Chapter 1: Understanding Mass Media, Convergence,  and the Importance of Media Literacy 2/14/16 5:41 PM Media Convergence & Mass Communication

What is a Media Convergence?

Media Convergence: takes place when products typically linked to one medium,  show up on many media; a central aspect of mass communication today  • Ex: Cosmo or SI magazine have an app and website, and can be accessed  on iPhone, tablet, smart phone, print magazine, etc.

Three C’s of media convergence:

1. Content => messages

2. Corporations => companies that interact to create and distribute the content 3. Computers => brings convergence into the mass media picture

• Crucial difference between computer-centered mass media and other  media technologies is that they’re digital rather than analog

o Analog: electronic transmission accomplished y adding signals;  

broadcast and pone transmissions conventionally have used analog  

technology

o Digital: electronic technology that generates, stores, processes and  transmits data in the form of strings of 0s and 1s (bits/bytes) –

What is communication?

coding

Defining Mass Communication

Dominick’s definition: the process by which a complex organization with the aid of  one or more machines produces and transmits public messages that are directed at  large, heterogeneous and scattered audiences If you want to learn more check out psychology midterm exam

• Emphasizes PRODUCTION and TRANSMISSION

• “large”, public

• technology

• complex organization

Turow’s definition: mass communication - the industrialized production and multiple  distribution of messages through technological devices

• Emphasizes INDUSTRIALIZATION and DISTRIBUTION

• Size/nature of audience are open

Mass communication – carried out by organizations working together in  industries to produce and circulate a wide range of content

• Mass production process: the industrial process that creates the potential  for reaching millions, even billions, of diverse, anonymous people almost  simultaneously

What is Cultural Studies?

• Industrial nature: the aspect of mass production processes involved in  creating the message material that distinguishes mass communication  from other forms of communication

• Mass media: the technological vehicles (PLURAL) through which mass  communication takes place

• Mass media outlets: companies that send out messages via mass media  (ex: Time Magazine, foxnews.com)

*transforming media world challenges both definitions (ex: Facebook, YouTube,  Pinterest) and the rise of technology has led to audience fragmentation: the  process of dividing audience members into segments based on background and  lifestyle in order to send them messages targeted to their specific characteristics

The Elements of Communication We also discuss several other topics like fst notes

• “Communication”: refers to people interacting in ways that at least one of  the parties involved understands as messages

o messages: collections of symbols (words, signs) that appear  purposely organized (meaningful) to those sending or receiving  them

• Interpersonal communication: involved two or three individuals signaling  to each other using their voices, facial and hand gestures, and other signs  (even clothes) to convey meaning

o Ex: Jane shouts excitedly to her friend Jack and leaps into his arms  after winning a tennis match  

• Mediated interpersonal communication: specialized type of interpersonal  communication that is assisted by a medium

o Medium: part of a technical system that help in the transmission,  distribution or reception of messages (ex: phone, computer, pen,  pencil); Ex: writing a thank-you note to your grandmother

• 8 major elements in every interaction that involves a message 1. Source: originator of the message

2. Encoding: when the source organizes and prepares to send the  message

3. Transmitter: performs the physical activity of sending the message 4. Channel: pathway through which the transmitter sends the message 5. Receiver: person or organization that gets the message

6. Decoder: process by which the receiver makes sense of the message 7. Feedback: a response to the message

8. Noise: a sound in the communication situation that interferes with  the delivery of the message

*Main difference between mass communication and the 2 forms of interpersonal  communication relates to the nature of the source and receiver

• Mass communication source = organization

• Interpersonal communication source = individual people If you want to learn more check out tm sugn

How Do We Use the Mass Media in Our Daily Lives?

1. Enjoyment

a. Can ignite everyday talk

b. Social currency: media content used as coins of exchange in everyday  interpersonal discussions

i. (ex: “Did you hear Jay Leno’s monologue last night?”)

