Tuesday, January 29th

Chapter 5 Reading Notes
-we tend to experience the mass media as a system that operates whether or not we are watching.
*Mass media= has been used to define those media designed to reach large audiences perceived to have shared interests. Refers to forms and texts that work in unison to generate specific dominant or popular representations of events, people and places. The primary mass media are radio, t.v., the cinema, and the press including newspapers and magazines. Also, the internet and digital multimedia.

*digital- representing data by means of discrete digits, and encoding that data mathematically. Digital technologies involve a process of encoding information in bits and assigning each a mathematical value.

-John Fiske- argues that radio and t.v. changed the dynamic of the flow of information by making more info directly available to non-literate people, thus making a more democratic flow.

*appropriation-the act of borrowing, stealing, or taking over others’ meanings to one’s own ends. Cultural appropriation is the process of borrowing and changing the meaning of commodities, cultural products, slogans, images, or elements of fashion.

*post-colonialism- a term that refers to the cultural and social context of countries that were formally defined in relationships to colonialism, in the contemporary mix of former colonies, neocolonialism, and continuing colonialism. The term postcolonial refers to the broad set of changes that have affected these countries, and in particular to the mix of identities, languages, and influences that have resulted from complex systems of dependence and independence.

*medium- a form in which artistic or cultural products are made. In art, a medium refers to the art materials used to create a work. In communication, medium refers to a means of mediation or communication- an intermediary form through which messages pass. The term medium also refers to specific technologies through which messages are transmitted (for ex- radio or t.v.)
-media is the plural form of medium
-The medium itself has a major impact on the message it conveys
-There is no such thing as a message without a medium

*phenomenology- a philosophical position that centers on the dimensions of subjective human experience in how we react bodily and emotionally as well as intellectually to the world around us. It emphasizes the importance of the lived body in how we experience and make meaning of the world. Its main theorists are Edmund Husserl and Maruice Merleau-Ponty.

Raymond Williams wrote about…
*Television flow- the concept that viewers’ experience of t.v. involves an ongoing rhythm that incorporates interruption (such as changes b/w programs and commercials)

-masses is a term that emerged in the 19th and 20th centuries to describe shifts in the way people live in Western Industrialized countries.
-the rise in mass media occurred during modernity

*Mass society- describes social formations in Europe and the U.S. that began during the early period of industrialization and culminated after WWII
-The rise of mass culture- relates to the rise of urban populations after the war

*Broadcast media- media that are transmitted from one central point to many different receiving points
-mass society receives a majority of info from broadcast media

In the 1980s and 1990s, narrowcast media rose and mass media is less pervasive
*narrowcast media- media that have a limited range through which to reach audiences and hence are capable of carrying programming tailored to audiences that are more specific than broadcast media.

-The term, “the media”, as a singular entity can be used to describe the effect of media forms as a whole upon the formation of a mass or public culture.
-one of the most important roles of the media in contemporary culture is to facilitate social spheres for public debate and action.
-we most fully influence broadcast media in the ways we use it, not at the levels of its production or distribution.

*multidirectional communication- media that operate in several directions, in contrast to broadcast media that transmit in one direction only. Ex) internet
*one-way broadcasting- centralized networks and producers transmit media texts to vast numbers of listeners or viewers over a broad geographical region.

-broadcast media allows for global communications
-narrowcast media is community based t.v.

-rise of cable in 1970s allowed for a reemergence of narrowcast with channels geared towards certain communications.

~Critiques of Mass Media~
-mass media has a great deal of power and is thus often critiqued
-some have said that mass broadcasting fostered conformity to dominant ideas about politics and culture
-current critics argue that electronic technologies are powerful new tools for propaganda
-one critical perspective understands the mass media inherently to be forms of propaganda …ex) nazi films

*Representation- the act of portraying, depicting, symbolizing, or presenting the likeness of something. Language, the visual arts, and media are systems of representation that function to depict and symbolize aspects of the real world.

