Media and Society

Chapter One- Mass Communication

Communication- The creation and use of symbol systems.

Culture- may be defined as symbols of expression that individuals, groups, societies used to
make sense of daily life and values.

Culture Studies
● Is an innovative interdisciplinary field of research and teaching that investigates the way
in which “culture” creates and transforms individual experiences, everyday life, social
relations, and power.

● Affesses new questions and problems instead of seeking answers that will hold for all
time. Culture studies develops flexible tools that adapt to this rapidly changing world.

● Is devoted to understanding the processes through which society=ues and the diverse
groups within them come to terms with history, community life, and the challenges of the
future.

Mass Media
● is the cultural industries that produce and distribute all forms of entertainment, such as
songs, novels, movies, video games, internet services and newspapers.
● Is a group that constructs messages with embedded values, and that disseminates
those messages to a specific portion of the public in order to achieve a specific goal.
○ If we know that all media messages have embedded values, this should
immediately be a reason to analyze the media and criticize the message before
accepting it.
○ Also making it important to keep in mind that the people and companies creating
these messages target them to a specific part of the public. A Target Market
● The end result is ultimately to sell you something: Either a product, service, or an
ideology.

Eras in communication
- Oral Communication
- Written Communication
- Printed Communication
- Electronic Communication
- Digital Communication
Digital Communication redefined news and social interaction.
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- Twitter and Facebook are key players in politics and ongoing online communication.
- Email has assumed some of the functions of the postal service.

The Linear Model of Mass Communication

- Senders (Authors, Producers)
- Messages (Programs, Ads)
- Mass media channel (Tv, Books)
- Receivers (Viewers, Consumers)
- Gatekeepers (Editors, executive producers, media managers)
- Feedback (Messages from receivers back to senders)

Through Selective Exposure people seek messages that respond to their own cultural beliefs.

The Evolution of Media: From Emergence to Convergence

- Emergence or Novelty Stage
- Entrepreneurial Stage
- Mass medium Stage
- Convergence Stage

Convergence- a term that media critics and analysts use when describing changes occurring in
media content and companies.

Dual Roles- Cross Platform, the consolidation of media holdings under one corporate umbrella.

Media Businesses- Companies like Google make money by selling ads rather than by producing
content.

Change in how we consume and engage with media culture

- Hulu and Netflix or DVR/On demand
- Social media recommendations
- Upload our own media
- Live Tweeting

Media institutions and outlets are in the narrative business.

Euripides
- Art should imitate life
Plato
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- Art should aim to instruct and uplift

Aristotle
- Art and stories should provide insight on the human condition, but should entertain as
well.

High Culture is associated with “good taste” (Ballet, symphony, art museums)

Low culture is associated with popular taste (Soap opera, Rock Music, Video Games)

Aesthetics -
● Philosophical study of art, with emphasis on the evaluative criteria applied to particular
style in order to distinguish the identifying characteristics of those of value. In its
traditional form, aesthetics concentrates on the study of the work of art in and of itself.
● Artistic production
● Idealist philosophy, notion that there existed a universal and timeless criteria to
determine beauty, good taste, and (aesthetic) value in art works. (Transcendent Values)

Modern Period
● Bega with industrial revolution and extended until the mid twentieth century
○ Four Key Values’
■ Efficiency
■ Individualism
■ Rationalism
■ Progress
PostModern Culture
● Began from mid-twentieth century to today
○ Four Features
■ Populism
■ Diversity
■ Nostalgia
■ Paradox

Critiquing the Media and Culture

Goes through the steps of:
● Description
● Analysis
● Interpretation
● Evaluation
● Engagement
Chapter Two: The internet, Digital Media, and Media Convergence

Social Media has become so prominent in our culture that a popular term called FOMO (Fear of
missing out) is in the mainstream.
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Studies indicate that more time on social media may lead to decreased happiness.

The Birth of the Internet

● ARPAnet
○ Created by the Department of Defense to ensure researchers to share computer
processing time
● Email improved communication
● Each computer hub had similar status and power\
● No master switch to shut it down

The Net Widens

● Entrepreneurial stage
○ Early 1970s to the late 1980s
● Microprocessors
○ Signaled the Nets Marketability
○ Allowed for the first personal computers
● Fiber-optic Cable
○ Became the standard for transmitting communication data rapidly

The World Begins to Browse

● The World Wide Web
○ Developed by Tim Berners-Lee at Cern in the late 1980s
● HTML (Hypertext markup language)
○ Allows computers to communicate
● Web Browsers
○ Allows users to navigate the Web

Users Link in through Telephone and Cable Wires

● Internet Service Providers (ISP)
○ Connect users to their proprietary Web system
○ Broadband connections have largely replaced dial-up ISP services.
○ Major ISPs
■ Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Charter, and Cox

People Embrace Digital Communication

● Digital Communication
○ Image,text, or sound is converted into electronic symbols, which are transported
and reassembled as a precise reproductions
○ Includes e-mail and instant messaging
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Search Engines Organize the Web

● Search engines
○ Automated route to finding on the internet
○ Built on mathematical algorithms rather than manually entered data
○ Google became a major success largely due to its new algorithm based
on pages popularity.

The Web Goes Social

● We haved moved from a “Read/Only” culture on the internet to a “Read/Write” culture.
● Social Media encourages users to create content and interact with other people

Types of Social Media

● Blogs
● Collaborative Projects
○ Wiki Web Sites
● Content Communities
● Social Networking SItes
● Virtual game worlds and Virtual social worlds

Social media and Democracy

● Tools for democracy and for undermining repressive regimes
○ Arab Spring Protests
○ Occupy Wall Street movement
○ Increasing mass communication and exposure to the outside world in China

Media Convergence on Our PCs

● Media Converges on computers
● Users can access
○ Movies (Netflix, Hulu)
○ Music (iTunes, Spotify)
○ Books (Amazon, Google)
○ Games
○ Newspaper and Magazines
● Services such as Skype and iChst can replace telephones

Media Conerges on our TVs

● Internet-ready TVs
● Video game consoles such as Xbox, Wii, and PS4
● Set-top boxes such as Apple TV, Google Chromecast, and Roku
● Consumers use multiple avenues to access media content
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Mobile Devices Propel Convergence

● Smartphones and Tablets can be used for
○ Texting
○ Listening to Music
○ Watching movies
○ Reading books and Magazines
○ Connecting to the internet
○ Playing games

The Impact of Media Convergence and Mobile Media

● Media consumption is mobile and flexible.
● Merging of media onto one device blurs distinction between what used to be separate
media.
○ Formats are morphing.
○ We can experience media in multiple manners simultaneously.

Our Changing Relationship with the Internet

● Two noteworthy trends.
○ Apple makes more than five times as much money selling Iphones, Ipads, and
Ipods as it does selling computers.
○ Number of Facebook users continues to increase.
● Apps and social media sites kuje Facebookm offer a closed Internet or walled garden

The Changing Economics of Media and the Internet

● Apple established the new media economics
○ Provided a market for music on iTunes in exchange for a 30 percent cut of the
revenue.
● Amazon
○ Followed suit, creating the Kindl and selling e-books for a cut of the revenue.

The Next Era: The Semantic Web

● Semantic Web
○ Will place the basic information of the Web into meaningful categories.
● Apple iPhones Siri
○ Uses conversational voice recognition to answer questions, find locations, and
interact with various iPhones functionalities.
Ownership: Controlling the Internet
● Connected to three issues:
○ Security of personal and private information
○ Appropriateness of online materials
○ Accessibility and openness of the Internet
● Companies dominating the Internet by the end of the 1990s
○ Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL, and Google.
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● Leading companies in todays converged world

○ Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple

Targeted Advertising and Data Mining

● Advertising is part of social networking sites,email, and IM
● Modern marketing request ib Data Mining
○ E-commerce
○ Cookies
○ Spyware
○ Opt-in/Opt-out Policies

Security: The Challenge to Keep Personal Information Private

● Whenever you use the Internet you give away personal information.
○ Government surveillance of online activity allowed by PATRIOT Act
○ In 2012, 7% of Americans were victims of identity theft, totaling 24.7$ billion in
losses
■ One form of Identity theft is Phishing

Appropriateness: What should be Online?

● Children’s Internet Protection Act of 2003
○ Requires public schools and libraries to use software to limit minors exposure to
inappropriate Internet content.
● Many want the Web to be completely unregulated.

Access: The Fight to Prevent a Digital Divide

● Digital Divide
○ Refers to the growing contrast between “information haves” and “Information
have-nots”
○ Smartphones are helping to narrow the gap.
○ Still a big gap between the United States and the rest of the world; some
governments opermit limited or zero access to the Internet

Net Neutrality: Maintaining an Open Internet

● Net Neutrality
○ Refers to the principle that every Website and every user has the right to the
same amount of Internet network Speed access
○ Major telephone and cable companies want to offer faster connections and
priority for those willing to pay higher rates.

Alternative Voices on the Internet

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● Open-Source software
○ Developed by independent programmers who openly share their ideas and
source codes.
● Digital Archiving
○ Aims to provide all citizens with universal access to more than 85 billion archived
Web pages.

The Internet and Democracy

● Commercialism
○ May be the biggest threat to the Internet's democraftic potential
○ Interenets potential for widespread use by all could be partially preempted by
narrower commercial interests.
● Inexpensive digital production and social media distribution allow greater participation
than any traditional medium.
○ May just be communicating to those who already share the same feelings and
opinions

Chapter 3: Digital Gaming and the Media Playground

Advancements in Virtual Reality

● In 2014, Facebook bought the virtual reality company, Oculus VR, which promises “total
immersion” into a 3D virtual world.
● Oculus, along with competitor products, may become a leading interface for transactions
in the media business.

The Development of Digital Gaming

● Industrial Revolution
○ Promoted Mass Communication
○ Emergence of leisure time
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● Digital Games
○ Evolved from the simplest form in the arcade to 4 major forms:
■ Television, Handheld devices, computers, and the Internet

The Mechanical Gaming

● Coin Operated counter machines
○ First appeared in train depots, hotel lobbies, bars, and restaurants.
● Penny Arcade
○ Helped shaped future media technologies
■ Automated phonographs---Jukebox
■ Kinetoscope---movies
■ Bagatelle---Pinball Machine

The First Video Games

● Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device
○ Key Component of the first video games (CRT)
● Odyssey
○ First home television Game
● Modern Arcades
○ Gathered multiple coin operated games together.
● Atari
○ Created Pong
■ Kept score on the screen
■ Made blip noises when the ball hit the paddles or bounced off the sides of
the court
■ First video game popular in arcades
■ Home version was marketed through an exclusive deal with Sears.

Arcades and Classic Games

● Late 1970s early 1980s
○ Asteroids, Pac Man, Donkey Kong popular in bars and arcades.
○ Signaled electronic gaming as a potential social medium
○ Joysticks and buttons
○ Pac-man featured the first Avatar

Consols and Advancing Graphics

● Consols
○ Devices used to play video games
○ Higher the bit rating, the more sophisticated the graphics
○ Early Consoles
■ Atari 2600 (1977)
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■ Nintendo Entertainment System (1983)

■ Sega Genesis (1989)
● Major Home Console Makers
○ Nintendo
■ Wii
○ Microsoft
■ Kinect and Xbox
○ Sony
■ Playstation

Gaming on Home Computers

● Advantages over early Consoles
○ Greater versatility
○ Faster processing speeds
○ Better Graphics
● Resurgence in PC gaming
○ Free-to-play video games
○ Subscription games
○ Social Media Games

The Internet Transforms Video Games

● Online connections are now a normal part of Console Games
○ Made live online multiplayer games available
○ Enabled video games to converged devices
○ Paved the way for social gaming, virtual worlds, and massive multiplayer online
games

MMORPGS, Virtual Worlds, and Social Gaming

● Massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGS)
○ Set in Virtual Worlds
○ Large group of players
● Online Fantasy Sports games
○ Actual sports results determine score in online game
● Popular in social networking sites

Convergence: From Consoles to Mobile Games

● Consoles become entertainment centers
○ Multiple forms of media converging onto on device
● Portable players and mobile games
○ Portable devices are facing competition from smart phones and touchscreen
tablets
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Video Game Genres

● Electronic Software Association organizes games by gameplay
○ Action games and shooters
○ Adventure Games
○ Role-playing games
○ Strategy and Simulation
○ Casual Games
○ Sports, Music, and Dance

Communities of Play: Inside the Game

● Two basic types of group
○ PUG’s (Pick-Up Groups)
■ Elite Players
■ Noobs
■ Ninjas
■ Trolls
○ Guilds or Clans
● Players communicate through voice or text

Communities of Players: Outside the Game

● Collective Intelligence
○ Gamers sharing their knowledge and ideas
○ Modding
● Game Sites
○ Gamestop.com, Penny-arcade.com
● Conventions
○ E3, Blizzcon, others

Electronic Gaming and Media Culture

● Fantasy league sports have spawned a number of draft specials on ESPN and a regular
podcast on ESPN radio.

