Media Studies
What is US Television Now Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Amanda Lotz During the Network Era TV was schedule oriented and shows were created with universal themes in order to appeal to a family audience. Families often owned only one television set so families watched TV together. The network era of television was a shared cultural experience because people viewed the same shows at the same time. This all began to change as the post network era began and technologies advanced. New technologies enabled viewers to have more of a choice of what to watch and the option of when to watch it. DVR allows one to save shows and re-view them which ultimately changes the supply and demand relationship. Another important dynamic change is the amount of televisions per household as well as the easy accessibility of television outside of the home. People can watch TV any time and anywhere. Television shows have also been created to target specific demographics. By going through the evolution of TV Lotz emphasizes that it will continue to be a dominant medium, just a constantly changing one.
Two Views of Communication
Author: James Carey Carey argues that there are two conceptions of communication prevalent in American culture; ritual and transmission view of communication. The transmission view of communication is defined as the giving or transmitting of information to others. It is formed from a metaphor of geography or transportation. The center of this idea of communication is the transmission of signals or messages over distance for the purpose of control. It is a view of communication that derives from one of the most ancient of human dreams: the desire to increase the speed and effect of messages as they travel in space. The ritual view of communication is directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time; not the act of imparting information but the representation of shared beliefs. Ritual view is not necessarily concerned about the message but more so the drawing of people together in fellowship and commonality. Both views come from religious origins.
The Ruling Class & the Ruling Ideas Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Author: Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels Marx and Engels main argument is that ruling classes and ideas will constantly keep changing as time goes on. The ruling class controls the intellectual force and therefore control the material force, because the prevalent ideas are more likely to be materialized. Revolutionaries who seek to overthrow the ruling class must establish their ideas as universally logical in order to gain support until they are able to develop themselves as a particular class with particular sets of ideas and interests.
Mass Communication, Popular Taste & Social Action
Author: P.Lazarsfeld and R.Merton Key Points: A. There are three main concerns about mass media: 1. The universality of media's presence; 2. The effect of mass media. "The continuing assault of these media may lead to the unconditional surrender of critical faculties and an unthinking conformism"; 3. Deterioration of aesthetic tastes and popular culture standards. Key Terms: Canalization and Supplementation; Monopolization; Propaganda; Social Conformism
Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, & Media Culture Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Douglas Kellner Kellner argues for a cultural studies approach to analyzing media culture and media artifacts. Cultural studies must be multiperspectival analyzing the production and political economy of culture, cultural texts, and audience reception of those texts and their effects. This is important because the media socializes us into our culture. Media influences our perceptions of self, and of others, while also shaping our view of the world. Media educates us on how to behave, what to think, feel, believe, and desire-and what not to. Media is manipulative in nature,, but cultural studies allows one to identify, and critically analyze the encoded messages within the different forms of media. This enables one to resist media manipulation in order to increase freedom and individuality. However, those who uncritically follow the dictates of media culture conform to the dominant fashions, values, and behaviors.
Personal Influence Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
E. Katz & P. Lazarsfeld They discuss how there were two opposing opinions about the media from the very start, but in reality, these two views aren't so different after all. The first group of people believed the media would create an informed media and would give all citizens equal access to information, much like a town meeting. The other view is that mass media would act as an agent of evil and would ruin democratic society. Media research is divided into three different categories- audience research, content analysis, and effect analysis. Audience research is the study of how many of what kinds of people attend to a given communications message or media. Content analysis means the study of language, the logic and the layout of communications message. Effect analysis is the study of the impact of mass communications. While these three categories are useful, there are four important variables that can change a clear-cut understanding of the three divisions of media study. These four variables are exposure, medium, content, and predispositions. These are very important and deserve to be explained. They show how difficult it can be to get an accurate understanding of how media affects individuals. Exposure, or access to technology can be affected by political factors, economic factors, and voluntary factors. People are capable of making their own decisions and may choose simply not to pay attention to media going on around them. The medium is the source of the media. Some outlets may be more successful at promoting messages than others. Content is the sense of form, presentation, and language that a specific type of media uses for its audience. The last variable, predisposition, plays a big role in media effects. Individuals come from different backgrounds, families, and have had different personal experiences. These attitudes can completely distort a media message. Katz and Lazarfeld discuss one other very important factor that plays into how media is understood and received. An individual's social environment and interpersonal relations can also have an effect on how he/she will interpret the media. Evidence shows that people value the opinions of their friends and other people around them. These attitudes and values of others can have a direct influence on not simply how something is understood, but also what is being consumed in the first place.
