1. 1 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 J200: Journalism and Mass Communications - Week III

2. 2 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 J200: Journalism and Mass Communications - Week II & III  Functions of the Media  General Systems Theory  Production / Distribution  Controlling Influences  Ethical Considerations

3. 3 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Process of MassComm Source “Encodes” Message Channel Receiver “decodes” message Feedback

4. 4 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 In all mass media industries, organizations carry out four primary activities:  Production  Distribution  Exhibition  Finance

5. 5 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Key Questions to Analyze the Communications Process 1. Who were the senders of the message? The receivers? 2. With what symbols was the message encoded? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using these symbols? 3. Through what channel was the message sent, and by what technology or means? - What are the advantages and disadvantages of the channel and technology? 1. - What are common sources of noise or static?

6. 6 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Key Questions to Analyze the Communications Process 4. What were the motivations of the principal actors? Why did they enter into the communication process? 5. What was the nature of the message, the content of the news, i.e. what was considered newsworthy? By whom? 6. What were the principal effects of the message on the sender? On the receiver?

7. 7 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Key Questions to Analyze the Communications Process 7. How was society affected by this type of message? Whose interests were helped? Were any group or class’s interests harmed? 8. Were there any important exogenous variables (outside influences) on the communication process (such as the social or political context — including censorship, licensing or other regulation).

8. 8 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 An analysis matrix:

9. 9 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 An analysis matrix:

10. 10 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Brief introduction to General Systems Theory  Attributes of a system….  Composed of variables, i.e. elements that can be defined, or described, separately.  Sub-variables. Tree-to-branch-to-leaf-to-cell  There are relationships between variables  Horizontal relationships  Vertical (i.e. hierarchical) relationships

11. 11 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Brief introduction to GST  A system has boundaries  Conceptual  Legal: corporate, jurisdiction  Geographic  Cultural  A system has goals, self-defined or with a definition imposed by an observer/researcher  Make money  Provide for group security, happiness, procreation

12. 12 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 A newspaper as a system Editorial Production Circulation Advertising “Backoffice”

13. 13 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 A newspaper as a system Editorial  Local News  Int’l News  Business  Sports

14. 14 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 A newspaper variables and sub-systems Editorial  Local News  Int’l News  Business  Sports zHigh School zCollege zProfessional

15. 15 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Online enterprise Dynamic system model

16. 16 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Example of Media Concentration  The Powerful 20 (c. 2001) The Powerful 20 (c. 2001)

17. 17 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 The Big One: AOL Time Warner  January 10, 2000 America Online and Time Warner announce a merger in a stock swap valued at $350 billion.  October 11, 2000 The European Commission clears the merger but makes Time Warner drop its plans for merger with EMI, the U.K.-based music group.

18. 18 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 The Big One: AOL Time Warner  December 14, 2000 The Federal Trade Commission approves the merger.  January 11, 2001 The Federal Communications Commission approves the merger with conditions to maintain competition on Time Warner's high-speed cable lines. AOL's shares have fallen by 35 percent since the merger was announced from $160 billion to around $105 billion. zWhen AOL "merged" with Time Warner it was valued at $164 billion -- largest such transaction in history. zGerald Levin, the chairman and CEO of Time Warner, was so besotted with the "synergies" the combined companies would produce that he sold out Time Warner's incomparable assets to Steve Case, the chairman and CEO of AOL. http://www.redherring.com/columns/2002/friday/lastword071902.html http://www.redherring.com/columns/2002/friday/lastword071902.html

19. 19 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 The Big One: AOL Time Warner  January 16, 2001 Allan Sloan comments in The Washington Post: " So this isn't a merger. It's a takeover by the incredibly prescient — or incredibly lucky — people at American Online. In return for shares that, absent this deal, would probably be trading at roughly the level of whale droppings, AOL gets to own some of the most valuable media properties on the face of the planet."  Chairman, Steve Case; CEO, Gerald Levin Employees: 79,000 Revenues: $31.8 billion

20. 20 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 AOL Time Warner TODAY zPosted on Mon, Jan. 13, 2003 AOL Time Warner's Steve Case to resign LISA SINGHANIA -Associated Press NEW YORK - Blamed by shareholders for AOL Time Warner's sharp fall in fortunes, Steve Case said he will step down as chairman of the conglomerate he helped create - a marriage of old and new media first hailed as revolutionary but now struggling for a future. Case's departure means the company's leadership will be without any of the key architects of the blockbuster merger of America Online and Time Warner in 2001. The company said Sunday he would step down in May.  -- January 12, 2003 “Since January of 2001 when the merger closed, AOL Time Warner's stock price has gone from about $47.23 to close at $14.88 at the end of trading Friday, a drop of just under 70 percent.”

