Evolving Mass Communication

Episode 3

Overview

• With the coming of the Internet, WWW, and new media technologies, media industries are facing the following changes:

1. How to conduct their business.2. How they are structured.3. Nature of their content.4. 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 answer.

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• Both industries & consumers face challenges:

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 TimeWarnerAs 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 society.

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 – Cancun flights to younger

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 activity.

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 broadcast.

• 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 to content

developers