Media Studies 10 Final
First Amendment
"Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...." -protects govt censorship, but not editorial (those in charge of the publication can censor your work, like your editor) -it's the public's job to decide what's a good idea, not the govt's BECAUSE: ideas should circulate in a marketplace of competing ideas AND: courts have expanded "free press" to include all types of media because the founders couldn't have imaged the new forms
YouTube & surveillance
(Andrejevic) •Youtube is tied to issues of exploitation where user actions can be captured and analyzed by marketers •users exchange data about themselves and their browsing histories for access to content •Result: asymmetrical loss of privacy •we give up detailed info about ourselves •But: companies profiles on us and use of those profiles are secret to us
Producage & its Results
(BRUNS) - Interactivity allows media users to become producers and distributers - Fostered by popular and open platforms + Large communities of partners that can innovate and create - RESULT: + Less reliance on commercially-driven media + Demystifies the production process + Makes culture more participatory/democratic
Strongly vs. Weakly Designed Mediaspaces
(Forms of interactivity) Strongly designed media spaces: +Constructed to provide audiences similar experiences + Content created by few for consumption by many +Made compelling thru payoffs for time investment Weakly-designed mediaspaces: +Purposely designed to be open platforms +Content comes from participants not creators +Made compelling by user contribution
Cultural and Secondary Proximity
(La Pastina and Straubhaar) - Cultural proximity = shared linguistic and historical experiences +Can be expressed thru media storytelling, values, character types, etc. - Secondary proximity = familiarity thru imported texts, genres, and storytelling forms
Alternatives to Nationalism and its Dominance
- Alternatives to nationalism = religion, localism, larger region, cosmopolitanism - Waisbord: only nationalism provides historical and cultural and political bonds +Everyday media (invisible daily backdrop) +Chauvinistic media (aggressive saber-rattling)
Implications of Produsage
- Creates greater diversity rather than "quality outcomes" + BUT: "quality outcomes" more likely to result from greater public involvement + SO: we judge the success of produsage based on sustained involvement - Can foster a new digital divide (in terms of participation gap) + SO: produsage values and skills must be taught in school as education/literacy - Commercial interests can "harvest" produsage + Sites turn users into laborers with advertising, personal info, etc.
Web 2.0 Dystopians
- DYSTOPIANS: users may be participatory but that doesn't mean they're powerful - Web 2.0 activities framed as fun but they are a form of work + Users are unwaged + Attention sold to advertisers and marketers + Recommendation features steer users to promoted content
Casual Gaming and the player space
- Games take place in screen space and player space +Player space = socially embeddable games +Player space is increasingly important to casual gaming - Cocooning - Mimetic play
YouTube & Media Democratization
- Media democratization: based on sharing and abundance rather than scarcity, opens up our beliefs in who can create/circulate culture, tied to increasing recording/editing techs and social networks
Government & the Internet
- The internet does not respect the traditional boundaries of copyright -Four regulators -Copyright holders frame this as theft
Original Scripted Content
- YT not just a space for circulating copyrighted works w/o authorization - scripted and constructed content created and shared for market and non market purposes
Media and Advertising
- auds are constructed for advertisers - and content is constructed for specific auds *So audiences are both consumers and commodities*
Videos of Affinity
- based on membership and connection - YT is a social network (and can be embedded in other social nets) - an extension of home movies and "bedroom cultures" - SO: they're about ongoing relationships - But: they can be monetized if they go viral
Benefits & concerns of commercial surveillance
- benefits: increases amount of relevant info, automated (no human surveillance) - Concerns: constructs identities that limit future choices, compiled with out consent, doesn't distinguish between public and private, no way t guarantee accuracy, no limit to duration of use, vulnerable to hacking/data breaches
Direct vs. Indirect Surveillance
- direct: classified screening, tapping, tracking programs - Indirect: laws that compel private companies to save and hand over user records and communications ex. Facebook, government can survey it
YouTube's Open Culture
- open culture: determined by architecture (low barriers of entry), up-loaders (pros:broadcast/non: user generated content ), users (engage with and share content in diverse ways
Web 2.0 & How it Operates
