Communication
130
Mass Media & Society
Professor
Joseph Turow
What will we be doing here?
3 major aims of the course:
Help you to
understand to way mass media operate in U.S. society.
Discuss the controversies surrounding their
activities
Help those interested in mass-media careers to
understand the fundamentals of media industries.
Here is one
articulation of anger about the media.
Couch Potato
Another form of controversy--
Music
Outkast—N2U
Understanding media industries means learning a new
vocabulary.
You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long
cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.
And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive
them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
–Albert Einstein, physicist, when asked to describe
radio
“Multiscreen situations
are expected to bring the
print count to somewhere between 5,000 and 5, 500…Sources put the
P&A expenses of the Mike Meyers starrer somewhere north of $40
million. That expense was offset by fees
from a long list of licensing partners, many of whom are also ponying up big bucks for ad buys.”
Examples
of vocabulary:
“La Opinion also has taken a more aggressive role to
change its advertisement programs. Along
with its peers in the industry, it’s providing more promotional packages,
community event sponsorships, pre-prints, inserts and ROP alternatives.”
“Publishers who actively manage and use multiple
networks report (somewhat) higher average intermediary CPMs
.” - Bain and Company report
“…there
has been a
sharp spike in
quarterly scatter pricing,
which has driven two years of high Upfront CPM inflation
as buyers look
to lock in
inventory ahead of
the scatter market.”
– Michael Nathanson, Bernstein report
What will we be doing?
Learning vocabulary of the media business
Conducting a basic review of the media system and
media industries comprising it
Trying to understand possible social consequences of
media and arguments about them
Constructing a framework for understanding the present and the
future
What’s
the layout of the course?
Look at the
reading list:
Tests and Paper
3 Tests
1 paper
The Teaching Fellows
Brooke Duffy
Heidi Khaled
Ranjeeta Paul
Joel Penney
Points to
remember:
Come to
class.
Read the text
carefully.
Take good
notes.
Defining mass communication:
Why do it?
Joseph Dominick’s Definition
vs. Joseph Turow’s Definition
Dominick:
The process by which a complex organization with the aid of one or more
machines produces and transmits
public messages that are directed at
large, heterogeneous and scattered audiences.
Turow:
The industrialized production or multiple distribution of messages through
technological devices.
Dominick’s notion
of mass comes
from “large”
Dominick definition emphasizes:
complex organization
technology
public
large
heterogeneous
scattered
Turow’s definition of mass comes from
“mass production”
Leaves
open size and nature of audience
Turow definition emphasizes
industry
production and distribution
technology
The new media world challenges both definitions.
What
of MySpace
YouTube
Flickr
Now for the Waiting List----