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● What is the Oldest Book? ○ The Epic of Gilgamesh often cited as being the earliest “book”, written on a stone tablet around 2700 bce ■ Written in Sumerian, a once common language in Middle East ○ Codex Roman started landing sheets of parchment together around 200400ce ○ Diamond Sutra block printed on a 16 foot scroll in China in 868Don't forget about the age old question of How do plants perceive environmental stimuli?
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ce widely recognized as first modern book that contains a definite date of publication ● Block Printing ○ Involves carving blocks of wood with raised surfaces and then applying sheet of paper to those surfaces after covering them with ink ○ Block printing was invented in China and Korea nearly 2500 years before adopted by Europeans ○ Later, the Chinese invented “movable type” assigning a separate piece of wood or metal to each character of symbol ● Gutenberg and Printing Press ○ First European printing press was invented in the 1450s by German Johannes Gutenberg ○ Used movable type to accelerate the process of printing making reproduction faster and more accurate ○ Movable type had been used to print books in Asia for 600 years ■ Metal type had been used to print a book in Korea 75 years before Gutenberg ○ Gutenberg created an entire system of printing ■ This included using special metal alloys to mass produce movable type that was very durable ■ It also included new inks and a press design that modified existing “agricultural” models ■ His press was much more efficient and affordable than previous models ○ The first major book printed on his press was Gutenberg Bible. ■ Project was completed in 1455; 180 copes but no money ● Books invented individuals no one traveled, so books gave info about other places ● Printing in US ○ The arrival at the printing press ushered in first age of mass communication ○ First book printed in US (then colonies) in 1640 Book of Psalms ■ Book was printed only 20 years after pilgrims arrival in Mass. ● The Book Industry○ More books are being printed and sold than ever before. Total revenue of the industry is around $28 million (2014) ○ Largest area of growth has been in children and young adult fiction ○ Book publishers used to be very diverse ○ Recently, a lot of consolidation has occurred in publishing houses ○ Amazon is now largest book seller in US and only major one whose sales are growing2/16/17 2/21/17 ● History of Motion Pictures ○ The basic principle of silver nitrate photography (still photos) was discovered in 1727 ○ Live action motion was not captured by a still camera until 1872 (Muybridge) ■ In 1878, Muybridge produced his first famous series of horse pictures ■ Practical film technology wasn’t developed until 1888 ○ The French were the first to show a film for entertainment (and monetary) value in 1895 ■ This was made possible by the Lumiere brothers ■ They invented the cinematographallowed multiple people to see movies on a large screen ■ The first public movie theater was opened in 1896 (Méliès) ○ Films were largely considered scientific curiosities in the US until well after 1900 ○ Narrative filmmaking rapidly popularized movies ○ The first narrative films were produced in the early 1900s in the US ○ In 1914, the first “Movie Palace” was opening in the US ■ Large, fulltime, singlescreen movie theaters ■ Designed to make audiences comfortable (as opposed to previous ‘nickelodeon’ theaters ○ One of the most influential early American actors Mary Pickford ■ She was so popular that producers had to pay her higher and higher salaries ■ In 1919, she formed United Artists, along with Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and others ■ UA was the first movie company formed by actors ○ Sound came to movies in 1927 ● The Attendance Peak and What Happened Next ○ 1946 was the movie attendance peak ○ Why did the (relative) popularity of movies decline after that time? ■ Post WWII “Baby Boom” means families move to the suburbs ■ Families have less money ■ Few movie theaters in the suburbs ○ The anticommunist “witch hunts” of the 1940s and 1950s gave Hollywood a bad name ○ The arrival of popular Tv in the 1950s gives movies a serious competitor ○ The invention of VCRs in the 1970s means you don’t have to go to the theater anymore2/16/17 2/21/17 ○ Attendance hit a low point in the late 1960s and has stayed steadily low since ○ Yet movies have survived ■ Movies are a bigger business than they were before all these things ● The Business of Movies ○ The average major studio movie costs well over $100 million to make ■ Marketing can run up to $150 million extra costs, depending on how big the movie is and how globally it is being marketed ○ 8090% of new movies do NOT make a profit at the box office ○ Studios use several other sources of revenue to make up this shortfall ● How Movies Make Money ○ Video and DVD sales and rentals, including things like cable, streaming, and ondemand (50% of all domestic film income) ○ Distributing films in foreign