Media Studies 10 Midterm #1

squeezing vs. stretching (Martin)

"Squeezing" into short-form content - Ex. Novel to a movie - Distill story into core elements - Emphasize plot & action "Stretching" into long-form content - Ex: movie to a TV show - Emphasize "descriptive richness"/ suspension/ elaboration - Fill out the middle - Add obstacles, background, etc.

cultural studies and methods

- A more interdisciplinary approach - Media changes society & society changes media - Industry, everyday life, society, and politics are interrelated - Focus on an interpretive approach to media rather than via scientific data collecting 3 approaches to gathering evidence - Textual analysis - Audience studies aka reception studies... the audience's interpretations are more important - Political economy

9 advertising persuasive strategies

- Advertising supports commercial media - Works by recognizing & exploiting cultural attitudes, practices, & beliefs Advertising persuasive strategies - Expert opinion = expertise adds credibility - Celebrity endorsement = capitalizes on celebrity admiration - Satisfied consumer = product fits into the lives of everyday people - Snob appeal = convince audiences that product will elevate your social status - Association principle = associated product w/ positive image or value - Bandwagon effect = claims you will be left behind if u don't use/buy product (Arguments based on popularity and not actually content or quality) - Hidden fear appeal = plays in anxiety or insecurity and challenges self-security - Slogans/jingles = produce name recall by getting in your head - Shock advertising = edgy appeal cuts thru the clutter

values of encoding/decoding

- All messages contains more than one potential interpretation - Producers can't close off all decodings There will always b alternative interpretations - Our own experiences, $, & beliefs color our decodings - The struggle is w/ getting people's ideological agreement

Star text and its four components

- Celebs are texts we can analyze for meaning - A celebrity is intertextual - Star text = sum of everything we affiliate w/ them (stuff that is reported & the public knows) There is no single controlled narrative Made up of 4 aspects - Body of work (albums, roles, etc...) - Promotion (authorized & calculated image construction) ... includes press releases, posters, social media outlets, controlled interviews - Publicity (generated by the press etc. outside of direct control) - Audience practices (include the general public, fans, & anti-fans/haters)

relevant fantasy (Fiske)

- Celebs r what u make of them - Celebs can provide an empowering relevant fantasy capable of modeling alternative identities - So: they're polysemic in meaning in that they r capable of multiple decodings - But: stars r also the product of (they are tied to) audience fascination (Audience actually plays a big part in celebrity) - So: celebrities can b analyzed for cultural meaning Relevant fantasy - Celebrity is a role model for people who don't feel represented by the dominant ideology

Embarrassment and quality (Fiske)

- Embarrassment occurs when social norms/SSRs are disrupted - Including: taste hierarchies as "legitimate" & "illegitimate" pleasures - And: overcoming embarrassment can challenge & change culture - Not saying that we can't say things r bad, but we need to know and analyze the structures and hierarchies we r examining the media on

criticisms of encoding/decoding

- Few perfectly dominant or oppositional readings (Think of it more as a continuum rather than 3 completely separated categories) - Works better for overtly ideological texts (ie news) over ambivalent/ambiguous ones (ie fiction, satire, etc.) - Doesn't recognize the multiple motivations behind production/encoding and the ppl who make media - Needs to link decoding back to encoding

Characteristics of consumer culture

- Focus on accumulating consumer goods as an expression of identity & "free choice" - Products for a massive, anonymous audience - Encourages insatiable consume desire - Tradition & heritage become "lifestyle" & experimenting w/ the "the latest thing" - Represents status over function

genre conventions and codes

- Genre = content sharing conventions & codes Conventions = specific narrative elements (story) - Setting - Character type - Plot - Ideology ... particular values & beliefs r associated with certain genres Codes = modes of production external to the narrative (style)... they aren't part of the story itself - Length - Visual style (ie. Lighting, Camerawork, Editing) - Audio style

discursive approach to genre

- Genres determined by cultural discourse (common, shared understanding of a concept) - Approach: not determining C&Cs (codes & conventions) but how the genre is understood thru discourse - Discourse shaped thru how a genre is defined, interpreted, & evaluated - Goal: not only show how genres evolve but why they change

