Final Exam Study Guide

Why communications is important?

Professor Richard Taflinger

A note from professor Taftlinger: The exam is half comprehensive and half the  material you have been learning since the last exam. That material includes ethics,  contact hypothesis (how it works and why its there), and the laws/regulations and  their effects. You should also know the different supreme court decisions that were  made. You need to know the influences on the media and what they mean. As far as people go: you only need to know people without whom the media they made would not exist, in other words, the people who had the original genius to create the new  media. Also know how these different medias (radio, tv, movies, ect.) affected  society. Finally, for the media theories, you should only pay attention to the theories that were discussed in class. Don’t be nervous (yet)!  

Cumulative Information

There are several channels of communications:

Media Literacy

- Chemical: communications through chemicals

- Pheromones: these are molecules of sent that can be picked up to send  messages. For example, insects do this during mating season to attract a  mate and communicate that they are ready to mate

- Visual: This is a visual display (something that can be seen) to convey a  message  

- Aurally (sound): noises or sound vibrations that communicate something

The primary way of human communication is talking. Talking is the intricate  manipulation of oral sound to convey meaning. If you want to learn more check out plextr

The purpose of communication is to connect with other members of the same  species (other humans).

Why communications is important:

- Survival

o Safety in numbers – means less of a chance of being picked off o Being the biggest and strongest

Hominids had neither natural weapons nor numbers. What they  did have was cooperation, they banded together (in small bands) so  they had to communicate survival strategies. Because they did not  show by example they had to make words to talk it out first. Hunters in the animal kingdom (wolf, lions, etc.) tend to cooperate, but only on  the hunt. Humans did not have packs and they did not hunt. They had  to talk, so they created a mutual support group.

Social Distance Corollary

- Reproduction: This is not as strait forward for humans as it is for other  animals. People choose partners based on other’s communication and if  they like the way they communicate.  

- To bind groups together: This is a way of helping an organism (people or  animals, ect.) know they belong to a group and identify those who are not  part of the group. Humans like to use language that shows they are a part  of a certain group. This does not have to be language it can also be  dialect, such as the southern accent. If you want to learn more check out psy 101 exam 3 asu

People have to translate what they here, decode it into something they understand,  and then translate their thoughts/response into something that they can reply with.

Denotative:

- Meanings of words in the literal sense

- Usually have a concrete reference  

Connotative (applies to almost everything, especially things that are not physical  objects):

- Personal definition of the word (not literal)

o What the word means to the individual

o Sometimes there is a strong emotional element ( the feelings that  apply to the word)

o Abstract (not concrete)

- Sometimes problems arise when someone thinks someone else has the  same definition for an abstraction that they have.

It is not the media who creates the definitions of beauty, it simply follows culture’s  definition of beauty.

A problem for mass media is that the sender of the mass media (such as a TV show  producer) is that it is difficult to get feedback/ response for their messages. Thus  they are conservative and repeat the same kinds of media over and over because it  was successful once (such as ideas for TV shows or movies. Think of how many  doctor shows there are, or vampire movies). If you want to learn more check out statistics 201

Media Literacy:

It is important because if we are not media literate we cannot understand what the  media are doing for/to us.

- It is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and process messages that  come from the media Don't forget about the age old question of efficiency is accomplishing tasks that help fulfill organizational objectives.

- The US produces the most media, but is, however, the least media literate of the countries

- It is a continuum rather than a category (from Low to High)

- High Literacy = the ability to actively process the message and put it into  context, more control over the interpretation of the message Don't forget about the age old question of isogomy

- Low Literacy = not consciously processing the message, more likely to just accept the message at face value rather than interpret it.

- Someone who is media literate has the skill of critical thinking, enabling  them (the audience) to develop independent judgments about media  content.  

- Someone who is media literate understands the process of mass  communication (written to be read vs. written to be said)

- Someone who is media literate has an awareness of the impact of media  on the individual and society, as well as the ability to enjoy, understand,  and appreciate media content.

Third Person Effect: This when people think they are not affected by the media but  they think everyone else is so they complain about the media. For example: “well  violence in video games doesn’t make me thing violent thoughts, but it must make  other people think violence is ok, therefore the media is affecting them badly.” This  was proposed by W. Philips Davidson (1983).

- Perceptual component

- Message desirability (pro – or antisocial)

- Overestimate the effects on others  

Social Distance Corollary:

- The more general/ social distant “other” leads to larger perceived effects o Lower class “others” are more likely to be effected

Importance of perceived exposure:

- “others” are estimated due to perceived exposure We also discuss several other topics like mcm study guides

Linking 3rd person perception to support for censorships:

- Censorship:

o Pornography

o Violent TV Content  

o Violent and misogynistic rap and death metal lyrics in music

- People support censorship because they assume people are being  affected by this content

- There is no evidence from any of this, it is just someone using anecdotal  evidence  

Qualitative Analysis of media messages:

Qualitative: trying to find out potential effects on the audience, because of how they will receive it.

Critical Theories: Help us to understand how audiences perceive a message

1. Semiotics – the science of signs and symbols  

o Looks at how people create and understand signs and symbols in  order to comprehend communications

o Trying to figure out how people know what symbols mean, who will  interpret a sign and why they will

o What does a symbol mean to those who see it

o Takes a media message apart, breaks it into pieces, they try to  understand what those pieces mean, and then put them back  together to understand what the target audience will interpret the  whole message as.  

o “symbolic interactionism” is another term for semiotics 2. Psychoanalysis (“psychoanalytic theory”):

o Examines the way in which mass media messages influence the  audience’s social rules in order to suppress instinctive antisocial  impulses

o Freud was the first to come up with this

o Id: selfish, only about you, nothing else matters

o Superego: about everyone else except you

o The id and the superego fighting against each other, id is self centered and only concerned with avoiding discomfort at all costs.  The superego counters the id, the superego is learned so that the  superego keeps the id in check so that the person is socially  acceptable. Those who don’t have a superego do not follow the  rules of society and this is where psychopaths come from. Id and  superego simply react to the situation. No one has the same  superego as another person. Trapped between the id and the  superego is the ego, which is the combination of the id and  superego. Tries to balance the demands of id and superego which  tells you what you're going to do for real

o Looks at the balance of the id and superego. So many rules from  our superego comes from the media

o Who you are is the balance of id’s demands and the superego’s  demands

o Every form of media tries to reinforce the superego except for  advertising which tries to get the id stimulated without getting the  superego involved

o All about the subconscious mind to influence conscious behavior  3. Sociological Analysis (the most common):

o Comes in many forms that have evolved over the years

o 500+ kinds

The Story:

The Neoaristotelian analysis:

- All stories had elements in common:

o Action- something needs to happen to be interesting, there are  certain parts that have to be there such as exposition (what  

audience needs to know to understand the story, the universe in  which the story happens, when, where, basic starting point.  

Establishes an equilibrium). Next there is a problem (something  throws off the equilibrium, everything in the rest of the story is  

about fixing the problem) in stories there is only one problem there  is. Next there is the Crisis (the solution is applied, often it is the  wrong solution and makes the problem worse) which allows the  story to continue because it creates a complication (obstacle to  solving the problem, keeps getting in the way) most stories more  than 15 seconds have multiple complication and crisis. Finally, there is the climax - ultimate crisis, where the protagonist finds the  

solution and it is over. Finally, there is the denouement where it  illustrates the universe back in balance.  

o Character- agents who carry out the action, there are two words  which are vital to storytelling. Every character wants something,  and each one wants something different.

o Conflict - because the character wants something and each  

character wants something different, they are constantly in conflict  with every other character. Without the conflict there is no story,  the problem starts the conflict, the climax is the resolution of the  problem, and thus ends the conflict.

o Thought - why they story is being told in the first place. Sometimes  this influences what the audience’s reality. Most stories use the  rules of society they are written for to inforce them.

o Diction/ Music/ Spectacle - How the story is told, diction = the words used and how they're said for example characters of a certain  

status might speak in a way that conveys that whereas characters  who are supposed to be "dumb" have an accent that conveys that  (such as a southern accent), music = what we hear, including music and sound effects, spectacle = what is seen, including setting,  

lighting, costumes, make-up, relationships, angles, etc. (they  

recreate reality).

Why is this important?

- Humans do not live in reality

- Humans tell stories about reality and that is how we understand  everything we know

- We want to understand things in a “clean” way and stories are clean when reality is messy

- Humans have a great sense of the past, present, and future. We can  remember the past, apply it to the present to project the future. Stories give us the magic of life:

- Three kinds of magic:

o Magic of nature: things we see every day (ex: The Grand Canyon)  o Spells: saying you want something and it happens (ex:  

“abracadabra, and “please”)

o Technology: How does it work? Do you really know? (ex: cell  phones)

What is a society?