Electronic Gaming and Advertising

● AdverGames
○ Video Games created for purely promotional reasons
● In-Game Advertising
○ Ads integrated as billboards, storefronts, and logos (Ect.) in video games
○ Some can be altered remotely so they can be tailored to players based on
numerous factors

Addiction and Other Concerns

● Addiction
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○ Associated with an increased incidence of depression, social phobias, and

increased anxiety
○ More likely to affect males
○ Games are often addictive by design, with elaborative achievement systems.
● Violence
○ Most games involving combat are intentionally violent.
○ Concern over personality traits of certain types of players
● Misogyny
○ Games such as Grand Theft Auto 5
○ May be due to the male insularity of the game development industry

Regulating Video Games

● Death Race (1976)
○ First public outcry over violence in electronic gaming
● Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)
○ Labels games based on sexual and violent content
■ Rating include: EC, C, E, E10+, T, M 17+, and AO

The Future of Gaming and Interactive Environments

● Gaming technology will become more immersive and portable
● Gamification
○ Embedding of interactive game experiences to bring competition and rewards to
workforce training, classrooms, social causes, and everyday business processes

The Ownership and Organization of Digital Games

● Console makers
○ Major Players are Nintendo (Wii), Sony (Ps4), and Microsoft (Xbox)
● Game Publisher
○ Console makers (in some cases)
○ More often independent companies
■ Activision, Blizzard, and Electronic Arts
■ New publisher King Rovio

The Structure of Digital Game Publishing

● Development
○ Designing, coding, scoring, and testing a game
● Licensing
○ Royalties to console manufacturers
○ Intellectual properties
● Marketing
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○ Often exceed

Selling Digital Games

● Pay Models
○ Boxed game/Retail Model
○ Subscription Model
○ Free-to-play
● Video Game Store
○ Department store
○ Gamestop
● Digital Distribution
○ Steam
○ Gamestop
○ Origin
○ Gamefly
● Mobile Devices
○ Apple Store, Google Play

Alternative Voices
● Mobile gaming has provided an entry point for independent game developers.
● Time and money are still needed.
○ Kickstarter, Gameifesto
Digital Gaming, Free Speech, and Democracy
● ESRB ratings do not have the force of law.
○ California tried to legally prohibit the sale of M-rated games to minors.
● The Supreme Court granted electronic games First Amendment free speech protections.
(Will not make the rating system go away)

Chapter 4: Sound Recording and Popular Music

`
Taylor Swift and the Music Industry
● Despite their lack of affiliation with a major label, Adelel and Swift wield unprecedented
power in the music industry
● In 2015, Swift’s open letter protesting Apple Music’s 3-month free trial caused Apple to
capitulate and pay royalties to artists during the trial period
● Meanwhile, Adele has produced albums on her own schedule.\

From Cylinders to Disks: Sound Recording Becomes a Mass Medium

● Milestones
○ De Martinville, France 1850s
○ Edison’s Phonograph, US1877
○ Bell & Tainters Graphone 1886
○ Berlibners Gramophone 1887
○ Victrola 1906
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○ Vinyl records, early 1940s

○ 33-⅓ rpm LP record, 1948
○ 45-rpm record, 1949

From Phonographs to Cds: Analog Goes Digital

● Milestones
○ Plastic Magnetics audiotape, 1940
○ Stereo sound, 1958
○ Digital recording, 1970s
○ Compact Discs, 1983
○ MP3’s, “music in the cloud”, and music piracy issues, now

Convergence: Sound Recording in the Internet Age

● MP3s and File Sharing
○ MP3 format developed in 1992
○ Supreme Court declared free music file-swapping illegal in 2001
○ iTunes is the model for legal music downloading
● Music in the cloud
○ No physical ownership of music
○ Subscriptions and cloud services

The Rocky relationship between Records and Radio

● Record sales dropped off in 1924 due to the emergence of radio
● ASCAP established music rights fees for radio by 1925
● Began to cooperate when television became popular
● Royalties issue arose again with music streaming companies

The Rise of Pop Music

● Tin Pan Alley
○ Published sheet music
○ Sales increased with the popularity of the phonograph
○ Helped popular music become mass medium
● New forms of popular music
○ Jazz
○ Crooners

Rock and Roll is Here to Stay

● Rock and roll (Mid-1950s)
○ Blues
○ Influenced by social, cultural, economic, and political factors
○ Rhythm and Blues (R&B)
■ Blues-based urban black music
○ Popular with teens
○ Beginning of the integration of white and black cultures
Media and Society

Rock Muddies the Waters

● High and low culture
○ Chuck Berry, Elvis, Bo Diddley
● Masculinity and Femininity
○ Little richard and elvis
● The country of the city
○ Rockabilly
● The North and the South
○ Southern culture, Northern Listeners
● The Sacred and the secular
○ Ray Chales and Jerry Lee Lewis

Battles in Rock and Roll

● Deejays Alan Freed and Dick Clark help rock gain acceptance
● White Covers versions often undermined black artists’ music
● Payola scandals portrayed rock and roll as a corrupt industry
● Fear of juvenile delinquency led to censorship of rock and roll

The British are coming!

● Beatles invaded America in 1964
● Rock and Roll became “ROCK”

Motor City Music: Detroit Guves America Soul\

● Soul
○ Merging of R&B, gospel, piop, early Rock
● Berry Gordy and Motown
○ Successful groups included the Supremes, Smoky Robinson, the temptations

Folk and Psychedelic Music Reflect the Times

● Folk Music inspires protest
○ Sound of social activism
○ Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrine, Bob Dylan
● Rock turns Psychedelic
○ Brought on by drugs
○ Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Doors, Grateful Dead

Punk, Grunge, and Alternative respond to Mainstream Rock

● Punk Rock
○ Challenge the record business
○ Ramones, Blondie, Talking heads
● Grunge
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○ Messy guitar sound and appearance

○ Nirvana, green day, Pearl Jam
● Both are sub genres of Alternative Rock

Hip-Hop Redraws Musical Lines

● Hip-Hop
○ Driven by a democratic, nonprofessional spirit
○ Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Eminem
● Gangster Rap
○ Addesses gang violence, but also accused of creating violence
○ Tupak Shakur, BIG, 50 cent

The Reemergence of Pop

● Despite the emergence and popularity of other forms of music, pop music has endured
● iTunes
○ Biggest purveyor of pop
○ Again made the single the dominant unit of music
● Streaming Services expanded accessibility to music

Music Labels Influences the Industry

● United States and global music business still constitute an oligopoly
● Fewer major labels control music
● The Indies spot the trends
○ Play a major role as the music industries risk takers
○ Often swallowed up by a major labels when successful

Making, Selling, and Profiting from Music

● Making music
○ Labels are driven by A&R (artists and repertoire) agents
● Selling the Music
○ iTunes, Anderson Merchandisers (walmart and Best Buy), Amazon
○ Subscription services
● Dividing The profits
○ Depends on the medium

Alternative Voices
● Indie labels continue to thrive
○ More viable by using the internet as loq cost distribution and promotional outlet
○ Some artist self publish
○ Signed and unsigned artists can reach fans through social networking and video
sites
Sound Recording, Free Expression, and Democracy
● Rock Controversy speaks to heart of democracy
● Pop music appeals to individual and inversal the,ese
Media and Society

Chapter 5: Popular Radio and the Origins of Broadcasting

The Future of Radio

● In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Clear Channel Communications cut jobs at local radio
stations across the US. in 2014, Clear Channel rebranded itself as iHeartMedia, a
streaming radio network, in an effort to create a more friendly public image.

Maxwell and Hertz Discover Radio Waves

● James Maxwell
○ Theorized the existence of Electromagnetic waves (1860s)
■ Believed a portion of these waves, later known as radio waves, could be
harnessed to transmit signals\
● Heinrich Hertz
○ Proved Maxwell’s theories (1880s)
○ Advanced the development of wireless communication

Marconi and the Inventors of Wireless Telegraphy

● Guglielmo Marconi
○ Received a patent on wireless telegraphy in England in 1896
● Alexander Popov
○ Made parallel discoveries in Russia
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● Nikola Tesla
○ Invented a wireless system in 1892
○ Marconi used much of Tesla’s work
○ Deemed inventor of radio in 1943

Wireless Telephony: De Forest and Fessenden

● Lee De Forest
○ Wrote the first Ph. D. thesis on wireless technology in 1899
○ Primary interest was wireless telephony
○ Biggest breakthrough was the development of the Audiom
● Reginald Fessenden
○ First voice broadcast

Regulating a New Medium

● Radio Act of 1912
○ Required licensing
○ Adopted the SOS distress signal
● WWI
○ Navy took control of radio
○ Corporate heads and government leaders conspired to make sure radio served
American interests
● The formation of RCA
○ GE broke off negotiations to sell radio technologies to European companies, then
took the lead in founding the Radio Corporations of American
○ RCA became a monopoly and gave the United States almost total control over
the emerging mass medium of broadcasting

The Evoltuion of Radio

● Frank Conrad
○ Westinghouse established the first commercial broadcast station, Kska IN 1920
● Charles “Doc” Herold
○ Began a station in 1909 that later became KCBS\
● U.S. Commerce Dept
○ Licensed five radio stations for operation in 1921

The RCA Partnership Unravels

● AT&T
○ Broke its RCA agreements in 1922 in an attempt to monopolize radio
○ Began making and selling its own radio receivers
○ Started WEAF in New York, the first station to sell advertising
○ Created the first radio network
■ GE Westinghouse, and RCA created their own radio group in response

Sarnoff and NBC:Building the “Blue” and “Red” Networks

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● David Sarnoff
○ RCA’s first general manager
○ Created NBC, which was shared by RCA, GE, and Westinghouse
○ The original telephone group became known as the NBC-Red network, and the
radio group became known as the NBC-Blue network
● NBC affiliates
○ Paid NBC to carry its programs
○ NBC sold national advertising
○ Emphasized national programming
● Sarnoff aslo
○ Cut a deal with Gm to manufacture car radios
○ Merged RCA with Victor Talking Machine Company

Government Scrutiny Ends RCA-NBC Monopoly

● FTC charged RCA with violations of antitrust laws as early in 1923
● RCA bought out GE and Westinghouse’s shares in RCA’s manufacturing business
● Government accepted RCA’s breakup proposal before trial

CBS and Paley: Challenging NBC

● First attempt at CBA
● William S Paley
○ Bought a controlling share in the company, and launched new concepts and
strategies
■ Hired PR guru Edward Bernays
■ Used option time to lure affiliates
■ Raided NBC for top talent
● Became the top network in 1949