Authenticity symbolic resources

- Happens when Star image = star text - Celebs can provide "symbolic resources" (aka relevant fantasies) that reinforce dominant norms or challenge them - But: they can face "disciplining" public ridicule for doing so (especially when challenging norms) - So: celebs can embrace their marginalized identity to communicate authenticity

False consciousness

- Makes people think that consumption is the key to happiness rather than growth and upward and mobility - Mislead people into thinking that the route to contentment comes from consumption rather than upward mobility

material function vs. cultural function (Fiske)

- Material function - role in the circulation of wealth - Cultural function - role in the circulation of meaning The Frankfurt school argue that the culture industry controls both functions (Unequal power relations) Fiske argues that there is a difference between the power of the culture industries & the power of its impact - Industries control over material function does not mean that it controls the cultural functions - People/masses are able to create their own cultural meaning and different interpretations

dystopian views and critiques

- Medium/genre/practice is bad or was good but it's getting worse General beliefs: - Media is passive and addictive - Media is formulaic and exploitative - Consumerist - THUS is directly harmful (damaging) to individuals and society CRITIQUES: - totalizing: is it ALL bad? - nostalgic bias... longing for a past that never really existed - Elitist - dismissive of the active capacity of consumption - assumes passive consumption by audiences

utopian views and critiques

- Medium/genre/practice is good or was bad but it's getting better General beliefs: - celebration of choice - you can choose to not consume media you disprove of - media can affect positive change; educational and publicizing corruption - can act as an informational & educational resource... help shape society 4 the better - a window to new experiences and fostering empathy - Thus: multiplicity of choice & viewpoint outshines the negatives CRITIQUE: - utopian view is totalizing? - Dismissive of social harm - employs myth of social and aesthetic progress - ignores commercial interests - ignores production hierarchies

mirror views and critique

- Medium/genre/practice reflects reality or reflects the interests of the audience General beliefs: - media mirrors major social change CRITIQUES: - ignores the selective process of production... not every story gets told - ignores the agenda setting function of media - Ignores media maker agency - Denies the audience's agency... ignores the reasons why audiences watch/consume media and differences in audience interpretations

industrial utility of genre

- Organize production - An attempt to manufacture success by offering the familiar - And: genre must be communicated through promotion (trailer, posters, etc.) - So: genre is a "contract" between producers & audiences

criticisms of pop culture analysis

- Populist celebration that romanticizes audience resistance - Popular culture can spread harmful ideas too - Validates dominant/commercial interests of culture industry and overemphasizes the audiences power and lets culture industries off the hook for their hegemonic and capitalists tendencies - Audiences can b active but that doesn't mean they're powerful

hegemony and counter-hegemony

- The process of maintaining power thru seeking ideological consensus - A type of power in which the dominant meanings and values are controlled - Those in power rule thru agreement rather than force... making ppls think that they share values of those in power and that they r in power bc they deserve to be so - Result: hegemonic media reinforcing the interests of the powerful - counter-hegemonic media provide resistant "counter-hegemony" challenging these interests - So: hegemony is an ongoing process that must b constantly reaffirmed

News and how it is shaped

- The result of routines (conventions) that become formalized into professional norms - Goal: newsworthiness and objective reality - Create a mediated representation of an event based on standards of objectivity Shaped by: Social process ($$$ money, deadlines, experts used, creator bias, recording, editing and what is reinforced but it, etc.) - So: no objective representation of reality... this is something that journalists pursue but can never reach Codes & conventions (visual style, music, character types, setting, etc.) - So: news is constructed to look, sound, & "feel" objective & newsworthy - Norms (although may slightly vary) r broadly institutionally shared

dominant ideology

- Those in power shape ideology thru institutional control (ie education, law, media) - Reinforces the power and interests of the few elites - Yet it is widely shared by the majority (even if they aren't part of the few) - Blames social inequality as a failure of the individual - dominant ideologies can evolve over time - Hard to keep track of them bc they seem invisible bc they are weaved into society common sense - Easier to see when comparing today media to previous media