2. Companionship

a. Can bring a sense of camaraderie to people who are lonely or those who  are alone

i. Parasocial interaction: the psychological connections that some  media users establish with celebrities whom they learn about through  the mass media

• Ex: Actor’s Facebook pages and Twitter posts might lead fans  to feel a special knowledge of or a relationship with the  

person

3. Surveillance: using the media to learn about what is happening in the world  around us

a. Ex: Turning on the TV or radio to find out the weather

4. Interpretation: using the media to find out why things are happening—who or  what is the cause—and what to do about them

a. Ex: reading newspaper editorials to understand the actions of national  leaders and to come to conclusions about our stand on an issue

How Do the Mass Media Influence Culture?

Culture: ways of life that are passed on to members of a society through time and  that keep the society together

• Lays out guidelines about who belongs to the society and what rules apply  to them If you want to learn more check out chem 1010 clemson

• Helps us make sense of ourselves and our place in the world

• Allows for subcultures: the existence of groups with habits that many  people consider odd but not threatening to the more general way of life o Ex: The Amis of Pennsylvania who live without modern appliances  at home

o Mass media present ideas of the culture in three broad and related  ways; they help us: We also discuss several other topics like bsc 2010 exam 1

1. Identify and discuss the codes of acceptable behavior within  our society

2. Learn what and who counts in our world and why

3. Determine what others think of us and what people “like us”  think of others

Society: large numbers of individuals, groups and organizations that live in the  same general area and consider themselves connected to one another through the  sharing of a culture Don't forget about the age old question of ethnography powerpoint

• Sharing includes learned behaviors, beliefs and values

Criticism of Mass Media’s Influence on Culture

1. Use stereotypes: predictable predictions that reflect (and sometimes  create) cultural prejudices

2. Use political ideologies: beliefs about who should hold the greatest power  within a culture

3. Mass media detract from the quality of American culture

4. Mass media’s cultural presentations encourage political and economic  manipulation of their audiences  

Media Literacy

The ability to apply critical thinking skills to the mass media, thereby becoming a  more aware and responsible citizen—parent, voter, worker—in our media-driven  society

Principles of Media Literacy

1. The Media Construct our Individual Realities

a. Ex: “What’s going on in Iran?”

2. The Media Are Influenced by Industrial Pressures  

a. Ex: ads, cost of paper, cost of __.

3. The Media Are Influenced by Political Pressures

a. Ex: government will tax more on ___ ads or images; the time that  Democratic debates are held

4. The Media Are Influenced by Format

5. Audiences Are Active Recipients of the Media

a. They can choose to ignore or think about a message in a certain way 6. The Media Tells Us Who We Are as a Society

a. Ex: notions of romance stem from chick-flicks  

Media Literacy Tools

1. Consider Authorship => Who created this message and why are they sending it? 2. Evaluate the Audience => Who are the intended targets of these media  materials? How might different people understand these materials similarly and  differently?

3. Determine the Institutional Purpose => Why is this content being sent? 4. Analyze the Content => What values, lifestyles, and points of view are  represented (or omitted) from this message?

5. Identify the Media Techniques => What creative techniques are being used to  attract my attention?

Key Words: 

Literacy: the ability to effectively comprehend and use messages that are  expressed in written or printed symbols, such as letters

Interactivity: the ability to track and respond to any actions triggered by the end  user, in order to cultivate a rapport

Chapter 2: Making Sense of Research on Media  Effects and Media Culture 2/14/16 5:41 PM Mass Media Research 

The use of systematic methods to understand or solve problems regarding the mass  media

The Chicago School: aim was to search for community through the immigrant press

propaganda: messages designed to change the attitudes and behavior of huge  numbers of otherwise disconnected individuals on controversial social issues • Stemmed from successful manipulation of newspaper reports and  photographs by both the Allies and German government during WWI • Agenda setting: the notion that the media create “the ideas in our heads”  about what is going on the world; gives us an agenda of importance but  lets you have your own opinion about it  