Bringing Order to Chaos with the Radio Act of 1927 (1 of 2) • Radio Act of 1927 • Stated that
stations could only license their channels as long as they operated to serve the “public interest,
convenience, or necessity” • Created the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), which became the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with the Communications Act of 1934 Bringing
Order to Chaos with the Radio Act of 1927 (2 of 2) • Activist FCC went after the networks in
1941 • Outlawed the practice of option time • Demanded that RCA sell one of its two NBC
networks • NBC-Blue was sold and became the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The
Golden Age of Radio • Early radio programming • Only a handful of stations • Live music daily •
15-minute evening programs • Variety shows • Quiz shows • Dramatic programs • Most shows
had a single sponsor. Radio Programming as a Cultural Mirror • The most popular comedy by
the 1930s was Amos ‘ n ’ Andy • Stereotyped black characters as shiftless and stupid • Created
the idea of the serial show • Moved to TV and was the first show with an entirely black cast •
Canceled in 1953 amid the strengthening Civil Rights movement The Authority of Radio • War of
the Worlds • Broadcast by Orson Welles on Halloween eve in 1938 in the style of a radio news
program • Created a panic in New York and New Jersey • Prompted the FCC to call for stricter
warnings before and during programs imitating the style of radio news Transistors Make Radio
Media and Society

Portable • Transistors • Small electrical devices that could receive and amplify radio signals •
More durable and less expensive than vacuum tubes, used less power, and produced less heat
• Led to the creation of small pocket radios • Made radio portable The FM Revolution and Edwin
Armstrong • FM (frequency modulation) radio • Discovered and developed by Edwin Armstrong
in the 1920s and 1930s • Greater fidelity and clarity than AM (amplitude modulation) radio • Lost
RCA’s support to TV • FCC opened up spectrum space for FM in the 1960s • Surpassed AM
radio by the 1980s The Rise of Format and Top 40 Radio • Format radio • Formula-driven radio
• Management controls programming • Developed by Todd Storz in 1949 • Used rotation • Led
to the development of the Top 40 format • Creation of the program log and day parts Resisting
the Top 40 • Expansion of FM in the mid-1960s created room for experimenting. • Progressive
rock • Experimental stations playing hard-edged political folk music • Album-oriented rock (AOR)
• General classic rock The Sounds of Commercial Radio • Listeners today are unlike radio’s first
audiences in several ways. • Radio has become a secondary or background medium. • Peak
listening time is during drive time rather than prime time. • Stations are more specialized.
Format Specialization • Variety of formats • News, talk, and information • Music formats • Adult
contemporary (AC) • Contemporary hit radio (CHR) • Country • Urban contemporary • Spanish
language • Classic rock • Oldies Figure 5.4: Most Popular U.S. Radio Formats, Ages 12+
Nonprofit Radio and NPR • Early years of nonprofit radio • In 1948, the government began
authorizing noncommercial licenses and approved 10-watt FM stations. • First noncommercial
networks • Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 • National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS) mandated to provide alternatives to commercial broadcasting New
Radio Technologies Offer More Stations • Satellite radio • XM and Sirius merged to become
Sirius XM Radio in 2008. • Accessible through satellite radios, mobile devices, and cars with a
satellite band • HD Radio • Enables multicasting by AM and FM broadcasters and provides
program data Radio and Convergence • Internet radio • Broadcast radio stations now have an
online presence. • Online-only radio stations like Pandora growing in popularity • Podcasting
and portable listening • A popular way to listen to radio-style programs on a computer or
portable music device Local and National Advertising • Radio advertising • Comprises 10% of
media advertising • Industry revenue has dropped, but the number of stations keeps growing. •
Only 20% of budget goes toward programming costs. • National networks provide programming
in exchange for time slots for national ads. Manipulating Playlists with Payola • Payola • Record
promoters paying deejays to play particular records • Rampant in 1950s • In 2007, four of the
largest broadcasting companies agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle a payola investigation by
the FCC. Radio Ownership: From Diversity to Consolidation • Telecommunications Act of 1996 •
Eliminated most ownership restrictions in radio • Together, iHeartMedia, Cumulus, and
Townsquare Media: • Own roughly 1,700 radio stations (more than 11% of all radio stations) •
Dominate the fifty largest markets • Control about one-third of the entire radio industry’s $17.6
billion revenue Alternative Voices • In the 1990s, activists set up “pirate” stations to protest large
corporations’ control over radio. • In 2000, the FCC approved noncommercial low-power FM
(LPFM) stations to give voice to local groups lacking access. • Prometheus Radio Project •
Educates about low-power radio Radio and the Democracy of the Airwaves • Influence of radio
in the formation of American culture cannot be overestimated. • Early radio debates •
Requirement to operate in the “public interest, convenience, or necessity” • Trend of radio
moving away from its localism
Media and Society

The Convergence of Television In the past, TV networks made or bought

almost all TV shows, which aired at set times. Today, original shows are
also produced by cable channels and Internet services like Netflix and
Hulu, and are frequently viewed days or weeks after the original air date.
Early Innovations in TV Technology • Cathode ray tube (late 1800s) •
Combined principles of the camera and electricity • Scanning disk (1880s) •
Developed by Paul Nipkow • Separated pictures into pinpoints of light that
could be transmitted as a series of electronic lines Electronic Technology:
Zworykin and Farnsworth • RCA sued Farnsworth over Zworykin’s
iconoscope patent. • Lost and had to license patents from Farnsworth •
Analog standard adopted in 1941 • Digital standard adopted in 2009 • TV
licensing freeze until 1952 • RCA had the first successful color broadcast
system in 1954 Controlling Content—TV Grows Up (1 of 2) • Early
television programs often had single sponsors. • Networks lacked creative
control, so they made programs longer, which raised costs and forced
advertisers out. • Two new types of programs helped networks gain control
over content. • Magazine format • TV spectacular Controlling Content—TV
Grows Up (2 of 2) • Prime-time quiz shows • Cheap to produce, but rigged •
Dropped by networks amid allegations of being fixed • Impact of the quiz
Media and Society

show scandals • Ended sponsors’ role in creating content • Undermined

Americans’ expectation of the democratic promise of television • Magnified
the division of high and low culture attitudes toward television CATV—
Community Antenna Television • CATV • First small cable system •
Originated where mountains or tall buildings blocked TV signals • Two big
advantages • Eliminated over-the-air interference • Increased channel
capacity The Wires and behind Cable Television • Telstar launched in 1960
• Discovery of how to lock satellites in geosynchronous orbit in the mid-
1960s • How it works • Headend relays each channel along its own
separate line • Signals delivered through trunk and feeder cables Figure
6.1: A Basic Cable Television System Cable Services • Basic cable
services • Hundred-plus channels • Local cable company pays each
satellite-delivered service a persubscriber fee. • Premium cable services •
Premium channels such as HBO • Pay-per-view (PPV) channels • Video-
on-demand (VOD) channels DBS: Cable without Wires • Direct broadcast
satellite (DBS) services • Transmit a signal directly to a satellite dish at
customers’ homes • Reduced cable penetration • Began scrambling signals
to prevent free access to broadcasts • Modern services include DirecTV
and Dish Home Video • Videocassette recorders (VCRs) • Introduced in the
mid-1970s • Federal court permitted home taping for personal use • Movie
rentals became popular • Replaced by DVDs, which are being replaced by
Blu-ray and DVRs • Two purposes of DVD and DVR • Video rentals and
time shifting The Third Screen: TV Converges with the Internet • Third
screen • Refers to viewing content on computer screens • Used primarily as
catch-up services • Popular sites for viewing video • YouTube, iTunes,
Hulu, Netflix • Cable TV giants are also making programs available online. •
Xfinity TV and HBO Go Fourth Screens: Smartphones and Mobile Video •
Fourth-screen technology • Smartphones, iPods, iPads, and mobile TV
devices • Forcing major changes in consumer viewing habits and media
content creation • Multifunctionality and portability mean viewers may no
longer need TV sets Figure 6.2: Cross-Platform Viewing in Hours and
Minutes TV Entertainment: Our Comic Culture • Networks move to Los
Angeles in the 1950s. • Kinescopes were used to preserve live broadcasts.
• Three TV comedy formats • Sketch comedy • Situation comedy •
Domestic comedy Figure 6.3: The Top 20 Shows of the 2014-2015 Season
Media and Society

TV Entertainment: Our Dramatic Culture • Anthology drama • Brought live

dramatic theater to the television audience • Ended for both economic and
political reasons • Episodic series • Two general types • Chapter shows •
Serial programs TV Information: Our Daily News Culture • Network news •
NBC’ s Meet the Press (1947) • CBS-TV News (1948) • First news show to
be videotaped for rebroadcast on affiliate stations (1956) • ABC World
News Tonight (1978) • Cable news • First cable news channel was CNN •
Created a 24/7 news cycle Reality TV and Other Enduring Trends •
Traditional genre trends • Talk shows, game shows, variety shows,
newsmagazines, and sporting events • Reality TV • Introduces audiences
to characters who are more like them • Inexpensive to produce • Spanish-
language television Public Television Struggles to Find Its Place • Public
television • Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 leads to the establishment of
PBS. • Targeted viewers that were “less attractive” to commercial networks
• Increasing reliance on corporate underwriting • Government attempts to
ax funding. • Audience has declined significantly. Government Regulations
Temporarily Restrict Network Control • Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR) •
Reduced network control of prime-time programming to encourage more
local programming • Fin-syn • Banned networks from reaping profits from
program syndication • Department of Justice • Limited non-news
programming Balancing Cable’s Growth against Broadcasters’ Interests •
Must-carry rules required cable operators to carry all local TV broadcasts. •
FCC mandated access channels for the top 100 TV markets, along with
leased channels. • Midwest Video case • Determined cable carriers were
electronic publishers Franchising Frenzy • Cable franchise • Mini-monopoly
awarded by a local community to the most attractive bidder, usually for a
15-year period • Federal cable policy act from 1984 dictates the franchise
fees for most U.S. municipalities. • Helps cities use such fees to establish
and fund access channels The Telecommunications Act of 1996 •
Telecommunications Act of 1996 • Brought cable under federal rules that
had long governed the telephone, radio, and TV industries • Removed
market barriers between phone companies, longdistance carriers, and
cable operators • Reaffirmed must-carry rules • Mixed impact on cable
customers Production • Two types of production costs • Below-the-line •
Above-the-line • Programs are funded through deficit financing. • Film
Media and Society

studios finance the deficit and hope to profit on syndication. • Less

expensive programs • Newsmagazines and reality shows Figure 6.4:
Prime-Time Network TV Pricing (2015) Distribution • Paying for programs •
Subscriber fees • Retransmission fees • Licensing fees to affiliate stations •
Advertising • Clearance rules allow affiliates to substitute a network’ s
program. Syndication Keeps Shows Going and Going… • Syndication •
Leasing the exclusive right to air TV shows • Types • Off-network
syndication • First-run syndication • Cash deal • Series goes to the highest
bidder. • Barter deal • Syndicator is paid from ad revenue. Measuring
Television Viewing • Ratings and shares • Ratings are based on a
percentage of households tuned to a sampled program. • Shares are based
on a percentage of homes tuned to a program, compared with those
actually using their sets at the time of sample. • Convergence is changing
how TV viewing is measured. Major Programming Corporations • Major
broadcast networks • Remain attractive investments and are acquiring
cable channels • Major cable and DBS companies • Multiple-system
operators (MSOs) • Multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) •
Video subscription services • Netflix, Comcast, and DirecTV are major
players. The Effects of Consolidation • Concern that the merging of
telecommunications companies will limit expression and lead to price fixing
• The industries respond that consolidation is necessary to buy up
struggling companies to keep them afloat. Alternative Voices • Some small
cities are challenging cable giants by building publicly owned cable
systems. • More than 2,000 such utilities now exist in the United States. •
Nonprofit entities, so they are less expensive for cable subscribers
Television, Cable, and Democracy • In its heyday, television carried the
promise that it could reach all segments of society. • Convergence
potentially de-emphasizes the idea we are all citizens who are part of a
larger nation and world. • TV is still a gathering place for friends and family,
and in the future will be about serving smaller rather than larger audiences.
Media and Society

