3. Pre Reading Chapter one:Croatia, David and William Hoynes (2018) in Media/Society: Technology, Industries, Content and Users Los Angeles: Sage
The importance of the
media:
Its all around us:
• Radio: in houses cars,
shops
• Television: almost
every house hold has
a TV
:: as well as related
devices such as DVD/Blu-
ray(73%) video game
consoles(43%) multimedia
streaming devices (31%)
such as apple TV, Roku, or
Google Chromecast…
• Devices able to
connect to the
internet are owned by
all, about 95% of
Americans have a cell
phone of some sort
As this develops our
equipment changes : as
smartphones develop the
decline of telephone
landlines
o The media takes up
so much time in our
lives we almost
wouldn't know what
would happen if it
were to not be there
Models of communication media: interpersonal
and “mass” communication
impersonal = one-to-one (phone)
Mass = one-to-many (radio)
Communication channel is the route a message
takes to get from sender to messenger to receiver
The internet is both impersonal and mass
communication… as it compromises of nearly all
forms of media
The sociological perspective
= “encourages us to see and understand the relationship between
individuals and the broader social context in which they live”
This creates a vacuum – e.g. you could say that a student individually
chooses college yet they have been influenced by everyone and
everything around them and therefore it is not really their decision
• This happens in everything and tells people how to act
- This interaction is what “reflects sociology's broader interest in
the role of structure and agency”
Structure: not physical : describes a re-occuring pattern of social
behavior e.g. traditional family
This traditional family view has now changed and is an example of
how our representation in the media has evolved over time - this can
cause pressure for people to conform to their structure… (agency)
S&A in the media : three levels :
Relationship among institutions: how do social structures such as
government and economy affect the media industry?
Relationship within an institution: how does the structure of the
media industry affect media personnel and, indirectly, media
content?
Relationships between an institution and the public: how does the
media industry influence the users of media?
OVERALL, the media provides jobs, profit, development, satisfaction
and political power : so is it good?
The relationship between the media and other social institutions
The media has no single person in control : which means it can be used as an agent to influence other social
institutions : it can challenge the norm BUT there are institutions which great power that can control what s see
and viewed – changing our views and opinions(could be seen as constraining) is it all “fake news” due to this…
Relationship with the media industry : we don’t know how free there's people are to making their own
decisions, have they been told what to write about? Are they being truthful or exaggerating? Etc.
Relationship between the media and the public : the public interpret media messages through their own social
lenses they are active readers: yet media content does allow you to have an intimate understanding of the
persons point of view, no content is given… people therefore are constantly drawing in aspects of their life to form
their view of the media
OLD DIAGRAM:
NEW DIAGRAM:
4. Week 2 : Thinking Critically About Media : RECOMENDED READING
Silverstone, Roger(1999) : thinking critically about the media?
London, sage, (CHA1)
EX: jerry springer show: has two men that work dressed as
ladies(drag) who are asked questions by the audience – will you
have kids – will you marry : only a TV show but it has such an
effect on the way we talk to people and how/if we give them
respect
• States we have become too dependent on the media be it
for pleasure information comfort etc.
BUT : the media is central to our everyday lives: so we must
study it – so we can make sense of the world : giving us
answers to how we can control the media and our futures
• Weakens national governments due to their lack of control
over peoples words and how images and information is
shared so easily
QUOTE : “filters and frames” everyday realities, Roger
Silverstone
Marshal McLuhan(2013) : understanding media: the extension
of man, Berkely, Ginko press Inc (CHA1)
Chapter title : ‘the medium is the meaning’
- One thing can have more than one medium, but everything
contains a message
EX: speech : nonverbal thought process YET could also be a
print process
• Radio/television etc. all have different uses
• They can all make everything around you seem unimportant
McLuhan developed the term the “global Village” : he felt this
would drawn the world together into an electronically
mediated space
“By electricity we everywhere resume person-to-person
relations as if on the smallest village scale” McLuhan, 1964
pp.255
5. Lecture Notes (Thinking Critically About Media) :
Essay due – 9th Nov
Portfolio due – 14th Jan
Cultural Determinism
= the media is determined by the
culture that we live in, a critical
theory
• Connection between media
and society from a political
economic, feminist and racial
perspectives
Karl Marx
1867 Das Kapital : “society is based on
relations between those who own a means of
production and those who work for them
• It’s the owners interests reflected by the
media – dominant individuals want to
continue the hegemony and protect it
Hegemony = leadership or dominance,
especially by one state or social group over
others
MARX’s would argue: media is devoted to the
audience of the ruling class(adult males) :
reflecting the message of the dominant group
Cultural implications : focusing on commercial messages makes us
dependent on products for our perceived happiness – as it grows
in our culture we forget about other factors of our world e.g.