- It is a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, belief and attitude that  shapes and influences perception and behavior

- All groups which get together have the same basic values and world views (ex: Christians vs. Jews, republicans vs. democrats)

- They are a shared perception of reality  

Ways of knowing:

- Tradition: a belief that has lasted for a long time, this is hard to change  after someone believes something (ex: eating turkey on thanksgiving) - Authority: someone (who should know) says so, hard to change and may  not consider new info (ex: a doctor’s diagnosis)

- Intuition or Logic: where the truth is self-evident  

Problems with “everyday” ways of knowing things:

- Filters how info is processed: false premise, illogical reasoning - Everyday ways of knowing can lead to conflict ideas about “truth”: belief  in two completely contradictory things at once

Why bother with societies and culture:

- Humans are weak

- Societies are mutual support packs: sociability mutual support/protection  packs  

- Rules are designed to keep friction at bay between different opinions

- As more rules are added the freedom of the individual is limited more and  more for the benefit of the group

Print and Journalism:

- News had always driven the plot of people’s social stories

- Events would have to be put into context of the social story

- Often in the old world this was explained in religion: if something bad  happened it was because the gods were displeased  

- In general people did not used to care about the outside world unless it got  too close to them

- Printing was invented, so new sheets were published. These were not for  average people, they were for rich people. Therefore, they contained  information that would be of interest to people with money, and this  information was to help them make more money.

- In the 19th century newspapers began being printed for normal people. - News became a very large part of the world view.

- Newspapers had no pretense of objectivity.

- In 1833 the Sun was the first newspaper everyone could afford. The Penny  Press, where the price was a penny and most people could afford it. - Canons of journalism and statement of principles 1923

- Today the same thing exists, the newspaper provides the information and  facts, and each person forms their own opinion.

What is News?

- The definition is fuzzy

- Criteria for newsworthiness:

o Timeliness – hearing about something in time to do something about it o Proximity – how close the news is to you, and how major to your area o Prominence – what makes someone prominent is that they are  reported on, but this is problematic  

o Consequence – for it to be news it should affect people so they can  make an informed decisions about what is being reported on

o Rarity – an event being out of the norm, these are unusual

o Human interest – what people have interest in, often have no  consequences in the real world

- Another definition: this is a matter of opinion on what is important, individual  to each person and what is important in their world

Problems with Objectivity:

- Not everyone agrees on what objective is

- Says all points are of equal validity

- Concept of objectivity can be taken too far

o Ignoring context

o Not making judgement calls

- If providing all the details favors one view, so if they do not include those  details they cannot understand that side

Two ways of writing news:

- Inverted Pyramid:

o Basics of the story in the first paragraph

o Ensuing paragraphs provide more details

o Hard news and news shorts

- Feature Writing:

o Written as a story with exposition, problem, crisis, and complications  and a climax

o People in the story are presented as characters (often as heroes,  villains, and victims, rather than well rounded people)

o Magazines news stories, television news stories, and newspaper  articles and columns

Future of Newspapers:

- Actual number of newspapers are declining

- More people depend on modern media (technology) so they buy newspapers  less and less

- Newspapers cannot support themselves on subscriptions, newsstands and  ads

- Newspapers have to live off these small funds so they cut costs by cutting  important staff, join a syndicate to share expenses, sell subscriptions to  online readers,--- and they reduce operations

- Newspapers had to cut reporters in important places such as DC Magazines:

- Not as many as there are newspapers

- Cannot compete on breaking news because they are once a month, however  they do write with better in –depth coverage, meaning there is more detail,  especially because there are specialists writing the articles and because it  does not come out daily the spend more time on writing each piece.

Radio:

- Sending sound through the air by attaching it to electric sound  - Bagdad Battery 250 BCE said to be the first battery

- In the 18th century electricity was taken seriously, however only for fun and  games

- People began to study electricity to find out what it is exactly

- Luigi Galvani - 1786  

o Believed everything contained electricity

- Alessandro Volta -1796  

o Thought Galvani was incorrect, and made his own experiment to test if  electricity could be made chemically

- Hans Christian Oersted - 1820

o Demonstration that magnetism and electricity were not connected  when they actually are.  

- William Sturgeon - 1825

o Created the first electromagnet

- Michael Fareday - 1826

o Reversed Stugeon's experiment

- Samuel F.B. Morse - 1838

o Sent a message down a wire  

o For the first time a message could send over miles in an instant o Morse code was created and thus lead to the telegraph

o Takes a lot to learn to send the clicks and understand them - Johannes Muller - 1840  

o Studying the senses and trying to figure if they were different - Helmholtz  

o Student of Muller

o Sang into piano to discover sound makes vibrations

- Leon Scott de Martinville:

o Phonautograph - 18

o Made it so sounds could be seen, etched them into Smokey glass - Bell and Gray both invented the telephone at the same time but Bell got to  the patent office first so he gets all the credit

- Heinrich Hertz - 1886

o Helmholtz students

o Spark gap generator - jumps the gap making the spark, made a  receiver to try to pick up the spark

o The receiver picked up the spark

o Demonstrated that electricity traveled through the air in frequencies,  just as it did through wires

- Guglielmo Marconi - 1894  

o Added an antenna to the spark so it could go father

o He made "wireless telegraphy" but people call it a radio

- Nikola Tesla  

o Figured how to boost power with the tesla coil

o Raised the voltage of an electric current high enough

- Reginald Fessenden:

o Tried to send the first voice transmission without wires

- Ernst Alexanderson:

o Made a generator that was powerful to piggy back voice on radio  waves going through the air.  

o Finally radio is born

- Lee de Forest (father of radio)

o He would just try to create things for fun

o Took a Fleming valve (vacuum tube) added a bent wire, and called it  the audion tube (1904) and this amplified the tube

- Edwin Howard Armstrong  

o Took the audion tube and improved it

o Designed regeneration, so that whatever was put into the tube it was  send back into the tube many times

o Amplified radio signals and made good sound

o Made the superheterodyne which was a receiver to put into the home  and pick up signals  

- Crystal Radio

o Made from Quaker oats boxes

- David Sarnoff

o First to see the potential for big radio

o Wasn’t about the actual radio but rather what you could do with the  radio

o Started at American Marconi office

o Knew wireless telegraphy was point to point media

o Radio was a broadcast medium rather than a point to point

o He wrong the "radio music box memo" to convince companies to invest in building broadcast buildings and selling broadcast music boxes  o Was named as commercial manager

o In charge of RCA

 American Marconi

 General Electric

 American telephone and Telegraph  

 Westinghouse

o They used Armstrong's inventions

- Radio stations start popping up all over the country

- KWSU (KWSC) is made on campus and it’s the third in the world - Every kind of entertainment was available on the radio  

Sound Recording:

Orson Welles - 1938

Sound Recording:

∙ Leon Scott de Martinville  

∙ Thomas Edison: tinfoil phonograph 1877 with the intention of being an  answering machine, but simply made something that could play back sound ∙ Chichester Bell and Tainter's phonograph 1885

∙ Problem: could only make one at a time rather than making multiple ∙ Berliner Gramophone - 1887

∙ 1890 the first juke box was created  

∙ Eldridge Johnson got rid of the crank and put in a motor so that songs would  no longer die during a song

∙ "little nipper" - was a phonograph company with the dog listening to his  master's voice from the phonograph

∙ There was a race to advance the players more and more, but there was a  problem with production

∙ Mechanical Recording Session: everyone would have to gather near the cone, which limited how many musicians could be on the recording

∙ Electrical Recording: Valdemar Poulsen 1897 made a way to record  electrically

∙ Telegraphone 1915: it's steel wire was weak and could not be replaced ∙ Fritz Pfleumer added magnetic wire to strips of paper. The use of tape was a  breakthrough  

∙ BASF/AEG magnetophone: 1935 people were able to buy these magnetic  recording things,  

∙ Carbon granule mic: very poor quality mic and speakerphone ∙ Condenser Mic: used 1925 needed a battery to power, and susceptible to  moisture.  

∙ Ribbon Mic

∙ Radio stations needed the records so that they could play things back rather  than having a live band come in

∙ Radio was mostly entertainment and constantly needed new material ∙ Non main stream music came to a rise

∙ New forms of music became popular

∙ For 20 years the country was bound together by the radio as a common  source of info and social norms

∙ 1952 Alan Freed "father of rock and roll" he started making rock music a  staple for the radio

∙ Music aimed at young people started being played more often ∙ 1944 Minnesota Manufacturing company came up with rust on tape to give  greater sensitivity

∙ Reel to reel tape recorder

∙ Cassette Tape: 1963 made from plastic and used small tape ∙ Norelco CarryCorder 1965  

∙ Sony Walkman personal carry your own music entertainment 1979 ∙ This was the beginning of decline of records

Digital Revolution:

∙ CD pits

Movies:

- Fraz Ucanious made motion pictures as a teaching tool, using it to teach his  students how a cannon ball flies

- Ludwig Doebler was a magician who stole Ucanious’ idea and started using the  machine for motion picture shows which became very popular in England - Aristotle wrote about painting with light, and talked about the pinhole camera,  which was a black box with a small hole on one side, which, when pointed at  something, would reflect it upside down to be accurately traced - Hyatt came up with Celluloid, which was first used in ivory replacement. It was  very flammable

- Hannibal Goodwin took celluloid which was created by Hyatt, and turned it into  sheets

- Edison came up with the kinetiscope which was a movie in a box that had a  coin slot, so people could insert a coin and a movie would play while the viewer looked through some goggles.