- participation-enabling architectures that encourage user contribution and innovation - Utopias; we create the content and this results in a democratization of authorship, info, and culture - Operates: +technologically: geared towards interactivity and sharing +socially:encouraging the creation and circulation of knowledge and culture +economically: to do all of this in a way that is magnetizable
Personal Traces & Function Creep
- personal traces: electronic footsteps that people leave behind (surveillance cameras, browsing history, etc) - function creep: widening surveillance beyond its intended purpose, drivers liscence
Profiles & Databases
- profiles: storehouses of info on individual consumers - databases: constantly updated collections of user info sortable by relevant info desired at a particular time
Surveillance & "surveillance society"
- surveillance: to see w/o being seen; to be seen w/o seeing watcher. - Surveillance society: a persons every move is electronically recorded and stored to be examined when needed
Viral Video (Burgees)
- video clips that grow popular through rapid user-led networked distribution - can be commercially or non-commercially motivated - have "hooks" (that foster mimicry, parody, and spreadability) + fostered by commonplace elements but can't identify until after the fact - Vernacular creativity: viral video (and memes) spread replicable ideas + network practices, not separate texts + people share and revise videos/memes according to their tastes an interests
Four forms of user-generated content
- videos of affinity - viral video (Burgees) - cultural repository - original scripted content
Cultural Repository
- world's largest storehouse of moving image material - resource for revisiting popular culture - But: traditional media producers uninterested in archiving - So: most archival video is made available by users and can be degraded in image/audio quality
Cultural Production
-some fans build upon/transform texts as part of folk culture -video production, fan art, fan fiction (take preexisting text and extending it) -enabled by new techs and internet (to produce, circulate) -if fans are dissatisfied with a certain outcome, they can mash up scenes to create an alternate story -shared in communities for pleasure and skill enhancement (can never be sold)
Stereotypes and the Center
-we judge stereotypes by comparing them to a group's "real" traits and behaviors -BUT: no real center of any group -SO: no single representation can embody a cultural experience -how we see stereotypes is similar to how we see genres
Depicting the Other
How should we depict different groups? 1. Embrace the Problem 2. Stack the Deck 3. Exnomination 4. Multicultural Strategy
Four General Characteristics of Casual Gaming
1)lack any significant narrative 2)quick to learn, simple mechanics 3)focus on repetitive play ( Same tasks) 4)Provide quick pay offs for low time investment
Unprotected Speech
1. Clear and Present Danger: speech that could cause immediate social harm 2. Libel: defamation of character in written or broadcast form 3. Right to Privacy: protection from unwanted intrusion -guarantees one's rights to be left alone without his name, activities becoming public -unauthorized reporting, making records public, disclosing personal info, appropriation of one's image for commercial purposes (Woody Allen) 4. Obscenity: "offensive to accepted standards of decency" -must fit all of the following: "obsessive interest in sex" according to the "average person", depicts sex in a clearly offensive way, a "reasonable person" agrees it lacks artistic, political, or scientific value -only child porn is obscene today 5. Copyright Infringement: appropriating words without permission -exceptions: fair use, first sale, limited term
Four Perspectives on Global Media Power
1. Cultural Exchange 2. Cultural Imperialism 3. Cultural Nationalism 4. Cultural Hybridity
Segment Types
1. Geographic (not that important/relevant anymore because of national brands, shipping, etc) 2. Demographic: social categories like age, gender, education 3. Lifestyle: hobbies and interests 4. Psychographic: personality characteristics
Advertising Goals
1. Manufacture a sense of desire 2. Rationalize consumption 3. Self-identify with what you purchase TACTICS: -positive association -creating discontent
Two Forces Shaping the Child Audience
1. Media Industry -desirable and lucrative market/demographic -high frequency of media consumption, esp. TV viewing -consumerist mindset, impressionable (always wanting more) -create brand loyalty early on (started by Disney-- target children to get parents to spend money on them) 2. Parents, Teachers, Politicians -victimhood, innocence, fragility -try to limit what children consume--> watching is a passive activity -children are blank slates
Three Ways of Defining the Fan
1. intense engagement 2. close/repeated scrutiny: examining mechanics, understanding relationships, themes, why/how things happened (love/obsession/adoration for the text) 3. social practice/public display of passion -forming community online or off -make meaning and share with other fans -conventions (comic con, etc) Fandoms have intensified due to online communities -Not the text, but what the fans do with it that empowers them
Productive Practices of Consumption
