COM3332

Hard News

(government and public affairs) inform people without entertaining

Corantos and diurnals

- 17th century Europe, 1620 - one page newspapers from the Dutch that were sent to England to satisfy their news demands • transferred from Poland to England • contained domestic news only

Acta Diurna

- 1st Century Rome Def: action of the day; gave citizens of Rme the news of the day

Concentration of Ownership

- A very small number of large conglomerates own most of the world's media outlet through.... 1. Merger 2. Acquisition 3. Buyout 4. Hostile takeover

Penny Press

- Early to mid 19th century Newspapers sold for a penny, used to be expensive and only the higher class could afford or were educated enough to read newspapers 1. Benjamin Day, 1833, New York Sun - Sold his newspapers for a penny to attract large crowds - Sold to advertisers, advertising was then seen as a business model - Content and audience changes because more people can afford to read it - Minorities find their voice; people were excluded before so by 1880's foreign news was a big deal; cheap price, sold to advertisers was the biggest change

Feature Syndicate

Its fundamental service is to spread the cost of expensive features among as many newspapers as possible. Which means that profits are trumping professionalism because news sources are paying more attention to the money they are making instead of the information (or lack thereof) they are putting out. do not gather and distribute news, act as clearing house for work of other columnists, essayists, cartoonists etc. • total circulation including newspapers is about 130 million and with the help of pass along readership reaches about 200 million people/week. • 2011: 1,382 dailies/weeklies operating in the U.S. but has decreased in numbers since the 20th century • 66.6% of total adults read news online

1734, New York Weekly Journal & Zenger Trial

John Peter Zenger was put on trial for printing seditious libel (he printed true facts about William Cosby's corruption) about colonial America's governor, William Cosby. He hired Alexander Hamilton as his lawyer, who reminded the jury of the power they truly held. This trial shows just how strict censorship was in colonial America.

What is Communication?

the process of creating shared meaning; Lasswell: who? says what? to whom? over what channel? with what effect? Osgood & Schramme model: the process of creating shared meaning; how? encoding and decoding mediates producing a feedback loop

Oral or Preliterate Cultures

those without a written language, virtually all communication must be face-to-face

Commercialism

uses news as a product where the ultimate goal is to profit from selling audience to advertisers. Journalists must attract an audience but not offend them. Sometimes the stories themselves are advertisements (advertorial) where the newspaper or magazine advertisement is providing information and promotion of a product using a journalistic style

Story Formula

• Focus on deviance • Whether it is deviant enough or not, if it rarely happens it is usually going to be important news • Normative deviance- when deviates from norm, rarely happens in reality

Colonial press

- Late 17th to mid 18th century 1. Broadsheet- announcement of events made in England and imported to America. First one sheet newspaper in colonial America. Usually concerning government and public affairs. 2. Stamp Act- restricted Freedom of Speech and put a tax on all printed material in America. 3. 1734, New York Weekly Journal and Zenger trial - Peter Zenger- jailed for criticizing English government and charged with salacious libel - Andrew Hamilton defended him - Jury says Zenger is not guilty - Important because it basically did away with the law of salacious libel and was a turning point of Freedom of Speech.

Revolutionary Press

- Mid 18th to 19th Century 1. After the American Revolution there was the establishment of Freedom of Speech in the Constitution. - First Amendment: "Congress chisel make no law....abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."

Wire Service

- Mid 19th Century Purpose: share costs of collecting news, distribute to members. Has greater coverage of distant domestic and international news, encourages expansion, reduces expenses and increases profits; stories by rewriting the on-the-spot coverage by other journalists. 1. Don't have to have their own respondents they just distribute 2. Greater coverage of distant domestic and international news. Encourages expansion 3. Increases profits, decreases expenses 4. Write stories by rewriting on-spot coverage of other papers

Yellow Journalism/ New Journalism

- mid 19th century 1. 1833 Joseph Pulitzer, New York World 2. Sensationalists- over the top to catch the eye of the reader 3. Big headlines, sex, crimes, disaster news 4. Extensive illustrations, cartoons, color 5. Circulation- building stunts 6. Exploiting news ads by exploiting the news and not giving actual information or important news but manipulating the news 7. Video- explained yellow journalism origins and how it manipulated the sinking of the Maine and basically started a mini war.