- The Lumiere brothers were the first to play a moving picture on a bedsheet and call it a movie theater

- Movie theaters continued from then on to be in theaters, and there were nickel theaters called nickelodeons  

∙ Lumieres showed movies by shining  

∙ Edison had a kinetiscope  

∙ Danish Researches: discovered selenium would generate an electrical  signal in direct relation to the amount of  

∙ Movies and Society: society before movies was all local or parochial ∙ Movies reflect the markers' society

∙ 1920s Post World War I movies went through a major change  ∙ Movies started to cater to the young people who wanted to defy the  old ways of society and create their own new young society

∙ Movies created a sense of community

∙ A full evening of entertainment:

∙ A cartoon

∙ A news reel

∙ A short subject, like a comedy bit

∙ A movie, sometimes 2

∙ The movies where upbeat, optimistic and filled with dance  ∙ They left people feeling happy after watching it

∙ 1940s war propaganda started cropping up in movie theaters, there  are lots of movies about the women waiting for their man to come home from  the war, and she sacrifices the things a women has to in war times

∙ These movies helped people to change their opinions to whole hearted  support of the war

∙ It's a Wonderful Life - 1946 was one of the best movies, and helped  people to get happy again

∙ 4

∙ Movies reflected the way young people felt because they didn't like the way  their parents wanted society to be

∙ 1950s people wanted to believe everyone was content in the world, everyone has a dog, and 2 kids, and a white picket fence

∙ The blackboard jungle in 1955 disproved this, showing the real world  ∙ With the Cold War it was clear that the world could come to an end, and  movies reflected that

∙ The fear of nuclear power and war in the 1950s

∙ In the 1960s there was a new freedom in the 60s, laws were changed and  movies could do more than they could before, they stopped worrying about  offending people

∙ People stopped worrying about sex  

∙ It looked at the suburban life and how they didn't care about the restrictions  but didn't know what they wanted in place

∙ 1970s looked at the myths of society, and which should be held and which  should go away

∙ One of the big myths was the trust worthiness in the government to work in  the public's good

∙ People started looking at politicians as people who just wanted power not to  actually work for the government  

∙ Jaws was the first summer block buster movie

∙ In the 1970s there started being battles between good and evil (star wars) so  literal battles

∙ Movies that the industry did not think would be popular became major hits  ∙ These movies helped bind back together a society that had been fragmented  in the 1960s

∙ 1980s a problem arose, the studios realized messages in movies were bad for sales, so they merged with companies that knew nothing about movies to put  teenagers in the theater

∙ Most movies at this time were about teenagers and catered to them ∙ For adults, the Vietnam war became a story for movies to use ∙ Most movies in the 80s that were anti-war

∙ Special Effects took off because of Star Wars, because George Lucas figured  out ways to do something that could not really be done except in a computer. ∙ Lots of SyFy started, Star Trek came into the play, most of their money went  to special effects

∙ 1990s a period of establishing new mythologies, as well as reinforcing some  old ones (Schindlers list, Saving Private Ryan)

∙ New mythologies are changed (Dances with wolves)

∙ Conspiracy theories started arising (JFK)

∙ Blockbuster films came more and more important, they went year round  (Braveheart, Jurassic Park)

∙ Reemergence of Animation, started with Snow White from Disney, but the  these imaginations where nothing like the original stories, They rewrote them  to reflect society to be the way it wants to be today

∙ 2000s Movies are still delivering mythology, but it Is not out of our  experiences/pasts

∙ They were based on fantasies that were not from our past (pirates of the  Caribbean, the matrix, lord of the rings)

∙ Future: concerned with movies that bring in audiences, lots of sequels, where  audiences are already existent (books/ tv shows with a large fan base), Big  name actors will be used because they're already known

∙ Movies have reverted to the kinetiscope, where it’s all about making money,  not about the message

∙ Newsreels were important, they started to be produces after the lumieres  who made the first movie theater, Pate made the hand held camera so that it  could go around, and they filmed WW1. Movie studios sent a camera and  writing producer went to the action, the producer would edit content into a  news real and sent it to the main office to go to the theater

∙ People nowhere near the war saw what the war was like, they saw the dirt,  blood and death. These drove home the war to people, they responded  emotionally and feel the impact of war.  

∙ Created newsreels that covered several subjects

∙ Television news killed off the newsreels

∙ Newsreels laid the ground work for television news

- Next invention was color TV, and CBS had the first color system because they created the sequentially color wheel

- Because CBS was the only channel that produced color productions that was  the only channel people with color TV could watch

- NBC was the next to start on color

- RCA color TV was in 1954

- Producing color shows was more expensive than black and white, the  networks did not want to produce them, therefore the public did not want to  buy color TVs

- RCA gave money so that sponsors could produce color TV

- Once more things were broadcast in color more people bought color TVs - Digital has replaced analog

- TV has been established as one of the most powerful media ever established

Television and Society:

- Had the same impact as writing and printing

- Biggest on 1950s when everyone started having a set in their home - Movies in the home = incredible at the time

- Television took mainstream beliefs and stuck with them, promoting them,  because sponsors did not ---want to upset people by challenging what people  believe

Early Television:

∙ Everything was done in studios, and turned into an era of experimentation ∙ Originally started with everything that was on the radio

∙ Musical Variety shows were the most popular at first

∙ Small scale sports (boxing wrestling)  

∙ No close ups or multiple angles  

∙ Live Dramas (not series) they were plays done in front of a camera ∙ Sponsors owned the shows, and they used their marketing teams to run  the shows which where fillers between commercials  

∙ Interference by sponsors in shows could get very petty  

∙ 50s = the "golden age of television" as culture was brought into the home  with these different plays  

∙ The number of political talk shows during primetime decreased over the  years

∙ Prime time week: 8-11 and weekends: 7-11

∙ Networks drive was for viewers eyes looking at the commercials, and the  political talk shows required thinking  

∙ When everything was started to be filmed rather than live (except dramas,  talk shows)

Television:

- 1950s: people wanted peace and conformity, and TV did not do that - TV took mainstream beliefs and reinforced them

- The TV networks stuck with the bland so they wouldn't upset viewers - A new kind of action drama almost drove out all other action, that was the  Cowboy

- Westerns were aimed at kids, so the tv producers started to create westerns  aimed at adults, the most famous being Gunsmoke in 1955-75

- Some people complained that the Westerns did not have enough action - The anti-western was the opposite of the cowboy, the name of this hero is  Maverick, and the purpose if it was to undermine the cowboy, audience saw it as a real western but it was a spoof

- Bonanza 1959 - 73 another big western

- Society was not really black and white like the westerns, with all bad and all  good

- The power of television came into people's homes, which gave it the power to expose hypocracy, and show the extremists of good and evil

- Joe McCarthy - lead a witch hunt against communism in the government and  Hollywood. Accused people of communism with no evidence, and badgered  them until they confess. These trials were televised. He destroyed a lot of  people's lives, and told people that if they opposed him, they would be

accused next. He had power to play on people's fear to get them to follow  him.

- Edward R. Murrow went after McCarthy, and said it was no time for men who  opposed McCarthy to be quiet.  

- CBS let McCarthy talk about whatever he wanted for 30 minutes on prime  time TV, and he just used the time to accuse Murrow, and this lead to him  loosing his following. TV destroyed him because it exposed his demi-godery

- 1960s: a new type of show came out: the single parent show - It couldn't be the result of divorce, the other parent had to be dead. The Andy Griffith Show - 1960

∙ Showed that small town values were the best values

∙ Country life is better

∙ Single Parent

∙ Rural Comedy

∙ Openness and kindness

∙ Explored the changes of American Life

- 1961 this show put out the message that women are equal to men, long  before the women's movement

- A popular theme became rural life vs. big city life, taking rural folks and  taking them into the big city where they miss behave

- These comedies were all canceled because the older folks didn't like it - The news was full of war, and protests, and unrest, where as TV produced  funny dumb shows during prime time, idiocy was king

- TV needed audiences eyes to sell to sponsors, sponsors didn't want an upset  audience because they might not pay attention to the commercial - Tv in the 60s was a vast wasteland

- 1970s: Society blew up, and there were great generation differences which  left conflict, Race riots, war riots, and a growing generation gap. Baby  boomers fought with WW2 generation over how society should proceed

- At the end of WW2 the women who had gone into work decided they liked  financial freedom and working. This came to a head in late 1960s, when the  younger generation rebelled on the constraints on women

The Mary Tyler Moore Show - 1970 showed two new ideas:

∙ A woman could be at the age of 30

∙ She could be happy without being married, and still has sex  ∙ She was the first truly liberated woman on television

∙ The networks did not like putting divorced women on TV, so they just had her  boyfriend dump her  

∙ Adults unrelated could make a nuclear family and have the same comedy A new show came around: All in the Family 1971

∙ For the first time in any show used taboo subjects for a basis for a plot ∙ Taboo subjects: Sex, race, religion, politics, death

∙ People found this really funny

∙ Introduced a social political views, and had two extremes  

∙ You do not think in feelings, you think in words

∙ All in the family gave you the words from the extreme ends so you can think  about the issue in words

∙ In the middle of the two extremes was the audeinces oppinion and they now  had the facts to support why they think that way

∙ Audiences wanted something smart to think about, because they were  intelligent and liked being involved in the show, no longer mindlessness. They  explored the changes in the social world and actually thought about them

The impacts of television on society and society on television

- M*A*S*H - 1972 was extremely popular, and its final episode is till the most  watch TV show  

- First sitcom that didn't think laugh-a-minute jokes were the only way, they  brought emotions, and dealt with real issues such as death

- This show caused conflict with the generation gap, because the younger  people thought it was funny but the WW2 people said it wasn't funny at all - Watergate changed Society forever, because Nixon betrayed everyone's trust of the government

- Walter Cronkite ("The Most Trusted Man in America") never let his own  opinions be in the news, and he played a key role in Watergate, he broadcast  2 big stories on the news, which let it be known to millions via the TV

- Even those who didn't think it was true said it was true because Walter said it was true

- Prior to Watergate people trusted politicians to do what was best for the  country, but afterward people realized politicians are just in it to get the job  and get power, so they no longer trust the government  

- All the old rules of society saying to trust the government were thrown out,  and society demanded new rules, and TV went along with it  

- Sexual Revolution on TV in the late 1960s and early 1970 despite the older  generation's protests, most sitcoms became TNA

- The 1980s this was the lowest time for situational comedy, there are mostly  dramas on the air, this had a storyline that went over multiple episodes.  Dallas was the first story that went over the whole seasons rather than just a  few episodes.

