e eBook Collection Media & Culture Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION___3 6 Culture and the Evolution of Mass Communication 10 The Development of Media and Their Role in Our Society 17 Surveying the Cultural Landscape 30 Critiquing Media and Culture Mass Communication A Critical Approach On November 6, 2012, shortly after 11 P.M., Fox News projected that Barack Obama had won Ohio, as he did in 2008, and would be reelected president of the United States. But Karl Rove, a Fox News analyst and the chief campaign fundraiser for the Republican Party, began questioning the news anchors, arguing it was too early to call the election for President Obama. Rove persuaded one anchor to walk down the hall, on live television, and confront the statisticians in the \"decision room\" about their projection. What followed was an uncomfortable yet dramatic period, with Fox News managers sticking by their projection while Rove and Republican candidate Mitt Romney's campaign protested. It turned out that the statisticians were right. This news drama during the 2012 election highlighted a number of media issues that swirled around the campaign. Rove's prominence and influence at Fox News showcased the outsized role campaign contributors seemed to play in the election. While the campaigns raised more than $1 billion each, the parties themselves and outside partisan groups raised an additional Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 4___CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION 1 MASS COMMUNICATION $4 billion, making it the most expensive federal election ever.1 With unlimited funds raised by corporations, rich individuals, and unknown groups (thanks to the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling by the Supreme Courtsee Chapter 16), partisan pundits and concerned citizens alike fretted about rich donors dictating election outcomes. Much of this money was spent, of course, on political TV ads. By mid-October 2012, the Las Vegas TV market had already aired 73,000 political ads10,000 per week a new record with three weeks still to go.2 The Richmond (VA) TV market stood to rake in as much as $18 million.3 Many local retailers in swing states could not afford TV advertising during the political blitzor got bumped off the air by political advertisers, as TV stations jacked up prices and even cut local news time to squeeze in more ads.4 One often suggested solution: \"Require . . . television to provide free air time to qualified candidates.\"5 But while Republicans outspent Democrats in nine of ten swing states where most of the TV ad money was concentrated, North Carolina was the only swing state that went to Romney.6 Exit-poll data provides some reasons for President Obama's win: He won 55 percent of women voters, 93 percent of African American voters, 71 percent of Hispanic voters, 73 percent of Asian voters, and, perhaps most telling, 60 percent of eighteen- to twentynineyear oldsthe social media generation. 7 In 2012 the president \"had 32 million likes compared with 12 million for Romney\" on Facebook; and on Twitter, he had 23 million followers \"and out-tweeted Mitt Romney by a margin of eight to one.\" 8 Given the rise of social media and the new clout of young voters, it's worth asking whether TV will continue to play such an outsized role in future federal electionsespecially since much ad spending did not produce the desired results. With the ability to mute ads or bypass them with DVRs, and with young people less interested in television, will such outrageous spending continue? In the end, how well did TV mediawhere most people get their political information help us understand the complex issues of our time? In a democracy, we depend on news media to provide information about these issues. As citizens, therefore, we should expect that TV stations use a portion of their massive political advertising revenue to investigate the main issues of the day and serve as a counterpoint to the one-sided and mostly negative ads and not lay off reporters or cut their newsblock time to run more ads. Despite the limitations of our news media, their job of presenting the world to us and documenting what's going on is enormously important. But we also must point a critical lens back at the media and describe, analyze, and interpret the stories and ads to arrive at informed judgments. This textbook offers a map to help us become more media literate, critiquing the medianot as detached cynics, but as informed audiences with a stake in the outcome. \"The two main principles of marketingnot spending more than the sale is worth; focusing the most resources on the most susceptible buyersare thrown out in presidential elections.\" MICHAEL WOLFF, USA TODAY, 2012 Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 SO WHAT EXACTLY ARE THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MEDIA? In the wake of the 2012 presidential election, the economic and unemployment crises, the Occupy Wall Street movement, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, and the political uprisings in several Arab nations, how do we demand the highest standards from our media to describe and analyze such complex events and issues? At their best, in all their various forms, from mainstream newspapers and radio talk shows to blogs, the media try to help us understand the events that affect us. But, at their worst, the media's appetite for telling and selling stories leads them not only to document tragedy but also to misrepresent or exploit it. Many viewers and social critics disapprove of how media, particularly TV and cable, seem to hurtle from one event to another, often dwelling on trivial, celebrity-driven content. In this book, we examine the history and business of mass media, and discuss the media as a central force in shaping our culture and our democracy. We start by examining key concepts and introducing the critical process for investigating media industries and issues. In later chapters, we probe the history and structure of media's major institutions. In the process, we will develop an informed and critical view of the influence these institutions have had on national and global life. The goal is to become media literateto become critical consumers of mass media institutions and engaged participants who accept part of the responsibility for the shape and direction of media culture. In this chapter, we will: ?? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? and digital eras ?? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? pretation, evaluation, and engagement As you read through this chapter, think about your early experiences with the media. Identify a favorite media product from your childhooda song, book, TV show, or movie. Why was it so important to you? How much of an impact did your early taste in media have on your identity? How has your taste shifted over time to today? What does this change indicate about your identity now? For more questions to help you think about the role of media in your life, see \"Questioning the Media\" in the Chapter Review. Past-Present-Future: The \"Mass\" Media Audience In the sixties, seventies, and eightiesthe height of the TV ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? like the Beverly Hillbillies, All in the Family, the Cosby Show, or the evening network news. But today, things have changed especially for younger people. While almost all U.S. college students use Facebook every day, they are rarely posting or reading about the same experiences. In a world where we can so easily customize our media use, the notion of truly \"mass\" media may no longer exist. Today's media marketplace is a fragmented world with more options than ever. Prime-time network TV has lost half its viewers in the last decade to the Internet and to hundreds of alternative channels. Traditional newspaper readership, too, continues to decline as young readers embrace social media, blogs, and their smartphones. The former mass audience is morphing into individual users who engage with ever-narrowing politics, hobbies, and entertainment. As a result, media outlets that hope to survive must appeal not to mass audiences but to niche groups whether these are conservatives, progressives, sports fans, history buffs, or reality TV addicts. But what does it mean for us as individuals with civic obligations to a larger society if we are tailoring media use and consumption so that we only engage with Facebook friends who share similar lifestyles, only visit media sites that affirm our personal interests, or only follow political blogs that echo our own views? Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 6___CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION 1 MASS COMMUNICATION One way to understand the impact of the media on our lives is to explore the cultural context in which the media operate. Often, culture is narrowly associated with art, the unique forms of creative expression that give pleasure and set standards about what is true, good, and beautiful. Culture, however, can be viewed more broadly as the ways in which people live and represent themselves at particular historical times. This idea of culture encompasses fashion, sports, literature, architecture, education, religion, and science, as well as mass media. Although we can study discrete cultural products, such as novels or songs from various historical periods, culture itself is always changing. It includes a society's art, beliefs, customs, games, technologies, traditions, and institutions. It also encompasses a society's modes of communication: the creation and use of symbol systems that convey information and meaning (e.g., languages, Morse code, motion pictures, and one-zero binary computer codes). Culture is made up of both the products that a society fashions and, perhaps more important, the processes that forge those products and reflect a culture's diverse values. Thus culture may be defined as the symbols of expression that individuals, groups, and societies use to make sense of daily life and to articulate their values. According to this definition, when we listen to music, read a book, watch television, or scan the Internet, we usually are not asking \"Is this art?\" but are instead trying to identify or connect with something or someone. In other words, we are assigning meaning to the song, book, TV program, or Web site. Culture, therefore, is a process that delivers the values of a society through products or other meaning-making forms. The American ideal of \"rugged individualism,\" for instance, has been depicted for decades through a tradition of westerns and detective stories on television, in movies and books, and even in political ads. Culture links individuals to their society by providing both shared and contested values, and the mass media help circulate those values. The mass media are the cultural industriesthe channels of communicationthat produce and distribute songs, novels, TV shows, newspapers, movies, video games, Internet services, and other cultural products to large numbers of people. The historical development of media and communication can be traced through several overlapping phases or eras in which newer forms of technology disrupted and modified older formsa process that many academics, critics, and media professionals began calling convergence with the arrival of the Internet. These eras, which all still operate to some degree, are oral, written, print, electronic, and digital. The first two eras refer to the communication of tribal or feudal communities and agricultural economies. The last three phases feature the development of mass communication: the process of designing cultural messages and stories and delivering them to large and diverse audiences through media channels as old and distinctive as the printed book and as new and converged as the Internet. Hastened by the growth of industry and modern technology, mass communication accompanied the shift of rural populations to urban settings and the rise of a consumer culture. Culture and the Evolution of Mass Communication CULTURAL VALUES AND IDEALS are transmitted through the media. Many cosmetics advertisements show beautiful people using a company's products; this implies that anyone who buys the products can obtain such ideal beauty. What other societal ideas are portrayed through the media? Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION___7 Oral and Written Eras in Communication In most early societies, information and knowledge first circulated slowly through oral traditions passed on by poets, teachers, and tribal storytellers. As alphabets and the written word emerged, however, a manuscript, or written, culture began to develop and eventually overshad?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? raphers, the manuscript culture served the ruling classes. Working people were generally illiterate, and the economic and educational gap between rulers and the ruled was vast. These eras of oral and written communication developed slowly over many centuries. Although exact time frames are disputed, historians generally consider these eras as part of Western civilization's premodern period, spanning the epoch from roughly 1000 B.C.E. to the mid-fifteenth century. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? losophers and writers. Socrates (470-399 B.C.E.), for instance, made his arguments through public conversations and debates. Known as the Socratic method, this dialogue style of communication and inquiry is still used in college classrooms and university law schools. Many philosophers who believed in the superiority of the oral tradition feared that the written word would threaten public discussion by offering fewer opportunities for the give-and-take of conversation. In fact, Socrates' most famous student, Plato (427-347 B.C.E.), sought to banish poets, whom he saw as purveyors of ideas less rigorous than those generated in oral, face-to-face, question-and-answer discussions. These debates foreshadowed similar discussions in our time regarding the dangers of television ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ___#B@_ social networking sites, cheapen public discussion and discourage face-to-face communication? The Print Revolution While paper and block printing developed in China around 100 C.E. and 1045, respectively, what we recognize as modern printing did not emerge until the ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? invention of movable metallic type and the printing press ushered in the modern ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? and expensive. It took months to illustrate and publish these volumes, and they were usually purchased by wealthy aristocrats, royal families, church leaders, ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? duced the size and cost of books, making them available and affordable to more people. Books eventually became the first mass-marketed products in history. The printing