problematizing the textual approach

- Too neat & tidy - Determining genre is based on a mix of conventions & codes - But it is based on selected differences - SO: there is no system for what differences demand a new category - Thus: some shared categories matters, others don't - genres aren't textually self-evident ... so we can't just look @ them textually... culture and industry r also important in determining genre

celebrity

- Turning celebrity into capital - A person who attracts attention to such a degree that their life & personality are of public interest - Both workers & products (cultural products & economic products) Economics of celebrity - Goal: encourage consumers to buy a new product by offering something familiar & appealing - The function to promote familiarity Proliferation of celebrity bc: - Celebs want 2 increase their audience appeal by increasing their visibility - Media companies want to promote their products using celeb marketability - In interest in media producers to makes sure that celebs maintain fame and marketability

ideology and dominant ideology

- Values and beliefs people use to make sense of the world - Bigger & broader than politics - Guide how we think about our lives, how we behave, & social rules & roles - Feel common sense/natural (innate) to those who hold them - Spread thru powerful institutions like family, education, government, media, etc. - Can b widely shared, but never universal (see below for dominant ideology info)

Technological Convergence

- When one media device, such as an iPhone, has many different technological capabilities (such as playing music, surfing the Internet, taking photos etc.) - a single machine being able to perform multiple media technologies (ie Smartphones)

transmedia storytelling

- a kind of transmedia extension in all the media share the same "textual universe" - Has the systematic planning of a story throughout different platforms - each contributes to the larger "storyworld" - designed to stand on its own - especially useful with TV as the core text because its ongoing seriality

content convergence

- similar content available thru a variety of devices; content shared across different media - Content from one medium now available through a variety of devices - hardware diverges but software converges (ex: Cross-media promotion, Trans-media storytelling)

unauthorized content convergence

- they are produced outside of the corporation that owns the copyright Examples: - Content convergence "piracy" - Transmedia extensions as fan practice (ie fandom/ fanart/ fanfiction) - Transmedia storytelling as fanfiction

texts as polysemic

- they can be interpreted in multiple ways - audiences are active participants in interpreting a message based on their own experiences & beliefs - But: shared cultural experiences & beliefs mean some meanings are more widely recognized... not everyone is gonna have super different interpretations of the whole text - However: variable interpretations means that texts are sites of struggle

popular culture as a process

A process, not a thing or category What ppl make of/using the text - Popular culture is assembled from mass culture resources - Concerned w/ meaning @ consumption, not producer intentions... explores how ppl engage with mass culture including unintended ways - The meaning-making process turns mass cultures for the masses into popular culture by the masses

media and literacy

All media can be read for meaning: - Reading requires an active process of interpretation - All media texts are representations that help construct our realities

Mass culture and what it provides

Being created for the public - Conformity - Artificial concerns - Status over function - No sense of community or collectivity - Leisure time becomes commodified - Escapist Political impacts - Keeping the masses happy? and stable and conformity so they don't mess with the status quo and those and power - Culture debating society to a consumer society

story characters and audiences

Characters are assigned traits that impact the story - Lead character = protagonist driving the story - They move the story forward and shape it - Audiences are encouraged to identify with the protagonist - Bonds formed externally (frequency/screen time (how often they are on screen), reaction shots (emotional reactions), achievement) - Bonds formed internally (voiceover, POV shot, memory/dream sequences) Stories have audiences - Audiences consume/decode the story - Imagined audience = intended audience of consumers... target demographic - Actual audience = people who actually view the media... includes the ppl who r part of the imagined audience as well as "interlopers" who not part of the imagined audience

Three hybrid sales logic

Combination = multiple simultaneous logics Economies of scope = selling a product across multiple revenue "windows" & logics - Use different logics @ different times Premium option = charging additional money for a premium version with additional perks

Four Media sales logics

Commodities = paid in full by consumers - One time sale (consumers keep product) - Price covers all costs (including profit) Turnstile = sell access to content ... not selling the work itself... aka they r selling admission - Consumer "pays admission" - Ex: Movie theaters, concerts, streaming services Ad-supported = "free" to the consumer - Audiences aren't actually the consumers - Advertisers pay cost of media in exchange for access to consumers ("impressions") - But it is not actually free for audiences - they pay with time & attention & data & increased product costs Micro transactions = a lot of little payments that add up - Most commonly found in mobile games/video games - Also seen in editing apps for filters and skins and stickers etc...