- The Cosby Show 1984 brought back the sitcom with the family comedy, and  this was the biggest show in the 80s

- Roseanne 1988 - broke ground on TV by showing a sexually active overweight woman, and showed fantasies of Roseanne killing her family for comedy to  enjoy her bath, this was no longer a "leave it to beaver" world

- Married with Children 1987 - was the exact opposite of the Cosby show, sex  was a major part of the show, the family didn’t get along, completely rejected the social story everyone wanted. Lead to protests against the show.  Campaigns lead to publicity of the show, and kept it on the air.

- The Simpsons 1989 - heightened the trend of the idiot, competent  father/husband, and the woman rescues him. There were lots of complaints  against the show, especially Bart, because he was a poor role model for kids.  It is the longest prime time running show on TV. Biggest problems: Social  criticism and other cultural ideas. One of the most culturally literate shows on the air.

The Rise of Cable:

∙ Invented by John Walson 1948 to bring Tv to places that couldn't receive  broadcast signals

∙ FCC restricted it to prevent competition with broadcast stations until 1972 ∙ HBO started in 1972 - first network to use satellite instead of phone lines to  deliver content

∙ Cable Act of 1984 - cable restrictions lifted and new networks could start - Fox had a hard time getting started, because they needed an affiliation, so  only 50 percent of the country can see Fox, but once the cable started Fox  could go anywhere in the country

- Magazines and Radio fragments the audience because of the competition  with television, they had to target niche audiences. Basically this happened  with cable too, because there were many more channels that could be  created, more than just the big 5

- Every network had to concentrate on a certain audience because they  wanted viewers, so they had to change their shows to fit the different social  stories, they marketed to audiences not being represented on the air

- For decades society showed the same social story but with cable any group  had a network that catered to their world view.

- There were cross overs: 1999 Will and Grace started changing society, by  showing a gay couple, much of the humor was Will and Jack, but overall there weren't many complaints. Will was chill, and Jack was so over the top Gay  that no one really took it seriously, it was too funny.

TV:

∙ In the late 90s TV was changing by showing situations on TV that had never  before been ok on Tv before

∙ Sex and the City in 1998 showed a lot of single women who were not  celibate, and addressed a lot of sexuality, and liberated women

TV and Money:

∙ When cable came around the networks had to cut costs because there were  too many cable networks

∙ Shows were often canceled because they cost too much and were not  watched enough

∙ Syndication was an individual station that simply ran reruns of old shows from other networks

∙ TV stations would buy the rights for a show and then started stripping so that they could play the same show at the same time every day during the week  day

∙ To do syndication there had to be 72 episodes (3 years on the network)  ∙ Scripted shows are very expensive, where as unscripted (game shows) are  much cheaper  

∙ A new kind of show came along, based on 1973 show "An American Family"  and it established a cheap show. Take real people and put them on TV thus  "reality TV" was born

∙ Writers and actors are the biggest expense for any type of scripted show ∙ The participants in reality TV are actually just characters in a drama ∙ When you see a reality show you see rearranged reality, they just shoot the  footage and write the script afterward

∙ Reality shows seem to be crowding out scripted shows on the networks,

∙ The effect of reality shows on the public is huge, people think it real and they  want a part of it so they apply to be on it, or be in real life situations like they  characters in the show

Journalism and TV:

∙ Local News  

o Standard format  

∙ Big Local and regional stories

∙ Major national stories

∙ Weather  

∙ Sports

∙ Puff Piece - a light weight meaningless story to make the  audience feel happy, because it puts all the other things before it on  the same level "its not important, non of this show is, don't worry  about it"

o Part of their licensing agreement for public service

∙ National News

o Gives national and international news (national disasters, politics, war,  famine, ect.)

o Ends with a puff piece

∙ History

o Each network had an evening news show

∙ Only 15 minutes, later expanded to 30 minutes

o 1980 - Ted Turner begins CNN, the first 24 hours news networks Characteristics of TV News:

∙ Short form

∙ Shallow - Lots of details have to be omitted and analysis is no longer really  there

∙ Emotional - they could now show the action, and the news casters reactions  are shown

∙ The problem is that not everything can be/should be emotional, because  having overpowering emotions takes away the ability to think

General Characteristics of News (TV News):

∙ News is personalized (they put a face, an emotion face, on the TV to tug at  heart strings) but the public will dismiss the problems as just specific to the  person/ people in the story

∙ News is fragmented, there are lots of brief, capsulated story that has no  relation to any of the other stories, there is very little news given for  perspective. They do not give the how or why events happen, they simply state that they happen. Journalists are obsessed with objectivity, just giving the  facts.  

∙ News is normalized, they try not to make the audience freak out, they really  only use the officials to make the audience feel safe and as if they didn’t need  to do anything. They follow the standard script of asking officials how the  disaster is going. Reinforces that the powerful are able to do their jobs well and make sure everything goes well if no one interferes with their power.

∙ Journalism helps create our reality, but the news gives stories, not reality.  Modern Communication:

∙ Index cards were originally "computers" for finding information on research  already done

∙ Yes or No answers = digital computing

∙ Charles Babbage: designed a calculating "engine" in 1830, which would do  arithmetic very quickly but it was analog not digital.

∙ Basile Bouchon:

o Created Bouchon's loom

∙ Jean-Baptiste Falcon: on 1728 improved on bouchon's loom by making card  rather than paper, so that it didn't break down as easily

∙ Jaques de Vaucanson: 1741 improved the system

∙ Joseph Jacquard: perfected the use of cards in the system, so he gets all the  credit for making the automated loom, this automated loom was "digital" ∙ Article in the constitution says there must be a census every 10 years to  count all the people in the US. This was ok until everyone wanted to come to  the US

∙ Herman Hollerith: came up with the Hollerith Tabulator which used punch  cards, when someone new came to the US, it was written down and given to a  tabulator, who entered all the new people into the tabulator's punch card. The  card was placed in a holder, ending with the Hollerith punch cards in the 1890s census.  

∙ The new way of finding info with the tabulator cut the time needed to do the  census considerably.

∙ Both business, and especially war drive technology

∙ German Z3 - 1941 was a digital computer which replaced cards with  electricity, this kind of digital computer did the math to show where to put a  gun to shoot down a plane. It used vacuum tubes rather than cards, which  came Binary code

∙ You could represent any number or letter or symbol by showing a series of 1s  and 0s

∙ British Colossus 1944 was a huge computer, they grew in size and the  amount of calculations, which lead to programming

∙ Eniac 1946 was an absolutely huge computer which could be programed to  do anything

∙ The problem with the vacuum tube was that they were hot, so they came up  with the transistor, which was much smaller and cooler to operate, and could  pack several transistor in the same place as 1 vacuum tube

∙ Kilby's integrated circuit 1958 allowed several transistors in the same small  space, now they could be made cheap

∙ Modern Integrated Circuit: was a very tiny circuit

∙ These chips stated showing up in everything that used a vacuum tube (radio,  TV, ect)

∙ They make small portable radios

∙ The place that needed the transistors was the space race, which needed the  calculating power

∙ News of these computers spread

∙ Altair personal computer 1975 which geeks loved, it could be programmed to  do things

∙ Bill Gates and Paul Allen made "Basic" which was computer language in 1975 ∙ Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs 1976 they came up with a small computer, the  Apple I which replaced the switches with keys, and used Basic written by

Gates. In 1977 they made the Apple II which had color display and a floppy disk drive. Average people did not like it.

∙ Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston - Visicalc 1978 they made an app that  everyone could want to use. It was a spreadsheet and soon everyone wants  one.

∙ Tim Patterson and QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) 1980s which ran on more powerful computers. Gates bought it, and tinkered with it before  putting it out as MSDOS (Microsoft).

∙ Gates licensed it to IBM to put on their computers for cheap, but he licensed  it to anyone who wanted it not just IBM.  

∙ Gates found that the money was not in the operating system, but in the  programs that would run on the operating system (word, excel, ect).

∙ Sony Betamax was the first thing to record TV

∙ VHS VCR was an even newer way to record TV and VHS pushed  Betamax out

∙ Betamax was better sound and better picture but rentals killed it  because the porn industry chose VHS  

∙ The VCR changed things because programming started to be in the  hands of the viewers, not the networks

∙ People were watching tapes rather than what was actually on TV, they  skipped the unpopular shows, and the ratings for taped shows were  destroyed because they could not tell when something was being taped.

∙ Viewers could now avoid commercials, and that made the sponsors  mad

∙ Recording movies off the air, so the movie companies were angry  because they no longer received royalties, so the studios would loose  income.  