press combined three elements necessary for mass-market innovation. First, machine duplication replaced the tedious system in which scribes hand-copied texts. Second, duplication could occur rapidly, so large quantities of the same book could be reproduced easily. Third, the faster production of multiple copies brought down the cost of each unit, which made books more affordable to less affluent people. Since mass-produced printed materials could spread information and ideas faster and farther than ever before, writers could use print to disseminate views counter to traditional civic doctrine and religious authorityviews that paved the way for major social and cultural changes, such as the Protestant Reformation and the rise of modern nationalism. People started to resist traditional clerical authority and also to think of themselves not merely as members of families, isolated communities, or tribes, but as part of a country whose interests were broader than local or regional concerns. While oral EARLY BOOKS Before the invention of the printing press, books were copied by hand in a labor-intensive process. This beautifully illuminated page is from an Italian Bible made in the early 1300s. Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 8___CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION 1 MASS COMMUNICATION and written societies had favored decentralized local governments, the print era supported the ascent of more centralized nation-states. ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? per unit for books became an essential factor in the mass production of other goods, which led to the Industrial Revolution, modern capitalism, and the consumer culture in the twentieth century. With the revolution in industry came the rise of the middle class and an elite business class of owners and managers who acquired the kind of influence formerly held only by the nobility or the clergy. Print media became key tools that commercial and political leaders used to distribute information and maintain social order. As with the Internet today, however, it was difficult for a single business or political leader, certainly in a democratic society, to gain exclusive control over printing technology (although ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? tury, and even today governments in many countries control presses, access to paper, advertising, and distribution channels). Instead, the mass publication of pamphlets, magazines, and books in the United States helped democratize knowledge, and literacy rates rose among the working and middle classes. Industrialization required a more educated workforce, but printed literature and textbooks also encouraged compulsory education, thus promoting literacy and extending learning beyond the world of wealthy upper-class citizens. ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? People came to rely less on their local community and their commercial, religious, and political leaders for guidance. By challenging tribal life, the printing press \"fostered the modern idea of individuality,\" disrupting \"the medieval sense of community and integration.\" 9 In urban and industrial environments, many individuals became cut off from the traditions of rural and small-town life, which had encouraged community cooperation in premodern times. By the mid-nineteenth century, the ideal of individualism affirmed the rise of commerce and increased resistance to government interference in the affairs of self-reliant entrepreneurs. The democratic impulse of individualism became a fundamental value in American society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Electronic Era ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Americans lived on farms and in small towns; by the 1920s and 1930s, most had moved to urban areas, where new industries and economic opportunities beckoned. The city had overtaken the country as the focus of national life. The gradual transformation from an industrial, print-based society to one grounded in the ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? electronic signals, the telegraph made four key contributions to communication. First, it separated communication from transportation, making media messages instantaneousunencumbered by stagecoaches, ships, or the pony express.10 Second, the telegraph, in combination with the rise of mass-marketed newspapers, transformed \"information into a commodity, a 'thing' that could be bought or sold irrespective of its uses or meaning.\"11 By the time of the Civil War, news had become a valuable product. Third, the telegraph made it easier for military, business, and political leaders to coordinate commercial and military operations, especially after the installation of the transatlan??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????? wireless telegraphy (later named radio), the fax machine, and the cell phone, which ironically re??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??? The rise of film at the turn of the twentieth century and the development of radio in the 1920s were early signals, but the electronic phase of the Information Age really boomed in the ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? \"We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. . . . We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the old world some weeks nearer to the new; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad flapping American ear will be that Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough.\" HENRY DAVID THOREAU,WALDEN, 1854 Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION___9 ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? _____>v_ passed into its digital phase where old and new media began to converge, thus dramatically changing our relationship to media and culture. The Digital Era In digital communication, images, texts, and sounds are converted (encoded) into electronic signals (represented as varied combinations of binary numbersones and zeros) that are then reassembled (decoded) as a precise reproduction of, say, a TV picture, a magazine article, a song, or a telephone voice. On the Internet, various images, texts, and sounds are all digitally reproduced and transmitted globally. New technologies, particularly cable television and the Internet, developed so quickly that traditional leaders in communication lost some of their control over information. For example, starting with the 1992 presidential campaign, the network news shows (ABC, CBS, and NBC) began to lose their audiences, first to MTV and CNN, and later to MSNBC, Fox News, Comedy Central, and partisan radio talk shows. By the 2004 national elections, Internet bloggers people who post commentary on cultural, personal, and political-opinion-based Web siteshad become key players in news. Moreover, e-maila digital reinvention of oral culturehas assumed some of the functions of the postal service and is outpacing attempts to control communications beyond national borders. A professor sitting at her desk in Cedar Falls, Iowa, sends e-mail or Skype messages routinely to research scientists in Budapest. Yet as recently as 1990, lettersor \"snail mail\" between the United States and former communist states might have been censored or taken months to reach their destinations. Moreover, many repressive and totalitarian regimes have had trouble controlling messages sent out over the borderless Internet. Further reinventing oral culture has been the emergence of social