J110 Midterm Review 10 11 2012 Chapter 1 Living in a Media World Communication How we socially interact at a number of levels through messages Spoken written words gestures music Intrapersonal communication o Communication you have with yourself o How you assign meaning to the world around you Interpersonal communication o Intentional or accidental communication between two people o Verbal or nonverbal Group communication o Communication in which one person is communicating with an audience of two or more people 350 person lecture in a university class Mass communication o When an individual or institution uses technology to send a message to a large mixed audience most of whose members are not known to the sender Speeches Elements of mass communication Mass media o The technological tools or channels used to transmit the messages of mass communication Sender Message Channel Reciever SMCR o A dated model that is still useful in identifying the players in the mass communication process o Sender The media o Message Content being transmitted by the sender to the receiver o Channel The medium used to transmit the encoded message o Receiver The audience for the mass communication message Media Literacy Audience members understanding of the media industry s operation the messages delivered by the media the roles media play in society and how audience members respond to their messages The cognitive dimension o Deals with the ability to intellectually process information communicated by the media The emotional dimension o Covers the feelings created by media messages The aesthetic dimension o Involves interpreting media content an artistic or critical point of view The moral dimension o Consists of examining the values of the medium or the message Seven Truths They Don t Want You to Know About the Media 1 The media are essential components of our lives 2 There are no mainstream media 3 Everything from the margin moves to the center 4 Nothings new Everything that happened in the past will happen again 5 New Media are always scary 6 Activism and analysis are not the same thing 7 There is no they chapter 2 Chapter 2 Mass Communication Effects 10 11 2012 Opinion leaders Community members who invest time learning about their own area of expertise such as politics Less informed friends with turn to them for advice Effects of the media in our lives cognitive effects o short term learning of information attitudinal effects o it is much easier to get people to form new opinions than to get them to change existing ones behavorial effects o people are reluctant to change their behavior psychological effects o media content can inspire fear joy revulsion happiness or amusement among other feelings Active Audience Effects Geographics o The study of where people live o Used to analyze potential markets for products and programs Demographics o The study of audience members gender race background income age edc Psychographics o A combination of demographics lifestyle characteristics and product usage Theories of media and society Media perform three major social functions o 1 Surveillance of the environment looking for both threats and opportunities o 2 Correlation of different elements of society allowing segments of society to work together o 3 Transmission of culture from generation to the next surveillance o how the media help us extend our senses to perceive more of the world surrounding us status conferral o the process by which media coverage makes an individual gain prominence in the eyes of the public correlation o process of selecting evaluating and interpreting events to give structure to the news socialization o process of educating young people and ne members about the values social norms and knowledge of a group or society 1 Through role models in entertainment programming 2 Through goals and desires as presented in media content 3 Through the citizenship values portrayed in the news 4 Through advertisements for products that may be useful to use in different stages of our lives entertainment o media communication intended to amuse the audience Agenda setting theory A theory of media effects that says that the media don t tell the public what to think but rather what to think about Uses and gratifications theory Audience members are active receivers who have wants and needs Media compete with many sources of gratification Audience members are aware of these choses make them consciously Our judgments about the value of various media uses must come from the audiences perspective Social learning theory The process by which individuals learn by observing the behaviors of others and the consequences of those behaviors o We extract key info from the situations we observe o We integrate these observations to create rules about how the world operates o We put these rules into practice to regulate our own behavior and predict the behaviors of others Symbolic interactionism Process by which individuals produce meaning through interaction based on socially agreed upon symbols Spiral of silence Theory that suggests that people want to see themselves as holding a majority opinion and will therefore remain silent if they perceive that they hold a minority opnion Media logic Approach to studying mass media that says the forms the media use to present the world become the forms we use to perceive the world and create media messages Cultivation analysis Approach to analyzing the effects of television viewing that argues that watching significant amounts of television alters the way an individual views the nature of the surrounding world Gans Basic Journalistic Values Ethnocentrism o The idea that your own country and culture are better than all others Altruistic democracy o The idea that politicians should serve the public good not their own interests Responsible capitalism o Idea that open competition among businesses will create a better more prosperous world for everyone Small town pastoralism o Nostalgia for the old fashioned rural community Individualism o Constant quest to identify the one person who makes a difference Moderatism o Value of moderation in all things o Extremists are criticized The value of social order The media value leadership the media business development of the media business in the united states 10 11 2012 Penny press o Inexpensive widely circulated papers that became popular in the nineteenth century o They were the first American media to be supported through advertising