Mass Media and Communication

Learning Objectives for Mass Media and Communication

• 13.1 Identify the issues facing mass media: Understand how media influence self-perception and worldviews.

• 13.2 Identify the main forms of mass media: Recognize channels like television, film, radio, and print.

• 13.3 Describe various models of media: Differentiate between linear models and active agency models.

• 13.4 Understand five issues in media studies: Focus on social identities, understanding the world, media events, media violence, and media economics.

• 13.5 Identify five ethical issues with mass media: Examine activism, children's programming, representation, news bias, and alternative media.

• 13.6 Describe three ways to be a more effective consumer: Strategies for active and mindful media consumption.

The Importance of Mass Media

• Mass Media Definition: These are mediated communication channels intended for a large audience, produced and distributed by organizations.

• The Case of Charee: Illustrates "cord-cutting," the practice of canceling cable TV in favor of over-the-top (OTT) services like Peacock (owned by NBC Universal), Hulu, and Netflix. Charee uses her computer to access international content like Noughts & Crosses (BBC), Five Bedrooms (Australia), and Departure (Canada).

• Social Functions of Media:

  • Helps people bond over shared likes/dislikes (e.g., Lady Gaga, LeBron James, Oprah Winfrey).

  • Shapes global understanding and worldview.

  • Serves as an interaction where individuals select programs even if they don't realize the depth of the interaction.

• The Case of Mariska Hargitay: Uses her role as a detective on Law & Order: SVU to advocate for testing rape kit backlogs, testifying before a House committee and founding the Joyful Heart Foundation.

• Consumption Statistics (Nielsen 2016-2017):

  • U.S. adults spent over $32$ hours per week watching television.

  • Over $15$ hours per week spent on smartphones.

  • Total media usage (TV, radio, PCs, tablets, smartphones) averages $74.5$ hours per week.

  • In the $2016$ presidential election, $84\%$ turned to TV, $48\%$ to online platforms, and $37\%$ used both.

Evolving Landscape of Mass Communication

• Jennings Bryant and Dorina Miron (2004) - Six Changes:

  1. New form, content, and substance.

  2. New interactive media (Internet).

  3. New global ownership patterns.

  4. New viewing habits of audiences.

  5. New patterns in family life.

  6. New patterns of interactive media use by youth.

• The Channel Paradox: In $2019$, the average U.S. household had $179.5$ channels but only watched an average of $12.7$ channels.

• Netflix Impact (Iqbal, 2020): Spent an estimated $13$ billion on original content in $2018$, though $80\%$ of streams are for licensed content first aired elsewhere; $42\%$ of viewers never watch original content.

• Shira Ovide’s Observation: Digital TV still feels like traditional TV, locked into $30$- and $60$-minute episode formats.

What Are Mass Media?

• Media: The plural form of medium; any channel of communication.

• Mass Media: Mediated communication intended for large audiences.

• Culture Industries: Large organizations in the mass communication business that produce cultural products (TV shows, video games) as an industry rather than as individual artists.

• Forms of Mass Media:

  • Newspapers: Historically critical for community building. Example: Cheyenne, Wyoming, had at least four newspapers in $1867$ with a population under $800$. Mainstream vs. alternative press (Seattle Stranger, Village Voice).

  • Magazines: Move toward digital revenue. The New York Times expected over $50\%$ revenue from digital sources in $2020$.

  • Mass-Market Paperbacks & E-books: E-book sales rose from $69$ million in $2010$ to over $335$ million in $2019$.

  • Motion Pictures: High-budget films dominate distribution. Examples include Little Women, Deadpool, and Parasite.

  • Radio: Emerged late $19^{th}$ century; "Golden Age" in the $1930$s and $1940$s. Now specialized by identities (classical, jazz, talk).

  • Popular Music: Transitioning to streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal). Streaming music revenue expected to grow past $1$ billion in the U.S.

  • Television: Transitioning from three dominant networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) to specialized cable/satellite and now streaming. Pay-TV households dropped from a peak of $105$ million in $2010$ to approximately $82.9$ million.

The Individual and Mass Media

• Models of Media Influence:

  • Linear Model: Portrays communication as a one-way path from sender (media) to receivers (audience). Useful for public policy debates regarding violence or sexuality.

  • Active Agents: Concept that people are seekers of specific messages and resisters of others.

• Mass Media Effects: The study of how media influence everyday life.

  • Paul Lazarsfeld (1940s): Found media often reinforces preexisting beliefs (The People's Choice).

  • Downward Spiral Model (Slater et al., 2003): Aggressive youth seek violent media, which reinforces aggression.

  • Health Promotion: Cho and Boster ($2008$) found "loss-framed" messages (costs of using drugs) more effective for adolescents with drug-using friends than "gain-framed" messages (benefits of avoiding drugs).

• Selective Exposure: People seek media that confirm their beliefs and resist those that challenge them.

  • Study of The Cosby Show (Jhally & Lewis, 1992): White viewers often saw the show as proof that racism was gone; Black viewers saw it as a cultural breakthrough counteracting negative stereotypes.

  • Karsay and Matthes (2020): Exposure to sexually objectifying music videos leads young women to use more body-related statements.

