Rise of Electronic Media Test #3
How has the rise of the new media powers like Apple, Google, and Amazon challenged the traditional media industries? How have television's established powers adjusted?
Apple, Google and Amazon turned themselves into players in the broadcasting and entertainment industries. Apple has the most well-known story of the 3 companies because of its influential innovations in technology. Apple was started by 3 computer nerds in a garage which is very different then the media companies like NBC, CBS and ABC. Steve Jobs also bought Pixar in its early days which would then go on to create iconic movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo and many more. Apple changed the way we live by creating the iPhone, a small computer, and putting it in our pockets. Google has become a global media power. The creators of Google were PhD students at Stanford looking to create a search engine that ranks results bases on the number of links to the result page. Google also attracted advertisers that tied into key searches to display their ad. Google has grown to be its own portal for email buy YouTube and more. Amazon is the worlds largest shopping site, this applies to media distribution as well. Amazon then came out with its Prime service where streaming videos was a bonus helping to move them into the entertainment and broadcasting industry. They even produce their own television series. Television powers are now coming from places like Amazon Prime, Netflix originals, and Hulu. Those streaming services are now the dominating powers of television.
Australian Rupert Murdoch was able to form FOX in 1986, the first new U.S. broadcast in over 40 years, for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:
B. The new network boldly planned new programming to go head to head with the other major networks in an effort to steal their audiences.
What impact has the ESPN "empire" had on U.S. sports culture? Is there a limit to how much further it can expand? How has/will online media affect ESPN's business model and cultural impact?
Before the 1980s televised sports reached a mainly male audience with the favorite events going to contests and the big events like the super bowl. Scott and Bill Rasmussen then come in and take the New England Sports Network and use satellite distribution of their 24/7 sports network. Since ESPN has a 24/7 system for playing sports there was now a place for sports that were popular but gained fewer medium attention. These sports were things like golf, tennis and soccer; this also included college sporting events. ESPN is responsible for creating the genre we now called sports news because it took sports seriously. They were reaching 20 million subscribers by 1992. Their website became extremely popular and today you can even stream live form the their website onto your phone so you never miss a game. ESPN also gives you updates to scores on games you're interested in with alerts to your phone.
With the advent of multichannel cable, audiences could be broken down into increasingly specialized consumer groups. Did this lead to a more democratic state in media—with more people getting what they want and need from television—or did it lead to a less democratic state, through concentrated ownership and lack of a common ground?
Fox first aimed to have a quality audience but when that didn't work they chose to take aim at specialized audiences. Their show Beverly Hills 90210 was aimed at teenage girls and the advertisers looking to reach that group knew to advertise during that show. The same held true for In Living Color by reaching a primarily African American audience. Then came the family sitcoms for both races at opposite ends as working class and upper class families with Roseanne and The Cosby Show. Fox also started something completely new by premiering Martin, Sinbad and the Jaime Foxx Show. All do these shows brought to television African Americans but they also created a show House of Buggin' and Hangin' with Mr.Cooper which were both featuring Latino comedians. People were getting more of what they needed from television because it was more diversity and more representation for those who had not previously had any. This was still a small percentage in comparison to the majority of white representation.
What is the essence of "radio" among all the different options for listening now available? How has radio's new visual interface changed music and sound?
Legal and illegal downloading has become the newest of the music industry's problems. Music sharing was the topic that was sliding through the legal loophole. ITunes music store was what helped the masses get used to paying for their music. Some artist cultivated a direct group of fans to sell to rather than trying to sell to the masses. This then led them to sell their music on sites like Bandcamp and Kickstarter. As for radio it moved to the Internet, sometimes permanently and sometimes to be simulcast. Stations like NPR made their broadcasts available for download on places like iTunes while music programming could not because of royalty problems. Sirius XM merged to form 1 company around 2008. Most consoles and media devices including phone have the ability to play music is more than 1 way. Through this we are now accessing music and radio through a screen rather than a radio as we had in the past. Depending on what the programming is, music of talk, the interfacing will change to tell you what you're listening to sometimes even sing graphics.
The Internet was initially developed out of principles of decentralization and open access, but so was early radio. In the ongoing debates over Internet access and control, what lessons can be learned from radio's (and television's) history in the United States?
