media industries and audiences

socialisation

the process whereby we learn and internalise the values, beliefs, and norms of our culture and, in doing so, develop a sense of self

social construction of reality

the process of shaping reality through social interaction. while reality exists, we must negotiate the meaning of that reality

social structure

any recurring pattern of social behaviour e.g. economic considerations, genres etc.

agency

intentional and undetermined human action e.g. personal style, creative decisions etc.

technological determinism

an approach that identifies technology, or technological developments as the central element in the process of social change -> technology causes social change (neglects agency)

medium theory

the body of literature that focuses on the technological aspects of media beyond their content -> the nature of the medium can be the key to a social impact

pseudo - events

events planned for the express purpose of producing dramatic images that can be disseminated or reported (critical approach)

characteristics of pseudo-events

- carefully panned

- scheduled in advance

- dramatic

- the media accommodates celebrities by something they were going to do anyway (going into the building)

Hyperreality (Jean Baudrillard)

that which has gone beyond the real, supplanting or erasing it - opinion polls - no consequences (critical approach)

hyperreality "reality TV"

sells the idea that the life of others is more interesting, even though we know that it isn't true

social constructionism

emphasises the social construction of technology, focusing on the role of active human agents in ultimately determining how technology is developed and used - emphasises the agency of people

concentration of ownership

refers to the number of owners within a particular media market

conglomeration

media companies have become part of much larger corporations, which own a collection of other companies that may operate in highly diverse business areas

vertical integration

concentration of all aspects of production and distribution for a single type of media product (practice in conglomerates)

Horizontal integration

concentration ownership across differing types of media (practice in conglomerates)

synergy

producing benefits that would be impossible for a single, separately operated unit of the company to reach - benefit of size

media pluralism

the degree to which there is diversity in media content readily available to audiences

three broad categories of debate

a. regulating ownership

b. regulating content

c. regulating access and distribution

regulating ownership

- Ownership of media outlets: changes in patterns of ownership

- Ownership of content: Copyright and intellectual property

regulating content

- Regulating for diversity: supporting media pluralism or protecting corporate interests?

- Regulating for morality: legislation or self-regulation?

- Regulating for accuracy: against deceptive advertising

- Regulating in the national interest: freedom of expression and right to information or protecting national safety?

regulating access and distribution

- net neutrality

- vertical integration: an unfair competitive practice?

- social media: technology platforms or media companies?

net neutrality

the principle that all Internet data should be treated equally

the public interest

the welfare of wellbeing of general public and society that the government uses to justify the regulation that they put in the media

imitation

creating something similar to something else to ensure a success

the "hit" system

- everyone wants hits

- hits offset the losses created by most other projects

- underlying operating principle of most major media companies

producing stars

- myth of meritocracy

- investing in talent

- industry professionals often choose stars, not audiences

using stars to combat uncertainty

- stars used to mitigate risk

- stars are seen as a mechanism to manage uncertainty

- but.. stars don't equal hits which doesn't equal success

products

- merchandising

- theme parks

- video games

conventions

a practice or technique widely used in a field, which the result of the routinisation of work

routines

the rationalisation of work practices through procedures

socialisation (sociological approach)

the process by which we learn the basic ground rules of a role

professional socialisation

a professional learning process

- process where a person officially becomes a member of society

occupational / professional roles

bundles of expectations

gatekeeping

journalists allow some events to pass through to become news while the gates remain closed to other events

news net (Tuchman 1978)

Tuchman's metaphor explaining the standard practise for gathering news

beat

the subject matter or geographic area that a reporter might be assigned to cover

news values

the factors that journalists consider when deciding the newsworthiness (socially constructed) of any other event, statement or other potential story

ideology

a system of cultural beliefs, meanings and values that defined and explains the social world that makes value judgements about it

ideology as normalisation

media suggest what is 'normal' and what is 'deviant' (unusual behaviour)

culture wars (James d hunter)

issues of morality are negotiated in the media

denotation

the identification of something by pointing it out

connotation

refers to the overtones, additional meanings, and implications with a word or an object

false consciousness

aspect of the social world that serve the interests of the few, while wrongly considered as serving the interests of the many

hegemony

Widely shared beliefs about what is right or wrong that empower specific groups in society, based on the consent of the led

