Notes: Integrated Media Studies, Circuit of Culture, and Cultural Forums

Integrated approach to media studies (TISCA)

  • TISCA stands for: Text (cultural artifact), Industry (production), Social context, Audience (reception)
  • Could add: Regulation? Technology?
  • Purpose: provide a framework to analyze media as a whole system rather than isolated parts

Circuit of culture

  • Key idea: media flows are circular or circulating; production and consumption are linked in an integrated circuit
  • The whole environment matters for creating meaning (Newman)
  • Quote core idea: “to adequately study a cultural text . . . we must pass through all of the steps in its circuit” (Paul Du Gay, Johnson, etc.)
  • COURSE OBJECTIVE: help you understand all parts of the circuit and how they relate

Case study: French company and social media evolution (Page 4)

  • Founders previously worked at GoPro
  • Compete with broad platforms (IG, FB) and niche platforms (TikTok, Snapchat)
  • Strategy included a Dual camera and a College ambassador program (2021–early 2023 peak)
  • Rise of daily play apps; early COVID era; changing social media preferences; social media fatigue
  • Discourses of “authenticity”; aim to connect (not just grow following) through digital media
  • Consider broader questions: what’s going on politically, socially, economically in media? (pre- & during 2020–2023)

Time, space, and social relations in media (Page 5)

  • All media change relationships to time, space, and other people
  • Emphasizes the role of technology within the integrated approach

Advertising and historical media form (Page 6)

  • WorkRite/Super Neutrodyne radio ad example
  • Core selling points:
    • Interactivity and selectivity: log-based tuning, ability to select programs daily
    • Long-distance reception and consistency in sound quality
    • Easy tuning across stations with minimal loss of quality; “magic-like” range due to design and materials
    • Rising dealer networks and customer engagement (mail coupon for more information)
    • Brand positioning: “GENERAL ELECTRIC” and associated product lines (WorkRite, Air Master, Aristocrat)
  • Note: reflects historical media market promotion and consumer expectations of technological novelty

7 key concepts for evaluating all media (Baym) (Page 7)

  • Interactivity (social and technical) 7 concepts
  • Temporal structure (synchronous, asynchronous, lag time)
  • Social cues
  • Storage
  • Replicability
  • Reach
  • Mobility

Devices and interfaces (Page 8)

  • Screens, apps, and services shown (WhatsApp, Camera, Facebook, Play Store, Duo, Chrome, Gmail, YouTube, etc.)
  • Illustration of everyday media ecosystems: multi-app, multi-device usage, constant connectivity

Radio and spectrum (Page 9)

  • Radio frequency bands and terminology:
    • FM (Frequency Modulation): FM frequencies listed (e.g., 88–108 MHz) with stations
    • SW (Short Wave)
    • MW (Medium Wave)
  • Recording capacity (RECORD) and control interfaces (SW1, log-like controls in the display)
  • Visual cue: technology of radio as a mass medium with expanding reach

Revisit: Integrated approach to media studies (TISCA) (Page 10)

  • Reiterates: Text (cultural artifact), Industry (production), Social context, Audience (reception)
  • Possible additions to TISCA: Regulation? Technology? (reflects ongoing debates about scope)

Cultural Studies approach to media (Page 11)

  • Culture as a site of struggle with focus on power, dominance, resistance
  • Concepts: strategies, tactics, hegemony, ideology, polysemy, appropriation
  • Pop culture as important and potentially political
  • Core questions:
    • WHAT IS POPULAR CULTURE?
    • WHY TAKE IT SERIOUSLY?

Mass media: defining questions (Page 12)

  • What is mass media? (Prompt for defining scope and function of mass communication in society)
  • Foundations for subsequent analysis (one-to-many transmission, centralized systems, audience as a mass)

Historical example: Mazarin Sings by Wireless (Page 13)

  • Early 20th-century wireless as cultural event
  • 1910: Metropolitan Opera House, New York – 3200 persons capacity
  • 1940s context (LHT NOW, 1940) indicates evolution of wireless as mass entertainment

Historical media collage (Page 15: Chicago riot 1919)

  • Primary source: Chicago Defender & other papers depict the Chicago race riot of 1919
  • Key elements:
    • Violent racial conflict on the South Side; widespread looting, arson, killings
    • White mobs vs Black residents; large casualties; hundreds injured
    • Presence of troops (e.g., 4,000 troops deployed); “No Man’s Land” in the South Side
    • Abyssinian Envoys visit; diplomatic framing amid crisis
    • Media coverage highlighted sensational violence, civilian casualties, and governance failures
  • Several named individuals and casualty records illustrate scale and human impact
  • The event frames early 20th-century media’s role in shaping public perception and civil unrest

Mass media models: transmission vs ritual (Page 16)

