1. Mass Media in a Changing World
4th Edition
George Rodman
Brooklyn College of CUNY
HISTORY
INDUSTRY
CONTROVERIES
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2. Chapter 1 MEDIA IN A CHANGING WORLD Chapter Outline Media Literacy
Basic Terms
History
Industry
Controversies
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3. Media Literacy
Media Literacy: The ability to understand and make productive use of the media in one’s life.
It involves understanding the effect media can have on oneself, and on the society around you.
For some, media literacy is the difference between being victimized and being in control of media’s influence.
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4. Media Literacy
Media Criticism: The analysis used to assess the effects of media on individuals, on societies, and on cultures.
Media criticism doesn’t necessarily have to be negative, but it does have to consist of analysis based on well-reasoned argument.
Using media is something most people will do for the rest of their lives, so the prospect of making that use more meaningful is often compelling.
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5. Media Literacy Career Preparation Learn how to use media.
Study careers in the media spotlight such as a newscaster or reporter.
Research behind-the-scenes employment in film production, book editing, advertising, Web site creation or scores of other careers.
Non-media careers may have a media component.
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6. Media Literacy The Critic vs. The Practitioner
Media professionals often find criticism unduly harsh and unrealistic.
Media critics often find the bottom-line approach of professionals simplistic and detrimental to society.
Students should reach own conclusion about which side is right in each controversy.
Important to analyze media through well-informed critical thinking.
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7. Basic Terms Communication
The term communication has many meanings, and has been used to refer to interaction between animals and machines as well as among people.
Communication refers to the process of human beings sharing messages.
Messages might be entertainment, information, or persuasion; they might be verbal or visual, intentional or unintentional.
Messages might also have a different meaning to the people sending them than they do to those who receive them.
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8. Basic Terms Communication
Interpersonal communication usually refers to individuals interacting face-to-face, and includes the study of intrapersonal communication, or thought patterns that make up internal conversations we have with ourselves.
Feedback: is defined as messages that return from the receiver of a message to the source of that message.
Noise: is defined as anything that interferes with the communication process.
These terms were originated by mathematicians working on formulas for types of electronic communication.
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9. Basic Model of Human Communication
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10. Basic Terms Mediated Communication
Messages conveyed through a medium rather than face-to-face.
Media is the plural form of medium.
It refers collectively to print media (books, magazines, and newspapers); broadcast (television and radio); digital (new media, including the Internet, cell phones and computer-based technology); and entertainment (all of these plus movies, recordings, and video games).
Experts believe that when media is used in the singular, such usage is not only grammatically incorrect but also suggests a lack of understanding about how diverse the various media are.
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11. Basic Terms Mediated Communication
Experts believe that when media is used in the singular, such usage is not only grammatically incorrect but also suggests a lack of understanding about how diverse the various media are.
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12. Basic Terms Mass Communication
Mediated messages transmitted to large, usually widespread audiences.
Differs from interpersonal communication as it allows little or no contact or interaction between the sender of the message and individual audience members.
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13. Basic Terms
Sponsors, editors, producers, reporters, and media executives are gatekeepers who determine what messages will be delivered, how they will be constructed and when they will be delivered.
These messages are shaped by a wide range of economic, ethical, and legal considerations.
Mass communication has the potential for far greater impact than interpersonal communication.
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14. Traditional Model of Mass Communication
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15. Basic Terms Mediated Interpersonal Communication
The sharing of personal messages through some form of interposed device (communication via the telephone, , text messages etc.)
Does not involve face-to-face contact.
Differs from mass communication; messages don’t go out to a large audience, not produced by professionals, and it allows a considerable amount of interaction and feedback.
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16. Basic Terms Converging Communication Media
Convergence is the merging of technologies, industries, and content.
The convergence of technologies refers to the merging of computer, telephone, and mass media technologies, such as BlackBerries and iPhones.
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17. Basic Terms Converging Communication Media
The convergence of industries refers to the idea of corporate mergers that allow companies to combine their media technologies, such as a cable TV company acquiring Internet and telephone divisions.
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18. Basic Terms Converging Communication Media
The convergence of content is a natural extension of technological convergence.
It involves the bringing together of mediated interpersonal messages, including telephone and , with the messages of traditional mass communication, such as text and television e.g. the social networking site Facebook.
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19. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Online Media Model of Communication
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20. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
American Dominance of World Media
Freedom of Expression has Worldwide Appeal
Freedom of expression in the U.S. allows a wide range of movies, books, and other media products to be created on a variety of topics, with limited interference by the government.