markets ■ Since 2005, north american boxoffice revenue has grown 23% ■ Global revenue, however, has grown 74% ○ Product Placement ■ In 1982, Hershey's saw overall profits increased by 65% during the run of E.T. ○ Merchandise tieins ■ Often much bigger than the movies themselves ■ By 2011, Pixar’s Cars had generated $8 billion in merchandising revenue ○ The “Studio System” ■ It was designed to create an efficient system for making movies ■ Studios would sign the most popular actors, directors, writers, and other to longterm, exclusive contracts ■ It worked: major studios were producing a movie a week ■ Pioneered vertical integration: controlling the production, distribution, and exhibition of movies ■ This is why movie studios are still the dominant force in moviemaking ● The Cultural Impact of Movies ○ 1. Movies are “America’s storyteller” ■ They tell communal stories that evoke our most enduring values and our secret desires ○ 2. Movies help us help us process changing values ■ They allow audiences to survey the boundary between the permitted and the forbidden and…2/16/17 2/21/17 ■ They allow audiences to experiences, in a controlled way, the possibility of stepping across that boundary ○ 3. Movies bring us together ■ They entertain/ distract ■ They evoke universal themes of human experience ■ They help us understand and respond to major historical events ■ They encourage us to reexamine contemporary ideas ○ 4. Movies help structure our personal lives (Dr. Bellon addition) ■ They define and serve as markers for periods of time ■ They send important and sometimes enduring personal messages ■ They provide an important shared social experience for friendship, romance, and family ● Other Stuff to Know: ○ Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince French inventor who shot the first moving pictures on paper film using a single lens camera. He has been heralded as the "Father of Cinematography" since 1930 ○ Vitascope early film projector first demonstrated in 1895 by Charles Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat. They had made modifications to Jenkins patented Phantoscope, which cast images via film and electric light onto a wall or screen. ○ Adolph Zukor founder of Paramount Pictures ○ William Fox founder of Paramount Pictures ○ The Hollywood Ten 1950 American 16mm short documentary film. In the film, each member of the Hollywood Ten made a short speech denouncing McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklisting. The film was directed by John Berry ○ Paramount decision decided the fate of movie studios owning their own theatres and holding exclusivity rights on which theatres would show their films. ○ Figure 7.2 21st Century Fox, Sony, Disney, Time Warner, NBC Universe, Weinstein Company, Viacom, Lionsgate ○ Consensus Narratives cultural products that become popular and provide shared cultural experiences.2/23/2017 2/28/17 ● Prior Restraint ○ Free expression is guaranteed in the first amendment, but there is a long history of government attempts to limit expression ○ The Supreme Court has banned prior restraint ■ Government attempts to censor something before the expressions (speech, printing, distribution, etc.) actually takes place ○ There are many reasons why prior restraints is considered particularly bad ■ It takes something completely out of the marketplace of ideas ■ Prior restraint laws tend to censor more materials than their authors intend ■ Prior restraint has a “chilling effect” that causes speakers (and writers, and so on) to selfcensor, which is even more restrictive than the law itself ● Court Cases ○ Near vs. Minnesota ■ The court’s “first great press case” ■ It ruled that the newspapers could not be stopped from publishing even “scandalous and defamatory” material ■ However, it left open the possibility that prior restraint might be acceptable in extreme circumstances ○ The Pentagon Papers New York Times Co. vs United States ■ The court ruled the government could not stop newspapers from publishing classified material in their possession ■ It left open the possibility of justifiable prior restraint, but said the government was not justified in this case ○ The Progressive magazine case United States vs Progressive Inc. ■ The government sought to stop the publication of an article containing classified information about how nuclear bombs work ■ A federal judge initially ruled that the government was justified in restraining publication ■ The government later dropped the suit because the info had been published already in other papers based on nonclassified info ● Fun with Obscenity ○ There is a very,very long history in the US of attempts to ban publications on the basis of obscenity ○ But what is obscene? ■ The word “prurient” was a common element in early definitions ■ “Marked by, arousing, or appealing to sexual desire”2/23/2017 2/28/17 ○ The modern court definition was established in 1973 (in Miller vs California). It has 3 elements ■ 1. The average person, applying community standards, would find the material prurient ■ 2. The material depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way ■ 3. The material as a whole lacks ANY value ○ As a result, it’s much harder to prove that something is obscene, and standards vary a lot from community to community ○ However, the Court has since ruled that child pornography is not protected ○ Some localities use other tactics to enforce antiobscenity laws ● Forcing Your TV to Talk ○ Enacted in 1949, the “fairness doctrine” required stations to air all sides of public issues ○ This was abandoned in 1987 when TV stations got so numerous that diversity of content was likely ○ Section 315 of the 1934 Communications Act requires broadcast stations that give or sell time to one candidate to provide equal opportunity to other candidates ■ If a station sells ad time to one candidate, it cannot refuse to sell ad time to others ■ If a stations gives free time to one candidate, it must give free time to others ■ News programs are exempt ● Unprotected Speech: An Overview ○ When thinking about free expressions issues, remember two things: ■ The government is allowed reasonable restrictions on the “time, place, and manner” of expression ■ The constitutions primarily keeps the government (not your employer or anyone else) from restricting your expression ● Unprotected Speech: Intellectual Property ○ Intellectual property rights trade off with freedom of expression ■ “Intangible rights protecting the products of human intelligence and creation” ○ Specifically, freedom of expression does not allow us to violate copyright laws ■ Literally, “the right to copy” ■ GIves the creator of an original work of authorship exclusive rights to control its distribution ■ Lasts until you die, then 70 more years after that, then the work enters the public domain ● Unprotected Speech: Slander and Libel2/23/2017 2/28/17 ○ Slander and libel are recognized as expression not protected by the First Amendment ■ Both are “communication that defames a person’s character” ■ Slander spoken, Libel written or broadcasted ■ To count as libel, the expression must be both false and damaging Also, the publisher must have been negligent in determining the truth ○ In New York Times v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court ruled that public figures also have to prove that news organizations acted with actual malice ■ This means unless the acted with a “reckless disregard for the truth” they’re not guilty of libel ● Unprotected Speech ○ There are a number of defenses against libel ■ 1. “The truth” is always a defense ■ 2. Prosecutors in court are granted absolute privilege, which means they can’t be sued for making false accusations in the courtroom ■ 3. Reporters are granted qualified privilege, which means they can’t be sued for repeating false statements made in court or in legislative sessions ■ 4. “Opinion and fair comment” is protected, although the line between what’s supposed to be a fact and what’s supposed to be opinion can be unclear ■ 5. Satire, comedy, parody, and critical reviews are generally protected by law from libel suits ● Individual vs. Press ○ Another example where rights can trade off with one another is the freedom of press (1st amendment) and the right to a trial by an impartial jury (6th amendment) ○ Gag orders are issued by judges to prevent anyone involved in a trial from speaking to the press and potentially influencing a jury ○ Shield Laws protect reporters from having to reveal their confidential sources to police or other legal authorities ● Other: ○ Seditious expression stated that people or countries cannot say negative things about the government or the war ○ Fourth Estate News media ○ Mutual v. Ohio that motion pictures were not a form of speech but “a business pure and simple” ○ Burstyn v. Wilson marked the decline of motion picture censorship in the United States2/23/2017 2/28/17 ○ The Pawnbroker Movie that created the G, PG, PG13, R ratings nudity ○ FCC v. Pacifica Foundation defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over indecent material as applied to broadcasting.3/2/2017 ● The History of Television ○ TV is older than you think. Early TV design was pursued in 1890s ○ These designs centered around the Cathode Ray Tube ○ Picture screen TV technology was invented in the 1920s by a young American from Idaho, Philo Farnsworth ○ The first demonstration of the technology was in 1927, the first public demonstration was 1934 ○ The first TV standards were adopted in the US in 1941 ○ Between 1941 and 1948, the number of TV stations went from 10 to 100 ■ This was true in spite of the face that full commercial broadcasting didn’t start until 1947 ○ In 1948 only 1% of American homes had a TV set ■ By 1953, that number had grown to 50% ■ This happened in spite of the fact that the FCC had issued a freeze on new TV station licenses during most of that period ○ No early TV shows to show because no recordings ○ Early TV shows were very short ○ They were created, produced, and sponsored by a single company ○ The networks (NBC, ABC, CBS) wanted freedom from sponsor control, so they conspired to make shows