MMC2000 exam 2

Concept movies

- Concept movies are movies so dependent on a basic formula, they can often be described in a single line. - For example, the movie Twister can be fully described as a movie about a giant rogue tornado. - Because concept movies are not as dependent on deep dialogue, they are often more marketable in foreign markets. - Big-name stars have appeal - Much of profit comes from overseas sales

microcinema

- Digital convergence has also lead to the rise of the microcinema - uses readily available capture equipment and desktop editors to create micro-budget films - Some films have been so successful; studios have created their own in-house micro cinema operations. - Perhaps infatuated with the idea of unbridled creativity, many A-list movie stars worked on microcinema projects (Ex. Celeste and Jesse Forever).

Distribution

- Distribution is the act of supplying movies to the various outlets that will exhibit them, including theaters, internet streaming providers, disc creators, etc. - Movies now are distributed in as many as 250 different formats to the various outlets. - The cast services needed for effective distribution ensures large studios will continue to control the market. - Movie promotion and advertising also falls within the scope of distribution. - marketing costs often exceed production costs - Because successful marketing is so critical to the profitability of a movie, marketing executives are often required to "green light" a script idea before the studio produces it. - Another important function of distribution is the strategic "platform rollout" of a movie.

Exhibition

- Exhibition is the actual showing of the movie for profit. - There are 39,00 movie screens in operation today. - Generally, 40% of the theater's profits comes from concessions, as concession items are typically marked up 80%. - A low priced ticket is set off by overpriced popcorn - To help offset low ticket sales for movies, theaters often multicast live events such as sports and concerts.

Sequels and Franchises

- Franchises: Movies produced with the full intention of releasing additional installments. - Nothing succeeds like success - Sequels are very safe for studios, often providing a known quantity and predictable returns. - Six of the top-10 grossing movies in 2014 were sequels. - "nobody ever got fired for green-lighting a sequel"

Green light

- Green light is based on the advertiser's ability to market the movie. • The decisions to make a picture in the first place • Promotion professionals can say yes/no to a films production and they must declare how much money and effort they will put behind the film

Product Placement

- Many movies are serving double duty as commercials o Product Placement-the practice of placing brand name products in media for commercial gain. • Can be found in almost every major motion picture release. • Sales for General Motors spiked 3% after the release of Transformers, which featured GM products almost exclusively. • Not a new phenomenon, can be found in movies as far back as 1950.

Audience Research

- Movies and potential movies are "tested" on audiences before their release or even production. Multiple endings are often tested. - Reliance on audience research results in one-size-fits all movies that do not break from predictability. - Testing contributes to the sameness of the movies, and feeds into the audience expectations of comfortable patterns and makes them uneasy if a film diverges from that formula - Audience research had shown to be remarkably unreliable. - Ex. Audience research on Fight Club said it would be the biggest flop of the studio.

Merchandise tie-ins

- Movies, especially children's movies, are often made for their ability to push non-film merchandise to consumers. - Hollywood makes $200 billion a year from merchandise tie-ins. - The movie Cars was described by one Disney executive as being less a movie and more a lifestyle brand for young boys."

The Postal Act of 1879

- Second rate (cheaper) postage for magazine distribution • Cheaper postage → cheaper subscription - cause of growth in magazines

Production

- Simply put, production is the making of movies. - 800 movies made annually today, compared to about 300 in 1985. - Most films are now shot on a digital format as opposed to film. - Movies are reliant on digital special effects, and they are expected • These effects greatly increase production costs - Many people see this large increase in production costs as a major reason studios are less willing to take creative chances

Remaking of content from other sources, such as TV shows, comic books, and video-games.

- Teens still make up the largest proportion of the movie audience - Essentially retelling content already proven to be successful. This limits risk and creativity. - Movies based on comics and video games are especially attractive for their easy tie-ins with existing merchandise.

History of the Movies

- The early movie industry was built largely by entrepreneurs who wanted to make money entertaining everyone. • There were no precedents, no rules, no expectations for movies. • The most unique thing about the start of movies was that it wasn't used to challenge the government, but instead was purely used for entertainment. • Audiences didn't know how to "speak film", they had to become film literate

Zoopraxiscope

- a machine for projecting slides onto a distant surface. - invented by Eadweard Muybridge

Common outcomes of blockbuster mentality:

- concept movies - audience research - sequels and franchises - remaking of content from other sources - merchandise tie-ins - product placement

Single Sponsor Magazines

- having only one advertiser throughout an entire issue

cinematographe

- made by Lumiere Brothers - Device that both photographed and projected action. o This device was capable of both recording and playback and also made it to where people no longer had to look down over top of something.