∙ This changed the field of TV and movies, the sponsors wanted deals  from the networks. Networks had to reduce costs

∙ Any show that did not immediately get an audience were canceled ∙ The kind of movies being made changed, so the movies went more  toward making movies that look better on a big screen than a small screen.  ∙ The main point of targeting teenagers for movies is because they are  most likely to go to movies

∙ The greatest problem with the VCR is the picture quality ∙ 1885 Carl Welsbach was an Austrian chemist who was hired to improve the gas lamp to keep it more popular than the lightbulb. Concentrated with  rare minerals, and found a new one

∙ Georgia Cayvan was the best actress in the 1880s and she wore a  glass dress for a publicity stunt.

∙ 1960s people got the idea for the laser, the first was by Gordon Gould,  he made the Ruby laser.  

∙ The laser could go to a very small beam and has very little spread, and the length can be very finely measured

∙ The pits are read by the laser as 0s and 1s

∙ Almost as soon as the laser was invented the laser read compact disc  (CD) was made

∙ Sony, Philips, and Toshiba made a disc with mass amounts of storage,  so they could now make DVDs

∙ The DVD provided better sound and picture but they could not record  so the VCR remained the big recorder

∙ The DVR then came around and put the VHS out for good. But the  problem was that the number of shows that could be recorded depended on the amount of storage on the DVR

∙ In the 90s they got rid of the floppy disk and started making CD  burners, so people would burn TV shows recorded previously, and able to  watch them on DVDs.

∙ Blu-ray was the next step, allowed 25 gbyte rather than the 4.7 on a  DVD. It was a result of improving the mechanics and from changing from the red laser to the blue laser. Blue is more accurate, and smaller. ∙ Early cell phones 1980s  

∙ Sony Walkman CD - 1984  

∙ iPod 2001 play back purely digital file

∙ iPhone 2007 this was the first smart phone

∙ The smart phone is popular because it has all these apps that do  things that are easily usable to people

∙ The internet invented by the Advanced Research Projects Agency  (ARPA) and was created at the request of Eisenhower in the 1950s, because  he wanted to make sure the nuclear war wouldn't take out all the  computers.  

∙ They wanted to connect the computers but in a way that wouldn’t  destroy all of them if one place was taken out.  

∙ Required three changes in computers

o Going from analog to digital

o Connecting computers through phone lines

∙ Packet Switching  

o Divide any message into chunks of data, or packets ∙ Each packet is a small part of the address

∙ Each packet has a final destination address

∙ Protocols- codes that allow computers to talk to each other regardless  of manufacturer or operating system

∙ At the beginning it was mostly college professors who used the  internet because it was created by college professors

∙ When word got out then everyone wanted to be on the internet, and  then came around the internet provider

∙ Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web (www) invented in 1989  and public in 1993, created HTML which was a set of codes that told the  computer how to display the page on the screen.  

∙ The advantages to HTML had hyperlinks, so you didn't have to know  the exact address

∙ Marc Andreessen made Mosaic which allowed people to not know all  the codes

∙ The internet became central to everything

∙ Has led to word redefinition "googling"  

∙

Modern communication and Society:

∙ The transistor: before it no computers would have existed. Without the  transistor things would run on vacuum tubes and be huge.

∙ Lots of transistors in a small space = the IC chip

∙ The idea of hand writing letters seems to have disappeared ∙ We used to talk or write on paper but now we talk on the phone and text on  the phone

Facts to consider:

∙ Extended plot stories over multiple episodes require audience commitment  ∙ USA TODAY, the country's most popular newspapers, uses very short stories  and lots of graphics

∙ Sound Bites have shortened from 42 seconds to 7 seconds = bumper sticker  politics, but leaves out anything that might help people decide if it’s a good  idea or not

∙ Along with bumper sticker politics there are tweets, 140-character limit Result:

∙ Short attention span

∙ Low threshold of boredom

∙ Era of instant gratification

∙ TV news relies on people taking videos on their phones, and looking at social  media to find material to report on

Greatest change in society:

∙ The computer  

o They run everything

o They make the decisions

o They do what they are told, they cannot think, but people believe they  are thinking

o They hold all the information about all of us

What modern communication has done and is still doing:

∙ We're at the beck and call of our devices

∙ We've developed a low threshold of boredom

∙ We've lost our privacy

∙ Anything anybody wants to say they can say to everybody ∙ We're in a global electronic village - we have never been closer or further  apart

∙ Knowledge is in the data base rather than people's heads

Qualitative effects are those that create someone's reality about the world and how  it works

- Research = an attempt to discover something  

- Social Science = An examination of how people interact with objects in their  environment  

- Giovanni Benedetti decided to test Aristotle's guesses at various things. He  performed the ball drop experiment

Ways of knowing:  

∙ Tradition  

∙ Tied to prior held beliefs

∙ Beliefs are hard to change

Scientific method:

∙ The 4th way of knowing  

∙ Requires systematic analysis

∙ Always open to new information

o Nothing is ever "proven" with science

∙ Tests questions of fact

Differences between hard and social sciences:

∙ Hard sciences deal with the inanimate or nonhumans, like elements and forces and animals

∙ Social science deals with people

Methodologies

∙ Observation

o Reduce variables as much as possible

∙ Surveys

o Administers questionnaires to research  

o Be careful with wording the questions

o Be careful of question order

∙ Focus Groups

o Small panel of people who discuss what the researcher  

interested in

o Problems with maintaining focus  

o Danger of one person dominating discussion  

∙ Content Analysis:

o Counting things to get statistics  

o Sample size must be large enough

o Time consuming

o Must specifically define what you're looking for

What are media effects?

∙ Media effects approach

o Focus on audiences (vs. media system)

∙ Try to reduce variables

o Specification

∙ Types of Outcomes in Effects Research:

o Behavioral - buying a product

o Attitude

o Cognitive

o Physiological - jump scene in a scary movie

∙ Eras of Media effects:

o Magic bullet/ uniform effects  

∙ Also known as Direct Effects

∙ Pre- 1945

∙ Focus on war propaganda  

o Limited ( or indirect effects) - two step flow

o Powerful effects in limited areas

∙ Early 1970s to present

∙ Move to focus on cognitions and perceptions  

∙ How do we know what is going on? Get information from news. ∙ Relevance: proximity

∙ Importance: prominence

∙ Interest: conflict oddity  

∙ Conflict needs to be odd + out of the norm.

∙ Agenda Setting:

∙ Media tells us what to think about – which leads us to  perceptions of what matters

∙ Media doesn’t tell us WHAT to think

∙ People care more about what gets news coverage even if something  else is more of a threat

∙ Framing:

∙ Media tell you not only WHAT to think about (agenda setting)  but HOW to think about it  

∙ Explains why people have similar opinions/reactions  ∙ Shanto Lyengar (1991)

∙ Examined how issues were presented on television ∙ Episodic: there is a problem that is solved at the end of  the episode  

∙ Thematic: a main theme running through all episodes ∙ How a story is told

∙ Game Frame: Horse race (politics): Who is leading the race and  winning. It implies 1 candidate is better than another.

∙ Value Framing: Implies the story is around something that the people  watching value

∙ Frank Luntz: really good at framing by choosing specific words. Chose  the wording for estate taxes which = “death” taxes to evoke a stronger emotion  ∙ Talking Points: words and phrases in a news story which will evoke lots  of emotions, and are given to anyone who wants to be interviewed about the  subjects will hit them. They become part of the world view.  

∙ Beginning of Spiral of Silence:

∙ Created by Elisabeth Noelle – Nuemann (1984)

∙ Examined originally by considering the content of train  passengers conversation

∙ Certain topics of controversy that don’t come up to keep the  peace

∙ Individuals who are in the minority will often keep their opinions  to themselves = minority views are less often heard.

∙ The more the loud voices make noise the more it seems they are the majority

∙ The Big Lie: Joseph Goebbels  

∙ Say something often enough and loud enough, then people will  believe them.

Basics of the Knowledge Gap:

∙ Increasing info in the environment will increase knowledge  ∙ High SES individuals acquire info at a faster rate than low SES individuals o Essentially the" rich get richer": people with higher SES get better  information than lower SES

o Societal and democratic implication

Why The Gap Exists:

∙ Differences in cognitive/ communication skills

∙ Less about memorizing new facts, but rather learning to think about the new  information

∙ People do not like reading because they view it as a chore, especially because reading is slow

∙ Listening is a skill that needs to be practiced and mastered ∙ Differences in prior information and knowledge

∙ Access to information

∙ Selective exposure to information

Desire for Consistency:

∙ People generally like to hear information that agrees with beliefs they already hold

∙ Cognitive Dissidence - the personal experiences that create our world Cognitive Dissonance Theory:

∙ Cognitions: bits of knowledge individuals have stored in their mind ∙ Individual cognitions have one of three relationships with one another o Dissonant relationship

o Consonant relationship

o Irrelevant relationship  

Magnitude of Dissonance:

∙ Importance of the cognitions

∙ Ratio of dissonance to consonant cognitions: the more new cognitions  received that conflict with existing thoughts the more discomfort. The fewer =  less discomfort and less of the need to escape.

∙ Degree of cognitive overlap: the similarity of the choices  

Necessary Conditions for Cognitions Dissonance:

∙ Aversive consequences  

∙ Freedom of choice  

∙ Insufficient external justification – can’t find enough outside sources to  support what you believe, and reject the new information

Rationalization:

∙ People rationalize things in absurd situations

Selective Exposure:

∙ We tend to expose ourselves to info sources that are likely to reinforces our  views

∙ Happens at three levels:

o Selective Exposure

o Selective Perception - people tend to see what they expect to see.  Personal experience influences all the time

o Selective Retention - we remember things that are important to us.  