Television Violence Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
George Gerbner Gerbner describes the presence of racism in what Americans know as violence. He states that whites are more likely to be reported as victims and people of color as the perpetrators. This is evident in the statistics of the kinds of crimes the media selects to report. Gerbner continues to comment on the dominance of crime and violence on television, where violent scenes appear 3-5 times during an hour of prime time. Today's children are born into homes that stream violent images into households most hours of the day. Violence on television demonstrates power by not only portraying the victims of violence, but also by humanizing and giving identity and therefore power to the offender of crime as well. Not only does violence on television possibly inspire, or at least affect the amount of violence in real life, it also provides viewers with the idea that violence is actually a solution to conflict. Violence on television has more than the effect of eliciting the acceptance of violence in daily life. Violence requires no translation and is a transnational mode media that everyone understand. Gerbner defines cultural indicators which is a cumulative database and an ongoing research project that relates recurrent features of the world of television to media policy and viewer conceptions of reality. The correlation between heavy viewing of television and the mean world syndrome. CI has three prongs: Message System analysis which examines the content of television programs, a summarizing view over time. Institutional policy analysis which examines the economic and political bases of media decision making. And cultivation analysis which is an assessment of the long-range consequences of exposure to television's systems of messages. Violence has more international appeal. Cultivation Analysis & Mean World Syndrome.
The Invasion from Mars Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Hadley Cantril This article covers the panic caused by a fictional story on a radio broadcast of an alien invasion. Of the six million people tuning into the broadcast, over 1 million were frightened or disturbed. The article outlines the various conditions met that produced such a dramatic reaction from those 1million + listeners. The fright of this fictional apocalyptic tale was so palpable to the portion of the listeners comprising lower income and education brackets with so much faith in broadcasting. Expecting to hear such important news from the radio, people already had the impression that the story was serious and was a true current events piece. Additionally, another main condition was the time in which the listener tuned into the show (or when the listener began paying attention). By tuning in late or by not paying attention to the beginning of the broadcast, many listeners missed the disclaimer that the story that was about to be narrated was a fictional tale. And without consulting the facticity of the news with other reliable sources, the people compared the story with their preexisting mental sets. They found this end of the world story very fitting with the recent trend of downfall, such as the Great Depression of that time, and for the religious, the alien invasion was a reference to God's wrath. Ultimately the article is a good example of how the blind trust we invest in the latest mediums of communication leave opportunity for misunderstandings and acceptance of information without critical questioning.
The Making of Exile Cultures Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Hamid Naficy How the diasporic community in LA create TV productions. A ritualistic aspect of it television viewing, and acommunity building exercise. All tune in as a community. Multiplicity of interpretations. Available to a particular audience. Multiplicity in meaning and interaction. To maintain a culture and establish a community based on their own cultures religious beliefs and rituals in the host society .
Reading the Romance Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Janice Radway Radway reacts upon the exacting expectations about the qualities the heroine should have and the kinds of behavior she should exhibit in a romance novel from the Midwestern working class women from Smithton with the top characteristics being intelligence, a sense of humor, and independence. This goes against objective students of the romance genre who see the women as passive and helpless. Radway claims that those who object are measuring on a scale of accomplishment for the women in productive work in a non-domestic sphere. Radway says that women such as the Smithton women immerse themselves within these romantic fantasies looking for a heroine's dependency to be balanced by a hero's dependency on her. Vicariously as a female reader one's needs are assuaged by the hero's care causing her to feel temporarily revived while relations with others in the real world remain unchanged. Overall Radway claims that these novels provide therapeutic value that is short-lived made possible by a culture the provides women to have these needs that cannot be filled, which allows these novels to be repetitively consumed.