Kinetoscope

- narrow device with small window for exhibition images - A sort of peep show device - invented by thomas edison

montage

- use of complimentary scenes, different camera angles, telling different stories at the same time - Tying together two separate but related shots in such a way that they took on a new unified meaning

The Three Component System

1. production 2. distribution 3. exhibition

affiliates

A broadcasting station that aligns itself with a network.

The Hangover Trailer

Andy's favorite comedy of this generation

Complementary copy

content that reinforces the advertiser's message or at least does not negate it

Who are audiences for magazines

o 94% of people with some college education read at least one magazine. o Overall, 93% of all Americans read a magazine. o Adults, on average, read 7.7 issues a month. o Magazine readers are more attentive, less likely to consume other media while reading magazine o There were 6,950 magazines in 1950 o The number is now over 20,000, some 7,300 of which are general interests' consumer magazines. o Of these, 800 produce 75% of the industry's total revenue

Subscriptions

o About 68% of all sales are subscriptions o Subscriptions have the advantage of an ensured ongoing readership, but they are sold below the cover price and have additional burden of postage

Nickelodeons

o Almost immediately hundreds of nickelodeons were opened in converted stories, banks, and halls across the U.S. o From 1907-1908, the first year in which there were more narrative than documentary films, the number of nickelodeons in the U.S. increased tenfold. o Price of admission was one nickel o Hundreds of new factory studios were started

The Modern Magazine

o Because magazine articles increasingly focused on U.S. matters, U.S. magazines began to look less like London publications. o Journalism historians called this "the time of significant beginnings." o It was during this time (1850s) that the magazine developed many of the characteristics we associate with it even today. • The concept of specialist writers took hold. o Magazines became the visual medium we recognize them as today, including detailed illustrations. • Magazine did not become a true national medium until after the Civil War

D.W. Griffith

o Because so many movies needed to be made and rushed to the nickelodeons, people working in the industry had to learn and perform virtually all aspects of productions. o Writer, actor, and camera operator D.W. Griffith perfected his craft in this environment. o He was quickly recognized as a brilliant director - he introduced scheduled rehearsals before final shooting, costume and lighting, and used close ups and others angles transmit emotion. o The Birth of a Nation- the most influential silent film ever made

primary Growth of Magazines

o Cheaper printing and growing literacy fueled expansion of the magazines just as they did with Books o Additional factor was the spread of social movements such as the labor reform and abolitionism. • These issues provided compelling content, and a boom in magazine publishing began o In 1825 there were 100 magazines in operation, by 1850 there were 600. o Early Industry Leaders: Saturday Evening Post (1821), Harper's (1850), Atlantic Monthly (1857) o Success due to the separate development of American publication style and news content rather than mimicking the British style.

corporate independent studios

o Corporate independents are simply niche divisions of the majors, aimed at creating films that look and feel like independent films. Examples include Newline Cinema (Warner) and Focus Features (Universal). • Corporate independents are expected to bring prestige to the major studios who house them. • Produce more sophisticated, but less costly, fare to gain prestige for parent studios and to earn significant cable and DVD income after runs in theaters

magazine growth during mass circulation era

o Crucial in this expansion was the women's magazine. • Women's right to vote (suffrage) was the social movement that occupied its pages. - Also good deal of content was how-to for homemakers • Advertisers, too, were eager to appear in new women's magazines. o As with books, widespread literacy increased. - The Postal Act of 1879 o The spread of the railroad = Reduction in costs. (due to this cheaper transportation/postage)

Thomas Edison (movies)

o Edison Built the first motion picture studio near his laboratory in NJ. o He called it Black Maria, the common name at the time for a police paddy wagon. o It had an open roof and revolved to follow the sun so the performers being filmed would always be illuminated. o The completed films were not projected. Instead they were run through a kinetoscope. • Often accompanied by music by phonograph o These films were very short pieces, the longest being around 45 seconds or so. o This marked the beginning of commercial motion picture exhibition

William Dickenson

o Edison set his top scientist, William Dickenson, to develop a better method of filming (than Stanford's) • Created kinetograph that combined roll film and a Kodak camera

George Melies

o He began making narrative motion pictures, movies that told a story o "first artist of Cinema/Special Effects." o A Trip to the Moon: 12-minute film that introduced the narrative. - Even though the movie for us would be very dry and boring, it was still a notable attempt to include narrative in film.

emergence of TV effect on magazines

o In 1956 Collier's magazine became the first magazine to cease publication. o TV was more visually stimulating, current, ran continuously, and simply had the appeal of being new o this Led to magazine SPECIALIZATION o No matter how large their circulation, magazines could not match the reach of television. o Magazines did not have moving pictures or visual and oral storytelling. o Nor could magazines match television's timeliness, Magazines were weekly, whereas television was continuous. o Televisions were new - magazines were not as novel.

