Digital Media Convergence

Australian brands are legally responsible for the comments posted on their social media pages. They can be held accountable for false claims about their company, such as "drinking Smirnoff alcohol can increase your ability to detect beauty".

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Absolut avoids false claims by advertising the unique-ness of their bottles; it is nearly impossible to market vodka because it is "without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or colour".

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Introduced new limited edition bottles, hoping that people will collect them - selling exclusivity-

Selling social connections because alcohol is one way we connect with friends. •Alcohol brands have some of the highest digital IQ's, especially luxury brands.•

Alcohol Companies

Event sponsorship•Celebrity endorsement•Social loyalty campaigns•PSAs (public service announcements)•Magazine ads•Television spots•Drink recipe apps (mobility)•Social properties (owned earned and controlled)•Product placement in films and music videos•

Types of Brand Promotion

3 C'S of Media Convergence

Having platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. •Communication Networks

Available for sharing on platforms•Digital Content

Have a public that has connective devices, such as laptops, smartphone, wifi connection•Connective

Digitization and the Evolution of Content→ the evolution of content production, how it is distributed, and how we are consuming it.

Platforms such as Netflix, Facebook, Google, amazon.com, Pinterest, YouTube, and iTunes allow us to obtain discrete media assets from many different publishers and producers at the same time

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These companies become the distributers of the content rather than the brands that actually produce the content.

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We can gather media in smaller pieces•Photos vs albums-

Singles vs albums-

Tv episodes (netflix) vs entire seasons-

(can skip all the advertisements)

Content is constantly flowing through the social media ecosystem across multiple platforms, which leads to content disaggregation: disruption of production, distribution, and consumption.

Has a demassification effect•

Tracking allows us to see that older content can be more popular than new content because it is more easily •Long Tail and the Discoverability Dilemma

Can be purchased individually rather than collectively

Introduction Lecture NotesMonday, September 10, 20128:37 AM

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Tracking allows us to see that older content can be more popular than new content because it is more easily discovered (iTunes encourages people to read classic novels by posting them for free - people are willing to give things a try if it doesn't financially inhibit them.

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Choices that you discover when you see what your friends are buying•It is difficult to find content unless it is being pushed up on recommendation lists•

Dumb Pipes

They don't have to invest in creating any content•Make money through advertisements/selling consumers memberships•

Dumb pipes are not content creators; they are digital-only content aggregators. It makes media available in disaggregated forms.

Google-

Spotify-

Netflix-

Yahoo-

Amazon-

iTunes-

YouTube-

The Huffington Post-

[ex]

Dumb pipe channels can supply media to become a content producer.•They have the opportunity to supply exclusive content that you may not be able to otherwise view. -

There is content that can't always be posted on primetime TV-

To be successful, you have to be a brand with the best content integrated across multiple platforms (not just the ones they are controlling) and engaging advertisers

•[ex] Specialty channels on YouTube or Huffington Post entertainment talk show

Concentration/Consolidation of Ownership in Media Industries

People are worried that some companies have too much power and that there's not enough diversity of representation and opinion

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Resulting in higher prices for consumers.•

Mergers, takeovers, and acquisitions occur by companies like CBC, Shaw Media, Quebecor Media, Astral, BELLmedia, and Rogers.

Vertical Integration: When a company with the same owner handles different aspects of a business in the same industry[ex] Apple creates computer hardware and software

Canadian media sector (telecommunications) exceeds the vertical integration level in any other G8 country•Most of the television industry is controlled by a few companies that are also in the content production business. (81% in Canada vs. 23% in the USA)

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Telecoms have a lot at stake in the content•When content is disaggregated, it hurts the big companies-

This is why Bell wants to collect Astral, which has great content across multiple television and radio channels. -

BCE needs to compete with foreign content companies like Netflix, Apple, Google, and Amazon-

Critics thinking BCE's collection of Astral will turn them into a media elephant, forcing consumers to pay for channels that they don't actually want.

