Comm 1301 Exam 1 Review- Dr. Beth Olsen, UH Chapter 1:- Multi-media tasking: 1. How much time is spent with media each day? 39% of waking hours (2/3)2. Symbiotic relationship between media and audience (personal dependence, information, etc.)? Someone who occasionally goes cold turkey and abstains from exposure to mass media (short lived). We are dependent on media- and visa-versa because what would be the purpose of a radio station if no one listened. Personal dependence: We need media for news and information, entertainment, amusement/diversion, and exchange of ideas (modern life would be impossible without media- i.e. weather, threats/warnings, etc. Media dependence: We need media, but media also needs an audience (this is the interdependence-symbiosis) to survive financially, publishers need readers, movies need viewers, etc. We live in an environment that interconnects with mass media- interdependence is a fact of modern life.(Symbiosis- mutually advantageous relationship)3. Audience fragmentation? The effect of mass media on society is changing. In the early days TV show and radio programs beamed at everyone. Despite cultural differences, we all watched the same thing which resulted in cultural cohesion. Today, that audience is fragmenting and the cultural cohesion is breaking apart. Media companies are constantly experimenting to find niche audiences. 4. Implications of demassification/digitalization? Media companies shifted many of their products from seeking the largest possible audience to focusing on audience segments. The radio industry realized they couldn’t compete with TV, so they began focusing on sub-mass audiences (or niche audiences) so they were no longer concerned with universal appeal, but audience niches (thus, there are so many different genres today). Technology allowed cable TV to deliver dozens of channels. These channels, while national, were taking the demassified course of magazines and gearing programs to audience niches- sports fans, food lovers, etc. 5. Unification? Media literacy can provide an overview of mass media’s effect on society and culture. A sweeping effect of mass media has been a cultural unifier. The mass media bind communities with messages that become a shared experience. (Think super bowl, 9/11, hurricane Katrina, etc.)6. Role of audience, distance, and feedback in mass communication? Audience: Some broad, some narrow- who you are targeting; sitcoms for example, seek MEGA audiences: female, male, young, old, religious, non-religious. Distance: Mass audience is far away, but not with interpersonal/group communication. Even video conferences (although far away) are NOT mass communication, but a form of group communication. Feedback: Mass audience generally lacks opportunity for immediate feedback, but in interpersonal communication there is immediate feedback.7. Social Media: know definitions/terms- Media literacy- possessing the knowledge to be competent in assessing messages carried by mass media (enable people to analyze and evaluate media messages). Linguistic literacy- competencies with a written and spoken language; today, it’sa measure of modern civilization as economic production and prosperity- all interconnected. Visual literacy- A competency at deciphering meaning from messages. --John Debes- introduced term ‘visual literacy’ in 1969. --Scott McCloud- comic book author who refined understandings about visual media Film literacy- Competences to assess messages in motion media, such as movies, TV and video- deepens experience. Industrial communication- Synonym for mass communication that points up industrial-scale technology that underlines the mass communication Mass communication- Technology-enabled process by which messages are sent to large, faraway audiences. Only possible through technology Sub mass audiences or niche audiences- Section of the largest mass audience, with niche interests. Demassification- Media’s focus on narrower audience segments (began large scale with radio) Fragmentation- Phenomena at work in mass media to turn conventional wisdomabout mass audience on its head- focus on narrower audience segments (radio networks realized they couldn’t compete with network TV for the mass audience anymore and began seeking audience segments with specialized music). Narrowcasting- Seeking niche audiences, as opposed to broadcasting’s traditional audience-building concept. Market place of ideas- (to persuade) the concept that a robust exchange of ideas,with none barred, yields better consensus. The role of persuasion is especially important in a democratic society (i.e. debate on drinking age, gay marriage, abortion, war and peace) *the most obvious persuasion is advertising. Chapter 2:- Media Technology:1. Technological basis for four mass media categories? Printing technology: the printing press, dating to the 1440s, spawned the book, newspaper, magazine industries. After centuries, these industries still exist in largely cubby-holed niches in the media landscape. Chemical technology: photography and movies have relied on chemical technology throughout most of their history. Electronic technology: the first of the electronic media, sound recording, actually preceded the widespread use of electricity. But with the wiring of the United States in the early 1990s, sound recording quickly became an electrically powered medium. Radio was electrical early on. Television was electronic from the get go. Digital technology: Traditional mass media all adapted to digital technology to varying degrees beginning in the first decade of the 21st century, but the industries built on the original printing, chemical and electronic forms remain largely distinctive. Book companies still produce books and CBS is still primarilyin the television business. The newest distinctive medium built on digital technology is the internet. The internet created entirely new categories of media companies. Think Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia. 2. Persistence of vision? Fast-changing still photos create the illusion of movement 3. Which medium is considered to be the first mass medium? Printing 4. When did Gutenburg invent movable type (decade)? Mid-1440s5. How invention of movable type changed human history? Mass production of the written word possible for the first time. Scholarship, oral traditions, languages, authorship,
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