Nature of the film industry

o In 2014, domestic box office revenue was $10.35 billion. Thirty-one movies exceed $100 million in US box office revenue. Still, movie executives are nervous about the future of Hollywood. o In 1946, Hollywood sold 4 billion tickets. Today, Hollywood sells about 1.3 billion tickets a year. o Ticket sales have not matched population growth, ticket sales remain flat when measured against population growth and much of stability is attributable to higher ticket prices o Home technology threatens the movie-going experience.

independent studios

o Independent studios are smaller and raise money from outside the studio to finance a film • Independent films tend to have smaller budgets, which often leads to more imaginative filmmaking and more risk taking than the big studios are willing to undertake • Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company are among the last true independent studios. • Other independents make movies with the goal of securing a distribution deal with a major. Million Dollar Baby and Paranormal Activity are examples of independent movies. • Independent films have much smaller budgets, which often leads to more creative content.

Nikola Tesla

o Invented the induction coil or Tesla Coil, a device essential to sending and receiving radio waves o But in 1895 a fire destroyed Tesla's lab as he prepared to send radio signals approximately 50 miles to West Point, NY.

Single-copy sales

o Less reliable o To advertisers they are sometimes a better barometer of a publications value to its readers o Readers must consciously choose to pick up an issue and they pay full price for it

The Lumiere Brothers

o Made the next advance: cinematographe. o The initial screenings demonstrated that people would sit in a darkened room to watch motion pictures projected on a screen, Basically a film being projected onto a sheet. o This helped to increase the number of people who could simultaneously watch a movie, but it also meant more profit. o Set the stage for what we think of a movie theater today. o The Edison and Lumiere movies were typically only a few minutes long and were 'simple' movies. • This novelty wore thin. People wanted more for their money. • Shot in fixed frame, no editing

Growth of magazine Advertising

o Magazines as America's 1st national mass medium o Magazines were recognized as valuable advertising mediums o Perfect outlet for reaching a national audience, subscribers being exposed to whatever products were advertised o Circulation numbers as more valuable than any other quality of the magazine including validity (to advertisers) o Advertising agencies needed to place their messages somewhere. o Magazines were the perfect outlet because they were read by a large, national audience. o As a result, circulation-rather than reputation became the most important factor in setting advertising rates.

Era of Specialization, 1945-Present:

o Magazines couldn't keep up with the explosive popularity of TV. o TV had taken away the wow factor that magazines used to have and so many longstanding general magazines went out of business, giving way to special interest magazines o Television replaced the function that magazines once held in mass communication o Magazines had to adapt or die from being broad to being more general with a very specific target audience

How people use magazines makes them attractive to advertisers:

o Magazines sell themselves to potential advertisers based not only on the number and demographic desirability of their readers, but on readers engagement and affinity for magazine advertising o "The power of magazines is a personal experience." • People choose a certain magazine because it covers topics that speak to consumers • Magazines we read show others what we like and are interested in o People are more appreciative of advertising in Magazines o Unlike a lot of media consumers pay for magazines. This is another form of engagement. o As a result, Affinity for magazine advertising is demonstrated by industry research that shows more than all other commercial media, magazine advertising ranks 1st in making a positive impression. o More American adults (48%) trust magazine advertising than they do television or Internet advertising; Something to do with the bond we have to these magazines

major studios

o Major studios finance movies through their own business operations. Examples include, Warner Brothers, Columbia, and Paramount. • Have enough money to produce the entire movie on their own.

Accountability Guarantees

o Makes magazines attractive to advertisers o Guaranteeing through independent testing that its readers are able to recall content. If they are unable to recall content to an agreed upon level, the advertiser will receive free ad pages until recall reaches that benchmark.

Guglielmo Marconi

o Meanwhile, Marconi had been conducting his own experiments and in 1896, sent and received Morse code-based radio signals at distances spanning nearly 4 miles in England • Gained lots of publicity for his success o As a result, Marconi is often referred to as the Father of Radio o Marconi was from Italy, and Italy was not interested in his telegraph o That same year, he applied for, and was granted the worlds first patent in wireless telegraphy in England o England was however, and with global empire and the world's largest navy and merchant fleets, was naturally interested in long-distance wireless communications o With the financial and technical help of the British, Marconi successfully transmitted across the English Channel in 1899 and across the Atlantic in 1901 o Britain had a very strong Navy and needed to use this new communication as a means of sending messages to different boats. This explains why England took up Marconi's project and Italy did not o Wireless was now a reality o The thought of communicating to someone through a distance using Morse Code was mind blowing at this point of time. This is similar to how we find wireless connection so fascinating today

