Here are some of the main points/themes/discussions in Campbell that you should study and know for chapters 1,5,6,16,13 and 4. I am listing the chapters in the rough order you were asked to read them.
Ch.1: Mass Communication: A Critical Approach
Definitions of culture, mass media and mass communication
1) Culture: symbols of expression that individuals, groups, and societies use to make sense of daily life and to articulate their values
2) Mass Media: the cultural industries – the channels of communication – that produce and distribute songs, novels, newspapers, movies, Internet services, and other cultural products to large numbers of people
3) Mass communication: the process of designing cultural messages and stories and delivering them to large and diverse audiences through media channels (books, internet, etc)
Importance of the printing press
1. Machine duplication allowed them to move on from hand copying 2. Duplication could be done quickly
3. Books became more affordable since they were produced more quickly 4. Gave people a sense of country interests rather than local or regional 5. Fostered nationalism and nourished the idea of individualism
Media Convergence
1) The electronic and digital age have converged to usher in the age of media convergence: 2 definitions
(1) Technological merging of content in different mass media (ex. Magazine articles and radio programs accessible on the internet)
(2) Cross-platform: a business model that involves consolidating various media holdings under one corporate umbrella (to better manage resources and
maximize profits)
2) Convergence limits the range of perspectives from which stories are told and makes bias more influential
The linear model of mass communication and criticisms of this model
1) Senders transmit messages through a mass media channel to large groups of receivers
2) Gatekeepers function as message filters 3) Allows for feedback
4) Problem – media messages do not usually move smoothly from sender to receiver
Culture as a skyscraper
Hierarchy of culture (modern skyscraper) – 5 areas of concern about low culture a) An inability to appreciate fine art
c) A throw-away ethic
d) A diminished audience for high culture
e) Inhibiting political discourse and social change Tendencies in “postmodern” culture
4 major features that resonate best with changes across media and culture in the “postmodern” era: populism, diversity, nostalgia, paradox
a) POPULISM: appeal to ordinary people by highlighting or setting up a conflict between “the people” and “the elite” (favor people over corporations)
b) DIVERSITY: worlds juxtaposition of old and new cultural styles
c) NOSTALGIA: raise doubts about scientific reasoning, some say science lays the groundwork for bureaucratic problems
d) PARADOX: integrate retro styles with current beliefs, but embrace new technologies with vengeance
Definition/understanding of Media Literacy
Developing media literacy requires following a critical process ->
a) Description – paying close attention, taking notes, researching the subject under study
b) Analysis – discovering and focusing on significant patterns that emerge from the description phase
c) Interpretation – asking and answering the “what does that mean?” and “so what?” questions
d) Evaluation – arriving at a judgment about whether something is good, bad, or mediocre, which involves subordinating one’s personal taste to the critical assessment of the first stages
i) Can grasp the strengths and weaknesses and make critical judgments ii) Differentiates the views from the critic
e) Engagement – taking some action that connects our critical perspective with our role as citizens to question our media institutions, adding our own voice to the process of shaping the cultural environment
Ch. 5: Television and the Power of Visual Culture
What have been the debates about television’s positive versus negative impact? Positive impact:
1) Common ground for society Negative impact:
1) Accused of having a negative impact on children and young people 2) Faced calls for reform during political campaigns
a) Sustains a sharply partisan, outmoded two-party political system because of the money earned from serious candidates buying advertising to get elected Quiz Show scandals and their impact
a) Cheap to produce and offered the corporate sponsor the opportunity to have its name displayed throughout the program
b) Most shows were rigged – contestants were rehearsed and given answers c) Impact of quiz show scandals:
i) Put an end to any role sponsors might have in creating TV content
ii) Fraud undermined Americans’ expectation of the democratic promise of TV – to bring inexpensive info and entertainment to households (no longer trusted the TV)
iii) Magnified the separation between the privileged few and the general public
iv) Renamed game shows in order to make a comeback and were now non-network, non-prime-time, independently produced programs
Rise of TV News
Audiences watching the network news contributed to the eventual demise of almost all large afternoon daily newspapers
1) News delivery came to be seen less as a public service and more as a for-profit enterprise
2) The cutbacks would hamper the networks’ ability to cover global stories and international terrorism adequately before and after 9/11
3) 60 minutes premiered the TV newsmagazine which usually featured three stories per episode
TV genres: situation comedy, domestic comedy, anthology dramas, chapter shows, serial programs
1) Situation comedy – features a recurring cast, and each episode establishes a situation, complicates it, develops increasing confusion among its characters and then resolves the complications
2) Domestic comedy – characters and settings are usually more important than complicated predicaments
a) Main emphasis is how the characters react to one another 3) Anthology dramas – bring live dramatic theater to TV audience
a) Advertisers disliked them because they confronted complex problems that weren’t easily resolved and the commercials would tell upbeat, simple stories so their commercials seemed false
i) Sponsors and ad agencies demanded more input into scripts
b) There was also a change in audience from rich people who enjoyed plays to ordinary people
