Media Studies Midterm
Robert McChesney quote
"The political economy of communication has three main components. First, it addresses in a critical manner how the media system interacts with and affects the overall disposition of power in society. Second, it examines how market structures, advertising support, labor relations, profit motivation, technologies, and government policies shape media industries, journalistic practices, occupational sociology, and the nature and content of the news and entertainment. The detailed examination of the policymaking is the third core component."
National Association of Broadcasters
- a broadcasters' organization that self-regulates the industry
Argument
-"a conclusion about an issue that is supported by reasons" -Sherry Diestler -"a claim advanced with a reason or reasons in its support" -James A. Herrick
Capitalism
-"capitalism" implies a critical angle toward the economic system while the free-market economy implies an affirmative angle -to examine capitalism as an economic system, political economists borrowed concepts and ideas from Marx, one of the main critiques of capitalism -capitalism refers to an economic system in which profit making becomes the end at the expense of the workers and the consumers -according to PE scholars, capitalism in theory conflicts with capitalism in practice
Freedom of expression and speech
-1st amendment rights -fundamental component of democracy -democracy requires us to keep the collective conversations going, no matter how difficult, challenging, or painful they can be
Sut Jhally
-Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse -"advertising is so central to the system that corporations now spend more than $200 bill a year on advertising in the US alone" -"producing a 30-sec network ad costs about $352,000", costs far more than producing the programming surrounding that commercial
Analytical thinking
-helps us understand a phenomenon by breaking it into smaller parts -use in media studies: we apply the same procedure to media systems and media products (ex: colors, word combos, fonts, visual elements of an advertisement)
American pop culture and economic system
-American pop culture is full of movies and shows that glorify our economic system -ex: Shark Tank (presents the capitalist economy as normal, natural, and desirable) -American pop culture also has numerous examples of critical commentary about capitalism (Calvin and Hobbes)
Self-regulation
-in a addition to government agencies, the industry also regulates itself -ex: Motion Picture Association (MPA): established movie rating system
Horizontal integration
-Disney buying Pixar, Facebook buying Instagram, Amazon buys an online shopping platform in another country -refers to both integration within the same industry (as in film production only) and across different media industries -if a film production company starts buying publishing houses, magazines, music labels, radio, and TV stations, this is horizontal
Telecommunications Act of 1996
-signed by Bill Clinton -heavily deregulated the media industry, and relaxed the rules on media ownership -this led to a highly concentrated media ownership in the US
Subfields of media and communication studies
-Game Studies -Peace and Conflict Communication -Comedy and Humor Studies -Environmental Communication -Film Studies -Media Psychology -Children's Media -Political Communication -each organization has its peer-reviewed flagship journal/s that publish the latest research in the field
Media and communication conferences
-ICA: International Communication Association -IAMCR: International Association for Media and Communications Research -SCMC: The Society for Cinema and Media Studies -AEJMC: Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication -NCA: National Communication Association -RSA: Rhetorical Society of America -ECREA: European Communications Research and Education Association -ASA: American Sociological Association (has a section on "Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology")
Reliable sources for critical thinkers
-Libraries -Articles in scientific/scholarly journals -Books by University presses -Reports or data produced by reputable NGOs -Established quality newspapers and news magazines
Normative
-establishing, relating to, or deriving from a standard or norm, especially of behavior -media studies scholars aim to understand how the media are, but they also propose theories about how an ideal media system should be -the scholars working in the field desire to contribute in creating a media system that would give everyone equal access to good quality information
Robert McChesney
-Rich Media, Poor Democracy: argues that increasing commercialization in the media sector has had detrimental effects on the quality of news, journalism, and democracy -Digital Disconnect, How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy: argues that the Internet began with an extraordinary promise for democracy, yet the commercial pressures on the Internet crippled its extraordinary democratic potential -argues that to understand our media and communications systems, we must first understand capitalism as an economic system -without developing a good grasp of how the capitalist economy shapes the media system, we fall into celebrating or bashing the media, w/o necessarily understanding how a media system in a capitalism economy works
Crucial components of a democratic system
-freedom of expression, speech, and press -independent journalism that produces high quality information and reporting -equal access to information through libraries and other public service media -equality of opportunity, giving every child an equal chance to succeed -equal distribution of power across society and institutions, limiting the likelihood of one group concentrating power in their hands and using it abusively on others
Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse
-Sut Jhally -advertising surrounds us everywhere -over the past 100 years, more thought efforts creativity, time, money, and attention to detail has gone into advertising than any other campaign in human history to mold consciousness -advertising has come to literally colonize the culture -corporations now spend more than $200 billion a year on advertising in the US alone (global amount is $570 bill) -broadcast TV and radio rely on advertising for pretty much 100% of their income -purpose of TV shows is to get our attention so it can be sold to advertisers -product placement -logos all over sports arenas -cash-strapped districts selling advertising in schools -Mylar billboard, advertising in space -our gaze is now shifted to smartphones and tablets (ads on Google, FB, Amazon) -advertising created to save capitalism -needed a way to convince people to buy things they didn't need in order to counter overproduction -huge increase in consumer production/advertising after WW2 -ads went from wordy and descriptive of product to focused on pleasure, relationships, and happiness
Marx and capitalism
-from the Marxist perspective, capitalism refers to a system in which capitalists are able to produce commodities that will, at least in principle, yield them a profit
Critical thinking
-goes beyond understanding and aims to access the quality of the message -in addition to breaking the material into its smaller parts, we need to do further research -need to examine each piece of evidence more closely -be ready to revise our own assumptions -1st step to becoming a critical thinker is to identify and use trusted sources of information
Advertising
-advertising plays a central role in a commercial system -advertisers' needs to reach their desirable demographics shape the structure of programming -the audience attention becomes the main commodity to be sold to advertisers -this comes with consequences for the content: 1. the media organizations prioritize demographic groups that advertisers want to reach and find more desirable (upwardly mobile, middle-class audiences w/ purchasing power) 2. the content is based on the needs of the advertisers (ex: Big Bang Theory, length of plot and storyline is designed with advertising breaks in mind, script full of product placements) -the business models of tech and social media giants like Google and FB also rely on advertising (media scholars talk about them as giant advertising platforms)
Censorship
-aims to block diversity and free flow of information -makes content and information inaccessible for the masses -censorship may come both from the governments (democratic and authoritarian) and corporations
Books by University presses
-also reviewed thoroughly and among the high-quality scholarly sources -non-profits
Libraries
-among the oldest institutions of knowledge that aim to preserve human efforts to understand the universe and make sense of our existence -the memory of humanity -help us deepen our knowledge without profiting from it
Reports or data produced by reputable NGOs
-among the primary sources, but are not scholarly sources -an organization is regarded as reliable if it is transparent about its methods of data collection and analysis -ex: Pew Research Center (organization that regularly produces reports that aim to keep the pulse of society), Reporters Without Borders (measures press freedom in the world and publishes reports about it)
Mediated communication
-any communication that is carried out using some channel other than those used in face-to-face communication -ex: information conveyed in a news photograph is mediated communication (the photographer and the camera acted as mediators to convey information to us)
Blind spots
-areas that we are reluctant to put under scrutiny -ex: lots of people are unwilling to critically analyze Disney movies -critical thinkers need to identify these blindspots and untangle them
Interdisciplinary field
-borrows concepts and ideas from other related fields (linguistics, anthropology, psych, sociology, history, poli sci, econ) -understand human interaction with different forms of media ranging from "writing" as an early technology to advanced digital technologies -media studies scholars do not shy away from looking into other disciplines to understand human interaction with the media and humans production and consumption of the media
Media institutions
-cater to a variety of basic human needs and helps us make sense of a highly complex and messy world -provide us with narratives about us, others, and our place in the world -one of the key producers of culture -despite their pitfalls, media institutions provide platforms in modern societies where we can discuss our issues together -disseminate stories, art, music, a huge variety of entertainment, and information
Media conglomerates
-companies that own a large number of media sources in various formats -a media conglomerate is "a giant parent corporation that presides over an amalgamation of wholly and partially owned subsidiaries, companies, and divisions" -global media conglomerates grow through mergers b/t companies, acquisitions of companies, and strategic alliances w/ other conglomerates
Media and Democracy
-democracy is a system of governance designed to prevent violence and mass killing -democratic systems invite us to sort out our conflicts by having a conversation, not violence (resentment and anger) -a successful difficult conversation identifies sources of a conflict and finds solutions to a problem
Low concentration
-diversity of ownership in the marketplace and many owners compete with one another
Fallacies