Hollywood Mega-Franchises • In 2012, Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion. • Proliferation of

new Star Wars-related products – not only movies, but games, theme parks, and merchandise. •
In the age of mega-blockbuster franchises, directors like J.J. Abrams still claim that storytelling
is the most important component of filmmaking. The Development of Film • Milestones •
Muybridge was the first to project moving pictures. • Eastman developed the first roll film, which
was improved by Goodwin, who used celluloid. • Kinetograph, kinetoscope, and vitascope
developed under Edison. • Lumière brothers invented the cinematograph. The Introduction of
Narrative • Narrative films tell stories. • Early narrative filmmakers • Georges Méliès • The
Vanishing Lady • Cinderella • A Trip to the Moon • Edwin S. Porter • The Life of an American
Fireman • The Great Train Robbery The Arrival of Nickelodeons • Nickelodeons • Form of movie
theater • Name combines the admission price with the Greek word for “theater.” • Often
converted storefronts • Piano players added live music. • Transcended language barriers •
Peaked by 1910 The Rise of the Hollywood Studio System (1 of 2) • Edison’s Trust: Cartel of
major U.S. and French producers • Exclusive deal with Eastman • Independent productions
moved to Hollywood to escape the Trust. • Zukor’s early companies figured out ways to bypass
the Trust. • Suit by Fox led to the breakup of the Trust. The Rise of the Hollywood Studio
System (2 of 2) • Entrepreneurs like Zukor developed other tactics for controlling the industry. •
Vertical integration of all three levels of the movie business • Production • Distribution •
Exhibition • Turned the film industry into an oligopoly. Production • Actors • Originally
anonymous • Industry eventually understood the value of creating stars such as Mary Pickford. •
Pickford helped elevate the financial status of actors. • Left Zukor to form United Artists • The
studio system controlled creative talent in the industry. Distribution • Film exchange system • In
exchange for providing short films, movie companies received a percentage of ticket-gate
receipts. • Block booking distribution • Exhibitors had to rent marginal films in order to get films
with big stars. • Marketing of American films in Europe Exhibition • Controlling exhibition •
Edison’s Trust • Required theaters to purchase licenses or be locked out • Zukor bought up
theaters and later built movie palaces. • Mid-city movie theaters • The Big Five and the Little
Three formed a powerful oligopoly. Hollywood Narrative and the Silent Era • D.W. Griffith •
Single most important director in Hollywood’s early days • The Birth of a Nation • First feature-
length film • First blockbuster • Popular silent era films • Napoleon, Ben-Hur, and The Ten
Commandments The Introduction of Sound • Early attempts at talkies failed. • The Jazz Singer
(1927) and The Singing Fool (1928) were the first successful talkies. • Movietone newsreels •
Premiered sound film five months before The Jazz Singer • First film footage with sound •
Lindbergh’s takeoff and return The Development of Hollywood Style (1 of 3) • Hollywood
narratives • Two basic components • Story • Discourse • Hollywood genres • Grouping by genre
achieves two goals • Product standardization • Product differentiation The Development of
Media and Society

Hollywood Style (2 of 3) • Popular genres • Action/adventure • Mystery/suspense •

Fantasy/science fiction • Musical • Western • Comedy • Drama • Romance • Horror • Gangster •
Film noir The Development of Hollywood Style (3 of 3) • Hollywood “authors” • Particular
cinematic style or topic • Stemmed from Dennis Hopper’ s Easy Rider and George Lucas’s
American Graffiti • New Wave of directors • Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Steven
Spielberg, and Brian De Palma • Recognition rare for women and minorities Outside the
Hollywood System (1 of 2) • Global cinema • Other countries have a rich history of producing
successful films. • Losing ground as they compete with independent American films • The
documentary tradition • Early forms of documentary • Interest films, newsreels, travelogues •
Cinema verité – “truth film” Outside the Hollywood System (2 of 2) • The rise of independent
films • Known as indies • Made on a shoestring budget and shown in small venues and film
festivals • Independent film festivals important for discovering new talent • Indies as a feeder
system for major studios has declined • New distribution routes for indies The Hollywood Ten •
Hollywood Ten hearings • HUAC investigations of alleged subversive and communist ties • The
Hollywood Ten were nine screenwriters and one producer. • Refused to identify communist
sympathizers and were charged with contempt and imprisoned • Blacklisted by major studios
upon their release The Paramount Decision • Paramount decision • Supreme Court forced the
studios to gradually divest themselves of their theaters. • Meant to increase competition, but
never really changed the oligopoly structure of the Hollywood film industry • Created
opportunities for exhibition • Art houses and drive-in theaters Moving to the Suburbs •
Transformation from a wartime economy and a surge in consumer production had a significant
impact on moviegoing. • Money spent on consumer products instead of movie tickets • People
married younger, so fewer couples were dating. • Television explosion in the late 50s Television
Changes Hollywood • TV became the primary family entertainment by the mid1950s. • Movie
industry’s response • More serious subject matter that explored larger social problems • New
technologies • Cinerama, CinemaScope, VistaVision • 3-D • Panavision Hollywood Adapts to
Home Entertainment • Introduction of cable and videocassettes in 1970s changed movie
exhibition. • Video market was a financial bonanza for movie industry. • Traditional video rental
market is declining. • Future of video rental is in Internet distribution. Production, Distribution,
and Exhibition Today (1 of 2) • Movie studios have six major sources of income. • Box-office
receipts • DVD sales, rentals, and downloads • Pay-per-view, premium cable, etc. • Foreign
markets • Distributing indie films • Licensing and product placement Table 7.1: The Top 10 All-
Time Box-Office Champions Production, Distribution, and Exhibition Today (2 of 2) • Five
companies operate more than 50 percent of U.S. screens. • Development of megaplexes in the
1990s • Addition of IMAX screens and digital projectors in the 2000s • Also screen nonmovie
events • Live sporting events, concerts, and classic TV show marathons The Major Studio
Players • Big Six • Warner Brothers, Paramount, 21st Century Fox, Universal, Columbia
Pictures, and Disney • Account for more than 86% of commercial film revenues • Began
diversifying in the 1980s • Heavy promotion and synergy • Flood of corporate mergers Figure
7.2: Market Share of U.S. Film Studios and Distributors, 2015 (in $ millions) Convergence:
Movies Adjust to the Digital Turn • Movie industry has quickly embraced Internet distribution. •
Service companies include Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Google, Apple, Redbox and Blockbuster. •
Increasingly available on smartphones and tablets • 2012: first year digital outpaced physical
DVDs • Internet essential for marketing Alternative Voices • Digital video • Cheaper and more
Media and Society

accessible than standard film equipment • Camera work can be seen instantly without film
processing. • Adopted by major directors • Same format as DVDs and Internet video, so films
can be distributed online easily Popular Movies and Democracy • Movies function as consensus
narratives that operate across different times and cultures. • Do U.S. films contribute to a global
village in which people share a universal culture? • Or do U.S. films stifle local culture and
diversity?

CHAPTER 8
Newspapers: The Rise and Decline of Modern Journalism The Future of Newspapers? “I
believe that papers delivering comprehensive and reliable information to tightly-bound
communities….will remain viable for a long time.” -Warren Buffett, 2013
Colonial Newspapers and the Partisan Press (1 of 2)
• Pennsylvania Gazette (1729) • Operated by Benjamin Franklin
• Run with subsidies from political parties as well as advertising
• New-York Weekly Journal (1733)
• Owner arrested for seditious libel
• Jury ruled in his favor, as long as stories were true
• Decision provided foundation for First Amendment Colonial Newspapers and the Partisan
Press (2 of 2) • Two general types of newspapers
• Political • Partisan press
• Pushed the plan of a political group
• Commercial • Served business leaders
• Readership primarily confined to educated or wealthy men The Penny Press Era: Newspapers
Become Mass Media (1 of 2)
• Penny papers
• Made possible by technology
• Sold on the street
• New York Sun
• Favored human-interest stories
• New York Morning Herald
• Independent paper for middle- and working-class readers
The Penny Press Era: Newspapers Become Mass Media (2 of 2)
• Penny papers were innovative.
• Reported local news and crime
• Separated news and editorial
• Neutral toward advertisers
• Associated Press
• Founded by six New York newspapers in 1848
• First major news wire service The Age of Yellow Journalism: Sensationalism and Investigation
• Yellow journalism
• Overly dramatic stories and investigative journalism
• New York World • Pulitzer encouraged plain writing and the inclusion of illustrations.
• New York Journal
Media and Society

• Hearst was unscrupulous, but a champion of the underdog. “Objectivity” in Modern Journalism
(1 of 2)
• Ochs and the New York Times
• Distanced itself from yellow journalism
• Focused on documenting major events • More affluent readership • Lowered the price to a
penny to attract middle-class readers “Objectivity” in Modern Journalism (2 of 2)
• Objective journalism
• Distinguishes factual reports from opinion columns
• Inverted-pyramid style
• Answers who, what, where, when (sometimes why and how) at top
• Less significant details at bottom
• Has come under increasing scrutiny
Interpretive Journalism
• Aims to explain key issues and events, and place them in a broader context
• Walter Lippmann ranked press responsibilities
• Supply facts for the record
• Give analysis
• Advocate plans
• Embraced by broadcast news Literary Forms of Journalism
• Literary journalism • Also called “new journalism”
• Fictional storytelling techniques applied to nonfictional material
• Attack on journalistic objectivity
• Responses included:
• Advocacy journalism
• Precision journalism Contemporary Journalism in the TV and Internet Age
• USA Today
• Used color and designed vending boxes to look like TVs
• Mimicked broadcast news in the use of brief news items
• Online journalism redefines news.
• Replaced the morning newspaper
• Speeds up the news cycle
• Nontraditional sources shape stories Consensus vs. Conflict: Newspapers Play Different Roles
• Consensus-oriented journalism
• Stories on local schools, social events, town government, property crimes, and zoning issues •
Conflict-oriented journalism
• Front-page news defined as events, issues, or experiences that deviate from social norms
Newspapers Target Specific Readers (1 of 3)
• African American newspapers
• Faced high illiteracy rates and hostility from white society during the Civil War era
• Decline of black papers
• TV and black radio stations
• Loss of support from advertisers
\• Economic decline reduced ad budgets.
• Mainstream papers raided black papers to integrate their newsrooms.
Media and Society

Newspapers Target Specific Readers (2 of 3)

• Spanish-language newspapers
• Hispanic issues and culture largely ignored until the late 1960s
• Mainstream papers added supplements, but many folded.
• Asian American newspapers
• Helped readers adjust to foreign surroundings and retain ties to their traditional heritage
Newspapers Target Specific Readers (3 of 3)
• Native American newspapers
• Began with Cherokee Phoenix (1828)
• Educated tribes about their heritage and built community solidarity
• Underground press
• Questioned mainstream political policies and conventional values
• Documented social tension with the voices of students, women, minorities, and gay men and
women Newspaper Operations (1 of 2)
• Newshole • Makes up 35 to 50% of paper
• Remaining space devoted to advertising
• Newsroom staff
• Publisher and owner
• Editors and assistant editors
• Reporters
Newspaper Operations (2 of 2)
• Wire services and feature syndication
• Supplement local coverage
• Feature syndicates provide work from:
• Political writers • Editorial cartoonists
• Comic-strip artists
• Self-help columnists Newspaper Ownership: Chains Lose Their Grip
• Newspaper chain
• Company that owns several papers
• Emergence of chains reflected the movement toward oligopolies in the 1920s.
• In decline today
• Fewer readers and less ad revenue
• Consolidating and eliminating jobs
• Selling off papers Joint Operating Agreements Combat Declining Competition
• Newspaper Preservation Act
• Allowed for the creation of joint operating agreements (JOA)
• Two competing papers keep separate news divisions while merging business and production
operations for a period of years.
• By 2016 just five JOAs remained in place
• Monopolistic, but sometimes have been the only way to maintain competition between
newspapers Readership Declines in the United States
• Decline began during the Great Depression with the rise of radio.
• Dropped in the 1960s and 1970s
• Competition from TV and weeklies
Media and Society