1. interpretation: analyzing the value/meaning; based on contexts 2. discussion: moves from passive to active participation 3. speculation: imagine what will happen next based on meanings already conceived
Embrace the Problem Strategy
Address the problem head-on Pro: sympathetic, makes the Other the heart of the story Con: Other becomes defined by the difference
Globalization of Film
BALIO small studios: increase # of films major studios: create blockbusters -promotes media events -allows synergy and tie-ins -easy to distribute -RESULT: focus on high-production values and plots appealing to many markets
Networked Info Environment & Results
BENCKLER NIE= cooperative production of information and culture supported by digital techs -often done for noncommercial reasons -internet has changed the way we exchange info, knowledge + culture RESULTS: -audiences become participants and speakers ---media consuming and producing -less dependent on/susceptibleness to mass media ---INSTEAD: info and culture shared through a culture of linking -TOOLS: email, FB, LinkedIn, Blogs, Texting, social media, wikis ***shift to NIE doesn't just change how we communicate but everything about our daily lives -see a pretty sunset, have ability to instagram it--> changing the way you absorb information
Broadcasting vs. Narrowcasting (re: advertising)
Broadcasting strategy: focus on mass audience (target consumers as an undifferentiated group -GOAL: produce content with least objectionable programming= safe Narrowcasting strategy: focus on target audiences -GOAL: create interest in primary media communities -produce content for niche, then sell advertisers access to this niche -EX: tennis channel= more market for tennis companies to advertise, more likely to purchase
Co-production
Co-op between producers from different markets Advantages: -tailored to needs of both markets -cost is shared BUT: co-op between markets can be challenging 1. language/industrial differences 2. ad/programming structure, scheduling, etc 3. need of the stronger partner usually wins out
Exnomination
Colorblind casting Pro: promotes diversity and doesn't focus on differences Con: doesn't acknowledge cultural specificity
Conglomerate Power & Power/Knowledge
Conglomeration leads to oligopolies that favor their own interests/partnerships and make it very difficult for outsiders to compete -media giants only compete with other media giants -TV: primetime is selected from big production companies and it is very hard for independent companies to snag a spot then "Knowledge is power" BUT power is knowledge?? -have control over media-- control what is circulated/KNOWN - power to control circulation of ideas -distribution of knowledge at stake because newcomers can't compete
NIE Criticisms & Benckler's Responses
Criticisms: 1. "Information Overload" -RESPONSE: vetting process (small number of sites "push info upwards" towards bigger sites and more popularity) ---funniest, most informative info will go to larger number of sites across the web ---create system of peer review= more responsive than mass media 2. "Money will Dominate" -RESPONSE: less reliant on $$$ for circulation (ex: Wikipedia) ---content can easily travel through non-commercial attention (but can help- stuff can go viral) 3. "Polarization" (only like-minded groups with no common ground) -RESPONSE: provides "see for yourself" links ---link to content you are talking about (blogs) ---allows a space for internal argument before going wide
Fandom & Technology
Impact of new techs: -internet makes discussion and production more common -DVD makes collecting and sharing "normal" -So: difference between fans and mainstream in historically contingent
Formatting
Import premise, but not episodes Licensed adaptation of the show, but in local contexts -if a show is popular enough in a certain country, it can be licensed to a variety of other countries -attractive to local programmers because they have been proven successes in other countries around the world -cheaper to buy ideas than finished products -enables cultural specificity -niche channels (format TV) can travel globally too (MTV can be tailored to individual markets)
Conglomeration Critics vs. Defenders
Critics: 1. Narrow media voices -fewer companies have greater control over media most people consume (10-15 companies control all of the world's media production, distribution and exhibition) -reduces number of speakers: more choice but not more voice 2. Limits Democracy -giants have power to shape policy debates and prevent calls for reform -servs $$$ agendas, power to shape/withhold knowledge Defenders: 1. Media industry is dynamic and changing -conglomerates can die and be replaced with new ones 2. Corps must grow or lose market share in abundant marketplace -have to keep growing to keep up 3. Corps absorb losses, can afford innovation -have more resources to be able to fail--> room for innovation unlike small companies with one/a few projects 4. larger corps, but also more choices 5. internet allows more production and sharing than ever Critics argue that defenders: 1. problematically equate capitalism with democracy 2. focuses on audiences as consumers but not spealers 3. SO: number of speakers remains the same 4. AND: what about hard-to-get demos?