poverty
Feminism
Rather than the media serving the ruling class – the media serves the
patriarchy (kim2009)
Also shown in products: women were limited to stereotypical roles (hust
and brown,2008) and are under represented
• Products aimed at women sit low on the social hierarchy : boy bands
< robots, superhero's
People that do embrace these things are showing forms of resilience
Race theory
The media disproportionally shows African Americans, Latinos
and Arab groups in stereotypical roles such as maids, criminals
or terrorists (shaheen2012)
Hollywood whitewashing = casting practice in the film industry
of the united states in which white actors are cast in historically
non-white roles or in roles which are scripted for non-white
characters
:: deeper structural depiction: white is constructed to show its
continued social dominance : predicating a new racism : in a
society that claims racism is solved
• Corporations undervalue minorities consumers : it reduces
competition for white owned media outlets…perpetuation
the cycle
Semiotics = the study of signs and symbols and their use or
interpretation
The prince of Persia - white American man
Emma Stone
playing a half
Asian women in
‘Aloha’
Framing Theory
Considers the use of media content to dictate how we
think about them
: not necessarily the frame of the camera but the blur
of the image
• Producers of the media content decide what to
include in a frame of a story and what to leave out
just as much as a painter decided what to put on
his canvas
Two components – 1:: the signifier(sound/image)
2:: a concept (the thing signified)
Technological determinism
= forms of media technology drive social
change (marshal McLughan)
: the message is the medium
(view previous notes on McLughan)
Matthew Arnold : industrialization, society
would be advanced with greater access to
“high culture”
Theodore Adorno : theorized that easily
available mass-media would lead to the
death of “high culture”
:: others say it will bring down literature and
we will entertain ourselves to death
Neo-liberalism = a modified form of liberalism
tending to favour free-market capitalism
6. ART301: Media and Meaning
Week3: Print Media (books, newspapers & “e” Futures)
7. Lecture notes:
105 :: china developed brushes, ink and
paper – leading on to wooden blocks
pressed into paper : printing press
1234: Koreans furthermore developed
this practice by making metal type
• The best way to control is to control
information or withheld it
- Early times meant very few people
had access to libraries (Latin books
too)
1200: written versions of daily languages
becomes more common
1400: literacy rates grew for political
elite: more working class people were
learning to read and write E.G.
Columbus
1455: first German bible: Johannes –
technological break through e.g. books,
handbooks, news letter advertisement
@ much lower costs
• Created a cycle cheaper books etc.
are the more people read, the more
people read the less books cost
::::: ‘The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making
of The typographic Man, Marshall
McLuhan argued that the development
of printing culture fostered linear modes
of thinking ::::: benedict Anderson(2006)
people began to imagine themselves as
a community of people (a shared
culture) – and as such reading lead to
the development of nationalism
Publishing Giants
Early 1817 : harper brothers : in 1987 it was
brought by Rupert Murdock, in which the name
changed to harper Collins
WWII : reading became more common as it was
cheaper to mass produce paperbacks
• During this time paperback publishers
established themselves – companies such as
pocketbooks or penguin
Men took books away with them to war and
furthermore came back more intelligent and
enrolled in universities – creating further needs for
more books
2004 : google starts scanning books and putting
them online
2012 : apples iPads and amazon kindles were
released
As paper book publishers cant compete with the
cheaper online book providers such as amazon and
apple are books going to die out?
• Penguin began a merge with random house
• Which means the book industry big six has
lessened from 6 to 5…
PERCENTAGES GOOGLE
Newspapers
1702: Mrs. Elizabeth Mallet published
England's first daily newspaper ’The Daily
Courant’ (Slone, 2005)
• New due to layouts
• Freedom of the press was nonexistent in
the early days of news papers in Europe,
often censored
: In America newspapers have to be
approved by the governor
1754: franklin publishes he first political
cartoon encouraging colonials to publish
their words
1789: freedom of the press: for the
amendment
WHY some actions of current American
administration has become problematic
African American press (wouldn't have
happened if it wasn't for freedom of the
press)
1980s: Penny Press started in the Usand
england: cheaper to read the paper: relied
on adverts t give it funding: e.g. the sun
- The first form of the media that had
interested advertisement
- This lead to different types of journalism
to suit different tastes e.g. business,
sport, womens, personal etc.
- Furthermore different types of papers
Dailies = newspapers (printed and digital)
that are published at least five days a week,
they can be national, metropolitan or local
in distribution
Weeklies = weekly newspapers tend to be
more specialized in there content
The alternative press = weekly papers,
usually in tabloid form, which covers stories
that mainstream news papers cant or wont
– these are often free news papers and are
special interest driven
Citizen journalism = emerged because
citizens felt that their region or a specific
story/angle was not being sufficiently
covered
May people now rely on television for their
news: people in higher education tend to read
their news
BECAUSE OF THIS... Tabloids try to pull in their
customers by appealing to the lower
consumers e.g. the sun and page 3
- Newspapers can frame stories differently in
order to appeal to their readers beleifs
9. Pre-Reading:media/society: technology, industries content and users
The economics of the media industry – Disney & Fox
June 2018 : Walt Disney Company announced they would purchase
most of 21st century Fox – Disney long time rival – for $71 billion
This gave Disney the control over:
• 20th century fox movie and television production company –
as well as rights to their franchise films
• Many cable television networks: FX, National geographic and
popular networks in India and Latin America
• Fox’s 22 regional sport networks
• 30% of Hulu
Giving Disney the majority share of streaming service…
MAKING this merger the second largest in history
Showing how this industry has a major aim for profit alike other
businesses : to fully understand the media we have tor realize that
this is their goal, profit.