Looking at the history of TV and radio it shows us that there is a history of wanting restrictions but that being increasingly difficult with each new form of media. It is much easier to try and regulate content rather than who uses it. Going after what can be posted and the effects of that prove to be a much more successful route.
Short Essay:What are five key developments of post network/convergence era television that have changed the media landscape? Your answer should consider industry changes, technological changes, content changes, and/or changes in audience behaviors.
Synergy because it incorporated both vertical and horizontal integration to cross promote and cross produce more. Narrowcasting, where television shows were aimed at very specific audiences like 90210 was aimed a teenage girls, then advertisers could also advertise to this very specific market. The Internet brought about an entire era of new culture and technology. This caused the industry of telelvision to cater more towards those wanted to stream with things like Hulu and Netflix. The internet also brought out technological changes in advancing the technology of personal cell phones that were also personal computers, the iPhone (or any smartphone). The rise of the internet has also changed the way we consume media in that we use hashtags and are pushed to be more in involved using transmedia storytelling like on 24.
What is "synergy" and how did media corporations put it to work? In these (still largely) pre-Internet days, what technological developments pushed synergy? What other forces helped? Who benefited?
Synergy started as a popular word in the 80s and 90s with Rupert Murdoch. Synergy basically describes working together with multiple pieces to produce something bigger than they could have done alone. Within the entertainment industry this word was used when talking about new tries at vertical and horizontal integration. The tries for integration come from expanding global conglomerates, cross-media holdings and combination of productions and distributions cross-promote, which created greater profit in general and still keeping in house. Time Warner was a huge company that benefited from the idea of synergy as Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications. Time Warner was such a massive company as time goes on that they end up with business in magazines, a film company, a television stations a cable network, and a record company as well as others. Another company that benefited from this was Sony when they bought Columbia. They then owned a movie studio and a record company. There was also the Disney and ABC merger which made Disney a company with a film studio, television channels, theme parks, and 2 sports teams.
What characteristics do the three dominant television forms of the Web 2.0 era share? How do they respond to the needs of television to survive in the new media universe?
The 3 characteristics that have survived are complex serial dramas, reality-based shows and global fictional formats. Reality shows is a category that is pretty broad. The highest profile type in this category is sports especially playoff games and the Superbowl. The second biggest is competitive reality with shows like The Biggest Loser and American Idol. Sports and competitions have come to replace the variety shows of the past by having participants. These shows also give a look into how real life was lived today. Looking at serialized dramas shows like The Wire and Battlestar Galactica they looked at human nature and the things that surround that like religion and politics. Global fictional formats were the shows that often sold their rights to be remade in other countries, like The Office. In the case of the US version of The Office it was more successful than its UK original. By changing these shows to fit the cultural the idea can become successful in each country. These typed of television grow and produce shows to fit their audiences in the new media universe.
What is digital convergence, and how did it roll out in the "Web 1.0"period? How did media industries respond? What responses have lasted into the present, and which have been left behind?
The Internet started digital convergence as it was a coming together of technologies. For example joining the personal computer with communication technology, like phones, as well as print media, video, audio and more. The Internet gave a place for new forms of communication and information that were mediated. Examples of these are shopping online, e-mail, websites for personal use and more. Different industries even came together using the Internet. Web 1.0 is what was created by Berners-Lee to help make the Internet easier to use and gave more options for materials. This led to audio and video being used on the Internet. This also led to created of the first Internet browser called Mosaic which then led The White House going online. The other media industries began to create different options for applications to browse the web with, the second was Navigator later renamed Microsoft's Explorer. Organizations were also forms like the ISOC or The Internet Society. The ISOC was there to give a centrally located home for organizations and government agencies, corporations, universities and more. What has lasted the test of time has been the idea of digital convergence. A website like Amazon has come to be a company that sells anything and everything you can think of including food and books. They have managed to merge e-shopping with print media with successful results.
How did the Telecommunications Act of 1996 enable media expansion into the digital era, and how did it shape that development in certain ways?
