Media 101
Media 101 notes
8-26-2024
Media is designed to make you want to come back, to hook the audience
There are two forms of media:
The platform: how the message is communicated
The content: the substance of the message
Your brain tries to protect you from the amount of information you receive, it creates automatic routines which filter the messages you receive:
Automaticity
Pros: Keeps you from being overwhelmed and saves time and effort
Cons: you may miss valuable information and you risk fatigue when multitasking and you can miss key information due to lack of concentration and you have an overall decreased understanding
We want to regain control from media advertisers
8-28-2024
Exposure to media continues to increase
If you stream a show and text and scroll through social media for 60 minutes, that’s 60+60+60 which is 180 minutes of exposure
The goal of media literacy is to be aware of how much media you are consuming day-to-day so that we can be intentional about how we use our time
WE ARE MAKING TIME HACKS
Family Guy + Subway Surfer + Reddit + Slime = TIME HACK
8-30-2024
Exposure - the process of decoding and receiving a message through a media channel
Direct exposure - primary, first-hand engagement between the consumer and media; mostly deliberate, intentional choices made about what and how to consume content
Indirect exposure - secondary, second-hand consumption of media messages; someone else consumes media first-hand then talks about it with others
9-4-2024
Media literacy teaches us to adapt to changes, rather than ignore or deny them
Media literacy gives us a way to access, evaluate, and create messages in all forms
3 Building blocks of media literacy
Skills > tools used to build knowledge
Knowledge structures > organization of what has been learned
Personal locus > provides mental energy and direction
Critical thinking is often confused with media literacy skills
Grouping - classifying similar and dissimilar elements, comparing and contrasting messages/content
Induction - Draw a conclusion by going from specific to the general (bottom up reasoning), inferring/detecting a pattern in a set of elements of a subject
9-6-2024
Evaluation - Judging the value, effectiveness or worth while comparing it to what is standard or to industry expectations/requirements
Grouping - classifying (sorting and labeling) similar and dissimilar elements, comparing and contrasting
Knowledge structures - sets of organized information in memory, set in patterns to gain or retrieve information, information addresses “what?”, “why?”, and “how?”, information and knowledge have key differences
Information:
Piecemeal and transitory
Resides in messages
Provides substance to interpret
Composed of facts
Knowledge:
Structured, organized, and more significant
Resides in a persons mind
Can reflect on knowledge after interpreting the information
Needs structure to provide context and meaning
Message: instrument that delivers information
Factual: verified information
Social: accepted but unverified
9-9-2024
The four dimensions of media
First dimension = Timing of effects
Timing of media effects can be immediate or long-term
Immediate > observable during your exposure to media or shortly after; easier to recognize
Long term > show only after many exposures; a pattern of repeated exposures create the right condition for a long-term effect
Second dimension = Valence of effects
Valence = whether the effect is positive, neutral, or negative
Need to consider who is determining the value of the message > different perspectives
Third dimension = Intentionality of effect
Intentionally = awareness of which media effect we expect to occur
Exposure to messages can lead to unintentional effects, too
Difficult to perceive many of the media effects that are constantly occurring
9-11-2024
Intentionality perspectives
Fourth dimension = Type of effects
Many, but not all, media effects resulted in behavior
Non-behavioral types of media effects include:
Cognitive effects
Attitudinal effects
Belief effects
Physiological effects
Emotional effects
Cognitive-type effects:
Most common, but usually overlooked
Media affects what we know, ideas, information, not limited to factual information, also learn social information by observing others
9-13-2024
Attitude effects vs belief effects
Similarities:
Both can occur in individuals as a result of media exposure(s)
Both can occur immediately or long-term (repeat exposure over time)
Differences:
Attitude effects are evaluative judgements, whereas belief effects are acceptance that something is real or true
Attitude effects require the comparison of an element to a standard, whereas belief effects require the simple acceptance of a statement
Physiological-type effects
Media can influence our automatic bodily functions
These affects are beyond our control
Usually physiological effects arouse us, for example
Blood pressure
Goose bumps
Laughter
Calmness
Physiological responses wear down over time and with multiple exposures to media
Emotional-type effects
Media can trigger strong emotions AND evoke weaker emotions, for example
Fear
Rage vs sadness
Boredom
Emotional effects are related to the body’s physiological changes
One long-term emotional effect is desensitization
Behavioral-type effects
Media can trigger actions
Behavioral effects can be immediate or long-term
Examples of immediate effects > seeing an ad or commercial for a product then…
Ordering it online
Purchasing it soon after
Talking to a friend about it
Examples of long-term effects
Social media habits or patterns
Streaming habits
Gaming habits
Behavioral habits can become addictions
Macro-type effects
Media influences more than individuals > they influence organizations, institutions, and society
Examples of units affected by media:
Politics
Religion
Education
Business/Workplaces
Family
Media influences these units, but other factors, such as the economy and changes in lifestyle, do also
9-16-2024
9-18-2024
9-23-2024
Innovation stage:
Always begins with a technological innovation that makes a new channel for transmitting info/messages possible
Adaptation stage:
When a medium repositions or redefines itself by identifying a new set of audience needs or desires
9-25-2024
The Revolution Pattern
Potter use the term digital to refer to computer, internet, non-traditional, and newer forms of media that store and transmit their messages via digital code
Life cycle pattern seems to follow the same pattern as analog media
Rapid rise of digital media better serves the existing needs of the population
Digital media have greatly expanded the variety of needs they can serve
Digital media have exerted pressure on all analog media
A) Causes analog media to adapt
B) Causes analog media to try to emulate digital media
C) Causes analog media to lose their distinctiveness
Analog media > channel specific
Main character > they are “channel bound”
Needed specific equipment, specific skills, access ($) to make analog media and distribute it
Difficult to transfer and share media message with other channels
9-30-2024
Maximizing profits
To maximize profits companies increase their number of revenue streams
Try to appeal to more than one audience > “quantity audience strategy”