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Phone manufacturing companies that also offer phone service

Consumers have become Platform AgnosticWe want high quality, free, fast content that is available across multiple digital devices/screens.We don't care where it comes from.

We want to be able to pick and choose which pieces of media we consume•Good news for consumers, not media companies•

Unbundling media: democratizing effect

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Good news for consumers, not media companies•

Modes of Engagement

Appointment consumption - must be consumed at a certain time or placeCan be considered a cultural unifier because it is social bonding over event programming: reality television, the news, sports television, etc

Consumers are connected and we have new expectations for media companies.•

We are in the time of control revolution - an on demand revolution where we can consume content anywhere (on any device) at anytime.

Stanley Cup playoffs•The Olympics•Award shows•

Event programming that attracts people to watch in real time:

High income, Educated individuals are more likely to be on early technology adopters spectrum - more media on demand to share with friends and family, who follow your lead.

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Can be indicative of an individuals personality. •Your exposure to media depends on understanding how gadgets work, access to it, and ability to spread the news•

Media on Demand - Personal media mix

Half of the general population will rarely/never use multiple screens at once (compared to 25% of FILM240 who are)

•Multiscreen and Concurrent Media Use

Telecom companies were initially worried about us neglecting their news papers, televisions shows, etc when it's available online, but simultaneous usage of multiple screens (with the steady trend of increased TV viewership) argues differently. (Nielsen company, Three Screen Report)

43% of people will watch event programming even if they already know the outcome (NBC). 7/10 people say that we are more apt to tune in once we find out what the outcome is.

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Heavy internet users are heavy TV watchers (Television Bureau of Canada)•Heavy internet users (24+ hours/week) consume 10% more music, read 10% more books, and watch 10% more movies (StatsCan)

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Media use begets media use; It's not about displacement, but rather complementarity. Media converges - more media all the time

Big mac theory: if you consume empty cultural calories you lose your ability to appreciate the finer things in life, art, culture

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culture Empty Cultural Calories → dismisses most popular media cultural as empty, worthlelss diversionsToo much Simpsons = less interest in symphony

Skyscraper model of culture: ranks media culture based on qualityHigh culture (penthouse) targets a refined audience and sold to wealthy and educated audiences. For our intellectual pleasure.

sexuality, joy, laughter, angry birds, loud, silly, hiphop •Low culture: entertainment for the masses

Everything Bad is Good For You

The best of popular culture makes us use our minds. Think deeply to avoid passive engagement•Multiple narrative threads: Interwoven story lines that are complicated, many occurring at once. We must work to keep up with the story.

1)

Polysemy: multiple access points - open to interpretation. Can signify different things to different people. -

Few narrative signposts: doesn't tell you what to think/feel throughout program. (no laugh tracks). There are no cues telling you how to react.

2)

Complex social networks: a plot arrangement that is full of characters who each have drama, shifting allegiences, complex relationships (glee relationship map).

3)

Helps you develop your EQ - emotional intelligence •You can develop your ability to deal with social situations in real life because you are exposed to it already through media programming (ie. Office politics)

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"The best pop culture productions provide a cognitive workout" - steve johnson

Tools for Studying Media

Ubiquity of commercial messages results in ad-blindness. We ignore commercials because we're used to doing so.

People don't usually "click through" on advertisements such as those on your Facebook sidebar.•See differently and make media messages strange again if we want to take it serious.

Identify the compositional elements of advertisements and media. •Every detail is thought through. •What message is really being sent?•

Deconstruction

Notice the commercials/advertisements/content around you•Analysis becomes more rich, precise, and accurate•

Deep dive: delve into the details to create deep critiques.

Consider context and larger trends. •Macroanalysis•

Zoom out: look at the bigger picture.

