UCLA COMM 10 FINAL

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Types of Functions of the Mass Media

Content function

Medium function

Manifest function

Latent function

Content function

A function based on what the medium conveys.

Ex: the weather channel tells us what to wear on a given day.

Medium function

A function based on how the medium is used.

Ex: the movies provide a place to go on a date, not only used to watch the movie, go for the experience.

Manifest function

Functions that are obvious, intended, and on the surface.

Ex: couple listens to radio to be informed

Latent function

Functions that are unintended, hidden or beneath the surface.

Ex: the weather channel tells us what to wear on a given day.

Societal Functions of Mass Media

Status Conferral

Perpetuates Norms, Values, Traditions

Creating Community and Social Cohesion

Narcotizing Function

Servicing the Political System

Servicing the Economy

Status Conferral

Legitimizes the status of person or idea; confirms status.

Ex. When the media reported the beating of a gay man, this gave the issue of gay rights more status and national attention. It became a national issue

Passes on Norms, Values, Traditions

The media perpetuate social norms, teaching right from wrong. Enforces by showing how deviation from norms is punished. You see that on TV and think, I better not do that.

Ex: not reporting taxes

Creating Community and Social Cohesion

Mass media provide a common source of narrative that can unite people in the absence of the old physical meeting spots

- Especially in a time of crisis, like the community of interest and sympathy created by media coverage of 9/11 or Trayvon Martin.

- Media create a common base of cultural knowledge, giving people something to talk about. The OJ Trial, or American Idol.

Narcotizing Function

The media function as the opiate of the masses. By filling our heads with meaningless, titillating junk, they lead us not to question the status quo.

Servicing the Political System

Mass Media let us know what our government is doing. Candidate messages address information to public.

Ex: Obama addresses the entire nation at the State of the Union, a speech broadcast across the mass media

Servicing the Economy

The mass media are a very large and profitable business. They facilitate the processes of capitalism

- Like the stock info in news papers

- E commerce - buying things online

- Advertising in media

Individual Functions of the Mass Media

Guides Behaviour

Guides Understandings

Develop Self-Concept

Professional Tool

Facilitate Social Interaction

Substitute Social Interaction

Emotional Release

Order, Organize, Ritualize our lives

Guides Behaviour

Tell individuals how to act, instructs how to behave in certain situations.

Ex: Weather report tells you how to dress, who to vote for.

Guides Understandings

Help people make sense of the world. What kind of place is the world? Violent or peaceful

- Example, the Mean World Syndrome. Violent movies and shows make people think the world is like that

The Mean World Syndrom

the more tv people watch, the more they come to believe the world is a mean and scary place.

Develop Self-Concept

By exploring depictions of real or fictional worlds, we use media to decide who to be, and how to fit into the world.

Ex: provides role models of who we want to be like.

Professional Tool

Helps guide your career.

Ex: Linkedin

Facilitate Social Interaction

- Shows and movies provide something to talk about

- Or actually using social media to do interaction indirectly

Substitute Social Interaction

TV personalities provide companionship

Ex: lonely kid watches Jimmy Kimmel to not feel alone.

Emotional Release

When you want to move from one emotion to another.

Ex:You want to relax so you play relaxing music

Ritualize our lives

Gives order, structure and organization.

Ex: You watch a late night show and that signals that the day is done

Factors that determine content in mass media

Legal system

Organizing procedures

Technical constraints

Legal system

Changes and copy rights law.

Organizing procedures

The way organizations operate.

Ex: MTV changed its ways.

Technological constraints

As technology changes, content of mass media changes.

Ex: acoustic guitar vs electric guitar

Ex: singular entetities: downloading music illegally

Media Storage

Longevity

Capacity

Portability

Accessibility

Reproducibility

Longevity

How long does it last

Capacity

How much can it hold, in how big a container

Portability

How easily can it be transported

Accessibility

How easily can it be accessed? Does it require electricity

Reproducibility

How easily can one make copies, are they precise, and does this process degrade the original

Persistence of vision

Allows these still pictures of film to blend together; a visual image is retained on our eyes.,

Simple Pictorial Realism

- The first films focused on realistic depictions of motion. Narrative was not emphasized.

Ex: niagra falls

Nickolodeon

- The first permanent movie theaters. Admission cost a nickel.

Birth of a Nation

An important film by DW Griffith. A long and widely popular film, it was important because of its (racist) subject matter, cinematographic style, and narrative technique

MPPC

- Motion picture patent company

- They controlled almost every aspect of production and distribution

- Actors and directors chaffed under their heavyhanded oversight, leading a group of them to flee the MPPC in NY and establish the film industry as we know it in Hollywood

Advent of Sound

- Made film more popular. The Jazz Singer - the first widely popular sound film

- A new emphasis on verbal comedy

- But required costly renovations to soundproof theaters

Golden Age of Film

• From 1930 to WWII (1939-1945)

• The depression meant both socially conscious films and silly escapist films.