Cultural Hybridity
Cultural hybridity = global flows are a recombination of cultures - Recombinant genres/styles - Ex. MTV in other countries = mix of successful business model with local and international cultures
Cultural Nationalism
Cultural nationalism = extension of cultural imperialism - Local cultures need to be protected - Must be reasserted thru gov't funding, restrictions, and quotas
Media & Democracy
Democracy: citizen participation in production and circulation of culture Media is judged democratic when individuals: 1. are exposed to a diversity of ideas 2. can easily exchange ideas 3. can publish and reach an audience
Multicultural Strategy
Depict differences with a cultural group EX: The Wire Pro: portrayal of cultural differences within groups Con: rare, not really a con cuz its great!
Deregulation & Media Mergers
Deregulation = removal of ownership rules - Started in the US in the 1980s and increased in the '90s - Replaces trustee system w/ market system hoping to increase competition Media mergers - Response: rather than compete, media companies merge thru buyouts - Media conglomerate: company that owns several companies under a corporate umbrella
Diasporia
Diaspora = movement of people from one geographic location to another - Creates global market for media +Ex. karaoke - Creates hybrid media +Ex. mutating music genres and styles
Industrial Utility of Fandom
GWENLLIAN JONES -fandoms can be incorporated -fandom= industrial construct, not a community ***industry leaders cultivate fan practices (contests, etc) in order to foster loyals and make more money*** ---industry's adoring offspring, not its nemesis -GOAL: a wide audience and an active one ---niche market cultivated by the industry regardless of intellectual property violations ---SO: cultural production relies on studio tolerance
Games & Realism & Creating Realism
Games and realism - GOAL: foster deeper immersion - BUT: standards of realism keep changing Creating realism - Sense of realism promoted thru: +Photorealistic representation +Feel of gameplay ("force feedback" of response handling) +Links to real life people +Degree of interactivity (freedom to explore or control world) +Multiplayer environments and unpredictable encounters
Definition of Globalization and its Rise
Globalization= the flows of media, tech, ideas, money, and cultures across national boundaries -applies to all industries -goods/services pitched at a global level rather than a national one -uneven due to inequalities of power *interconnected, interdependent, instantaneous* Rise: -POLITICAL: end of the cold war and opening of new foreign markets -ECONOMIC: deregulation, loosening ownership regulations, and trade treaties ---NAFTA and EU unite nations into a single market -TECHNOLOGICAL: satellite, digital networking -CULTURAL: new migration patterns and movements of people
"Splitting"
HALL fixes the boundaries between social groups by emphasizing differences -create differences: establish between us and them -binary form of representation: ---images both repelling and compelling ---"noble savage": exoticized and praised (noble) and treated negatively/Othered (savage)
Fandom as Folk Culture
JENKINS Fandom: displaced form of folk culture with own folklore -imitation, revision, parody are crucial to culture -BUT: too restrictive intellectual property controls harm the public interests: can't quote, critique -fans viewed as extreme consumers opposed to average viewers -technologies making it hard to distinguish between mainstream and fandom
Four Regulators
LESSIG 1. social norms (social pressures): stigma imposed by a community 2. market (cost, variety, access, etc.) 3. technology (construction constraints): a normal person when afforded the anonymity and the audience of the internet, turns him into a troll/dick 4. laws (threat of punishment): copyright, defamation, obscenity AND: must be considered together because they all impact each other
Narrowcasting Logic & Edge
Logic: foster divisions useful to marketers Edge: to attract one group and scare away other groups -okay to turn away universal audiences as long as it attracted targeted audiences -good to alienate auds who don't fit demographic