c) Expensive to produce
d) Many social landscapes were considered “politically controversial” 4) Chapter shows – self-contained stories that feature a problem, a series of
conflicts, and a resolution
a) Serial programs – open-ended episodic shows i) Cheaper to produce since they need less sets
iii) Hybrid – mixed comic situations and grim plots
Causes for decline of the network era—independent stations, VCRs and time shifting, Tivo and other “black box” technologies, cable
1) Network era (late 1950s-end of 1970s) -> CBS, NBC, ABC dictated virtually every trend in prime-time programming
2) Technological developments contributed significantly a) Arrival of communication satellite services for cable TV b) Home video market
3) Government regulations temporarily restrict network control
a) Prime Time Access Rule – reduced network control over prime time programming from 4 to 3 hours
b) Financial Interest and Syndication Rules (fin-syn) – banned the networks from benefitting from production companies for prime-time runs
c) 1975 – Department of Justice limited the networks’ production of non-news shows, requiring them to seek most of their programming from independent production companies and film studios
d) FCC gradually phased out the ban limited network production
Fin-syn rules
banned the networks from benefitting from production companies for prime-time runs
Targeting the youth market Rating/share
1) Rating – statistical estimate expressed as the percent of households tuned to a program in the market being sampled
2) Share – statistical estimate of the percent of homes tuned to a specific program compared with those using their sets at the time of the sample
a) Good measures during fringe time when most TVs are turned off
Ch. 6: Cable and the Specialization of Television
Evolution of cable TV
1) CATV (community antenna television) was the first small cable system a) Served about 10% of the country
b) Eliminated over-the-air interference and increased channel capacity 2) 1950s – Soviet Union and US sent satellites in orbit around the earth 3) 1960 – AT&T launched Telstar – first communication satellite capable of
receiving, amplifying, and returning signals
b) By mid 1990s, satellites could last more than 15 years, 48 transponder c) Advances with satellites created a reliable system for the distribution of
programming to cable companies across the nation
d) First network to use satellites for regular transmission was HBO followed by the Turned Broadcasting Service and CNN
Must-carry rules
1) Required all cable operators to assign channels to and carry all local TV broadcasts on their systems
2) Ensured that local networks affiliates, independent stations, and public TV channels would benefit form the cable’s clearer reception
3) Guidelines limited the number of distant commercial TV signals to protect regional TV stations
Access Channels
1) Required cable systems to carry their own original programming AKA operators of cable systems were forced to provide and fund a tier of nonbroadcast
channels dedicated to local education, government, and the public
2) FCC required large-market cable operators to assign separate channels for each access service, while cable operators in smaller markets could combine channels 3) FCC also called for leased channels where citizens could buy time to produce
their own programs or present controversial views Telecommunications Act of 1996, and its effect on cable
1) Brought cable fully under the federal rules that had long governed the telephone, radio, and TV industries
2) Used it to known down regulatory barriers allowing companies from different markets to enter one another’s markets
3) Congress hoped it would spur competition and lower phone and cable rates but it has not usually happened
4) Impact on customers – cable rates have risen faster than rates of inflation 5) Gave companies the ability to offer the “triple play”
Narrowcasting
1) Providing specialized programming for diverse and fragmented groups
a) Cable programs provide access to specific target audiences that cannot be guaranteed in broadcasting
Influence of CNN
1) Emerged as a major news competitor during the Gulf War, before that it was perceived as a joke “Chicken Noodle Network”
2) Aimed to put news first, refusing to make news anchors into celebrities a) Was able to deliver more timely news in greater detail since it wasn’t
compressed into a ½ hour
c) Made a big impact on international news coverage while other networks were shutting them down
MTV’s business strategies—exclusive rights to videos, launching VH1, development of programming beyond music videos
1) Exclusive rights to videos – paid record companies for the exclusive rights to the most popular music videos
2) Launching VH1 – sought control over music video distribution and exhibition so they launched VH1 which was geared toward parents of MTV watchers
3) Development of programming beyond music videos – shifted toward original programming in the 1990s to provide advertisers with more regular audiences during specific viewing times
a) This infuriated viewers so they launched MTV2 to show music videos Rise of DBS: Cable without wires
1) Two US-based DBS companies: DirecTV and DISH Network
a) Offer consumers most of the channels and tiers of service that cable companies carry, sometimes at a slightly lower monthly cost
b) Can carry between 350 and 500 basic, premium, and pay-per-view channels which can be purchased in various packages
2) Pros
a) Digital technology has generally been superior to standard cable and broadcast signals
b) Ability to give subscribers nationwide access to more professional sports leagues
3) Cons
a) Early on subscribers had to use a local cable company or TV antennas to get the local PBS, independent, and broadcast network programming
b) Initially also couldn’t bundle high-speed internet and phone service with video programming, but by 2007 this changed
Ch. 13: Media Economics and the Global Marketplace
Monopoly/Oligopoly
1) Monopoly – a single firm dominates production and distribution in a particular industry, either nationally or locally