Media companies in the internet era
Audiences have become more involved – but the
use of media companies has not diminished – but
now : it is a mixture of independent and big six
companies that hold the power
Contemporary media companies perform three
key tasks:
1. Products – the media content we consume
2. Platforms – the sites and services that host
display and find media content
3. Pipes – the conduits by which we access
media content and platforms: wireless,
cable, DSL etc.
… due to the internet these three aspects have
evolved and furthermore developed in the way
media is produced – each aspect now overlaps
Changing patterns of ownership
Who owns the media? Is it really a select
group of people who control the content we
see?
1983: “journalism scholar Ben Bagdikian
chronicled the growing concentration of
media ownership over two decades in a series
of editions of his classic book, the media
monopoly” in 2004 he stated the media
industry is run by a select few companies and
describes them as a cartel: time warner, the
Walt Disney company, Viacom, news
corporation, and Bertelsmann
YET now in 2018 Disney and Bertelsmann are
the only remaining companies: suggesting size
alone doesn't guarantee success
Movies
Dominated by seven companies:
Comcast's Universal Pictures, Viacom's
Paramount Pictures, Time Warner's
warner bros, Fox entertainment
Groups 20th century fox, Sony pictures
entertainment and Lionsgate
2016: Disney had more than 26% of
worldwide box office revenues
Recorded music
Universal music group, Sony music
entertainment and warner music
groups = 68% of total global recorded
music sales in 2016
• Each controlling a number of small
labels
Conglomeration and integration
Conglomerates = a thing consisting of a number of different and distinct
parts or items that are grouped together – in the media as the larger
industries grow the purchase the smaller companies and furthermore
expand in the market
Horizontal integration = is the acquisition of a business operating at the same
level of the value chain in a similar or different industry.
E.G. Disney's marvel cinematic universe: films, TV shows, comics, music, live
action parks, clothing etc.
Vertical integration = the combination in one firm of two or more stages of
production normally operated by separate firms
(NOT PARAPHRASED)
The power of platforms: Facebook and google as new media giants
It was believed that the internet would decentralize media ownership by
offering easy access for new competitors, but in turn they became their own
media platforms: google & Facebook – it is now where most people found
their information/news “top source of political news for millennials” (Griffith
2017:book)
- People now also have access to this media content and the ability to make
the videos themselves go viral
- As well as it providing a free source of advertisement
- Google generated $79.4 billion in ad revenue in 2016
Mass media for profit
10. Lecture Notes: Screen Culture: From Stars & Studios to Netflix & Chill
1888: Thomas Edison invents the
first functional motion picture
camera
• The Lumiere brothers then
project film onto a screen
Early film
Silent films, portraying a moving
story – Great Train Robbery made
by Edwin S.Porter in 1903, was
the first story on film: when it
played the audience ducked when
a gun was pointed at the camera
• Based on very physical acting:
the lack of sound means the
story had to be clearly brought
through the body
• Edison tried to collect a fee
from everyone to produce
films – so independents moved
their companies away from the
dominant companies in new
Nork and based themselves in
LA, thus the start of Hollywood
• This provided space for large
studios
1912: there were at least 4
feature films – story films over 1.5
hours – made in the united stated
1915: the industry became
centered in Hollywood and
moved away from the early New
York companies
…this lead to The Rise of Studios
From their base several major film studios developed
- Studios began strong industrial production lines
Further developing their own teams of actors,
writers, directors, technicians and equipment
…leading to the production of numerous successful
films to be produced
The Star System
Companies soon learned –
audiences will pay to see
specific stars
E.G. Mary Pickford (Madam
Butterfly, 1915) and Charlie
Chaplin (The Gold Rush, 1925)
• Their names even
appeared above the title of
the film on the marquee
Talkies
Studios were reluctant to invest in sound technology
due to the cast expense of the new technology –
warner brothers made the commitment to develop
sound technology and created:
The Jazz Singer in 1927
Which had two sections of recorded music and
signing that was synchronized with singers lips
moving
DUE to it being produced in a time where black
actors were not common – a white actor was cast, Al
Jolson who played an African American jazz singer in
“black face”
• A prime example of whitewashing : a deeply
rooted problem in Hollywood productions
This lead to the end of silent films – acting became more
stylized as actors and studios gain skills, sound effects also
became a big thing
• Some actors did not have the skills to make the transition
and therefore a new wave of talent entered the industry
E.G. Singing in the Rain :: actors can sing, dance (Ginger Rogers,
Fred Astaire)
Music and motion pictures were put together – a new golden
age of movies __ which lead to numerous different genre films
to be produced in the 1930s: crime – detective films – film noir(
more cynical) – mysteries – historical epics - war films – western
Other countries were intrigue by Hollywood
– changed the way we perceived the US,
modern, fancy, but in fact it was constructed
by Hollywood E.G. Spiderman films / gossip
girl – al due to branding
Vertical combination = The combination in
one firm of two or more stages of
production normally operated by separate
firms: FOX : PARAMOUNT : MGM : WARNER
BROTHERS : RKO – these studios owned
their distribution chains of movie theaters
as well as all production elements
Box office Facts ::
1946: was the peak of audience exposure to the