" TV-as-a-drug" & it's problems
MITTELL TV Free America: campaign trying to get middle class families to watch less TV or stop watching it all together -TV is addictive (like a drug with serious psychological problems) -Why this metaphor? Parents don't want their kids on drugs Mittell: drug metaphor inadequately understands spectatorship -TV Free America assumes children are watching TV passively -middle class fear of the inner-city Other; afraid their children may become violent, culturally stunted from programming -is biased towards a suburban nuclear family with stay at home mom--> doesn't account for families that have different circumstances -TAKEAWAY: he illustrates how dominant social groups control discussions of TVs value and effect
Decentralized Distribution
Mix of narrow and broadcasting= complement each other Corps want big and small audiences
Narrative Involvement vs. Narrative Activism
Narrative Involvement: interaction designed by producers (like voting in contests) Narrative activism: interfering in producer's plans -EX: Sanjaya (voting for the worst to end American Idol's credibility) -active audiences can be fans or oppositional
Stack the Deck Strategy
Other is played so positively that he cannot be disliked Pro: well-adjusted role models Con: sets bar for acceptance impossibly high
Self-Regulation and factors driving it
Self-Regulation: industry polices itself for content, keep competitive position in the marketplace Factors driving it: 1. threat of imposed regulation 2. standards and practices: internal guidelines for policy/conduct 3. pressure from advocacy groups 4. pressure from advertisers: skittish about outrage from target demos 5. self-imposed rating systems -provide info to parents before consumption -MPAA is biased and inconsistent -not legally mandatory, but industrially mandatory-- won't be shown in theaters without a rating 6. corp's own commercial interests: self-censor if messages are detrimental to values, etc
Synergy + pros/cons
Synergy= whole is greater than the sum of the parts (1+1=3) -each corporation division works together to advance the brand/franchise EX: HSM (film, video-games, books, toys) Pros: company would make more $$$ from cross-promotion than from several brands working separately (ECONOMIES OF SCOPE/CONVERGENCE) Cons: synergy can lead to loss of efficiency and drain on profits EX: AOL + TimeWarner
Society-Making Media vs. Segment Making Media
TURROW Society-Making Media= Broadcasting -least objectionable= large audiences -people can share universal and national culture Segment-Making Media= Narrowcasting -no exposure to content/people outside niche -marketers exacerbate/profit from social differences BUT: corporations own both, a mix of the two is better than either/or
Nationalism
WAISBORD Globophobe = fears loss of cultural identity Globophile = techs will result in more diverse content Nationalism = sense of shared national identity thru rituals, traditions, etc. - PRO: can promote collectivity, solidarity - CON: cam promotes exclusion, Othering - Media constantly reminds audience of national culture thru: +National sentiments (language, themes, etc.) +National experiences (memories, events, etc.) - Alternatives to nationalism = religion, localism, larger region, cosmopolitanism
Code and Trusted Systems + Lessig's Concerns
code: programming language (text of a computer file) trusted systems: a media platform that restricts its text's functionality (number of plays, duplication, etc) -ex: spotify= one device at a time, not being able to right click and save photos Lessig's concerns: 1. trusted systems make fair use unobtainable 2. eliminated anonymity
Character Types
constructions with commonly understood traits and behaviors -shorthand for media makers to convey meaning and for audiences to understand it -dumb jock, nerd, spoiled princess, slacker,... (Breakfast Club)
horizontal integration
control and coordination across media sectors -alliance and cooperation-- not all eggs in one basket - EX. Disney - holdings in tv, print, apparel, etc.