• Film audiences were the biggest ever. People went to the movies incredibly often

• Rise of the 7 big studios

Four Reasons for Post WW2 Decline of Film

1. Rise of TV

2. Red Scare

3. Paramount Case

4. Resurgence of Foreign Films

Rise of TV

TV gave competition to film. From 1950 - 1960, film viewership declined greatly. TV ownership expanded greatly during this period.

Red Scare

Great concern about communism. Talented people lost jobs and fell into fear, diminishing creativity.

Many talented people were blacklisted and unable to work.

Paramount Case

A restraint of trade case. The argument was that the Big 7 Studios were an oligopoly and no one else could break into the market.

Vertical integration

They went after the studios for controlling every aspect of film, from start to finish. This included:

- Production - making the movie. Getting the script, actors, and shooting it

- Distribution - getting it out to theaters and advertising it

- Exhibition - showing it in theaters

The ruling of the case was that studios had to get out of one of the three. The studios chose to get out of exhibition they sold off the theaters they owned.

Resurgence of Foreign Films

Europe and Japan recovered from the devastation of WWII and began making films that competed with Hollywood.

Studio Response to the decline

o Higher quality movies with technical effects that TV could not match. Sweeping epics with big panoramic landscapes

o Renovated the theaters, added 3D to make it different from watching movie at home.

o Gimmicks like hiring people to scream in the audience

None of this was effective. Movies were no longer on top. TV was now to be the mass medium

Non Hollywood Business Interests

- Some of the attempts at large sweeping movies were big flops, threatening the industry financially and paving the way for non-Hollywood business interests to come in and buy up the studios

- Independent films (Indies): pass on artistic/intellectual ideas that only appeal to certain subcultures

United Artists

- A group of independent filmmakers that paved the way for a new aesthetic of film during the 60s. At this time, lots of films were psychedelic or experimental

• But this trend didn't last long. Soon, movies started catering to the lowest common denominator, because of the need for profit

Youth Audience

Young people were and are the biggest segment of the film audience. As such, they catered movies to young people

Blockbuster Trend

Tendency to try to make big flashy movies that would be very popular, that young people would see many times

Changing Aesthetics of Film

Louder, bigger and faster. This attempt to capture the youth audience changed the aesthetics of films. They made simplistic movies that appealed to the youth.

Ex: special effects

Sequels

a continuation of a previous movie; easier to make because they have an established audience and plot.

Ex: Star Wars

Remakes

re-doing an old movie, telling the same story with a new cast

Prequels

telling the story of what happened before a previous film

Reboots

taking an existing franchise, complete with sequels, and starting from scratch.

Different from a remake because it discards previous continuity and starts brand new

Movie based on other media

movies based on board games or video games. These are good because they have a built in audience

Actors

Actors became important because of the importance of having a big opening weekend. Star power was a reliable way to ensure a big opening weekend. Actors were paid exorbitant sums, largely in royalty deals.

Foreign Market

star power is important to help a movie do well in the foreign market, where Hollywood makes 2/3 of its box office revenue.

Foreign Market's Influence on Film Aesthetics

Action Films

these do better in the foreign market, since explosions require no translations. They have fewer subtleties which are hard to convey to foreigners who speak another language

Boys with Toys Travel

specifically, this expression means that actions films in which a big man with a big gun shoots people 'travel', or perform well abroad

Animated Family Films

these films also have an international appeal that does not depend on translating verbal subtleties

Cash Break Zero

-refers to arrangement that starts get money after studio has reached a break even cost.

Takeover of Hollywood by non-Hollywood Business Interests

The fact of film decline allowed the studios to be bought up by outside commercial interests who were not interested in film as art, only as industry. These corporate big wigs called the shots now, not the studio heads

New Strategy of Release

Jaws was the first movie to open in wide release. It opened on hundreds of screens on opening night, rather than trickling down from the big cities, as was the old model. This helped generate buzz and promote ticket sales

Agents

Now that studios no longer employed their own stables of actors, there was now more reliance on agents to bring together scripts, directors, and actors.

Independent Films

o Studios still made (and make) Independent films provided an avenue for more experimentation, deviation from established conventions that was not normally possible in a studio context. These are artsy films with more mature audiences.

o These films have smaller budgets, are much cheaper to make, and are less likely to have recognizable stars

o Disproportionately, these films win prestigious awards

Cineplexation

A Cineplex is a movie with multiple screens.

