Mass Media Final

Front 1

VALS
measures what type of segmentation?

Back 1

Psychographic segmentation

Front 2

Psychographics is driven by notions of

Back 2

drive and motivation

Front 3

VALS
three broad definitions

Back 3

Need Driven
Outer Directed
Inner Directed
**Integrated**

Front 4

VALS
people's personality is driven by (context)

Back 4

hard times vs. bouncy prosperity

Front 5

Frank Luntz

Back 5

uses language to his advantage when approachng an audience. Merchandising the political party.

Front 6

language can be (three things)

Back 6

representation
in use
humpty dumpty

Front 7

representation language

Back 7

language corresponds to what it is referring to

Front 8

in use language

Back 8

language is arbitrary and takes on meaning as it is used

Front 9

humpty dumpty

Back 9

language is whatever I say it is. Cynicism = you can take any language and use it in a way that benefits you

Front 10

Fragmentation affects

Back 10

channels
audience niches

Front 11

Salience of Risk

Back 11

Risk is an outcome of fragmentation and convergence. Media products are different from other products in that they must innovate. This makes media products more risky

Front 12

Degrees of Risk

Back 12

Economic and Political

Front 13

Economic Risk

Back 13

1) you might fail if you innovate
2) it costs money to innovate

Front 14

Political Risk

Back 14

1) regulation
2) Flack, negative audience response

Front 15

Methods of Coping

Back 15

Administrative
Content

Front 16

administrative risk coping

Back 16

these business practices are neither creative nor innovative:
1) Synergy
2) Product Placement
3) Cross Promotion
4) Marketing
5) Tie Ins
SPCMT = Sidra Punches Christina's Mid-Thigh

Front 17

Content risk coping

Back 17

Following tried and true methods. Nothing new is invented. formulas and stereotypes

Front 18

When is innovation and risk taking most likely?

Back 18

1) In small companies
They can work faster than small companies because they have less red tape to cross, and not as many bosses to deal with. They also have less to lose by innovating
2) When the financial picture is bad
If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Success does not beget innovation. Bottom rating shows must innovate to rise in ratings

Front 19

Regulatory Models

Back 19

Newspaper
Broadcast
Telephone

Front 20

Newspaper Regulatory Model

Back 20

many people do not respond well to this
First Amendment – congress shall make no law that restricts ...
Self regulation = the station regulates itself
The good and the evil must coexist in order to recognize the difference

Front 21

Broadcast Regulatory Model
(scarcity)

Back 21

Allows for more government control
Scarcity of channels = more people wanted to be on the radio than there were channels, prompting the government to regulate more often

Front 22

Broadcast Regulatory Model (Content)

Back 22

Content Regulation
Regulate for obscenity
Political speech ‘equal time’ = equal time for every candidate for specific offices
Adult programming runs from 10:00pm to 5:00am

Front 23

Broadcast Regulatory Model (Ownership)

Back 23

Ownership Regulation
Many ownership caps (a limit on the number of stations you could own) have been relaxed. You can now operate a television station, radio station, etc. at the same time

Front 24

Telephone

Back 24

‘Natural monopoly’
Power lines need to be put up and they need help from the government. There is much government regulation
‘Universal Access’
Telephones are so important that they should be available to everyone

Front 25

Does channel fragmentation lead to audience polarization?

Back 25

Fragmentation destroys communication between groups and creates a gated community effect

Front 26

Fragmentation Context
Channel Availability

Back 26

1990 = 33 available channels w/o paying extra
2003 = 100 available channels w/o paying extra
2006 = 339 channels total from networks

Front 27

‘Society making’ media versus ‘segment making’ media

Back 27

Society making media are the big 3. It makes social cohesion. We all watch ABC and are all exposed to the same views and ideas. It solidifies a nation under one media by showing the LCD = the lowest common denominator, which attracts the broadest possible audience
Fragmentation in media creates fragmentation in societal thought. It makes room for minorities, creating gay/lesbian and black channels. Is this life enriching?