The Near-Fame Experience Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Jennifer Senior Senior presents an extremely interesting view into the lives of reality TV stars during and after the filming of competition shows such as Project Runway and Top Chef. People tune into reality TV shows that are skill based because it creates the belief that everyday gifted amateurs can make it to become successful and famous. In seeing what happens to these individuals after winning these shows one can see that this is a fantasy. Being on TV doesn't equate to eternal fame and instant success. It's an opportunity for an individual to showcase their skills and to get media coverage in order to jump start their careers, but if they don't have a sound business plan beforehand it will be hard for them to succeed. This article also brings to light the fact that reality TV isn't representative of actual reality. It is a hyper/exaggerated reality where contestants are isolated and completely cut off from the real world.
Media as Conversation, Conversation as Media Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
John Durham Peters Peters' article confronts the belief that with the rise of electronic and digital forms of media that dialogic conversation is disappearing. The different forms of media are considered to be one-sided forms of communication, where there is a sender and a message, but no way for the receiver to respond in a meaningful way. However, Peters argues that conversation is not in fact disappearing but the ways and manners in which we converse are being multiplied. Conversations, according to Peters, take on many forms, and serve different needs. Accounts of media as conversation take place in the form of talk shows (such as Oprah or Larry King). These forms "transfigure audiences into participants at a distance". Conversation as media points to the notion that forms of conversation are increasingly mediated-- that is, interrupted in some fashion, either by practice or technological forms. Media has taken on the characteristics of conversation, and conversation has taken on the characteristics of media.
Media Violence Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
John Murray Studies on the effects of exposure to television violence showed that there was an increase in willingness to use aggression against others. TV violence affects attitude and behaviors. Three main affects of exposure to TV violence is aggression, desensitization, and fear. Viewing televised violence can lead to increases in aggressive behavior and/or changes in attitudes and values favoring the use of aggression to solve conflicts. In regards to fear, Murray writes, that extensive exposure to television violence may produce the mean world syndrome effect, in which viewers overestimate their risk of victimization.
Mass Society & the Magic Bullet Theory Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
M. Defleur and S.Ball-Rokeach This article discusses the evolving theories and beliefs regarding social organization, practices, and the evolving role of mass communication. Many theorists are discussed and some crucial historical events clearly mark the changes in the influence of mass media on society such as the industrial revolution and World War I. Auguste Comte's conception of the collective organism where society can be thought of as a collective organism, a structure that had specialized parts that function together. Spencer's organic analogy which claimed that the division of labor was the basic unifying factor that held organisms together. He believed the most fundamental process of nature was evolution and that any legislation for social improvement would change the natural order and change the survival of the fittest model. Tonnie's theory of social bonds: Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Magic Bullet Theory and Mass Society Theory.
Propaganda Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Mark Miller The amount of information available through technological innovations makes it simply impossible for individuals to process all the available infomation and make decisions for themselves. So an invisible government sifts through the data and narrows down the field of choices. Propaganda today is more more subtle as opposed to direct and is more affective due to technological innovations that allows it to reach a larger audience.
