Mass Communication and Society Bettina Fabos, Professor

FABOS

COURSE THEMES (4) Democracy For a democracy to function properly, we need a diverse, open, democratic media system.

COURSE THEMES (4) Democracy QUOTE FROM CH. 1: “At their best, our media reflect and sustain the values and traditions of a vital democracy.”

COURSE THEMES (4) Democracy “PUBLIC SPHERE”

COURSE THEMES (4) Democracy “PUBLIC SPHERE” FIRST AMMENDMENT

COURSE THEMES (4) Culture is an ongoing process Culture is never at rest.

COURSE THEMES (4) Culture is cyclicalcyclical

COURSE THEMES (4) Culture is cyclicalcyclical We keep on having the same debates about the media; content repeats itself; old becomes new again.

COURSE THEMES (4) Media convergence The story of technology is that it constantly adapts to new formats.

Models of Communication

Linear model vs. cultural model

Linear model

Linear Model SenderMessage Receiver

Linear Model Culture = nutrition You need the right kind of culture to build a healthy society

Linear Model SenderMessage Receiver Noise

Linear Model SenderMessage Receiver Noise Feedback

Linear Model SenderMessage Receiver Noise Feedback

Cultural Model

We get messages through selective exposure

Cultural Model We get messages through selective exposure p. 11 “Audiences typically seek messages and produce meanings that correspond to their own cultural beliefs and values.”

Cultural Model StoryStory is important in communicating culture.

Thinking about Culture

Culture as a Hierarchy

Thinking about Culture Culture as a Hierarchy Culture as a Map

Culture as Hierarchy p. 16

Culture as a Map

Conventional Recognizable Stable Comforting Innovative Unfamiliar Unstable Challenging There are lots of reasons why certain kinds of culture resonate

Critical Process A formal process to make an informed--not cynical-- judgment

Critical Process Description Analysis Interpretation Evaluation Engagement

Critical Process Description Analysis Interpretation Evaluation Engagement

Description Paying close attention, taking notes, researching the subject

Analysis Discovering significant patterns that emerge

Interpretation Answering “What does it mean?” or ‘So what?”

Evaluation Arriving at a judgment about whether something is good, bad, mediocre, etc. Subordinate your personal tastes to critical assessment.

Engagement Acting on what you know

Critical Process Description Analysis Interpretation Evaluation Engagement Look at Media literacy box, pp

DISCUSSION: TV CULTURE

TV CULTURE QUALITY TRASH IN DISPUTE

Culture as a Map Conventional Recognizable Stable Comforting Innovative Unfamiliar Unstable Challenging

THINK-PAIR-SHARE: CLASSICAL MUSIC

DESCRIPTION: What is your image of a typical listener of classical music? How is classical music experienced in our culture? How is the music introduced or discussed on radio? What are the major elements of a classical music concert? What are the rituals and formalities? What do people wear? What is required of the audience, the conductor (if there is one) and the musicians? What age group does the audience typically fit into? ANALYSIS: WHAT ARE SOME PATTERNS IN YOUR RESEARCH? How does the way classical music is heard on the radio, in concert halls, and the way it's packaged, differ from rock or other music?

INTERPRETATION: SO WHAT? IF CLASSICAL MUSIC POSITIONED AS A CERTAIN KIND OF CULTURE….IS IT BAD? Are there alternative ways to experience classical music that you know of or can imagine? Is the packaging of classical music in part responsible for its limited audience? evaluATION : Do you think the gloss of high culture make the classical experience more --or less--pleasurable? How might classical-music radio formats, concert performances, and CD packaging change to appeal to more people?

engagement : What could we do to bring a larger audience to classical music?

BREAK

Five Eras of Communication

1. Oral tradition  People communicated their ideas through talking  Socrates ( BC) - public arguments and debates  Socratic Method as form of inquiry

2. Written tradition  Developed to complement oral tradition A. Alphabet  Plato ( BC), Socrates pupil, sought to banish poets (people who wrote things down) Plato

B. Manuscript CultureManuscript Culture Illuminated manuscripts

 Opinions and knowledge could be recorded and preserved.  Knowledge became transportable.

3. Print tradition  Johannes Gutenberg - developed movable type 1440s  Printing press  Prototype for mass production

 More and more people could read.  More and more people began to THINK beyond what their religious leaders were saying.  This is the beginning of INDIVIDUALISM

4. Electronic Era (Information Age)  Telegraph (1840s) First electronic medium From to Morse Code Morse code demonstration

4. Electronic Era (information age)  Telegraph separated communication from transportation  Made information a commodity  Easier to coordinate commerce and military  Omen for future developments

4. Electronic Era (information age)  1876: Telephone  1890s: Radio is invented (no longer need wires to send morse code)  1900: can transmit voice over the air  1920s: TV is being invented  ALSO: Sound recording, 1850s; Film, 1890s

4. Electronic Era (information age)  Shift from Producer to Consumer society  U.S. 1880s - 80% in farms, villages  U.S. 1920s - 80% in towns, cities

5. Digital Era  Analog - shapes or waves correspond to image or sound (like record grooves)  Digital - binary code (0-1) represents image or sound (pits or rises on CD = numerical value)

Five Eras of Communication 1.Oral Tradition 2.Written Tradition 3.Print Tradition 4.Electronic Era 5.Digital Era

The Media and Democracy

What is democracy?

 1776: Declaration of Independence  1787: U.S. Constitution  1791: First Amendment

First Amendment Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof: or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of people peaceable to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

First Amendment  You can practice any religion you want  You can SAY and PUBLISH anything you please, and you can hold peaceful demonstrations against the Government, and Congress can’t do a darn thing about it.  Free speech.

First Amendment  1. Information is good for democracy

First Amendment  1. Information is good for democracy  2. U.S. Media is protected

First Amendment  1. Information is good for democracy  2. U.S. Media is protected  3. U.S. Media is our public sphere

Public Sphere In a democratic society, we should always work on creating the most favorable communication situation possible  The idea of public rational-critical debate.  Communication, not domination  Communication=Democracy

Less Democracy  Oligopolies

Less Democracy  Oligopolies  Entry to the industry is difficult

Less Democracy  Oligopolies  Entry to the industry is difficult  The media is now BIG MEDIA (or Big Business)

Less Democracy Big Media=conflict of interest  They want to make as much money as possible.  They want to increase the numbers of things we buy, not increase how much we know.

More Democracy  Cable/Satellite  Internet --Abundance --Control