longer ○ Color TV wasn’t consistently broadcast until 1966 ○ “Television affects us deeply but slowly” ● “I Love Lucy” ○ I Love Lucy is arguably the most influential show in the history of TV ■ First TV show to be recorded (filmed) ■ First TV show to be edited using multiple takes ■ First show to be produced in Hollywood instead of New York ■ Broke many ‘taboos’ such as showing married people in bed together ● Counting Screens ○ Critics and media scholars now talk about the multiple screens upon which we receive media content ○ Movies are referred to as the first screen, since they represent the first form of motion picture technology ○ Tv is the second screen ○ Computer monitors are now thought of as the third screen, since many people watch different media content online ○ Mobile technology is the fourth screen ○ Fifth screen is digital signage seen outside the home ● Cable Company3/2/2017 ○ Cable originated in the late 1940s to serve rural communities with poor reception ○ Wide scale cable wasn’t attempted until the 1970s ■ By 1985, 46% of the US households had cable ■ By 1999, 70% had cable ○ The growth of cable was slowed due to fears it would destroy local TV ○ HBO was the first company to try using satellite broadcast to reach its local affiliates ○ Ted Turner realized he could use the same technology as HBO to reach affiliates with a nonpremium channel ○ Turner’s “superstation” became the first standard cable station across the country and created a rush of new stations ○ Narrowcasting providing specialized programming for diverse and fragmented audiences ■ This allowed content providers and advertisers to target specific audiences ■ As narrowcasting has become more popular, the big networks have become less important as cultural and financial influences ○ There has been a lot of convergence in the cable industry ○ There are also many regional monopolies, most communities now have only one cable company ○ In communities with only one cable company, rates have risen faster than those with competition ○ This convergence also means that cable can’t really be an alternative to traditional network TV ● Business of TV ○ TV networks are required to seek out most of their content from independent producers ■ The exception to this is “prime time”, during which networks can produce their own shows ■ Prime time used to be from 711pm, but the FCC reduced it to 811pm in 1970 ○ That same year the FCC created “finsyn” rules ■ They banned networks from demanding large fees for syndicated shows ○ Like movies, most American TV shows cost a lot to make ■ Around $3 million per episode for the average network TV drama ○ Most scripted network TV shows don’t recoup their investment through advertising in their initial run3/2/2017 ■ They make up the deficit through syndication The practice of selling the rights to broadcast reruns of a show to a specific network or company ■ The also make money from product placement, global sales of the show, and other sources such as merchandising ● Other: ○ Paul Nipkow one of the first successful technologies for television transmission ○ Vladimir Zworykin invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode ray tubes. ○ Time shifting the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to after the live broadcasting ○ Prime Time access rule broadcasting regulation to restrict the amount of network programming that a local television station either ownedand operated or affiliated with a television network can air during "prime time". This rule was repealed by the FCC in 1996. ○ Must carry rules stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system ○ Evergreens popular old network reruns, such as I Love Lucy. ○ Fringe time programming immediately before the evening's primetime schedule, called "early fringe", and the time following the local evening news or the network's latenight talk shows, called "late fringe".2/9/17 ● Pop Music: It Ain’t Justin Bieber ○ Music first achieved mass popularity through the sale of piano sheet music ○ Most of this was early jazz or theatrical music… ■ But people still thought it was going to destroy America ○ In the 1940’s, pop vocalists like Frank Sinatra helped stabilize the record industry ● The History of Recorded Sound ○ In 1857 a French inventor (de Martinville) recorded sound mechanically (phonautograph) ○ In 1877 Thomas Edison learned how to reproduce sound to record it and play it back ○ In 1887, Emile Berliner learned how to mass produce records ○ In the early 1900s, American companies produced basic record players ○ Stereo sound wasn’t widely available until the late 1950s ○ Digital recording was invented in 1978 ○ Compact discs were available in the early 1980s ○ The Apple iTunes store deputed in 2001 ○ Digital sales now account for 64% of the US market ● Radio History ○ The telegraph was invented in 1840s ○ Radio was put to similar uses as the telegraph (like communicating with ships at sea) ○ Marconi (an Italian) sent the first radio message in 1895 ■ It has been demonstrated that much of the basic research for radio devices