Effects of Violence/ Aggression:

Why is there violence in media?

∙ It’s exciting  

∙ It attracts attention

So Why Violence?

∙ Quickest and easiest way to show the conflict and solve it

∙ Less time consuming than verbal talking

∙ Makes it easier to write the story

∙ Has been a way of solving problems for a very long time  

NTVS Results: Context

∙ 24-28% of perpetrators are "good" characters

∙ 37-40% of perpetrators are "attractive"

∙ 71-75% of violent scenes do not have punishment of perpetrator  ∙ 15% of violent scenes show blood and gore

∙ 51-58% of violent incidents do not show the victim in pain or harm ∙ 39-43% of violent scenes involve humor

Basic Assumption of human behavior:

∙ Much of it is learned

∙ Learning - the process of acquiring, through experience including observation, new and relatively enduring information or behaviors  

Cognition:

∙ Thoughts, perspectives, and expectations, -- remembering the past (whether  the past is real or not) relating it to the present, and making predictions about  the future.

Solving Problems:

∙ Trial and error - come up with a solution and try it

∙ Algorithms - a step-by-step process to solving a problem. A lot like a  computer science problem

∙ Heuristics - mental shortcut to solve problems. Faster than the first two. Your  solution could be completely wrong, where the media comes into play, because the media offers superficial problems that barely resemble personal ones. If  people apply these solutions, there will not be a correct solutions Classical Conditioning:

∙ Pavolv's dogs  

 - Helps explain stimuli trigger an automatic response

∙ Process of learning an association between stimuli (dogs learning that the  ringing of the bell means food will soon come)

∙ Unconditioned stimulus - natural stimulus that reflexively produces a  response without prior learning (a bell)

∙ Unconditioned response - unlearned reflexive response (dogs drooling) ∙ Conditioned stimulus- originally unpaired with anything, but soon is used  to elecit the conditioned response (The bell which makes the dogs drool) ∙ Conditioned response - the response that is associated with the  conditioned stimulus. (Drooling after bell is rung)

∙ Reward vs. Punishment: people want reward and avoid punishment  ∙ Albert Bandura: Psychologist at Stanford

∙ The bobo doll experiment: children watched a video of an adult playing aggressively with a bobo doll, then were placed in a room with many  different toys, one of which was a bobo doll. The children began imitating  the adults by playing aggressively with the doll.

∙ The three steps of learning  

∙ Key info is taken in and processed

∙ Integrates the info and makes rules about how things work ∙ Put those rules into practice  

∙ His findings lead to the Social Learning Theory

∙ Issues with the bobo doll experiment:

∙ The bobo doll is a punching bag, that is its purpose

∙ The children could be just following instructions

∙ The person who is to be imitated needs to be of status to the  imitators

∙ It was a doll and not a person

Priming: causes certain memories to come to the top of your mind because there is  a reminder of something in you past that comes to the front.  

We can be primed to think of things.

Studies on priming and violence:

∙ Watch violent or non-violent clip

∙ Watch a cartoon (fuzzy vs. clear)

∙ Next students were interviewed with walkie talkies and microphones ∙ Frustration came from fuzzy video clips and walkie Talkie

Modeling - Bandura, people will imitate observations  

∙ Attention - pay attention to the media

∙ Retention - retain the story

∙ Production - the subject has to be able to reproduce the study ∙ Reinforcement - positive reinforcement presents

∙ Mirror neurons allow us to vicariously experience other people's experiences o We feel what others feel by simply watching it

∙ Kids will imitate what they see on television  

Cultivation Analysis:

∙ The more time you spend with media, the more you think it is an accurate  representation of the real world

∙ George Gerbner (1976)

∙ It predicts that watching TV will cultivate attitudes that are more related to  the TV world rather than the real world

∙ If you watch a lot of TV you think life is like the world you see in TV ∙ Tv brings up social stories that bind a society together

∙ Mean World Syndrome:

o People believe an event is more possible to happen if they can think of  examples of it

o Because there is so much coverage people believe events are  common, even when there aren't that many instances of it

∙ Desensitization - people who are exposed to a lot of violence, its effect on  them decreases as they become desensitized to it.  

o Decreases arousal

o Indifferent to real-life violence

o Less willing to help

o How does it work?

∙ Classical conditioning

∙ Catharsis: cleansing, the audience experiences great emotions when showing tragic events and they also experiences a great relief after it is solves  o viewing of violent media content helps to purge violent impulses o Exposure to violent television should reduce aggression  

o Almost all the evidence is inconsistent with this theory

o This doesn’t happen because in real life it can't

Stereotypes:

∙ Everybody knows that they are unjustified beliefs about a certain group of  people that separates them from everyone else. But this definition only is  about people.

∙ Fixed form or convention: something lacking in originality or individuality  ∙ The human mind gathers info and stores it in memory, and uses it to  compare to new things

∙ How we get info:

o Somatic: what we personally experience through our senses o Extrasomatic: Sources of information external to your personal  experience  

∙ Mechanical sources

∙ Extend our senses

o Association: depends on who we associate with, also known as  socialization

∙ Associative impressions = a problem, associated with a variety  of people

∙ Impossible to avoid  

o Vicariously: through imagination and through media  

∙ Have a built in drawback: limited by the senses of the creators  of the sources

∙ Complication of limited means of communications (words,  pictures)

∙ A pale shadow of the real thing

∙ Great advantage: it is objective to you, it opens up the possible  ways of viewing things

∙ What do we do with all the info?

o Sort into categories

o The categories are stereotyped

o Why categories?

∙ So we can consciously think about things

∙ It’s the way the human mind works - we remember the past,  relate to the present, and project the future. We decide what we  would like to have happen, and then follow the steps to get the  desired outcome.

o People think of everything belonging to one group or another o Pigeonholing:

∙ Put any and all info we gather about anything, regardless of  source, into a box, the stereotype

∙ New boxes are created when new information comes in  ∙ If the new information is not important, it will not create a new  box

∙ Stereotypes are shortcuts to thinking:

o Called "heuristic" device

o Identify superficial characteristics  

∙ See, hear, smell something

o What you perceive triggers a stereotype box

∙ What's important is the contents of the stereotype box ∙ Recap

o Primary sources are what you put in personally

o Secondary are from other sources

∙ A rank is assigned to what's in the box

∙ If a commonly held stereotype matches your stereotype, then it  becomes fact

∙ When someone else's stereotype doesn’t match with your own, then it  is negative

∙ Stereotypes are neither positive nor negative

∙ Depends on if others' stereotypes match your own

∙ People create their own reality  

o Varies from person to person

∙ Why are stereotypes used in the media?

o Reflects the reality of the audience

o Use the stereotypes already present in the audience o Economic factors - people whose stereotypes match up with the  media's use of them, then they will buy the magazine or watch the TV  show

o Occupations are often over-dramatized in TV

∙ Police Officers - greatly overrepresented

∙ Lawyers & Courtroom Trials - real or fictional, it's  sensationalized  

∙ Farmers - where is media produced?

∙ College Student - Lots of drinks, party all the time on  parent's money

o TV makes money by targeting the largest audience they can, so  they reinforce the stereotypes already existing  

o In the late 60s there were antiwar and women's civil rights, they  challenged stereotypes and reinforced new ones

∙ TV and Stereotypes:

o Introduction to cable

∙ Hundreds of different channels show different stereotypes ∙ Movies and Stereotypes:

o Movies reflected the director's stereotypes  

o They became homogeneous

o Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith was a racist epic about the  Civil War, and he extolled the KKK as heroes, and portrayed freed  blacks as evil

o Easy Rider - showed the generation gap and difference between  rednecks and hippies

o To Kill a Mockingbird - shows bigotry, powerful condemnation of  people who held stereotypes  

∙ The original stereotype was that American Indians were uncivilized  savages

∙ In 1970 the Indian Savage idea was challenged with Little Big Man o In this case the whites were shown as the evil force trying to  destroy a civilization

o Was enforced with Dances With Wolves

∙ Stereotypes of the heroine changed in the movie, from the  helplessness of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty to Belle who fights for  herself and saves the Beast, as well as Frozen, where the act of true love is  performed by Anna rather than done to her. The happy end was changed ∙ Gender and Stereotyping:

o Common gender roles

∙ Certain roles had been designated to each gender  because of what happened a long time ago, when women had and raised children while the men hunted and provided food.

∙ After hundreds of thousands of years of women being in  the home and men working outside the home became engrained  and normal.

∙ Advertising depends on stereotypes  

∙ Brand names go after women because they are more  likely to buy brand names

∙ Women are exposed in domestic roles more than anything else (cleaning, cooking, laundry)

∙ Ever since the industrial revolution when you could begin  making house hold products in bulk, they target advertising at  women.

∙ After the women's movement began, the advertising  expanded to include new stereotypes about women

∙ The Superwoman: business, professional, community  roles, mother, and take care of the home. She can do everything  all by herself. This makes women feel good and want the product.