Muckraking

o Muckraker - reform-minded American journalists who wrote largely for all popular magazines; often worked to expose social ills and corporate and political corruption. • Much like books they served as an important force in social change, especially in the Muckraking era of the first decades of the 20th century. o Theodore Roosevelt coined the label as an insult, but the muckrakers wore it proudly. o Muckrakers' targets were the powerful. Their beneficiaries were the poor. o Investigative reporting, accountability to citizens

conglomeration in movie making

o Other than MGM, each major is a part of a larger conglomerate. For example, Paramount is owned by Viacom and Universal by Comcast. o Conglomeration forces studios into adopting a "blockbuster" mentality. o Much of the conglomeration takes the form of international ownership

The fundamental basis of broadcasting in US:

o Radio broadcasters were private, commercially owned enterprises, rather than government operations o Government regulation was based on the public interest o Stations were licensed to serve specific localities, but national networks programmed the most lucrative hours with the largest audiences o Entertainment and information were the basic broadcast content o Advertising formed the bases of financial support for broadcasting

Controlled Circulation

o Refers to providing a magazine at no cost to readers who meet some specific set of advertiser attractive criteria o Free airline and hotel magazines fall under this category o Although they provide no subscription or single-sales revenue, these magazines are an attractive, relatively low-cost advertising vehicle for companies seeking narrowly defined, captive audiences. o Magazine with wealthiest readers is united airlines hemisphere

split runs

o Special versions of a given issue in which editorial content and ads vary according to some specific demographic or regional grouping. o For example: people in the south are more likely to buy a magazine with a team or player from that region, because the reader is more familiar with that team or player o I.E. Tally having sports mags with noles on cover and Gainsville having the same magazine with gators on cover o Time has at least 8 regional editions, more than 50 state editions, and 8 professional oriented editions o Consumers are more likely to buy magazines more specified to them

The film studios

o Studios are at the heart of the movie business and increasingly are regaining control of the three component systems of the industry o Hollywood studios are typically classified as major studios, corporate independent, or independent studios. o Together, the majors and related corporate independents account for 80% of box office revenue, though they only account for 20% of feature films.

Circulation war erupted between magazine giants

o The 1870s price war was made possible by the newfound ability of magazines to attract growing amounts of advertising. • Social and demographic changes in the post-Civil-War era, Urbanization, Industrialization, The spread of railroads, and, Development of consumer brands and brand names = All helped to produce an explosion in the number of advertising agencies. o They were selling for as little as 10-15 cents, which brought magazines within reach of working people

the blockbuster mentality

o The blockbuster mentality is characterized by limited risk and formulaic movies. o Business concerns dominate artistic considerations as accountants and financiers control more decisions o Movies are made by committee. • This makes them less likely to offend anyone but, they aren't bring anything new or exciting. • Once you start making decisions by committee, each member is worried they will lose their job and their decisions will be fear based instead of going out on a limb and being creative • Financial advisors replace creative directors. o The blockbuster mentality has many deep influences on the movie making process.

Magazines helped unify the nation

o They were the television of their time- dominant advertising medium, the primary source for nationally distributed news, and the preeminent provider of visual, or photo journalism o Between 1900 and 1945, the number of families who subscribed to one or more magazines grew from 200,000 to more than 32 million. o New and important magazines continued to appear throughout the decades. • For example, Time which was first published in 1923, which made a profit within a year.

convergence bringing hollywood and home entertainment together

o Ultimately, many inside the industry believe convergence will bring Hollywood and home entertainment together seamlessly. • The typical American home with internet has access to at least 100,000 full-length movies and tv shows on a given day • Ex: Netflix • Soon studios will be indifferent about how you choose to get a movie because the profit will be the same - Will cause more competition and studios will no longer rely on big blockbusters, there will be a range of well-done movies for niche audiences

Post WWII (magazines)

o WWII changed the nature of America. o The audience became more interested in narrower publications such as GQ and Self. o As a result, the industry had hit on the secret of success: specialization and a lifestyle orientation. o It was the magazine that began the trend to attract an increasingly fragmented audience. o People had more leisure and money to spend so they could spend on a wider array of personal interests and magazines that catered to those interests

The Radio Act of 1912

o established spheres of authority for both federal and state governments, provided for allocating and revoking licenses and fining violators, and assigned frequencies for station operation. o The government was in the business for regulating what was to become broadcasting, a development that angered many operators. o The broadcasters successfully challenged the 1912 act in court, and eventually President Calvin Coolidge ordered the cessation of government regulation of radio despite his belief that chaos would descend on the medium o Eventually the president ordered the cessation of government regulation o Radio sales dropped dramatically and there was chaos