was conducted by others, such as Nikola Tesla ○ An American (De Forest) helped popularize radio by demonstrating the potential voice of transmissions ○ The radio coverage of the sinking of the Titanic helped popularize the medium ○ The idea of using radio to generate advertising did not come about until the 1920s ○ Not coincidentally, this is when publicly accessible radio stations started to appear ○ Radio grew quickly. The number of stations went from 5 to 600 in 2 years ○ This caused a problem: too many stations, not enough frequencies ○ The government stepped into regulate radio ● Records vs. Radio ○ Radio cut record sales in half in the first year of its existence ○ The recording industry then required radio stations to pay for playing songs2/9/17 ○ This largely failed, and record sales crashed ○ The end of prohibition increased record sales ○ Radio didn’t start cooperating with the recording industry until TV started cutting into its audience and its profits ○ Now, record companies sometimes “pay” radio stations to play specific songs ● Radio: The First Broadcast Medium ○ Radio was actually the first medium to use networks: ■ Groups of linked broadcast stations that share programming produced at a central location ○ Most modern TV networks actually started as radio networks (NBC, ABC, CBS) ○ Because early radio was dominated by news, it helped create modern news organizations ● Radio Conglomeration ○ The FCC removed many rules concerning radio station ownership in 1996 ■ This was achieved in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ○ In 1996, 2100 stations changed hands (sold) ○ There are now at least 2000 fewer radio station owners ■ iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel) alone owns around 850 radio stations ● Other stuff to learn: ○ Digital Sound Recording Sales grants owners of a copyright in sound recordings an exclusive right “to perform the copyrighted work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission ○ Tin Pan Alley collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. ○ Radio Act of 1912 all radio stations in the United States be licensed by the federal government ○ Radio Act of 1927 regulate radio use "as the public interest, convenience, or necessity" requires. The Radio Act of 1927 superseded the Radio Act of 1912, which had given regulatory powers over radio communication to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. ○ Communications Act of 1934 Created the FCC and replaced the radio regulation functions of the Federal Radio Commission ○ David Sarnoff led the Radio Corporation of America in various capacities from shortly after its founding in 1919 until his retirement in 19702/14/17 https://quizlet.com/15941113/mediaculture7891011flashcards/ ● History of Advertising ○ Advertising has existed throughout almost all of recorded history (since 3000 BCE) ○ Historically, the technology to print very large numbers of ads arrived about the same time as the technology to transport products and ads large distances ○ At the same time, factory technology made it possible to mass produce things to advertise ○ In early 1840s, space brokers became a new form of business in the US ■ Buying space in newspapers and selling it to people who wanted advertisements ○ In 1869, the first modern fullservice advertising agency opened in the US ■ This meant, that the agency worked for the clients and not the newspaper ● Brands ○ National brands were relatively uncommon in the US before the middle to late 1800s impossible to ship nationally ○ Brand names encourage consumers to believe in the idea of “product differentiation” ■ The idea that there are significant differences among products even if there are very few ○ “Product differentiation associated with namebrand packaged goods represent the single biggest triumph of advertising” ■ Most ads aren’t effective in the short term, but… ■ Overtime they create demand through associating some products with quality ○ National brands were important for two reasons ■ They created “brand loyalty” that allowed companies to charge higher prices ■ They helped create the high demand for specific products that was necessary for factory production ● Persuasive Techniques ○ Famous persons testimonial ○ Plain folks pitch ■ Associates a product with simplicity ○ Snob appeal approach ■ Suggests that sing a product will elevate your social status ○ Bandwagon effect ■ Plays on the desire to be popular or part of the crowd ○ Hidden fear appeal2/14/17 https://quizlet.com/15941113/mediaculture7891011flashcards/ ■ Plays on consumers’ insecurities ○ Irritation advertising ■ Creating name recognition by being annoying ○ Association principle ■ Associating a product with a positive value or image even if it has little to no connection to the product ○ Stereotyping ■ The process of assigning people to abstract groups whose members are assumed to act as a single entity ■ Early ads were tended to be negatively stereotypical of women and racial minorities because ad executives were predominantly white, male, and ignorant ■ Negative