Propaganda analysis: the systematic examination of mass media messages that  seem designed to sway the attitudes of large populations on controversial issues • Took a magic bullet or hypodermic needle approach to mass  

communication: the idea that messages delivered through the mass  media persuade all people powerfully and directly (as if they were hit by a  bullet or injected by a needle) without the people have any control over  the way they react

two-step flow model: (1) media content (opinion and fact) is picked up by people  who use the media frequently and (2) these people act as opinion leaders when  they discuss the media with others, influencing the others

active audience: the idea that people are not simply passive recipients of media  messages; they respond to content based on their personal backgrounds, interests,  and interpersonal relationships

• Best known aspect of this research is uses and gratifications research:  studies how people use media products to meet their needs and interests;  asks questions about why individuals use mass media

“The American Soldier”

• Carl Hovland conducted naturalistic experiments: a study in which  randomly selected people are manipulated in a relatively controlled  environment without knowing that they are involved in an experiment

• Concluded that the mass media’s ability to change people’s attitudes and  behavior on controversial issues was minimal

Consolidating the Mainstream Approach

Mainstream approach: the research models that developed out of the work of the  Columbia School, Yale and Payne Fund Studies

• Studying behavior and opinion change

• Research on whether TV can encourage leaning skills in children • Research on which individuals learn about national and world affairs from  mass media

Which Individuals Learn about National and World Affairs from the Mass  Media?

UNC Chapel Hill study demonstrates the agenda-setting effect: mass media  agenda-setting has the ability to affect spark public dialogue on major topics facing  the nation, but not the opinions they should have.

• Found that people who are information-rich to begin with will get richer  faster than people are information-poor.

o Knowledge gap: a theory that holds that in the development of any  social or political issues, the more highly educated segments of a  population know more about the issues early on and acquire  

information about that issue at a faster rate then the less educated  segments; the difference between the two types of people grows  wider

o Digital divide: the separation between those who have access to  and knowledge about technology and those who do not (perhaps  because of their level of education or income)

2 major problems with even the best mainstream research:

1. it stresses change rather then continuity

i. ignores the possibility that the most important effects on the media  don’t have to do with changing people, but with encouraging them to  continue certain actions or perspectives on life

2. it emphasizes the active role on the individual in the media and not on the  power of larger social forces that control the media environment i. neglected to emphasize that there are powerful forces that exert  control over what media industries do as part of their control over  society

The Rise of Critical Approaches

• The Frankfurt School: studied the relationship between capitalism and  culture

o Wrote the critical theory: theories focusing on the corrosive  

influence of capitals on culture

o Marcuse: suggested to researchers how messages about social  power can be found in all aspects of media content, even if typical  audience members don’t recognize them

▪ Co-optation: expresses the way in which capitalism takes  

potentially revolutionary ideas and tames them to express  

capitalist ideals:  

• Cultivation studies: Studies that emphasize that when media  systematically portray certain populations in unfavorable ways, the ideas  that mainstream audiences pick up about those people help certain  groups in society retain their power over the groups they denigrate o Most associated with Professor George Gerbner at Penn’s  

Annenberg School: argues that TV violence is a kind of ritual ballet  that acts out social power and the overall message of TV violence is  that we live in a scary, mean world

• Political economy research: an area of study that focuses specifically on  the relationship between the economic and the cultural and that looks at  when and how the economic structures of society and the media system  reflect the political interests of society’s rich and powerful

o Robert McChesney: “the problem of the media” is that we have  reached the “age of commercialism” where media worry far more  about satisfying advertisers and shareholders than entertainment

o Ben Bagdikian: huge media firms are often involved in many  businesses outside journalism = conflict of interest

o Many political scientists study colonialism and cultural colonialism 

Cultural Studies 

Studies that start with the idea that all sorts of mass media, from newspapers to  movies, present their audiences with technologies and texts and that audiences find  meaning in them; scholars then ask questions that center on how to think about  what “making meaning” of technologies and texts means and what consequences it  has for those audiences in society