American film industry
1947: the US film industry grossed $2.4 billion
1962: that number sank to $1.3 billion due to the
competition with television
This was because…
After WWII veterans stared families and moved into
the new suburbs, far away from movie theaters, film
attendance declined
1948: television quickly cut into the film box office
profits
• Hollywood responded with suburban in movie
theatres and then moved theaters into shopping
malls in the 1970s
• Many studios like Disney, warner brothers and
paramount moved into TV production
Even when film hit the tough years the films produced
were still incredibly profitable E.G. The
Godfather(1972) made paramount an unprecedented
1,000,000 dollars a day for its first month
...following the Godfather, blockbusters such as
Jaws(1975) and Star Wars(1977) are generally thought
to be the return to big budget blockbusters and a new
golden age for cinema
Film goes digital
HBO, Netflix and amazon are all now
making films outside the studio system
• In 2015, almost 100 of the 124 films
shown at Sundance were by digital
channels not studios
Which means studios are now relying
on blockbuster films to make their
profits
11. Seminar Notes :: the music industry
Whitney Houston : signed with Sony : forced to
become a pop singer
• Whitney had a famous quote “can I be me”
because as she got older she realized she
was being forced to make a certain kind of
music
• This then became the title of her
documentary film of her showing her life
and the pressures it included
Her mum was Cissy Houston, a famous gospel
singer, and Whitney followed her footsteps and
started off by singing in church.
When you look at how different gospel songs
are to the pop songs that Whitney produced,
you can see Whitney's style was completely
adapted to fit what Sony wanted her to be.
Which make you question how real the
majority of pop stars are in the music industry
Sony Music Entertainment is the second largest
if the ‘Big Three’ record companies with Universal
Music Group being the biggest.
Sony is headquartered in Tokyo
Horizontal integration by Sony:
Sony Pictures (Film company)
Sony Mobile (Telecommunications company - e.g.
Sony Xperia phone)
Sony Interactive Entertainment (video games -
production of the PlayStation console)
Sony Music (music production company)
Sony Music Publishing (music publishing
administrator)
Sony Financial Holdings (oversees the operation of
Sony Life Insurance)
Steve Aoki-
DJ of three main music genres-
•Hip Hop
•Electric House
•Electric Dance Music
This are typical music played by
DJs.
Similar DJs also owned by Sony are
Martin Garrix- who also plays
electro house
DJ Khaled- Hip Hop music
Sony therefore own many similar
djs in the same field.
Vertical integration :
13. Lecture Notes:
1896: Guglielmo Marconi created a
“wireless telegraph” – Marconi
establishes a series of radio stations
to receive and retransmit signals from
ships
1912: the wireless telegraph was
crucial in the titanic disaster
Radio distress calls were tapped out
in Morse code through Marconi's
wireless system – radio became
central to reporting on both sides of
the Atlantic
• Radio act of 1912 – US congress
took note and placed radio
under a licensing act – this began
with the regulation of airwaves
During WWI the use of the technology
grew::
- Disputes over the control of radio
began
- The US navy began intervening
between patent disputes between
Marconi and other early inventors
- After the war Marconi tried to buy
the US patent but the US
government opposed foreign
control over radio
General Electric sets up new radio
corporation of America (RAC)
1920: Frank Conrad begins the first
regular broadcasts : a Pittsburg
department store sells radios to pick
up Conrad's broadcast : a growing
market... Congress then issued 100s
of new licenses to combat frequency
interference
Newspapers see the news potential - Schools
and churches see the educational potential
Principles of early American radio
1) 1916: David Sarnoff proposes
a plan that would make radio
a household utility
2) AT&T proposes that radio will
be entertainment supported
by advertising
Some preferred a more educational
use : but it still had a great impact
on American culture :
• It increased awareness of
national identity
• Customized the American
public of consumerism
Economic Interests
• Manufacturers sold radio sets
• Radio stations realize they
can make a great deal of
money selling advertising
• Advertisers see a way to
create a mass consumer
public turning people in to
mass consumers
• Radio offers advertisers direct
access to the home
• This changes how Americans
think about money, careers,
credit…
Many media scholars argue the
American media model is laid out
by radio: continuing the cycle of
consumerism
The British broadcasting
1922: the British send a commission to the united
states to study radio
They observer a radio industry dominated by musical
entertainment and paid advertising
:: They see this as a waste of the mediums cultural
and educational potential – thus the BBC was
produced
John Charles Walsham Reith at 23, becomes General
Manager of the BBC on the 14th of December 1922
“he immediately began innovating, experimenting and
organizing…the service began to expand” according to
the BBC
1924: GTS – the short PIPS were designed to mark the
precise start of every hour on BBC radio
• It became highly regarded for news, cultural and
educational programming
• An alternative to the model chosen by the US
• The US then created an alternative idea too, which
formed the non-profit American Network, NPR
Radio through WWII
Money spent on radio
adds doubles in this
period surpassing
newspapers
- Radio becomes the
main information
medium during the
war
BUT the use of radio for
propaganda purposes
concerned people
CBS radio reporter,
Edward R. Murrow
broadcasts live reports
from London – his
reports conveyed very
moving word pictures
• Many say he was a
greater influence on
the Americans than
the ambassador to
London
The affect of TV
After 1948, television exploded: radio and
advertising was thus then effected : many
programs moved to television (soaps etc.)