21. 21 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 AOL Time Warner Not long ago  July 18, 2002 AOL COO Stepping Down By Thor Olavsrud AOL Time Warner (Quote, Company Info) Thursday confirmed that Chief Operating Officer Robert Pittman, who is also serving as interim chief of the America Online division, will leave the company and that a management shake-up is in the works.Thor OlavsrudQuoteCompany Info

22. 22 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 AOL Time Warner  Sept. 19, 2003  Trapped in a troubled marriage, AOL Time Warner decided yesterday to return to its maiden name, dropping its first three letters.AOL Time Warner  The company will now be called Time Warner, an attempt to erase a big reminder of the excesses of the Internet era, America Online's acquisition of Time Warner for shares priced at the peak of the boom. [NYTimes http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/19/business/media/19AOL.html ] http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/19/business/media/19AOL.html

23. 23 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 These activities involve resources and power  Resources: The symbolic and material components a system needs to carry out its tasks.  Power: The use of resources by one system in order to gain compliance by another system.

24. 24 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Power role  Power roles  Resource-controlling relationships  Taken on mostly by systems  Producer Power Role  Creates material for release to public  Competition over niches

25. 25 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Power Role  Exhibitor Power Role  Exhibition is the activity of presenting mass media materials to audiences for viewing or purchase  Finance can involve two power roles  Investor  Client

26. 26 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 The Client Power Role  Organizations pay for product that exists  Advertisers -- the main support system  But others exist as well

27. 27 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Investor Power Role  Broadly speaking, a company has two ways to get money in anticipation of production  Take out loans, and…  Encourage investments in the company  Many media firms are public companies -- that is, their stocks are available on the open market.

28. 28 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Other ways to get financing  Venture capitalists  Stock offerings  IPO -- Initial Public Offerings

29. 29 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Media financing  Large majority of U.S. media are in commercial hands  Q: Does that make for better or worse media content?  That doesn’t mean government is out of the picture+

30. 30 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Government regulation  Can or do government regulations influence the kinds of businesses firms can enter  Broadcasting? Cable? Direct mail? Wireless? I-o-P publications?  Can or do government regulations also influence kinds of materials producers can create and show to audiences?  Bomb-making? Pornography? Untrue advertising?

31. 31 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Controlling Influences: Government  Authority Power Role  Certain businesses, such as radio broadcasting, television broadcasting and cable TV, have government (all levels) regulations directed just at them.  Licensing  Copyright  FCC and Powell http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3541- 2003Jan2?language=printer http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3541- 2003Jan2?language=printer

32. 32 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Controlling Influences: Government  Obscenity  Q: Can the police come to your home and take out an obscene video that you have rented?  The Tin Drum case http://archive.aclu.org/issues/freespeech/tindrum.html http://archive.aclu.org/issues/freespeech/tindrum.html

33. 33 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Controlling Influences: Government  Libel  Is an Internet Service Provider libel for libelous notes that it sends?  The case of Lunney v. Prodigy http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dldefam/lunney.html http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dldefam/lunney.html

34. 34 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Controlling Influences: Ethics  What determines media ethics?  Individuals  Corporate culture  Corporate “standards”  Audience pressures  Professional organizations

35. 35 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Audience Size Continuum  Targeted delivery  Expensive  Indiscriminate target  Cheap Mass audience Audience of one Groups of varying size

36. 36 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Rock carving Books Magazines Media Speed Continuum Slowest between encoding-receipt- feedback Fastest between encoding-receipt- feedback Newspapers Radio TV I-net

37. 37 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 Rock carving Books Magazines Media Content Longevity Continuum Long degree of permanence Short (traditionally) degree of permanence Newspapers Radio TV Internet

38. 38 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 J200: Journalism and Mass Communications - Week IV Next Week: Chapter 3: Formal and Informal Controls on Media Content: Government Regulation, Self- Regulation, and Ethics  Controlling Influences  Ethical Considerations