1. Mass Media

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1. Mass Media Everyday Life
Christopher Burnett California State, Long Beach
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Mass Media in Our Lives

• Average time spent using media each year
• More than half of our waking lives
• More time than we sleep
• Impacts every area of life
• Mass media and American life
• Greater influence
• Bigger business

Shannon Stapleton/The New York Times
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Average Media Use
Illustration 1.1
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Media Earnings Percentages
1.2
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Mass Media Today

• The Past Wired
• Needed an electrical outlet
• Limited mobility
• Today Wireless
• WiFi Wireless Fidelity
• Total mobility
• More choices
• Converged Media
• Complex network of media
• Global system

JMMelton/motleyimage
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The Communication Process

• Intrapersonal
• Communication within one person
• Interpersonal
• Direct sharing of experience between two people
• Mass Communication
• Communication from one person or group of persons
  through a transmitting device (a medium) to
  large audiences or markets

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Elements of Mass Communication
Illustration 1.3
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Mass Media Industries

• Book Publishing
• 40,000 titles a year
• Audio books e-books
• Newspaper
• 1500 dailies
• Magazine
• 15,000 published a year
• Declining
• Recordings
• People over 25 buy CDs
• People under 25 download

• Radio
• 13,000 radio stations
• Satellite and Internet radio
• Movies
• 30,000 theaters, 400 films a year
• DVDs, downloads, overseas
• Television
• 1600 TV stations
• Subscription TV (cable and satellite)
• Internet
• Newest media
• Ad earnings growing

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Media are Profit-Centered

• Who Owns the Media?
• Concentration of Ownership
• Chains, Broadcast Networks
• Cross-Media Ownership
• News Corporation
• Owns multiple media formats
• Conglomerates
• Corp. that owns more than just media
• General Electric
• Vertical Integration
• Controlling related media
• Time Warner

AP/Wide World Photos
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Concentrated Media Ownership

• Media Industry and Acquisitions
• Public ownership of media companies stockholders
• Convergence
• Melding of communication, computer and
  electronics industries
• Deregulation
• Since 1980, ownership limitations have been
  decreasing

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Newspaper Broadcast Properties

• Attractive Investments
• 10 profits a year, double the average for
  manufacturing company
• Scarce Commodities
• Limited number makes them more valuable
• Family Ownership
• Selling off inherited media companies
• Easier to buy than to create
• Expensive to start up

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Pros Cons of Concentrated Ownership

• Advantages
• Employee training
• Higher wages
• Better working conditions
• Greater resources
• Disadvantages
• Limits diversity of opinion
• Loss of message pluralism
• Authoritarian corporate culture

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Paying the Bills

• Advertising Consumers
• Ads are primary income for newspapers, radio and
  television
• Consumers pay indirectly
• Magazines receive over half of income from ads,
  the rest from subscribers
• Movies, recordings and books profit from direct
  consumer sales

JMMelton/motleyimage
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The Changing Technologies

• 1st Information Revolution
• Pictographs, 3500 B.C.
• Phonetic writing, 1000 B.C
• Parchment, 200 B.C.
• 2nd Information Revolution
• Printing, 1455
• Spread of knowledge
• Storability, portability, accessibility
• 3rd Information Revolution
• Computer technology
• Satellite broadcasts, digital recordings, global
  network
• Media History Link

Archivo Iconografico, S.A./Corbis
Universitatsbibliothek, Gottingen, Germany/
Bildarchiv Steffens/The Bridgeman Art Library
Gutenberg Bible, 1455
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Time on the Internet
Illustration 1.4
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Digital Delivery

• One-Way vs. Two-Way
• Classic model of mass communication
• One-way
• New model of mass communication
• Instantaneous feedback
• Interactive
• Dumb vs. Smart
• TVs, VCRS dumb
• Telephone smart
• Digital communication
• Information Bits
• Storable information

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Digital Network
Illustration 1.5
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Mass Media Audiences Effects

• Mass Media influence
• Political institutions
• Social institutions
• Cultural institutions
• Selective Perception
• Different people perceive messages differently
• Few people share identical mass media environments

ABC News
Click image to play video
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Critical Discussion

1. In spite of the wonderful advantages created by
   the Internet, what might be some of the
   drawbacks?
2. How is digital delivery changing the
   communications industry? Give examples of how
   digital delivery is changing consumers habits.