stereotyping is now used in ads to attract people who enjoy seeing other groups being stereotyped ○ Viral marketing ■ The creating of ads or other marketing materials that are so attractive to consumers that they voluntarily distribute them to their own social networks ● Other stuff to study ○ Subliminal advertising use of images and sounds to influence consumers' responses without their being conscious of it. ○ Psychographics study of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria, especially for advertising. ○ VALS Values and Lifestyle that not every product suits every consumer and encourages advertisers to vary their sales slants to find market niches. ○ Saturation advertising flooding the market with advertising to achieve awareness and branding goals ○ Interstitials web pages displayed before or after an expected content page, often to display advertisements or confirm the user's age ○ The Dissociation corollary dont want people to realize ads are connected3/21/2017 ● What is “Public Relations” ○ The textbook says “The total communication strategy conducted by a person, a government, or an organization attempting to reach and persuade an audience to adopt a point of view ○ The Public Relations Society of America says “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other” ○ While both might be true, the PRSA definition is an example of the textbook definition ○ Public relations differs from advertising ■ 1. Advertising uses simple and fixed messages ■ 2. These messages are usually transmitted directly through the purchases of ads ● PR doesn’t necessarily involved ad purchases ■ 3. PR involves more complex messages that may evolve over time ■ 4. Instead, it may involve indirect persuasion, often through the news media ● In this way, PR can be much more powerful than ads ● Public Relations History ○ The first “PR” practitioners were press agents in the 1800s, who used stunts to increase media exposure of their clients ○ Eventually, this evolved into publicity: using media to spread information about a person or issue ○ In the early industrial revolution, businesses like railroads used PR very successfully to attract large government subsidies ■ The pioneered the use of lobbyists: ● PR specialists who attempt to influence lawmakers to support and vote of an organization's or industry’s best interests ○ These tactics were so successful that some companies were even able to achieve monopoly status ○ The combination of corporate misdeeds investigative journalism, and more popular newspapers made corporations aware of a need to improve their public image. ○ A new group of PR professionals took advantage of this crisis to rise to prominence ● Ivy Lee ○ He worked in one of the first PR firms in the US, then became an influential consultant on his own ■ He advised more openness with the press ■ He advised emphasizing good stories during bad circumstances 3/21/2017 ■ He advised putting executives in the public eye ■ He advised “truth” in advertising ● Edward Bernays ○ The nephew of Sigmund Freud, he was the first person to apply psychology to PR ○ He was a key part of the US propaganda effort in WWI ○ He wrote the first PR textbook ○ He believed that the masses were irrational and needed to be controlled for their own good and for corporate profit ■ He termed the shaping of public opinion the “engineering of consent” ● PR tactics ○ Pseudoevents: ■ Any circumstances created with the sole purpose of gaining coverage in the media ○ Astroturf lobbying ■ Phony grassroots public affairs campaigns engineered by public relations firms ■3/23/17 ● Some Basic Economic Terms ○ Monopoly A single firm dominates production and distribution ○ Oligopoly Just a few firms dominate an industry ○ Limited Competition Many producers and sellers, but only a few different products ○ Economics of Scale As production levels increase cost per unit goes down ● Regulation and Deregulation ○ The industrial revolution of the late 1800s produced many anticompetitive business practices ○ In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, which outlawed monopolies and other anticompetitive practices ○ In 1914, Congress passed the Clayton Antitrust Act, which stopped businesses from selling only to those who rejected competitors’ products ○ Starting with the Carter administration in the 1970s, however, the federal government began a trend of deregulation that continues today ○ This has led to mixed results in the media sector, which include: ■ Much higher prices for some products ■ Consolidation of ownership (mergers, etc.) ■ Large companies tend to diversify across an entire industry to avoid antitrust laws ■ An increase in the availability of lowwage jobs at the expense of higherpaying middlerange jobs ■ An increase in compensation for toplevel employees ● Global Economics ○ The media economy was always global ○ What makes today’s global media economy different is “the extension of synergy to international levels” ○ Synergy is when the interaction of multiple elements is greater than the sum of its parts ■ In media economics, this