• Historical approaches

o Professor Lynn Spigel: explores the expectations that men and  women have had for audiovisual technologies in the home and how  those expectations have tied into larger social issues

o Ex: a historical relationship between home TV use and social fear

• Anthropological approaches  

o Closely examine the way people use media by tying people’s uses  of media to their class, racial, or gender positions within society o Professor Ellen Sieter, 1997: wrote on differences between men  and women and the use of television and computers in the home • Literary and Linguistic approaches:  

o Less straightforward and more difficult to understand than the  historical and anthropological approaches; finding out where the  meaning of the text lies

▪ On one extreme are scholars who believe text is  

polysemous: open to multiple meanings  

▪ The other side is that the meaning is the text itself  

Key Words: 

Panel survey – asking the same individuals questions over a period of time in order  to find out whether and how the attitudes of these people change over time

Priming: the process by which the media affect the standard that individuals use to  evaluate what they see and hear in the media

Capitalism: as defined by Karl Marx, the ownership of the means of production by a  ruling class in society

Colonialism: control over a dependent area or people by a powerful entity by force  or arms

Cultural colonialism: the exercise of control over an area or people by a dominant  power, not so much through force of arms as by surrounding the weaker countries  with cultural materials that reflect values and beliefs supporting the interests of that dominant power

Chapter 3: The Business of Media 2/14/16 5:41 PM

Defining and Constructing a Target Audience

*When advertisers contribute a firm’s revenue stream, the firm’s executives face 4 challenges:

1. They must create content that will attract audiences

2. They must place the content on a variety of media, knowing the  importance of convergence

3. They must make sure that the content and audience it brings in will be  attractive to advisors on these media = $$$

4. Must decide whether enough advertisers want to reach that audience to  provide adequate revenue

Creating Content to Attract the Target Audience  

*Key challenge: knowing the kind of content to present to their target audiences  and how to present it

Primary Genres that Media Practitioners Discuss:

1. Entertainment: material that grabs the audience’s attention and leaves  agreeable feelings instead of challenging their views of themselves and the  world

a. Ex: festivals (SXSW, Grammy’s, Super Bowl), gaming, dramas, comedy i. Formula = setting, typical characters, patterns of action

1. Tensions between continuity and change

ii. Creators reference previously popular creations to reduce risk

1. Risks: lack of nuance / originality; imitation with variation

2. Plot Device: The Gauntlet (a set of trials)

a. Dam Busters & Star Wars

2. News: the telling of nonfiction stories

a. Hard news: marked by timeliness, unusualness, conflict and closeness  (geographically or physically)

i. Normally refers to politics, domestic, foreign/affairs and the like

ii. Aims at objectivity: presenting a fair, balanced, and impartial  

representation; a strategy that journalists use to get their work done  and defend themselves from the “risks of their trade. Uses the  

following tools to maintain objectivity:

1. Inverted pyramid written form

2. Told in 3rd person

3. Has at least 2 sides of conflict

4. Uses quotes to back up statements

5. Title on screen telling who is being interviewed

6. Filmed from the height of a normal person

7. People from different sides should have the same amount of  time to recount their story

b. Investigative Reports: in-depth explorations of some aspects of reality;  seek to uncover corruption or other problems in gov. or business i. Major differentiator: much more time to work on them

c. Editorials: concentrates on an individual’s or organization’s POV i. Ex: columnists, blogs, op-ed (opposing editorials)

d. Soft News: may not be of as critical importance as hard news but would  still appeal to a substantial number of people

i. Ex: “human interest” stories; lifestyle, sports, art/entertainment,  ordinary people and local events

