is left as a part of the dominant and effective culture

emergent culture

keep cultures who are talking back to higher power - grouping them with masses

association principle

in advertising, a persuasive technique that associates a product with some cultural value or image that has a positive connotation but may have little connection to the actual product

The partisan press

pamphlets that would be subscription-based

Penny Press

Newspapers that, because of technological innovations in printing, were able to drop their price to one cent, therefore making papers affordable to working and middle classes and enabled newspapers to become a genuine mass medium

Ida B. Wells

where we got news about anti-black violence

NAACP

Ida Tarbell

A leading muckraker and magazine editor, she exposed the corruption of the oil industry with her 1904 work A History of Standard Oil.

Upton St. Clair

wrote "the jungle" a book the exposed the meat packing industry