WCC COMM 101 chapters #1 and #2 powerpoint LUTHER

1. AGENDA:
*Review Chapters One & Two and
discuss their main concepts
*Chapter One & Two Study Focus
Questions

2. Introduction to Mass
Communication:
Media Literacy and Culture
9th edition Stanley J. Baran
Chapter 1:
Mass Communication,
Culture, and Media
Literacy

3. FUNDAMENTAL COURSE THEME:
Media inform us, entertain us, delight us, annoy us – the
move our emotions, challenge our intellects, insult our
intelligence – media often reduce us to mere
commodities for sale to the highest bidder – media help
define us and shape or realities…BUT media does nothing
alone. It does it with us as well as to us through mass
communication, and it does it as a central – many would
say THE central – cultural force in our society.

4. What Is Communication?
COMMUNICATION =
The process of creating
shared meaning

5. What Is Communication?
Communication: the transmission
of a message from a source to a
receiver.
•All messages are encoded (transferred
into an understandable sign and symbol
system)
•Once received, all messages are
intended to be decoded (the signs and
symbols are interpreted)

6. What Is Mass Communication?
•Media plural of medium (the
means of sending mass
communication/many identical
messages to a mass audience)
•Mass Media communication
ALWAYS involves technology of
some kind

7. Mass Communication Definition
MASS COMMUNICATION =
The process of creating
shared meaning between
the mass media and their
audience

8. Communication Definition
“Communication is a
symbolic process whereby
reality is produced,
maintained, repaired and
transformed.”
– James W. Carey,
Media Theorist (1975)

9. Communication Definition
Communication and “reality” are
linked – communication informs
pragmatic “reality” by
impacting/forming the way we
perceive, understand and
construct our view of reality and
the world. Communication is the
foundation of our culture.

10. Communication Definition
“Communication is a symbolic
process whereby reality is
produced, maintained,
repaired and transformed.”
TED TALK EXAMPLE

11. STUDY FOCUS QUESTION #1
Describe a situation in which
you find that reality is
“produced, maintained,
repaired and/or transformed”
by mass media
communication

12. What Is Culture?
Culture: the learned behavior of members of
a given social group.
Culture as Socially Constructed Shared
Meaning = CULTURE IS LEARNED AND
MAINTAINED VIA COMMUNICATION
Functions and Effects of Culture:
Limits our options and provides guidelines
Culture’s limiting effects can be negative
Creates a Dominant/Mainstream Culture
and, in turn, Counter-Cultures

13. Mass Communication and Culture
•Our stories help define our culture – a culture’s
values and beliefs reside in the stories it tells –
these stories help shape the ways we think, feel,
and act. We use them to learn about the world
around us, to understand the values, the way
things work, and how the pieces fit together.
•Therefore, “storytellers” may have a responsibility
to tell their stories in as professional and ethical
way as possible…

14. Mass Communication and Culture
• ETHICS = The rules of conduct recognized in
respect to a particular class of human actions
or a particular group or culture. “Because
society says it is the right thing to do.”
• MORALS = Principles or habits with respect
to right or wrong conduct. While morals also
prescribe dos and don'ts, morality is ultimately
a personal compass of right and wrong.
“Because we believe in something being right
or wrong.”

15. Scope and Nature of Mass Media
•American adults spend over 11 hours per day listening to,
watching, reading or generally interacting with media
•Children up to age 8 spend an average of 2 hours and 19
minutes every day on media
•For 8- to 12-year-olds, the average time spent using media every
day was 4 hours and 36 minutes, according to a 2015 Common
Sense Media report
•Tweens spend an average of 6 hours with media
•On any given day, teens in the United States spend about NINE
HOURS using media for their enjoyment
•That's more time than teens typically spend sleeping, and more
time than they spend with their parents and teachers. And the
nine hours does not include time spent using media at school or
for their homework

16. Mass Communication, Culture, and Media
Literacy
•Media Literacy = the ability
to effectively and efficiently
comprehend and use any
form of mediated
communication

17. Being Media-Literate
•Media-literate people develop an
understanding of media content as
a text that provides insight into our
culture and lives and they have an
awareness of the impact of media
on the individual and society.

18. STUDY FOCUS QUESTION #2
Who were your childhood heroes and
heroines and/or favorite characters
derived from MASS MEDIA? Why
did you choose them? What cultural
lessons did you learn from them?

