What is Media?

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What is Media?
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Essential Questions

• How does media influence, affect, and control
  us?
• How has this influence changed through time?
• Do media create or reflect our world?
• How free is the press?
• What is the relationship between media control,
  power, and profit?
• What is the impact of new and alternative
  media?
• How does media literacy help us to become
  critical thinkers and responsible citizens?

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Definitions

• Media is the way in which a message is
  communicated
• Media can also refer to the people that create
  the message
• Media also describes the entity or force it has
  come to hold in society

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Types of Media

• Make a list of 15 different types of media used
  in society.

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Types of Media

• In groups of 4, make a chart listing the
  advantages and disadvantages of the following
• Newspapers
• Television
• Radio
• The Internet

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Roles of the Media

• Information
• Entertainment
• Education
• Advertising

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INFOTAINMENT

• Because entertainment sells, media outlets often
  use drama sensationalism to attract audiences.
• The roles of informing and entertaining are now
  being combined to create something called
  infotainment.

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Advertising in the Media
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Sources of Advertising

• Television
• Magazines
• Billboards
• Radio
• Internet
• E-mail
• Flyers / Newsletters
• Infomercials

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Advertising

• Ads for Children's Tylenol were placed in
  pediatricians' examination rooms.

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Advertising

• CBS stamped promotions for its fall lineup onto
  eggs that were distributed nationwide.

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Advertising

• In the case of Captain Morgan Rum, the pitch
  appeared directly on the men's restroom signs in
  bars.

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Advertising

• Airline passengers may see ads like this one for
  Rolodex in trays used for baggage screening.
  Marketers say that the best way to reach
  time-pressed consumers is to place messages where
  they cannot avoid them.

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Advertising

• In an attempt to break through to consumers,
  advertisers have started to migrate from
  traditional media to almost anywhere outside the
  home with a little blank space.
• This ad for CBS's "How I Met Your Mother" will be
  displayed on elevator doors in office buildings
  and malls in New York and Los Angeles.

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Ads Yesterday and Today

• Check out the following websites
• Yesterday http//www.classictvads.com/classicinde
  x.shtml
• Today http//www.funnyplace.org
• Compare several classic ads with more recent ones
  and make a list of the changes you notice over
  the years.

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Limits on Advertising

• Boston Advertising Scare
• What restrictions should be placed on companies
  when dealing with product promotion?

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Stereotypes in the Media

• Stereotypes often show how a certain type of
  individual or group is commonly viewed based on
  real or imagined characteristics

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Media Stereotyping

• Ethnic Visible Minorities
• Aboriginal People
• Girls Women
• Men Masculinity
• Gays Lesbians
• Whiteness White Privilege

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Media Bias Believe Everything or Nothing At All

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What is Bias?

• Bias is manipulating information, intentionally
  or unintentionally, in a way that influences how
  it is interpreted
• Every news story is influenced by the
  attitudes/background of interviewers, writers,
  photographers, editors

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Bias Tactics

• Photos, captions, camera angles
• Choice tone
• Selection Omission
• Placement
• Headline
• Names and titles
• Stats crowd counts
• Source

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Bias Tactic Omission of Information

• Leaving information out intentionally can alter
  how a situation is perceived.

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Bias Tactic Omission of Information

• An editor can express a bias by choosing to use
  or not to use a specific news item
• Within a given story, some details can be
  ignored, and others included, to give readers or
  viewers a different opinion about the events
  reported
• difficult to detect
• Can be observed by comparing various news reports

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Bias Tactic Placement

• Are first page stories more important than those
  located at the back?
• TV radio newscast run the most important
  earlier less significant later
• Placement influences what a viewer will think of
  a story

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Bias Tactic Headline

• Headlines are the most read part of the newspaper
• Can summarize as well as present hidden bias and
  prejudices
• Can convey excitement
• Can express approval or condemnation

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Bias Tactic Photos Captions

• Photos attract attention so they have the power
  to greatly influence your first impression of a
  situation.

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Bias Tactic Names Titles

• Names and titles can affect our perception of
  people, and therefore influence our opinion of
  what they are saying.
• Ex-con
• Terrorist
• Freedom Fighter

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Bias Tactic Choice Tone

• Words can imply different meanings, even when
  describing the same situation.
• positive or negative words or words with
  particular connotation can influence the reader
• This tactic is often used in headlines to grab
  attention.

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Bias Tactic Statistics

• Using numbers to influence opinion, such as
  percentages.
• Numbers may be used in some stories to make them
  more spectacular.
• BP Oil Spill

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Bias Tactic Source Control

• Always consider where a news item originates
• Different people may have a different bias to the
  story
• What sources are used to make a news story?

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Media Convergence

• an economic strategy in which communications
  companies seek financial benefit by making the
  various media properties they own work together

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Media Convergence

• Involves three main components
• corporate concentration, whereby fewer large
  companies own more and more media properties
• digitization, whereby media content produced in a
  universal computer language can be easily adapted
  for use in any medium
• government deregulation

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Canadian Media Convergence

• In Canada, media concentration ownership of the
  media by a small group of people is a type of
  censorship because it limits the choice and
  variety of media available to citizens.
• Canadian Media Conglomerates

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Media Censorship

• Censorship is the control of speech and other
  forms of expression.
• Severe cases exist where the government controls
  the media.
• Tank Man

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Media Censorship

• Top 10 Most Censored Countries (2012)

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Media Censorship

• Top 10 Most Censored Countries (2012)
• Use the world map to locate the top 10 most
  censored countries.
• Describe the censorship that the government uses
  for each.

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PROPAGANDA A Good Word Gone Bad?
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PROPAGANDA

• Propaganda is nothing more than a process of
  persuasive communication between a sender and
  recipient.
• Propaganda is usually designed to benefit the
  sender more than the receiver.

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RECOGNIZING PROPAGANDA
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ARGUMENTUM AD NAUSEAM

• Rests on the assumption that if something is
  repeated often enough, it will be believed to be
  true.
• EG) Weapons of mass destruction

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BANDWAGON

• Tries to persuade an audience to take a course of
  action that everybody is pursuing.
• EG) Apple and iPhones

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Appealing to Fear

• Aims to build support for the senders cause by
  instilling fear in the general population.

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ASSOCIATION/TRANSFER

• Links symbols, values, objects, people, etc.
  together to project positive or negative
  qualities.

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VIRTUE WORDS

• These are words in the value system of the target
  audience that promote a positive image of a
  person or issue.

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Propaganda Examples

• WW2 Power of Persuasion
• Ducktators

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Propaganda Examples

• Middle East Propaganda Children Cartoons