media, such as Twitter and in particular Facebook, which now has nearly one billion users worldwide. Social media allow people from all over the world to have ongoing online conversations, share stories and interests, and generate their own media content. This turn to digital media forms has fundamentally overturned traditional media business models, the ways we engage with and consume media products, and the ways we organize our daily lives around various media choices. The Linear Model of Mass Communication The digital era also brought about a shift in the models that media researchers have used over the years to explain how media messages and meanings are constructed and communicated in everyday life. In one of the older and more enduring explanations about how media operate, mass communication has been conceptualized as a linear process of producing and delivering messages to large audiences. Senders (authors, producers, and organizations) transmit messages (programs, texts, images, sounds, and ads) through a mass media channel (newspapers, books, magazines, radio, television, or the Internet) to large groups of receivers (readers, viewers, and consumers). In the process, gatekeepers (news editors, executive producers, and other media managers) function as message filters. Media gatekeepers make decisions about what messages actually get produced for particular receivers. The process also allows for feedback, in which citizens and consumers, if they choose, return messages to senders or gatekeepers through letters-to-the-editor, phone calls, e-mail, Web postings, or talk shows. But the problem with the linear model is that in reality media messages, especially in the digital era, do not usually move smoothly from a sender at point A to a receiver at point Z. Words and images are more likely to spill into one another, crisscrossing in the daily media deluge of ads, TV shows, news reports, social media, smartphone apps, andof courseeveryday Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 10___CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION 1 MASS COMMUNICATION conversation. Media messages and stories are encoded and sent in written and visual forms, but senders often have very little control over how their intended messages are decoded or whether the messages are ignored or misread by readers and viewers. A Cultural Model for Understanding Mass Communication A more contemporary approach to understanding media is through a cultural model. This concept recognizes that individuals bring diverse meanings to messages, given factors and differences such as gender, age, educational level, ethnicity, and occupation. In this model of mass communication, audiences actively affirm, interpret, refashion, or reject the messages and ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? pushing boundaries and celebrating alternative lifestylesand the rightful heir to Madonna. Others, however, saw the video as tasteless and cruel, making fun of transsexuals and exploiting womennot to mention celebrating the poisoning of an old boyfriend. While the linear model may demonstrate how a message gets from a sender to a receiver, the cultural model suggests the complexity of this process and the lack of control that \"senders\" (such as media executives, movie makers, writers, news editors, ad agencies, etc.) often have over how audiences receive messages and interpret their intended meanings. Sometimes, producers of media messages seem to be the active creators of communication while audiences ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? media messages to fit or support their own values and viewpoints. This phenomenon is known as selective exposure: People typically seek messages and produce meanings that correspond to their own cultural beliefs, values, and interests. For example, studies have shown that people with political leanings toward the left or the right tend to seek out blogs or news outlets that reinforce their preexisting views. The rise of the Internet and social media has also complicated the traditional roles in both the linear and cultural models of communication. While there are still senders and receivers, the borderless, decentralized, and democratic nature of the Internet means that anyone can become a sender of media messageswhether it's by uploading a video mash-up to YouTube or by writing a blog post. The Internet has also largely eliminated the gatekeeper role. Although some governments try to control Internet servers and some Web sites have restrictions on what can and cannot be posted, for the most part, the Internet allows senders to transmit content without first needing approval from, or editing by, a gatekeeper. For example, some authors who are unable to find a traditional book publisher for their work turn to self-publishing on the Internet. And musicians who don't have deals with major record labels can promote, circulate, and sell their music online. The Development of Media and Their Role in Our Society The mass media constitute a wide variety of industries and merchandise, from moving documentary news programs about famines in Africa to shady infomercials about how to retrieve millions of dollars in unclaimed money online. The word media ??????????????????????????????????? of the singular noun medium, meaning an intervening substance through which something is conveyed or transmitted. Television, newspapers, music, movies, magazines, books, billboards, radio, broadcast satellites, and the Internet are all part of the media; and they are all quite Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION___11 capable of either producing worthy products or pandering to society's worst desires, preju??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? work and are interpreted in our society. The Evolution of Media: From Emergence to Convergence The development of most mass media is initiated not only by the diligence of inventors, such ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? circumstances. For instance, both telegraph and radio evolved as newly industrialized nations sought to expand their military and economic control and to transmit information more rapidly. The Internet is a contemporary response to new concerns: transporting messages and sharing information more rapidly for an increasingly mobile and interconnected global population. Media innovations typically go through four stages. First is the emergence, or novelty, stage, in which inventors and technicians try to solve a particular problem, such as making pictures move, transmitting messages from ship to shore, or sending mail electronically. Second is the entrepreneurial stage, in which inventors and investors determine a practical and marketable use for the new device. For example, early radio relayed messages to and from places where telegraph wires could not go, such as military ships at sea. Part of the Internet also had its roots in the ideas of military leaders, who wanted a communication system that was decentralized and distributed widely enough to survive nuclear war or natural disasters. The third phase in a medium's development involves a breakthrough to the mass medium stage. At this point, businesses figure out how to market the new device or medium as a consumer product. Although the government and the U.S. Navy played a central role in radio's early years, it was commercial entrepreneurs who pioneered radio broadcasting and figured out how to reach millions of people. In the same