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