advertising dollars then followed
DJs Rule
Success then became dependent on each
stations own announcer
• Local music including Bluegrass in the
south, blues in Chicago, and country in
rural areas helped stations thrive
1949: Todd Storz introduces the top 40: he
thought radio should be more like a duke box
(this went on into the 1970s)
1970s: rock radio splits into the top 40,
heavy metal, punk, disco, funk - over the
next few decades new formats were added
The Decline of Local DJs
New forms of network radio began to emerge in
the 1990s – some stations bought into centrally
produced programing distributed by satellite - a
number of outlets began producing programs for
syndication e.g. Ryan Secress
Syndication = the transfer of something for
control or management by a group of individuals
or organizations.
Radio in the digital age
Two dominate satellite radio stations, XM and
Sirius merged in 2008 – but they didn't’t profit
until five years later
Internet radio : one of the few growing areas for
radio advertising sales: can boost number of
listeners they have, but they do not support the
prevailing American broadcast business model –
this depends on local add salesPodcasting
Almost any individual create audio
programs that can be downloaded
onto digital devices : had the first
breakthrough with the hit Serial in
2014
- This has revolutionized peoples
access to content
The current trend is internet radio
apps: Kiss : Kiss Fresh : Kisstory etc.
Radio and national identity
In America 91% of Americans
listen to radio once a week
In the UK, the BBC shaped British
identity and listening to it remains
a national and often patriotic
experience
15. LECTURE NOTES:
Television begins
1920: Philo Famsworth invented
an electric scanning system –
inspired by seeing tractors moving
back and forth across fields: this
became the electric television
1941: commercial television begins
in the united states
Basic models of television
British : BBC – to inform and educate, a
public service, paid by taxes
American : FCC – federal communications
commission – funded by advertisement &
sponsors – as many views as possible
BUT the government regulated and limited
the amount of channels available to people
The big THREE
1926 : NBC
1927 : CBS
1943 : ABC
Succeeded because…
1. The big freeze
2. VHF verses UHF
channels
3. The head start from
radio e.g. actors
presenters, money
FCC Freeze
Demand for more
channels and televisions
grew after WWII
- The FCC put a freeze
on new television
stations in 1948
Which left the big three
to develop with no
competition
VHF = very high
frequency
Strong frequency that
people had in their
homes – more viewers
so more profitable
UHF = ultra high
frequency
Needed an extra
connector which was not
installed in TVs until 12
years later, so not very
profitable
Early television
A social medium – shared
viewing experience
Advertisers capitalised this
new found form of undivided
audience attention
• Tv was targeted towards
high class rich
audiences/classed as the
golden age of television:
upper-class
Included shows such as the
twilight zone & intelligent
viewing : some said highbrow
and elitist
Regulated scheduled news begins on NBC
in 1948
One of the finest examples of the period
was the CBS news correspondent Edward
Murrow exposed senator McCarthys
anticommunist campaign in 1954
YET… he speaks as though he’s reading a
story, informative, quotes Shakespeare,
theses a non-developed showman ship,
he talks directly to the audience _ very
different to the news we know now
The excellent dramas
and public affairs
programs of televisions
early years raised hopes
for the new medium
BUT as Tv expanded
much was ordinary,
unsurprising,
commercialized and
even harmful
The first golden age dies
Focus moves over to
ratings
– Sponsors wanted more
upbeat lead-ins to their
snappy commercial jingles
– So attention moved to
buying audiences by the
thousands
Cost per thousand = how
much a commercial costs
in relations to the number
of viewers who see it in
the thousands
Commercialism at home
Ford advert: based on
family life, everyone
moved to the suburbs after
the war, meant most were
isolated without transport
It gives gender roles,
engages to the camera &
audience, so people can
relate
Sitcoms
These were then produced
because they received high
ratings and had low production
costs
1951: ‘I love Lucy’ proved the
appeal of the sitcom
- Cheaper than theatrical
dramas & advertisers likes it
because it was up beat
- It comes from the variety show
– the concept of small
sketches
Modern examples: friends, how I
met your mother, big bang theory
Quiz shows
Even cheaper than sitcoms
– eliminated scripts and
professional actors
Tv channels also
turned to
Hollywood
Western movies
were popular
and Tv producers
recycled sets and
unemployed
actors from film
productions
Televisions power
1950s: some children jumped off roofs in an attempt to imitate TVs
superman - this lead to the first congressional hearings into the
effects of TV on children
1961: FCC chairman Newton Minow called American television a
“Vast Wasteland”
BUT television continued to have golden moments:
• Kennedy – Nixon debate aired
• Kennedys funeral
• The Vietnam war
• The moon landing
Everyone gets together
to watch these events:
they unfold in the
nations living room
Entertainment programs also left their mark…
All in the family: focused on the clash between generations
and exposed racial bigotry
The Mary Tyler Moor show: offered a positive image of
professional women
The roots: sparked a pride in black peoples origins / sparking
an international dialogue within pop culture
SO do they balance good television against the bad, could it
conflict?
