CCT 300:Critical Analysis

of Media

Class 5: Persuasion, Culture Jamming and

Economic Factors

Administrivia

• Hand in papers here or • Do note - media genre research due in two

weeks• Groups for final assignment to be set within

next two weeks – be in your right lab• Election Tuesday: a comic twist• http://www.democraticspace.com/

canada2008

Culture Jamming

• Exploiting elements of media form and genre to express ideas, ideologies and perspectives otherwise underrepresented

• Usually with ironic and humourous twist• Effective examples? Less than effective ones?

Issues with Culture Jamming• Too cute for its own good?• Ironic commentary and sarcasm can be lost on some -

especially if done in an subtle manner• Does it become what it fights when successful? (e.g.,

Adbusters• Is irony dead? Potential negative effect of successful culture

jams (e.g., Daily Show/Colbert Report) and hipster detachment

• Might increase awareness - but does it spur on action?

Social Influence and Persuasion

• Ironic commentary is only one means of advancing a point…sometimes it’s simply a question of providing information and spurring action

• What makes for an effective pitch?• What fails?

Concepts in Persuasion

• Central and peripheral processing• The use of heuristics in processing • Latitudes of acceptance and rejection• Source characteristics• Receiver characteristics

Economic Issues in Media

• Money makes the world go around - and media can be a lucrative business indeed

• Effect on communication and culture?

Ownership Models• Private• Public/Government• Subscriber-supported• Voluntary membership• Pay-per use• Micropayments• Licensing

Effects on Media Production

• Steinem’s struggles with Ms. Magazine• Initially ad-supported, moved to subscriber-

funded model in 1989- why?

Advertiser bias

• Women’s magazines = women’s products (e.g., beauty products and food, but not cars or technology)

• Activist magazine “not our audience”• Position held even in presence of contrary evidence

that women hold real power and influence on purchases, and not just on “women’s products”

Product Placement

• Double standard in women’s vs. “real” publications • Product placement linked to copy (e.g., recipes

linked directly to food ads) deliberately part of contract - without such manipulation, no ads

• Does this happen in other publications? Somewhat, but not as blatant as this

Horizontal Integration

• Ownership of most/all players in media field• Cost savings, cost control and manipulation of

barriers to entry can be managed in monopoly/oligopoly

• Mass mediascape - rationalization of industry to few major players - a trend that continues. Examples?

Vertical Integration

• Ownership of all stations within supply and distribution chain

• Control and profit potential at every stop - “sum is greater than the parts”

• Also good for branding and cross-promotion - examples?

Alliances

• Often not a question of outright purchase but adhoc alliances (examples?)

• Enabled by interlocking boards of directors, social class

Limits to Integration

• Synergy helps - some mergers don’t make much conceptual sense (examples?)

• Not absolute control - still independent operators on the fringe, especially in high-risk, low-profit endeavours

• Size and power not absolute - changes in interest or technology can compromise even the big brands

A return to Mass and New

• Emerging media - public forums and dialogue, community driven and built content

• Great idea, but where’s the money?• Google/YouTube example - but is it a wise

investment?

“Massification” of New Media• AOL/TimeWarner merger - creation of a massive media

corporation - Does this compromise “new” media?• Audience defined explicitly as consumers - even one-to-one

communication can be packaged and sold (e.g., online ads)• Digital basis of new media - increased potential for tracking

and control (although still not taken to full profit maximization - new models still required)

“Newification” of Mass Media

• Public communities of Internet have been resilient (people like their chat rooms, email and IM)

• Ability to cheaply create and share content redefines relationship between producer and consumer (e.g., CNN iReports, YouTube Presidential Debates)

Rise and Fall of the Hit

• Mass media having trouble maintaining mass market domination

• NSYNC as last “hit”? 50 Cent vs. Kanye West proved still some value in “hit” model, but that had to be engineered some…

The Long Tail

• New media - digital distribution is no longer a zero-sum game

• Potential for equal access to all sorts of media product

• Niches and word of mouth drive content sales and production

• Result - a lot of potential niche success stories, but less “hits”

Adaptation

• Mass media has already begun to adopt to this - e.g., creating content aimed at specific audiences, going for quality vs. quantity

• Examples?• Mass “hit” model not dead -

American/Canadian Idol example

Next week

• Economic factors as applied to comics - challenges and how technology potentially enables new directions