Find ways to generate more money from the same audience > “quality audience strategy”
Quality audience strategy used more often now that audience have fragmented and most media is digital
Other ways to maximize profits
Merge or buy out other media companies
Gives companies more content and channels to distribute their products/services
Minimize expenses
Counter balance high-paid talent with low-paid below-the-line employees
Use economies of scale > large scale production that spreads out expenses (think t-shirt printing)
Economies of scope > distributing the same message through multiple channels
2nd media strategy = constructing audiences
Media companies construct desirable audiences and “rents” them to advertisers, which creates another revenue stream
Niche audiences are highly targeted and relatively small but of great value to advertisers
Companies condition niche audiences for repeat exposures; they want audiences to habitually consume their messages
The niche approach is called long tail marketing
Relies on internet aggregators to bring together buyers and sellers
10-2-2024
2 consumer strategies
One of these strategies for “playing the game” is definitely preferable to the other
The default strategy
The media literate strategy
Default strategy
Automatic routines that run continuously in our minds
Preprogrammed habits that deliver similar satisfaction as earlier exposures but not necessarily huge value in return for our time/attention/money
Easy to continue automatic routines because they are familiar, require little effort or thought
Media industries benefit most from default strategy consumers >> these consumers have been conditioned for repeat exposures
Media literacy strategies
motivated to become better at the economic game >> try to negotiate better exchanges of their resources (time, attention, money) with media programmers
More likely to think about the value of their own resources
Have high expectations for a valuable return on the resources they invest
Want more than minimal satisfaction from media exposures
Direct vs indirect media support
Consumers who use media literacy strategy understand the difference between…
Direct financial support > payment or subscriptions in order to access media content
Indirect financial support >
Time invested during exposures
Subsidizing advertising brands
Shifting to more indirect vs direct support
10–7-2024
5 methods for segmenting an audience
Geographic segmentation
Demographic segmentation
Social class segmentation
Geodemographic segmentation
Psychographic segmentation
10-9-2024
How the media industry views its audience has changed
Out-of-date concept = Mass audience
Does not mean a large audience
Viewed the audience as a large group of anonymous and interchangeable people although they were dissimilar and diverse
Viewed the entire population as having the same needs for information and entertainment
Believed media messages reached and impacted people the same way
By mid-20th century, research begun to show that mass communication people did not react to mass media messages in the same way
Change from mass communication
This term is about 100 years old
Today we construct niche audiences
Segmentation methods help media makers identify niche audiences
Geographic segmentation
Demographic segmentation
Social class segmentation
Geodemographic segmentation
Psychographic segmentation
Constructing niche audiences
Media programmers construct special messages to appeal to specific niches
Quite challenging for media companies to identify niches they can use for their business purposes
Least risky approach = conduct research to find needs of potential audiences then create content to fill those existing needs
They determine which media messages are already being consumed/attracting audiences and create content for those interests and needs
Each person has a media repertoire
Programmers know people usually consume a narrow set of media messages (automaticity)
Its expensive to attract and construct audiences so important to develop messages that “break through” automaticity
Also important for media companies to condition people for repeat exposures
Media programmers realize each person is a member of multiple niches:
Local communities
Virtual communities
Hobbies and interests
10-14-2024
3 information processing tasks
Our minds are constantly engaged in…
Filtering
Meaning matching
Meaning construction
Filtering
First must decide whether to ignore (filter out) or process (filter in) media messages
Our brains are only capable of processing about 40 pieces of information (consciously) per moment
We encounter an overwhelming amount go information every instant > about 11 million pieces collected by our 5 senses
Consequently, we filter out most info and attend to a very small amount
Automatic routines
Meaning matching
Using our memory to recognize elements and find meanings more quickly and easily
Meaning matching is a fairly automatic task and requires little effort in processing the information
Originally takes a lot of effort to recognize the elements in media messages but becomes routine once learned
Learning how to decode a particular type of media message results in a competency > an ability to recognize denoted (dictionary definition-type) meanings
10-18-2024
4 media literacy exposure states
Think of a “state” as your minds status
Automatic state
Attentional state
Transported state
Self-reflexive state
Each of these states is a distinctly different experience
Automatic state:
Unaware of the messages
Automatic screening of the messages
Multitasking
Enhances emotional gratification
Attentional state:
Active interaction with the media messages
Mental resources devoted to the exposure
Transported state:
Lose track of social world surroundings
Attention: high but narrowly focused
Opposite of automatic state
Self-reflexive state:
Hyper-aware of the message and its processing
Involvement is highly cognitive
10-21-2024
Midterm review
What is the “information problem”?
Why is the rate of media messages growing at an unprecedented level?
Although multitasking increases a persons media exposures, why is it not an ideal strategy for consuming media?
Define and give an example of an automatic routine
What are some advantages and disadvantages of automatic processing?
What are the 3 building blocks of media literacy?
Your brain has evolved to cope with this information glut
To protect your physical and social well-being:
It creates automatic routines to make things easier
Explain the 3 building blocks of media literacy
Explain the 2 types of information: factual info and social info
Explain the difference(s) between information and knowledge structures
True or false? Media literacy helps us interpret the meanings of the media messages we encounter
True or false? Media literacy exists on a continuum
What are the four dimensions used to analyze media effects
Explain the difference between immediate and long-term effect (timing)
Define “valence”. Discuss how the valence of a media effect can differ for a consumer vs a media business
Give an example of both an intentional and unintentional media effect
Name and explain the 7 types of media effects