Motion Picture Patents Company (the trust)

o in 1908 Thomas Edison foresaw the huge amounts of money that could be made from movies. o He opened the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC), often called the Trust. o Comprised of 10 companies under Edison's control - holding the patens of virtually all existing filmmaking and exhibition equipment. o MPPC ran the production and distribution of film in the U.S. with an "iron fist." o Must follow his rules to use his patens: Movies could be no longer than twelve minutes, use only one reel of film, limited creative expression, etc. o Many independent film companies sprang up in defiance of the Trust. o To avoid MMPC's scrutiny, these companies moved to California - Hollywood. o This move had other benefits including: better weather - meaning that there could be longer shooting seasons.

convergence in movie making

o the TV and film industry are so intertwined, they can often be thought of as a single industry. o This convergence is almost entirely attributable to technological advances. o Today's distributors make about three times as much as revenue from home entertainment as they do from theater ticket sales. o DVD sales are plummeting thanks to less expensive streaming options. - In 2012, Americans spent more money downloading movies than buying DVDs. o This change has forced studios into even heavier dependence on big-ticket movies with "pre-awareness"

Pass-along readership

readers who neither subscribe nor buy single copies but who borrow a magazine or read one in doctors office or library

Ad-pull policy

the demand for an advance review of a magazine content, with the threat of pulled advertising if dissatisfied with that content

Leland Stanford

• 1873 former CA governor Leland Stanford needed help winning a bet he made with a friend over whether or not a horse's four hooves come off the ground at the same time. o He turned to well-known photographer Eadweard Muybridge. o The solution: In 1887, Muybridge arranged a series of still camera along a stretch of racetrack. As the horse sprinted by, each camera took its picture. o The resulting photographs won Stanford his bet, but more important, sparked an idea. o Muybridge began taking pictures of numerous kinds of human and animal action. To display his work, Muybridge invented the zoopraxiscope. o People watched the rapidly projected sequential slides, they saw the pictures as if they were in motion • This perception is known as persistence of vision, in which the images our eyes gather are retained in the brain for about 1/24 of a second and are perceived as being in motion o This idea sounds simple now, but at the time was incredible. o This led to the technology we see today in film.

Audit Bureau of Circulations

• 1914: Audit Bureau of Circulations established to provide reliability to a booming magazine industry • 2012: The Audit Bureau of Circulations became platform agnostic due to the recognition that circulation should include digital editions and apps o In 2012 ABC had to change its metric and had to better account for online circulation o Audit Bureau of Circulations renamed itself the Alliance for Audited Media. It provides reliable circulation figures, and important population and demographic data

Trends and Convergence in Magazine Publishing

• Ad pages have been declining, but total readership of American consumers magazines continues to grow o Online magazines have emerged; made possible by convergence of magazines and the internet o 83% of magazines now produce online editions offering special interactive features not available to their hard-copy readers • In-between approach: some free content providing just enough of a tease to persuade consumer to buy the real proscription • Magazine industry isn't immune to digitalization age o People prefer physical form of magazine but still want to read it online since this is more convenient in this age • Stats o 60% of readers 14+ say they pay more attention to advertising in print magazines than online o 8/10 prefer printed magazines o 70% admit they enjoy reading print magazines even though the same information is online • Physical magazine is preferred because: no download time, in full control at all time, can spend as much time on pages and ads as desired o Pretty pictures on pretty paper only on physical edition o We assign greater credibility to the content and articles of magazines, giving the content more control on what we believe

Things were good for radio

• Ad revenues were up to $310 million by the end of World War II in 1945 • People turned to radio since they could not get their news through paper newspapers • The Beatles ushered in the "British Invasion" of rock 'n' roll and transformed popular music, shaping today's popular music and helping reinvent radio (Example of art shaping technology) o The Beatles helped radio and the radio helped the Beatles • Annual ad revenues reached $454 million in 1950 • NBC and CBS all started with radio • NBC got too big and sold it to the guy who invented lifesavers candy, Was then turned into ABC o but then Television came along and started to overtake radio for all of the functions of radio - Radio then found itself in a rough predicament.

Movies and Their Audiences

• Because the audience is in fact the true consumer, power rests with in film more than it does in television • As your age increases, the likelihood of you attending a movie decreases. • The typical moviegoer in the US is a teenager or young adult, represent more than 30% of tickets bought • This young audience, along with their propensity to purchase goods related to the movie, encourage studios to produce movies geared for younger audiences. • The serious question asked is whether the medium is increasingly dominated by the wants, tastes, needs of the audience of children o Certain restrictions for a movie to be geared toward a younger audience. Less thought is required to watch the movie. • The public gets the kind of movies it deserves, the current state of affairs is the result of lack of curiosity • "We have no obligation to make history. We have no obligation to make art. We have no obligation to make a statement. Our only obligation is to make money." -- Michael Eisner o they target the demographic that is going to buy tickets to the movies & merchandise. • Kids' movies aren't always movies with nothing to say. Modern teen movies often deal with topics such as teen pregnancy, race, and mental illness. • Just because Hollywood may bank on kids and teens filling the seats, it doesn't mean moviemakers aren't producing culture-defining movies as well.