way, Pentagon and government researchers helped develop early prototypes for the Internet, but commercial interests extended the Internet's global reach and business potential. Finally, the fourth and newest phase in a medium's evolution is the convergence stage. This is the stage in which older media are reconfigured in various forms on newer media. However, this does not mean that these older forms cease to exist. For example, you can still get the New York Times in print, but it's also now accessible on laptops and smartphones via ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? platforms, but we also see the fragmenting of large audiences into smaller niche markets. With new technologies allowing access to more media options than ever, mass audiences are morphing into audience subsets that chase particular lifestyles, politics, hobbies, and forms of entertainment. Media Convergence ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? development of mediaconvergencea term that media critics and analysts use when describing all the changes that have occurred over the past decade, and are still occurring, in media content and within media companies. However, the term actually has two different meanings one referring to technology and one to businessand has a great impact on how media companies are charting a course for the future. The Dual Roles of Media Convergence The first definition of media convergence involves the technological merging of content across different media channelsthe magazine articles, radio programs, songs, TV shows, video games, and movies now available on the Internet through laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 12___CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION 1 MASS COMMUNICATION Such technical convergence is not entirely new. For example, in the late 1920s, the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company and introduced machines that could play both radio and recorded music. In the 1950s, this collaboration helped radio survive the emergence of television. Radio lost much of its content to TV and could not afford to hire live bands, so it became more dependent on deejays to play records produced by the music industry. However, contemporary media convergence is much broader than the simple merging of older and newer forms. In fact, the eras of communication are themselves reinvented in this \"age of convergence.\" Oral communication, for example, finds itself reconfigured, in part, in e-mail and social media. And print communication is re-formed in the thousands of newspapers now available online. Also, keep in mind the wonderful ironies of media convergence: The first major digital retailer, Amazon.com, made its name by selling the world's oldest mass mediumthe bookon the world's newest mass mediumthe Internet. A second definition of media convergencesometimes called cross platform by media marketersdescribes a business model that involves consolidating various media holdings, such as cable connections, phone services, television transmissions, and Internet access, under one corporate umbrella. The goal is not necessarily to offer consumers more choice in their media options, but to better manage resources and maximize profits. For example, a company that owns TV stations, radio outlets, and newspapers in multiple marketsas well as in the same citiescan deploy a reporter or producer to create three or four versions of the same story for various media outlets. So rather than having each radio station, TV station, newspaper, and online news site generate diverse and independent stories about an issue, a media corporation employing the convergence model can use fewer employees to generate multiple versions of the same story. Media Businesses in a Converged World The ramifications of media convergence are best revealed in the business strategies of digital ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? aggregator because it finds both \"new\" and \"old\" media contentlike blogs and newspapers ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? any of the content, and most consumers who find a news story or magazine article through a ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? MEDIA CONVERGENCE In the 1950s, television setslike radios in the 1930s and 1940swere often encased in decorative wood and sold as stylish furniture that occupied a central place in many American homes. Today, using our computers, we can listen to a radio talk show, watch a movie, or download a favorite songusually on the goas older media forms now converge online. Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION___13 Virtually all of Google's (enormous) revenue comes from a tiny handful of its activities: mainly the searches people conduct when they're looking for something to buy. That money subsidizes all the other services the company offersthe classic \"let me Google that\" informational query (as opposed to the shopping query), Google Earth, driving directions, online storage for Gmail and Google Docs, the . . . YouTube video-hosting service. Structurally this is very much like the old newspaper bargain, in which the ad-crammed classified section, the weekly grocery-store pullout, and other commercial features underwrote state-house coverage and the bureau in Kabul. 12 ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? decline of newspapers, still has a large stake in seeing newspapers succeed online. Over the last ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? content business, they are dependent on news organizations to produce the quality information ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Today's converged media world has broken down the old definitions of distinct media forms like newspapers and televisionboth now available online and across multiple platforms. ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? expect to get their media in multiple placesand often for free. But the next challenge ahead in the new, converged world is to resolve who will pay for quality content and how that system will emerge. In the upcoming industry chapters, we take a closer look at how media convergence is affecting each industry in terms of both content production and business strategies. Media Convergence and Cultural Change The Internet and social media have led to significant changes in the ways we consume and engage ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? popular TV shows like the Cosby Show, A Different World, Cheers, or Roseanne at the time they originally aired. Such scheduling provided common media experiences at specific times within our culture. While we still watch TV shows, we are increasingly likely to do so at our own conve???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ingly making our media choices on the basis of Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter recommendations from friends. Or we upload our own mediafrom photos of last night's party to homemade videos of our lives, pets, and hobbiesto share with friends instead of watching \"mainstream\" programming. While these options allow us to connect with friends or family and give us more choices, they also break down shared media experiences in favor of our individual interests and pursuits. The ability to access many different forms of media in one place is also changing the ways we engage with and consume media. In the past, we read newspapers in print, watched TV on our televisions, and played video games on a console. Today, we are able to do all of those things on a computer, tablet, or smartphone, making it easyand very temptingto multitask. Media multitasking has led to growing media consumption, particularly for younger people. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study found that today's youthnow doing two or more things at oncepacked ten hours and forty-five minutes worth of media content into the seven and a half hours they spent daily consuming media.13 But while we might be consuming more media, are we really engaging with it? And are we really engaging with our friends when we communicate with them by texting or posting on Facebook? Some critics and educators feel that media multitasking means that we are more distracted, that we engage less with each type of media we consume, and that we often pay closer attention to the media we are using than to people immediately in our presence. However, media multitasking could have other effects. In the past, we would wait until the end of a TV program, if not until the next day, to discuss it with our friends. Now, with the proliferation of social media, and in particular Twitter, we can discuss that program with our Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 14___CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION 1 MASS COMMUNICATION friendsand with strangersas we watch the show. Many TV shows now gauge their popularity with audiences by how many people are \"live-tweeting\" it, and by how many related trending topics they have on Twitter. In fact, commenting on a TV show on social media grew by 194 percent between April 2011 and April 2012.14 This type of participation could indicate that audiences are in fact engaging more with the media they consume, even though they are multitasking. Some media critics even posit that having more choice actually makes us more engaged media consumers, because we have to actively choose the media we want to consume from the growing list of options. Stories: The Foundation of Media The stories that circulate in the media can shape a society's perceptions and attitudes. Throughout the twentieth century and during the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, for instance, courageous professional journalists covered armed conflicts, telling stories that helped the ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? television news stories on the Civil Rights movement led to crucial legislation that transformed the way many white people viewed the grievances and aspirations of African Americans. In the ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? loss of public support for the war. In the late 1990s, news and tabloid magazine stories about ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? behavior and public abuses of authority. In each of these instances, the stories told through a variety of media outlets played a key role in changing individual awareness, cultural attitudes, and public perception. While we continue to look to the media for narratives today, the kinds of stories we seek ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? 1940s, as many as ninety million people each week went to the movies on Saturday to take in a professionally produced double feature and a newsreel about the week's main events. In the ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? news or the scripted sitcoms and dramas written by paid writers and performed by seasoned actors. But in the digital age, where reality TV and social media now seem to dominate storytelling, many of the performances are enacted by \"ordinary\" people. Audiences are fascinated by the stories of finding love, relationships gone bad, and backstabbing friends on such shows as Jersey Shore, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and the Real Housewives series. Other reality shows like Pawn Stars, The Deadliest Catch, and My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding give us glimpses into the lives and careers of everyday people, while amateurs entertain us in singing, dancing, and cooking shows like The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, and Top Chef. While these shows are all professionally produced, the performers are almost all ordinary people (or celebrities and professionals performing alongside amateurs), which is part of the appeal of reality TVwe are better able to relate to the characters, or compare our lives against theirs, because they seem just like us. Online, many of us are entertaining each other with videos of our pets, Facebook posts about our achievements or relationship issues, photos of a good meal, or tweets about a funny thing that happened at work. This cultural blending of old and new ways of telling storiestold both by professionals and amateursis just another form of convergence that has disrupted and altered the media landscape in the digital era. More than ever, ordinary citizens are able to participate in, and have an effect on, the stories being told in the media. For example, in 2011 and 2012, professional news reports and amateur tweets and blog posts about the Occupy Wall Street protests across the United States and the world led to important debates over income disparity, capitalism and power, government, and modern democracy. In fact, without the videos, tweets, and blog posts from ordinary people, the Occupy Wall Street movement might not have gotten the news media coverage that it did. \"We tell ourselves stories in order to live.\" JOAN DIDION, THE WHITE ALBUM \"Stories matter, and matter deeply, because they are the best way to save our lives.\" FRANK MCCONNELL, STORYTELLING AND MYTHMAKING, 1979 Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 ???????????? ???????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ???????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????? __________????????????????????????????? ?????? ?? ??????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??? ??????????????????? ?? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?? ?? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????? ????????????????????? ??????????????????? ?????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????? ??????? ????????????? ??????????????????? ???????????????????? ????????????? ??????????????????? ??????????? ???????????????????????? ?????????????????????????? ????????????????? ??????????? ??????????? ????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 16___CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION 1 MASS COMMUNICATION The cultural concerns of classical philosophers are still with us. In the early 1900s, for example, newly arrived im???