Telephony and Media Convergence Quiz

Telephony

• Telephony adapted telegraphy's principles adding transmission of voice
• Cell phones increased spontaneity and phone use, implementing a variety of functions

Three Types of Convergence

• The coming together of computing, telecommunications, and media in a digital environment
• Three types of convergence are economic, technological, and cultural
• Specific types of media such as print, audio, and video, converge into digital media form

Economic Convergence

• Merging of Internet or telecommunication companies with traditional media companies is Economic Convergence
• Consolidation: Traditional media companies growing smaller and much larger through mergers and acquisitions

Cultural Convergence

• Globalization of media content
• Consumption, creation, and distribution of content
• Shift from passive audience to public that produces and shares content cheaply

Implications of Convergence

Media organization

• Centralized - Functions of media--including productions, distribution, marketing, and advertising--are controlled by a single individual or unit
• Converged - Functions of media may be de-centralized via the Internet, inviting more diffuse methods of production, distribution, marketing, and advertising

Media type

• How we engage with and what constitutes media are in flux.Different media are regulated differently with other protections and restrictions

Media content

• Hyperlinks - Connect online content to other content and stories
• Digital natives grew up with digital media; digital immigrants grew up with analog media
• Digitized content - Computer-readable media transforming production cycle and process

Media use

• 24/7 media environment - the ability to always be "on" and "connected"
• Media companies need content to fill the time
• We live in a multi-screen world, although Internet access and benefits remain unequal

Media distribution

• Media is distributed globally

Media audience

• Audiences are increasingly active in media use and distribution, bypassing corporate control
• Viral Marketing: Rapid information travels through the Internet, "word-of-mouth"
• Peer-to-peer (P2P): Individual file sharing
• User-Generated content (UGC): Digital media enable audiences to develop content

Media profession

• Producers: Audiences who both use and consume contemporary media; can be both passive recipients and active creators.Convergence changing how professionals do their jobs
• Divisions among different activities fading

Attitudes and values

• The era of digital media requires learning new skills while maintaining professional ethics and standards
• Citizen journalism: Interactive relationship wherein audiences contribute to story content and/or correction
• No formal training in journalism is required
• With increased global digital communication comes increased desire for transparency and methods for gaining trust
• Confusion over traditional notions of privacy for individuals and companies
• Behavioral targeting: Advertising technique drawn from the information we readily share through our digital footprint
• Cookies: Information archived on hard drives that allow for digital tracking of our web habits.

Mass Communication in the Digital Age

• Traditional mass communication: communication to a large group or groups of people largely unknown to the sender of the message
• Traditional interpersonal communication: communication between two or more individuals, often in a small group, although it can involve communication between a live speaker and an audience
• Traditional interpersonal communication: usually interactive; flows at least two ways; tends not to be anonymous; involves both verbal and nonverbal messages
• Meditated interpersonal communication: takes place through an external medium, such as a telephone, IM, text, chatroom, or Twitter; visual cues are often absent; online medium blurs lines between interpersonal and mass communication
• Mass Media: technological means of communicating between large numbers of people distributed widely over space or time
• In the traditional model, content creators represent and define reality
• Synchronous media: audiences assemble simultaneously for broadcast, transmission, or event, such as live TV or radio
• Asynchronous media: audiences can attend on their own time, such as with printed materials or recorded audio or video
• Timeshift: recording of an audio or video event for later
• Digital media blur lines between interpersonal and mass communication, each adopting characteristics of the other
• Examples include email, weblogs, Twitter
• Mass communication entertainment and information generate interaction and conversation

Functions of Mass Communication

• Surveillance
• Correlation
• Cultural transmission
• Entertainment

Surveillance

• Information about processes, issues, events, and other developments in society, primarily connected to journalism
• Potential that too much bad news promotes skewed or apathetic responses

Correlation

• Media interpretation of events and issues that help individuals understand roles within larger society
• Journalism, advertising, and PR help shape public opinion; media can help maintain social stability
• Potential to thwart change and favor interests

Cultural Transmission

• Transference of dominant culture and subculture(s) from one generation to the next or to immigrants
• Includes socialization, which helps people learn the rules of society
• Potential for a homogenized culture that promotes mindless consumption

Entertainment

• Function performed by other three activities and content designed specifically to entertain
• Potential to encourage lowbrow entertainment and escapism
• Potential to perpetuate stereotypes

Media Literacy

• The process of critically analyzing media content
• Including its particular presentation 
• Underlying political or social messages
• Media ownership or regulation

Ferdinand de Saussure

• Dual sign comprised of signifier (form) and signified (what form represents)

Rene Magritte's "This is not a pipe"

• Example of how a sign (the image) can be interpreted based on its signifier and signified

Umberto Eco

• Framing:
  • Particular presentation and communication of message influences our perception of it.
  • Audiences must classify, organize, and interpret media information
  • Frameworks, or schemas, simplify the complex
  • Like signs, frames appear natural and often go unquestioned.

Media Grammar

• Medium's underlying rules, structures, and patterns that influence audience use and understanding

Print Media

• Sophisticated media grammar because of long history
• Books, newspapers, and magazines

Radio and Recorded Music

• Radio: Audio techniques include volume changes, multiple audio tracks, actualities, sound effects, and voice-overs
• Record music - Particular stylistic conventions include song length and music formats

Film and Television

• Intricate media grammar based on editing, camera angles, lighting, movement, and sound
• The film uses cross-cut scenes to tell more complex and dramatic stories
• TV uses film techniques with smaller production budgets
  • Different TV genres have different grammars

Digital Media

• Media grammar evolves without communication devices.Digital adopts traditional forms while creating new ways for us to interact with media
• The grammar of mobile and social networking media has become increasingly important.

Newspapers

• Six major trends
  • More newspaper executives are outsiders with little appreciation or understanding of industries unique aspects
  • Digital subscriptions models will likely need to offer drastic incentives
  • Understanding and measuring audiences increasingly critical in online world
  • Local coverage is increasingly important
  • Smaller but more numerous revenue streams need to be developed
  • Collaborations with other media outlets must occur to offer a complex mix of media that includes print newspapers

Magazines

• Distinctive functions of magazines are surveillance, correlation, entertainment, and marketing
• Longer treatment of topics
• Published at regular but less frequent intervals
• Higher-quality, paper such as glossy magazines

History of Magazines to Today

• Early histories of magazines and newspapers interwoven
  • Overlapping technological, business, and journalistic/entertainment functions helped spur development of modern mass media
• 19th-century magazines helped young America define itself and reach nationwide audience
• Muckrakers pioneered investigative reporting of corrupt practices in government and business
• Specialized magazines supplant general-interest publications to compete with TV for adventures in the 1950s

Current magazine-industry issues

• As of 2020, there were about 7,400 print consumer magazines on various topics in the U.S., the highest since 2009

Sales and Readership of Magazines

• Contemporary magazines increasingly subject to ownership consolidation and media concentration
• Established magazine moving to online-only editions
• Hundreds of new magazines titles are published every year, but most do not survive more than two years

Outlook for Magazines

• Relatively large screens and high resolution have helped increase reading activity, even longer-form content
• Print magazines both expensive to produce and environmentally friendly
• Type of magazine content may not change much, but the way in which we see it will

Explore the principles of telephony and the three types of convergence: economic, technological, and cultural. This quiz delves into how traditional media and telecommunications intersect in a digital landscape, affecting global content consumption and production. Test your knowledge on these critical topics in modern media!