Evolving Mass Communication

Evolving Mass Communication Episode 3

Overview • With the coming of the Internet, WWW, and new media technologies, media industries are facing the following changes: 2. How to conduct their business. 3. How they are structured. 4. Nature of their content. 5. How they interact with their audience.

Media Industries in Turmoil • New digital technologies changed the media landscape. • New producers are finding new ways to deliver new content to new audiences. • New media future: – Downloads; satellite; on-demand; iPod; streaming

• On which platform? • Soderbergh’s The Bubble. Film? • It will take several years to find an

Media Multitasking • Youth 8-18 years old spend > 8:33 hrs./day simultaneously consuming different media types. • American adults consume 9:35 hrs./day • Media consumption Ball State University Middletown study: • 30% exclusively & 39% mixed w/ other activities

Challenges • Audience Fragmentation: • Convergence: • Concentration of Ownership & Conglomeration • Rapid globalization • hypercommercialization

Concentration of Ownership & Conglomeration Ownership in fewer hands Small number of conglomerates. 1997= 10; 2004 = 5: Comcast, Fox, Viacom, GE, and TimeWarner As a result, narrowing of information sources to people of all ideologies. • • • •

Impact of Source Narrowing • The right to be informed by a variety of sources. • Absence of diverse, independent sources. • News is shifted to entertainment. • Limited access of information • Social & political participation collapse • Freedom of Speech. Where? • Free press is a condition of a free

Conglomeration • Definition: The increase of ownership of media outlets by larger nonmedia companies. • Impact: – The bigger they get the less important journalism becomes. – Conflict of interest – Bottom-line mentality and decision power – Distant from audience • Example: CBS Dan Rather forced resignation at Bush’s second election for running a story against Bush.

Rapid globalization • Large, multinational conglomerates and media acquisition. • Power to shape news and entertainment content to suit their own objectives. • 1. profit and respecting national & cultural values and customs. • Local conditions: Google and arrest of Chinese Shi Tao.

Fragmentation • Audinece is becoming more fagmented. • Less of a mass audience • Before TV: Radio, Magazines were national media to the entire country. • With new tech people have thousands of viewing options. • Narrowcasting = niche marketing = targeting Smaller audiences that share important characteristic.

Fragmentation • Audience of ONE. • Reason Magazine, June , 2007 individualized magazine for 40,000 of 55,000 subscribers. – Editors’ defense: fragmented database nation

• Cable Embedding: sophisticated technology sending viewer profile commercials. – Florida flights to elders

Fragmentation & Culture • Audience change • Communication process changes • What happens to national culture? Niche media, niche food, niche hobbies = niche lives

Hypercommercialization • Selling more advertising • Finding ways to combine content and commercials • Order to increase ad time on shows • 1993 – 2003 increase by 36% • NOW: 17 min/hr; 52 min/night

Practices • Product placement: Integration for a fee of specified branded products into media content.

• Brand Entertainment: Brands are part of the program, like Sears on Extreme Makeover-Home Edition, Pontiac’s Solictice character on The Apprentice. Payola: is now acceptable if sponsorship is mentioned on the air. Originally an illegal

Convergence • The disappearance of traditional lines between media: – Digitization of almost all information – High-speed connectivity – Tech advances in speed, memory, & power.

Distribution • AOL makes classic TV shows available for free on the internet. (Commercial free) • Net giants sell media content to home PCs & mobile devices. • Satellite & Cable Networks distribute to home PCs & mobile devices. • Public TV is making shows available on the net days before scheduled

• Newspapers & Magazines are available on the internet & mobile devices.

Synergy • A situation where different entities cooperate advantageously for a final outcome. Simply defined, it means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. • The use by media conglomerates of as many channels of delivery as possible for similar content. • Conglomerate achieves greater use from its content: Film, TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines, On-line service, book-publishing… • News Corp paid $1billion for Myspace.com & IGN.com video game entertainment.

News Corporation • Film • Television:

FOX Broadcasting Company ;FOX Sports Australia ;FOX Television Stations; FOXTEL; MyNetworkTV;STAR

• • • • • • • •

Cable Direct Broadcast Satellite Television Magazine Inserts Newspaper Information Services Books

Effects of Change • Traditional conception of mass communication process and its elements must be reconsidered: • Content providers can be one individual • Messages is more flexible and changeable • Feedback can be immediate • Audience regardless of size is known