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? tated toward cultural events (such as boxing, vaudeville, and the emerging medium of silent film) whose enjoyment did ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? these popular events occasionally became a flash point for ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? lution, local politicians, religious leaders, and police vice squads, who not only resented the commercial success of immigrant culture but also feared that these \"low\" cultural forms would undermine what they saw as traditional American values and interests. In the United States in the 1950s, the emergence of television and rock and roll generated ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? stage for many of today's debates over hip-hop lyrics and television's influence, especially on ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? __________??????? Ed Sullivan Show. The public outcry against Presley's \"lascivious\" hip movements was so great that by the third show the camera operators were instructed to shoot the singer only from the waist up. In some communities, objections to Presley were motivated by class bias and racism. Many white adults believed that this \"poor white trash\" singer from Mississippi was spreading rhythm and blues, a \"dangerous\" form of black popular culture. Today, with the reach of print, electronic, and digital communications and the amount of time people spend consuming them (see Figure 1.1), mass media play an even more controversial role in society. Many people are critical of the quality of much contemporary culture and are concerned about the overwhelming amount of information now available. Many see popular media culture as unacceptably commercial and sensationalistic. Too many talk shows exploit personal problems for commercial gain, reality shows often glamorize outlandish behavior and sometimes dangerous stunts, and television research continues to document a connection between aggression in children and violent entertainment programs or video games. Children, who watch nearly forty thousand TV commercials each year, are particularly vulnerable to ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? educational salvation, has created confusion. Today, when kids announce that they are \"on the computer,\" many parents wonder whether they are writing a term paper, playing a video game, chatting on Facebook, or peering at pornography. Yet how much the media shape societyand how much they simply respond to existing cultural issuesis still unknown. Although some media depictions may worsen social problems, research has seldom demonstrated that the media directly cause our society's major afflictions. For instance, when a middle-school student shoots a fellow student over designer clothing, should society blame the ad that glamorized clothes and the network that carried the ad? Or are parents, teachers, and religious leaders failing to instill strong moral values? Or are economic and social issues involving gun legislation, consumerism, and income disparity at work as well? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ? bring about the tragedy, or is the ad symptomatic of a larger problem? With American mass media industries earning more than $200 billion annually, the eco????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? audiences, capturing their attention through stories, and taking their consumer dollars. To increase their revenues, media outlets try to influence everything from how people shop to how ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? surrounds us. Its impact, like the air, is often taken for granted. But to monitor that culture's FIGURE 1.1 DAILYMEDIA CONSUMPTION BY PLATFORM, 2010 (8- TO 18-YEAR-OLDS) Source: \"Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-year-olds,\" a Kaiser Family Foundation Study, p. 10, accessed May 24, 2010, http://www.kff.org/ entmedia/upload/8010.pdf. 32% On a TV 5% On a console videogame player 6% On a radio 6% Print 4% Movie theater 3% CDs 20% On a mobile device 25% On a computer Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION___17 \"air quality\"to become media literatewe must attend more thoughtfully to diverse media ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? Surveying the Cultural Landscape Some cultural phenomena gain wide popular appeal, and others do not. Some appeal to certain age groups or social classes. Some, such as rock and roll, jazz, and classical music, are popular worldwide; other cultural forms, such as Tejano, salsa, and Cajun music, are popular primarily in certain regions or ethnic communities. Certain aspects of culture are considered elite in one place (e.g., opera in the United States) and popular in another (e.g., opera in Italy). Though categories may change over time and from one society to another, two metaphors offer contrasting views about the way culture operates in our daily lives: culture as a hierarchy, represented by a skyscraper model, and culture as a process, represented by a map model. Culture as a Skyscraper Throughout twentieth-century America, critics and audiences perceived culture as a hierarchy with supposedly superior products at the top and inferior ones at the bottom. This can be imagined, in some respects, as a modern skyscraper. In this model, the top floors of the building house high culture, such as ballet, the symphony, art museums, and classic literature. The bottom floorsand even the basementhouse popular or low culture, including such icons as soap operas, rock music, radio shock jocks, and video games (see Figure 1.2). High culture, identified with \"good taste,\" higher education, and supported by wealthy patrons and corporate donors, is associated with \"fine art,\" which is available primarily in libraries, theaters, and museums. In contrast, low or popular culture is aligned with the \"questionable\" tastes of the masses, who enjoy the commercial \"junk\" circulated by the mass media, such as reality TV, celebrity gossip Web sites, and violent action films. Whether or not we agree with this cultural skyscraper model, the high-low hierarchy often determines or limits the ways in which we view and discuss culture today.?? Using this model, critics have developed at least five areas of concern about so-called low culture. An Inability to Appreciate Fine Art Some critics claim that popular culture, in the form of contemporary movies, television, and music, distracts students from serious literature and philosophy, thus stunting their imagination and undermining their ability to recognize great art. 19 This critical view pits popular culture against high art, discounting a person's ability to value Bach and the Beatles or Shakespeare and The Simpsons concurrently. The assumption is that because popular forms of culture are made for profit, they cannot be experienced as valuable artistic experiences in the same way as more elite art forms such as classical ballet, Italian opera, modern sculpture, or Renaissance paintingeven though many of what we regard as elite art forms today were once supported and even commissioned by wealthy patrons. A Tendency to Exploit High Culture Another concern is that popular culture exploits classic works of literature and art. A good ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Frankenstein?????????????????? Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 B y early 2012, as the United States withdrew its military forces from Iraq and the Afghanistan war continued into its eleventh year, journalistic coverage of Middle East war efforts had declined dramatically. This was partly due to news organizations' losing interest in an event when it drags on for a long time and becomes \"old news.\" The news media are often biased in favor of \"current events.