• Uses and Gratifications (McQuail et al., 1972):

  1. Information: Seeking to learn.

  2. Personal Identity: Affirming one's sense of self.

  3. Integration and Social Interaction: Connecting with others.

  4. Entertainment: Seeking pleasure.

• Hostile Media Effect: Viewers perceive neutral media coverage as biased against their own position (e.g., Gunther and Schmitt’s study on genetically modified foods).

Mass Media and Society

• Analytical Approaches:

  • Content Analysis: Quantitative approach counting specific aspects (e.g., counting non-White characters on NCIS: Los Angeles). Geena Davis Institute found males outnumber females $70\%$ to $30\%$ in media.

  • Textual Analysis: Qualitative approach similar to literary criticism (e.g., Shugart’s analysis of the "metrosexual" as a reconciler of commercial and traditional masculinity).

• Agenda-Setting Capacity: Media’s power to make certain topics seem more important. Lowry found that in $1992$, only $5\%$ of the public thought crime was the top problem, but by $1994$, after heavy media coverage, $52\%$ did.

• Cultivation Theory (George Gerbner): Long-term immersion in media leads to enculturation into shared beliefs (e.g., Philadelphia residents having an exaggerated fear of crime due to local news exposure).

• Hegemony: Process by which people consent to social constructions (e.g., idealized notions of "motherhood" vs. "fatherhood"). Trujillo’s study of Nolan Ryan identified common masculine traits: athletic power, capitalist worker, patriarch, cowboy, and heterosexuality.

• Media Events: Catastrophes or staged occasions that interrupt regular programming. Examples: JFK’s funeral, Olympics, Sept. $11^{th}$, Women's March ($2017$).

  • Parkland Kid: Justin Eckstein analyzed Emma Gonz!lez's "We Call B.S." speech, shifting the identity of the student from passive object to active stakeholder in policy.

Media Violence and Economics

• Impact on Children: The American Academy of Pediatrics notes increased aggressiveness, fear of victimization, and desensitization.

• V-chip: A device mandated by the FCC in $1998$ for televisions $13$ inches or larger (manufactured after July $1$, $1999$) to block rated content.

• Political Economy: The study of how institutions produce texts in a capitalist system and how legal frameworks shape them.

  • Media Mergers: Example of Disney/Fox merger affecting The Fantastic Four. Fan culture interacts with corporate ownership.

  • Hyper-commercialization: Robert McChesney warns that transnational conglomerates (< 10 corporations) dominate, leading to the degeneration of journalism under commercial pressure.

Ethics and Mass Media

• Media Activism: Organizing to communicate displeasure with media images.

• Historical Regulation:

  • Hays Code (1930): Self-imposed wholesome rules. Banned vulgarity including words like "God, Lord, Jesus, Christ (unless used reverently); cripes; fairy (in a vulgar sense)."

  • MPAA Ratings: G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17 systems established late $1960$s.

• Focus Areas for Activism:

  1. Impact on Children: Leading to TV Parental Guidelines.

  2. Distortions/Stereotypes: Monitoring by groups like GLAAD, MANAA, NOW, and LULAC.

  3. Structural News Bias: monitored by FAIR and FactCheck.org.

  4. Alternative Programming: Outlets like Democracy Now!, The Onion, and Last Week Tonight.

  5. Ethical Communication: Using media to educate on topics like genocide, racism, and animal cruelty.

Becoming a More Effective Media Consumer

• Strategies:

  • Be an Active Agent: Make deliberate choices; don't just watch what is available.

  • Broaden Media Horizons: Seek diverse global perspectives and anti-American sentiment to understand complexity.

  • Talk Back: Question phrases like "innocent victims" and contact stations/advertisers to express objections or praise.

Questions & Discussion

• Watching 12 Years a Slave:

  • Question: Why did people watch or not watch it?

  • Response: Box office receipts were lower than Frozen or Gravity. Critics like Sharkey suggest the painful racial legacy made it "unbearable to watch." One viewer (Okoro) preferred to watch alone to avoid explaining the film to non-Black peers. Some Academy voters admitted the film was too difficult to watch.

• Alyssa's perspective:

  • Question: What is "slavery porn"?

  • Response: Alyssa avoids movies where Black people are brutalized by Whites, citing Antebellum and 12 Years a Slave as examples of media that might be emotionally taxing for African American viewers.

• Andrew's perspective:

  • Question: How do you choose movies?

  • Response: Andrew follows specific filmmakers (Jordan Peele's Get Out and Us) or relies on review sites like Rotten Tomatoes for movies like Knives Out.

Summary Recap

• Mass media is directed at a mass audience and influences self-perception.

• Main forms: Newspapers, magazines, books, movies, radio, music, TV.

• Models: Linear focuses on effects; Selective Exposure focuses on belief confirmation; Uses and Gratifications focus on satisfying needs.

• Issues: Social identity, world understanding, media events, violence, and economics.

• Ethics: Media activism addresses children, stereotypes, news bias, and alternatives.

• Effectiveness: Be active, broad-minded, and vocal.

• Identify the issues facing mass media: Understand how media influence self-perception and worldviews.

• Identify the main forms of mass media: Recognize channels like television, film, radio, and print.

• Describe various models of media: Differentiate between linear models and active agency models.

• Understand five issues in media studies: Focus on social identities, understanding the world, media events, media violence, and media economics.

• Identify five ethical issues with mass media: Examine activism, children's programming, representation, news bias, and alternative media.

• Describe three ways to be a more effective consumer: Strategies for active and mindful media consumption.