• Dropped again in the 2000s • Online readership increased

• Other nations have experienced increases in readership.
Going Local: How Small and Campus Papers Retain Readers
• Small daily and weekly community papers are doing better than many metro dailies.
• Trusted media outlet in areas without many radio, TV options
• Serve a very loyal readership
• Practice a consensus-oriented journalism that doesn’t result in ad revenue dips when editors
tackle controversial topics Blogs Challenge Newspapers’ Authority Online
• Rise of blogs in the 1990s • Initially dismissed as amateur journalism
• Gained credibility and readership in recent years
• Traditional journalism has entered the realm of blogging.
• Blogging has become a viable main feature. Convergence: Newspapers Struggle in the Move
to Digital • Newspapers take advantage of the Internet’s flexibility.
• Unlimited space
• Immediate updates
• Links to related material
• Multimedia capabilities
• Advances have yet to pay off.
• Some papers are trying to establish a paywall. Figure 8.2: Newspaper Circulation Falls in
2014 New Models for Journalism
• New business model ideas
• Developing new ventures
• Support from wealthy universities and/or Internet companies
• Newspapers as nonprofit entities
• Public radio and TV focusing on local news
• Universities becoming sources of news reporting
• National Fund for Local News Alternative Voices
• Citizen journalism
• Also known as citizen media or community journalism
• Activist amateurs who use the Internet and blogs to disseminate news and information
• Many news organizations are trying to corral citizen journalists to make up for journalists lost
to downsizing. Newspapers and Democracy
• Journalism is a vital, yet dangerous profession.
• 1,189 reporters killed in the line of duty from 1992 to mid-2016
• Newsroom cutbacks also threatening many reporters
• As digital culture continues to grow, what will become of newspapers?
Media and Society

CHAPTER 9 Magazines in the Age of Specialization The Story of Cosmopolitan “The story of
how a ’60s babe named Helen Gurley Brown (you’ve probably heard of her) transformed an
antiquated general-interest mag called Cosmopolitan into the mustread for young, sexy single
chicks is pretty damn amazing.” -Cosmopolitan magazine The First Magazines • The Review •
First political magazine • Appeared in London in 1704 • Edited by Daniel Defoe • Printed
sporadically until 1713 • Other magazines from this time • Tatler • Spectator • Gentleman’s
Magazine Magazines in Colonial America • Magazines developed slowly. • Served politicians,
the educated, and the merchant classes • Documented early American life • First colonial
magazines (1741) • American Magazine • General Magazine and Historical Chronicle • About
100 magazines by 1776 U.S. Magazines in the Nineteenth Century • Growth of the magazine
industry was slow after the revolution. • High delivery costs • Still, most communities had their
own weekly magazine by 1825. • Specialized magazines emerged. • Religious, literary, and
professional • First general-interest magazine • Saturday Evening Post National, Women’s, and
Illustrated Magazines • Growth of the magazine market • Improved literacy, public education •
Better printing, postal technology • Sarah Josepha Hale • First magazine targeting females •
Ladies’ Magazine • Merged with Godey’s Lady’s Book • Helped to educate lower- and middle-
class women denied higher education The Development of Modern American Magazines •
Postal Act of 1879 • Lowered postage rates • Increased magazine circulation • Advertising
revenues soared. • Advertisers • Used magazines to capture attention and build a national
marketplace • Ladies’ Home Journal • First with a circulation of one million Social Reform and
the Muckrakers • Rise in circulation coincided with rapid social changes. • Magazines allowed
journalists to write in depth about issues. • Muckrakers • Investigative journalists • Raised
awareness, leading to the Pure Food and Drug Act, the Meat Inspection Act, and antitrust laws
The Rise of General-Interest Magazines (1 of 2) • General-interest magazines • Prominent after
WWI through the 1950s • Combined investigative journalism with broad national topics •
Photojournalism • Gave magazines a visual advantage over radio The Rise of General-Interest
Magazines (2 of 2) • Prominent general-interest magazines • Saturday Evening Post • Reader’s
Digest • Time • Life • Pass-along readership • Total number of people who came into contact
with a single copy The Fall of General-Interest Magazines (1 of 3) • Began in the late 1950s •
Changing consumer tastes, rising postal costs, falling ad revenues, and television • TV Guide •
Highlighted interest in specialized magazines • Growing power of checkout lines • Growing
power of television The Fall of General-Interest Magazines (2 of 3) • Saturday Evening Post,
Life, and Look fold • Sold issues at a loss to maintain circulation figures • Ad dollars split with
television • Increased postal rates • General magazines that survived tended to be women’s
magazines. Table 9.1: The Top 10 Magazines The Fall of General-Interest Magazines (3 of 3) •
People • Launched in 1974 • First successful magazine of its kind in decades • Some charge
that People is too specialized to be mass market, with its focus on celebrities, music, and pop
culture. Convergence: Magazines Confront the Digital Age • Magazines move online. •
Magazine companion Web sites ideal for increasing reach of consumer magazines • Feature
original content • Magazines embrace digital content. • Webzines made the Internet a legitimate
site for breaking news and discussing culture and politics. The Domination of Specialization (1
of 2) • Magazines grouped by two important characteristics • Advertiser type • Consumer •
Business or trade • Farm • Target demographics • Gender, age, or ethnic group • Audience
Media and Society

interest area (sports, literature, tabloids) The Domination of Specialization (2 of 2) • Magazines

are also broken down by target audience. • Men and women • Sports, entertainment, and
leisure • Age-group specific • Elite magazines aimed at cultural minorities • Minorities •
Supermarket tabloids Magazine Departments and Duties (1 of 2) • Editorial • Publisher, editor-
in-chief, managing editors, and subeditors • Subeditors oversee photography, illustrations,
reporting and writing, copyediting, layout, and print and multimedia design • Production and
technology • Maintains computer and printing hardware Magazine Departments and Duties (2 of
2) • Advertising and sales • Secures clients, arranges promotions, and places ads • Rate cards
indicate ad sizes/prices • Circulation and distribution • Monitors single-copy and subscription
sales • Subscriptions may be paid, evergreen, controlled, or digital Major Magazine Chains (1 of
2) • Time, Inc. • Largest magazine chain in United States • Advance Publications (Condé Nast) •
Force in upscale magazines • Hearst Corporation • Publishes Cosmopolitan, Elle, O • Meredith
Corporation • Specializes in women’s, home-related magazines Major Magazine Chains (2 of 2)
• Rodale • Publishes health and wellness titles • Many American magazines have carved out
global market niches. • Many major publishers operate custom publishing divisions. • Produce
magalogs Figure 9.3: The Circulation Reach of Leading American Magazines Alternative Voices
• Alternative magazines • Have historically defined themselves through politics • What
constitutes an alternative magazine has broadened over time. • “Zines” are self-published
magazines. • Some have achieved mainstream success. • National Review and Mother Jones
Magazines in a Democratic Society (1 of 2) • Magazines have played a central role in
transforming the United States from a producer society to a consumer society. • Diminished
national voice today • Contemporary magazines help us think about ourselves as participants in
a democracy. Magazines in a Democratic Society (2 of 2) • We are often viewed as consumers
first and citizens second. • Magazines are growing increasingly dependent on advertising. •
Readers are just viewers and purchasers of material goods. • Good magazines maintain our
connection to words in an increasingly digital culture.

CHAPTER 10 Books and the Power of Print The Rise of Young Adult Book Publishing
Storytelling and pop culture collide in the young-adult (YA) segment of the publishing industry. •
YA authors like John Green and Veronica Roth have gained celebrity status, with legions of
teenage fans. • In 2014, 4 of the 6 top-selling print books were YA books. The History of Books
from Papyrus to Paperback (1 of 6) • Ancient world • Papyrus • Used in Egypt as early as 2400
B.C.E. • Parchment • Treated animal skin • Replaced papyrus in Europe • Codex • First
protomodern book • Made of bound materials by the Romans, 4th century The History of Books
from Papyrus to Paperback (2 of 6) • The development of manuscript culture • Books
painstakingly lettered, decorated, and bound by hand • Entrepreneurial stage of the evolution of
books • Illuminated manuscripts • Use of decorative, colorful designs and illustrations • Made for
churches or wealthy clients The History of Books from Papyrus to Paperback (3 of 6) • Block
printing and movable type • Block printing • Developed by Chinese printers • Enabled multiple
copies to be printed and bound together • Movable type • Invented in China around 1000 • Made
creating block pages faster • Developed independently in Europe in the 1400s The History of
Books from Papyrus to Paperback (4 of 6) • The Gutenberg revolution • Printing press •
Invented by Johannes Gutenberg • Inestimable influence on Western culture • Helped make
Media and Society

books cheaper • Permitted information and knowledge to spread outside local jurisdictions •
Permitted individuals to challenge traditional wisdom and customs The History of Books from
Papyrus to Paperback (5 of 6) • Birth of publishing in the United States • Stephen Daye •
Published the first colonial book, The Whole Booke of Psalms, in 1640 • Benjamin Franklin •
Imported and reprinted novels • First paperback books in the 1830s • First dime novels in 1860 •
Sometimes identified as pulp fiction The History of Books from Papyrus to Paperback (6 of 6) •
1880s • First linotype machines and the introduction of steam-powered and high-speed rotary
presses • Early 1900s • Development of offset lithography greatly reduced the cost of color and
illustrations, and accelerated book production The Formation of Publishing Houses (1 of 2) •
Early “prestigious” publishing houses • Tried to identify and produce the works of good writers •
Oldest houses survive now as part of larger conglomerates. • Demand for books grew between
1880 and 1920 with the rise of industrialized urban culture. The Formation of Publishing Houses
(2 of 2) • Book industry helped assimilate European immigrants into American culture, language.
• Despite a decline from 1910 through the 1950s, the book industry bounced back after World
War II. Types of Books (1 of 3) • Trade books • Adult trade • Juvenile trade • Comics and
graphic novels • Professional books • Law • Business • Medical • Technical-scientific Types of
Books (2 of 3) • Textbooks • Elementary through high school (el-hi) texts • College texts •
Vocational texts • Religious titles Types of Books (3 of 3) • Reference books • Dictionaries •
Encyclopedias • Atlases • Almanacs • Professional or trade-specific • University press books •
Scholarly works for small groups Figure 10.1: Estimated U.S. Book Revenue, 2014 Influences of
Television and Film • Two major facets • How TV can help sell books • Promotion by talk-show
hosts such as Oprah Winfrey • How books serve as ideas for TV shows and movies • Boardwalk
Empire on HBO and Dexter on Showtime • Life of Pi by Yann Martel and J. K. Rowling’s Harry
Potter series Audio Books • Also known as talking books or books on tape • Generally feature
actors or authors reading entire works or abridged versions • Popular with the sightless and
vision-impaired, as well as with commuters Convergence: Books in the Digital Age (1 of 2) • E-
books • Project Gutenberg • Offers more than 40,000 public domain books for free • Print books
move online • First e-readers were too heavy, expensive, and/or difficult to read • Amazon
produced the first popular device (Kindle) and e-book store • Accounted for 29 percent of adult
fiction sales in 2015 Convergence: Books in the Digital Age (2 of 2) • The future of e-books •
Printing books on demand • Reviving books that would otherwise go out of print • Avoiding the
inconvenience of carrying unsold books • Reimagining what a book can be • Hosting embedded
video, hyperlinks, and dynamic content • Tailoring books to specific readers Preserving and
Digitizing Books (1 of 2) • Nineteenth-century books • Printed on acid-based paper, which
gradually deteriorates • Libraries developed preservation techniques in the 1970s. • Acid-free
paper • Developed in the early 1990s • Libraries photocopied pages onto the paper and stored
the originals. Preserving and Digitizing Books (2 of 2) • Digital imaging • Universities partnered
with companies like Google and Amazon to digitize texts and make them available online •
Libraries came together to create nonprofit archives called the Digital Public Library of America
Censorship and Banned Books (1 of 2) • Censorship • Imposed by various rulers and groups to
maintain authority • Often prevented people from learning about the rituals and moral standards
of other cultures • American Library Association • Compiles a list of the most challenged books
every year Censorship and Banned Books (2 of 2) • Book challenge • Formal complaint for the
removal of a book from a library • Common reasons for challenges • Sexually explicit passages
Media and Society

or nudity • Offensive language or racism • Occult themes • Violence • Homosexual themes •