3. Education: content that is purposefully crafted to teach people specific ideas  about the world in specific ways

a. Ex: “instructional materials”, Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, text books 4. Advertising: message that explicitly aims to direct favorable attention to certain  goods and services; also tells us about its society and institutions a. The “stories” reflect the way advertisers construct the target audience,  (ex: Ages over 70 are rarely in ads)

b. Types of ads

i. Informational: recitation of facts

ii. Hard-sell: REALLY tries to sell you (ex. car salesman)

iii. Soft-sell: makes you feel good about a product (ex. Doritos) Mixing Genres in a Convergent Media System

1. Production: creation of mass media materials for distribution through 1 or more  media vehicles; composed by the following:

a. Mass media production firm (ex. Time Inc., NBC Universal)

b. Administrative personnel: oversee the business side

c. Creative personnel: get initial ideas for material or use their artistic talent  to put material together

d. on-staff worker

e. Freelancers: independent contractor that may be working for multiple  companies

f. Talent guild: union formed by people who work in similar crafts to help  negotiate rules with major production firms in their industries regarding  freelancer’s rules (treatment and pay)

2. Distribution: delivery of the product material; *production is useless without  distribution

a. Powerful distributor: a firm that can ensure the media products it carries  will end up in the best locations at the best exhibitors to the best  audience

3. Exhibition: presenting mass media materials to audiences for viewing or  purchase

a. Shelf space: the amount of area or time available for presenting products  to consumers; store executives must decide which categories of products  and which company’s products will get more room or time than others

i. Bookstores = shelf space; cable, tv, radio = timeslots/channels b. Trade incentives: payments in cash, discounts or publicity activities that  provide a special reason for an exhibitor to highlight a product

c. Cooperative advertising: advertising paid for in part by media production  firms or their distributors in order to help the exhibitor promote the  product (ex. book signings)

Financing Mass Media

1. Funding a new production

a. Take out a loan

b. Encourage investments

i. Investment banks: companies that arrange to lend millions of dollars  to companies; also arrange stock offerings

ii. Syndicate: when a group of banks that agree to share the risks and  rewards of the lending deal

1. organized by investment banks when large amounts of $ are  required

2. lead bank usually makes more $ on the deal then the others 2. Funding when production is already complete: making profit

a. Direct sales: purchaser pays for item and can do whatever they want with  it

b. License fees: purchaser pays to use item, but producer has ultimate  control for how it’s used (ex. Microsoft Office)

c. Rentals: chargers purchaser to use for a certain amount of time d. Subscriptions 

e. Advertising: a company buys space or time on a mass medium to gain  more consumers

i. Retransmission fee: amount of cable system or satellite a firm pays  to a broadcaster for the right to pick up the broadcaster’s signal off  air and send it to cable or satellite subscribers

ii. Government regulations

Key Words: 

Audiences: the people to whom a media product is directed

Media practitioners: the people who select the material that a mass media firm  produces, distributes, or exhibits.

Adequate Revenue: enough cash to allow the enterprise to pay for itself and give  owners/bankers their desired investment return

Demographics: characteristics by which people are divided into particular social  categories

Demographic indicators: age, gender, income, occupation, gender, race, etc. Key demographic: 18-49 / 18-34yrs; supposes malleable brand loyalty

Psychographics: a way to differentiate among people or groups by categorizing them according to their attitudes, personality types or motivations • Ex: Readers of X Magazine can be classified into “comparers”, “idea  hunters” and “luxury lovers”

Lifestyle categories: activities in which potential audiences are involved that mark  them as different from others in the population at large

• Ex: Readers of X Magazine go to restaurants, own expensive cars, and  travel outside the US far more than the average American

Track record: previous successes/failures

Research & Development (R&D): departments within companies that explore new  ideas and generate new products/services, systematically investigating potential  sources of revenue  

Hybrid genres: mixed genres (ex: “dramedy”)

Information: raw material that journalists use when they create news stories;  databases and cost of information leads to increased distance between rich and  poor, and affects education because some schools cannot afford them

Product placement: any form of audio-visual commercial communication that  includes a reference to a product, a service or the trademark thereof so that it is  featured within a program, in return for payment or for similar consideration

Vertical integration: an organization’s control over a media product firm or  production, distribution and exhibition (ex. NBC, CBS, ABC)

Stock offerings: selling units of ownership in the company to organizations and  individuals.

