Media Studies 10 Midterm
social construction of technology (SCOT)
(It's not the technology that changes society, its how people adapt to using the technology that drive social change) Technologies are a consequence of social factors Technologies are adopted, modified, or subverted Technologies have "logics" that influence but don't determine use Machines can strengthen certain social structures while eroding others Considers: • Societal circumstances • Possibilities & constraints of technologies • Actual practice
relevant fantasy
(ex: madonna) capable of challenging repressive norms, apply her to their lives and you desire their lives
media literacy
(ex: new york times) not mindlessly absorbing media All media are texts that can be read for meaning Not only for the written word but for all forms of media consumption Reading a text is active because we are decoding the text and trying to figure out what it means Media texts are representations that help construct our realities
convenience techs & what they allow more of digital divide
(ondemand, fast forwarding) Convenience technologies= technologies that provide flexibility in what, how, when, where viewers consume media content Facilitates: greater control over the viewing experience TV without subscription Time shifting/rewatching Placeshifting "Binging" More formats: utilize the same content for different screens/revenue streams More content: can support greater variety of material More viewing flexibility: active selection rather than linear flow Result: individualization of the consumption experience
Social shaping of technology (SST)
(sometimes technology changes us sometimes we adapt to the change in technology) how technology can engage with society in a predictable or unpredictable way Disrupt previous practices Affirm previous practices
value of hall's encoding/decoding model
All messages contain more than one potential reading Producers can't close off all decodings Our experiences/beliefs/cultural knowledge color our decodings The struggle with getting people's ideological agreement
genre conventions and codes
CONVENTIONS: specific narrative elements, story, characters, plot CODES: modes of production, visual style, camera work, external to the narrative
celebrity
Celebrity is based largely on biographical information. Celebrity is a mode of stardom relatively unconnected to the sphere of professional work. celebrity relies almost entirely on an individual's charisma and the ability to attract sustained media interest in their private life and public appearances at high profile events. A person who attracts attention to such a degree that their life and personality are of public interest Both the workers and the products Both cultural products and economic products Economics of celebrity Celebrity is an industrial function GOAL: encourage consumers to buy a new product by offering something familiar & appealing Proliferation of celebrity because: • Celebrities want to increase their audience appeal by increasing their visibility • Media companies want to promote their products using celebrity marketability AND: other media also rely on celebrity to generate $$$ Celebrity and meaning making Because celebrities are tied to public interest we can analyze them for meaning A celebrity is always more than just a single role or performance We understand and interpret celebrities: • Intertextually • Extratextually We understand and interpret celebrities by considering their star texts
characters
Characters are assigned traits that impact the story Protagonists drive the story Audiences are encouraged to identify with the characters especially the protagonist Externally ("spatial attachment" & achievement) Internally (voiceover, POV, access to thoughts & feelings)
episodic
Circular closure: return to original status quo Econ advantages: • Same characters, similar situations • Audiences become loyal, but okay to miss/mix up episodes Econ disadvantage= formula get tired (new plot each episode that closes at the end of each episode but same characters) ex: law and order
two media hybrid logics
Combo of forms (newspapers) Economies of scope (selling a product across multiple rev "windows" and logics) ex: turnstile and ad-supported (deadpool in theaters then DVD then streaming site then Saturday TV movie on normal TV)
four media production logics
Commodities Ad-supported media Microtransactions (pokemon go) Turnstile media (netflix, movie theaters)
serial
Continual change of status quo Accumulation of detail & history Econ advantages= • Potential for revision • Fosters dedicated "loyals" Econ disadvantage= alienate viewers (coming back to the same family every episode and building on the last episode)
arc
Crosses several episodes or seasons Storyline or character arcs GOAL: continued audience engagement
cultural studies & quality
Embarrassment occurs when social norms/taste hierarchies are disrupted Overcoming embarrassment can challenge and change culture Quality: who has the power to decide? Whose tastes are being marginalized? (ex: early beatles- high quality, christina aguilara isn't high quality and because she's aimed at young girls it's lower quality) this is because people with power decide what is high quality and what is low quality