19. ©McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom. No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 2:
Convergence and the
Reshaping of Mass
Communication

20. Media Piracy
•While traditional media consumption is down
(and, along with it, traditional media profits)
consumption via non-traditional channels is
up; in fact, Americans are watching more
videos, listening to more music, reading more
often, playing more video games, consuming
more news, and accessing the Internet more
than ever before – we are consuming more
media than ever but we’re simply doing it in
new ways…and also not paying for it like we
used to…

21. Media Piracy
•33% of the video streams on which YouTube displays
advertisements are of videos that are uploaded by fans
without permission.
•When a movie hits Russian theaters, the average amount of
downloads that it receives from the Internet during its first
week in theaters is 1 million.
•The average length of time between a film’s USA release and
its first appearance online is 12 days.
•It is believed that about 8,000 jobs are lost in the United
Kingdom every year because of Internet piracy.
•In the United States, it is estimated that 375,000 jobs are lost
every year because of Internet piracy.
•Piracy has cost the United States economy over $12 billion in
total output annually as well as over 70,000 lost jobs .

22. Media Piracy
•Annual cost of global pirate to firms in the United States
and lost sales is estimated to be $25 billion.
•Since the year 2000, the bandwidth used to download
illegal pirated entertainment options has increased by
over 160%.
•As of 2008, it was estimated that over 40% of software
installed on personal computers with pirated.
•From 2004 to 2009, 30 billion songs were downloaded
illegally.
•70% of 18-29 year-olds have downloaded illegal content
within the last year at least once.

23. • Due to Media Convergence and the Digital Revolution
and through a variety of technologies, it has gotten
much easier and almost routine for people to get
commercial mass media without paying for it. With that
in mind, answer the following:
• Part A.) What do you think about people “sharing” digital
media? Have you ever illegally downloaded a song,
movie, or some other form of digital media? If so, how
do you justify that decision?
• Part B.) If you were selling commercial mass media,
how would you combat the problem of digital piracy?
IN-CLASS STUDY FOCUS
QUESTIONS

24. Good News for Media Industries
• The “Rules” of media consumption have changed
because of MEDIA CONVERGENCE; the erosion
of traditional distinctions among types of media –
consumers are now getting their media through the
same channel/device instead of distinct ones
•This “new” audience is described as being
“platform-agnostic”
• PLATFORM = MEDIA CHANNEL
• AGNOSTIC = UNCOMMITTED TO ONE (often
applied to religion)

25. Changes in Mass Media Business
•Concentration of ownership:
• Today six companies own about 90% of ALL corporate media
content consumed by Americans
•Conglomeration:
• The ownership of media outlets by larger, NONMEDIA
companies who are typically not interested at all in the process
of communication, only the profits
•Oligopoly:
• A concentration of media interests in an even smaller number of
companies
• This runs the risk of the continuation of changing the goal from
possible “shared meaning” to one of financial gain; being
responsible to shareholders rather than an “audience” pushes
communication into simply being a product instead of a process

26. Changes in Mass Media Business
•Why do we have this Mass
Media Corporation
domination?
•The Telecommunications Act
of 1996
•FREE SPEECH FOR SALE

27. Mass Communication Trend:
CONCENTRATION (SYNERGY)
•SYNERGY = SYNCHED + ENERGY
•CONCENTRATION (SYNERGY) =
Synergy can be when a
conglomerate’s subsidiaries promote
a product owned by the company
themselves.

28. Mass Communication Trend:
CONCENTRATION (SYNERGY)
• DISNEY ASSETS
• Use their TV and Radio networks to promote their
movies, toys and theme parks by incorporating
coverage into the programming itself. For example:
• GOOD MORNING AMERICA had a “Star Wars” day
• ESPN featured the trailer
• The Radio Disney Music Awards had Star Wars as part
of the program…

30. •STAR WARS @ THE WHITE
HOUSE
•“DISNEY OWNS EVERYTHING”
Mass Communication Trend:
CONCENTRATION (SYNERGY)

31. Hypercommercialism
•Recouping the costs involved in acquiring numerous or
large media outlets (e.g., through the selling of more
advertising on existing and new media and identifying
additional ways to combine content and commercials)
leads to hypercommercialism.
•Product placement:
• Using products within the content as “background”
•Brand entertainment:
• When brands are “characters” in the programming and
name-checked specifically
•A typical show contains more than 4 minutes of
product placement and nearly 15 minutes of
commercials per hour

32. •“COST OF ENTRY” = what it financially
costs to make mass media
•In the newly evolving mass communication,
content providers are just as likely to be
individuals who believe in something or have
something to say as they are big media
companies in search of audiences and profits =
“the people formerly known as the audience”
Mass Communication Trend:
PROCESS EVOLUTION

33. • Content providers can now be lone
individuals aided by low cost of entry
• As a result, messages can now be quite
varied, idiosyncratic, and freed of the
producers' time demands
• Feedback can now be instantaneous and
direct, and, as a result, audiences, very
small or very large, can be quite well known
to content producers and distributors
Mass Communication Trend:
PROCESS EVOLUTION

34. • Do you trust the “Mass Media”? No matter
your answer, who do you trust to help form
your “reality”?
IN-CLASS STUDY FOCUS
QUESTIONS