*Spectacle-a term that generally refers to something that is striking or impressive in its visual display. The term was used by Guy Debord in his book Society of the Spectacle to describe how representations dominate contemporary culture and all social relations are mediated by and through images.

*Futurism-an Italian avant-garde movement that was inspired by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s “Futurist Manifesto”. The Futurists were interested in breaking free of tradition, and embraced the idea of speed and the future.

*Surrealism-an art movement of the early 20th century in both literature and the visual arts that focused on the role of the unconscious in representation and in dismantling the opposition between the real and the imaginary.

-Guy Debord- in 1967, he wrote “Society of the Spectacle”. He was a founding member of situationist international. This group sought to blur the distinction b/w art and life, and called for a constant transformation of lived experience. In his book, he describes how the social order of the late 20th century global economy exerts its influence through representations. He later wrote about the concept of integrated spectacle, which exerts greater control over the spectacle.
-Jean Baudrillard- made the case that the experience of simulation in realms like cyberspace transcends that of the real. Simulacra are copies without originals.

*simulation-refers to a sign that does not clearly have a real-life counterpart. The term “simulation” is often used to describe aspects of post-modern culture in which copies and realities get blurred.

-The idea of hypodermic effect of the mass media refers to an increased passivity in viewers “drugged” by media texts with less explicitly political messages than the overtly propagandistic media text.

-The concept of a narcotic effect refers to the way that time spent with the media replaces actual participation in organized action. This view holds that the increasing dependency of the mass population on television for political news fosters the growth of political malaise.

*Frankfurt School-a group of scholars and social theorists, working 1st in Germany in the 1930s and then primarily in the U.S., who were interested in applying Marxist theory to the new forms of cultural production and social life in 20th-century capitalist societies. The Frankfurt school scholars rejected Enlightenment philosophy, stating that reason did not free people but rather became a force in the rise of technical expertise, the expression of instrumental reason divorced from wider goals of human emancipation, and the exploitation of people, making systems of social domination more efficient and effective.

-The Frankfurt School includes Walter Benjamin and others who published a series of essays criticizing the capitalist and consumerist orientation of postwar entertainment and popular media forms including popular movies, television, and advertising. According to the Frankfurt School, the culture industry is an entity that both creates and caters to a mass public that, tragically, can no longer see the difference b/w the real world and the illusory world that these popular media forms collectively generate. According to the Frankfurt school view, the real conditions of existence-the fact that class oppression and domination are unfair and not a natural aspect of everyday life- are distorted by a mass ideology that generates myths about the good life under capitalism.

*culture industry-a term used by the members of the Frankfurt school to indicate how capitalism organizes and homogenizes culture, giving cultural consumers less freedom to construct their own meanings.

-Since the late 1980s, critics have questioned the high art/mass culture divide, suggesting that our experiences with the media during the late 20th century are too complex and varied to be adequately characterized in sweeping categories such as mass consciousness or mass culture.

~The mass media and democratic potential~
-There is also a counter-view that regards the mass media as a promising tool for democratic ideals. This view sees communications technologies as wonderful new tools for use by the mass citizenry that will promote an open flow of information and exchange of ideas, thereby strengthening democracy.
-Ex, the 2-way model of media communication on the internet has been seen by many of its users as highly democratic in this sense.
-The view of media as potentially democratic challenges the very idea of a mass media or a mass society. It stresses instead the potential of individual media forms for the development of community and identity on a much smaller scale.

-Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan, who wrote most influentially in the 1950s through the 1970s has had the most widespread impact. He argued that t.v. and radio were like natural resources, waiting to be used for the benefit of increasing mankind’s collective and individual experiences of the world. He also stated that the media were simply extentions of our natural senses, helping us better to hear, see, and know the world and, moreover, helping us to connect ourselves to geographically distant communities and bodies.