Business Environment

1. Commercialism • U.S is a capitalist country • News is a product that must attract an audience without offending them; sell to advertisers • Sometimes stories = advertisement (advertorial) º Promoting products owned by network/cable but shown in a newspaper format º Does not report negative things related to the corporation 2. Marketing Perspective • news = product, needs to be sold • Inform vs Entertain • Hard News • Soft News • Select Audience Market

Media Industries Strategies

1. Maximizing Profit 2. Minimizing Expenses 3. Attracting large audiences

Purpose of Newspaper

1. Open market of diverse and different ideas 2. Inform citizens and have them choose what to believe 3. Serve democracy

Newspaper Industry Today

1. Struggling, declining across all age and ethnicities • 65+ and the more educated are more likely to read news 2. Ad revenue drops • lack of journalists or not being able to afford them 3. Gains in online as sales are not making up for the loses in print • Most small newspaper companies were consolidating into 1 newspaper chain º problem is that there becomes bias and less diversity 4. Profits trumping professionalism • 65% of daily news are ads and front page ads • 35% composed of cartoons, essays, and not news related • Increasing reliance on wire services leads to decrease in local services and newspapers

Operating Conventions

1. Use of sources, journalist often rely on the appearance, willingness to tell a story and how the person communicates • PR present news more in a way of a product so journalists don't have to do the extra work, Journalist just believe PR • Create a bias 2. Perception of Values 3. Hyperlocalism 4. Story Formula

Elements of Media Literacy

1. a critical thinking skill 2. understand met of the process of mass comm 3. awareness of impact 4. strategies for analyzing 5. understanding of media content 6. ability to enjoy

Unavoidable Constraints of Coverage

1.Deadlines 2. Resource Limitation- sent to same source so they are covering the same type of info 3. Geography - Traditionally regional -US bias towards certain area; Western Worlds vs. Third world countries which aren't focused on as much; Northeast, West Coast is focused on more than the rest of the United States

Pass-along readership

A consumer buys the product and shares it with others

Literate Culture

An expanding literate population encouraged technological innovation

Convergence

Def: Not worth online advertisement because lack of online attention spans. • old type of media on new media (newspaper to digital) • keep trying to make money online • attention span is a lot shorter online than physically holding a print newspaper º pay for content º classified ad has lost money

Broadsheets

Government reports and affairs.

Select Audience Market

Identifies beliefs; provides info supporting those beliefs

Marketing Perspective

Inform vs. Entertain. Hard news (govt, public affairs) vs. soft news (sports, entertainment, life-style). From marketing perspective, news is not intended to inform, rather than entertain. This diminishes the idea that news is intended to serve democracy (hard news). Result is sensationalism. Most newspapers select their audience, identify their beliefs, and provide information that reinforces their beliefs. Representation of confirmation bias.

Oral Tradition

Interpersonal Memorization Storytelling

What is a medium?

the means of sending information

What is mass communication

the process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audience James W. Carey (1975): Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed.

Media Literacy

Media Literacy- not always objective even if it's an actual, factual event Is the news a reflection of reality or a construction? Some say both others say that news is not a reflection of actual events. - It is a construction of news workers who are subject to many influence and constraints 1. Agenda Setting - news influence of topics on the public agenda. That is, if a news item is covered frequently and prominently, the audience will regard the issue as more important. 2. Tell you what to think about not necessarily what to think 3. Rupert Murdoch big owner of media outlets admits to agenda setting during Bush administration 4. When news and media produce content that is consistent with their agenda it leads to brainwashing. 5. Framing - media provides a focus and environment for reporting a story, influencing how audiences will understand or evaluate it.

Conglomeration

The increase in the ownership of media outlets by larger, nonmedia companies.

