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CCT300: Critical Analysis of Media September 15: Media analysis and McLuhan’s laws of media
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Administration Get on the course wiki if you haven’t already First in-class assignment is to create personal *wiki* - not a page. Should look like xxx.wikispaces.com vs. cct300- f11.wikispaces/xxx. Using previous personal wikis encouraged – build a portfolio! Comic analysis questions?
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Forms of Media Analysis Analysis of media form and genre Technological/media effects determinism Critical political economy Mass and public media Cultural studies Sociotechnical systems approach Future forecasing
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Media form and genre Analysis of essential elements – e.g., McCloud’s first chapter on “what is comics?” and six-step model (to be discussed end of month) Attempts to define classificatory boundaries and identifies canonical and ideal type constructions (why?) Little consideration of consumer/producer impact – culture often deliberately left out (e.g., Manovich, which we’ll look at near the end.) More on genre construction next week
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Media effects determinism Media as pervasive causal force Often done with reductionist scope (e.g., X media consumption causes Y social effect - hard to prove since most connections aren’t really as simple as X->Y (examples?)
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Qualified media effects model Two-step process – X causes Y through intermediating factor Z Cultivation theory – pervasive media exposure causes Y – not one example of X but prolonged sustained exposure to X Examples?
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Critical political economy More of an economic determinism model – capital, relations of power and ownership structure determines media Often Marxist based, but libertarian/capitalist models may also qualify (e.g., critiques of public broadcasting) Often similarly reductionist – does everything boil down to simple financial considerations?
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Public v. Mass Media (Mills) Localized cultural practices Horizontal power structure Relatively equal ratio of leaders/followers “Jack of all trades” Global culture, with little individuation Centralized power structures Few leaders, many followers Specialization and division of labour
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Implications for Media Form Mass media for mass audiences in mass societies Quantity of eyeballs as basic economic force in private media markets Mass media as central bonding experience Mass media as centralized cultural control
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Demassification Rise of the postmodern / postindustrial / information age Individuals and localized communities reemerge and gain in importance Media as tools of creation and expression, not simply passive channels of reception Examples? Problems?
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Cultural Studies Analysis of media in context of use – producers, consumers alike More about the complexity of interactions among stakeholders in particular contexts vs. precise measurement or investigation of global principles Interesting stories, but are they generalizable? (not scientifically, but transferable, perhaps)
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Sociotechnical Systems Media as sociotechnical system - less cause/effect than mutual causation, driven by technical and social change Emergence of industrial society and its effect on the shaping of communication forms Radio as example – a potentially decentralized medium of production was rationalized into a mass medium
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Future forecasting Often the interest is not what’s now, but what’s next Planning for future changes could lead to higher ROI on technical investment Example: Productivity paradox in IT - early invesments in technology did not yield significant results – why? What changed? Issues with forecasting?
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McLuhan - Laws of Media An attempt to find a universal dynamic of media change (!) A bit of a departure from his more famous works which are broad (and sometimes rambling?) cultural studies approaches, and/or accessible pieces (e.g., Medium is the Massage w/Quentin Fiore) Represented as tetrad - four intersecting simultaneous influences Grouped into two forces - ground (historical/cultural convention) and figure (emergent forces/media)
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Four Forces of Tetrad Enhancement (positive change, amplification) Retrieval (recovery of past forces – e.g., what’s old becomes new again) Reversal (new or resurgent challenges jeopardizing new media – e.g., unintended consequences) Obsolescence (erosion of older values/forces; e.g., what is made less relevant) Again, all operate in concert simultaneously – one does not necessarily trump others
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Examples of Tetrad Analysis http://www.anthonyhempell.com/papers/tetrad /concept.html http://www.anthonyhempell.com/papers/tetrad /concept.html Best way to learn this one is practice – take a medium and unpack it using the four elements
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In-class assignment: Do a tetrad analysis Pick a medium, any medium What are the figure elements (enhancement/reversal)? What are the ground elements (retrieval/obsolescence)?
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Media genre analysis Next week…
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