Media Studies Exam Prep (Weeks 9-11) PDF

Media Studies Exam Prep Concepts from weeks 9-11 Broadcasting vs. Narrowcasting Broadcasting:  The focus on mass audience  GOAL: Largest audience possible  Reaching mass audience as much as possible Logic= “least objectionable programming” (broadcast appeal) Narrowcast...

Media Studies Exam Prep Concepts from weeks 9-11 Broadcasting vs. Narrowcasting Broadcasting:  The focus on mass audience  GOAL: Largest audience possible  Reaching mass audience as much as possible Logic= “least objectionable programming” (broadcast appeal) Narrowcasting:  Focus on niche audiences desired by advertisers  GOAL: produce content for a niche/sell access to that niche to ads  Reaching mass audiences for that niche Logic= divide the audience into categories useful to marketers. Audience Segmentation:  Media products targeted to reach different groups of people  Target audience= desire segments producers want to reach  Valued b/c they spend money and time in similar ways 4 Forms of Segmentation: 1. Geographic: not that useful in age of national brands 2. Demographic: categories like gender/age/education 3. Lifestyle: interests/hobbies 4. Psychographic: personality characteristics Data Collection:  Profile= a collection of "data points” on an individual consumer  Databases= constantly updated collections user profiles soarable by relevant information desired at a particular time First-Party data-collected by the site/platform Third-party data-purchased from data brokers Interactive Microtargeting (Einstein):   Programmic media buying= algorithm buys ad space targeting you at a cost based on the data in your profile  Touchpoints= ads follow you across your web browsing  Converting= user purchases product (if you see an ad for VS, then go buy VS u converted)  Lookalike modeling (2-step process) aggregates all shared data points btw converters/targets others sharing all those data points. Interactive microtargeting benefits:  Increases amount of relevant info: decrease amount of irrelevant information  Automated (no human surveillance going on)  Compiled w/o (or w/little) user access  No way guarantee accuracy  Limits potential future choices  No limit to duration (one's history is never forgotten)  Doesn't distinguish btw public/private  Vulnerable to hacking & data breaches Two Understandings of the child audience: 1. Media industry (distribution outlets/advertisers/marketers/app creators/producers) - WHO: producers, distributors, advertisers, etc.... - Children are desirable and lucrative demographic - Kids are high frequent media consumers - Kids are valued because of their consumerist mentality/appeal/understanding - Media foster brand loyalty early on to kids. (conditioning technique) 2. Protectionist - WHO: parents, watchdogs, educators, and regulators - Blank slates - These people understand kids as innocence/fragile - Kids lack taste distinction and ability to choose - Consumption is viewed as passive activity (just sitting there watching/doing nothing) Children & TV: WHY?  - ASSUMPTION: consider the idea of consumption is passive - AND: why do kids really engage in the tv they watch? - TV can provide a window to a larger world (see the depiction of) the world around them. - Studies have found that kids can use tv as a teaching tool. - Ex: learning math, words, behaviors, etc.... - So: kids tv focus on educational curricula or and social emotional curricula - SUPER WHY? YO GABBA GABBA NOW WE ASK; Children & TV HOW? - Assumption: they consume media as adults do but w/o critical skills - BUT: how do kids “really” engage in the TV they watch? - Direct participation =answering questions, repeatable songs, etc... - Problem solving narratives require multiple views to grasp (mickey mouse clubhouse prime example “mystery MaskTools”) - Repetition = learn to understand storytelling conventions “Screen Content” for children (Potter & Steemers):  b-cast programming blocks (now only on PBS)  Narrowcast cable channels (targeting children) remember when baby cartoons would play in the morning before big kid shows that were not cartoons  SVOD added-subscription appeal (diversity of content)  Video sharing services (U.S. & global//long & short// pro & “user generated”// from adults & from youth)  BUT: “Protectionist” tensions over content, commercialism, data spaces  Predictions 1: emphasis on curation/safe spaces  Prediction 2: global over national properties  AND STILL RELEVANT: digital divides Online Affinity Networks (Pfister & Martin): Youth online participation - “Friendships-driven” = re: offline relationships and experience - “Interest-driven” = interests/affiliations outside their local community Three common features of OAN’s (Pfister & Martin): 1. Specialized − Centered on an affinity/interest − Increase status thru niche engagement  2. Intentional − opt in, opt out − Outside offline relationships, status, stigmas − Can also be “exclusionary & unforgiving” but “easier to escape” 3. Open − Discoverable, easy to observe and join − Easy to share − Content & communication visible & searchable Productivity Practices of Consumption:  Interpretation  Speculation  Projection  Discussion Defining Fandom: − High engagement − Close Scrutiny − Social practice − Public display (displaying posters/clothing's) − AND: they’re heightened examples of typical behaviors and pleasures Black Fandoms: − Intervention: academics focus on white fandoms make it normative and examine black fandoms can decenter it − Black fandom’s three interlocking discourses 1. must-see blackness (consumption as “civic duty” support for blackness) − 2. economic consumption (monetary support) 3. pedagogical properties (teaching tools and role models) AND: this is applicable to other fan groups and their desire for greater visibility Fandom online: − The internet makes it easier to engage in “fannish” behavior − Info seeking − Consumption − “Backstage access” − Social media/OANs  − Community/social media participation − Cultural production Cultural production: − Fans can build upon/ transform texts − Products of art and craft − Enabled by new techs of production, distribution, (across the internet), and exhibition (via social media, etc.) − Can express underserved audiences and needs Cultural Production vs. Copyright (Gwenllian Jones): ??? Industrial utility of fandom (Gwenllian Jones): − Fandom is an industrial construct and not a community − The industry's “adoring offspring” not its nemesis − Based on consumption, not critique 1. Transmedia consumption 2. Heavy consumption 3. Brand advocates//free promo Critical media policy: “Not a technocratic exercise in problem solving but a lens through which to explore countless questions about media, power, and society” Interpretative policy analysis= how “values, meanings, and systems of power” influence policy Ex= who gets to decide what's “sexual content”? Political economy= economic powers influence on policy Ex= how do wealthy doners set the policy agenda? (who has a voice for advocating for copyright extensions) Cultural Policy Studies= policy re: cultural forms to manage behavior Ex: How sexual content regulation can model “appropriate sexuality”?  BUT: hard to study because decisions made “behind closed doors” Media Policy (Kirkpatrick): “Formal and informal rules and regulations that shape or influence the production, distribution, and consumption of media” Regulation by the state Self-regulation by the industry (adopted industry standards) Pressure on both thru citizens and groups Regulations vs. Deregulation: How can policymakers ensure competition between media businesses? PREVIOUSLY: regulation (government oversight to prohibit anticompetitive practices) NOW: deregulation (removal of ownership rules) THE GOAL: let “free market” competition increase choice and lower costs Esp. Thru cross-media ownership (e.d. b-cast stans can own cable stn; cable providers can be IPS Media Mergers: Response: rather than compete, media companies merge thru buyouts Media Conglomerate: company that owns several media divisions under a single corporation's umbrella. Vertical Integration: Production+ national distribution+ local exhibition within a single media division Keeps profit in-house // decreased costs Increased efficiency Getting the movie to you in front of your eyeballs Think of apple TV ORIGINALS or Netflix ORIGINALS Horizontal Integration: Owns many different media divisions Spreads risk (underperforming doesn't ruin profit/avoid putting all Ur eggs in a single basket) When company has a lot of media operations across media (think of Disneyland)  Turning something into intellectual property Synergy: when coordination across media divisions so that the whole in greater than the sum of its parts (1+1=3) EXAMPLE WOULD BE AVENGERS FETURED ON JIMMY KIMBLE Being across the dif forms of media (one company owns many corporations) Each corporation would make more money from content convergence than the divisions working separately to create their own brands BUT: synergistic “mismatches” lead to a loss of efficiency and drain on profits