means the way corporations buy multiple products or companies to take advantage of their interaction ○ For example, companies that produce the hardware to play video content also buy companies that produce the content for that hardware ○ There are downsides to international synergy: ■ Cultural imperialism American culture dominated the media, crowding out local alternatives ■ Because many American media products (like TV shows) make a profit domestically, they can be sold internationally at a cheap price ■ This makes it hard for locally produced media products to compete3/23/17 ■ People in other countries react negatively when our culture is overrepresented in their media, or when their children begin adopting our cultural values ■3/28/17 ● No one invented the Internet ● Definition of the Internet ○ The global information that… ■ 1. Is linked together by a globally unique address space ■ 2. Supports global communications using TCP/Ip and ● Specifies how data should be formatted, addressed, transmitted, routed, and received ● Involves packet switching breaking data down into small pieces for easier routing ■ 3. Provides both public and private services via the communications infrastructure ● An Internet Timeline ○ The basic idea of the internet was conceived around 1962, social interactions that could be enabled through computer networking ■ This “galactic network” was envisioned by J.C.R Licklider of MIT ○ Early work on packet switching was conducted both in the US and UK ■ It was the British version that ended up inspiring US researchers to purpose and then build their first packet switching computer network ○ Each internet technology (but not the actual internet) was developed by the military (DARPA) around 1969 ■ This was not technically an internet because it was only one network, not a connection of networks ○ Email was invented in 1971 ○ Microprocessors were also introduced in 1971, allowing the development of personal computers ■ Miniature circuits that process and store electronic signals ○ The basic internet was wellestablished in 1985 ○ The early internet did NOT include the Web ● The World Wide Web ○ The web was invented in the early 1990s largely by one man: a scientist name Tim BernersLee ○ He was working in a physics lab in Switzerland ○ The heart of the web is a simple language called “html” that allows computers to translate packets of digital data in various kinds of media (not just text) ● Why the Internet is Open ○ The internet was built on the concept of open architecture:3/28/17 ■ the standards and protocols of the system are public, and are designed to make it easy for different computers and networks to interconnect ● A key requirement is the networks don’t have to change to be connected to the internet ○ A related concept you will often hear is open source ■ is when someone owns the copyright to something (like computer software), but releases that right and the software’s source code so everyone can study, change, or distribute it for their own use ● Net Neutrality ○ Net Neutrality is the principle that every user has the right to the same internet access and the same speed ○ There are 2 ways critics are concerned that “neutrality” might be violated ■ 1. Internet service providers (ISPs)might discriminate against certain kinds of net usage (streaming, p2p usage) by slowing access) ■ 2. Some ISPs might restrict access to content they find objectionable ○ In 2010, the FCC adopted firm net neutrality guidelines for wired ISPs, but not wireless ISPs (like cell phone providers) ○ Opponents of net neutrality argue for competition over regulation ● The Digital Divide ○ The social, political, cultural, and economic gap between those who can afford access to computers and the internet and those who cant ○ The divide in the US ■ 87% of US households have access to the internet ● The textbook fails to not that not all that access is equal or even useful ○ The gap in access are not equally distributed throughout the population ■ Only 76% of people with a high school education or less have access ■ Only 57% of people above age 64 go online regularly ■ 33% of K12 students from low income and rural households have no access to the internet at home ■ Households headed by people of color have 15% less access than those headed by whites ○ Lack of access to the internet makes it harder for people to get jobs, become educated, access important information, and engage in critical communication with an increasingly online world ○ The term “digital divide” also refers to a gap of access between nations.3/28/17 ■ Citizens in industrialized countries make up the vast majority of internet users globally ■ Many countries lack the technological infrastructure required for highquality internet access. ■ Some countries’ governments prevent or censor access for political reasons ○ The rise of smartphones is helping to narrow the divide both domestically and internationally ■ However, users with computers still have better access ● Other kinds of divides ○ Many critics have argued that the freeflowing nature