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 expanded media but unleashing it. When media was unleashed there was the problem of the industry being liberated, which the only allowed the crack down to come on content. This crack down is what helped shape the digital eras development. The Act helped deregulated the telephone industry with Cross-Ownership. This allowed the phone companies to also offer cable service where there were already phone services. Cross-Ownership also allowed for TV stations and a cable franchise to be owned by a company with a TV station in the top 50 markets. This idea was carried over again to newspaper and TV station. The result of deregulating the phone industry was competition in local markets. Another result was the rush to obtain new media sections. Other things that helped media expand was Ownership Caps, Broadcast licenses, Digital TV, Cable Rates, and Direct Broadcast Satellites. These new rules were sometimes thought to be too loose and media companies thought of them as not loose enough. Some of the rules that helped shape development were The Communications Decency Act, V-Chip and Ratings System, Must Carry, and Cable right of Refusal. The rule that helped crack down on content was The Communications Decency Act. This act no longer allowed transmission of obscene and indecent material with the intention of threatening or harassing another person on TV, radio, cable and internet. This shaped what could be seen on TV and pushed for paid for networks like HBO to show what they wanted.
How have media forms and texts become more complex in the digital era? What has the reality show added to our cultural experience? Does television deserve a reputation make-over?
The forms of media have only become greater in number and much more complex than the original radio. The amount of media forms is much greater with the use of the Internet and then there is coding for websites that regular people don't know how to do. Old forms of media became "repurposed" and used on multiple platforms. For example Soapnet made an entire channel out of reruns of soaps of all kinds. Reality shows came from Europe who had a history of higher quality content in their television. With reality shows they are cheaper to produce because you don't have to pay stars or pay for things like a set and costumes. They also created a space for national and local cultures to be showcased. When you would watch these shows you had a sense of national community because the people you were watching were from you home country and maybe even your town. An appeal of reality shows is that you can see yourself in the normal participants of the show. They also gave you sense that you could learn something because it was real television versus fictional. We become invested in those on reality TV because they could have easily been us, the person watching. At this point I would say that TV deserves a reputation make-over for all it has done to connect different parts of the world together. Also because it has allowed shows like X-factor to expand to nations all over the world.
International and intra-national cultural convergence allows greater inclusion and access to media but it also threatens to enable separation, segmentation, and a narrowing of public concern. Does media diversity support or threaten community and a lively public sphere?
The international and intra-national cultural convergence supports the community. The internet gave people an available alternative form of media that surpassed what was available locally. Since it making different media available it is also opening up a space for alternative cultures from within different cultures. The cultural convergence has created and supported a space for the global pieces to cross over. This crossing over created a new form of competition on these intra-national and transnational satellites. Examples of these platforms would be Al-Jazeera, Univision and Telemundo. These channels were able to bring something form their cultures to new cultures formed in national boundaries. With the cultural convergence it helped make other parts of the world accessible to those who had never experienced this before. This prompted diversification within the cultures these new programs were brought into as well as a stronger sense of intra-national identity.
What particular challenges does digital culture pose to copyright and intellectual property laws? How did the DMCA attempt to control them, and how well has that worked?
The original solution to help protect intellectual property was the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The WIPO made rules that were highly controversial but made it illegal to try and break the copyright on protection chips and codes. These chips and codes were being implanted by media companies into digital devices with the purpose of keep people from using these products for anything but what they were intended for. It also made selling devices like this illegal. The DMCA or Digital Millennium Copyright Act acted against those who downloaded and distributed music because of the peer-to-peer file sharing for MP3 players. The DMCA put into effect that when Internet providers broke then DMCA rules they were forced to take down the sites that held the content. One of the famous cases related to this was the Napster case.
Short Essay: What are five ways that the new players to the media industry (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, etc) have changed the media landscape in just the past decade? Your answer should consider industry changes, technological changes, content changes, and/or changes in audience behaviors.
They have completely changed the way we consume media and entertainment. With Facebook and MySpace they have given us a way to connect with the world and make connections on the site while having at least a semi-private profile. This has changed what we consider as friendships now. How we look at friendships or connections of social media may just be because you have a mutual friend or you know their name and not because you have and actually friend relationship outside of the computer. Hulu and Netflix changed the he audience behaviors because now, why would you want to watch commercials or sometimes pay for any kind of television when you've got options like Hulu, HBOGo and Netflix that are commercial free. These also allow you to watch older shows now. We now binge watch shows as a cultural norm when before that wasn't possible because of commercials and programming.
What is the difference between platforms, channels, playlists, websites, stations, networks, formats, and programs? These will overlap, so it's more important to think about the institutions, interfaces, and uses that produce them than strictly defining the terms themselves.