∙ Women as objects, ads turn women into objects rather  than people. Often they show her without a head, and shows the  turn ons for men. These ads also will show women being  

submissive to men as they are physically dominant over them. ∙ Sex Appeal:

∙ Gender linked because of different goals

∙ For men it's sex with ease and no complications  ∙ Whatever is closest

∙ For women it's attract more men from which to  choose  

∙ Select the best among the possible choices,  

and the greater the selection, the better the choice  

∙ Humans have the most complex social life on earth ∙ Instinctive criteria for men are the same as for any  other male animal - she's just there

∙ Portrayals of Women:

∙ Physical Appearance  

∙ Youth = beauty

∙ Primary Goal: Stay young and  

attractive

∙ Women in modeling became tall and thin,  

because they became clothes hangers to show the  

clothes

∙ Their body shapes were essentially  

unattainable by consumers  

∙ Ads tries to make women think they are  

unhappy with their appearance to encourage them to  

buy the product to change themselves

∙ Constant use of thin ideal makes the  

stereotype of thin seem needed for beauty

∙ Portrayals of Men:

∙ Sturdy Oak: Hard Working, good providers

∙ Big Wheel: trappings of social and financial  

success

∙ Tough, emotionless beings

∙ Physical Appearance:

∙ Attractive + Strong

∙ Upper body muscles  

∙ Less emphasis on slight aging

∙ Grey hair

∙ But emphasis on young and strong

∙ Balding

∙ Weakness

∙ Roles:

∙ Primarily outside the home

∙ Uncomfortable/out of place in the  

home  

New Information (minus Ethics)

Contact hypothesis: if people get together, and have personal contact with  someone who they have stereotyped in the past will reduce the stereotypes they  had of the group.

History of the hypothesis:

∙ Started after WW2  

∙ Red Ball Express: their insignia was a red circle, and was mostly black, and  they drove supplies all over. They often had to fight german troops. They  earned the respect of white soldiers who worked with them because they came through with the supplies, but other white soldiers viewed the black men as  beneath them.

∙ Red Tails: flied escort for the bombers over Germany, maned by black pilots,  but then engaged in fighting and protected the bomber crews very well to the  point where whites begged them to protect them. But on the ground they still  did not want to associate with them.

∙ 442nd Infantry Regiments: second generation Japanese serving the in the  army as volunteers, and they were put into a separate unit. None of them were promoted to officer rank. When they went into combat they became the best in the army. They rescued white members at the cost of their own members from  the Germans. They earned the white soldiers respect and became the most  decorated unit in the history of the army.

∙ All these colored soldiers earned the respect of the white soldiers, which  altered the discrimination of them within the army between the white and  colored soldiers. They all came to rely on each other for life.  

∙ Their attitudes changed because they had actual contact with the people  they stereotyped.

∙ Attempts to understand shift in attitudes between groups that fought  together during the war started in 1946

∙ Contact Hypothesis credited to Gordon Allport  

∙ Rothbert and John: knowing more about actual individuals in a stereotyped  group changes the stereotypes of the entire group.

∙ Anxiety during contact reduces the likelihood of reducing prejudice, so the  contact situations needs to meet certain criteria if it is going to work

The Criteria of the Contact Hypothesis:

Equal Status:

∙ Neither group has greater social or economic status  

∙ More likely in informal situations than in formal situation

∙ It is often difficult because participants do not have similar backgrounds, and  involves those in power trying to decrease the conflict but this automatically  puts them at a higher level.  

Common Goals:

∙ If everyone is working to achieve the same end, differences that have nothing to do with that achievement are minimized

Intergroup Cooperation:

∙ Both groups must work together toward their common goal without internal  competition  

∙ This can be more difficult for men than women

Support of Authorities, law, or customs:

∙ Effectiveness of contact reducing prejudice more likely if it's backed by  authority or law

∙ They should support working together, and discourage/punish those who  compare  

Personal (informal) Interaction:

∙ Members of different groups must mingle and talk

∙ They should discover something about the other group, share their common  interests

∙ The difference: the red ball express and the red tails did not have personal  interactions between the white and black, whereas the Japanese ground  soldiers sat around and talked with the white soldiers so that the prejudice  dropped.  

∙ Allport's criteria are intellectual- there is an emotional aspect that people  bring and emotions don't respond to intellect.

Contact Hypothesis and the Media:

∙ The other way is through indirect contact, where people do not meet face to  face.  

∙ New research looks at the effects of indirect contact

∙ Media are the major source of indirect contact

∙ In the 1950s things began changing, because there was less of a big deal  with black characters in the media, and all the criteria being met as characters  in shows interacted

∙ Since the 80s characters who are white and black have interacted either  formally or informally as a normal thing on television.  

∙ They also experienced the vicarious contact hypothesis in movies ∙ In the 60s the movies really began to show the interaction between the races, and shaped people's ideas of how the races interacted.  

∙ Possible reasons why the hypothesis works:

o Actual behavior completely unlike expected behavior based on  stereotypes

o That unstereotyped behavior is seen often and in many situations  o The people interacted with are perceived as typical members of the  outgroup

∙ Gutenberg created moveable type press

o Suddenly everyone had access to printed material

o Allowed wide-spread opinions and influence

o Stimulated demand for literacy

o Public Opinion molded

∙ The church:

o One of the first and most important customers

o The church was the most powerful in Europe, and people had to  "do it their way or else"

o Indulgence = forgiveness before all past sins, could be bought  with money

o With the printing press the church could run off thousands or  hundreds of indulgences a day

o Martin Luther made a list of his complaints against the church  and posted them on the church door to spark a conversation about the  issues, but within a few weeks they were all over Europe, giving birth to the Protestant Reformation. The church fought back. This lead to a  propaganda war which was accelerated by the printing press.

o Luther's German Bible - 1520, so that average people could read the bible without needing the priest to interpret the bible.

o To fight the German bible, they tried to control the print media.  Printing became the enemy because Protestants could print just as  easily as the church. So the church began banning books and burned  books they didn’t like as well as burned the writers.  

o Galileo Galilei 1564- 1642: disproved that everything revolved  around the world by finding moons orbiting Jupiter. This was not a  problem until he published his book, spreading his idea. The church  banned the book that went against prior teachings, and put him under  house arrest. The problem was not with the facts, but that he was  telling a new story of the universe and how it works. Because of the  printing press there was many copies of the book. The church's fear  was of the new story replacing the old story, which was the main basis  of the church's authority.

o The king had the power to stop printing because his power was  almost absolute. The King never took well to being joked about, or  talked about in any other way than praising.  

o Henry VIII in 1529:

∙ Banned books he or his advisors did not like

∙ 1530 printers needed permission from the king to print,  and the license could be revoked if the king did not like what they  printed.

o Governments subsidized printing

∙ Gave them a great deal of control over what could be  printed

∙ Newspapers were for the elite  

 Were anything but objective

 Supported those who paid for them

∙ Newspapers slanted everything in favor to those who paid them.

o American Colonies  

∙ Had their own printers

∙ They had to get the license from the government  ∙ The Boston Newsletter - it was really expensive and very  dull, but it was subsidized by the government meaning the  government had control over the newspaper so they only printed  what they wanted the people to see.

∙ New England Courant - people liked this newspaper, but  the government did not like it so they shut him down until Ben  Franklin took it over and made his own very popular print shop. He also started his own new paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. He sold advertising space in his newspaper, which were similar to wanted  ads. Many advertised for runaway slaves.  

∙ Zenger's New York Weekly Journal: the gazette was  supported by the British government this one was not. Zenger was negative toward the government in his newspaper which lead to  the government trying to shut him down. But he won the  argument by saying the truth was greater than hiding it so that  the government only looks good.

∙ British Stamp Act - a tax on newspapers, pamphlets, and  paper. This had the purpose to shut down papers which spoke  against the government.

∙ Freedom of the press advances people's knowledge as  well as holds government officials to doing what they say they are  going to do.

o Early days of movies:

∙ Movie makers could do whatever they wanted because of  freedom of speech

∙ Mutual Film Corporation V. Industrial Commission of Ohio  (1915)

 Supreme Court declared that movies were a  business, not an art, and thus were not protected by the first  amendment.

∙ 1920s the world underwent a major change; young people were very cynical. A period of cynicism and breaking with  

traditions following the great upheavals in society caused by  

World War 1. Movies started to show more sex and violence  

because that was what sold.  

∙ 1930s as a backlash against the openness of the Roaring  Twenties, many people in society insisted on censorship.  

∙ The Hays Office  

 To set standards for movies  

 Had no effective enforcement  

 Started in 1930

 Hay's three rules:

∙ Evil shall not win

∙ Law shall not be ridiculed  

∙ Standards of life had to be up kept

 There were other rules:

∙ Kisses could not be longer than 35 seconds,

∙ Prostitutes had to die at the end in a heroic  

way to atone for her sins

∙ No sexual scenes

Joseph Burstyn, Inc. vs. Wilson, 1952

∙ Supreme court decision overturning Mutual vs. Ohio that allowed the  censorship of movies because they were a business, not an art form, and "they could be used for evil"

∙ This case determined that the movies, even if a business, are a form of  artistic expression and thus entitled to First Amendment protection. ∙ This killed off the censorship board and the hays office

∙ Jacobellis vs. Ohio 1964: ohio tried to ban the film "the lovers" for obscenity,  but the court ruled it was not obscene because only hard-core porn was  obscene.  

