Lecture5Review

=Class 5: Culture Jamming and Intro to Economic Issues= This is just a copy of of the Professor Jones powerpoint text to use as a reference/guideline, add any notes or links you may have that elaborates on his points for each heading. toc

Culture Jamming
• Exploiting elements of media form and genre to express ideas otherwise underrepresented • Effective examples? Less than effective ones?

Issues with Culture Jamming
• Can be too cute for its own good • Ironic commentary and sarcasm can be lost on some - especially if done in an obscure manner • Might increase awareness - but does it spur on action? • Does it become what it refuses when successful? Questions of hypocrisy?

Social Influence and Persuasion
• Ironic commentary is only one means of advancing a point…others? • What makes for an effective pitch? • What fails?

Concepts in Persuasion
• Central and peripheral processing • The use of heuristics in processing • Latitudes of acceptance and rejection • Source characteristics • Receiver characteristics

Economic Issues in Media
• Money makes the world go around - and media can be a lucrative business indeed • Effect on communication and culture?

Ownership Models
• Private • Public/Government • Subscriber-supported • Voluntary membership • Pay-per use • Micropayments • Licensing

Effects on Media Production
• Steinem’s struggles with Ms. Magazine • Initially ad-supported, moved to subscriber-funded model in 1989- why?

Advertiser bias
• Women’s magazines = women’s products (e.g., beauty products and food, but not cars or technology) • Activist magazine “not our audience” • Position held even in presence of contrary evidence that women hold real power and influence on purchases, and not just on “women’s products”

Product Placement
• Double standard in women’s vs. “real” publications • Product placement linked to copy (e.g., recipes linked directly to food ads) deliberately part of contract - without such manipulation, no ads • Does this happen in other publications? Somewhat, but not as blatant as this

Horizontal Integration
• Ownership of most/all players in media field • Cost savings, cost control and manipulation of barriers to entry can be managed in monopoly/oligopoly • Mass mediascape - rationalization of industry to few major players (examples?), a trend that continues

Vertical Integration
• Ownership of all stations within supply and distribution chain • Control and profit potential at every stop - “sum is greater than the parts” • Also good for branding and cross-promotion - examples?

Alliances
• Often not a question of outright purchase but adhoc alliances (examples?) • Enabled by interlocking boards of directors, “gentlemen’s clubs”, social class

Limits to Integration
• Synergy helps - some mergers don’t make much conceptual sense (examples?) • Not absolute control - still independent operators on the fringe, especially in high-risk, low-profit endeavours • Size and power not absolute - changes in interest or technology can compromise even the big brands

A return to Mass and New
• New media - public forums and dialogue, community driven and built content • Great idea, but where’s the money? • It does exist - Google/YouTube example - but is it a wise investment?

“Massification” of New Media
• AOL/TimeWarner merger - creation of a massive media corporation, but does it compromise “new” media? • Audience defined explicitly as consumers - even one-to-one communication can be packaged and sold (e.g., online ads) • Continued success of ad-driven content, but overall a dud - why?

“Newification” of Mass Media
• Public communities of Internet have been resilient (people like their chat rooms, email and IM) • Ability to cheaply create and share content redefines relationship between producer and consumer (e.g., YouTube - others?)

Rise and Fall of the Hit
• Mass media having trouble maintaining mass market domination • NSYNC example - others?

The Long Tail
• New media - distribution is no longer a zero-sum game • Potential for equal access to all sorts of media product equally • Niches and word of mouth drive content sales and production

Adaptation
• Mass media has already begun to adopt to this - e.g., creating content aimed at specific audiences, going for quality vs. quantity • Examples?