Promotion of a religious viewpoint Figure 10.3: Challenged and Banned Books Ownership
Patterns • Ownership • Handful of major corporations dominate commercial publishing. • Large
companies can financially support smaller firms while allowing editorial ideas to remain
independent. • Large trade book publishers and independents are both struggling in the digital
upheaval and dominance of Amazon.com. Table 10.2: World’s Ten Largest Book Publishers,
2015 The Structure of Book Publishing (1 of 2) • Editorial • Acquisitions editor • Identifies talent
and handles subsidiary rights • Developmental editor • Handles feedback to author and makes
suggestions for improvement • Copy editors • Attend to issues in writing or length The Structure
of Book Publishing (2 of 2) • Production • Production and design managers • Work on the look of
the book • Make decisions about type style, paper, cover design, and layout • Marketing
concerns • Number of copies to print • How to reach potential readers • Costs for promotion and
advertising Figure 10.4: How a Book’s Revenue Is Divided Selling Books: Brick-and-Mortar
Stores, Clubs, and Mail Order (1 of 2) • Brick-and-mortar stores • Book superstores (Barnes &
Noble) • Independents • Big discount retailers (Walmart) • Specialty retailers (Anthropologie) •
Book clubs • Originally helped the industry when local stores were rare • Consolidated into Pride
Tree Holdings, Inc. Selling Books: Brick-and-Mortar Stores, Clubs, and Mail Order (2 of 2) • Mail
order • Pioneered in the 1950s by magazine publishers (Time-Life books) • Sold special sets of
books, one book at a time • Primarily used by trade, professional, and university press
publishers today Selling Books Online • Advantages to consumers • Convenience, low prices,
and access to less popular titles • Amazon.com • Transformed the industry • Major player in
print and e-books • Established Amazon Publishing • Biggest rivals are Apple’s iBookstore and
Google Play Alternative Voices • Public libraries • NewPages.com • Trying to bring together
alternative and university presses, independent bookstores, and guides to literary and
alternative magazines • E-publishing • Enables authors to sidestep traditional publishers Books
and the Future of Democracy • Democracy of reading • Books have played an important role in
spreading democracy and connecting people to new ideas. • Americans are reading more. •
Readers are more likely to perform volunteer and charity work. • Books and reading have
survived the challenge of digital culture.

CHAPTER 11 Advertising and Commercial Culture Advertising in the Digital Age • By 2016, the
only older, or “legacy,” mass medium whose global advertising revenue was not totally disrupted
by the Internet was television. • Television had nearly a 38 percent share of worldwide ad
revenue in 2015 which represented a 2 percent rise between 2007 and 2015. The First
Media and Society

Advertising Agencies • Earliest ad agencies were newspaper space brokers. • Bought

newspaper space, sold it to merchants • Volney Palmer • Prototype of the first ad agency in
1841 • Sold space to advertisers for a 25 percent commission. Advertising in the 1800s (1 of 4) •
N.W. Ayer & Son • First full-service modern ad agency • Worked primarily for advertisers and
product companies • Trademarks and packaging • Manufacturers realized consumers would ask
for their products specifically if they were distinctive and associated with quality. Advertising in
the 1800s (2 of 4) • Advertising let manufacturers establish special identity for their products. •
Nineteenth-century ads created the impression of significant differences among products. •
Early and enduring brands • Smith Brothers (1850s) • Campbell Soup (1869) • Quaker Oats
(1877) Advertising in the 1800s (3 of 4) • Patent medicines • By the end of the 1800s, one-sixth
of all print ads came from patent medicine and drug companies. • Patent medicine ads were
often fraudulent. • Advertisers developed industry codes. • Federal Food and Drug Act was
passed in part due to patent medicine claims. Advertising in the 1800s (4 of 4) • Department
stores • Comprised more than 20 percent of ad space by the early 1890s • Frequently criticized
for undermining small businesses • Impact on newspapers • Advertising significantly changed
the ratio of copy at most papers. • Recent recession hit papers hard. Promoting Social Change
and Dictating Values • Advertising led to social changes. • Transition from producer-directed
society to consumer-driven society • Promoted new technological advances that made life
easier • Emphasized appeals to women • Accused of inciting consumer need for unnecessary
products • Formation of the Ad Council Early Ad Regulation • Advertising regulation entities •
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) • Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) • Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) • American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) • Subliminal
advertising • Hidden or disguised messages • No more effective than regular ads The Influence
of Visual Design (1 of 2) • 1960s • Ad-rich magazines hired European designers as art directors.
• 1970s • Agencies developed teams of writers and artists, granting equal status to images and
words. • 1980s • Visual techniques of MTV influenced many ads and agencies. The Influence of
Visual Design (2 of 2) • 1990s • Advertising mimicked features of the Web, with drop-down
menus. • Twenty-first century • Ads are more three-dimensional and interactive. • Design is
simpler as ads and logos need to appear clearly on small screens of smartphones, and more
international for global audiences. Types of Advertising Agencies • Mega-agencies • Provide a
full range of services • WPP Group, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, and the Interpublic Group •
Boutique agencies • Devote talents to select clients • Peterson Milla Hooks Figure 11.1: Global
Revenue for the World’s Largest Agencies Figure 11.2: Where Will the Advertising Dollars Go?
The Structure of Advertising Agencies (1 of 3) • Account planner • Develops the advertising
strategy • Coordinates market research • Used to assess the behaviors and attitudes of
consumers toward particular products • Methods include demographics, psychographics, focus
groups, and the Values and Lifestyles (VALS) strategy. The Structure of Advertising Agencies (2
of 3) • Creative development • Writers and artists outline rough sketch of ads. • Storyboard (TV)
• Web sites, flash games, downloads, and viral marketing (digital) • Neither creative nor
strategic sides of the business can predict with any certainty which ads and which campaigns
will succeed. The Structure of Advertising Agencies (3 of 3) • Media coordination • Media buyers
• Choose and purchase media based on suitability, target audience, and effectiveness of ads •
Incentive clauses encourage saturation advertising. • Account and client management • Account
executives • Bring in new business, manage accounts, and perform account reviews Trends in
Media and Society

Online Advertising (1 of 3) • Types of online ads • Video ads, sponsorships, and “rich media”
(pop-ups, interstitials, etc.) • Classified ads and e-mail ads • Spam • Paid search advertising •
Leading advertisers are moving more of their ad campaigns and budget dollars to digital media.
Trends in Online Advertising (2 of 3) • Targeting individuals • Collect information through
cookies and online surveys • Track ad impressions and click-throughs • Build profiles for
consumers based on this information • Use smartphone technology to tailor ads by geographic
location or user demographic Trends in Online Advertising (3 of 3) • Social media • Social
networking sites provide advertisers with a wealth of data. • Some sites ask whether users liked
each ad. • Companies buy traditional paid ads on social networking sites. • Controversy over
whether people must disclose if they are paid to promote a product Conventional Persuasive
Strategies • Famous-person testimonial • Plain-folks pitch • Snob-appeal approach •
Bandwagon effect • Hidden-fear appeal • Irritation advertising The Association Principle •
Association principle • Association of a product with a positive cultural value or image even if it
has little connection • Used in most consumer ads • Disassociation • Responding to consumer
backlash, major corporations present products as though from smaller, independent companies.
Advertising as Myth and Story • Myth analysis • Most ads are narratives with stories to tell and
social conflicts to resolve. • Three common mythical elements found in ads • Mini-stories •
Stories involving conflicts • Conflicts are negotiated or resolved, usually through the use of the
product. Product Placement • Placing ads in movies, TV shows, comic books, video games, etc.
• Coca-Cola on American Idol • 200+ marketing partners in Man of Steel, worth $160 Million •
FTC and FCC • Petitioned to mandate warnings • Mandates rejected by the FTC • FCC
proposed placement rules Critical Issues in Advertising • Advertising toys and sugary cereals to
children • Advertising in schools • Impact on health • Eating disorders • Tobacco • Alcohol •
Prescription drugs Watching Over Advertising • Watchdog/advocacy organizations •
Commercial Alert • Better Business Bureau • National Consumers League • Concerns •
Excessive commercialism • Difference between puffery and deception Alternative Voices •
“Truth” campaign • National youth smoking prevention campaign works to deconstruct the
images that have long been associated with cigarette ads. • Recognized by 80 percent of teens
• By 2007, ranked in the Top 10 “most memorable teen brands” Advertising’s Role in Politics •
Political advertising • Use of ad techniques to promote a candidate’s image and persuade the
public to adopt a viewpoint • Can serious information be conveyed in 30-second spots? • Free
air time for politicians • Opposed by broadcasters as political advertising is big business for
television stations The Future of Advertising • Commercialism • Generated cultural feedback
that is often critical of advertising’s pervasiveness • Growth of the industry has not diminished. •
Public maintains an uneasy relationship with advertising.

CHAPTER 12 Public Relations and Framing the Message Public Relations Changes Perception
• Social media allow celebrities and politicians to communicate directly with their audience. •
Some celebrities, like Vin Diesel, have become social media superstars. Diesel’s skillful use of
social media has helped promote his Fast and Furious movie franchise. Public Relations •
Public relations refers to the total communication strategy conducted by a person, a
Media and Society

government, or an organization attempting to reach and persuade an audience to adopt a point

of view. P.T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill • P.T. Barnum • Used gross exaggeration, wild stories, and
staged events to secure newspaper coverage for clients • William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) • Hired
press agents who used a wide variety of media channels • Shaped many lasting myths about
rugged American individualism • Among the first to use publicity Big Business and Press Agents
• Press agents in the 1800s • Hired by large industrial companies • Used by rail companies to
gain government support • Utility companies also used PR strategies to derail competition and
eventually attain monopoly status. • Used bribes and fraud to garner support and eliminate
competition The Birth of Modern Public Relations • Ivy Ledbetter Lee • Understood the
importance of public sentiment • Contained damaging publicity fallout from the Ludlow Mine
strike deaths • Edward Bernays • First to apply findings of psychology and sociology to PR •
Taught the first PR class The Practice of Public Relations • More than 7,000 PR firms in the
United States • Growing academic field since the 1980s • By 2016, Public Relations Society of
America (PRSA) had more than 11,000 members, and over 300 chapters at colleges and
universities. Approaches to Organized Public Relations • PRSA definition of PR • “Public
relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” • Two approaches
• Independent PR agencies • Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton • Corporate in-house PR
staffs • Used by most companies and organizations Table 12.1: Top 10 Public Relations Firms,
2015 (By Worldwide Revenue, in Millions of U.S. Dollars) Performing Public Relations (1 of 5) •
PR pays careful attention to the needs of its clients and the perspectives of target audiences. •
Provides a multitude of services • Publicity, communication, public affairs, issues management,
government relations, financial PR, community relations, industry relations, minority relations,
advertising, press agentry, promotion, media relations, social networking, and propaganda
Performing Public Relations (2 of 5) • Formulating the message • Surveys • Focus groups •
Social media analytic tools • Conveying the message • Press releases • Video news releases
(VNRs) • Public service announcements (PSAs) • Online options Performing Public Relations (3
of 5) • Media relations • PR managers • Secure publicity to promote clients • Act as the point of
contact during crises • Recommend advertising to clients when it seems appropriate • Special
events • Raise a client’s profile • Pseudo-event • Created solely to gain media coverage
Performing Public Relations (4 of 5) • Community relations • PR firms encourage companies to
participate in community activities. • Consumer relations • Companies are encouraged to • Pay
more attention to customers • Establish product service and safety guarantees • Ensure that all
calls and mail from customers are answered promptly Performing Public Relations (5 of 5) •
Government relations • Work to prevent burdensome government regulation • Lobbying •
Attempting to influence lawmakers to support and vote for an organization’s or industry’s best
interests • Astroturf lobbying • Phony grassroots public-affairs campaigns engineered by PR
firms Figure 12.1: Total Lobbying Spending and Number of Lobbyists (2000- 2015) Public
Relations Adapts to the Internet Age • Company Web sites are the home base for PR efforts. •
Companies can interact with audiences via social media. • PR still needs to control messages. •
Firms have edited company Wikipedia entries and paid bloggers to promote products. Public
Relations during a Crisis • Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 was benchmark for how April 2010 BP
oil spill was judged. • BP’s PR mistakes included multiple underestimations of damage done and
the CEO’s lack of empathy. • Tylenol scare of 1982 • Full disclosure, pulled products, replaced
with more secure bottles Tensions between Public Relations and the Press • Elements of
Media and Society