Criticism of the Frankfurt School

Criticisms - Elitist defense of high culture (what that masses like is considered bad culture) - Greater media choice today (more diverse media) - Multiple motivations behind production (different purposes and goals of those who are making the media) Doesn't account for - Innovation (if media texts are standardized it doesn't account for the ways they evolve... they mutate and have radical recombinations) - Failure (some texts fail... cookie cutter media ventures don't always succeed... standardization separately tries to copy previous successes in hopes that audiences will consume the new text as well) - Other interpretations (locate meaning solely in production)... audiences can have opportunistic or negotiated decoding... they don't always align with the dominant... they just assume how other audiences respond

Hall's encoding/decoding model

Encoding - Texts are "encoded" @ the level of production - Media makers encode the text w/ preferred meanings - Preferred meanings are often hegemonic in that they reflect the dominant ideology Decoding - The level in which audiences have control over meaning.. and how they personally interpret it - Audiences can generate meanings other than the preferred meaning - Texts are "decoded" @ the level of consumption in one of 3 positions - Dominant-hegemonic: accepts preferred meaning (Hegemonic in nature bc of association w/ majority) - Oppositional: rejects preferred meaning for an alternative one - Negotiated: partially accepts (or understands) preferred meaning

pop culture analysis

Examining how ppl use & understand media - Interpretations (of media) - Pleasure (media resources of passion, pleasure, & enjoyment) - Society (a way of bonding and connecting with others) - Contestation (always the potential for opposition or conversion (?)... popular culture can be sight of struggle where ppl have different interpretations and can compete with each other)

genre innovation and recombinants

Genre innovation - There risks when adhering strictly to certain genres - Problem of generic repetition = risk of bored audience - Therefore it is important for genres to evolve in order to try to avoid bored audiences So: genres mutate to add differences - Imitations = follow established genre conventions & codes - Innovations = deviate from genre conventions & codes - Result: predictability & surprise - And: changes becomes established codes & conventions if widely adopted - Combined elements of 2+ established genres Recombinant - combines elements for 2+ established genres to the point that it may be indistinguishable... like u can't distill it down to just one - They can't be reduced to a single genre - Doesn't always find an audience & success - Shows how generic elements can b used, subverted, & combined

implications of content convergence

Industry - collect fragmented audiences through many outlets... trying 2 go where the audiences are Media Makers - more opportunities for return on investment (ROI)$ Audience - individualizes the consumption material - Supports timeshifting - Place shifting - Greater content variety - need to learn 2 navigate options/choice - More creation of Transmedia extensions (w/ goals of Keep the audience engaged, Foster brand advocates, Expose views to promotions, & Collect user data)

incorporation vs. ex-corporation (Fiske)

Mass culture and popular culture feed off of each other and respond to and influence each other - Excorporation - the popular culture scans mass culture for resources it can appropriate - Incorporation - mass culture scans popular culture for tastes/interests it can commodify... take trends and monetize them

Maximizing profit vs. Market share

Maximize profit - Increase revenue - economies of scope - International markets - Overproduction (successes offset failures) - Minimize expenses thru economies of scale: the cost of making a product decreases w/ the # of units sold - Goal... sell as many copies as possible Market share - The % of a market of a specific media held by a specific company - Tracks how well a company is doing overall compared to its competitors