-errors in our line of reasoning -ex: ad hominem: attacking the person, rather than their point -finding fallacies or inconsistencies in arguments with the goal of winning or crushing an opponent does nothing to improve the quality of the conversation -"claims of inconsistency push people to think more deeply about their apparently conflicting positions"- Ben Burgis
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
-established by the Communications Act of 1934 -represents public interest -allocates licenses, and monitors content for indecent and profanity, among many other things
News media and journalism
-in democracies, news media and journalism provide the forums where our collective conversations take place -have a fundamental role in: 1. keeping the conversations going and involving as many participants as possible in a conversation 2. providing diversity of viewpoints and ideas to help us solve our common problems and conflicts 3. gathering and providing accurate information 4. keeping those in power accountable
Complex field w/ contending positions
-includes arguments and counterarguments about the social problems we face and the role of the media in solving, alleviating, or exacerbating them -think about the field as bringing together numerous ongoing conversations that thousands of scholars are engaging in -the field has numerous theories about the functions, uses, and the effects of the variety of media
Human centered
-informed by humanities and social sciences -media studies students explore the human consequences of advertising and ask questions such as: what are the environmental consequences of advertising? Could the money spent on advertising be used to eliminate poverty or enhance the quality of life for all? -based on humanist ethics and aims to improve the material conditions and access to media for all
Freedom of press
-journalists cannot fulfill their duties without freedom of press (can't investigate a topic freely if they might be killed, jailed, or lose their jobs because of the words they put on paper)
Healthy journalism
-keeps those in power accountable -find the facts -provide diversity of viewpoints -journalism plays a significant role in democracy
Media industries
-media is not just one single entity or industry -when we talk about media, we talk about a combination of numerous industries, different technologies, and talents that constitute a specific sector in the media -ex: the movie industry comprises of thousands of different companies and tasks, ranging from script writing and prop making to transporting technical equipment, catering for the film crew, and distributing the movies to theaters
Media scholars doing political economy may focus on one or more of these areas:
-media ownership and media corporations -labor in media and communication industries -media policy and regulation -media and democracy -media and globalization -media, social movements, and media activism -environmental consequences of media and communication systems
Self-reflexive
-media scholars do not just examine the media as an object of study, but they also scrutinize their own subjective positions, social locations, and interactions with the media to understand their own thought processes better -developing critical and analytical thinking skills is the key that helps us analyze our own thought processes
Who regulates the media?
-national governments are the primary entities that regulate the media, including the media conglomerates and tech giants like Meta and Google that are transnational corporations that defy national borders -all 3 branches of the federal government- as well as state and local authorities- are involved in determining various boundaries for the media -FCC, FTC, DOJ, US Congress, courts and state legislatures
Established quality newspapers and news magazines
-non-scholarly sources that we used with a high degree of trust to learn about current events -can also learn about the latest developments in media industries -follow and keep an eye on the people making decisions that would impact us all -have high editorial standards and institutionalized fact-checking mechanisms -ex: NYT, Guardian, New Yorker, WSJ, Economist, Financial Times -NYT is a key organization both as a source of information and an object of analysis for students and scholars of media -reputable news organizations cannot risk upsetting their readers by providing false information
Origins of media and communication studies
-origins can be traced back to the 1870s
Cross-media ownership
-ownership of multiple media businesses by a person or corporation -essentially same thing as horizontal integration
Vertical integration
-practice where a single entity controls the entire process of a product, from the raw materials to distribution -one player owning companies at different levels of the same industry -if one company owns newspapers, newspaper distribution companies and kiosks that sell those newspapers, we call that company vertically integrated -can easily lead to conflict of interest and unfair competition -ex: Hollywood's film studios also owning the cinemas/movie theaters (production and exhibition) -Amazon buying Washington Post, Amazon buying MGM
3 levels of media industry
-production -distribution -exhibition -ex: a movie needs to be produced first, then somebody needs to distribute the movies to the theaters that will exhibit the final product to the audiences -this trio is the key to understanding media ownership
Commercial media system
-refers to a system dominated by profit-driven companies -advertising -entertainment gets to be prioritized over information-rich programming
Concentration in media ownership
-refers to the media getting concentrated in fewer hands vertically, horizontally, or both
What is regulated in a media system?
