MEDIA A2 THEORIES

These notes cover theories relevant to Media Regulation in Section A and Media Ecology in Section B, which may also be applicable for AS Level papers.

Concept: The Long Tail
- Anderson discusses the shift in business strategy due to the Internet marketplace which allows for a wider product range.
- Key quote: “If you add up all the revenue from niche market films, the profit can be greater than or equal to the profit from one blockbuster or best-selling product.”
- Online shopping facilitates niche markets, significantly influencing consumer behavior and business strategy.

Key Theme: Inclusion
- “The power of the web flows from its universality.”
- The web democratizes information access; changes the information landscape, creating no 'information poor' or 'information rich.'
Key Theme: Decentralization
- The web should include all individuals, irrespective of wealth, social status, or geographical location.
- However, monopolies (e.g., Google) centralize power and create vulnerabilities (‘brittle’ web).
Key Theme: Privacy, Free Expression, and Security
- Censorship poses risks to freedom of expression.
- There’s an illusion of security through secure encryption, yet state surveillance remains a concern.

Media Control and Diversity
- The media landscape is controlled by a few companies motivated by profit and power, reducing market diversity.
- With less healthy competition, innovation decreases, and prices increase.

Old Media vs. New Media
- Old Media: Passive audience; expensive; centralized platforms; audiences assigned viewing time.
- New Media: Encourages user-generated content (UGC), inexpensive to produce, decentralizes, controlled by the audience's interaction.
- Activates cognitive surplus – a shift from passive to active media participation.

Gauntlett suggests media products supply diverse ‘role models’—stars and characters that audiences utilize to craft their own identities.
Audiences can select attributes from these role models that resonate with them, often made easier through social media platforms.

Convergence
- Definition: “The flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences.”
Participatory Culture
- In the new media system, consumers evolve into participants, interacting with media and shaping personal mythologies from fragments of information.
Collective Intelligence
- Explains how audiences pool resources, leading to a collective media process where no one can know everything individually but together form a complete understanding.

Jenkins asserts that media culture is moving toward one where everyone actively contributes rather than a divide between producers and consumers.

The Great Levelling: Examines the conflicting tendencies of media organizations—corporate control versus open, crowd-sourced models, revealing ongoing tensions in the media landscape.

Old Media vs. New Media
- Old media relies on stable, impersonal texts while new media incorporates automated creativity and variable texts, which can be personalized.
Key Concepts:
- Automation: Reduces human intention in creating media, evidenced through tools like Photoshop.
- Variability: New media leads to multiple versions of texts, often with computer assistance in assembly.
- Customization: Personalized interfaces crafted by automated software based on user input.

Discusses the conflict between citizens’ needs and consumer demands in media regulation. Protecting citizens from harmful content can inhibit freedom of expression.
Highlights how regulating bodies like Ofcom must navigate these responsibilities.

Medium Is the Message: The medium through which communication occurs shapes human experience more than the content itself.
Hot vs. Cool Media:
- Hot Media: Engages one sense completely (e.g., film, radio), leading to low audience participation.
- Cool Media: Requires audience interaction to fill content gaps (e.g., television requiring audience familiarity).
Key quote: "We shape our tools, and then our tools shape us."

Slacktivism: Examines the potential for digital activism to foster shallow engagement with political issues, contrasting with deeper, traditional forms of activism.

Lean Forward vs. Lean Back:
- Lean Forward: Active engagement with the web where users take control and seek to complete tasks.
- Lean Back: Passive interaction, such as watching television.
Observes a new trend toward ‘lean back’ attitudes even within new media environments.

Web 2.0 – Describes a shift from publishing content to fostering social networking and user interaction, emphasizing features like user-generated content and network effects.
Describes six characteristics of Web 2.0, including collective intelligence and an architecture of participation.

Relates media ecology to how technologies shape culture and societal growth, suggesting our media environment reshapes cultural definitions and relationships.

End of Audience Theory: Argues audiences have shifted from passive consumption to active creation and sharing of content.
Key components include technological convergence, user-generated content, and prosumers who combine production and consumption roles.
He notes the rise of quick content creation and sharing, defining modern social media dynamics.

Media Ecology: Proposes understanding media as environments that significantly influence human experience and societal developments.
Elaborates on four terms: medium, bias, effects, and environment, framing media ecology as interdisciplinary and essential for human understanding.

Examines how contemporary media practices impact social interaction and empathy. Argues that constant connectivity diminishes deep conversation and self-reflection, leading to loneliness instead of community.