Shadow of Liberty

This documentary highlighted how freedom of speech is not always free and how CBS and huge media corporation conglomerates basically control what is being broadcasted. Some things that are important news are stopped from being broadcasted because they interfere with the corporation and their partners. It would make them make them look bad. News reports like Nike mistreating their workers in other countries and a flight that was taken down by a Navy missile are stopped from being reported because it make one of the conglomerates look bad and they cant have that.

Media: Audiences

Ways to segment: 1. Geographic 2. Demographic 3. Social class 4. Psychographic

Oligopoly

a concentration of media industries into an even smaller number of companies

Parchment

a writing material made from prepared animal skins

What is noise?

anything that interferes with successful communication

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

are aggregators allowing Web users to create their own content assembled from the Internets limitless supply of material

Appointment Consumption

audiences cons content at a time predetermined by the producer and the distributor.

Economies of Scale

bigger can in fact sometimes be better because the relative cost of an operation output declines as the size of that endeavor grows

Interpersona Communication

communication between 2 or a few people

Soft News

entertain people but does not serve democracy (sensationalist, entertainment)

Inferential Feedback

indirect feedback

Technological Determinism

machines and their development drive economic and cultural change

Framing

media provides a focus and environment for reporting a story, influencing how audiences will understand or evaluate it.

Automaticity

most of a person's everyday life is determined not by their conscious intentions and deliberate choices but by mental processes that are put into motion by features of the environment that operate outside of conscious awareness and guidance..." Bargh & Chartrand, 1999 1. Protects us from being overwhelmed 2. Acts as a filter

Cultivation theory

narrative to start with a heated conflict

Agenda Setting

news influence of topics on the public agenda. That is, if a news item is covered frequently and prominently, the audience will regard the issue as more important.

Papyrus

rolls of sliced strips of reed pressed together

Diurnals

same as corantos in the sense that they are one page newspapers but these were printed by the English instead.

Literacy

the ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and use written symbols

Convergence

the erosion of traditional distinctions among media; fueled by three elements; digitalization of nearly all information, high-speed connectivity, and advanced in technology speed, memory, and power.

Printed MAterials

the first mass-produced product; helped fuel the establishment and growth of a large middle class

Product Placement

the integration, for a fee, of specific branded products into media content

What is Culture?

the learned, socially acquired traditions and lifestyles of the members of a society, including their patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Zinger Trial Video

• Morrisites attempted to send Cosby back to England. Turned to a newspaper. John Peter Zenger was a German immigrant who owned a printing shop in NY. Morrisites asked him to criticize Cosby administration. Author is likely James Alexander. Cosby was outraged, had the journal burned, all of this failed. Cosby had Zenger imprisoned for Seditious libel. • Hamilton attempts to prove that Zenger's claims are true. If libel is true, it should not be a crime. Due to Hamilton, Zenger is found not guilty. Many say the trial did not affect freedom of the press or political liberty. Libel cases slowly faded away. However, many claim that this was remarkable because prior to 1735 the repercussion for any sort of criticism was a series of harsh punishments ranging from branding to hanging. The Zenger trial made the British government afraid to enforce their libel law. Trial's significance: freedom of the press is essential to liberty; statements that are true are not libelous. The case changed how people thought and felt about freedom of the press. This was a turning point in freedom of speech for America.

Yellow Journalism Video

• New York World was the largest newspaper in the world. Hearst and Pulitzer had a rivalry within their occupation. Both implemented fabricated and sensationalist headlines. Ex: The two used rash headlines to manipulate the public into thinking the Spanish were responsible for attack on U.S.S. Maine but they did not explicitly state this, simply suggesting. New York Journal and New York World were top 2 papers. Due to USS Maine scandal, Pres McKinley declared war against Spain due to public pressures. Government corrupted due to sensationalism. HOWEVER: Has benefits when genuine problems occur and are put out in the eye of the public. People react, government responds.

Perception of Values

• Write story in a way consistent with people beliefs • Individualism, Moderatism, Social Order, Leadership, Ethnocentrism, Altruistic Democracy, Resp. Capitalism, Small town pastoralism

Hyperlocalism

• news stories to appear and attract small niche audience • Examples include: Daily news, E!, Sports Center • Makes news less diverse and people don't care about important news anymore