Paris premiere (lumière Brothers)

• Beginning with the Paris premiere in 1895, people had to become film literate. o Early content was life events being replayed since people were not so interested in the content, but the impressive technology. o The Arrival of a Train at a Station. o The story goes: that when the film was first shown, the audience was so overwhelmed by the moving image of a life-sized train coming directly at them that people screamed and ran to the back of the room. o This showed how film can affect emotions and instill anticipation in viewers, a shocking moment for the people watching. Led producers to think what more can we do to entertain and tell better stories with this technology.

In concluding the history of radio and sound recording, please note that:

• Both transmission of radio and sound recording were significant because for the first time in history, radio allowed people to hear the words and music of others who were not in their presence, and sound recording allowed to duplicate what had already been spoken

Trade, professional, and business magazines

• Carry stories, features, and ads aimed at people in specific professions and are distributed either by the professional organizations themselves or by media companies

Radio Act of 1927

• Chaos ensued and to restore order, the government passed the Radio Act of 1927 o The 1927 Act authorized broadcasters to use the channels, which belonged to the public, but not to own them. Broadcasters were simply the caretakers of the airwaves, a national resource o The five-person Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was established to administer the provisions of the act

Circulation

• Definition: the total number of issues a magazine that are sold • Advertising rates are based on circulation; the more copies of magazines sold, higher circulation, higher advertising rate • Can either be (1) subscription or (2) single-copy sales

Two factors encourage digital distribution and exhibition in movie making

• Digital movies are convenient - Digital exhibition is much less costly for studios, as expensive film transfers and transports are no longer needed. • There is a growing number of successful movies shot with digital equipment (microcinema)

Who Invented the Radio?

• Either: Eastern European immigrant Nikola Tesla - or Guglielmo Marconi, son of a wealthy Italian businessman o Because both applied for patents within months of one another in the late 1890s, there remains disagreement over who "invented" radio

Emile Berliner

• In 1887 that problem was solved by German immigrant Emile Berliner, who's gramophone used a flat, rotating, wax-coated disc that could easily be copied or pressed from a metal master • What was unique about this was because the records were flat you could use a steal stamp or plate to stamp out copies of the record. This way, you can reproduce the recorded sound (you can duplicate the recordings) • ^ This made things more efficient and brought down costs • Now people had not only a reasonably priced record player but records to play on it

Reginald Fessenden

• In 1903 Reginald Fessenden , a Canadian, invented the liquid barretter o Definition: The first audio device permitting the reception of wireless voice (was able to pick up voice signals) • His 1906 Christmas Eve broadcast from Brant Rock, a small New England costal village was the first public broadcast of voices and music • His listeners were ships at sea and a few newspaper offices quipped to receive the transmission • Allowed for communication to be more than Morse code taps and bumps • The Radio has a couple of different parts that accounts for the messages being sent back and forth • AM stands for Amplitude Modulation (the width of the wave) (some limitations of AM stations are that they are mainly talk radio versus music)

1910 Wireless Ship Act

• In 1910 Congress passed the Wireless Ship Act o Required that all ships using U.S ports and carrying more than 50 passengers have a working wireless machine and operator o Of course, the wireless industry did not object, as the legislation boosted sales o But after the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic in 1912 and it was learned that hundreds of lives were lost needlessly because other ships in the area had left their radios unattended o Congress passed the radio act of 1912, which not only strengthen rules regarding shipboard wireless but also required that wireless operators be licensed by the Secretary of Commerce and Labor

readership.com

• In 2006, audience assessment firm McPheters and Co. rolled out a new measurement service, Readership.com o Designed to provide near real-time information on magazine distribution, readership, and engagement o Tallies number of people the magazine reaches, but also the effect the ads have on brand awareness, and readers' intent to buy

Radio and its audience

• In an average week, more than 242 million people, 93.1% of all Americans 12 and over, will listen to the radio • That 93.1% figure is in fact a decline from the 95.6% who listened regularly in 2011. While the audience size has remained consistent for the last few years, time spent listening has fallen

What makes a magazine different from newspaper?

