Making Sense of Media

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Making Sense of Media

• The World of Media

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What is CULTURE?

• defined as the symbols that individuals, groups
  and societies use to make sense of daily life and
  to articulate their values
• includes both products and processes
• communicates the values of a society through
  products or meaning-making forms

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What are Mass Media?

• Mass Media are the industries that mass-produce
  and distribute cultural products (songs, novels,
  newspapers, movies, online services, magazines,
  comic books, DVDs, video games, textbooks, radio
  programs, cable TV, advertising, sports events,
  and so on)
• Mass Communication is the process of designing
  and delivering cultural messages and stories to
  large and diverse audiences through media channels

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Linear Model of Communication

• sender
• message
• channel
• receivers
• gatekeepers
• feedback
• senders--gtmessages--gtreceivers

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FIVE HISTORICAL ERAS of media and communication

• Oral
• Written
• Print
• Electronic
• Digital

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Pre-Industrial Cultures

• Oral
• Meanings are specific and local
• Knowledge is passed by showing and telling
• Memory is crucial
• Elders are repositories of knowledge, as are
  storytellers
• Myth and history are intertwined

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Pre-Industrial Cultures

• Written (c. 3000 BC)
• Ideogrammatic alphabets (Egyptian, Sumerian,
  Chinese) give way to syllabic sound based
  alphabets (originally from Sumerian cuneiform)
• Developed to enhance business record keeping
• Effects of Literacy
• Meaning and language became more uniform
• Communication could occur over great distances
  and long periods of time
• Memories, history and mythology could be recorded
  on first papyrus, then parchment.

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Industrial and Post-Industrial Cultures

• Print
• Invention of the Printing Press in China
• Block presses invented in 600 AD, with movable
  clay type in use by 1000 AD
• Invention of the Printing Press in Europe
• Johannes Gutenberg (1397-1468, Germany)
• studied metallurgy, sold trinkets to religious
  pilgrims
• invented movable metal type printing
• first printed Indulgences for Catholic Church
• printed 200 copies of two-volume Gutenberg Bible

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Impact of Print

• Wider availability of written material led to
  higher interest in literacy among middle and
  working classes
• Increased interest in education to empower the
  middle classes to compete with heredity
  aristocracies
• Broader distribution of ideas and information led
  to increased technological progress
• Printing processes became a model for mass
  production techniques
• Increased literacy led to both democratic
  self-expression and interest in censorship
• Reading triggered emphasis on nationalism and
  individualism

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Industrial and Post-Industrial Cultures

• Development of Telegraph (1840s)
• separated communication from transportation
• transformed information into a commodity
• coordinated commercial and military operations
• Forerunner of electronic communication
• Electronic and Digital Communication create mass
  market for information and entertainment

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Mass Media as Business

• Why is the US dominant in global commerce?
• Language
• Freedom of Speech Laws
• Diversity of Audience
• Large Domestic Audience in an Affluent Economy

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Media Conglomerates

• What factors favor growth?
• How can they be structured?
• When is a monopoly illegal?
• What are some possible relationships between
  media and government?
• What possible negative effects could
  conglomerates have on free speech?

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Developing a CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

• DESCRIPTION
• Outline content
• Note structure
• Identify characters, conflicts, themes,ideas
• Research
• ANALYSIS
• Focus
• Isolate and analyze patterns
• Define area of analysis

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Developing a CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

• INTERPRETATION
• Determine meanings of patterns
• Answer so what? (significance)
• EVALUATION
• Make an informed judgment based on previous
  steps, not on personal reaction
• Conclude, perhaps with a recommendation