Final SCOM
Nickelodeons-Another turning point in film's development as a ______ was the 1907 arrival of nickelodeons — a type of _____ whose name combines the admission price _____ with the Greek word for "theater." These small and uncomfortable makeshift theaters often consisted of converted _____ redecorated to mimic ______. Nickelodeons showed ______, which typically transcended language barriers and provided workers and immigrants with an inexpensive escape from the challenges of urban life. Not surprisingly, nickelodeons flourished during the great ________ at the dawn of the twentieth century. Between ______ and ______, the number of nickelodeons in the United States skyrocketed from five thousand to ten thousand. The craze peaked by_______, when entrepreneurs began seeking more affluent spectators, attracting them with larger and more lavish movie theaters.
mass medium movie theater five cents store fronts vaudeville theaters silent films European immigration 1907 1909 1910
Vertical Integration and Five Major Studios-By the ______, movies had become a _______ industry, and entrepreneurs developed many _____ for controlling it — including _______ patents on film-related ______ and dominating the _______ of the movie business: _______ (making movies), _______ (getting films into theaters), and ______ (playing films in theaters). Controlling all the parts of an industry's supply chain achieves _______. In the film business, it means managing the entire moviemaking process — from the development of an ______ to the screening of the ______ before an audience. The resulting concentration of power gave rise to the ________, in which creative talent was firmly controlled by certain powerful studios. ______ vertically integrated movie studios, sometimes referred to as the _______, made up this new film oligopoly(a situation in which an industry is controlled by just a few firms): _______, _______, _______, ________, and ______.
1910s major tactics monopolizing technologies "three pillars" production distribution exhibition vertical integration idea final product studio system Five Big Five Paramount MGM Warner Brothers Twentieth Century Fox RKO
Edwin S. Porter-The first American filmmaker to adapt _____ innovations to narrative film was Edwin S. Porter. Porter shot narrative scenes ______ (for instance, some in a studio and some outdoors) and reassembled, or edited, them to tell a story. In _____, he made what is regarded as America's first narrative film, _______, which included the first recorded _______. Porter also introduced the _______ genre and the first ______ in The Great Train Robbery(1903).
American Méliès's out of order 1902 The Life of an American Fireman close-up western chase scene
Blockbooking-____ used another tactic: withholding ______ from theater companies not willing to pay the Trust's patent-use fees. However, as with the production of film, ______ companies looked for distribution strategies outside the Trust. Again, ______ led the fight, developing block booking. Under this system, _______ who wanted access to popular films with big stars like Mary Pickford had to also rent new or marginal films featuring no stars. Although this practice was eventually outlawed as _______, such contracts enabled the studios to ______ possible up-and-coming stars at little ______.
Edison's Trust projection equipment independent film Adolph Zukor movie exhibitors monopolistic test-market financial risk
Who Launched United Artists-One Famous Players performer was _________, who became known as "America's Sweetheart" for her portrayal of spunky and innocent heroines. Pickford so elevated film actors' status that in _____, she broke from Zukor to form her own company, United Artists. Actor _____ (her future husband) joined her, along with comedian-director _____ and director ______
Mary Pickford 1919 Douglas Fairbanks Charlie Chaplin D. W. Griffith
Philo Farnsworth and Iconoscope-_____ and ______ — each seeking a way to send ______ through the air over long distances. In _____, after immigrating to America and taking a job at RCA, the Russian-born ______ invented the _______, the first _______ to convert ______ into _____. He received a patent for his device in 1928. Around the same time, Farnsworth — an Idaho teenager — transmitted the first ______ by rotating a __________________ by 90 degrees. RCA accused Farnsworth of _______. But in 1930, after his high school teacher provided evidence of his original drawings from 1922, Farnsworth received a patent for the _______ and later licensed his patents to ______________, which used them to commercialize the technology. He also conducted the first ___________ at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in ______ — five years before RCA's much more famous public demonstration at the 1939 World's Fair.
