MEDIA STUDIES MIDTERM

Media Literacy

The ability to read media texts critically, recognizing how they represent and shape reality through codes and conventions.
Example: Understanding how a news broadcast’s visuals create a sense of urgency .

Media & Everyday Life

Media serve as sources of pleasure, learning, connection, and daily routine — integral to social and personal identity.
Example: Scrolling TikTok as a way to unwind and stay culturally “in touch” .

Utopian, Dystopian, & Mirror Views + Critiques

Utopian: media improve society.

Dystopian: media harm individuals/society.

Mirror: media reflect social reality.
Critique: All simplify; media both shape and reflect culture.
Example: Debates over social media’s influence on youth behavior .

The Cultural Approach (Instead of utopian/dystopian/mirros)

Society and media continuously shape each other—analyzing texts, users, industries, and technologies together.
Example: Studying how Barbie (2023) reflects feminist discourse and corporate strategy simultaneously .

Technological vs. Content Convergence

Technological: multiple media functions in one device. Content: same content available across devices. Example: Streaming a film on your phone and TV.

Implications of Content Convergence

Industry: reach fragmented audiences. Makers: more outlets and income. Audiences: personalization + overload. Example: Netflix allowing offline downloads.

Transmedia Extensions & Goals

Spreading content across platforms to expand engagement and maintain interest. Goals: keep audiences engaged

Evolving “Screen Ecology” (Craig & Cunningham)

The coexistence of “legacy” Hollywood media and new digital platforms. Example: Netflix vs. YouTube—closed vs. open content ecosystems.

Social Media Entertainment (Craig & Cunningham)

Influencer-driven, platform-based entertainment with multiple monetization models.
Example: A YouTuber monetizing through ads, sponsorships, and merch.

Stories Have Audiences

Audiences interpret stories differently; not all are the “imagined” audience. Example: Kids and adults both watching Shrek but decoding different meanings.

Paratexts

Extratextual materials that shape interpretation. Example: Movie posters or trailers influencing expectations.

Ideology & Dominant Ideology

Ideology: systems of belief that appear “natural.” Dominant ideology: supports those in power. Example: Ads equating success with material wealth.

Hegemony & Counter-Hegemony

Hegemony: maintaining power through consent. Counter-hegemony: challenging dominant values. Example: Black Panther celebrating African identity against colonial narratives.

Texts as Polysemic

Media texts have multiple possible meanings depending on the audience. Example: Madonna’s performances read as empowerment or exploitation.

Encoding vs. Decoding (Hall)

Producers encode preferred meanings; audiences decode using cultural “codebooks.” Example: A car ad encoding freedom

Values of Encoding/Decoding

Shows how meaning is negotiated, not fixed; production and interpretation differ.
Example: Political memes decoded differently by liberals and conservatives.

Criticisms of Encoding/Decoding

Hard to classify readings; focuses too much on ideological texts; weak link to production. Example: Ambiguous films like Inception make reading positions unclear.

Textual Approach to Genre

Defines genres by shared conventions (story) and codes (style). Example: Romantic comedies rely on “meet-cute” and happy endings.

Problematizing the Textual Approach

Genres are not fixed; boundaries are chosen culturally. Example: Stranger Things as sci-fi

Power & Representation (Croteau & Hoynes)

Definition: Who appears, in what roles, and who controls representation determines media power.
Example: Underrepresentation of trans actors in Hollywood

Discursive Approach to Genre (Mittell)

Genres are cultural agreements shaped by discourse among industry, critics, and audiences.
Example: “Prestige TV” as a socially constructed label .

Industrial Utility of Genre

Genres help organize production and marketing by setting audience expectations. Example: Netflix labeling “true crime” to attract specific viewers.

Genre Innovation

When new genres or hybrids evolve through change and experimentation. Example: The Office blending sitcom with mockumentary.

Genre Hybrids

Combining elements of multiple genres to appeal broadly. Example: Get Out mixing horror and social satire.

Story Characters & Audiences

Characters drive identification and emotional connection. Example: Viewers identifying with Breaking Bad’s Walter White despite moral flaws.

Hierarchy of Knowledge

Audience vs. character knowledge determines suspense, curiosity, or surprise.
Example: Viewers knowing a bomb is under the table creates suspense .

Paratexts (Review)

Promotional or interpretive materials that expand a text’s meaning. Example: Marvel post-credit scenes building anticipation.

Paratexts for Industry & Audience

Industry: used for synergy and marketing. Audience: help interpret and anticipate content. Example: The Barbie trailer setting tone and expectations.

Studying Media Industries (Herbert/Lotz/Punathambekar)

Focuses on workers, structures, and constraints shaping media production. Example: Casting agents limited by “circumscribed agency” .