2) Oligopoly – just a few firms dominate an industry Telecommunications Act of 1996 and deregulation The Escalation of Deregulation (under Reagan)
1) Led to easier mergers, corporate diversification, and increased tendencies in some sectors toward oligopolies
3) FCC rules were relaxed in 2007 – modified the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule which allowed a company located in a Top 20 market to own one TV station and one newspaper as long as there were at least 8 TV stations in the market (battle still going on)
Consolidation and Media mergers
1) Antitrust rules attempted to ensure diversity of ownership among competing businesses, but media competition had been seized by media consolidation 2) Most media companies skirted monopoly charges by purchasing diverse types of
mass media rather than trying to control one medium “Synergy”
The promotion and sale of different versions of a media product across the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate
Cultural Imperialism
American media are shaping the cultures and identities of other nations Debates about media mergers and democracy
1) Because of the growing consolidation of mass media, it has become increasingly difficult to sustain a public debate on economic issues
a) Politicians spend record amount during each election period to get their ads on the air
2) Media and multinational media corporations will continue to control more aspects of production and distribution -> have the capacity to use major news resources to promote their products and determine national coverage
Chapter 15: Media Effects (She didn’t put this one on this study sheet but said in her announcement that its on the test so I just did it)
Payne Studies
1) Social psychology studies measure the behavior and cognition of inidividuals 2) Studies linked frequent movie attendance to juvenile delinquency, promiscuity,
and other antisocial behaviors
a) Concluded that films could be dangerous for young children and might foster sexual promiscuity among teenagers
Proprietary Research?
Findings of the National Television Violence Study
1) Exposure to violence in the media can increase aggressive behavior in children, at least in the short term
2) Identified a number of prime-time broadcast shows with violent content 3) Difficult to deal with tv violence
a) Problem of defining violent content
c) Issue of free speech
d) Nearly all partiers have fallen short in using existing tools to deal with violence even though most say theres too much
e) Still a significant question that such effects exist Hypodermic Needle Model
The hypodermic-needle model – concept of powerful media affecting weak audiences
Selective Exposure/Selective Retention
People engage in selective exposure and selective retention
AKA they choose what they want to be exposed to and then choose what they want to remember
Uses and Gratifications Model
used in-depth interviews to supplement survey questionnaires and asked the “why” question, but the answers were never really used for anything so it was not usually used
Content Analysis
1) Content analysis – systematic method of coding and measuring media content a) Limits: does not measure the effects of the messages on audiences and
doesn’t explain how those messages are presented, problems of definition Agenda Setting
when the mass media focus their attention on particular events or issues, they determine the major topics of discussion for individuals and society
Cultivation Effect
1) The cultivation effect – the heavy viewing of TV leads individuals to perceive the world in ways that are consistent with TV portrayals
a) Media messages interact in complicated ways with personal, social, political, and cultural factors
b) Provides limited evidence for findings and studies are very minimal Cultural Studies Approaches to Media Research
1) Early developments in cultural studies research
a) Early criticism of the media came from the Frankfurt School which pointed to at least 3 inadequacies of traditional scientific approaches to media research i) Reduced large “cultural questions” to measurable and “verifiable
categories”
ii) Depended on “an atmosphere of rigidly enforced neutrality”
iv) Did not completely reject the usefulness of measuring and counting data, but said that cultural approaches were also necessary to focus critical attention on the long-range effects of the mass media on audiences 2) Contemporary cultural studies theories
a) Textual analysis – highlights the close reading and interpretation of cultural messages, including those found in books, movies, and TV programs
i) Looks at rituals, narratives, and meaning
ii) 1974- Horace Newcomb’s book TV: The Most Popular Art became the first serious academic book to analyze TV shows
(1) Studied why certain programs and formats became popular iii) Before that textual analysis focused only on “important” or highly
regarded works of art – debates, films, books, poems
b) Audience studies (reader-response research) – focuses on how people use and interpret cultural context
i) Subject being researched is the audience for the text, not the text ii) Janice Radway’s research helped to define culture in broad terms, as
being made up of both the products a society fashions and the processes that forge these products
c) Political economy studies – focuses on the production of popular culture and the forces behind it
i) Specifically examines interconnections among economic interests, political power, and how that power is used
ii) Concerns: increasing conglomeration of media ownership so that
production of media content is controlled by fewer organizations, giving these companies more power
iii) Works best when combined with textual analysis and audience studies 3) Evaluating cultural studies research – involves interpreting written and visual
“texts” or artifacts as symbolic representations that contain cultural, historical, and political meaning rather than media effects research
a) Strengths: freedom it affords to broadly interpret the impact of the mass media
b) Limits: sometimes studies focus exclusively on meaning of media programs and ignore their effect on audiences
c) Now media effects and cultural studies researchers borrow from each other since both have limitations
Textual Analysis
