The Mass Media: Changing the Balance of Power

Week 2: 11 March 2013

Communication in the Digital Economy

Robin Croft

Outline for today

The mass media

Newspapers Radio

Television

Past history and future trends

All are disrupted by digital media

First some theory

Communication Shannon & Weaver, Schramm Communicate strategically

AIDA

Sementation, Targeting, Positioning Or fragmentation and curation?

Shannon & Weaver (1948)

Schramm (1954)

AIDA model (1921)

C P Russell, 1921

Lavidge & Steiner (1961)

Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning

Aggregation & Curation

Fragmentation

Mass Media Newspapers

Some History
Handwritten and printed information sheets 17th century broadsheets 18th century named newspapers (The Times 1785) Long association of newspapers, knowedge and power hence censorship

Long slow decline since 1930s

Then 2/3rds of population read daily paper

What are they for?

Advertising
Reaching the mass market Penetrating market segments

Publicity
Reach audiences through editorial Influence decision makers

Years of decline
Death of newspapers predicted
Since mass adoption of radio and cinema in 1930s Newspapers adapted

Consolidation
Ownership to mass media groups
Eg News Corporation

Audiences = power and influence

Free newspapers The internet

Cycle of Decline
Falling readership
sales income down Advertising revenue falls

Cut costs
New technology
WWW takes readers and advertisers Broadcast makes inroads

Cut journalists

Lose more readers

Implications
Audiences still news hungry
But obsessed with the here and now News now elsewhere newspapers more like magazines More need for gossip, scandal

Journalists under pressure

Standards too opportunities for PR Multi-media reports in cross media channels

The future for newspapers?

Multimedia
Text, video, audio Multi-channel networks
Web and Social

Multi platform
PC, Mobile

Global in reach

Sychronous
Crowd-sourced Curation

Radio

History
National radio from 1920s Follow the money
Public service broadcasters (eg BBC) Advertising funded radio

Propaganda value Death of radio predicted when TV arrived Technology delivers audiences
Cars Mobile devices Web radio

Uses
Advertising
Mass audiences of national radio Market segments in local and online

Publicity
PR and influence

Future for radio?

Follow the money, follow the audience
Music is still king

Streaming radio
What you want, when you want it
New revenue streams
Market segments - advertising Links to downloads eg iTunes, Amazon

Increasing fragmentation
Especially local, micro stations

Television & video

Some history
Growth from the 1950s Public service and private TV Social effects
Family curation of news, entertainments

Mass audiences in 1970s

Then fragmentation Cable and satellite

Micro viewing
Multiple devices Multiple platforms

Video Killed the Radio Star

Recording
Made TV asynchronous Allowed zipping and zapping

Competition from movies

VCR, Beta, DVD

But view figures held up

UK average 23 hours per week per person
Very fragmented, though

Uses in marketing
Advertising
Mass audiences Niche markets

Influence
The PR message

Along came YouTube

Democratized film
Low production values acceptable
What matters is now

But new opportunities for companies

Video casts, interviews advertising archives Information, training, CRM

Audiences spread the word going viral

Avoid censorship and control

But problem of noise and clutter

High value advertising through controversy

Other mass media

Cinema
Delivering mass audiences again
Decline halted in 1990s Blockbuster films, new venue format

Opportunities for advertising

Market segmentation Creative development

Outdoor and ambient

Little understood
Always been the case

Opportunism
Captive audiences
If it works...

Leveraging value
Tie into other channels

Summary

What have we learned?

Disruptive technologies Each has changed the role of what came before Technology has changed audiences
And audiences have shaped technology
Future session on impact of social

How has mobile changed things?

Next time
Business to Business Communication
Visiting speaker,
Peter Wise, Minuteman Press, Bristol