rationalize the consumption process
Ex: stars, genres, formulas, sequels/ remakes, copycats, pre testing
eight advertising persuasive strategies
FABSHIPS oFamous o Plain-folks pitch o Snob appeal o Association principle o Bandwagon effect o Hidden fear appeal o Irritation advertising o Shock advertising
criticisms of hall's encoding/decoding model:
Few perfectly dominant or oppositional readings Works better for directly ideological texts over scripted ones Multiple motivations behind production/encoding
characteristics of consumer culture
Focus on accumulating consumer goods as an expression of identity and free choice Products for a massive, anonymous audience Encourages insatiable consumer desire Tradition and heritage become lifestyle and experimenting with the latest thing Represents status over function
critiques of Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School doesn't like mass culture Criticisms of school: Elitist defense of high culture Greater media choice today Doesn't account for: Innovation Failure Subcultures Other interpretations (locates meaning solely in production) Frankfurt school: according to them, mass culture is elitist, absorbs leisure time, ex: call me maybe
Industrial utility of genre
GOAL: manage consumer interests/expectations thru promotion Attempt to make success predictable Reduce the risk of the new Production trend= if people like the genre, make more Organizes production
digital divide
Gap between those who have access to digital technologies and those who don't Also: Quality of access Familiarity with technologies and social interactions In terms of convergence and entertainment media: Creates "participation gap"
pop culture analysis
How people use & interpret media once it's been released Concerned with meaning at consumption, not what the producer intended The meaning-making process turns MC into PC
ideology
Ideology= values and beliefs that people use to make sense of the world Ideology is rarely self-questioned and appears commonsense Conditioned through family, institutions, and media Can be widely shared, but never universal
audiences
Imagined audience= intended audience of consumers Actual audience= including "interlopers" not part of the imagined audience
"operational aesthetic" (Mittell)
It's the way that producers do their special affects- having clues over a season so people can follow along and it's about wowing your audience with the way the story is written A form of narrative complexity focused on "narrative special effects" Can work at the level of the episode or entire series Analysis of plot mechanics & style Reflexive self-awareness that plays with audience expectations Encourages long-term engagement through disorientation and confusion RESULT: audience focus and speculate on form and structure in addition to context
technological determinism (TD)
Machines change us Tech is central in transforming society Technologies are the driving force that changes our society (ex: iPhone coming out and making society more dependent on technology)
advantages of content convergence
Maintains their attention across media Collects two kinds of viewers: large + highly engaged "loyals" By requiring viewers to use multiple media, they are exposed to even more ads
incorporation
Mass culture scans Pop culture for tastes/ interests it can commodify (mass culture selling us this wood scented culture then pop culture made it a boyfriend candle then mass culture made it a boyfriend culture)
mass culture
Mass culture= commodities produced for max profit by the culture industries A noun Producers give culture jeans as a mass culture item to consume then audiences take that commodity and realign a different meaning to it based on what they want that item to say about their society and then that piece that pop culture has created comes back down the chain to commodity producers and becomes mass culture Not from the masses, its for the masses Mass culture provides: Conformity "Dumbed down" escapist stimulation Artificial concerns No sense of collectivity Commodified leisure time • Political impact of mass culture Goal: keeps the elites rich and in power by providing mindless and hegemonic entertainment From a culture-debating society to a culture-consuming society
hall's circuit model of communication
Meaning is shaped in multiple stages Audience= participant in meaning making Producers cannot fully control meaning Production->circulation->consumption->reproduction/feedback Production: message is produced Circulation: message is distributed Consumption: message is received Reproduction feedback: message is accepted and reproduced
cultural studies
Media changed society and society changed media- bound together in a communication group of stories, ideas, innovations, and values ---quality----
genre mutation & recombinants
Mutation: changing a genre slightly Recombinants: combines elements of 2+ established genres (ex: animation how it has changed to accommodate more adult tastes) GOAL: provide predictability but also surprise Shows how generic elements can be used, subverted, & combined
narrative complexity & context for experimentation