of the internet is being damaged by 2 things ■ 1. “Walled garden” or “gated community” sites and apps where discussion is heavily moderated and/ or censored, and the online experience is narrowed ■ 2. The prevalence of intolerant and hateful speech, which dissuades anyone who is not straight, white, male, and economically secure from participating ● Many studies show that people feel more empowered to communicate in a rude and intolerant way online ● Other things to study ○ Ray Tomlinson ○ Data mining ○ Phishing ○ Moore’s Law● Media Effects ○ Media Effects is the field of research that attempts to understand, predict, and explain the effects of mass media on individuals and society ○ Not all media researchers are studying “effects” or aiming for prediction ■ Cultural Studies researchers try to understand how media constructs and is constructed by questions of gender, race, social class, nationality, and so on. ■ Rhetorical Studies researchers try to understand how media functions in terms of persuasion, meaning, political contestations, ideology, identity, and so on ● Media Effects Theories ○ The Hypodermic Needle Model ■ An early model for television effects on audiences ■ Also known as the ‘magic bullet’ or ‘direct effects’ model ■ Fails to account for the fact that people are critical and skeptical of media messages ■ Widely discredited by subsequent research ○ The Minimal Effects Model ■ Media effects are less powerful, and are mostly indirect ■ Also known as the ‘limited model’ ■ People engage in selective exposure: ● We tend to expose ourselves only to messages that we are already comfortable with ■ People engage in selective retention: ● We tend to retain messages that confirm the values and ideas that we already hold ■ This model still assumes that audiences are passive in their consumption of media ○ Uses and Gratifications ■ Studies how and why media are used, rather than what their effects are ■ The surveillance function suggests that people use the media to monitor the world around them ■ Similarity, the socialization function suggests that people use the media to help fit in with others ■ While the textbook say this model was never widely adopted, it has been incorporated into rhetorical and cultural studies research ● What Effect does the Media have? ○ The most significant demonstrated effect of media is agenda setting:■ Not telling people what to think, but telling them what to think about ○ Many of the other effects listed in the textbook are less well proven but still worth discussing ○ The cultivation effect is the idea that heavy TV viewing causes us to believe that TV is giving us an accurate portrayal of the real world ■ One common version of this is the mean world syndrome: we believe the world is more dangerous than it really is because TV shows so much crime ○ The spiral of silence theory is the idea that the media silences controversial opinions by making those who have them fear social isolation ■ This can even be true of opinions that are not really controversial, since the media edits out very widely held opinions ■ Some studies indicate the we are even willing to go along with wrong answers if “everyone else” is giving those answers too ■● Violent Crime on American TV by Amir Hetsroni ○ 75% of Americans think there is a relationship between violence on television and the normal crime rate ○ However the direct behavioral effect of prolonged exposure to violent programs is less than 3% of the variance, and decreases below 1% when actual violence is used as an indicator ○ Compared to reality, TV drama is 53% richer in violent crime and tentimes poorer in nonviolent property crime ○ Murder is the single most overrepresented crime on TV. Over 80% of real crime is property crime ○ TV criminals tend to be older and richer than real criminals ○ Female criminals are dramatically underrepresented on TV ○ Nearly of real crimes go unsolved. Nearly of TV crimes are ⅔ ⅔ solved ○ There are a number of problems with the argument that watching violence on TV (violent crime, in particular) causes actual violence ■ There’s no evidence that convicted criminals watch more violent TV than other people ■ The appearance of popular TV didn’t cause a spike in the violent crime rate ■ The violent crime rate has been steadily declining, even as violence on TV remains high ■ Even studies that find a link indicate that not all TV violence affects people the same way ○ Another possible outcome of watching media violence is the “Mean World” syndrome ■ “Mean World” means you see the world as dangerous and you see people as untrustworthy ■ There does seem to be a connection between TV viewing and mean world syndrome ■ However if you watch fictional TV you tend to exhibit the “Just world” syndrome the belief that justice is the usual outcome of conflicts in the world ○ In the end, the effect of violent media is small and “more dispositional than behavioral” ○ Nevertheless, politicians and the public in general pay a huge amount of attention to this small and uncertain link between TV violence and actual violence