Chapter 2 media and society.

WHAT ARE GENRES?
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Terms in this set (68)
WHAT ARE GENRES?
In media content, formulas, or genres, evolve over time. These formulas are things like soap operas, mystery novels, and action cartoons. They represent an agreement between producer and audience on what kinds of stories ought to be told and how, or on how a music video ought to look, or on how a talk show host ought to act.
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SUBSIDIES?
Public subsidies, from either voluntary contributions or taxes, are provided for socially desirable content that commercial interests do not find profitable to provide. The educational and cultural programs on PBS are prime examples.
HOW DO ECONOMICS INFLUENCE THE MEDIA?
First-copy costs in mass media entail virtually all the investment in the production of a work. Economies of scale occur when producers make so many copies of something that they learn how to make each of those copies more cheaply. By the law of supply and demand, cheaper copies can reach far more people, creating a broader audience. Producers want to spread production costs and also their entry costs—the initial costs of establishing a media enterprise—across a broad audience in order to increase profits and satisfy their investors. Investors back media organizations that offer an acceptable return on their investments relative to other options.
Economies of scale
Result when unit costs go down as production quantities increase.
What is an example of economies of scale
When a local newspaper is bought out by a big company so that the staff of the local paper are under new management.
Law of supply and demand
The law describes the relationship among the supply of a products price and consumer demand
Marginal cost
Incremental costs of each additional copy or unit of a product
Oligopoly.
The domination of a market by a few firms
Duopoly
A duopoly exists when two companies dominate a market.
Barriers to entry
Obstacles companies must overcome to enter an industry
How do movie companies make money?Ticket sales, selling the rights to the film to home video, cable companies, and making merchandise.How do tv companies make money.Charging advertisers a feeA copyright royalty feeA payment for the use of a creative workWhat are some ways that new media economics differ from conventional media.Traditional media charges fixed rates for advertising. New media has advertisers bid from prime ad space. Conventional media reaches a wider selection of people, while new media reaches a more select audienceCritical studiesCritical studies examine the overall impact of the mediaAccording to Karl marxSociety is based on the relations of those who own the means of production, and those who work for the means of production.HegemonyIs the use of media to create a consensus around certain ideas so that they come to be accepted as common senseWhat is a political economistSomeone who analyzes patterns of class domination and economic powerHow can the tv news create a hegemony of ideasThe ruling class is in charge of the media therefore the ideas their companies spout creates a hegemony of information that keeps the ruling class in chargeWhat is the feminist critique of the mediaThey focus on the oppression of women in a male dominated society rather than the domination of the working class by the ruling class.Does the media coverage of Black Lives Matter perpetuate racism or help lessen itIn many ways the current coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement mirrors that of the civil rights protests that treated it as a law and order problemHow do genres developGenres became storytelling formulas that evolve out of interaction between producers and audiences.GenresDistinctive styles of creative works. The term is also used to represent different types or formats of media content.DiffusionThe spread of innovationHow do innovations spread?Consumers decide which innovations spread based on our expectations and the products ability to reach those expectationsTechnological determinismExplains that the media cause changes society and cultureGive examples of people who are gatekeepers1. Media managers. 2. EditorsWhat are the main social functions of the mass media?surveillance, interpretation, values transmission/socialization, entertainmentHow does technological determinism differ from cultural determinismTechnological is when the media effects culture, but Cultural is when culture effects the media.Using the diffusion of innovations paradigm explain how Facebook spread through societyFirst, people hear about Facebook from the media and people they know. Then, people think about the benefits of joining Facebook. Finally, people decide to try it and join Facebook. Afterward, people continue to evaluate their experience on the site.Marshall McLuhanHe believed that the device used to communicate determined culture not the content itself.The technological determinist Marshall McLuhan was the first to coin the phrase the medium is the message.TrueMass communication is best defined asone-to-many, with limited audience feedbackDefine Web 2.0Internet applications in which user provide content as well as consume it.The ownership of 90 percent of the media in the U.S. by only five companies is known asHow do genres develop?Theoriesgeneral principles that explain and predict behaviorEconomicsstudies the forces that allocate resources to satisfy competing needsMonopolythe domination of a market by a single companyProfitsare what is left after operating costs, taxes, and paybacks to investorsWhat are economies of scale?Why is the first copy of a mass-media production the most expensive?What are the basic types of media ownership patterns?How do the mass media make profits? Why are profits necessary?What is the role of stock offerings in media economics?What are some of the ways new