Professional Friction • Flack • Derogatory term for PR agents that refers to the protective barrier
they insert between clients and the press • Sources of conflict • Undermining facts and blocking
access • Promoting publicity and business as news Shaping the Image of Public Relations •
PRSA • Internal watchdog group • Accredits PR agents and firms • Maintains a code of ethics •
Probes its own practices • PRSA Member Professional Values • Advocacy • Honesty • Expertise
• Independence • Loyalty • Fairness Alternative Voices • PR practices are not often the subject
of media reports because PR works closely with the press. • Center for Media and Democracy •
Published books about PR practices • The Best War Ever • Toxic Sludge Is Good for You • Mad
Cow USA Public Relations and Democracy • Politicians hire PR firms to improve their images. •
PR campaigns that result in free media exposure raise questions regarding democracy and the
expression of ideas. • Journalists need to become less willing conduits in the distribution of
publicity.

CHAPTER 13
Media Economics and the Global Marketplace The Growth of Mass Media Companies • In 2007,
Netflix changed TV culture with the idea of movie distribution through Internet streaming to
customers for a flat monthly fee with no late fee. • In 2013, Netflix began creating its own
original series. • By 2015, Netflix generated about $6.8 billion in annual revenue with over 75
million streaming members in over 190 countries. The Structure of the Media Industry • Three
common structures • Monopoly • One firm dominates production and distribution in a particular
industry. • Oligopoly • A few firms dominate an industry. • Limited competition • Many producers
and sellers, but only a few products within a particular category The Business of Media
Organizations • Collecting revenue • Direct payment • Indirect payment • Commercial strategies
and social expectations • Economies of scale principle • Economic analyses let consumers
examine instances when mass media fall short. From Regulation to Deregulation (1 of 2) • Major
regulation legislation • Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) • Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) • Celler-
Kefauver Act (1950) • Escalation of deregulation • Carter, Reagan weakened controls. • Some
thought deregulation would lower prices and others predicted mergers—both were right. From
Regulation to Deregulation (2 of 2) • Deregulation continues today. • In 1995, News Corp.
received a special dispensation allowing it to own and operate the Fox network and a number of
local TV stations. • In 2007, the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule was relaxed. •
Deregulation movement has returned media economics to nineteenth-century principles. Media
Powerhouses: Consolidation, Partnerships, and Mergers (1 of 2) • Major deals • In 1995, Disney
bought ABC for $19 billion and Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting for $7.5 billion. • AOL
acquired Time Warner—a $164 billion deal—in 2001, only to spin the company off by 2009. •
AOL bought the Huffington Post for $315 million in 2011 before being bought by Verizon in 2015
for $4.4 billion. • Comcast purchased a majority stake in NBC Universal in 2009. Media
Powerhouses: Consolidation, Partnerships, and Mergers (2 of 2) • Until the 1980s, antitrust
rules attempted to ensure diversity of ownership among competing businesses. • Media
competition has been usurped by media consolidation. • Most media companies have skirted
Media and Society

monopoly charges by purchasing diverse types of mass media. Business Tendencies in Media
Industries (1 of 2) • Flexible markets • Elastic economy • Expansion of the service sector • Need
to serve individual consumer preferences • Relies on cheap labor • Demands rapid product
development and efficient market research • Decline in the number of workers who belong to
labor unions Business Tendencies in Media Industries (2 of 2) • Downsizing • Supposed to
make companies more flexible and profitable • Problematic results • Companies unable to
compete due to too few employees and a decline in innovation • Main beneficiaries have been
CEOs. • Significant wage gap Figure 13.3: CEO-to-Worker Wage Gap, 1965 and 2013
Economics, Hegemony, and Storytelling (1 of 2) • Hegemony • Acceptance of the dominant
values in a culture by those who are subordinate to those who hold economic and political
power • Must convince consumers and citizens that the interests of the powerful are common
sense and thus normal or natural Economics, Hegemony, and Storytelling (2 of 2) • Storytelling
• Used by candidates running for office to espouse their connection to Middle American
common sense and “down home” virtues • Narratives work by identifying with the culture’s
dominant values. • Hegemony explains why we sometimes support plans that may not be in our
best interest. The Rise of Specialization and Synergy (1 of 2) • Specialization • Magazine, radio,
and cable industries sought specialized markets to counter TV’s mass appeal. • By the 1980s,
television embraced niche marketing. • Young and old viewers sought other specialized forms of
media. The Rise of Specialization and Synergy (2 of 2) • Synergy • The promotion and sale of
different versions of a media product across the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate •
Default business mode of most media companies today Figure 13.4: Synergy Disney: A
Postmodern Media Conglomerate (1 of 4) • The early years • Set the standard for popular
cartoons and children’s culture • The company diversifies. • Expanded into live action and
documentaries and embraced TV • Started Buena Vista, a distribution company • Rereleased
movies Disney: A Postmodern Media Conglomerate (2 of 4) • Global expansion • Death of Walt
Disney in 1966 triggered a period of decline. • Michael Eisner initiated a turnaround in 1984. •
Touchstone movie division • Hand-drawn animated hits • Partnered with Pixar Animation
Studios, creating computer-animated blockbusters Disney: A Postmodern Media Conglomerate
(3 of 4) • Disney came to epitomize the synergistic possibilities of media consolidation. •
Continued finding new sources of revenue through the 1990s • Purchased ABC, including ESPN
• Launched Broadway musicals • Opened more theme parks • Introduced the Disney Channel to
the Middle East and North Africa Disney: A Postmodern Media Conglomerate (4 of 4) •
Corporate shake-ups • Early 2000s brought multiple problems for Disney. • Robert Iger replaced
Eisner and • Repaired the relationship with Pixar • Landed a distribution deal with DreamWorks
studios • Sold Miramax and its radio stations • Became a partner in Hulu.com • Purchased
Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion in 2009 • Purchased Lucasfilm in 2012 Global Audiences
Expand Media Markets • International expansion has allowed media conglomerates some
advantages. • As media technologies get cheaper and more profitable, American media
proliferate inside and outside national boundaries. • Globalism permits companies that lose
money on products at home to profit abroad. The Internet and Convergence Change the Game
(1 of 2) • Companies struggle in the transition to digital. • Traditional broadcast and cable
services have challenged sites like YouTube for displaying content without permission. • These
companies are unsure of how to get people accustomed to free online content to pay. The
Internet and Convergence Change the Game (2 of 2) • New digital media conglomerates •
Media and Society

Largest digital media companies • Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft • Each has
become powerful for a different reason. • Still need to provide compelling narratives to attract
people • Digital age favors small, flexible start-up companies. The Limits of Antitrust Laws •
Diversification • Most media companies diversify, never fully dominating a particular media
industry. • Promotes oligopolies • Local monopolies • Antitrust laws aim to curb national
monopolies, not local, and have no teeth globally. The Fallout from a Free Market • Lack of
public debate on the tightening oligopoly structure of international media boils down to two
major issues: • Reluctance to criticize capitalism • Debate over how much control consumers
have in the marketplace • Consumer control differs from consumer choice Cultural Imperialism
(1 of 2) • Cultural imperialism • Refers to American styles dominating the globe • Although many
indigenous forms of media culture are popular, U.S. dominance in producing and distributing
mass media puts a severe burden on countries attempting to produce their own cultural
products. Cultural Imperialism (2 of 2) • Supporters • Creates an arena in which citizens can
raise questions • Universal popular culture creates a global village. • Critics • Protests can be
turned into products and lose their bite. • “Cultural dumping” hampers the development of native
cultures. • Causes cultural disconnection The Media Marketplace and Democracy • Superficial
consumer concerns, not broader social issues, dominate the media agenda. • Mass media
mergers make public debate over economic issues difficult. • Local groups and consumer
movements are working to challenge “Big Media.”

CHAPTER 14
The Culture of Journalism: Values, Ethics, and Democracy Nellie Bly’s Lasting Influence A
lifetime champion of women and the poor, Nellie Bly pioneered what was then called detective
or stunt journalism. Her work inspired the twentieth-century practice of investigative journalism.
What Is News? (1 of 2) • Definition of news • The process of gathering information and making
narrative reports that offer selected frames of reference that help people make sense of
important events, political issues, cultural trends, prominent people, and unusual happenings in
everyday life What Is News? (2 of 2) • Criteria for newsworthiness • Timeliness • Proximity •
Conflict • Prominence • Human interest • Consequence • Usefulness • Novelty • Deviance
Values in American Journalism (1 of 2) • General belief that journalists should be neutral
observers • Herbert Gans • Four subjective values shape news judgments: • Ethnocentrism •
Responsible capitalism • Small-town pastoralism • Individualism Values in American Journalism
(2 of 2) • Reporters have traditionally aligned facts with an objective position and values with
subjective feelings. • Partisan cable channels undermine reporters who try to report fairly. •
Beliefs leading to suspicion of press bias include • Reporters are out to get their subjects •
Press is too close to its subjects Ethical Predicaments (1 of 2) • Deploying deception • Two
major ethical positions • Absolutist ethics (ends never justify the means) • Situational ethics
(ethical decisions on a case-by-case basis) • Invading privacy • Journalists often straddle a line
between “the public’s right to know” and the right to privacy. Ethical Predicaments (2 of 2) •
Journalism’s code of ethics warns reporters and editors not to place themselves in positions that
produce a conflict of interest. • Any situation where journalists may stand to benefit personally
from stories they produce Resolving Ethical Problems (1 of 2) • Aristotle • Golden mean •
Media and Society