Representational Pattern RecognitionRepresentation and social norms: magazines promote the "norms" through their featured models on the front cover. [ex] Cosmo and men's health can potentially define "sexy" Media narratives have cumulative affects our imaginationsAgenda setting → doesn't tell you what to think, but what you should be thinking about

Levi's go forth advertisement•Our agenda of things we should consider if we want to be like the people in the advertisements.

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Media Convergence in the Digital EraPg. 9-11Media Convergence → A term used by media critics and analysts to describe the changes currently occurring in media content and within media companies.

Content offered across multiple media channels•Magazine articles, radio programs, songs, TV shows, and movies are now available on the Internet through laptops, iPads, and smartphones.

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Historically this is not a new concept. Old and new forms of media would merge to survive competition. [ex] Radio Corporation of America purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company and introduced the radio that also played recorded music.

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Contemporary media convergence allows for the era of communication to be reinvented.•Email and social media replace verbal conversation-

Print communication has evolved from newspapers to articles available online.-

Amazon.com combines the book (the world's oldest mass medium) and the internet (the world's newest mass medium) to create profit

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The technological merging of media across various platforms

Not necessarily to offer consumers more product, but to better manage resources and maximize profit.

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Allows media corporations to broadcast the same story across multiple media channels. This is convenient because it uses less employees to generate multiple versions of the same story.

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A business model that consolidates various media holdings under one corporate umbrella. Also called a cross platform → involving the consolidation of various media holdings, such as cable connection, phone service, television transmission, and Internet access under one corporate umbrella.

MEDIA DISTRIBUTION

Consumers are not charged for their searches, nor are they forced to compensate content providers. This adheres to customer preference to consume media in multiple places for free.

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Google earns revenue through selling ads that accompany search results. Their earnings from this are enough to fund their other services; the information query, Google Earth, Google Maps, online storage for Gmail and Google Docs, and YouTube

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Aids older news media make the transition to modern technology•Google relies on news organizations to provide quality information and journalism•

Channels like Google organize and aggregate new and old media content and present it to online consumers. It does not produce any original content, but is rather a "middle man" in content exposure.

Evolution of a New Mass MediumPg. 11-12

Diligence of inventors•Social, cultural, political, and economic circumstances•

Dependent on:

[ex] the telegraph and radio were responsive to the military's need to control communication more rapidly the internet responds to new concerns, adapting the sharing of information to suit an increasingly mobile and interconnected global population.

Introduction ReadingsFriday, September 14, 201211:29 AM

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increasingly mobile and interconnected global population.

Novelty/development stage: Inventors and technicians try to solve a particular problem1)Entrepreneurial stage: Inventors and investors determine a practical use for the new device.

2)

Mass medium stage: Businesses figure out how to market the new device or medium as aconsumer project.

3)

3 STAGES OF MEDIA DEVELOPMENT

Linear Model of Mass CommunicationPg. 12

Cultural Model For Understanding Mass CommunicationPg. 12-13

Audiences actively affirm, interpret, refashion, or reject messages and stories that flow through the various media channels.

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Represents the lack of control that senders have over the interpretation of their message•Selective exposure → Consumers seek media messages and produce meanings that correspond with their own cultural beliefs, values, and interests.

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Recognizes that individuals bring diverse meaning to messages, given factors and differences such as gender, age, education level, ethnicity, and occupation.

Stories: the Foundation of MediaPg. 13

News media stories can stimulate public awareness and encourage people to form an opinion about global issues.

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Media stories put international events in context, helping us to better understand our own daily lives and the larger world.

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Narratives are the main cultural currency; they are the tools used to deliver both entertainment and information.

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Stories that circulate in the media can shape a society's perceptions and attitudes.