Venture capitalists: invest in startups/nonpublic firms

IPO: offering for sale of stock to public

Chapter 4: Financing and Shaping the Media2/14/16 5:41 PM

The Ad Industry

Advertising: the activity of explicitly paying for media space or time in order to  direct favorable attention to certain goods or services; general advertising involves  far more than explicit messages — an entire industry supports it

1. Advertisers pay for the space or time they receive

2. Advertising clearly states its presence

3. Advertising involves persuasion

Advertising agencies: companies that specialize in the creation of ads for placement  in media that accept payment for exhibiting those ads; hired by advertisers (ex:  WPP, Publicis, Interpublic)

• Agency holding companies: firms that OWN full service ad agencies,  specialty agencies, and even PR agencies; own the biggest ad agencies o Have client conflicts: situations that occur when agencies serve  

companies that compete with one another; traditionally drive away  

companies unless a totally different network agency is involved

• What they do:  

o Business-to-business agencies: carry out work for companies that  are interested in persuading personnel in other companies to buy  

from them instead of from their competitors

o Consumer agencies: carry out work for advertisers that want to  

persuade people in their non-work roles to buy products

o General agencies: invites business from all type of advertisers

o Specialty agencies: tackles only certain types of clients and  

accounts (ec: internet agency, direct-to-consumer: “ask your  

doctor if ___ is right for you..”

o Traditional agencies: creates and distributes persuasive messages  with the aim of creating a favorable impression of the product in  

the minds of the target consumers that will lead them to buy it in  

stores

o Direct-market agencies: focus on consumer mailings,  

telemarketing, TV commercials and other appeals to elicit  

purchases; right then and there

• Agency Networks: ad agencies with branch offices in cities worldwide;  work with other organizations in the industry to carry out 3 basic  

functions:

1. Creative persuasion: set of imaginative activities involved in  producing/creating ads

2. Market research: focus groups, surveys, social media trending topics 3. Media planning and buying: involves purchasing media space/time on  strategically selected outlets that are deemed best-suited to carry a  client’s message

Production in the Ad Industry

Involves market segmentation: dividing society into different categories for  consumers; creatives conduct sales pitches  

Positions involved:  

• Account executive: moves info between the advertiser and agency;  makes sure all production, distribution and exhibition activities take place  as planned.

• Creative/creative personnel: work relates directly to the creation of their  firm’s media materials

Distribution in the Ad Industry

Media planners track computerized and psychographic data and do syndicated  studies about the number/kinds of people that media outlets to answer the  following questions:

• Where would I place TV commercials for GEICO if I want to reach young  adults?

• Where would I place web ads to convey the same message?

Outdoor media: encompass a great variety of stationary billboards and signs;  moving media such as buses and trains

In-store media: print and audiovisual ads that people see when they walk into retail  spaces (ex. grocery cart ads)

• “captive” advertisements: cabs, planes, restrooms, buses, elevators

Exhibition in the Ad Industry

The goal of the production and distribution of an ad is to exhibit it across a variety  of media to a target audience through the following:

• Ad campaign: the entire set of ads using a particular theme to promote a  certain product for a certain period of time

o Ex. Proctor & Gamble’s “Thanks, Mom” ads during the Olympics • Location-based advertising: process of sending commercial messages to  the people based on their geographic location

o Helps advertisers track individuals across many media

Determining and Ad’s Success

Campaigns’ success is be evaluated through the following

• Direct Marketing campaign => evaluated by certain number of products  purchased or dollar amounts