\" But war reporting also declined because of the financial crisistwenty thousand reporters lost their jobs or took buyouts between 2009 and 2011 as papers cut staff to save money. In fact, many news organizations stopped sending reporters to cover the wars, depending instead on wire service reporters, foreign correspondents from other countries, or major news organizations Covering War like the New York Times or CNN for their coverage. Despite the decreasing coverage, the news media confront ethical challenges about the best way to cover the wars, including reporting on the deaths of soldiers, documenting drug abuse or the high suicide rate among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, dealing with First Amendment issues, and knowing what is appropriate for their audiences to view, read, or hear. When President Obama took office in 2009, he suspended the previous Bush administration ban on media coverage of soldiers' coffins returning to U.S. soil from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. First Amendment advocates praised Obama's decision, although after a flurry of news coverage of these arrivals in April 2009, media outlets quickly grew less interested as the wars dragged on. Later, though, the Obama administration upset some of the same First Amendment supporters when it withheld more prisoner and detainee abuse photos from earlier in the wars, citing concerns for the safety of current U.S. troops and fears of further inflaming anti-American opinion. Both issues one opening up news access and one EXAMINING ETHICS closing it downsuggest the difficult and often tense relationship between presidential administrations and the news media. In May 2011, these issues surfaced again when U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, long credited with perpetrating the 9/11 tragedy. As details of the SEAL operation began to emerge, the Obama administration weighed the appropriateness of releasing photos of bin Laden's body and video of his burial at sea. While some news organizations and First Amendment advocates demanded the release of the photos, the Obama administration ultimately decided against it, saying that they did not want to spur any further terrorist actions against the United States and its allies. Back in 2006, then-President George W. Bush criticized the news media for not showing enough \"good news\" about U.S. efforts to bring democracy to Iraq. Bush's remarks raised ethical questions about the complex relationship between the government and the news media during times of war: How much freedom should the news media have to cover a war? How much control, if any, should the military have IMAGES OF WAR The photos and images that news outlets choose to show greatly influence their audience members' opinions. In each of the photos below, what message about war is being portrayed? How much freedom do you think news outlets should have in showing potentially controversial scenes from war? Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 over reporting a war? Are there topics that should not be covered? These kinds of questions have also created ethical quagmires for local TV stations that cover war and its effects on communities where soldiers have been called to duty and then injured or killed. In one extreme case, the nation's largest TV station owner Sinclair Broadcast Groupwould not air the ABC News program Nightline in 2004 because it devoted an episode to reading the names of all U.S. soldiers killed in the Iraq war up to that time. Here is an excerpt from a New York Times account of that event: Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the largest owners of local television stations, will preempt tonight's edition of the ABC News program \"Nightline,\" saying the program's plan to have Ted Koppel [who then anchored the program] read aloud the names of every member of the armed forces killed in action in Iraq was motivated by an antiwar agenda and threatened to undermine American efforts there. The decision means viewers in eight cities, including St. Louis and Columbus, Ohio, will not see \"Nightline.\" ABC News disputed that the program carried a political message, calling it \"an expression of respect which simply seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for their country.\" But Mark Hyman, the vice president of corporate relations for Sinclair, who is also a conservative commentator on the company's newscasts, said tonight's edition of \"Nightline\" is biased journalism. \"Mr. Koppel's reading of the fallen will have no proportionality,\" he said in a telephone interview, pointing out that the program will ignore other aspects of the war effort. Mr. Koppel and the producers of \"Nightline\" said earlier this week that they had no political motivation behind the decision to devote an entire show, expanded to 40 minutes, to reading the names and displaying the photos of those killed. They said they only intended to honor the dead and document what Mr. Koppel called \"the human cost\" of the war.1 Given such a case, how might a local TV news director todayunder pressure from the station's manager or ownerformulate guidelines to help negotiate such ethical territory? While most TV news divisions have ethical codes to guide journalists' behavior in certain situations, could ordinary citizens help shape ethical discussions and decisions? Following is a general plan for dealing with an array of ethical dilemmas that media practitioners face and for finding ways in which nonjournalists might participate in this decision-making process. Arriving at ethical decisions is a particular kind of criticism involving several steps. These include (1) laying out the case; (2) pinpointing the key issues; (3) identifying the parties involved, their intents, and their potentially competing values; (4) studying ethical models and theories; (5) presenting strategies and options; and (6) formulating a decision or policy.2 As a test case, let's look at how local TV news directors might establish ethical guidelines for war-related events. By following the six steps above, our goal is to make some ethical decisions and to lay the groundwork for policies that address TV images or photographsfor example, those of protesters, supporters, memorials, or funeralsused in war coverage. (See Chapter 13 for details on confronting ethical problems.) Examining Ethics Activity As a class or in smaller groups, design policies that address one or more of the issues raised above. Start by researching the topic; find as much information as possible. For example, you can research guidelines that local stations already use by contacting local news directors and TV journalists. Do they have guidelines? If so, are they adequate? Are there certain types of images they will not show? If the Obama administration had released photographic evidence of bin Laden's death, should a local station show it? Finally, if time allows, send the policies to various TV news directors and/or station managers; ask for their evaluations and whether they would consider implementing the policies. How much freedom should the news media have to cover war? Bedford/St. Martin's - ISBN 9781457628313 20___CHAPTER 1 MASS COMMUNICATION 1 MASS COMMUNICATION Finnegans Wake ballet Verdi's Ada New York Times Miles Davis Meet the Press Modern Family Harry Potter The Office (U.S. version) The Colbert Report Star Wars The Avengers Super Bowl Rolling Stones Nintendo Wii Dancing with the Stars Fifty Shades of Grey Lil' Wayne Jersey Shore Grand Theft Auto ultimate fighting Hamlet Emily Dickinson poem High Culture Low Culture National Gallery of Art Beethoven symphony Citizen Kane Mad Men Mary Shelley's Frankenstein National Public Radio The Office (British version) Lady Gaga Glee Twilight The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Adele TMZ.com CNN Wheel of Fortune The Voice paparazzi coverage of Lindsay Lohan The Real Housewives of New Jersey FIGURE 1.2 CULTURE AS A SKYSCRAPER Culture is diverse and