Cultural LandscapeCertain aspects of culture are considered elite in one place and popular in another. Though categories may change over time from one society to another, two metaphors offer contrasting views about the way culture operates in our daily livesCULTURE AS A SKYSCRAPERPg. 18-21Critics and audiences have ranked culture as a hierarchy, with superior products that are typically considered high culture (identified with "good taste", higher education, and support by wealthy patrons and corporate donors. It is associated with "fine art, which is available primarily in libraries, theaters, and museums) at the top, and inferior low culture ("questionable" tastes

SendersAuthors, producers, organizations

MessagesPrograms, texts, images, sounds, ads

Mass Media ChannelNewspapers, books, magazines, radio, television, the Internet

ReceiversReaders, viewers, consumers

Can return messages to sender or gatekeepersLetters to the editor, phone calls, email, web posting, talkshows

transmit through a to large groups of

Gatekeepers function as message filters. They make decisions about what messages actually get produced for particular receivers.News editors, executive producers and other media managers

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in libraries, theaters, and museums) at the top, and inferior low culture ("questionable" tastes of the masses, who enjoy the commercial "junk" that is circulated by the mass media) ones at the bottom.

An Inability to Appreciate Fine Art: Popular culture is made for profit, and it distracts students from serious literature and philosophy. They cannot recognize or experience valuable art.

1)

A Tendency to Exploit High Culture: Popular culture can transform intellectual high culture values through simplistic alterations to the original

2)

Critics have developed five areas of concern about low culture media:

A Throw-Away Ethic: Many elements of popular culture have a short life span. Although endurance does not necessarily denote quality, many critics argue that higher forms of culture have more staying power. Lower forms of culture are unstable and fleeting; they follow rather than lead public taste.

3)

A Diminished Audience for High Culture: Popular culture has overwhelmed the cultural environment, driving out higher forms of culture and cheapening public life. The prevalence of so many popular media products prevents the public from experiencing genuine art. The changes of finding refined culture forms of art among the majority are small.

4)

Dulling Our Cultural Taste Buds: Sometimes called the "Big Mac" theory, this view suggests that people are so addicted to mass-produced media menus that they lose their discriminating taste for finer fare and their ability to see and challenge social inequities.

5)

[ex] Mary Shelly's Frankenstein lost its powerful messages about abusing science and judging people on the basis of appearances when it was remade into more popular comedies and simplistic horror stories.

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CULTURE AS A MAPPg. 21-23Culture is an ongoing and complicated process that allows us to better account for our diverse and individual tastes. It allows us to experience a range of cultural experiences and can be a representation of tendencies or elements related to why a person may be attracted to different cultural products.

The map model does not rank culture as high or low, but rather shows culture as spreading out in several directions across a variety of dimensions.

Innovation and the Attraction of "What's New": Culture provides an impulse to explore new places, strike out in new directions, and search for something different that may contribute to growth and change.

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We seek out the aspects of culture that demonstrate originality and complexity.-

A Wide Range of Messages: people have complex cultural tastes, needs, and interests based on different backgrounds and dispositions.

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Cultural products convey a large variety of different messages which are spread out in different directions

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Challenging the Nostalgia for a Better Past: Critics suggest that society was better off before the latest developments in mass media. Critics resist new cultural phenomena, viewing it as threatening to the "good old days".

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The Sleeper Curve

1973 movie the Sleeper depicted a character who is awoken from being chronically frozen 200 years in the future, and realizes that foods that were once considered unhealthy (steak, cream pies, fudge) are actually nutritious

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Steven Johnson (2005) relates to this film in his "Sleeper Curve" argument, applying the plot of the movie to media and culture.

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"Today's popular culture is making us smarter"•Culture is getting more cognitively demanding•To keep up with modern entertainment narratives (complex television programs like 24), you have to pay attention, make inferences, and track shifting social relationships.

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Neil Postman (1985) contradicts Johnson's value in popular culture. Image is central; display is superior to print.

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Short, simple messages are preferable to long and complex ones; drama is preferred over exposition; being sold solutions is better than being confronted with questions about problems.

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Pg. 24-25

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problems.Popular culture is simplified.-

Critiquing Media and CulturePg. 29 Considering the diversity of mass media, to paint them all with the same broad brush would be inaccurate and unfair. It is more useful to replace a cynical perception of the media with an attitude of genuine criticism.