Limited Effects Theory Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
S.Baran and D.Davis This essay opens with a general historical overview of how the media affects the public and its power to persuade and make people believe in certain things, such as the invasion from mars: The invasion from Mars panic was seen by many elite observers as definitive proof of mass society theory. If a single radio program could induce such wide-spread panic, obviously concerted propaganda campaigns could do much worse. What this essay focuses on is not the idea that the media is so powerful to affect the way people perceive things, but rather that the media, according to a research done at Princeton University, has limited effects in regards to how much it influences people's decisions: They argued that their research showed limited effects because only a limited number of listeners were directly affected by the broadcast. Then the essay moves onto talk about paradigm shifts. A paradigm summarizes and is consistent with all known facts. It provides a useful guide for research as long as its basic assumptions are accepted. As the essay develops, it goes on to talk about Paul Lazarsfeld and his argument in regards to the effects of the media to the public. Lazarsfeld's approach for his research is made up of empirical generalizations that are solidly based on what Lazarsfeld referred to as empirical facts. He argues that researches should be based upon an inductive approach: research should begin with empirical observation, not with armchair speculation. With his approach in mind, Lazarsfeld conducted a research, which focused on changes in voting decisions. The implications, after multiple surveys, were that media does not directly influence voting decisions. Rather, people make decisions even before they start watching TV and the only thing that the media does is help the watches share their views. Two-Step Flow Theory, Opinion Leaders, Limited Effects Theory, Paradigm, Paradigm Shifts.
Encoding Decoding Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Stuart Hall Encoding/Decoding is the main theories of media. Hall describes communication as the process of encoding and decoding. There is a four step process: production, circulation, use, and reproduction. A preferred message is encoded during the production step, and that message is decoded by the audience. One concept introduced in this article is the difference between denotative and connotative messages. Denotation is the literal meaning and connotation is the interpretive level of meaning. There are three outcomes in decoding a connotative message: Dominant-hegemonic position where an individual interprets the preferred meaning and doesn't recognize that there are other ways of interpreting a message. The individual is not critical of the message being presented to them; Negotiated Code where the individual is aware of the preferred message and other interpretations but is not willing to go against the dominant idea; Globally contrary way where the individuals interpretation is oppositional and goes against the preferred meaning.
The End of TV 101 Who is the author? What is the author's main argument?
Ted Magder Magder focuses on the recent emergence of the phenomenon of reality television. Led by CB's Survivor the boom really began to make its grand debut the summer of the year 2000. This shift in audience's attention and interest in a new form of entertainment is crucial in understanding media and its effects, because the way TV conducts its business has a direct impact on the process by which programs are selected, financed, and produced. Reality TV began to take a front seat in television entertainment. Networks took hit shows and simply revamped the details around the framework to try to ensure a show's success. Creativity tends to be overlooked in these projects due to the fickle nature of the audience. Television networks are unable to predict whether or not shows are going to be a hit or miss. The initial cost of producing a show is extravagant and 90% of new shows created fail. So television networks created ways to cut costs and raise profits. The company, Endemol created internationally adaptable frameworks of shows and sold them to a global audience. Endemol takes a format that works in one country, strips everything cultural off of it, and exports it to a new country where over time cultural aspects of that country are added to it. The use of formats and the recycling and reuse of shows proven to be successful have helped combat the nobody knows issue. While advertising and product placement have helped cover the production costs of shows. With the emergence of the DVR, product placement advertising became more prominent than ever.
The Economist What is the main argument?
Television, since its inception, has been appreciated and challenged relentlessly. Especially since the creation of the internet and other digital media, TV has been forced to move beyond the living room. Because the internet has offered so much variety and choice on one platform, television has had to compensate for that, which is why our cable boxes now play house to 1,000+ channels in many households. Unfortunately, with this variety comes a deficiency in ratings where so much content will be available on so many digital platforms that audiences will become too small to pay for good programs. However, television has learned how to maintain consistency among its viewership by playing with the psychology of its viewers. The internet has increasingly become an instant gratification form of media, which initially harmed television because it was not able to play what the viewer wanted when he/she wanted it. Now, television is back in control of the viewer as it regulates the moment of gratification for the viewer by implementing the following: "they now think carefully about when and where they put their shows online." They usually leave a decent pause, generally between a few hours and day, between a show airing and appearing on the internet. Viewers who really want to see a program must watch it on television. After about a month many shows disappear from video-streaming websites altogether to protect DVD sales,". By delaying the appearance of a show online, television has brought back its audience to the living room to watch the show when it premieres live on television because, no matter what, people want to watch a television show when it is on. It they miss a show, the audience knows that they will be missing out on water cooler chats the next day about last night's episode of American idol or LOST.