∙ Other Media Regulations:

o When any new media appeared it was treated like the press o FCC Act of 1934: the FCC cannot regulate anything about free speech  on the radio and in the press, and in 1948 passed on to the movies, and in 1969 it was passed to Television

o Prior to radio, communication was point to point

o For the first time, one voice could be heard by many people o John R. Brinkley - he had a cure for everything but especially sexual  problems where he implanted goat glands into his patients. He saw the  advantage of the radio as a way of advertising, he made a radio station  and used it to purely advertise for his cures. In 1930 he was denied a  license because he did not broadcast in the public interest but only for  private gain. He appealed on the grounds of censorship but lost. So he  made a new radio station on the boarder of Mexico. He amped it up to  5000 watts and overrode other radio stations, and then let the Nazi's use  it. So the Brinkley Act was created so that any broadcasting from Mexico  but originating in the U.S had to be licensed in the U.S. This shut him  down for good.

o Radio Act of 1970:

∙ Airways were a limited natural resource, so they were regulated ∙ Wavelength: distance between reoccurring peaks between  waves

∙ The number of frequencies broadcasting can use is limited ∙ Propagation characteristics - ability of a wavelength to pass  through objects without being absorbed

∙ This view had a lot of evidence which resulted in clutter in the  airwaves because there would be too many stations who tried to  broadcast on the same frequency, or one stattion would drown out  the other station

∙ Radio act of 1927:

 Require stations to get a license which would specify their frequency and power

∙ Public ownership of airwaves

∙ Communications Act of 1934:

 Created Federal Communications commission

 Said that the radio had to broadcast things of interest and need of the public

∙ Scarcity:

 Only so many stations can be on the air without  interfering with each other

∙ Print media audiences must act affirmatively  

∙ Broadcast media audience are captive because they can't skip  over the parts they did not want to hear.

∙ The Proxy Concept:

 Since the public owns the airwaves, licenses are only  acting as a proxy for the public

 The first amendment doesn’t prohibit requiring a trustee  to do certain things

o 4 ideas which allow for regulations:

∙ Public owns the airwaves

∙ Scarcity of airwaves

∙ Differences between print and broadcast media

∙ Proxy concept

o The arrival of cable:

∙ No public ownership of airwaves

∙ No scarcity of resources

∙ No proxy concept  

∙ Only the assumption of TVs effect on the audience  o 1978 FCC v. Pacifica:

∙ WBAI aired George Carlin's "seven words you can't say on TV" ∙ Pacifica won because it was protected by 1st amendment ∙ FCC appealed, saying it was indecent, for which there was no  definition

∙ There was a restriction placed so that things with bad words,  regarding sex or excretion, could only be played after 10pm when  children are not likely to be watching or listening

∙ FCC tried to get indecent programming banned all together in  1990, which was too far

o New Media Regulations (internet):

∙ There are no owners or central control to go after

∙ No "contemporary community standards"

∙ The only group they can go after for regulation is internet  providers, but they don't create it they simply pass it to users who  have the right to see it

Copyright:

∙ Definition: legally binding concept giving the creator of a piece of work  exclusive rights  

o Gives credit where it is due

o Financial Benefits

o Control over adapting work

o Control over performance

∙ If you make something, you should have control over it and  profit from it!

∙ First Law - 1790

o Protected for 14 years + could be renewed for additional 14 years o This only protected to U.S. author but other countries soon followed ∙ Copyright Act of 1976

o Copyrights would last for 50 years after the author's death o Expended protection in new media

∙ 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act

o 70 years after author's death

o Copyright protections to materials recorded digitally

∙ A copyright grants the creator exclusive right to benefit financially from his or her creation

∙ Internet makes copyright violation easy

∙ Exceptions:

o Public Domain: when intellectual property rights have expired they  enter the public domain

∙ Do not need permissions for clips or samples

∙ Copyright laws diminishing public domain

∙ EX: Wizard of Oz was written in 1900, entered public domain in  1956 so that people can reimagine the story, using the same  

characters and retelling it in different ways.

∙ EX: Disney has made huge profits from public domain stories,  but now they own the copyrights to these classic tales

∙ Benefits of public domain:

∙ Create new knowledge and culture

∙ Retelling for new audience

∙ Access to cultural heritage

∙ Fairy tales, classical music

∙ Low cost access to information

∙ Books, music

∙ Enabling Competition

o Fair Use: can use copyrighted material under certain situations

∙ Criticism  

∙ Commentary

∙ News reporting

∙ Research

∙ Teaching

∙ Parody

∙ Public doesn't get much in return for giving away the airwaves ( or extending copyright)

∙ Rubber stamp for licenses prevents innovation  

o No competition = no incentive for those currently operating to listen to viewers

∙ Result - poor service, less innovation, higher cost

∙ 4 Points about regulation:

o Media Systems are created by policies and subsidies; they are not  "natural"

∙ We shape our social systems

∙ Same with media

∙ Owned by the people who put money into them

∙ Commercial Operations

∙ U.S. = capitalist  

∙ People weren't necessarily happy with the proposed commercial  system

∙ Advertising has never been popular

o First Amendment does not authorize corporate run media system ∙ Freedom of speech does not mean zero regulations

∙ People argue that there should be no regulation at all

∙ Corporations hire people to speak for them.

o American media system is not a free Market system:

∙ Public owns the airwaves ( not the media company)

∙ FCC provides license for companies (and people) to use the  airwaves

∙ Licenses are generally free of cost as long as the company (or  person) provides a "public service"

∙ They do not give anything back to the public who allows them to use the airwaves

∙ Companies sometimes claim that they only have a narrow slice  of the bandwidth, but this is not correct

∙ The government gives this away for free, unlike other industries ∙ There are lots of other subsidies given by the government such  as mail, films, government ads

o Policy making process is important for understand the structure of the  media system

∙ Radio Act of 1912

∙ Government would license radio stations

∙ Ships needed to have listening to radio transmissions  (titanic)

∙ Airwaves broken into:

∙ Commercial - made money from the airwaves

∙ Government - used for military

∙ Amateur (got the worst deal) - for fun

∙ Radio Act 1927

∙ Created the Federal Radio Commission

∙ Limited relation powers

∙ Power to grant licenses  

∙ Early Equal time provision

∙ Candidates required to have equal access to  

air time

∙ Communication Act of 1934

∙ Creation of the Federal Communication Commission

∙ Debate over commercial vs. non-commercial  

programming

∙ Telecommunications act of 1996

∙ Goal: open the markets to everyone

∙ First government regulation since the 1934 (62 years) ∙ They loosened regulations of ownership

∙ The outcome was huge merges

∙ Some rules are not enforced

∙ Lack of competition

Contextual Influences

Effect on media content:

∙ 1st level: individual level

A. Characteristics

B. Personal and professional background

i. Executives tend to have more education, which is probably a  good thing

ii. Many people choose their taste in media based on the situation  we grow up in, and continue to consume the media we are brought  up on.

B Personal Attitude  

i. Liberal journalist = liberal media

B Role a person plays in the media content (Professional Roles) i. Role of a journalist = cover a story accurately and with as little  bias as possible

ii. Owner = goal is to make money for the company and stock  holders

∙ 2nd level: Routines

A All organizations need routines to function  

i. Allows individuals in the organization to complete tasks ii. Goal is to make a profit

iii. Process:

∙ Media attains "raw product"

∙ Obtain product from suppliers

∙ Deliver to audience

∙ They pay attention to what the audience already is accepting, so that they produce something similar that they can understand and feel  comfortable with.

∙ Includes what other media outlets are doing

i. If something is a hit in one outlet then other outlets copy o 3rd level: Organizational Influences

∙ Media organizations today largely concerned with profits ∙ Proliferations of mega media  

∙ Today there are only 5 media corporations

∙ Big Media:

i. Uniform view of everything

ii. Media diversity & democracy

∙ Consequences of Merging companies:

i. Vertical integration: controlling all aspects of a media project  from production, distribution, promotion ect.

ii. Synergy: combining the strengths of different companies ∙ Streamline and efficient and cuts costs

∙ But one company controls all the aspects

iii. Convergence: Different media begin to preform similar tasks ∙ Movie based on a book

∙ Then a video game based on the movie

∙ Then toys based on everything

∙ This is all one company doing everything

o 4th level: External Pressures  

∙ Source Pressure - big organizations with power can garner  greater coverage

i. Corporations can get their voice heard  

∙ Interest group pressure  

i. Focus on family, American Family Associations, Christian Parents Television Council - promote 'family values'

ii. Campaigns to voice opinion

∙ Advertisers - threaten to pull money from program i. Advertising will not put money into shows that have messages  they do not like.

ii. There are fewer stories that go against the advertising  o 5th level: Ideology  

∙ Is a formal and articulated system of meanings, values, and  beliefs… that can be abstracted as "world views"

∙ U.S ideology:  

i. Economic - capitalism, private ownership, free markets ii. Political - liberal democracy, people have equal worth ∙ These values are articulated and reaffirmed in media o From the beginning of media there has been attempts to control them,  but every time a new media shows up there will be an attempt to control it.

Final Exam:

∙ 1/2 comprehensive

∙ 1/2 ethics, contact hypothesis (how does it work and why is it there), what  can and cannot make it work to reduce the conflict and discrimination in a  society, know the laws of the regulations and their effects, know why the laws

were passed, know the supreme court decisions that were made, Ohio, Pacifica. Need to know influences on the media, and what they mean. Ethics - theories  of being ethical (not the name of inventor), Be able to apply ethical theories to  a hypothetical dilemma  

People:

∙ Without whom a media would have never come into existence  ∙ Franz Ucadius  

∙ Whoever had the original genius to create the new media

∙ Guettenberg

∙ Talk about how the society was altered when the new media showed up, what caused it and how it changed society

∙ Only the social media theories that were talked about in class (cultivation  theory)