Very clear and clear summary of the course Media Landscape (ML) at the University of Amsterdam. It contains all lecture notes with any additions from the book or working groups, of course also includes all important models. I have shaded the key concepts so that when learning, you know which pieces...
Medialandschap
Week 1: Introduction & defining the media landscape
What is ‘the media industry?’
• Broadcasting, print, film and recording industries (traditional conception)
• Advertising, marketing, PR
• Social media companies
Not a perfect fit: where would Netflix fit? Google?
à Media company = a company whose primary function is to produce or distribute media
content.
Defining mass media (content)
Mass media: ‘media’ in traditional sense
• Radio
• TV
• print newspapers
• magazines…
5 key characteristics
1. One to many, one-way
Identical message to a mass audience
2. Experiential goods
Value = immaterial attributes
Originality, intellectual property, stories told
3. High fixed / ‘first copy’ costs
Kost veel tijd, geld en moeite om het eerste ‘exemplaar’ te maken
- Low marginal costs
- Economies of scale
4. Potential for (cheap) re-versioning
Re-selling in different formats, leads to economies of scope (average production
costs decrease as variety of output increases)
- Merchandise van Frozen
- Film in bioscoop, op Netflix, op DVD en op TV
5. High risk
Consumer taste is ‘frickle’ and hard to predict
- High first copy costs regardless # of consumers
- Box office bombs: gefaalde films die veel geld hebben verloren
,Defining the mass media market
• Dual-product market:
Media companies produce 2 things
- Content: sold to audiences
- Audiences: sold to advertisers
• ‘Attention economy’
- Attention is the real product being sold/bought
à Result: advertising goals influence content/strategy
• Problematic for journalism particularly (roddelbladen vs objectief (saai) nieuws)
• Broader inherent tension: creative industries vs commercial nerds
Mass media market is changing
Digitalization / digital technologies are biggest force
4 main outcomes
1. Convergence
Previously separate channels fused:
- Channels
- Content
- Computing
2. Interactivity
Two-way replaces one-way
- Users become (mass) producers
- Vb: kunnen makkelijker in contact komen met journalisten
- Vb: zelf veel makkelijker mass media producers zoals op Instagram
3. Diversification
Toegenomen
Heightened user control & choice
- Fragmentation / expansion of content
- Meer keuze in soort
- Meer controle over wat je wilt gebruiken
4. Mobility
Media ‘on the go’ becomes norm
- ‘always on’ culture
Complication
Media organizations (at least some?) should be socially responsible.
• A few core responsibilities:
- Forum for exchange of ideas/opinions
- Integrative influence for diverse societies
- Protection of core values/vulnerable audiences
Mostly for journalism, but also others?
,Hence: strong reactions to change
McLuhan’s optimism
• Technology itself matters
• New tech extends senses
• New ‘cooler’ media
- Liberate audiences from hierarchies, isolation
- Away from officialdom toward ‘everyday talk’
- Toward a global village
Postman’s pessimism
• Print age:
- Detailed
- Relevant
- Localized
- Coherent
- Rational
• Post-telegraph:
- Dazzling stories
- From afar outweigh the relevant, local
- Lokaal nieuws boeide niet meer, maar spannendere dingen van ver
Oppervlakkig
• TV/images à superficiality
• Attention and rationality gone down
• Passive audience
Critiques of the critiques
Both: technological determinism
• Technology itself = primary cause of social change
• Simplifies & overplays tech, ignores social context
• Ignores power relations behind development/use
- Optimism: tech as solution to manmade problems
- Pessimism: blames tech for social problems
à Problematic because just focus on the tech and not social context
Another approach
Du Gay’s et al. (1997)’s “circuit of culture”
Belang, waarde
Tech’s significance best understood thru 5 processes:
1. Production: how/when/why was it developed?
2. Representation: how is it talked about?
3. Regulation: how is it controlled?
4. Consumption: how do we use it?
5. Identity: what does it say about us, when we use it?
, Conclusie
• Media industry has shifting borders, definitions
• Its products, market structures are unique
• It’s undergoing massive changes
• Theorists react to those changes very strongly
- And companies do, too
• But we are constantly engaging with it
- Now… to the ‘media life’ idea from Deuze
Media life (Deuze, 2011)
Media now so central that we don’t notice them
à We don’t live with media, but in media
Verschijnselen
2 clear manifestations
1. Personal/individualized information space
2. Always-available global connectivity
2 main consequences
1. Liquefied boundaries between work/play/alone/interaction
Plaats maken voor / benutten
2. Life now changed to accommodate/exploit media
Samenhang
Diversification, interactivity, mobility, convergence are all reflected here.
Technological changes/responses create this new individualized connectivity.
Summary
• Media industry, mass media, & market:
- Unique characteristics, fuzzy borders
- Social resp./creative-commercial tension unique
• Rise of digital media = further challenges, changes
• Systematically opposed responses to change
• ‘Media life’: one approach to theorizing media
- Importance of ‘individualized information spaces’
• We saw (reinforced) individuality in your own habits
Key concepts
• 5 characteristics of mass media
• Economies of scale, economies of scope
• Dual product market
• Convergence, Interactivity, Diversification, Mobility
• Media’s core responsibilities
• McLuhan’s optimism vs Postman’s pessimism
• Technological determinism
• Circuit of culture
• Media life
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