Immanuel Kant • Categorical imperative • Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill • Greatest good
for the greatest number Resolving Ethical Problems (2 of 2) • Steps to arriving at an ethical
decision • Laying out the case • Pinpointing the key issues • Identifying involved parties, their
intents, and their competing values • Studying ethical models • Presenting strategies and
options • Formulating a decision Focusing on the Present (1 of 2) • 1840s • Rise of the telegraph
• Editors wanted to focus on the present. • De-emphasized political analysis and historical
context • Modern journalism • Rejects “old news” for new events or ideas • News often lacks
historical context. Focusing on the Present (2 of 2) • Getting a good story • Criticism of
journalism for allowing narrative conventions to trump the social responsibility to tell the truth •
Getting a story first • Self-promotion for beating competitors to a story is routine. • Not always
clear how the public is better served by a journalist’s claim to have gotten a story first Relying on
Experts • Relying on outside sources has made reporters heavily dependent on experts. • Need
for public mediators • Reporters frequently use experts to create narrative conflict. • Experts
historically predominantly white and male • Line between remaining neutral and being an expert
is blurred. Balancing Story Conflict • Balance means presenting all sides of an issue without
appearing to favor any position. • Presents problems • Time and space constraints •
Misrepresentation of the complexity of social issues • Journalists’ claiming neutrality makes
them appear value-free • Disguises journalists’ narrative function Acting as Adversaries •
Adversarial relationship between leaders, journalists • Tough questioning style • “Gotcha” story •
Critics argue that it fosters cynicism among journalists when overused and may cause some
reporters to miss other issues or key stories. Differences between Print, TV, and Internet News
(1 of 2) • Broadcast news • Driven by technology, not the story • Times stories to fit commercials
• Expected to be credible and provide believable imagery • Print reporters • Report on stories
where they occur • Cut stories to fit physical space • Expected to be detached Differences
between Print, TV, and Internet News (2 of 2) • Pretty-face, happy-talk culture • Stereotype of
the attractive but half-witted anchor • Happy talk refers to ad-libbed or scripted news team
banter. • Sound bites • TV equivalent of a quote • Have become the focus of intense criticism
Pundits, “Talking Heads,” and Politics • 24/7 news cycle has changed the definition of news. •
Less expensive “talking head” pundit has become the standard. • Partisan programming •
Conservative: Fox News • Liberal: MSNBC • Middle: CNN • Audiences seem to prefer partisan
“talking heads.” Convergence Enhances and Changes Journalism • Ability to update breaking
news instantly • Problems with online news • E-mail interviews give power to interview subjects.
• Wide-ranging resources have made it easy to intentionally or unwittingly copy others’ work. •
Reporters must meet the demands convergence has made on reporting. The Power of Visual
Language • Visual imagery of TV news and the Internet often captures events more powerfully
than words. • The Internet functions as a repository for news images and videos. • Allows us to
catch up on stories • May result in overexposure to clips The Public Journalism Movement (1 of
2) • Key aspects of public journalism • Moves from • “Telling the news” to helping public life go
well • Detachment to being a fair-minded participant in public life • Describing what is “going
wrong” to imagining what “going right” would be like • Seeing people as consumers to seeing
them as a public The Public Journalism Movement (2 of 2) • Public journalism • Best imagined
as a conversational model for journalistic practice • Began in earnest in 1987 through the
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer • Critics claim it weakens: • Editorial control • Credibility • Balance •
Diverse views “Fake” News and Satiric Journalism • Appeal to cynical viewers • Use humor to
Media and Society

critique the news media and our political system • The Colbert Report satirizes partisan news
hosts like Bill O’Reilly. • The Daily Show parodies the conventions of evening news programs.
Democracy and Reimagining Journalism’s Role • Some journalists acknowledge a social
responsibility. • James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men • Deliberative democracy •
Citizen groups, local government, and the news media together work more actively to shape
social, economic, and political agendas.

CHAPTER 15 Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research Should Life Imitate Culture?
Since the emergence of popular music, movies, television, and video games as influential mass
media, the relationship between make-believe stories and real-life imitation has drawn a great
deal of attention. Researching the Effect of Mass Media on Individuals and Society • Media
effects research • Attempts to understand, explain, and predict the effects of mass media on
individuals and society • Cultural studies • Focuses on how people make meaning, articulate
values, comprehend reality, and arrange experiences through cultural symbols Early Media
Research Methods • Propaganda analysis • Public opinion research • Social psychology studies
• Marketing research Early Theories of Media Effects (1 of 2) • Hypodermic-needle model •
Media shoot effects directly into unsuspecting victims. • Minimal-effects model • Researchers
argued that people generally engage in selective exposure and selective retention with regard to
the media. Early Theories of Media Effects (2 of 2) • Uses and gratifications model •
Researchers studied the ways in which people used the media to satisfy various emotional or
intellectual needs. Conducting Media Effects Research (1 of 4) • Private or proprietary research
• Generally conducted for a business, a corporation, or a political campaign • Usually applied
research • Public research • Usually takes place in academic and government settings • More
often theoretical information Conducting Media Effects Research (2 of 4) • Most research today
employs the scientific method. • Identify the research problem. • Review existing research. •
Develop a working hypothesis. • Determine an appropriate method. • Collect information or
relevant data. • Analyze results. • Interpret the implications. Conducting Media Effects Research
(3 of 4) • Scientific method relies on: • Objectivity • Reliability • Validity • Hypotheses • Tentative
general statements that predict the influence of an independent variable on a dependent
variable Conducting Media Effects Research (4 of 4) • Experiments • Test whether a hypothesis
is true • Utilize an experimental group and a control group • Survey research • Collecting and
measuring data from a group of respondents • Content analysis • Studies specific media
messages Contemporary Media Effects Theories (1 of 3) • Social learning theory • Four-step
process • Attention • Retention • Motor reproduction • Motivation • Agenda-setting • Media set
the agenda for major topics of discussion. Contemporary Media Effects Theories (2 of 3) •
Cultivation effect • Heavy viewing of television leads individuals to perceive reality in ways
consistent with portrayals on television. • Spiral of silence • Those whose views are in the
minority will keep their views to themselves for fear of social isolation. Contemporary Media
Effects Theories (3 of 3) • Third-person effect • People believe others are more affected by
media messages than they are themselves. • Instrumental in censorship Evaluating Research
on Media Effects • Media effects research is inconsistent and often flawed. • Continues to
resonate because it offers an easy-to-blame social cause for real-world violence • Limits on
Media and Society

research • Funding • Inability to address how media affect communities and social institutions
Early Developments in Cultural Studies Research (1 of 2) • Karl Marx and Antonio Gramsci •
Investigated how mass media support existing hierarchies • Examined how popular culture and
sports distract people from redressing social injustices • Addressed the subordinate status of
particular social groups Early Developments in Cultural Studies Research (2 of 2) • Frankfurt
School • Three inadequacies of traditional scientific approaches • Reduce large “cultural
questions” to measurable and “verifiable categories” • Depended on “an atmosphere of rigidly
enforced neutrality” • Refused to place “the phenomena of modern life” in a “historical and moral
context” Conducting Cultural Studies Research • Textual analysis • Highlights the close reading
and interpretation of cultural messages • Audience studies • Subject being researched is the
audience for the text. • Political economy studies • Examines interconnections among economic
interests, political power, and how that power is used Cultural Studies’ Theoretical Perspectives
(1 of 2) • The public sphere • A space for critical public debate • Advanced by German
philosopher Jürgen Habermas • Society in England and France in late seventeenth century and
eighteenth century created spaces (coffeehouses, pubs) for public discourse. Cultural Studies’
Theoretical Perspectives (2 of 2) • Communication as culture • James Carey argued that
communication is a cultural ritual. • Described it as “a symbolic process whereby reality is
produced, maintained, repaired, and transformed” • Leads researchers to consider
communication’s symbolic process as culture itself Evaluating Cultural Studies Research •
Cultural studies research • Involves interpreting written and visual “texts” or artifacts as symbolic
representations that contain cultural, historical, and political meaning • Affords the freedom to
broadly interpret the impact of mass media • Like media effects research, it has its limits. Media
Research and Democracy (1 of 2) • Academics in media studies charged with increased
specialization and use of jargon • Alienates nonacademics • Many researchers isolated from life
outside of the university • Larger public often excluded from access to the research process
Media Research and Democracy (2 of 2) • Public intellectuals based on campuses help carry on
the conversations of society and culture, actively circulating the most important new ideas of the
day and serving as models for how to participate in public life.

Chapter 16
Legal controls and freedom of expression

THe campaign spending controversy

“Politicians are dependent on ‘the funders’ but the funder are not “the People”” Lawrence
Lessig, Harvard professor

Models of expression
Four conventional models
Authoritarian model- Public guided by an educated ruling class
Communist/state model, government controls press
Social responsibility model, press functions as a fourth estate
Media and Society

Libertarian Model, no restrictions on speech

The first amendment of the US constitution

Us constitution 1788
Freedom of press not included
Added by the bill of rights 1791
Sedition Act 1798
Intended to silence opposition to an anticipated war with France
Expired in 1801 during Thomas Jefferson's presidency and all convicted defendants were
pardoned

Censorship as prior restraint

Prior restraint
Government cannot block speech or publication before it occurs
Pentagon papers case
Supreme court ruled that the press must be left free to publish new whatever the source without
censorship injunctions or prior restraints
Progessive magazine case
National security as a cause for restraint
Article offered how to H Bomb guide
Judge Robert Warren sided with the government based on the national security factor
Case was dropped during appeal and the article was published

Unprotected Forms of Expression

Seditious expression
Schenck V united states established clear and present danger criterion for expression
Copyright infringement
Copyright protects the rights of authors and producers to their published or unpublished work
Libel
Defamation of character in written or broadcast form
More difficult to prove in cases involving public figures
Defenses
Qualified privilege
Rule of opinion and fair comment
Satire comedy and opinions expressed in reviews
Obscenity
Under Miller v california 1973 material must meet three criteria
Average person would find that the material as a whole appeals to prurient interest
The material depicts or describes sesxual contact in a patently offensive wat
The material as a whole lacks serious literary, artist, political, or scientific value
Right to privacy
Persons right to be left alone without his or her name, image, or daily activities becoming public
property
News media generally granted wide protections under the first amendment
Media and Society

Most journalism organizations use their own guidelines

First amendment versus 6th amendment

First amendment
Protections of speech and press
sixth amendment
Guarantees a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury
Gag order place restrictions on lawyers and witnesses
Shield laws protect reporters from having reveal sources
Cameras in the courtroom
Trial of bruno hauptmann 1930s
Supreme court ruled that the presence of cameras does not make a fair trial imposible
All states now all cameras with certain restrictions
US federal courts allow limited coverage
Supreme court continues its ban

Social and political pressures on the movies

Early twentieth century
Censorship groups formed on the belief that movies would undermine morality
Film review boards were formed
Boxing films were targeted
Supreme court ruled that movies were not a form of speech but a business pure and simple and
merely a spectacle for entertainment

Self regulation in the movie industry

Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America MPPDA
Established motion picture production code in the 1930s
Miracle Case
Supreme court decisions granted films free speech protection and rendered most activities of
film review boards unconstitutional
The MPAA Rating System
Established rating as guideposts for the suitability of films for various age groups G PG PG13 R
NC17

Expression in the media:Print broadcast Online

McCarthy hearings during the Cold War
Red channels names those sympathetic to communist left wing causes
Among those scarred by witch hunts
Lena Horne
Dashiell Hammett
Arthur Miller

The FCC regulates Broadcasting

Red Lion Broadcasting v FCC
Media and Society

Radio broadcasters responsibilities to public interest outweigh the right to choose programming
Miami Herald publishing v Tornillo
Supreme Court ruled the right to reply law is unconstitutional for newspapers

Dirty words, indecent speech, and hefty fines

Broadcasters may be punished for indecency or profanity
1937 Mae West Sketch
1960 Topless radio
1973 George Carlin Seven Dirty Words
1990s Howard Stern
2004 Without a Trace and Janet Jackson's Super Bowl performance

Political Broadcast and Equal Opportunity

Section 315
Stations must provide equal opportunities and response time for qualified political candidates
during elections
Exempts new broadcasts
Supporters of equal opportunity law argue that it has provided forums for lesser known
candidates

The demise of the fairness doctrine

Fairness Doctrine
Required stations to
Air and engage t\in controversial-issue programs affecting their communities
Provide competing points of view when offering suhc programming
Broadcasters argued it created an unfair burden
Ended in 1987
Support periodically resurfaces

Communication Policy and the internet

Internet regulation
Internet regarded as the one true venue for unlimited free speech
Public conversation focuses on First Amendment issues
Battle over net neutrality rules
Will determine whether broadband internet connections will be defined as an essential or an
information services

The first amendment and democracy

As citizens, we must
Engage in public debate about media ownership
Pay attention to those excluded from opportunities not only to buy products but to shape the
cultural landscape
Challenge journalist and leaders
Become watchdogs and critical consumers