COMM 345 Media Industries Exam 2

Single Media Goods

marketed on the "distinctive merits" of each product

Continuous Media Goods

steady slow of regularly refreshed content

Development Costs

The costs sustained from planning a project (i.e. purchasing a script)

Production Costs

costs associated with the actual making of the media project (i.e. actors and directors)

Marketing/ Distribution Costs

money paid to advertise/promote a media product

Plus, the costs to copy and ship different products

Overhead Costs

The costs required to maintain media institutions that manage and finance the product

Independent media

Funded by "financiers"

Get paid back with a portion of the earnings

Video Game funding

Funded by the publishers

TV show

financed by a network and operate in Deficit financing

Sales of video games

Video game console manufacturers don't make their money for their consoles but from this..

propriety systems

games for a specific console are not able to be played on another type of console

$20 million

The average cost to produce a video game (non-tentpole)

Tentpole game

The closest thing to a surefire success in the video game industry which often costs a lot more than a regular video game

Licensing fees

A tentpole game costs much more than a typical video game because of...

Deficit Financing

the producers of a TV show wont make money for a while after the creation of the show and it operates in this type of funding...

Secondary markets

Studios typically make up their costs by selling the rights to a show to these...

Examples:

Local TV stations, Cable channels, DVDs, streaming services

Deficit Spending

Studios keep in mind what both national and international markets may find entertaining

Operates in a "cost-plus" system

The "real" audiences

the audience that actually show up to the theatres

The "constructed" audience

The target market that the media creators make up

Direct Pay

the method of purchasing a single media good

Dual revenue streams

making money from selling both ad space and subscriptions

Practices

the roles of individual workers in the media industry

Can be creative or craft/noncreative

Studio System

A type of vertical integration where the studio would own the writers, actors, film sets, and in some cases theatres

Star System

Actors, actresses, and directors were indispensable and became freelance agents

Gave rise to the role of talent agents

Creators

Those who are responsible for the vision or content

Success

This key factor gives more power to the creator from the studio executives

Creative Work

The ones who have the vision

Above-the-line

Creative workers are paid this way, also known as a fixed cost

Craft Workers

Workers who assist in the execution of the vision

Below-the-line

Craft workers are paid this way, also known as variable costs

Industry Executives

Are responsible for institutional support

They regulate the standards and practices of the corporate culture

Have the ultimate say in the creation of the media project

Neilson Family

Families chosen to be subject to market research for TV viewing habits

College Kids

Neilson media research lacked in this demographic

Market research

Any form of research conducted by a media industry before or during a product's development

Industry Lore

using formulaic methods to make a project, based off what has worked in the past

Crowdfunding

collecting funding from method such as Kickstarter

Allows artists to exclude industry executives and reach a more niche audience

Casualization

Workers are hired for a single project and once the project is finished, they are let go

Distributors

The 'middlemen'

They buy from the producer and distribute to the aggregator

Little contact with the consumer

Large companies have their own division

Make-goods

making up the revenue for an underperforming show/movie

Aggregation

The range of activities that bring together media content and consumers

Examples:

TV stations

YouTube

Netflix

Hulu

Movie theatres

Selection

Choosing what media products to carry and are their limited by physical space or costs

Benefits of Selection

1. Selling is more predictable, therefore more profitable

2. Helps consumers make easier choiuces in a crowded media marketplace

Wholesale Model

Publishers sell large amounts at a low price point (typically 50% of MSRP)

Retailers than charge whatever they like

Online Agency Model

Publisher determines the retail price for a product

Aggregator typically makes an agreement to keep certain percentages

Predictable Distribution Markets

distributors have more control over what media an audience can choose

Complex Distribution Markets

Audience has more control over the media material they consume

The Surrogate Consumer

Aggregators make decisions for selection and display on what they believe the consumer will want

Centralized selection

Online aggregators can reach niche audiences with this method....

Overstocking

producers create a large number of products knowing only a few will achieve success

Differential Promotion

Distributors put more money into marketing a few products

Payola Scandals

Several record companies bribed radio station DJs with money and drugs to play and promote their records

Windowing

releasing new procuts on a staggered schedule

Platform Release

A form of windowing when a movie becomes popular, it will be promoted to larger theatres and more cities

Benefits of windowing

1. Builds word of mouth and excitement

2. Allows distributors to milk as much money out of a product as possible

Upstream Windows

the earlier way to view a media text

Large theaters, where the public will pay the most money to see a product

Downstream windows

Later in the distribution process, when consumers can pay next-to-nothing to watch a media product

Disaggregation

Allowing consumers to access any media product on any platform at any time

Piracy

Wolff argues YouTube did not get its kick off from home videos or other big success, but this instead...

The owner of the copyright

The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) made it the responsibility of who to make sure pirated material was removed?

Technological Utopianism

technology will help bring about the ideal human society and existence on Earth

Technological Dystopianism

technology will create society where machines and computers have dominion over humans

Technological Determinism

The idea that technology controls the people and societies that use them, not the other way around

- Technologies have "strong, nearly omnipotent powers"

Cultural Determinism

People determine how a technology develops

Our 'cultural uses' determine the influence technology has over us

Technology as an "inert force" shaped by other more powerful forces

Paul du Gay

invented the model of The Circuit of Cultural Production

Representation

The attributes and characteristics of a product a company focuses on when trying to sell it

Identity

Attributes, characteristics, and purposes associated with a product

No matter what the manufacturer's original intent was

Production

The cultural impact of a product can be influenced by..

-where its made

-How its madfe

-Overall process of production

Consumption

How the consumers use the technology

Regulations

The regulations enforced by the government and the self-regulations by the company

Remediation

When newer media has an effect on the presentation of older media

The internet was a continuation of television

Michael Wolff argues that the internet was a continuation and that most media was already free

Better quality and more adult material

The reason that cable had reached critical mass and became so popular

Subscriptions

TV executives became less concerned with ads and became more concerned with ______ after the rise of cable

Bundling

Cable companies started advertising this where customers would get multiple services instead of just one

Fiber connections were too expensive

Wireless won the war against wired connections because...

Blockbuster

Netflix's main competition in the early days of streaming

Starz

In the early days of Netflix, they had a license with this company to stream movies

The differences between Netflix and TV

Netflix operated on IP and is subscription based instead of advertising based

Netflix is expanding television

Wolff's argument is that Netflix is not killing television but instead it is...