Theaters

o They make half their money from concessions (like the kind Chamberlain gave to Hitler?)

o The changing nature of theaters. They're getting fancier with more amenities. Something of a return to the days of movie palaces

o Increasingly, they want the theater to be a full social experience, a destination in itself. They're adding stores and cafes. The high end ones have restaurants.

o All of this is done in an effort to combat the increasing reasons people have to stay home and enjoy their home entertainment systems

New role of Studios

Not really involved in production. This is done by hundreds of little companies. Mostly they do financing and distribution

Relationship between Film and TV

o At first, film was very frightened of TV. But soon they realized it would be more profitable to cooperate

o Made for TV movies

o TV is also a great place to make money from old movies that have already been made. They'll sell a station the rights to air an old movie

Sell through market

- the market for selling video copies of movies

• This began with studios selling video copies to video rental stores

• Then they realized people might want to own movies. They started with kids movies but now they sell copies of all kinds of movies to the popular audience.

• They moved to a model where each copy is sold for less, but they sell way more copies

Direct to video

Directly made into videos not present in theater.

This used to be only for movies that they knew would be bad.

Ex: Mulan

Audience for Film

the current audience for film is very small compared to what it was during the golden age

movies made for teenagers.

Male Teens - the biggest audience segment and thus wield a lot of power. They are impatient and like to see movies right away, which influences the size of the opening weekend and can sink or swim a movie. Ex: the main audience for action films and certain types of comedies

Female Teens - they go to the movies in large packs. They're an important segment for romantic movies. They're responsible for the success of movies like Titanic - they will go see a movie like this many times.

Most Persuasive Medium

Persuasive (ideas and perceptions), high tech quality, food and drink available, no interruptions, film takes you to another world, entertainment.

1915 Court Case

a 1915 supreme court case said that films are not part of the press, they're not a vehicle for the expression of ideas. As such, they were not covered by the first amendment and the government had theoretically unlimited power to censor them

Hayes Office and Hayes Code

• The creation of the Hayes office meant rather draconian regulation on explicit content in films - they were forced to be rather prim and proper. Made a code for the production of film.

Ex: no substance abuse, sexual content or profanity.

• Films had to be submitted to the Hayes office for approval

Miracle Case

The supreme court overturned its earlier 1915 ruling and decided films were a vehicle for the expression of ideas, and were thus protected under the first amendment. The government could not longer censor films the same way. Film should be protected.

MPAA

• for self regulation, created Motion Picture Association of America

• MPAA ratings - R, PG, PG 13. This created a way for the most vulnerable members of society - children - to be protected from prurient content

• But pg13 movies make more money so a studio will often try to cut some of the racier content to get that pg13 rating

Effect of Digitalization

o Easier distribution.

o cheap and realistic looking ways

ex: simulate almost any environment or locale, real or imagined.

Film and the Internet

o At first there were technical problems, but now almost any film is available on demand online.

o Film streaming is very big. Once again people are willing to sacrifice quality for convenience of access

o The industry has tried to push for paid downloads, to make up for the huge decline in DVD sales that the era of online film has witnessed

• However, streaming is much more popular

• Paid streaming through Netflix, or sketchier ways that are free

• This is more like renting

Appeals to the lowest common denominator

• Historically, it's been about reaching the widest possible audience. A large and heterogeneous audience They didn't want to do anything too sophisticated or weird, for fear of excluding any potential viewers

• But now, with cable, there are many more stations available. Also, people have multiple TVs in their homes. You can watch whatever you want to. As such, there's a fragmenting of the audience into many niches. A show doesn't need to reach quite as many people to be successful.

Minimize Risk

1. follow cultural conventions: tv has established genres.

2. proven talent: use same writers, producers and directors.

3. secondary markets: to rely on all alternative opportunities to generate profit.

4. syndication: where real money is made.

5. overproduction with emphasis on blockbusters: the hits succeed.

6. horizontal integration: have hands in all kinds of media.

7. long tail: make money from selling a little bit of everything. Ex: amazon

Four Media Support Systems

1. Audience supported

- Audience pays directly, like a book

ex: book, audience pays for content directly at the store.

2. Advertiser supported

- Audience views for free. Advertisers pay for it, but place ads that the audience sees.

ex: buy audience by TV.

3. Audience + Advertiser hybrid

- A combination of 1 and 2. Like a magazine. You pay for your copy, and then you see ads inside. Increasingly movies are like this - you buy a ticket and then they show you ads before the movie and product placement during.

ex: movie theater, audience pays to see movies and ends up seeing previews.

4. Subsidized

- An outside entity, public or private, simply foots the bill. Individuals called angels will subsidize a medium if they agree with its message. They don't dictate specific content, they just say: keep doing what you're doing.

ex: PBS station gets money from audience and government.