• Interest-driven content • Longer articles • Content does not rapidly become outdated • Strong coloration and visual appeal

Lee DeForest

• Later in 1903, American Lee DeForest invented the audio tube (from a vacuum tube) o Definition: A vacuum tube that improved and amplified wireless signal (essentially an electronic amplifier) • Now the reliable transmission of clear voices and music was a reality • 1907; "It was soon be possible to distribute grand opera music from transmitters placed on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House by a Radio Telephone station on the rood to almost any dwelling in Greater New York and vicinity" • DeForest can be argued mass medium potentials of radio • Soon, countless "broadcasters" went on the air thanks to DeForest • Some broadcasters were giant corporations, looking to dominate the medium for profit; some were hobbyists and hams, playing with the medium for the sheer joy of it • There were so many "stations" that havoc reigned

Magazine Advertising

• Magazine specialization exists and succeeds because the demographically similar readership of these publications is attractive to advertisers because of special relationship with readers • Advertisers want to target ads for their products and services to those most likely to respond to them • Serves as a way for advertisers to directly reach the exact audience they want • Despite a 30% tumble in the number of ad pages sold in American magazines from 2006-2011, advertisements remain lucrative (profitable) • There are about 360 million magazines sold in the US every year • The industry takes in more than $30 billion a year in revenue, about half of that amount is generated by advertising

History of Magazines

• Magazines were a favorite medium of the British elite by the mid-1700s, and two prominent colonies printers hoped to duplicate the success in the new world. o In 1741 American Magazine (Andrew Bradford) o Also in 1741, General Magazine (Ben Franklin) o Aimed at small number of literate colonists and were expensive o Neither of these magazines were successful because there was not an organized postal system distribution was difficult o Entrepreneurial printers hoped to attract educated, cultured, moneyed gentlemen by copying the successful London magazines o BUT, in spite of failure, people still saw magazines as a valuable medium and kept trying.

The mass circulation era (1870-around 1945)

• Mass circulation popular magazines began to prosper in the post-Civil War years. • In 1865 there were 700 magazines, By 1870 there were 1,200, By 1885 there were 3,300 o Magazines were the first true mass medium. o Magazines were marked note by the breadth of readership thanks to the general interests of the publications.

platform rollout

• Open a movie on a few screens and hope that critical response, film festival success, and good word-of-mouth reviews will propel it to success • The goal of a rollout is the generate positive word-of-mouth marketing in advance of the full release. • This practice can help limited marketing budgets work more effectively, reduce cost of promotion • Ex. American Sniper used platform rollout to build a lot of hype around the movie without as much marketing.

Industrial, company, and sponsored magazines

• Produced by companies specifically for their own employees, customers, and stockholders

Advertorials

• Publishers and advertisers increasingly use advertorials as means of boosting the value of a magazine as an advertising medium • Definition: Ads that appear in magazines and take on the appearance of genuine editorial content • The goal is to put commercial content before readers, cloaked in the respectability of editorial content • Sometimes the disclaimer "advertisement" is in small print • Advertorials now account for 10% of magazine income • Detecting the use of and determining the informational value of advertorials is only one reason media literacy is important when reading magazines • Critics: argue that this blurring of the distinction between editorial commercial matter is a breach of faith with readers o Intent is not deception, so why is the disclaimer small? • Defenders: advertorials are a well-entrenched aspect of contemporary magazines o Industry considers them financially necessary, no one is hurt by them

How has radio survived?

• Radio prospered by changing the nature of its relationship with its audiences - Radio used to be like television is now- mass media instrument that an entire family would sit around • Post-television radio became local, fragmented, specialized, personal, and mobile; change in ownership structure, became what it used to be: smaller • Whereas pretelevision radio was characterized by the big national networks, today's radio is dominated by formats, a particular sound characteristic of a local station; radio had to change to stay alive

Measuring Circulation

• Regardless of how circulation occurs, it is monitored through research • Measures of pass along readership change circulation data, but this traditional model of measurement is under attack o Advertisers do not like how long it takes to measure circulation, they need immediate feedback o As advertisers demand more precise assessments of accountability and return on their investments, new metrics beyond circulation are being demanded by professionals inside and outside the industry o The time lag hurts magazines because everyone wants immediate turnaround o To get attention of ad agencies, they need to come up with a new model o Magazine publishers boast of engagement and affinity, but how are they measured?

Consumer magazines (Fatherhood, Highlights, People, PC World)

• Sold by subscription and as newsstands, bookstores, and other retail outlets • Categorized in terms of their targeted audiences • The wants, needs, interests of readers determine content of each publication • Categories: Alternative, Business/money, Celebrity/entertainment, Children's, Computer, Ethnic, Family

Advertiser Influence over Magazine Content

• Sometimes controversial too is the influence that some advertisers attempt to exert over content • A magazine editor must satisfy advertisers as well as readers • One common way advertisers interests shape content is in the placement of ads o Ex: you done see cigarette ads near lung cancer articles o Airline ads are moved away from stories about plane crashes • An additional media literacy issue has to do with maintaining the confidence of audience members

The Communications Act of 1934

• The Communications Act of 1934 replaced the 1927 legislation - substituting the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) for the FRC and cementing its regulatory authority, which still continues today.

