Week 1: Media in Context
Mediamaking: the ways in which the world and the media make each other o World= durable, reality o Media= short-lived, hard to hold on to Interpersonal media: point-to-point, person-to-person communication Mass media: communication from a single point to many points (single source to an audience of many people) Network media: either interpersonal or mass media, can be used to connect many points to many points, all of which can send & receive (post service, email, World Wide Web) o These categories aren't mutually exclusive (telephone-can be interpersonal & mass (news, etc)) Modalities: to categorize the media, ex, channel used in communicating (print), sense experience- visual (book), aural (radio), tactile (Braille), mixed (TV), economic modality like costs of media Institutions: any large-scale entity, embodying a range of social relationships and social functions, created by humans to perform an essential function for a society categorize media by the institutions that produce/disseminate them (network tv vs. local independent stations) Every medium comprises and is shaped by: o Technologies o Social relationships (institutions) o Cultural forms (how the products of media technologies and organizations are structured, how their languages and meanings are structured into code Technology: the physical means of producing, reproducing, and distributing goods, services, materials, and cultural products
Week 1: Media in Context
Studying media Media: Plural form of medium Main means of mass comm (esp. TV, radio, newspapers, Internet) regarded collectively Media->latin root, membrana, media, middle sheath or layer Communication-> latin root for common or shared Transmission Model of Communication
Linear. Message conceptualized as having one meaning. If receiver gets diff msg than intended by sender, =miscommunication Grounded in idea of transportation..."the process of moving messages from sender through medium to receiver" Who says what to whom with what effect Cultural Model of Communication o Understandings of values, beliefs, comm is at heart of forming culture Instead of linear like transmission, says that comm is more like a map where you can go diff routes etc but nonetheless creates a much larger system Asks ?s bigger about how comm shapes cultural values, concepts like gender, race/ethnicity, social class, cultural power, who has power to send or receive msgs in a certain way Larger system ideas "Communication as construction of a shared space or map within which people co-exist" o Integrated Approach to Media Study (rather than Linear)
What is culture?
galleries, classic literature, The New Yorker, PBS, middle = Time, news radio, The Office, USA Today, Eat Pray Love, lower = Pitbull, Honey Boo- Boo, NASCAR, National Enquirer "Totality of things in our world that shape the way we make meaning Culture is like an iceberg Visible above surface: Dress, traditions, behaviors, heroes, symbols, artifacts, customs. Invisible culture: assumptions, beliefs, values, perceptions, attitudes, world views Ideology: System of ideas: values & feelings by which people collectively make sense of the world A world view that is naturalized; a taken for granted, common sense view about how the world works/should work
Week 1: Media in Context
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