Value of Studying Media Workers

Reveals how roles, skills, and decisions reflect larger industry trends.
Example: Studying showrunners’ creative constraints in streaming-era TV .

Mediation

The process of recording, selecting, and organizing events into constructed narratives.
Example: A news broadcast shaping “reality” through editing .

News & How It’s Shaped

News relies on professional norms (objectivity, newsworthiness) and conventions (music, visuals).
Example: Cable news dramatizing politics with graphics and tone

Four Ways of Constructing Reality TV (Kraszewski)

Selection, narrative structuring, location, and editing create “reality.”
Example: The Real World framing racial tension through selective editing .

The Real World — Utility & Narrative (Kraszewski)

Utility: Cheap filler programming. Narrative: Promotes liberal tolerance but blames racism on individuals

Celebrity

A person whose life and persona attract public attention; both a worker and a product. Example: Taylor Swift’s image across music and film.

Economics of Celebrity

Celebrities market products by associating appeal and familiarity. Example: Nike using LeBron James to boost brand loyalty.

Star Image & Four Components (Dyer)

1. Body of work

2. Promotion

3. Publicity

4. Audience practices
   Example: Beyoncé’s built from albums, interviews, press, and fan devotion .

Celebrity & Audiences

Celebs exist through public fascination and identification. Example: Fans mimicking Zendaya’s style to express identity.

Relevant Fantasy (Fiske)

Celebrities offer empowering models of identity, interpreted differently by audiences.
Example: Madonna embodying feminist and consumerist fantasies .

Character Types vs. Stereotypes

Character types: shorthand roles aiding storytelling.
Stereotypes: reductive, rooted in unequal power.
Example: “Angry Black woman” trope vs. nuanced character in Insecure .

Representation

The act of standing in for or creating images that shape perceived reality. Example: News images defining “protesters” vs. “rioters.”

Power & Representation (Croteau & Hoynes)

Who appears, in what roles, and who controls representation determines media power.
Example: Underrepresentation of trans actors in Hollywood .

The Other & Media

Media define who is “normal” by portraying others as strange or threatening. Example: Muslim characters often portrayed as villains post-9/11.

“Splitting” (Hall)

Dividing society into “us vs. them” to reinforce norms and exclude others. Example: Immigration ads framing outsiders as threats.

Multicultural Representation

Showing authentic diversity and cultural specificity instead of tokenism or “plastic” inclusion. Example: Everything Everywhere All at Once depicting Asian-American complexity.

Four Media Sales Logics

1. Commodity (buy once)

2. Turnstile (pay for access)

3. Ad-supported

4. Microtransaction
   Example: YouTube (ads) vs. Netflix (turnstile) vs. App Store games (microtransactions)

Three Hybrid Sales Logics

1. Combination (multiple logics)

2. Economies of scope (sell across “windows”)

3. Premium option (charge for perks)

   Example: Hulu (ads + subscription) .
   

Maximizing Profit vs. Market Share

Profit: focus on revenue and efficiency. Market share: competition-based growth metric. Example: Disney+ prioritizing subscriber numbers over short-term profit.

Maximizing Investment Capital vs. Sunk Cost Fallacy

Investment capital: spending big to ensure visibility. Sunk cost fallacy: continuing failed projects due to investment. Example: Warner Bros. finishing costly films despite poor testing.

The Culture Industry (Frankfurt School)

Commercialized culture that produces conformity and distraction instead of enlightenment. Example: Formulaic reality TV promoting consumerism.

Mass Culture

Industrially produced media for undifferentiated audiences. Example: Top 40 pop music formula.

Impact of Mass Culture

Produces conformity, apathy, and commodified leisure.
Example: Audiences binge identical reality shows instead of engaging politically

False Consciousness

Misleading belief that happiness comes from consumption rather than empowerment. Example: Ads promoting luxury goods as fulfillment.

Mass Media Industrialization

Standardized, formulaic production of media goods.
Example: Pop music hits written to the same beat structure .

Criticisms of the Frankfurt School

Elitist, ignores audience agency, fails to explain innovation.

Structuring Social Relations (Fiske)

Systems of norms organizing relationships and hierarchies of power. Example: The Newlywed Game reflecting gender norms in marriage.

Embarrassment & Quality (Fiske)

Embarrassment arises when norms of “taste” are violated; challenging taste hierarchies redefines culture. Example: Audiences embracing “trash TV” as authentic pleasure.

Popular Culture

Culture as a process of using and making meaning of mass culture

Excorporation vs. Incorporation (Fiske)

Excorporation: Pop culture reuses mass culture for its own meaning. Incorporation: Mass culture absorbs pop trends for profit. Example: Ripped jeans (excorporated by youth

Criticisms of Pop Culture Analysis

Over-celebrates audience agency; ignores how pop culture can reinforce harmful ideologies. Example: Viral trends turning political issues into entertainment.