Comm 130: Mass Communication Systems Summer 2004

Instructor: Derrick Ellis Office Hours: by appointment Take a moment, flip through your books…

Media and the Information Age: The Changing Media Chapter 1 Q: Why does the influence of media frighten some people?

People as Media Consumers MediumHours per Person Annual Media Consumption Television1633 Radio961 Recorded Music263 Daily Newspapers151 Internet124 Books90 Magazines107 Video Games70 Home Video59 Movies in Theaters12 Total3470 Veronis, Suhler & Assoc., 2000 – Media Now (p. 4) That is 9.5 hours EACH DAY, Per person of Media consumption! -You don’t spend that much time at work! -You don’t spend that much time sleeping! Why does the influence of media frighten some people?

Changing Media Technologies The primary feature of newer media is the capacity for representing information digitally Analog vs. Digital – Analog Media is an exact replication of the sound or image Interference is additive—therefore subsequent copies do not retain the initial perfection Requires substantial storage/transmission capacity – Digital (1’s and 0’s) Media is an approximate replication of the original Sampling rate and compression scheme influence file size Interference is non-additive, only errors existing in the original copy will be reproduced—therefore, copies are identical to the original recording

Changing Media Technologies Advantages to “going digital” – Quality As mentioned, if 1’s and 0’s can be identified, then the image/sound can be perfectly reproduced – Channel Abundance Mainly due to the ability to compress digital signals into smaller sizes than their analog counterparts –Sampling rate, and being able to account for repetitive information greatly reduce the storage needed –5 digital cable channels for every 1 analog cable channel This will always be increasing (in favor of digital) as new compression protocols are developed Fiber optics will enable even more… leading to V.O.D. – User Control Search engines, V-chip, web directories

Newer Digital Media Telephone – First consumer communication medium to utilize digital signals (1962) – T1 lines used to simply serve as the backbone, now they are being used to enable high-speed internet access (DSL, ADSL; Digital Subscriber Line & Asynchronous…) Print Media – First used digital in late 1960’s in large commercial newspaper development – Now, virtually all of the print media development process is digital—save the actual final rendering/printing – Now thousands of newspapers and books are available online (without being printed)

Newer Digital Media Film – Computer (digital) Technology in film arrives with the production of Star Wars in 1977 – First completely digital movie is Toy Story (1995) – First digitally filmed live-action movie is The Phantom Menace (1999) – DVD at home, DLP (Digital Light Projectors) in theaters Recordings – Digital recordings first hit consumers with CDs (1982) – Now mp3’s are readily available online Mp3 players are replacing the discman

Newer Digital Media Computers – PCs first used in 1975 – By late 1980’s, CD drives in PCs caused multimedia to become reality – Multimedia explosion with WWW (major events between 1991 and 1995) Cable and Satellite Television – Cable goes digital in 1998 largely due to competition from DBS (Direct Broadcast Satellites) – Now many use cable modems for high speed internet access Broadcasting – HDTV began broadcasting in the US in 1998 – DAB (digital audio broadcasting; radio) in 2003

Changing Media in a Changing World The “Digital Revolution” has resulted in widespread change in many aspects of communication – Merging Technologies Convergence – the integration of mass media, computers and telecommunication Ex. Panasonic SV-AV50s: Photo, Mpeg, TV recorder, Mp3 player, voice recorder all-in-one for only $ – Merging Industries AOL Time Warner: massive merger… recently dropped “AOL” from the company name Result from decreased regulations (FCC) and convergence of communication channels (TV and Computer, phone)

Changing Media in a Changing World Changing Lifestyles – 1/3 of Internet users report using TV less than before they started using the net (Miller & Clemente, 1997) – A poll for MTV found that ¼ of TV viewers go online while they watch – Conventional media are using newer forms to extend their reach – Digital Divide is picking up where knowledge gap left off Changing Careers – Convergence means that you need knowledge of media technology Hopefully this class will help – 1/50 of all jobs in 2000 were reliant upon computers (University of Texas)

Changing conceptions of the Media Classic View of Media – SMCR (Schramm, 1982) Model An elite corps of media commentators and professional producers acted as gatekeepers by making decisions about what would (and would not) appear in the media –A form of censorship – Types of Communication Intrapersonal (within the self—me in my car) Interpersonal (between 2 people) Group Communiation (3 or more people) –Small-group (3-12) –Large-group (12-300ish) Mass Media (very large audience) Other types: –Organizational (within formally structured orgs) –Intercultural (across international or cultural borders)

Changing conceptions of the Media Characteristics of New Media – Interactivity Communication that uses feedback to modify a message –Interactive fiction, Face-to-Face, IM, ETS Elf, ALICE – Asynchronous Communication Old Mass media required that the audience receive the message at about the same time—new conceptions of media enable people to “time shift” –Time shifting is done through things like the VCR and TiVo – Desktop Production The barriers to media production have been significantly lowered, enabling almost anyone to become a source This may be impacting the supposed ability of the mass media to “define culture and dictate popular opinion” The Hamilton Jedi – Multimedia Forms (convergence) – Narrowcasting Content can be targeted at smaller segments of the audience due to development of new technologies—this type of targeting has become more economically feasible

Perspectives on the Societal Consequences of Technology Technological vs. Cultural Determinism Technological Determinism – New communication technologies determine culture; it is the form—rather than content—of the media that matters “The medium is the message” (McLuhan, 1962) Global village becomes a reality as a direct result of electronic communication –My first exposure to – Technology as Dominant Social Force Computers foster a technoploy in which technology is deified Ultimately is responsible for destroying culture – Media Drive Culture The over-exposure to popular culture causes people to lose critical thinking and reasoning skills (Postman, 1986)

Perspectives on the Societal Consequences of Technology (cont ’ d) Technological vs. Cultural Determinism Cultural Determinism – Based upon the idea that the source and receiver jointly create meaning in the message Suggests a need to understand the causes underlying media changes, be skeptical about media industry explanations and look into other potential influences Calls this process “Media Literacy” – Political Economy This perspective focuses on the relationships between economic structures, industry dynamics and the ideological content of media “Media content and media technology are driven by the desire of the ruling classes to dominate society” – Cultural Studies These perspectives stress the importance of the cultures that people belong to as a determining factor in their interpretation of the media People don’t necessarily perceive the message that the source intended