The American notion of freedom has been embraced internationally.
When children are exposed to violence and pornography many critics consider media freedom in the U.S. to be a mixed blessing.
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21. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
American Dominance of World Media
Producing for a Diverse Audience
U.S. media producers make products for a diverse audience that incorporates a wide range of backgrounds and tastes.
Media producers have increasingly involved people with different backgrounds in production decisions; as movies, books and recordings etc. must be sold to various ethnic, racial, and religious minorities.
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22. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
American Dominance of World Media
Big Business and Popular Entertainment
The big-business structure of the American economy makes it possible to finance and produce expensive media products.
Critics contend that these impressive budgets do not always correlate to high quality.
Media practitioners point out they seem to produce the most popular entertainment worldwide.
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23. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Cultural Imperialism
Many countries accuse the U.S. of cultural imperialism, i.e. the displacement of their traditional culture with American culture.
A fear of cultural imperialism is often blamed for anti-Americanism overseas.
One expert stated that American movies “are seen by a lot of foreign countries as the ultimate propaganda weapon, and a device to corrupt their cultures”.
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24. Milestones in Media History timeline
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25. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Foreign Media in the U.S.
Foreign companies have purchased a considerable portion of U.S. media.
French, Italian and Chinese films, among others, are often of exceptional quality and inspire American directors.
British pop groups and British television have been extremely influential in the U.S.
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26. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Reasons for Corporate Media Growth
Economies of scale are the savings that come with mass production.
Synergy refers to any combination of forces that results in a whole that is more than the sum of its parts.
Comcast merged with NBC Universal in 2009 in order to combine its expertise in cable and Internet systems with NBC’s television programs and movie studios.
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27. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Not all plans for synergy work out.
AOL merged with Time-Warner for the synergies that would result when AOL’s Internet experts began working with Time-Warner’s information and entertainment experts.
The merger cost stockholders billions of dollars as AOL’s business lost value and Time-Warner could do nothing to help it.
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28. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Cross merchandizing, or cross promotion, is another form of synergy.
Movie studios buy publishing houses so they can sell their stories in both movie and print form.
Television networks purchase much of their programming from movie studios.
Radio stations are largely dependent upon recorded music.
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29. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Global Competition Favors Larger Companies
Most movies, books, records, and television programs lose money.
Most new magazines fail within a year or two.
New products have to be developed constantly.
When a product becomes a moneymaker the corporation has to exploit it in as many markets as possible.
Google’s success as the Internet search engine of choice allows it to develop applications like Google Books that is years from profitability.
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30. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Groups and Chains
One way that media companies grow is through group ownership (also called chain ownership).
Many newspapers, television and radio stations, movie studios and movie theaters are part of a group where one company owns the same type of medium in more than one market area.
Conglomerates are large companies involved in many different types of businesses.
Most conglomerates form in various ways, including vertical and horizontal integration.
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31. Vertical Integration
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32. Horizontal Integration
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33. Media Conglomerates
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34. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Media and Governments Around the World
In communist countries such as China, North Korea, and Cuba the media is owned and operated by the government.
The great majority of countries in the world have either a government-owned or government-controlled media system.
The Libertarian system calls for media to be privately-owned and to be free of government control.
The U.S. has a mixed model in which most media are privately-owned but regulated by the government.
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35. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
The U.S. Model
The American media and the government are interrelated in three important ways:
Government regulation
Involves some level of censorship (any action that prohibits an act of expression from being made public)
Adversarial relationship
The role of the media which follows different objectives of those in power. American media as a fourth estate… the 5th estate.
Elections
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37. Current State of World Media
What are your thoughts on media in the US?
How free (speech-wise) is our media?
Reporters Without Borders, newest chart
Very serious situation, difficult situation, noticeable situation, satisfactory situation, & good situation
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38. Copyright ® 2012. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

39. Understanding Today’s Media Industries
Media and the Audience
Writers, editors, directors and producers might have a particular message in mind but the audience decides what the final meaning is.
All media products survive by audience preference.
Audience acceptance establishes new technology.
Audience members wield power when they band together as consumer groups.
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40. Media Controversies
Impact issues deal with how the media affect society and how they affect individuals within society.
Legal issues deal with media practices that are governed by law such as libel, invasion of privacy, and antitrust actions.
Ethical issues deal with the idea of whether certain media practices are right or wrong from a moral point of view.
Impact, legal, and ethical issues are related.
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