MEDIA LITERACY AND THE CRITICAL PROCESSPg. 30-31, 33→ Attaining knowledge and understanding of mass media

In order to develop a meaningful critique of a cultural phenomena, it is essential to understand the contemporary context in which it is produced.

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We must assume a critical stance that enables us to get outside our own preferences.•

The critical process follows the steps of description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and engagement.

DESCRIPTION: Paying close attention, taking notes, and researching the subject under study.

1)

Describe the articles or programs, accounting for their reporting strategies and noting those featured as interview subjects.

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We might further identify central characters, conflicts, topics, and themes.•Compare findings to other stories on similar topics•Note what might be missing from •

THE PROCESS

ANALYSIS: Discovering and focusing on significant patterns that call for closer attention which emerge from the description stage.

2)

Decide how to focus the critique•

INTERPRETATION: Asking and answering "What does that mean?" and "So what?" questions about one's findings.

3)

Determine the meanings of the patterns we have analyzed•

EVALUATION: Arriving at a judgment about whether something is good, bad, or mediocre, which involves subordinating one's personal taste to the critical assessment resulting from the first three stages.

4)

Making an informed judgment beyond the critic's frame of reference•

ENGAGEMENT: Taking some action that connects our critical perspective with our role as citizens to question our media institutions, adding our own voice to the process of shaping the cultural environment.

5)

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Digitizing is causing massive upheavals and disruptions across the creative industries in media entertainment, telecommunications, and broadcasting

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New media platforms are ushering in new modes of communication, connectivity, culture, and commerce.

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As each new media form is introduced, it undergoes an evolution. As explained in the textbook a typical evolution of a media product involves at least three stages:

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Novelty stage/early development stage - the inventors work with technicians to solve a problem, like a gap in the market place, a service that they think that people need that isn't yet mainstream and available

1)

Entrepreneurial Stage - investors come on board and put money on the table so that the idea can be transformed from the prototype to something that can one day be widely available to the public.

2)

Mass Medium Stage - businesses try to figure out how they're going to market their new products/service, and how they're going to communicate to clients, consumers, and users its unique selling position

3)

Technology Adoption Life Cycle- as described by the Diffusion of Innovations text

Younger and more educated community leaders are early adopters of media products.•Word of mouth causes more and more friends to become curious about the product/service/gizmo/gadget.

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More conservative but curious users get on board•As the usefulness of the product is popularized, we see what is descibed to as "the late majority", and then even the "laggers" get on board

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Explains how technology spread through culture from early adopters to late majority

Can take years, or move very rapidly-

These Processes shows the product progressing from a "gleam" in an inventors eye, to a main stream adoption, even by conservative users

In the digital space, we are seeing companies appear, become the next best thing, attract amazing amounts of venture capital, win lots of earned media attention, attract early adopters and mainstream curious users, and then be acquired by a bigger player, or fizzle out as the next shiny object takes its place in our limited field of attention.

The Importance of Narrative to Mass Communications

Mass media coverage of the technological innovation can make or break it.•It's the stories that circulate in the mass media that shape a culture's perceptions or attitudes.•

We know that whether a not a technological innovation will take flight or become mainstream has everything to do with whether or not people perceive a need for it.

Narrative is key in television, music, or social networks, narrative is key.

Explaining to citizens and consumers why we need to use the communication channel to enrich our lives, to participate in culture, and to form our identities, is the job of advertisers, marketers, public relations, journalists, politicians, educators, parents, community leaders and the culture industries.

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Every day people turn to mass media to understand the world in which we live, and the analyses, myths, and stories that we find there help us to comprehend the importance of unfolding events

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The broadcast, media, entertainment, and telecommunications industries are very much in the story telling business

Mass Media Communications PodcastWednesday, October 03, 20129:23 PM

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myths, and stories that we find there help us to comprehend the importance of unfolding events around us and in other countries on the other side of the world.Mass media companies compete for our limiting attention to tell their stories about the world•Media gate keepers hold a lot of power in determining what stories get told, and which ones we never hear about.