media economics differ from conventional media?Media literacylearning to think critically about the role of media in societypolitical economyexamines patterns of class domination and economic power.culturea group's pattern of thought and activitygenresare distinctive styles of creative works. The term is also used to represent different types or formats of media contentdiffusionthe spread of innovationstechnological determinismexplains that the media cause changes in society and culturepopular cultureis made up of elements mass produced in a society for the mass population.Give examples of people who are gatekeepers.What are the main social functions of the mass media?Using the "diffusions of innovation" paradigm explain how Facebook spread through society.How does technological determinism differ from cultural determinism?HOW IS MEDIA OWNERSHIP STRUCTURED?Media can be structured as monopolies, where one company dominates the industry; as oligopolies, where a few companies dominate; or in competition, where a number of companies vie for dominance. The patterns of ownership have a great deal to do with the diversity and nature of the media's content, their availability and accessibility to people, and their role in society. Generally speaking, the more the ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few, the less diverse and more expensive the media are.WHAT ARE THE SOURCES OF MEDIA REVENUE?Most revenues come directly from the end user of media products. Direct sales of media products occur when consumers pay out a lump sum and take a media product such as a CD home with them. A rental also involves payment for a product, except that the consumer pays only to borrow it, as in a videogame rental. Subscriptions permit newspapers and magazines to be sold on a continuing basis over time for a standard fee. Usage fees are charged for temporary access to media products, such as movie theater admissions, that consumers can't literally take home. The media collect advertising revenues by selling access to their audiences to advertisers, who in turn pay for advertising by charging consumers.WHAT ARE THE NEW MEDIA ECONOMICS?The Internet takes segmentation to its logical conclusion by personalizing content and ads for individual users. Websites profit from having their users supply the content free of charge and by having users absorb a large share of the distribution costs. Others profit by repurposing content created for conventional media for distribution on the Internet. Unlike conventional media, Internet companies like Google can charge advertisers on the basis of those who respond to their ads (by the click) as well as according to the number who were exposed to the page carrying the ad.HOW DO POLITICAL ECONOMISTS EXPLAIN MEDIA?Social structure is determined by the efforts of dominant classes to maintain their wealth and power. The dominant class in society uses its ownership of the media to influence their content. This class creates a consensus, or hegemony, of ideas that reinforces its position of dominance. In this view, maintaining class dominance is furthered by the profitability of media enterprises. This tends to keep media content within the bounds of this hegemonic set of ideas.WHAT DO FEMINIST AND ETHNIC STUDIES CONTRIBUTE?The sex-role and ethnic stereotypes that appear in the media may be there for a reason: to perpetuate the dominance of white males in society.WHAT IS SEMIOTICS?Semiotics is a branch of critical studies. It is a systematic way of looking at media content to examine the symbols and signs contained in it. The signs in media communicate something of symbolic value to the audience; they include visual images, music, camera angles, words, and so on. The producer creates or encodes a meaning into the sign, but the audience may decode or interpret a different meaning.WHAT IS SEGMENTATION?Technological changes, industry changes, and receptivity by audiences and advertisers are all encouraging media to segment their audiences, that is, to focus on smaller, more specific audiences with more specialized programs or contents. The targeting of media content to appeal to the tastes of a particular narrow audience segment is called narrowcasting.WHAT ARE AGENDA SETTERS AND GATEKEEPERS?A variety of media professionals make decisions about what goes into and what stays out of news and entertainment media. They are the gatekeepers. The media set the public agenda by defining the important issues of the day in conjunction with the personal beliefs of their audiences and the groups that audience members belong to. Leaders from government, business, and public interest groups try to influence the agenda set by the media.WHAT SOCIAL FUNCTIONS DO MEDIA SERVE?Among the functions sociologists have identified for communications media are surveillance (keeping track of our world or environment), interpretation (making sense of what we learn), value transmission (passing values on from one generation to the next), and entertainment.HOW DO NEW MEDIA SPREAD?New technologies spread like a disease, from person to person, slowly at first but gradually picking up speed. People consider an innovation's relative advantages, its compatibility with existing practices, its complexity, and any opportunities they have to observe the innovation in action before they try it out themselves. Some people are innovators, some are early adopters, followed by the majority of adopters, late adopters, and laggards. Interactive technologies seem to require a critical mass of users before large numbers will adopt it.WHAT IS TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM?Technological determinists argue that changes in society and culture are driven by advances in media technology and by the content of the media to a large extent. They oppose the view of cultural determinists, who maintain that culture determines the nature of the media and their content.