3 approaches to studying communication

1. Social scientific

2. Interpretivist

3. Critical

media

plural of medium; communication media are the different technological processes that facilitate communication between (and are in the middle of) the sender of a message and the receiver of that message

interpersonal communication

contact with a single person that is likely to know you

mass communication

contact with a mass audience; little interaction between receivers and senders

socialisation

the process wherby we learn and internalise the values, beliefs, and norms of our culture and, in doing so, develop a sense of self

social construction of reality

the process of shaping reality through social interaction. while reality exists, we must negotiate the meaning of that reality

relationships between the media and other social institutions

institutions outside the control of media personnel set certain legal and economic limits within which the media industry must operate. in turn, the media industry has agency in the sense of acting on its own and perhaps influencing other social institutions

relationship within the media industry

within the media industry, the tension between structure and agency is related primarily to how much autonomy media personnel have in doing their work. the amount of autonomy will vary deepening on the position an individual occupies

relationship between the media and the public

how media content and technology potentially influence users and, in turn, how media users can impact the media industry and the content it produces

first form of media

800 a.C, first books are printed in china, using a single wood block for an entire page

creation of newspapers

newspapers were created with a different approach than books -> for an emergent class, movement towards freedom (people became more autonomous by posting independent texts)

digitisation

transformation of an analog signal to a digital signal, so it can be read by a computer

19th century industrialisation

drastically increased the pace of technological innovation: telegraph, camera, telephone, phonograph, radio and motion pictures

20th century

these media, along with television and the internet, were refined and developed into the commercial industries we know today, utterly transforming communication worldwide

21st century

technology has enabled new social transformations by integrating digital multimedia platforms into all aspects of our lives and by making media-creating technology more accessible to ordinary users

technological determinism

technology itself causes change in ways that people don't intent and are unaware of; overwhelming and inevitable effects of technologies on users, organisations and societies

materiality

argue that the physical aspects of media technology matter but not in a simplistic way

Lievrouw (2014): materiality itself is a complex, multidimensional idea and open to a variety of interpretations, emphases and disciplinary assumptions

obvious forms of materiality

tangible objects and things that are involved in media communication (keyboards, screens, phones, paper and the like)

autonomous technology

a general label for all conceptions and observations to the effect that technology is somehow out of control by human agency (Langdon Winner, 1977)

technological momentum

suggests that a technology's influence changes over time. when a technology is new, humans have agency over the ways in which it is developed and used. as time passes, a technology becomes established, routinised and institutionalised, making it more difficult to contest or change (Thomas Hughes, 1983)

medium (ecology) theory

see media as more than conduits for the transmission of messages; the very nature of the medium can be the key to its social impact

Toronto school

the best-known variant of medium theory. introduced by Harold Innis and popularised by Marshall McLuhan. was carried out mostly by literary and cultural critics rather than social scientists

harold innis

interested in the effect of macro-level technologies on societies as a whole (e,,g the difference between cultures with oral versus written traditions)

marshall mcluhan

- focused on the media's influence on how individuals perceived and though about the world

- is both technological determinist and an enthusiast for the cultural effects introduced in society by television

- the medium is the message= we have to focus on the medium, not so much on the content

neil postman

- the rise of television was the central cause of the decline in the seriousness of public life; was concerned with the ways television challenges rationality and coherence of print-based modes of thinking by holding up entertainment and trivial images that often work by generating emotional responses rather than by appealing to logic

pseudo - events (Daniel boors tin, 1961)

events planned for the express purpose of producing (dramatic) images that can be disseminated or reported

characteristics of pseudo events

- carefully planned

- formatted to accommodate the media

- celebrity = a person who is known for his and her wellknownness; their fame becomes a value, we talk about them because theyre famous

hyperreality (Jean Baudrillard, 1988)

blurring boundaries between the image ad reality, fact and fantasy, representation and original events e.g. opinion polls, Disney land, Las Vegas, reality tv

most critics of television are about commercial television

the claim that television, as a technology, must be about entertainment, attractive images and rapid movement form one idea to the next, aer the result of an industry - driven by people and Market forces - in which the need to sell products and make profits dominates

social constructionism

emphasises the social construction of technology, focusing on the role of activity human agents in ultimately determining how technology is developed and used; emphasises that technology is made up of inanimate objects, and ultimately people decide how to use technology

social reality is produced in three steps

1. people create society through ongoing processes pf physical and memtal activity

2. over time, these creations come to seem objectively real, separate from human activity

3. people internalise the norms and values of their culture, thereby being influences by their own characteristics

domestication theory

ordinary users appropriate technology of all sorts, bringing it into their homes and daily lives. so, consumers connect to the outside world of commerce while asserting their own identities through their consumption and use of technology

the print medium

- bible was the book most produces in the mid-1400s-> social forces other than technology determined the direction of media development