When looking at these terms you can look at a website like YouTube to help better explain them and how they are used. A channel is something a user can create content for to share with the rest of the world. You can also just choose to watch others videos from their channels. YouTube also has a partner program which is something that allows the creator of the videos to receive some of the ad revenue that their content creates depending on the hits it receives. You can create a playlist of videos to watch and or of songs of songs to listen to together. This just means putting them in a list together. YouTube is a platform for these creators as well as a website. Your network is your group of people you interact with on these sites but it is also the people you watch or subscribe to watching. There are all different kinds of formats for videos whether it is informational, beauty related or video game related those are all different formats.
Chapter 1 argued that television does not simply reflect social reality; it constructs its own reality based on industry needs. What were 1980s postmodern television families—Cosbys, Conners, Simpsons—saying about the industry that produced them? How about the daytime talk shows?
With The Cosby Show Bill Cosby who created the show as an answer to stereotypes that have put African Americans characters and their families in a box. The characters he created in the Huxtable family were appealing to everyone because they were a normal middle class family that just happens to be African American. At a certain point though the show became more of an ideal and less of a reality for those watching. Roseanne Barr's, Roseanne, was about a lower class family where everyone worked but not in jobs that were fulfilling or provide much. One thing the show was took on was the issue of money and the lack of it in this family. The Conner family represented a stronger sense of reality in that they struggled to play bills and got hassle from the boss if they needed time off. All of these are things that regular people dealt with. The Simpsons took on issues in a unique way by taking apart what was believed to be the perfect happy family. When looking at daytime talk shows Oprah is the first that comes to mind. On her show she talked about things that had been taboo like sex, abuse, rape and many other things.
How does the erosion of the distinction between author and audience, or producer and user, create new kinds of texts and also new challenges to privacy and ownership?
With the Web 2.0 the consumer also becomes the producer, the audience becomes the author and the user the producer. The Internet created a space for this and Axel Burns came up with a term to better understand this new role, "produser". The "produser" is a term used for someone able to switch between the roles of producer and user. Places for these roles to take effect are sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, blogs and more. With this new term and concept the idea of what is original and copy is becoming less and less clear. This applies to things like sampling or remixing but also with content aggregation. When things are cut up and parodied is that then an infringement or is it something new? These are the problems facing the world as the Internet, Web 2.0, takes over. There is a long history of musicians of mixing and sampling and one of the most well known examples of that is the Beatles White Album and Jay-Z's Black Album
In terms of programming, how did the traditional networks attempt to defend their dominant market position against cable and the upstart networks? What types of programs resulted, and how did they address the viewing public?
With there now being more than just 3 major networks the competition for programming intensified. This was the start of the most creative time in broadcasting with the opening up of possibilities. This time lead to what some called a period of global dominance. In these networks primetime was a space for quality and to make this happen they used established radio stations. The quality programs were n during primetime and the "trash TV" was on local schedules by day. New types of programming were dramedy, family shows and trash TV. The dramedys on television were shows like Hill Street Blues and Frank's Place. In these shows they tended to address the audience as
Produsage refers to which of the following:
b. Forms of content created collaboratively by on line users on Web 2.0 sites like Wikipedia and Facebook
In 1983 the broadcast networks appealed to the FCC to repeal the Financial Interest and Syndication rules, arguing that:
b. Hollywood studios had gained too much power in the TV industry
Cable channel ESPN built a niche for itself in sports programming through all of the following strategies EXCEPT:
b. It went head to head with the broadcast networks by purchasing exclusive rights to air the Super Bowl in 1965.
In what way did Web 2.0 change traditional forms of advertising and marketing?
b. Marketers used fan excitement expressed on social media as a form of free promotion
Hyperdiegesis refers to which of the following:
c. A programming practice of the convergence era involving the creation of complex narratives that encourage a great deal of audience engagement.
Social networking sites are web based services that allow users to do all of the following EXCEPT:
c. Automatically opt out of data gathering by the site owner and/or third parties.
Synergy, which became the buzzword in the media industry by the 1990s, refers to which of the following:
c. The attempt of a media conglomerate to take advantage of both vertical and horizontal integration to cross produce and cross promote media products.
Which of the following was NOT a provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996?
d. Ownership limits on television and radio stations were decreased in deference to earlier ideas of Public, Interest, Convenience, and Necessity
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act enabled record companies to collect fees from web broadcasters who played their recordings.
true