Cultural Exchange
cultural exchange = global flows are part of a "global village" - global media = marketplace that unites people - advocates a free flow of media - "universal" cultures/values most in demand - supported by US/international media conglomerates
Cultural Imperialism
cultural imperialism = global flows are part of a "global pillage" - global media = one-way flow from US/West to the rest - no real exchange of ideas; unequal position of influence instead - local media suppressed or imitates US media - DANGER: imposes cultural values from outside
Why and How Children Engage with TV
engage with content differently from adults but that doesn't mean they are passively absorbing content WHY: -"magic window" to see depictions of the world -for learning words, numbers, behaviors, etc (RESPONSE= TV focuses educational curricula like Sesame Street) HOW: -direct participation: answering questions -repetition: learn to understand storytelling conventions -problem-solving: narratives require multiples views to grasp
Moral Panics
fear of a new technology's negative impact outside of parental control RESPONSE: call for govt regulation or industrial self-regulation, implement surveillance systems -response to mean world syndrome: media become scapegoats for societal ills
Stereotypes
fix and naturalize differences between groups of people -reduce an entire group to a few simple characteristics (exaggerated) -fixed, rigid boundaries -have more negative connotation than character types -emerge from inequalities of power -ex: Lombre (Mexican Pokemon)
The Other & How Media Spread It
inclusion vs. exclusion: who gets to belong? -Us vs. Them Other: anyone who is not like "us" -we are normal, the Other is strange/different/abnormal Spread through: -absence (lack of portrayal) -stereotypes (can occur unconsciously--> not the producer's intent)
Importation
media made in one nation and sold to another TV: US in a position of power because their: -broadcast strategy works internationally as well -primetime dramas are $$$ to make + have wide appeal (strong domestic success is stronger indicator of international success) -US can afford variable pricing for poorer markets -Advantage for buyer= cheaper than local production
Audience Segmentation
process by which media products are targeting specific groups of people
vertical integration
total control within a single industry -production, distribution, and exhibition all controlled by one company -EX: CBS -advantages: keeps expenses in-house, increases efficiency
Principles of Produsage
•Open participation and elevation - Diverse range of collaborators with a wide range of skills •Ad hoc and fluid meritocracy - Leaders rise thru skills and commitment - Pluralistic rather than hierarchical •Production is a continuing process - The text is never finished - Always developing and in progress •Common property with individual rewards - Products aren't owned by a single entity - Incentives include social standing, creative outlet, vocational training, money
YouTube & Streaming
•owned by Google (makes money through ads and paid search), innovative: openness and spreadable •Streaming not Downloading: quick loading, centralized control (no offensive content) , user friendly (free, no log) •Youtube's power to collect a mass audience, content diversity
Participatory Culture & its Development
• Diversity of content leads to increased choice and "information pull" • Access to production tools is cheaper, easier, more widespread • Networking allows community and collaboration • Digital content is "non-rivalrous" and easy to copy and modify
YouTube vs. TV
• Flow (keep audience tuned in) + TV: keep people on channel as long as possible across shows and breaks. Convince return + YT: keep viewers on the site through recommendation and autoloading •Mass Audience + TV: attracts a simultaneously viewing public + YT: collects audiences over time, provides connection through comments, sharing, etc. •Content Diversity + TV: more channels mean more options but coming form the same media corporations + YT: radically increased content choices and creator diversity. Users become b-casters, creating/filter content
Produsage Content Creation & Distribution
• Produsage = networks of cooperative critique, debate, co-creation + CONTENT CREATION: - Information (citizen journalism, wikis, etc.) Ex. Reddit, Slashdot - Entertainment (fan fiction, memes, remixes, etc.) Ex. Nyancat + CONTENT DISTRIBUTION: - More important than content creation is creation of distribution and exhibition systems - People on the web are predisposed to share and connect with peers
Courting surveillance & Reputation Managment
•we fight the nose of the internet for visibility with persons and try to get publicity by being funny/expert/etc. •Users must attempt to balance publicness and privacy through controlling self exposure through reputation management •Privacy is considered important to maintaing good reputation (online/off), but reputations vary by context •how can we manage all our identities and audiences: may be concentrated on FB and easily found through search