Maximizing investment Capital versus sunk cost

Maximize the investment capital - The more money u invest in/promotes the project, the greater the likelihood of success - But: can lead to the "sunk cost fallacy" (the more time & money u invest in smth the harder it is to walk away from it) Rationalize the consumption process - Hedge the likelihood of success by using proven tactics & formulas - communication genre through promotion & signal text as something familiar and that one might like - Familiar narrative structures - Adaptations/remakes - Prequels/Sequels/franchises - Copycats - Pre-testing

mediation

Practice of recording/selecting/ordering events into media narratives -The act of representing an event through media -Not reality, but a representation of it -A construction shaped through codes & conventions plus narrative structures

blurred boundaries btw TV and Film

Programming/consumption (scheduling/watching movies on TV) - New forms of tv content distribution has always relied on movies on TV Talent (film actors & directors making TV shows) - Shorter seasons allows personel to balance more projects - Innovations allows for more experimentation Stories (movies rebooted as TV shows; film franchises extending to TV) - More variety and fluidity in stories Storytelling (films structured like multiple TV episodes)

Four ways of constructing a reality TV

Reality TV is constructed thru: - Selecting participants (to represent specific character types) - Overarching & mini narrative structures - Location - Editing

Pop Culture and Immediacy

Relationship between mass culture and popular culture is always unstable - Popular culture texts are considered "throwaway" - Useful bc Popular culture is tied to the immediate social condition in a society - Represent immediate values and concerns

anthology, episodic, serial

Serial - Long form storytelling - Same characters in different situations - Status quo changes with each episode - Details accumulate throughout the series - They are open to creative revision - Demand a lot from viewers and demands they pay attention to various details Anthology - Short form storytelling - Different characters in different situations - Ongoing series in which episodes features a separate entirely different episode - Each episode is self-contained ... closure brings new/final status quo - Next episode introduces new characters/plot - Can inject seriality with limited series and/or season-long anthology Episodic - Short/long from storytelling mix - Most common narrative form - Same characters in same situations - Begins with status quo, disrupts it, and then returns back to status quo by the end - Circular closure - return to original status quo - It's okay to miss or mix up episodes... the audience doesn't need previous information or order to make sense - Episodic storytelling with serial arc within the show - Inject seriality with "arcs" over episodes or seasons - Plot is bound to the episode (episodic) - Serial just keeps going over longer time period

The Real World utility and narrative

TRW is constructed in its industrial utility & narrative - Wanted TRW bc it is cheap Industrial utility: - Expanding original production using cheap reality TV - A low risk venture - Help create a routine schedule Narrative: - Respond to charges of racial exclusion & promote liberals values - Blames racism on rural individuals - Absolves target demographic, structural factors - So: the construction of reality TV helps construct our beliefs & values

mass media industrialization

The culture industry industrializes media through: Standardization= assembly-line production - Standardized production & results - Everything is really formulaic Pseudo-individualization = same product hidden by a veneer of difference - They both function in the same way and serve the same purpose but promoted as different things Social-cement = "psychic adjustment" to the needs of capitalism (makes us "emotionally obedient") - Psychic/social cement - dominant ideology that doesn't push boundaries - "Psychic adjustment" to the needs of capitalism ... makes us "emotionally obedient" - Designed to b escapist

transmedia extensions and goals

Transmedia extensions can manifest not just as extensions but as extensions of storytelling - A kind of transmedia extensions in all media share the same "textual universe" - try to get ppl to consume the full media... watch the show and consume the extra story elements/media - keep audiences thinking about the media and give an opportunity to explore and flush out the world more - contribute to the larger "storyworld" -want to draw viewers from tv to other content platforms - create loyalists (Ex: SKAM and the character social media accounts)

Structuring social relations (Fiske)

Value systems to which we understand & orient ourselves Social norms that guide individual social relationships - Doesn't totally determine how we relate to other groups on a personal level Grants power to some groups over others - Doesn't mean all relations conform to the same power dynamic but are never free of them either But these can b contested in the "space between social norms & their particular application" - Hegemonic can still resist dominant ideals

utopian, dystopian and mirror views and critiques

see below