1975: the FCC pressured networks to
institute a family- viewing hour – but this
collided with the first amendment
• Perhaps the most effective initiative that
came out of this period of questioning
TV was the formation of the public
broadcasting service (PBS) in 1969
• This added new viewing choices –
chirldrens programs like “sesame street”
and BBC imports like “Upstairs
downstairs”
CABLE TV: spreads as cable operators picked up broadcasts from major
TV market stations and relayed there signals to smaller communities
BASIC CABLE: were filled with networks only on cable like ESPN, which was
supported by a combination of advertising and cable sales
Most amplified old program formulas or simply played old reruns of the Big
Three - Bruce Springsteen = 57 channels (an nothin’ on)
The first home video
cassettes appeared in 1975
and video stores spread in
the 1980s – Netflix also
emerge during this period
16. The conditions were right for new
broadcast networks to emerge
- The FCC increased the number of TV
stations from 7 to 12
- This encouraged more networks and
VERTICAL INTERGRATION with movie
studios like Murdoch’s Twentieth
Century Fox
- The new networks intimidated the
Big Three further pushing the
boundaries of good taste
Social Media
Boosts live ratings of sporting
events and reality programs
:: its these cheaply produced reality
shows that dominate networks TV,
that keep traditional TV watching
practices alive
Through streaming options TV has
been re-imagined
- Some even call it a new golden
age
In the 2015 – 2016 season there were
400 scripted television series under
production across broadcast, cable
and internet providers
By way of platforms like Netflix – a
company people feared would kill TV
– that TV has been saved and for the
first time since the 1950s has excited
the “wasteland”
18. Lecture Notes: This lecture is drawn from the television Genre book edited by Glen Greeber
What Makes Media Reality
• Camcorder surveillance or
observational “actuality footage”
• First-person participant or eye-
witness testimony
• Reconstructions that rely upon
narrative fiction styles
• Studio or to-camera links and
commentary from “authoritative”
presenters
• Expert statements (such as
emergency service personnel or
psychologists)
(Dovey, 2015)
This genre of television began in the
US: NBCs Unsolved Mysteries (1987-
2002)
Followed by: CBSs Rescue 911 (CBS,
1989-96) – Cops, Americans Most
Wanted (Fox, 1992-2003)
• Reality television began to take
prime time slots when in emerged
in the early 90s e.g. you’ve been
framed (ITV, 1990-)
Reality TV was liked because…
The low gage video image, grainy,
under-lit and often unsteady, became
a signifier of “truth”
- Surveillance or CCTV cameras
were operated by machines
mitigating human bias
- By 1999 there was a widespread
acceptance of CCTV footage as a
natural part of the television
output
1999: big brother: a marketing
phenomenon
Was different because…
o Used ordinary people & had
the CCTV format (showed
real time)
Then added: 1. game show
format 2. game with a
psychological twist 3. audience
interactivity- even bigger profit
Case study : Will Kirby: played up
to the camera – talks to the
audience – creates entertainment
Genres:
Infotainment = crime or emergency
services
Docusoaps = hospital shows
Lifestyles = gardening or makeover
Life experiment programs = social
experiments
Reality game shows = where a
game is introduced to a group in a
controlled situation
Reality talent shows = members of
the public or celebrities audition in
artistic endeavors
Reality Hox = mocks those deceived
by an elaborate staged set up
Reality Audiences
Research suggests that viewers of
Reality TV tend to engage in regular
discussions about the genre across
many platforms.
This creates a richness in the
everyday discourses about realty
TV content.
• People are fascinated by it
Docusoaps 1990s
At their peak in Brittan Driving
School (BBC, 1997 – 2003) grew to
12.5 million viewers per episode.
• The docusoap is meant to give
audiences a “fly on the wall”
feeling.
Whilst also, drawing from stylistic
traits of soap operas - fast pasted
editing style and short sequences
alternating between a limited
number of narrative strands per
episode.
• Docusoaps were made possible
by specific technological
advances.
• With the arrival of digital
cameras and editing suits it
became at once to cut
material.
• In 1998, Paul Hamann, the
head of BBC documentary
features, commented that the
Docusoaps could be produced
three times as cheaply as
comparable light
entertainment
e.g. the Osbourne's, felt like a
sitcom: minimizing fakeness –
cartoon like – not grainy
BUT is it all constructed???
Reality Talent Shows
Have been described as “New Television” in
that they are a “Unique intersection of new
technologies of transmission and reception,
new forms of financing, and new forms of
content has led to a global type of television”
(Moran, 2005).
FremantleMedia own the Idol brand and have
sold the format to over thirty territories: i.e.
Russia, India, South Africa, Pan-Arabic
Regions….
Audience participation
e.g. pop idol, shown on itv in 2001, attracted
14 million viewers and almost 9 million votes
cast in the finale.
In America the fourth season of Idol attracted
26 million viewers in an average episode and
gained 500 million accumulative votes.