-regulation of ownership aims to prevent one player dominating the media market -copyright laws can also be categorized under regulation of ownership -regulation of content focuses mainly on indecency, sex, and violence in media content (ex: in 2004 FCC fined CBS $550,000 for indecency for Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction at Super Bowl halftime show) -bleep sound that blocks curse works on broadcast TV -content regulation by the government is and should be kept at a bare minimum in democracies, heavy regulations on content are used in authoritarian regimes
Deregulation
-removal of existing regulations in an industry -"regulation on behalf of private interests" -Robert McChesney
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
-role is to oversee that the media market functions properly, anti-trust laws are not broken, and the consumers are protected -media ownership falls under FTC's purview
Media regulation
-rules whereby governments attempt to control areas like media ownership and output
Digital Disconnect
-some say the internet is making us more stupid, distracted, disengage, clueless, and ill-informed, fake news -internet gives us a tool to expose authoritarian power -90% of the data information ever created in the history of the world has been created over just the last two years -skeptics: shallowed our thinking, losing concentration, fake news -celebrants: internet is making us smarter, become a force for democracy, cellphones can shine light on civil injustices, made politics more accessible -the American catechism: the belief that capitalism is in effect the natural economic expression of democracy and freedom -the 5 most valuable corporations in the world today are internet monopolies, companies that didn't exist even a generation ago -in the early 90's Congress passed legislation that effectively handed the internet over to commercial interests
Plagiarism
-taking credit for someone else's writing or ideas -not acknowledging the authors whose ideas helped us build our ideas -universities have their academic honor codes to prevent plagiarism
Communications Act of 1934
-the far-reaching act that established the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the federal regulatory structure for U.S. broadcasting
Appreciating vs. bashing the media
-the media institutions in liberal democracies have their strengths and their innumerable weaknesses -Media studies scholars extensively explore those weaknesses with the goal of creating a better media system that keeps us well-informed -the goal of our research is not to dismiss, bash or trash the media -media scholars owe it to the workers in media industries to help them see any blind spots that might escape their attention while trying to make their deadlines -the key is to follow all types of media, read, watch, enjoy, appreciate the work, and analyze -"I want you to become intellectuals, not position intellectuals -media studies are not about celebrating the media -when you have an analytical distance from both bashing and celebration, you will gain a much more complex and broader view of the communication and media industries
Net Neutrality
-the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites -one of the most discussed topics of regulation in the last decade -FCC repealed net neutrality rules in 2017 under Ajit Pai, the chairman of FCC appointed by the Trump administration -Biden administration wants to restore net neutrality rules, and in 2021 Biden signed an executive order that brought the topic back onto the FCC's agenda
Media studies and Communication
-the study of newspapers, television, advertising etc and their influence on society as an educational subject -scholars see Media Studies as a sub-field of Communication Studies -Comm. involves all forms of communication, including immediate and face-to-face communication -Comm also includes non-human communication as well -Media studies focuses on "mediated" communication -an academic field of research that focuses on media production, media content, and audiences
Media
-the various methods of communicating information -the media is a form of human expression that encompasses an immense variety of forms of technologies -media's job is to inform, educate, and entertain us -we derive our questions, new theories, and ideas about contemporary media from this complex web of previous work -a Comm and Media Studies student needs to learn the leading scholars and influential theories who shaped Media and Comm studies -media can bridge distances, transcend time/space, ability to both travel and stay put
High concentration
-when a few conglomerates own many media companies in the market -as media studies scholars, we find a highly concentrated media troubling, less diversity in content -a high concentration of ownership has consequences for the news and journalism divisions, and the quality of the news
Joint ventures
-when two or more companies join forces - sharing resources, risks, and profits, but not actually merging companies - to pursue specific opportunities -ex: Hulu (jointly launched and owned by Disney, 21st Century Fox, and Comcast), CW TV network (co-founded by CBS Corporation and Warner Bros)
Interlibrary loan
-when your library does not have access to an article, the librarian will contact another library to get it for you
Articles in scientific/scholarly journals
-written by researchers and academics in universities -go through a peer-review process -some scholarly journals are more reputable than others and follow a more rigorous process -scholarly articles are at the top of the list of reliable sources because of the rigorous vetting process they go through -downside is heavy use of jargon
Focusing on the media sector, the following happens in practice (explains behaviors of big players):
1. Businesses do not want competition. They aim to smash the competition and get bigger. 2. A common way to smash the competition is to buy the competitors. Ex: Google and FB buying out smaller companies. In a market dominated by big players, it becomes harder for newcomers to enter the market to compete 3. Companies get bigger through mergers and acquisitions. If a few companies get too big to buy one another, they join forces to protect their interests and become both competitors and allies 4. These practices lead to a market dominated by a few big companies (5 U.S. media conglomerates) 5. As a result, the customers are left with a few choices. Knowing that the customers do not have a choice, the big companies do not feel pressure to please them. They can now offer a poor service for a high price and outsource the customer service divisions 6. Businesses provide jobs, but they are also eager to cut labor costs. They struggle to keep the wages at a minimum and they lay off workers in large numbers when they can replace them with automated services, machines, or robots
Capitalist economy is built on the following assumptions:
1. Different providers compete to provide the best product for the lowest price in the marketplace 2. Competition in the marketplace is fair and open to all 3. Competition leads to constant improvement of services and products 4. Businesses that cannot provide the best product for the lowest best price will eventually be pushed out of the marketplace 5. Consumers have a variety of choices, and they have the power to push the low-quality products with a high-price tag out of the market 6. Businesses must please their customers and prioritize customer satisfaction if they want to stay in business 7. The marketplace regulates itself as if there is an "invisible hand". Consumers simply do not buy the products that do not serve them, bringing the prices of those products down. There is no need for the gift to regulate or set the rules for the market 8. Businesses are job providers, create jobs for families
5 characteristics of media studies
1. Interdisciplinary field 2. Complex field with contending positions 3. Human centered 4. Normative 5. Self-reflexive
Why is the media regulated?
