Appendix B Outline

What to Expect

Chapter Outline

  1. Different media have several qualities in common that distinguish them from face-to-face contexts of communication.
    1. Mediated communication occurs when there is some technology that is used to deliver messages between sources and receivers.
      1. When mediated communication occurs on a very broad scale, we refer to it as mass communication.
      2. The merging of traditional mass communication with digital computing telecommunication technologies is called media convergence.
    2. Media is pervasive in our everyday lives.
      1. Media multitasking refers to using more than one media type at the same time.
      2. The increased availability and decreased costs of portable media devices have contributed greatly to the rise in media use among adults as well as children.

    Ask Yourself:

    • What forms of media do you use in a given day?
    • How does media affect your communication?
  2. There are several important factors that help shape the kinds of mass media messages that are made and delivered.
    1. Most media is managed by business.
      1. There are two main sources of revenue for the mass media: consumer purchases and advertising. In media, exponentiality describes how relatively few items bring most of the income, while the rest add only a little.
      2. Audience appeal also matters.
        1. The traditional way for networks to capture broad audiences has been to rely on content often described as low culture—entertainment that appeals to most people’s baser instincts, typified by lurid, sensational images and stories charged with sex, violence, scandal, and abuse.
        2. The past two decades have seen an increase in narrative complexity—complicated plots and connections between characters, a blurring of reality and fantasy, and time that is not always linear or chronological.
        3. Another industry trend is narrowcasting, or niche marketing—the process of targeting smaller, specific audiences.
      3. The dependence on large audiences for revenue means that media executives must minimize risk wherever possible by promoting content they believe reflects the values of their audiences.
        1. The industry conducts extensive audience research—involving large-scale surveys and detail-rich focus groups—to try to understand the passions, commitments, values, and relational bonds of viewers and listeners.
        2. They also engage in self-censorship, carefully monitoring their own content and eliminating messages that might offend their viewers or sponsors.
        3. The industry is aware that positive controversy can be good.
        4. Perhaps the most prominent way media industries try to minimize risk is to repeat what has already proven to work.
    2. Media regulation and bias affect mediated communication.
      1. The regulations that U.S. courts allow mostly involve rules about technical issues, such as broadcast signals or ownership of stations and copyright laws, and the courts have allowed some restrictions on First Amendment freedoms when it comes to broadcast media (there are limitations on broadcasting indecency, for example), but in effect, the U.S. government actually has little direct influence on media content compared to the governments of other countries.
      2. Broadcasting refers to signals carried over the airwaves from a station transmitter to a receiver. Because broadcasting frequencies are limited and the airwaves themselves are a public resource, the government—through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)—can regulate which private companies may broadcast over them and can impose other restrictions.
        1. Indecency in practice means talking about or showing sexual or other bodily functions in a very lewd or vulgar way. This is a very subjective evaluation.
      3. Media sources—both news and entertainment—express some degree of bias in their viewpoints and in their content.
        1. In the latter half of the twentieth century, news organizations across the mass media generally expressed commitment to the goal of objectivity.
        2. Today’s media are increasingly embracing more partisan news in order to compete in a crowded marketplace.
        3. Framing refers to the way issues in the news get presented in order to relate to audiences’ existing schemas.

    Ask Yourself:

    • How does business influence the media with which you engage?
    • Can you tell when a news outlet you rely on presents biased information? If so, what bias have you noticed?
  3. It is important to understand the research and theories about how mass media messages might actually shape us.
    1. The concepts of selectivity and an active audience suggest that media effects are much more limited than we might otherwise believe.
      1. The uses and gratifications perspective focuses on what we do with media—that is, the way we make media choices (uses) in order to satisfy our needs and goals (gratifications).
        1. When we come to expect that media will serve certain needs, it can lead to media dependence.
      2. One important way in which selectivity limits the effects of media is our tendency to select and evaluate media in a way that confirms our existing views.
      3. The third person effect describes our tendency to assume that negative media messages and bias have a much greater influence on other people than on ourselves or people we think are like us.
    2. There are several areas where the media have been found to have more substantial influence on audiences.
      1. According to social cognitive theory, we learn behavior by watching the behaviors of those whom we have identified as models. Media model positive and negative behaviors.
      2. Cultivation theory argues that a steady, long-term diet of heavy television viewing results in perceptions of reality that match the (distorted) view of reality presented on television.
      3. Agenda setting is the idea that extensive media coverage of a particular issue will “set the agenda” for what issues people are thinking and talking about. Issues that do not get much coverage will not seem very important.

    Ask Yourself:

    • Have you seen the subtle influences of mass media at work in your own experiences?
    • Have you ever purchased something simply because your favorite actor promoted it?
    • Do you see agenda setting at play in your own television viewing? How?
  4. There are both benefits and challenges for society as a result of the increased interactivity and selectivity that media convergence allows.
    1. One benefit of converging media is the great potential for individuals and groups to participate more actively in the political process and contribute more directly to the culture.
      1. With traditional media, the professionals are the gatekeepers that control the creation and distribution of information and entertainment.
        1. Internet use doesn’t require the same degree of skill, money, or access. This means that individuals online have the opportunity to discover and provide voices that compete with those of traditional media; they also have a means to connect with others locally and globally.
        2. The use of the Web, e-mail, texting, and social networking (in combination with face-to-face and phone communication) allows groups that would not traditionally get much media coverage or whose members are not geographically centralized to better connect with people, provide alternative sources of information, and spread the word about their causes.
        3. Building social capital, which refers to the valuable resources (such as information and support) that come from having connections and relationships among people, is also a benefit.
        4. It also empowers individuals. [[DE: clarify “It.”]]
          1. Blogs, YouTube, Twitter, and even professional news organizations offer opportunities for citizen journalists to report and comment on events in their communities.
          2. Many forms of user-generated content have emerged, ranging from simple home videos uploaded to YouTube to elaborate mash-ups of popular songs or works of art.
          3. Media convergence allows individuals to contribute to the marketplace of ideas, the open forum in which ideas compete.
      2. Effective participation is limited by the ways in which media is used.
        1. There are still some important digital disparities in terms of regular access to broadband connections or usage of multiple digital devices.
        2. Younger adults and those with higher incomes and education take the most advantage of online technology.
      3. The sheer volume of messages made available by converging media can lead to information overload, or difficulty in sorting through and making sense of vast amounts of information.
        1. It can also be difficult to evaluate the quality of information in converging media.
        2. [[PE: this should be “b.” (I couldn’t fix.)]] Participation is also ineffective when users fail to think critically about the information they find on the Internet.

    Ask Yourself:

    • Do you use social media such as Twitter or YouTube to create social currency?
    • Have you experienced information overload? What was the result in your interpersonal relationships?
  5. The way to avoid or counteract negative media effects and thus become a more mindful media consumer is by becoming media literate—that is, developing an understanding of our own media habits and critically evaluating and analyzing media sources and messages.
    1. Monitoring our own media use encourages us to take more responsibility for our exposure to media messages.
    2. If we understand the biases and goals of media sources—from advertisers to journalists to filmmakers to bloggers—we are in a better position to know whether to resist or accept their messages.
    3. Bear in mind how media effects influence the way we receive, interpret, and react to media messages.
    4. Understand media grammar, the set of rules and conventions that dictates how each medium operates.
    5. Actively evaluate media messages and become a more competent participant in mass communication. Take time to think critically about the messages you send as well as those you receive.

    Ask Yourself:

    • How can I more critically evaluate the media messages I receive?
    • How can doing this influence my interpersonal communication behavior?