Front 28

Horizontal and vertical diversity of exposure

Back 28

Vertical = are people not sampling or roaming through all 339 channels?
Horizontal = is there much choice out there? There seems to be, with 339 channels available

Front 29

De Facto Polarization

Back 29

Niche programming – audience selling
Viewing practices – how many channels do you watch on average? Around 9 channels per 100 are viewed by the average American household. = around 10% of what is offered

Front 30

Law of Double Jeopardy

Back 30

Made in response to De Facto polarization – argues against De Facto
Most people spend little time watching their 9 channels
Unpopular programs (programs with a small audience) attract disloyal audiences which do not spend a lot of time there
What does this say about polarization?

Front 31

NTI

Back 31

National Television Index
from Nielson Media Research (based off of 5,000 households)

Front 32

two measures of NTI

Back 32

TSV (time spent viewing)
Share Within Cume

Front 33

TSV (time spent viewing)

Back 33

average conventional time spent viewing per week

Front 34

Share Within Cume

Back 34

% of actual viewers. Cume = total number of viewers

Front 35

evidence for audience fragmentation in terms of share within cume and TSV

Back 35

High share within cume and high TSV

Front 36

Fragmentation is stronger than believed - % of big 3?

Back 36

The big 3 account for 17% TSV, during a given week, less than 20% of people’s time is spent with the big three. This is much lower than audience share

Front 37

Networks continue to occupy unique positions
How many people ever watch the network?

Back 37

The networks have a very large reach, about 2/3 of the audience. Cable’s best is only 1/3

Front 38

As a rule, unpopular channels have a low audience loyalty
Exceptions?

Back 38

Exceptions = HBO, Cinemax, Lifetime Movies, Fox news all have high loyalty
Movie channels have high loyalty only because they play long movies = many short audiences
Fox = real audience loyalty. No one knows why….

Front 39

Macro Routines

Back 39

Institutional arrangements and formats
Include:
Concentrated Ownership
Consultants
Service providers
VNRs (video news release) and Syndication (one person is sold to a variety of newspapers or magazines, like Dear Abby)

Front 40

Concentrated Ownership

Back 40

results in cross subsidies of cross pollonization. Companies use strengths in one part of the company to benefit another part of the company

Front 41

Consultants

Back 41

are being brought in to design news programs. Few consultants are used for the entire country, so there is very little variety in news programs
Ex. Every news station has an eyewitness news. Also, consultants administer q tests

Front 42

Service providers

Back 42

Mainly PR firms hired by companies. Provide stories to the news, form companies. Companies produce their own stories

Front 43

VNRs (video news release)

Back 43

VNRs are professionally done news programs designed to be integrated into news programming
Caused a lot of trouble in 1994 and led to New FCC rules.
news releases from the government must be labeled. Only government releases, however. This does not apply to pharmaceutical news

Front 44

Micro Routines

Back 44

Everyday practices of predictability and efficiency
Include:
Sourcing
Definition of News
Production Formulas = Inverted Pyramid

Front 45

Sourcing

Back 45

Micro Routine
most organizations have PR or information offices, to get their story out

Front 46

Definition of News

Back 46

Micro Routine
Must Be:
Recent/New
Impactful (broad, social impact)
Novel or Extraordinary
Prominent (figure with high name recognition)

Front 47

Inverted Pyramid

Back 47

1st paragraph of a news story
Answers the 5 W's and H
Who,What,When,Where,Why,How

Front 48

Tabloid History

Back 48

News and ballad books of 1700’s = Puritanical
Very conservative in terms of sexism, racism, etc
1880’s came with the rise of Yellow Journalism
Penny Press = 1cent each, was made possible by many advertiser

Front 49

Current circulation of Tabloids

Back 49

around 40 million
Pass along rate is around 4 people per issue

Front 50

Demographics of Tabloids

Back 50

65% female
35 yrs, median
Income = 51% under $20,000 per year
60% have no high school education
Don’t have many ads because the audience is not very desirable

Front 51

Tabloid topics = 3 main

Back 51

Celebrities
Health/Medical Breakthroughs
Conspiracy Theories/Supernatural

Front 52

Tabloid Style

Back 52

Scandalous pictures for cover art

Front 53

Tabloid Language

Back 53

Frequent use of slang and puns

Front 54

How different is the tabloid formula from mainstream journalism?