- printing helped democratise learning

- people reading on their own could; question the Catholic church & contribute to the rise of individualism in western society

- oral traditions were supplanted by written texts

- printed media had a limit and distribution; most publications tended to stay remain local, resulting a highly fragmented and isolated media landscape

telegraph

-1840: the telegraph allowed for near instantaneous communication over long distances

- did not reach a large audience -> small audience would receive information and spread it through newspapers (news spread faster and further)

- foreshadowed issues associated with emerging media technologies; increased speed of communication; the danger of centralised control of technology, how control of technology can help shape which content is available, how the integration of technology produced more homogenised and unified content

telephone

- created in 1876

- by 1893 about two-thirds of the nation's telephones were in business, while residential service was limited

-AT&T monopoly was a universal presence in American life

- in the mid-20th century, telephone lines served as important information conduits for other media

-1982: AT&T breakup in eight "baby bell" entities -> 2018: the eight "baby bell" companies became the "big three": AT%T, Verizon, and centurylink

-as much as people adapt their lives to the changed circumstances created by a new technology, that also adapt that technology to their lives (fischer)

sound recording

- Thomas Edison, 1878

- expected it to be used for the purpose of letter writing and other forms of dictation

-1948-> LP

- 1960 -> cassette: music became more mobile (car stereo and portable tape players) and people could make their own recordings and mix tapes

-1980-> CD

-1990 -> MP3

-2011-> streaming

- users made choices that significantly altered the trajectory of sound recordings away from simple dictation for business purposes to much broader applications

- the music industry helped shape how we experience popular music

film and video

- born in 1895

- france; no film cartel, feature-length films starring well-known actors

-1970s; technological innovations, such as videocassette recorders, allowed people to purchase or rent moves to watch at home, changing the way users interacted with films

- dvd 1997

radio broadcasting

- developed between 1900-1920

- audio signals that were transmitted could be received by anyone with an inexpensive radio kit who was within the range of the signal

- countries with different experiences with radio -> politics, music, news

television

- the development of television technology might have threatened the dominance of the radio

television and daily life

- accommodated already existing family practices and tried to hold these practices

- television programming were directed mostly to women - were unemployed and had a lot of free time

cable television

- cable technology overcame the limited number of stations that could be accommodated in OTA broadcasting

- allowed the viewer to access a larger volume and variety of programming

internet

vast network of interconnected computer networks whose underlying technology was developed over a half century

1991- world wide web

some characteristics of the internet era

1. the internet was meant to be an open, decentralised, accessible platform -> unlike cable television

2. the internet enables user interactivity regardless the time and location -> changes interpersonal communication

3. the Internet embodies digitisation and convergence - the blurring of boundaries among types of media

4. the internet is a global system of communication whose governance structure transcends the regulatory reach of any single country

social constructionism and sound recording

technology = MP3, streaming

industries = prices, concerts attending

content = how music is changing because of technological development

users = impact how we consume music

terms readers or user rather then receiver and audience

because individuals take an active role in interpreting media and can use media to publish content themselves

production perspective

emphasises the media production process rather than either specific media products or the consumption of those products; media products should be seen as a result of a social process of production that occurs within an institutional framework

three key tasks of contemporary media companies

1. platforms; media content

2. platforms; sites and services that host, display and find media content

3. pipes; the conduits by which we access media content and platforms, such as wireless, cable, satellite companies

Nielsen (2017) owned activity

social media content generated by the official accounts associated with a program or network

organic activity

content generated by the viewing audience

media consolidation

concentration of media in fewer hands

conglomerates

integrated firms; large companies made up of a number of different companies, all owned by the same corporate parent - the largest media companies grow in size and reach as they purchase or merge their competitors

vertical integration

process by which one owner acquires all aspects of production and distribution of a single type of media product - the company can better control the processes of creating, producing marketing and distributing a content

Horizontal Integration

process by which one company buys different kinds of media, concentrating ownership across differing media types rather than up and down through one media (e.g. portfolio that spans across film, television, books, record labels, video games and so on)

cross- media promotion

they result in higher attention from audiences, improves memory, greater perceived message credibility, and higher viewing intent compared to using repetitive single-source promotions

primary strategy of the new media economy

content and pipes, along with platforms

advertising

the media industry is in large part an advertising-funded business

advertiser's preferences influence what media are produced and how they are distributed