What do advertisers want to know about the audience

Size and composition

Size of audience

o Nielsen ratings

o The Nielsen company collects information about how many people watch a certain programing. They do this with people meters - it's a device and you press a button to indicate that you're watching a show. They collect this data daily for the national audience

Rating

the proportion of total US households with TVs that watch a show

• Households watching the show / households with a TV

Shares

the proportion of households with the TV turned on during that time slot, which is watching a given show.

• Share is a better indicator of how a show is doing against its competition during that time slot

• Households watching the show / Households with the TV turned on during that timeslot

Sweeps

-certain months where local numbers are determined, local ratings are collected, you will find finales and special guest stars.

• collect data during certain sweeps months. This allows advertising prices to be set for those local markets

• Local stations try to show their sexiest programs during sweeps, to inflate the advertisers' assessment of their audience size and hence the price of their advertising slots

portable people meter

a further improved technology that eliminates human error. You don't have to push a button, it does it automatically.

DVR

• Traditionally ad rates were based on how many people viewed the show live, when it aired. But now the data take into account viewers who DVR their shows and watch them within a week of the air date.

• Stations like this because it inflates their ratings. Certain shows like modern family get big ratings boosts from DVR viewing

Composition of Audience

1. Geography

- They want to sell things to you based on where you are. ex: More people in cities fly, so you see ads for air travel in big cities

2. Age

- Younger people buy more things

3. Sex

- Beer ads filled with sexy women are targeted at men

4. Income

- More commercials for luxury cars on classical music stations, because those listeners have more money

5. Employment Patterns

- Career ads late at night, because who is awake besides the unemployed?

Concentration of Ownership

Companies control what we watch; internet controlled by large corporations. Controlled by mass media.

-These 6 or so companies each own TV networks, movie studios, publishing companies, magazines, and news outlets.

-They are able to exert a huge influence over the media content and stories that audiences can see.

Agenda setting (News)

Determine what stories are important enough to end up on the news. Process of selection.

o Those who influence selection of the news set the agenda by determining what we talk about as news

o They can't control what we think, but they can largely control what we think about

Gatekeepers

o Those who influence selection and engage in agenda setting are called gatekeepers

• The publisher who wants a certain kind of story, the editor who calls for using a certain word, the cameraman who shifts the camera to the left

Mirror Analogy

News media have defended themselves from the accusation of bias with the mirror analogy. They claim that they function as a mirror, reflecting the truth about reality for their audience to see. But plainly this suggestion is overly simplistic. They are objective.

Factors Influencing Selection of the News

1. Newsmen

2. Organizational Pressures

3. Technology

4. Factors within the story

5. Audience

Newsmen

Political values

-news people have liberal biases, some news media is conservative. Different channels have different views. News media defines underline bias of society- capitalism, Christian ethic.

Subcultural bias

-There's a particular worldview associated with working in the news media.

Organizational Pressures

The beat system

i. News outlets must send their limited journalistic resources to specific beats, in order to have the best shot of having a reporter present when something happens. Beats can be locations, like the white house, or topics of interest, like science.

Pack journalism

i. elite journalist define what is a good story and other people follow the league.

News as a regularized phenomenon

i. The same amount of new must be reported every day, no matter how many noteworthy things happened.

Deadlines

i. Newspaper reporters face daily deadlines. Stories must be submitted by a certain time each day. If something happens late in the afternoon, it won't be able to get covered in that day's news. By tomorrow, it will be old news and then maybe it won't get picked up at all

Technology

easier and cheaper to collect news and start covering.

Some tech is expensive, ex: helicopters.

Factors within the Story

Events

i. The news media want to report on events. Discrete happenings bounded in time.

Pseudo-events: Fake staged events.

Ex: conferences and protests

Timely events

i. The news wants to report events that are relevant now.

Drama

i. A traditional narrative arc, a story with a beginning and end

Conflict

scandal and makes drama compelling or interesting.

Unusual or unpredictable

i. Unusual events make for good news. Man bites dog, not dog bites man

Proximity

i. Things that are closer are easier to cover

ii. And more interesting to the audience. People care about what's close to them

Personalized

i. News that is personalized is more compelling. People identify with other humans, so this is achieved by constructing news as stories about people

1. If there's a report on AIDS it will be told from the perspective of one AIDS sufferer and his struggles

Good film

i. The visual media like TV want footage that is striking from the perspective of images and sounds.

- Huge riots and demonstrations are good. Talking pundits in chairs - very bad.

Audience

Select stories that give large audiences to make money, have more shares, make more money off ads, and higher ratings. News outlets cater to their audience.

Ethical Concerns in News Media

1. Privacy

2. Obligation to fellow human beings

3. Conflict of interest

4. Media and Trials

5. Gifts and payola

6. Reporting Crime

7. Stereotypes

8. Accuracy of Information

9. Undercover reporting

10. Checkbook Journalism

11. Reporting of Risks

12. War photos

13. Taste