COM 3110: Digital Media, Culture, and Communication Key Concepts

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs are quantifiable metrics that measure the progress of specific marketing goals, helping marketers assess the effectiveness of their strategies.

Likes

A metric used to measure the popularity of a post or content on social media.

Engagement

A measure of how much users interact with content, including likes, comments, and shares.

Follower Growth

The increase in the number of followers on a social media account over a specific period.

Traffic Conversions

The percentage of visitors who take a desired action on a website after arriving from social media.

Social Interactions

Any engagement activity that users perform on social media, such as likes, comments, and shares.

Social Sentiment

The overall attitude or emotional tone expressed in social media conversations about a brand or topic.

Social Shares

The act of sharing content from one user to another on social media platforms.

Web Visitors by Channel Source

The analysis of website traffic based on the source of visitors, such as social media, direct, or referral.

Reach Growth Rate

The rate at which the number of unique users who see your content increases over time.

Follower Growth Rate

The speed at which a social media account gains new followers over a specified period.

Engagement Rate

The ratio of total engagement (likes, comments, shares) to the total number of followers or impressions.

Traffic Directed to Your Site

The amount of web traffic that comes from social media platforms to your website.

Cost per Click (CPC)

The amount of money spent for each click on a paid advertisement.

Sales Generated

The total revenue produced from sales attributed to social media marketing efforts.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

A field developing intelligent machines and software that simulate human thought or work.

Call to action

An instruction that tells the customer what to do next.

Google Trends

A free Google tool that lets people explore what citizens around the world are searching for on Google.

Landing page

The first page a visitor encounters when they go to a website.

Mega-influencers

Influencers with 1 million or more followers.

Nano-influencers

Influencers with 10,000 followers or fewer.

The Five Steps of the Critical Process

A framework for analyzing media that includes Description, Analysis, Interpretation, Evaluation, and Engagement.

Description

Paying close attention, taking notes, and researching the subject under study.

Analysis

Discovering and focusing on significant patterns that emerge from the description stage.

Interpretation

Asking and answering, 'What does this mean?' and 'So what?' questions about one's findings.

Evaluation

Arriving at a judgement about whether something is good, bad, or mediocre, which involves subordinating one's personal taste to the critical 'bigger picture.'

Affordances

The features or capabilities of a technology that help establish how we use it.

Culture

The forms and systems of expressions that individuals, groups, and societies use to make sense of daily life, communicate with other people, and articulate their values.

Technological determination

A common but sometimes simplistic way of thinking that sees technology as an independent force that appears out of nowhere and changes everything.

Mass communication

The process of designing cultural messages and stories and delivering them to increasingly large and diverse audiences through mass media channels like newspapers, magazines, movies, radio, and television.

Mass personal communication

Ways in which we communicate that mix and match aspects of mass and interpersonal communication.

Remix culture

A society in which people are able to create and communicate by mixing, editing, combining, manipulating, or repurposing existing texts.

Filter bubbles

Spaces where we are exposed only to ideas and opinions that match our existing beliefs.

Digital divide

The growing contrast between the 'information haves' - those who can afford to purchase a computer and pay for internet services - and the 'information have nots' - those who may not be able to afford a computer or pay for internet services.

Walled gardens

Highly managed environments brought to us by apps, where users may feel they have the entire internet at their fingertips, but are actually limited to specific content.

Deepfakes

Images or videos that use advanced digital editing technology to create fraudulent but convincing content.

HTML

Hypertext markup language, a language for displaying text, images, and other multimedia that allowed users to link files to one another.

Gameplay

The way in which the rules structure how players interact with the game.

Modding

The most advanced form of collective intelligence in gaming, slang for 'modifying game software or hardware.'

Collective Intelligence

A term coined by French professor Pierre Levy in 1997 to describe the internet's ability to enable us to share our knowledge and acknowledge it to others.

Home consoles

Devices people use specifically to play video games, putting digital games on a path to becoming a mass medium.

Intellectual property

Stories, characters, personalities, and music that require licensing agreements.

Cover music

A song recorded or performed by someone other than the original writer or artist.

Streaming music

The format of choice for accessing music today, shifting from ownership to access.

Radio Act of 1912

Legislation passed in response to the Titanic tragedy to regulate amateur radio operators and ensure radio waves are collective property.

ARPAnet

The original internet designed by the U.S. Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Podcasting

The practice of making audio files available on the internet for download or streaming.

Telecommunications Act of 1996

Legislation that changed the rules concerning access to public airwaves by eliminating most ownership restrictions on radio.

Content delivery services

Services that generate revenue from both advertising and subscription fees.

Over the top media services (OTT)

Streaming sites like Hulu and Netflix that allow access to TV content through an internet connection without traditional providers.

Megaplexes

Facilities with fourteen or more screens.

B movies

Marginal films made with small budgets and famous stars.

A movies

Highly anticipated films made with big budgets and famous stars.

Yellow journalism

An era characterized by sensational stories and a focus on dramatic detective stories, named after a comic called 'Hogan's Alley.'

Citizen journalism

News dissemination by activist amateurs and concerned citizens using the internet and social media.

USA Today

A newspaper that changed the look of most major U.S. dailies in 1982.

Zines

Self-published magazines.

General-interest magazine

Magazines covering a wide variety of topics aimed at a broad national audience.

Magalogs

Publications that combine a glossy magazine style with the sales pitch of retail catalogs.

AARP Bulletin and AARP The Magazine

Magazines with some of the largest circulations in the U.S., aimed at senior citizens over 50.

Decline in daily newspapers

A trend that began during the Great Depression with the rise of radio.

TV Guide

A publication that succeeded due to its availability at supermarket checkout lines.

Subsidiary rights

The rights an author sells for a book to be used in other media, such as a screenplay.

Trade books

Hardbound and paperback books aimed at general readers and sold at commercial retail outlets.

Mass media

Industries that produce and distribute cultural products.

Communication

Creation and use of symbol systems that convey information.

Niche nation

Society in which people navigate a more varied and complex media landscape.

Media Environment

Media as a habitat in which we conduct almost every aspect of daily life.

Post modern era

Period from the 1950s onward.

Internet

A vast network of fiber optics.

Confirmation bias

Favoring information that conforms to our preexisting beliefs over information that challenges them.

Surveillance capitalism

Making money by controlling users' personal data.

Data mining

Tracking search histories, locations, browser settings, etc.

Cookies

Computer files that automatically collect and transfer information between a website and a user's browser.

Game Publishers

Release games to the public.

Game Developers

Write the codes for games.

Digital games

Recognized as a legitimate form of free speech in 2011.