• Web ads => eval. depends on the nature of the responses and  expectations of the marketers

o Click-through ad => may be eval. through direct purchases, but  can be difficult to track

• Traditional advertising => immediate results are impossible to observe o Can survey the target audience to see how many people recall the  ads, comparing the recall of those ads to others

o Can compare sales before and after the campaign

*Dangers:

• People use DVR to skip over ads

• Online, people use email filters and pop-blockers to get rid of unwanted  ads

Public Relations (PR)

Contains publicity, but also involves info, activities and policies by which  corporations and other organizations seek to create attitudes favorable to  themselves, and their work, and to counter adverse attitudes.

Advertising differs from PR in 2 major ways:

1. Ads pay for space/time they receive, PR practitioners don’t

2. Ads clearly state their presence, PR activity hides its presence and  sponsor

PR depts. often carry out 3 types of work:

1. Media relations: the work most obviously related to media; all dealings  with reporters and other members of media organizations who might tell  a story about a client

2. External relations: involves presenting the views of the company to  people and organizations outside the firm

3. Internal relations: involves presenting the views of the company to  company workers and owners (employees, union groups,  

shareholders)

The Big Four largest agency holding companies also hold the biggest PR firms: 1. Omnicom

2. WPP

3. Interpublic

4. Publicis

Especially prominent PR activities:

• Corporate communications: the creation and presentation of a company’s  overall image to its employees and to the public at large

• Financial communications: helping a client’s interactions with lenders,  shareholders, and stock market regulators proceed smoothly

• Health care: helping hospitals, maintenance organizations, pharmaceutical  firms, and provider organizations in relation to government regulations,  international sales, tensions with organizations and (frightened) members  of the public

• Public affairs: helps companies that depend on government contracts that  worry about lawmakers imposing regulations that will have negative  effects on the firms

• Crisis management: the range of activities that help a company respond  to its business partners, the general public or the government in the  event of an unforeseen disaster affecting its image or products

Production in the PR Industry

PR practitioners often spread news by building good relationships with relevant  journalists and editors => best way to get desired viewpoint across • Press release: most basic product of a PR firm’s attempt to influence  media; a short essay written in the form of an objective news story

*Companies must know how to harness the power of social media by building a  community around an issue or brand, driving engagement and building strong  relationships with all audiences in an open, honest and genuine way.

Distribution in the PR Industry

Once materials for the media part of a PR campaign have been prepared, PR firm  must distribute them to the proper publicity outlets

• publicity outlet: media vehicle that has in the past been open to input  from PR practitioners

*PR practitioners use advanced technology for distribution

Exhibition in the PR Industry

TV and print journalists use the material because it is less expensive and takes less  time. PR practitioners help the media get their work done.

• Information subsidies: the time and money that PR people provide media  practitioners that helps the latter get their work done

• Dangers: from a client’s standpoint, they may not be used; journalists are  selective

The Rise of Market Communications

Integrated marketing communications or IMC brings three related activities into its  mix:

a. Branded Entertainment: the act of linking the firm or product’s name (and  personality) with an activity that the target audience enjoys

b. Event marketing: creating compelling circumstances that command  attention in ways that are relevant to the product or firm; typically take  place at sports and entertainment venues, by way of mobile trailers or  road shows that publicize products, and on college campuses, in malls,  and in bars.

i. “Grassroots” events: companies pay nonprofessionals to set up  parties or other meetings that promote the items; accounts for 37%  of event marketing (the most)

ii. “guerilla” events: activities that bring the products in front of people  in unusual ways

1. ex: a company plants blinking electronic devices around  

Boston in a publicity stunt for a cartoon network show

c. Event Sponsorship: situation in which companies pay money to be  associated with particular activities that their target audiences enjoy or  value

i. Ex: sports (NASCAR and NFL), concerts, and charities

Product Placement: when a firm manages to insert its brand in a positive way into  fiction or nonfiction content