Advertising and the Radio Networks

• The Formation of Radio Corporation of America (RCA) had ensured that radio would be commercial, profit-based system • The Radio industry operated radio stations by selling radios, the problem was that once everybody had a radio, people would stop buying them. The solution was advertising. • On august 22nd, 1922, New York station WEAF accepted the first radio commercial, a 10-minute spot for Long Island brownstone apartments. The cost of the ad was $50. • The sale of advertising led to establishment of the national radio networks. • Groups of stations, or affiliates, could deliver to larger audiences, realizing greater advertising revenues, which would allow them to hire bigger stars and produce better programming, which would attract larger audiences, which could be sold for even greater fees to advertisers.

The Coming of Broadcasting

• The idea of broadcasting- that is, transmitting voices and music at great distances to a large number of people- predated the development of radio • The introduction of broadcasting was delayed by fights and lawsuits • To aid in war effort, the government took over patents relating to radio and improved it for military use • When war ended, the patents were returned to owners and bickering was renewed • Concerned that the medium would be wasted or that a foreign company would control the resource, the US government forced combatants to merge and form the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) o Government had little control

Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville

• The late 1800s have long been considered the beginning of sound recording • However, the 2008 discovery in a Paris archive of a 10-second recording by an obscure French tinkerer, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville, has some audio historians rethinking recording's roots • This happened in the 1860's • This could be the earliest evidence of recordings • Scott recorded a folk song on a device he called a phonautograph in 1860

The new studio system

• The new studio system, with its more elaborate films (i.e., no scrutiny) and big name stars was born, and it controlled the movie industry in California. o Several companies were formed including: The Triangle Company, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal o The industry prospered not just because of its artistry, drive, and innovation but because it used these to meet the needs of a growing audience • Movies were a nickel and required no ability to read or understand English, and offered glamorous stars and wonderful stories from faraway places • Film was a universal language o War was raging in Europe so all filming stopped there, but European demand for movies did not stop, American movies are ideal for overseas distribution • By the mid-1920s there were more than 20,000 movie theatres in the U.S. This resulted in Box Office receipts exceeding $750 million annually.

The Golden Age of Radio

• The number of homes with radios grew from 12 million in 1930 to 30 million in 1940, and half of them had not one but two receivers • Ad revenues rose from $40 million to $155 million over the same period. Between them, the four national networks broadcast 156 hours of network-originated programming a week. • New genres became fixtures during this period: comedy (The Jack Benny Show, Fibber McGee and Molly), audience participation (Professor Quiz, Truth or Consequences, Kay Kyser's College of Musical Knowledge), children's shows (Little Orphan Annie, The Lone Ranger), soap operas (Oxydol's Own Ma Perkins, The Guiding Light), and drama (Orson Welles's Mercury Theater of the Air) • News, too, became a radio staple. This was the way especially during times of war, people were able to stay updated on new information.

Edwin S. Porter

• an Edison Company camera operator, saw A Trip to the Moon and thought the film could be even better storyteller with more artistic use of camera placement and editing. o Porter's 12-minutes The Great Train Robbery (1903) was the first movie to use editing, intercutting of scenes, and a mobile camera and was also the first Western. o This new narrative form using montage was an instant hit with audiences. o This style worked and really sold audiences, wouldn't even look that odd to us now compared to A Trip to the Moon. o This development broke the industry open and really launched the industry.

Thomas Edison (sound)

• had stolen credit that should have been his Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville • Nonetheless, in 1877 prolific inventor Edison patented his "talking machine," a phonograph- a device for replicating sound that used a hand-cranked grooved cylinder and a needle • The mechanical movement caused by the needle passing along the groove of the rotating cylinder and hitting bumps was converted into electrical energy that activated a diaphragm in a loudspeaker and produced sound • The drawback was that only one recording could be made of any given sound; the cylinder could not be duplicated • This is an early version of a record player except at this point it is not a flat disk. However, it did have grooves and a needle to help project off of a speaker to then play it back • All of this technology is still very much the same as it is today, with improvements.

New Advancements (sound)

• the types of discs used, the speed, and the format was also were beginning to change. • The next advance was introduction of the two-sided disc by the Columbia Phonograph Company in 1905, which allowed for more music • Soon there were hundreds of phonograph or gramophone companies, and the device, by either name, was a standard feature in U.S homes in 1920 • More than 2 million machines and 107 million recordings were sold in 1919 alone • Public attendance of the new medium was enhanced even more by development of electromagnetic recording in 1924 by Joseph P. Maxwell at Bell Laboratory • People loved music back then and because of this it caused market demand and recorded music began to boom • By 1924 we started to see electromagnetic strips to record audio (tapes)