Narrative complexity = a form of TV storytelling w/ its own formal attributes IS BOTH: Cumulative = a combination of episodic closure & serial accumulation Unconventional = new & intriguing narratives & storytelling (such as nonlinear storytelling & "enigmas") context for experimentation-- made for media makers to have experimentation with new ways that people were able to experience TV (releasing TV series out all at the same time) also, there is DVR which gives you the ability to fast forward and pause which as bread narrative complexity as well
narrators
Narrators can be specific individuals Inside the story Anonymous voices outside the story
excorporation
Pop Culture scans Mass Culture for resources it can appropriate
criticisms of popular culture
Populist celebration Pop Culture spreads repressive representations too audiences can be actively seeing the media but they can't control it were responding to what mass culture is giving us
"realism"
Realism is measured in plausibility All media representations impacted by commercial concerns, creator bias, the acts of recording & editing, etc. So: no unbiased, objective representations of reality
constructing "realism"
Realism is produced by codes & conventions: Apparent spontaneity Handheld camera and loose compositions Available lighting Verbal spontaneity Narrative spontaneity
hyperreality
Reality TV is manipulated to be exciting but also retain the appearance of reality Hyperreal= constructed to suit audience expectations "more real than real" This is shaped through codes & conventions
pop culture and immediacy
Relationship between Mass Culture & Pop Culture always unstable Pop Culture texts "throwaway" Pop Culture tied to the immediate social conditions Represents immediate values & concerns
anthology
Self contained; closure brings new/final status quo. completely new status quo at the start of each episode is completely different with a new plot, new characters, except a general theme (ex: twilight zone)
beat
Smallest mode of narrative (1-2 min) Builds to plots but also contain drama & purpose
celebrity as audience driven
Stars are the product of audience fascination (madonna)
episode
Structured by culmination or theme 3 or 4 acts ("curtains" before commercials)
technological and content convergence
Technological= personalized content through a single machine (ex: camera and phone combining and computer adds to phone) Combines a variety of technologies in a "black box" Content= similar content available through a variety of devices (ex: can watch tv on computer, phone, and tv) Content shared across different media
decoding
Texts are "Decoded" at the level of consumption Three decoding positions: Dominant/ hegemonic= accepts preferred meaning Oppositional/ counter-hegemonic= rejects preferred meaning in favor of alternative one Negotiated= partially accepts/ understands preferred meaning (ex: fox news, vs. other news channels)
encoding
Texts are "Encoded" at the level of production Producers encode program with preferred meanings Producers encode meanings thru their: Frameworks of knowledge (ideological beliefs and beliefs about audience beliefs) Relation to production (needs of industry economics) Tech infrastructure (access to tech, training in skills & style) Producers usually ideologically/ economically linked to hegemonic elite - media makers want to please and not challenge its audiences because that's bad- they have characters that relate to the dominant ideologies
texts as polysemic
Texts are polysemic and not fixed in meaning (multiple meanings/interpretations) (ex: hunger games: some see it as society division, romance, action,etc.)
methods
Textual analysis- close reading of a text Audience studies- reception of the media and how the audience sees it Political economy- focuses on how the industry is effected by media Examines relationships between industry, media, and politics
mass media industrialization
The culture industry industrializes media thru: Standardization= assembly-line production (ex: its all the same) Pseudo-individualization= same product hidden by a veneer of difference (ex marketing something as different but its the same----eminem, is just the same as any other artist) Social cement= "psychic adjustment" to the needs of capitalism (makes us "emotionally obedient") (ex: the consumers hold mass media together because we feed into it)
association principle
associate product with positive image or value
convergence
blurring of boundaries between distinct forms of media into new types of media networks & delivery systems
bandwagon effect
claims you are being left behind
identificatory practices
consume star's/ character's products (ex: kylie's lip kit, jessica simpson's shoes)
genre
content sharing the same conventions & codes An attempt to manufacture success A means of creating familiarity in new texts identifiable by how the medium is made (ex: horror genre- a killer, the dumb girl who dies first- production elements that make it part of the genre)
results of consumer culture
delusion of control, isolated from tradition and community we become open to manipulation (through media). want you to be dissatisfied so that you keep buying things.