Barter: process by which products used in movies and TV shows are provided by  the manufacturer for free in exchange for the publicity

• Ex: Coca-Cola on American Idol

•

Product integration: the act of building plot lines or discussions for talk shows and  reality TV around specific brands

• Ex: Chrysler Ram trucks buys sponsorship of Longmire, a drama series on  A&E, in which protagonist conveys same characteristics of the Chrysler  Ram

Direct Marketing: uses media vehicles created by the marketer (phone messages,  email, postal mailings) to send persuasive messages asking that the consumers  who receive them respond to the marketer (ex. “call this 800 number to buy this  product or service)

• Involves databases and database marketing: practice of constructing  computerized lists of customers and potential customers that can be used  to determine what those people might purchase in the future. The  marketer then contacts the people on these lists with advertising or PR  messages.

Relationship Marketing: a firm’s process of maintaining long-term contact with its  customers

• Can be done by regular mailings of customs magazines, brochures,  letters, emails or through frequent user programs that encourage repeat  purchases, keeping the person connected to the firm

Media Literacy Issues Related to Advertising and PR

1. Advertising and commercialism

a. Ad critics argue that Americans accept through hidden curriculum that  society is merely a huge marketplace and that buying products and  defining oneself through them is an essential life aspect and that  commercialism is running rampant

2. The exploitation of children

a. Young children do not have the skills to be critical of advertisers’ claims  and often cannot tell them apart from other content

b. Older children may be hyped by products that they must seek permission  from their parents to buy, which could encourage family arguments 3. Destruction of the global environment

a. Some argue that when so many people are encouraged to continuously  purchase new products, their resulting activities may place a huge burden  on the earth’s resources (energy, pollution, garbage issues)

4. Truth and hidden influence

a. Many PR practitioners shade the truth and manipulate mass media  content to their clients’ commercial and political benefit without letting the  public know about it

Targeting by Advertising and PR Firms

Americans are worried that too much info about their lives and personal  preferences are being exchanged without their knowledge; privacy worries

Forms of targeting:

• Chasing undesirables away (ex. Jackass positioning itself towards young  adults)

• Tailoring: the capacity to aim media contend and ads at particular  individuals (ex. receiving offers from marketers that complement their  lifestyles, highly personalized news delivery)

Media firms can efficiently attract all sorts of marketers by offering 3 things: 1. Selectability: ability to reach an individual with entertainment, news,  information and advertising based on knowledge of the individual’s  background, interests, and habits

2. Accountability to advertisers: the ability to trace an individual’s response  to a particular ad

3. Interactivity: the ability to cultivate a rapport with, as well as the loyalty  of, individual consumers

*poses threats to society; customizable media will set the world up to be more  segmented, not knowing anything about other cultures and events around them.

Key Words: 

CPM (cost per thousand): basic measurement of advertisement efficiently;  evaluates how much space they will buy in a given medium and what price they’ll  pay

Sales pitch: a presentation to a client, portraying the world of the client’s intended  audience and actions, to show how that product is valuable to the world.

Media planners: agency personnel who make decisions about where to place  advertisements

Psychographic data: info that links to personality characteristics of an audience (ex:  are they “materialistic” or “confident”?)

media plan: the list of media outlets in which companies advertise their products

click-through ad: web-based ad that, when clicked on, takes the user to the  advertiser’s website

Publicity: the process of getting people/products mentioned in the news and  entertainment in order to get members of the public interested in them

Databases: lists of customers and potential customers that can be used to  determine what those people might purchase in the future

IMC or market communications: a type of PR, the goal of which is to blend  historically different ways to communicate to an organization’s various audiences  and markets.

Commercialism: a situation in which the buying and selling of goods and services is  a highly promoted vale

Hidden curriculum: a body of knowledge that people unconsciously absorb when  consuming ads