Juan Monroy — Contemporary Media Today

Elements of Communication
- Source
- Encoding
- Transmitter
- Channel
- Receiver
- Decoding
- Feedback
- Noise
Communication Media
- Mediated/Medium/Media
- What is a communication medium?
- literally means between something
  - sender
  - receiver
  - e.g., a written note is a communication medium
- The word media is a plural of medium
  - “A medium is…”
  - “Media are…”
Mediated interpersonal communication
Levels of Communication
- intrapersonal: with ourselves
- interpersonal: two persons
- group: three or more persons
- small group: < 12 people
- large group: 12 - 1000s
- mass communication: mass of people
Mass communication
- Industrial nature of the communication process
- industrialized production and multiple distribution of messages through technological devices
- Mass media outlets: companies that send out messages via mass media
- mass media audiences
  - large
  - geographically disperse
  - diverse
  - anonymous
One-to-many
- mass media
- newspapers, radio, television, film
- produced by gatekeeper
- widest possible audiences
- industrialization of culture
Peer-to-peer
- interact with each other
- social media
- challenges SMCR model
- line between consumers and producers is blurred
- create, share, connect
Digitalization
- a signal encoded in binary
- transmitted over a computerized network
- decoded and consumed
- has impacted a variety of communications media
Media Convergence: three Cs
- Convergence
- Contents
- Corporations
- Computers are digital
  - Analog
  - Digital
Multimedia Convergence
- graphics
- text
- video
- audio
- all in a single device/signal/platform
Digital Media
- binary data
- less susceptible to interference
- compressed
Interactive Media
- two-way communication
- Turing Test
- departs from classical Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver model
Social Media
- users contribute content of their own
- strip away the middleman
- walled gardens
- examples
  - Facebook
  - YouTube
  - blogs
  - Twitter
Asynchronous Media
- synchronous: same time
- asynchronous: not at the same time
- time shifting
- examples
  - DVRs
  - binge watching
  - podcasting
Audience Fragmentation
- mass media: largest possible audience
- narrowcasting: specific audiences
  - subgroups
  - market segments
Contemporary Media and Digitalization
- Telephone
  - introduction of digital equipment, 1962
  - analog - digital - analog
  - today telephone transmissions are mostly computer data
- Print Media
  - computer code
  - analog page
  - proliferation of screens and ereaders
- Film
  - special visual and sonic effects
  - computer generated visuals
  - storage on DVD and Blu-ray disks
  - transmitted via streaming
- Video Games
  - arcade and home consoles
  - personal computers
  - handheld devices
  - less games and more like interactive movies
- Sound Recordings
  - personal computers replacing large recording studios
  - compact disks, 1982
  - Napster, 1999
  - streaming services today
- Cable TV
  - direct-to-home wired connections
  - direct broadcast satellites, 1995
  - digital cable, 1998, enabling more channel capacity and interactive services
- Broadcasting
  - HDTV increased visual resolution
  - HD radio
  - Internet TV distribution
Material covered in the textbook but not in class
People use media in four ways:
- Relationship to what is known as the uses and gratifications theory
- Enjoyment
  - Social currency: the use of “coins” of exchange in everyday personal discussions
- Companionship
  - parasocial interaction: psychological connections that some media users establish with celebrities.
- Surveillance
  - what is happening in the world
- Interpretation
  - why things are happening, what actions we should take
How do Mass Media Influence Culture?
- Culture
  - ways of life that are passed on to members of a society through time and keep the society together
- Society
  - large numbers of individuals, groups, organizations that live in the same general area and consider themselves connected to one another through the sharing of culture
- Subculture
  - groups with habits that many people in a society would consider odd and unusual but not threatening…
Mass Media and Culture:
- Identify and discuss the codes of acceptable behavior
- Learn what and who counts in our world and why
- Determine what others thing of us and what people “like us” thing of others.
Criticisms of Mass Media’s Influence on Culture:
- Mass Media Create Stereotypes
  - predictable depictions that reflect and create cultural prejudices
- Mass Media Instill Political ideologies
  - beliefs about who should hold the greatest power within a culture and why.
- Mass media encourage political and economic manipulation of their audiences.
Media Literacy:
- Think in an educated manner about the forces that shape the media and your relationship with them so that you better evaluate what you see and hear.
- Literacy
  - the ability to effectively comprehend and use messages that are expressed in written and printed symbols
- Media literacy
  - the ability to apply critical thinking skills to the mass media, thereby becoming a more aware and responsible citizen—parent, voter, worker—in our media-driven society
Six characteristics of a Media Literate Person
- knowledgeable about the influences that guide media organizations,
- up-to-date on political issues relating to the media,
- sensitive to ways of seeing media content as a means of learning about culture,
- sensitive to the ethical dimensions of media activities,
- knowledgeable about scholarship regarding media effects, and
- able to enjoy media materials in a sophisticated manner.
Media Literate Approaches
- The Media Construct Our Individual Realities
  - Cultivation
- The Media are Influenced by Industrial Pressures
  - Political economy
- The Media are Influenced by Political Pressures
  - political economy
  - governmentality
- The Media are Influenced by Format
  - media specificity
  - what about the format of this medium influences the content?
- Audiences are Active Recipients of the Media
  - audiences and popular culture
- The Media Tell Us about Who We Are as a Society
  - anthropology
  - sociology
Media Literacy Tools (graphic):
- Consider authorship
- Evaluate the audience
- Determine the institutional purpose
- Analyze the Content
- Identify the Creative Techniques
Some Perspectives Gained from Media Literate Approach to How Media Operates:
- considerate of effect of media conglomerates
- attention to portrayals of sex and violence
- influence of audience segmentation in content and on culture
- concerned about user privacy
- tracks relationship global media and local contexts, laws, customs, and culture