identificatory fantasies
desire star's/ character's life (ex: madonna)
shock advertising
edgy appeal cuts thru the clutter
transmedia extensions
ex: (american idol- taking the show and bringing it on tour- if you're watching it and love it you want to see the person on tour, Ben & Lauren's show that derived from the bachelor) way of building a piece of media where you are required to experience it on multiple different platforms Goal= draw viewers from TV to other content platforms Affective economics= how emotion drives viewing and purchasing decisions Goal= create "loyals" Foster appointment TV for advertisers "brand advocates" who generate awareness More likely to pay attention to recall ad content
Transmedia storytelling (Mikos)
ex: harry potter (book, movie, new books, harry potter world) ex: the office (main tv show but plan further stories of sub characters on exclusive videos on NBC's website) specifically talking about a narrative structure experienced on narrative platforms. "The systematic planning of a story throughout different platforms" a kind of transmedia extension in all the media share the same "textual universe" each contributes to the larger "storyworld" each designed to "stand on its own" especially useful with TV as the core text because its ongoing seriality
famous ad technique
famous person testimonial
Ad-supported media
free to consumer broadcast TV advertisers pay cost of media in exchange for access to consumers consumers pay in attention
intertextual
is knowledge and information gained from other related media texts (through their work, films movies, etc.)
extratextual
is knowledge and information taken from sources external to the text (from interviews, magazines, etc.)
microtransactions
lots of little payments often manifests as a free to use with premium option
counter hegemony
means the dominant ideologies must be constantly reaffirmed through the media. when people go against hegemony
dystopian view
medium is bad or was good but it's getting worse Perspective that video games are bad for you- encourage people to be inactive and just move their fingers, encourage violence behavior includes beliefs that video games were good in the 80s and were educational and about cartoon characters but these days they're violent and focus on realism, they encourage misogynist beliefs about women through representation & plot line The medium is passive and addictive People aren't doing anything when they're watching TV, they're sitting or laying down when doing this and they feel worse after doing this Somehow it's exhausting, they know they're wasting time but because they're addictive they can't stop Exploitative and formulaic They utilize sex and violent imagery They are formulaic in the sense that they're lacking art and style Consumerist Advertisers take advantage of us in our depleted state Content exists exclusively as a means of delivering our attention to advertising If you're not paying for the product you are the product- the goal isn't to attract us but to attract us as eyeballs and to sell us to advertisers Directly harmful to individuals and society Making us swear, lazy and unambitious, disrespect women, stereotypes are true in actuality, encourage violence They imagine children as items that are susceptible to this Aimed at reality TV programming Misrepresents reality of human interaction Instead could be doing something more productive
utopian view
medium is good or was bad but it's getting better These new games are including a much wider type of content Those who are producing content are beyond large studios There is something for everyone Hundreds of movies released each year Hulu, Amazon, Netflix Average cable has over 100 channels 100,000 internet radio channels Maybe one thing isn't great but there is something else that you will find that's better You can choose to turn it off You don't like it; you can turn it off or select another program Argue that the medium can effect positive change Publicize corruption/ injustice Act as informational and educational force Can help us recognize and publicize criminal corruption Also valuable as a source of information and education Critics say... Is totalizing •Can't say every single news journal/ sitcom/ etc. are good Employs the myth of progress Ignores that media can be more restrictive than in the past More black representation on TV in the 70s than today Ignores commercial interests Product placement Commercials breaking up the show Ignores production hierarchies Remains difficult to find a television program on the air or a song on the radio There are hierarchies which keep the entertainment sphere limited Is there really something for everyone?