  • Mass media as:
    • “the main means of mass communications” with various forms: newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, movies
    • One-to-many, centralized, top-down systems
    • View of audiences as “the masses” and associated anxieties and opportunities
  • Concepts:
    • “Society-making media” (positive potential)
    • Tension with “low culture” and the culture industry (problematic critiques)
  • Theoretical frames:
    • Transmission model of communication
    • Ritual model of communication
  • Metrics historically used: circulation, viewership, audience size; limitations regarding engagement or meaning

Mass media and popular culture (Page 17)

  • Relationship between mass media and popular culture
  • Folklore and the “folklore of industrial society”
  • Views: mass appeal, mass culture; popularity as a communicative force
  • Debate: is popular culture interchangeable with mass media? Has popularity become diffuse or ontologically unstable in contemporary times (ontological crisis per Powers)

Popular culture today (Page 18)

  • Definition (Devon Powers): Popular culture as focused on how people practice culture: meaning, community, connection
  • Emphasizes active participation and social meaning-making rather than passive consumption

Narratives and representation (Page 19)

  • Stories media tell; relationships between reality and representation
  • How media constructs, circulates, and challenges social realities

TV as cultural forum (Horace Newcomb & Paul Hirsch, 1983) (Pages 20–21)

  • TV viewed as a space to express collective cultural concerns
  • It is a space where concerns are worked through and where potential resolutions can emerge
  • Public engages with TV to challenge beliefs, learn from other perspectives, and participate in democratic discourse
  • Mass concerns are presented to mass audiences through framing, formal qualities, and polysemy
  • TV is a cultural forum when it acts as a site for discussion rather than mere indoctrination

The Draft Dodger and All in the Family (Page 22–23)

  • Example program used to illustrate TV as cultural forum
  • All in the Family (Norman Lear) Season 7, Episode 15 (CBS; 9 pm; Dec 25, 1976; ~17.41 mins)
  • Critics debated TV’s role in shaping political and cultural conversations
  • Emphasis on process: discussion and contradiction in TV, more than simple moral messaging
  • The approach reflects a shift toward viewing TV as a democratic cultural process

Cultural forum: analysis and media criticism (Page 24–25)

  • Cincinnati Enquirer coverage of 1976–77 debates on satire and TV content
  • Debates around satire like “That Was the Year” and the role of censors and copyright
  • Commentary on how TV shows like MASH, All in the Family, Rhoda, Phyllis, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Maude contribute to humane storytelling and civic reflection
  • The piece argues for shows that model warmth, humanity, and social empathy over sensationalism
  • Live re-stagings (e.g., All in the Family live event with Jimmy Kimmel in 2019) illustrate ongoing interest in revisiting culturally meaningful TV moments

Cultural forum in contemporary TV (Page 27–28)

  • Heather Hendershot (2013) argues about cultural forum in the post-network era
  • Trends: niche programming, narrowcasting, a la carte, self-confirmation, audience activism
  • Demos show how people with opposing viewpoints can communicate, but often without definitive resolutions
  • Audience proxy for cultural forum or audience activism (e.g., Parks & Recreation as an example of participatory culture)
  • Example: This Is Us and Forty: Part 2 (This Is Us S5 premiere, NBC, 2020) as modern case studies of emotionally resonant, inclusive storytelling

This Is Us: ratings and impact (Page 29)

  • Ratings table for This Is Us across seasons (from Wikipedia)
  • Season-by-season snapshot:
    • Season 1: First aired Date; Last aired Date; Avg. viewers 14.70 million; Avg. 18-49 4.6; Season rank: 6; 18-49 rank: 5
    • Season 2: Avg. viewers 17.43 million; 18-49 5.4; rank: 4; 18-49 rank: 2
    • Season 3: Avg. viewers 13.80 million; 18-49 3.8; rank: 4; 18-49 rank: 4
    • Season 4: Avg. viewers 11.55 million; 18-49 2.9; rank: 4; 18-49 rank: 4
    • Season 5: Avg. viewers 9.32 million; 18-49 2.0; rank: 3; 18-49 rank: 1.6
    • Season 6: Avg. viewers 8.13 million; 18-49 1.6; rank: 3; 18-49 rank: 1.6
  • Note: the finale reportedly earned a season-high audience of about 7.3 million viewers
  • Source: Wikipedia TV ratings summary posted in the slide deck

Do mediated cultural forums still exist? (Page 30)

  • Central question inviting reflection on whether traditional mediating forums persist in the current media landscape
  • Implication: forums may exist in different forms (niche platforms, online communities, audience activism, social media conversation, live events)

Administrative and wrap-up (Page 31)

  • Sections meet today and tomorrow; Next week: industry over time; Assigned listening for section
  • Indicates ongoing coursework structure and practical assignments