• Through the voting process, audiences are
able to impact the content that they are
consuming.
• Live broadcasts mean audiences can be
involved in the suspense
Social media is now a part of this output too
Bake off
branding as “British” is crucial:
The recipes they select - The aesthetic of the
kitchen - The landscape - The contestants who
are drawn from divers back grounds, ages and
social groups to reflect British culture.
NOT PRE
20. Lecture Notes:The internet and its first uses
1939: john Vincent Atanasoff
invents the first electronic
computer
• During the war, the British
secret service (led by Alan
Turing) developed a digital
computer to crack Nazi
codes
:: Was originally developed to
continue weapons research : It
was then called the ARPANET
and it was funded by the US
department of Defense in 1969
- The operator typed “L…o…”
(log on) but the system crashed
before the message could be
completed
The reinvention of the internet
Involved introducing desktops and
mousses to make it more user friendly
In the early 1970s the Xerox corporation’s
“Alto computer” was the first
experimental computer
• Had high speed connections called
the Ethernet
ALTAIR The first person computer…
Inspired young William Gates to write
programming language – later developed I
his garage as Microsoft
ALSO inspired Steve Jobs to build an apple
computer in 1977
The first year of the internet
1972
ARPANET has its first public
demonstration - email was
introduced – the network
acquired its name
o Some major universities
added to the platform as
the internet becomes
more of an educational
too as opposed to a
defense mechanism
o This became know as
BITNET
1991: Tim Burns-Lee: writes
the “hypertext markup
language” - the first web
browser to transport text
documents across computer
systems – WWW. As we
know it
BUT there was a lot of
confusing
1995: the internet was
turner over to commercial
providers: Amazon released
as an online book store,
eBay developed into online
antiques sales
- Yahoo and Google also
developed both by students
at Stanford university
Idealization of the
internet
Many saw the internet
as a platform for social
communication and
an avenue for political
engagement and
education
• Some felt that the
internet would be
a cure for
isolation, poverty,
ignorance,
political
oppression and
boredom
(Straubhaar,
LaRosa and
Davenport, 2018)
Governments
Around the world governments began to
consider how to control this international
medium.
In the United States, the Telecommunications Act
of 1996, and the Communications Decency Act,
was written to ban “indecent” material. – law
didn't go through as it was found unconstitutional
as the internet falls into free speech
- France has little problem with nudity, but
tried to ban material considered to be
political obscene (online sales of artifacts
from Nazi Germany).
- In post- 911 society - after it became clear
that terrorists were organizing online - the
western world has endeavored to police
terrorist materials online
Problems start to emerge
Who has access to the Internet
becomes a question at the end of
the 1990s and in the first decade
of the 2000s.
• Some argued that instead of
creating a cure for poverty,
ignorance, and isolation, the
Internet perpetuated these
issues.
• Limited access for minority,
low income, and rural families
(NTIA, 1995) and developing
countries in Africa, Asia and
South America were further
left behind.
Social Media
First popularized in the early 2000s,
Facebook (2004)
…and Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat that followed asked
that we the audience provide the content.
Internet technology became better, cheaper and more accessible,
many groups that were originally “left behind” had platforms to
speak, share and commune.
Social media provides meeting spaces for communities and activist
groups, enabling social change (Gerbaudo 2014)
As well as – presenting new forms of mediated space to report
experiences (Rentschiar,2015)
Digital Activism: Retaliation and Online Abuse
The subsequent retaliation is often anonymous (Jane, 2017).
• This makes the digital sphere a unique environment that
perpetuates – and potentially exacerbates abuse experienced
offline (Mishna, 2013).
E.G. Kaitlyn's story: a man assaulted her on the bus, another stood
up for her and helped out – she used social media to find this man
and her campaign went viral
Is old media dead?
The Web has disrupted the influence of conventional media - As
the thousands upon thousands of Movie & Video game rental
outlets and Small books stores have closed - it is those who join
the revolution that remain.
• Nearly 1,000,000 books are available on Kindle.
Netflix and Home Box Office now pave the way for paid TV service
Old Media” is not dead - they’ve greatly expanded their market.
• Facebook has 2 Billion Users.
• Netflix is available is 190 countries.
They know much more about their audience’s then traditional
media forms did.
21. Seminar Notes
Is social media bad for you?
It could be argued that social media
adds a pressure to look a certain way,
be liked be everyone, aim for
popularity etc. This constant pressure
to present versions of ourselves that
we cannot live up to can knock
peoples confidence and force them to
become insecure. Everything and
everyone is presenting a fake person
on social media, it is failing to see
others for who they are, having
impossible targets.
Presidents and Social Media
Donald Trump is well known for sharing his
thoughts and political opinions over twitter and
social media. When it comes to his campaigns,
Trump argues that it is a ‘modern day presidency’,
but is it damaging his high class status.
“Then-White House Press Secretary Sean
Spicer said during his tenure that Trump's tweets
are "considered official statements by the
President of the United States".[6] According to a
June 2017 Fox News poll, 70 percent of
respondents said Trump's tweets were hurting his
agenda and 17 percent said the tweets were
helpful” Wikipedia
When Julian Brazier lost the election in 2017 to Rosie Duffield, this arguably shocked the nation. The area
of Canterbury has always held a more Conservative right wing political stance, so this new left wing
leadership was surprising for many people.