1. Media regulation helps avoid conflict of interest due to cross-ownership and concentration of ownership 2. Media regulation helps limit the role of money in election campaigns (many democratic govts require the media to give free and equal airtime to all political candidates) 3. Media regulation helps ensure that everyone has access to quality information and entertainment independent of their economic status (ex: public libraries and public service broadcasting) 4. Media regulation helps ensure that there is a diversity in the media in terms of both ownership and content -media regulation in democratic societies, in principle, aims to make sure that there is diversity and free flow on information in the media -also aims to make sure there is equal access to information -aims to keep the excesses of capitalism under control as those excesses have adverse consequences for democracy
2 types of conglomerates
1. Owns mainly in media industries (ex: Disney) 2. Owns both in media and non-media industries (ex: General Electric, an energy company which owned NBC, wholly and then partially, between 1986 and 2013)
2 Approaches and 3 focus areas in communication and media studies
1. Political economy of media and communication (context, structures, institutions) 2. Cultural studies (texts and representations, audiences, identities)
Structure of Department of Communication at Tulane
1. Structures and institutions ---> context 2. Texts and representations ---> text 3. Identities and relationships ---> audiences
Characteristics of critical thinkers
1. Systematic: follow carefully thought-out procedures and steps (methods), common methods: content analysis, textual analysis, discourse analysis, rhetorical analysis, focus groups, surveys, ethnography 2. Value all forms of systematic and scientific thinking with their failures and pitfalls and are committed to improving them, do not celebrate scientific reasoning when it serves their purpose and trash it when it does not, do not reject beat, or bend the evidence to support their point 3. See science and ethics as mutually supportive areas: critical thinkers are aware of the examples of scientists failing to uphold ethical guidelines, and they are committed to preventing those failures from happening again 4. Do not confuse critical thinking with conspiracy theories that seem to be critical of established, proven knowledge while spreading falsehoods, use their analytical and research skills to distinguish acts of actual conspirator that are backed by consistent, objective and concrete evidence from conspiracy theories 5. Critical thinkers love to hear different perspectives and enjoy playing with ideas, read for the argument, and they develop skills in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of an argument
5 main media conglomerates
1. The Walt Disney Company: enormous global media conglomerate, has a whole universe, has been producing animation and other content since 1923, has an enormous content library that families with children depend on to nanny the kids, acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019, owns ABC, ESPN, and Marvel 2. AT&T: telecommunication giant, bought Time Warner in 2018, TW has a huge content library and owned Warner Bros Pictures, CNN, and HBO, their merger (VERTICAL) pushed the other players in the media market to realign themselves, owns characters in DC universe 3. Comcast: another huge media conglomerate, owns NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, an example of a vertical merger 4. National Amusements: Sumner Redstone, owner of CBS Corporation and Paramount Global 5. Fox Corporation: owned by Rupert Murdoch, focuses on news (and fake news), sold 21st Century Fox to Disney in 2019, in April 2023, Fox News reached a last-minute settlement w/ Dominion Voting Systems, which accused Fox News of punishing conspiracies that harmed the company, Fox payed Dominion $787.5 million
3 questions regarding media regulation
1. Who regulates the media? 2. What is regulated by the media? 3. Why is the media regulated? What is the rationale for regulating the media?
3 areas of focus
1. context, production 2. text, content 3. audiences, reception
Scholars of political economy of media explore the relationships between:
1. the economic system and the media system 2. the political system and the media system 3. media ownership and media content