*Technologically determinist-a position that sees technology as the most important determining factor in social changes, positing technology as somehow separate from social and cultural influence. In this view, people are merely observers and facilitators of technology’s progress. (has been largely discredited)

*Guerrilla television-a term used by video artists and activists to describe alternative video practices begun in the late 1960s that used the medium of television to produce videotapes that were oppositional to the styles of mainstream television.

~Television and the question of sponsorship~
-An important paradox about practices of looking is embedded in this model: consumers watch television primarily to see programs, but what keeps television afloat is viewers’ not-so-incidental exposure to the products advertised through these programs.

~Media and the Public Sphere~
*public sphere-a space, a physical place, social setting, or media arena, where citizens come together to debate and discuss the pressing issues of their society.

-German theorist Jurgen Habermas postulated that the public sphere that was participated in by the liberal middle class of the 19th century was destroyed in the 20th century by various forces including the rise of consumer culture, the rise of mass media, and the intervention of the state in the private sphere of the family and the home. He believed that the public sphere was a public space where private interests were inadmissible, hence a place where true public opinion could be formulated.

-Walter Lippmann (U.S. journalist) proposed, in the 1920s, that the public sphere was nothing more than a phantom-that it was not possible for average citizens to keep abreast of political issues and events and give them due consideration given the chaotic pace of industrial society.

-contemporary attempts to understand how the public converges and functions have proposed the idea of multiple public spheres and counterspheres. For instance, political theorist Nancy Fraser puts forth the useful alternative theory of a woman’s and a feminist countersphere, among other counterspheres of public discourse and agency.

-In these multiple and overlapping public spheres, debate and discussion is fostered through many media, including newsletters, journals, etc.
-One of the forms of traditional mass media that can be seen as a force in public spheres and the formation of public opinion is television.
-J.F.K. used television to speak to the nation and garner support for his administration’s actions.
-J.F.K. and Princess Diana’s funerals (t.v. coverage) created a sense of community at local, national, and global levels.
-T.V. is also a forum for airing of controversial issues, in particular in the context of television talk shows.

~New Media Cultures~
-the contemporary media environment means that the distinctions among media are less definable and there are less opportunities for media to be less monolithic and centralized.

*Cultural imperialism-refers to how ways of life are exported into other territories through cultural products and popular culture.

KEY WORDS
*Mass media- has been used to define those media designed to reach large audiences perceived to have shared interests. Refers to forms and texts that work in unison to generate specific dominant or popular representations of events, people and places. The primary mass media are radio, t.v., the cinema, and the press including newspapers and magazines. Also, the internet and digital multimedia.

*Modernism-An art movement characterized by the deliberate departure from tradition and the use of innovative forms of expression that distinguish many styles in the arts and literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

*Post-colonialism- a term that refers to the cultural and social context of countries that were formally defined in relationships to colonialism, in the contemporary mix of former colonies, neocolonialism, and continuing colonialism. The term postcolonial refers to the broad set of changes that have affected these countries, and in particular to the mix of identities, languages, and influences that have resulted from complex systems of dependence and independence.

*Subculture- in sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.

*Propaganda- is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behavior of large numbers of people. Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience.

*Television Flow- In television programming, flow is how channels and networks try to hold their audience from program to program, or from one segment of a program to another. Thus, it is the "flow" of television material from one element to the next.

*Frankfurt School-a group of scholars and social theorists, working 1st in Germany in the 1930s and then primarily in the U.S., who were interested in applying Marxist theory to the new forms of cultural production and social life in 20th-century capitalist societies. The Frankfurt school scholars rejected Enlightenment philosophy, stating that reason did not free people but rather became a force in the rise of technical expertise, the expression of instrumental reason divorced from wider goals of human emancipation, and the exploitation of people, making systems of social domination more efficient and effective.

*Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911 –1980) was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar — a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a communications theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory. McLuhan is known for coining the expressions "the medium is the message" and the "global village".