Mass Communications Final

Includes Chapter 5 (Radio), 6 (TV), 7 (Movies), and 8 (Newspapers)

National Public Radio (NPR)

Most successful radio organization and has created podcasting space

Broadcasting

Transmission of radio waves or TV signals to a broad public audience

WEAF

The first radio station to regularly sell commercial time to advertisers (AT&T attempted to monopolize radio in 1922)

Option Time

Paid affiliate radio stations $50 per hour for an option on a portion of their time

Edwin Armstrong

First discovered and developed FM radio in the 1920s-1930s. This include FM (frequency modulation) and AM (amplitude modulation).

Big 3 TV Networks

ABC, NBC, and CBS

Syndication

Process where producers lease their right to air a program to local TV stations, cable channels, and streaming services

Cinematograph

Combined camera, film development, and projection systems; invented by the Lumière Brothers

Vitascope

Enabled filmstrips of longer lengths to be projected without interruption; invented by Thomas Edison

Adolph Zukor and William Fox

Helped in the collapse of Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company (The Trust)

Vertical integration

A company’s ability to control production, distribution, and exhibition in the movie business

Big Five Movie Studios

Disney, Warner Brothers, Universal, Sony Pictures, and Paramount (account for 80-85% of revenue)

Two Major Film Festivals

Sundance Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival (New York)

Magazines

Collection of articles, stories, and advertisements in a nondaily periodical

Objective Journalism

Distinguishes factual reports from opinion columns

Inverted-Pyramid Style

1) Answered who, what, where, and when (news-worthy info)

2) Questions at the top of story, then narrow down to less significant details

Two Types of Newspapers

Political/partisan press and Commerical (served business leaders)

Penny papers

First to assign reporters to cover crime and report local news

Yellow Journalism

Emphasized sensational/overly dramatic stories and focused on early in-depth “detective stories”

Muckraking

Pressed for social reforms in long-term investigative reports of government and business corruptions (coined by Theodore Roosevelt)

New York World

Encouraged by plain writing; bought by Joseph Pultizer; included the Yellow Kid cartoon

New York Journal

Focused on lurid, sensational stories; bought by William Randolph Hearst

Photojournalism

Use of photos to document daily life; gave magazines a visual advantage over radio

Interpretative Journalism

Aims to explain key issues or events and place them in a broader historical or social context