Vladimir Zworykin Philo Farnsworth pictures 1923 Zworykin iconoscope TV camera tube light rays electrical signals electronic TV picture straight line scratched on a square of painted glass patent violation first electronic television RCA and AT&T public demonstration of television 1934
Network Era-From the ______ — the network era — ________ dominated prime-time _______. By the late 1960s, the FCC, viewing the three networks as a quasi-monopoly, passed a series of regulations to undercut their power. The Prime Time Access Rule (PTAR), introduced in April 1970, reduced networks' control of prime-time programming from four to three hours in an effort to encourage more local news and public affairs programs, usually slated for the 6-7 P.M. EST time block. However, most stations simply ran thirty minutes of local news at 6 P.M. and then acquired syndicated quiz shows (Wheel of Fortune) or infotainment programs (Entertainment Tonight) to fill up the remaining half hour.
late 1950s to the end of the 1970s CBS, NBC, and ABC TV programming
Information Economy-In the first half of the twentieth century, the U.S. economy was built on _____, the proliferation of manufacturing plants, and intense rivalry with businesses in other _______. By midcentury, this manufacturing-based economy began transitioning into an ______ fueled by _______ (which new technologies made easier to generate and exchange anywhere) and by cooperation with other _________. Offices displaced ______ as major _________; ________ declined in the United States and other developed nations; and American firms began outsourcing manufacturing work to ________, where labor was cheap and environmental standards were lax. Mass media industries seized the opportunity to expand _______. They began marketing music, movies, television programs, and computer software ________. And the media mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A) drive that had begun in the United States in the 1960s expanded into _________ by the 1980s. This transition from a ________ economy had several defining points: ________ designed to break up monopolies in ______ such as oil, railroads, and steel gave way to deregulation, which ultimately catalyzed the M&A drive that created media powerhouses. These information-based corporations, in turn, fueled new trends in the industry (including a decline of unionized labor and a growing wage gap). Soon a new society took shape — one in which the biggest media companies defined the values that dominated culture not only in the United States but also around the globe.
mass production nations economy information economies factories work sites centralized mass production developing countries globally overseas global media consolidation manufacturing-based to an information-based Early regulation manufacturing-related industries
Limited Competition-characterizes a _______ that has many ______ but only a few ______ within a particular category.
media market producers and sellers products
Downsizing-Since the 1980s, _________ (wages adjusted for things like inflation) have stagnated for most ______. This means that as productivity has increased, pay for many has effectively not. Not only have wages stagnated and inequality in wages increased, but many workers have lost their jobs to ________ as companies strive to become "_______." Many people today scramble for paid work, often working two or three part-time and low-wage jobs. Unintended side effects of downsizing included companies' difficulty in developing ________ after gutting their workforces. The _______, in particular, has felt the pinch from this _______ of downsizing and stagnant wages. _______ have faced steep cuts since the ______, which has often meant ______ and continued fears that workers ________ in the next round of layoffs.
real wages American workers downsizing more productive, more competitive, [and] more flexible innovative offerings news media double jeopardy Newsrooms 1990s more work for no additional pay will get a pink slip
Fringe -Many local stations show_______ during ______ — immediately before the evening's _______ and following the _______ or the network's late-night talk show. Syndicated shows filling these slots are either _____- or _____. In off-network syndication, ________ that have had long runs during network prime time, such as Everybody Loves Raymond, are made available as reruns to local stations, cable operators, online services, and foreign markets. First-run syndication is any non-network program specifically produced for sale only into syndication markets, such as Ellenor Wheel of Fortune.
syndicated programs fringe time prime-time schedule local evening news "off-network" "first-run" older programs
Sketch Comedy-Most current audiences are familiar with sketch comedy thanks to NBC's long-running Saturday Night Live (1975- ). In the early days of television, variety shows drew heavily from ________, such as singers, dancers, acrobats, animal acts, stand-up comics, and ventriloquists. Typically, these shows required new ideas for ______ and other acts each week, along with new characters and new sets. This is still somewhat true of Saturday Night Live (many SNL alums have written about the all-consuming demands of working on the show), but today other sketch comedy is often ________ without variety elements, on shows like Portlandia and Inside Amy Schumer, which offer more diverse and specific viewpoints than the earlier mass-appeal variety shows.
vaudeville-style performers sketches pretaped and delivered
Time Shifting- The introduction of _____ in the _______ changed television viewing by enabling ________: Viewers could suddenly tape-record TV programs and play them back later. Even though the recording quality of the new ______ consumer standard was much lower than watching the TV program in real time, liberation from a time-locked TV schedule was a life changer for many viewers. Starting in _____, the _____ rapidly replaced _____, and viewers recorded shows on _____ instead of _____. Today, with so much content available via streaming at any time, time shifting has switched to ________.
videocassettes and videocassette recorders (VCRs) mid-1970s time shifting VHS 1999 DVR VCRs DVDs VHS tapes online viewing