mirror view
medium reflects reality or reflects the interests of the audience Yes, video games are violent but it's only representing the reality of violence that's out in the world Video games are just reflecting the interests of the audience Another popular but slightly more complex view of media Media reflects society Mirrors social change Ex: cop dramas have evolved to include variations of injustice and corruption Selective process of production Producers say it's not their fault that the content is dangerous and that they can't help but reflect society Agenda-setting function of media Offer opinions not objective presentations All texts are authored and contain the perspectives of the author Possibility that audiences might disagree or interpret it differently
false consciousness
mislead people into thinking that the route to contentment comes from consumption rather than upward mobility (watching the bachelorette instead of going out and dating people)
dominant ideology
noun have to be maintained Elites have the power to shape ideology through institutional control Set of rules that keep the powerful in power and are shared by the majority Power in society is unequally distributed and this is maintained by the powerful ability of media Dominant because it reinforces the power of few elites- those in a position of power and privilege use their control over these institutions, religion, law, the media Shared by the majority- the messages from these media texts that subtly reinforce the privilege of the privileged Stay in power because they believe they are more deserving of this status because of their education and experience
genre as a cultural category (Mittell)
old approach- specific categories that define a genre (romance, western, sci fi) New approach Genre= interrelations btw texts+ industries+ audiences • Ex: genres based on address • Ex: soaps vs. "prestige dramas" • Ex: animation Pre-1990s= "for kids" South park & others= controversial because they defy that expectation Becomes respectable once animation=adult
commodities
paid in full by consumers one time sale (customers keep product) price covers all costs
hidden fear appeal
plays on anxiety or insecurity
irritation advertising
produce name recognition by getting in your head
plain-folks pitch
product fits into the lives of everyday people
snob appeal
product will elevate your social status
cultural function (Fiske)
role in the circulation of meaning (meaning behind an engagement ring)
material function (Fiske)
role in the circulation of wealth (product, quality-ex: engagement ring)
turnstile media
sell access to content consumer pays admission at the gate ex: concerts, movie theaters, Netflix, etc.
star text
sum of everything we affiliate with them Body of work Promotion (authorized and calculated image construction) Publicity (generated by the press etc. outside of direct control) Audience practices (discussion, fan art, etc.) (ex: madonna- instilled ideologies with which was dominant in society)
domestication of technology
technologies overtime become invisible in our society and they start out being feared and instilling a panic in society but as that technology continues to be adapted the fear diminishes (ex: electricity was first feared and people thought it was dangerous but now if we didn't have it, it would be the fearful thing- it now in invisible to our society because it's instilled into our everyday lives)
why study media?
television is the world's most popular leisure and human activity Young people consume 7.5 hours of media a day and that doesn't include multitasking Media is our resource of pleasure Consume media as a source of social currency We study media because we want to be part of that conversation, show that we are up to date and well read We use media as a form of surveillance and as an attempt to find out what's going on in the world Social media and television are both forms of surveillance Helps us to understand politics Media evolves overtime- it is constantly changing and has real histories Consumption practices New technology New genres/ storytelling forms Media are commercial industries that persuade us to spend money & accept or reject ideas Serves a commercial function Built to have ideological viewpoints that promote a life of commodity consumption Media influences and circulates Fashion, trends, popular culture Ideas about social rules and roles
"the medium is the message" (McLuhan)
the sensory experiences of new media shape our thinking. the medium itself is more important than the content. the content within the technological medium is less important than what the use of that technology says about society (ex: the fact that it's a violent video game is less important than what us playing video games mean about human and social stimulation)
pop culture as a process
verb A process, not a thing or category Assembled from mass culture resources Created pop culture by imagining what you want to adapt from the show into your life What audiences are doing with mass culture (taking jeans and ripping them and writing on them)
hegemony
verb Maintained through government, police, army, and dominant ideology Hegemony= process of maintaining power through the struggle of seeking ideological consensus Process of reaching consent via agreement rather than force
four ways of constructing reality TV (Kraszewski)
• Constructing reality TV (Kraszewski) Reality TV is constructed through: Selecting participants Overarching and mini narrative structures Location Editing- they chose to show encounters where racist things are said and who to put in and who gets the last word
TV & multiple plotlines
• TV storytelling structure Many stories have multiple plotlines "A plot" = primary conflict (most screen time) usually with the lead character "B plot," "C plot," etc. = secondary conflicts ("subplots") usually with secondary characters