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We don’t accept mass media stories uncritically; citizens, audiences, and users might pushback or resist the mainstream media message. This might be because we see the world a different way, or perhaps because we think the stories are lacking depth. Maybe because the stories seem to over analytical.

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Understanding the function of mass media through the cultural model encourages us to appreciate the polyscenic nature of mass media communications

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Multiple interpretations are always possible in newspaper stories, or narrative unfolding on television or in a music video.

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The polyscenic nature of a media message means that each individual will interpret it with their own originality

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Differences in age, region, education, gender, income, ethnicity, and occupation can all be factors on how a media message is received and understood

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For this reason, the linear model of mass communication is often criticized for being overly simplistic.

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Mass media conglomerates have a lot of power, but one thing they do not control is our interpretation of the messages that they transmit to us.

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The senders of messages often have little control over how their messages will be received1)True

Concerns about how young people might be negatively influenced by messages in popular or “low” cultural forms _______.

2)

have been around at least since the time of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates

What is one concern identified in the textbook about the future of news content available through Internet news search sites like Google?

3)

Who will pay for the cost of producing quality news content

According to the textbook, the mass media are industries that produce and distribute cultural products to large numbers of people. True

4)

According to your textbook, which of the following is a consequence of the quick development of new technologies in the digital era?

5)

A. Cyberbullying and phishingB. Traditional leaders in communication have lost some control over information.C. We no longer use older technologies like the radio.D. None of the options is correct.

Most forms of culture demonstrate multiple tendencies; for example, a film could be both conventional and innovative. True

6)

Elvis Presley was filmed only from the waist up in his third appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show because _______.

7)

some critics considered his hip movements lascivious

According to the textbook, although mass media may aggravate social problems, there is little research to show that they directly cause those problems. True

8)

Which of the following statements best describes media convergence?9)A. It makes older forms of mass communication obsolete and leads to their disuse.B. It only applies to the reinvention of the printed word.C. It allows older forms of mass communication to find new life with new technology.D. It only happened because of the Internet.E. It creates new forms of media unlike anything we've seen before

Which statement best describes mass media?10)A. Television programs by their very nature are culturally inferior.B. Books by their very nature are culturally superior to other forms of mass media.C. Any media form can provide content that is worthy or that panders to the worst in human nature.D. Mass media evolve thanks to clever inventors, not to cultural, political, or economic circumstances.E. Billboards and broadcast satellites aren't part of the mass media.

A high-low hierarchy is a more multidimensional way of looking at culture than viewing culture as a map

11)

E. Traditional leaders in communication have even more control over information.

Introduction QuizWednesday, December 05, 20125:09 PM

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a mapFalse

Which of the following statements about Google is false?12)A. Google is an example of a successful digital age media company.B. Google has expanded far beyond being a search engine by offering e-mail, mapping, and numerous other services.C. Google makes most of its money by selling advertising.D. Google is used to locate both “new” and “old” media content.E. Google makes most of its money by generating original content.

Which of the following is one definition given in the textbook for the term media convergence?13)A. The appropriation of American products by foreign advertisersB. None of the options is correct.C. A concentrated and organized stream of Internet traffic to one site for the purpose of crashing itD. The consolidation of different mass media holdings under one corporate umbrellaE. The gathering of multiple press figures at a media event, i.e., a press conference

An example of what the textbook means by narrative is _________.14)A. a movie about an alien invasionB. a children's book about three small swineC. Michael Jackson's Thriller videoD. All of the options are correct.E. a news story about a mass protest

In the linear model of mass communication, gatekeepers are the authors, producers, agencies, and organizations that create the message. False

15)

The meaning of a message can be affected by a recipient's gender, age, education level, ethnicity, and occupation.

16)

True

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