Brazier's campaign was said to be a “fairly old-fashioned campaign" which did not use social media and
the internet to the best of its ability - unlike the Labour campaign which targeted younger people on social
media with the use of tweets, snapchat filters etc.
'Labour’s dynamic online campaign was nimble enough to seize on Mrs May’s last-minute decision to go to
the polls — and the resulting narratives on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat and elsewhere mattered' -
reference - Article Found Here
Brazier potentially underestimated the level of social media engagement needed to persuade the younger
generations - especiallly in an area such as Canterbury which, in 2015 had 40,000 students living in the
area.
'Conservative colleagues found themselves outmoded and outflanked. “The gap was in social media, in
terms of information and influencing the vote,” he says. “I didn’t get heavily engaged enough”.'
- Brazier is a Conservative Party politician - he was a Member of Parliament for Canterbury from 1987-
2017
- In the formation of May’s government in July 2016 but in ‘arguably the most shocking result of the night’
he lost his seat to Labour by 187 votes in 2017.
23. Lecture Notes
Globalized media
= “Reducing of differences that existed
between nations in time, space, and
culture.”
Increasingly more integrated market
based on capitalism.
Pressures on nations to conform to more
commercial media structures based on
adverting and private ownership
The world becomes more issolated with
market based capitalism
• Conforming – growing trend in
countries – US concepts and ideas
GLOCAL = local people and industries
borrowing from global ideas (Robertson,
1995)
Globalized media
Many media companies operating in the
US aren't owned by the US
• Many smaller media companies in
the US are owned by Japanese, they
owned Sony – Australian born Rupert
Murdock
Media produced by the United States
dominates popular culture worldwide: E.G.
Star Wars make far more money abroad
Regionalization
= This sharing of media by way of
regionalization may sound idealistic – the
fear here is hat we end up with a
homogenized world
E.G. Well over half the population in
Canada, receives its media from the united
states
- Will there be a place where everyone
only watches American Idol
1989: the EU actively produce
“television without frontiers”
BUT a Europe wide television
network proved difficult due to
language barriers
Cultural Proximity
= The preference of audiences
to consume media with a similar
language, history, value system
and culture to one’s own.
E.G. Unlike other European
music, British music is widely
accepted and loved by
Americans, spice girls/1D
Localization
A new and rising trend that calls
for local versions of popular
shows
E.G. the Brazilian “big Brother”
had 18 seasons
Nation productions VS American
influence:
• Audiences tend to prefer
national content in their
media (de Sola Pool, 1983;
Straubhaar, 2007; Tracy,
1988).
However, nations differ in their
ability to create media.
E.G. In the film industry wealthy
countries with wealthy
companies are able to export
films at a much higher rate.
• Wealthy countries can export
films at a far greater rate –
more money to put in, more
money gained – repeated,
becoming the status quo –
huge proper gander device
Tampax
The globalized market has made it easier
for retailers to sell to consumers on a mass
and global scale – particularly in youth
markets that take to the digital space to
learn about trends and products.
E.G. Proctor and Gamble found that
teenage girls everywhere had the same
questions about puberty. As a result, they
could use the same material and then
translate it into 40 different languages.
Cultural Imperialism
= the creation and maintenance of
unequal relationships between
civilizations, favoring the more powerful
civilization
Americanization VS Global Media
Though media companies have begun to
focus on specific regions (Al Jazeera in the
middle east or BBC world service across
the globe), American Media still play a
dominate role.
:: Countries outside the US generate 70%
of all box offices
A handful of global of publicly traded firms
dominate the most globalized part of the
media system, some of the largest are:
Disney(US)
Comcast(US)
News Corp (Australia/ US)
AT&T (US)
Bertelsmann (Germany)
Viacom (US)
Warner-EMI (Canada)
Sony/Columbia/TriStar (Japan)
Other main global firms are of the Internet
era:
Facebook (US)
Amazon (US)
Google (US)
Apple (US)
Vivendi (French)
The internet and global media
Interconnection of far-flung
operations via data networks -
Today most likely the consumer
services is based in a different
country e.g. India, call centres
- The Internet standardized
many of these
technologies into a single
network that was much
cheaper to use.
Small companies or personal
users outside of big business of
government can now afford
rapid, high capacity
international data, text and
graphics communications
Google and Facebook
Are pressing into developing
countries that previously had
been left behind in the first
wave of the Internet to improve
connectivity.
They are making deals with local
cellphone companies to carry
special simplified versions of
their services on their phones.
• Some argue that increased
technology and connectivity
is only a good thing when we
are all getting along.
That is, is it a good thing that we
have data compiled and
technology advanced enough to
track and find pretty much any
human on the planet?
Colonialism
= the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial
political control over another country, occupying it
with settlers, and exploiting it economically
Band Aid
1984:
2014: 30 year remake – for the ebola crisis
adapted:
Words changed
Celebrities were smiley – but its about ebola?
All shot in 36 hours
Is it problematic