Back 54

Objectivity – they both use it! Objectivity is discussed and stories are not made up in tabloids
Use credible sources – experts on the paranormal. They always want credible sources for stories, not making things up
Cooperation with news sources – cooperation between sources and the newspaper, “off the record” means that the info can be used, but it cannot be sourced

Main difference = targeting to different audiences

Front 55

Main social implication of tabloids

Back 55

tabloids are very conservative ethically. Very homophobic and women are placed in very traditional roles. Do not engage people in political activity = hermits. Promotes the thought that the government cannot be trusted

Front 56

NWICO

Back 56

initiative started in the 1970s to study global communication
Why study global communication?
Recognize issues and relevance
Position self in a global debate

Front 57

What does NWICO do?

Back 57

Study of ‘flow’ – occupied most of the time. Tracking how much and in what direction communication moves across the world. It is easy to document.
Related issues: Patterns, equity, impacts. It is much more difficult to track because it tracks social, political, and economic effects

Front 58

Unesco, related to NWICO

Back 58

1946 ‘free flow doctrine’
Major international institution. It is the company that studies global communication.
Organization within the United Nations that wants to contribute funds to cultural exchange initiations, such as international film festivals. Provides training for journalists
‘free flow doctrine’ – part of Unesco constitution (pillar) – the best way to achieve Unesco’s mission is through unfettered communication
Political vehicle dominated by the western values

Front 59

Nairobi Conference 1976

Back 59

Non-aligned movement = coalition of nations (former colonies of western powers in Africa and Asia, plus Latin America). As a group, they could outvote the west.
Criticized the free flow doctrine (FFD) as being a monopoly domination by the Western society/media (TV and film)
They are too poor to compete with Western film and news stations
Dependency – there are two sets of country in the world, the Core countries (Western countries) will always dominate the Periphery countries (3rd world).
Periphery countries contribute raw materials and core countries manufacture products and sell them back to the periphery countries at a profit
This theory is wrong, however. Today, everything is manufactured in periphery countries
Neo Colonialism = not colonialism by military power, but by hegemony. Allows for unsymmetrical relationships

Front 60

Dependency

Back 60

Selling things overseas is a huge source of revenue. It is to our advantage to sell to many poor countries.

Front 61

MacBride Commission – formed in 1976

Back 61

Examine flows of communication and their impact.
1980 – publication of Many Voices, One World
New World Information and Communication Order
Shift from ‘free’ to ‘free and balanced’ floe. It is impossible to have a free, two way flow.
Goal: Remedy information imbalances
Goal: Plurality of sources and channels
Reaffirmation of free press principles
Call for ‘right to communicate’ – not the same thing as free flow

Front 62

Flow of information - what are the trends?

Back 62

The flow of information goes form the developed world to the underdeveloped world. Where can you see an African Film? What network carries programming from the third world? Flow is unidirectional, from North to South. Why is this flow unidirectional?

Front 63

Cultural Imperialism

Back 63

Tradition of colonial power = military empire
Modern empires are maintained symbolically, not through military coercion
Content
Cheap programming advertising the ‘American’ way of life
Structure
Advertising supported media system. How you tell a story is changed/segmented to leave room for advertising. There is no advertising in Public Access Broadcasting
Technology
Differing signals customize TV’s, etc. to different countries. French DVDs don’t work in the states
Russian Communist Game Show

Front 64

Comparative Advantage

Back 64

Background
Economics – David Ricardo
Specialization
US Specialized in Communication
Language – English is a very accessible language
Large, competitive domestic market
Critical mass of talent. We have schools of journalism founded by media companies in the US – an advantage for the US
Wide availability of services:
Financial (banks)
Equipment (rental)
Talent (cat wranglers)
Narrative ability – most contentious. Because the US is a consumer based country, we tell stories that have a wide, mass appeal. The rise of Hollywood is not typical. Universal Appeal vs. Artsy
Conclusion
Subsidization, not domination
Cultures change and weak cultures die.

Front 65

Advertising and Consumer Research
Enhances Democracy?

Back 65

Possibilities – if greater competition and reduces number of corporations as bad as regulation
Maybe – opportunities and choices

Front 66

Advertising and Consumer Research
Undermines Democracy?

Back 66

Tendencies – targeting youth, not giving them a lot of choices
Poor job of informing
Language of marketing ‘learn’ about youth vs. ‘shaping’ youth
Ratings do not necessarily create good information
‘feedback’ loop contrary to independent crucial thought