COMM 130 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Comedy-Drama, Market Segmentation, Soft Sell
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
1. Chapter 1 (understanding mass media convergence and the importance media
literacy)
a. discuss what mass media convergence means and why it is important
i. when certain forms of information typical to one medium appear to other
media
b. explain difference between interpersonal communication and mass media
i. between two people vs. wider audience
c. explain why an unorthodox definition of mass communication makes the
term especially relevant in today’s media environment
i. industrial nature of mass media → mass media is constructed by lots of
different systems/industries (not just one dude)
d. explain meaning of importance of cultures’ relationship w/mass media
e. analyze ways in which mass media affect our everyday lives
f. explain media literacy
g. list key principles in becoming media literate
2. Chapter 2 (making sense of research and media culture)
a. identify and explain what mass media research is
b. recognize and discuss mainstream approaches to mass media research
c. recognize shift from mainstream to critical approaches
d. recognize and discuss critical approaches
e. recognize and discuss cultural studies/approaches to mass media research
f. harness your media literacy skills → understand influence on your life
3. Chapter 3 (The business of media)
a. recognize how mass media personnel consider audience an integral part of
business concerns
b. describe primary genres of materials created by various mass media
industries
c. identify and discuss process of producing/distributing/exhibiting
d. explain how media firms do this ^
e. harness media literacy skills → what media forms mean to you as a consumer
4. Chapter 4 (financing and shaping the media)
a. advertising, public relations, and marketing communications role in media
system
b. describe the kind of firms involved in activities + what they do
c. analyze process of producing/creating ads and PR material
d. explain how 3 ^ relate to convergence; what they mean for media system
e. discuss debates b/w critics and offenders of these businesses regarding
topics such as commercialism, hidden persuasion, etc.
Defining Mass Communication: Why do it?
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○ Dominick: The process by which a complex organization w/the aid of one or
more machines produces and transmits public messages directly at large
heterogeneous and scattered audiences
○ Turow: the industrialized production and multiple distribution of messages
through technological devices
● message → determined by recipient or sender?
○ audiences seem to think they hold meaning (inferred)
○ mediated vs. mass communication
■ industrialization of book ~19th century
● 8 ELEMENTS FOR COMMUNICATION
○ source: creating message
○ encoding: how you organize it
○ transmitter: what actually sends message
○ channel: pathway
○ receiver
○ decoding: interpretation
○ feedback: response
○ noise: interference
● new media world challenges both definitions
○ Facebook created a platform for you to use → template
■ YOU are the product
■ not actually creating messages (YOUR messages)
■ business activity = advertisements to target you
● the great “Television Everywhere” rumble
○ Dish vs. Time Warner
○ new market; Dish wanted to be emblematic of new world
● the Aereo fight
○ ABC Inc. vs. Aereo → founded in 2012 by Chet Kenojia(sp?)
■ loophole: free broadcast channels → internet (funded by Barry Diller)
■ Film On X (similar firm)
○ broadcast industry worked to kill them
○ Supreme Court decision in 2014 helped
● Broadcast retransmission fees > $4 billion
○ would cable and satellite firms use it?
○ will broadcast networks become cable channels?
● decades long transformation of media system
MEDIA CONVERGENCE → mass communication
● takes place when products typically linked to one medium show up on many media
● 3 C’s of media Convergence: Content, Corporations, and Computers. → (conquer
comp sci → con-cor com )
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● everything is digitized → can be exchanged
○ Digital: Electronic technology that generates, stores, and processes, and
transmits data in the form of 0’s and 1’s; each of these digits is referred to as a
bit.
○ Analog: Electronic transmission accomplished by adding signals of varying
frequency of amplitude to carrier waves of a given frequency of alternating
electromagnetic current.
■ E.g. Broadcast and phone transmissions used analog tech.
● March Madness
○ in 2013: 149 mil. in home viewers
○ CBS presented for free on web and apps
○ pay for all games
● Media convergence → mass communication + mass media industries → blurring
○ ex. newspaper = paper, internet, journalism?
○ greeting cards → e-cards
○ not just physical platforms → a need to think broadly
● media literacy skills
○ ) Consider Authorship
○ 2) Evaluate the Audience
○ 3) Determine the Institutional Purpose
○ 4) Analyze the Content
○ 5) Identify the Creative Techniques
○ understand commercial forces and political influences behind media materials
○ an ability to examine media content in a critical manner
○ an ability to think about ethical implications
■ ex. ABC Wednesdays: Goldbergs, Modern Family, Blackish
○ an ability to understand research
○ awareness of the ways public can influence media
○ how to practice media literacy
■ questions interesting and important?
■ into what research tradition does this study fall? priming? cultivation
research? message persuasion? representation of another
● media = fabric of our lives → too important to be passive
● 6 principles of media
○ the media help construct our individual realities
○ the media are influenced by industrial pressures
○ the media are influenced by political pressures
○ the media are influenced by format
○ audiences are active recipients of the media → they don’t tell us what to think, but
what to think about
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Dominick: the process by which a complex organization w/the aid of one or more machines produces and transmits public messages directly at large heterogeneous and scattered audiences. Turow: the industrialized production and multiple distribution of messages through technological devices. Audiences seem to think they hold meaning (inferred) Mediated vs. mass communication industrialization of book ~19th century. 8 elements for communication transmitter: what actually sends message. Facebook created a platform for you to use template. Business activity = advertisements to target you the great television everywhere rumble. New market; dish wanted to be emblematic of new world the aereo fight. Abc inc. vs. aereo founded in 2012 by chet kenojia(sp?) loophole: free broadcast channels internet (funded by barry diller) Media convergence mass communication takes place when products typically linked to one medium show up on many media. 3 c"s of media convergence: content, corporations, and computers. ((cid:3247)conquer comp sci(cid:3248) (cid:3247)con-cor com(cid:3248) ) Everything is digitized can be exchanged.
