chapter2

Media and Society
Chapter 2
Media Economics
Industrialization of Media
• Mass Production
• Mass Distribution
• Expanding Markets
• Standardized Products
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Mass Media Development
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Competition
• Better products, lower costs
• Economies of Scale
– First copy costs
– Marginal costs
• Media monopolies
– Barriers to entry
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Ownership Patterns
5
Making Profits
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Direct sales
Rentals
Subscriptions
Usage fees
Advertising
Syndication
Licensing
Subsidy
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Market Segmentation
• Mass to Targeted Markets
– ‘narrowcasting’
• More channels
• More information about audiences
– Converged technologies
– Audiences as markets
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Media Revenues
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New Media Economics
• Personalization of media & information
products
• Very low production & distribution
costs
• Consumer input determines final form
of media product
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Critical Analysis
• Different approaches to understanding
media texts and systems
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Marxist
Feminist
Ethnic
Media criticism
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Political Economy
• Marx: politics and economics must be
considered together
• Hegemony:
– Supporting the ‘status quo’
– Preserving ideas of ruling class
• Corporate and some non-commercial
media reinforce these ideas
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Political Economy
• Issues:
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Access to media
Corporate media model
Corporate responsibility
Cultural implications
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Feminist Studies
• Media serve
patriarchy
• Depictions of
women in media
• Presence of women
in the media
industries
• Gendered media
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Ethnic Studies
• Uses ethnicity to view media texts
• Studies representation of ethnic
minorities in media industries
• Stereotypes
– Inferior social roles
– Underrepresented in mass media
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Media Criticism
• Search for symbolism in media
– semiotics
• Genre studies
• Audience expectations & media
selection
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Social Functions of Media
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Social Functions of Media
• Surveillance
– Important events, topics of interest
• Interpretation
– Information processed & correlated
• Values transmission/Socialization
– Teach & pass along ideas
• Entertainment
– Diversion as American lifestyle
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Shaping Our News
• Agenda setting
– Political power of the media
– Media shape public opinion
• Gatekeeping
– Media outlets determine coverage
– Which stories go in; which stories stay out
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Shaping Our News
• Framing
– Interpretation of particular stories
– Invisible self-censorship
• Media bias?
– Journalists claim objectivity
– Underlying interests of media
professionals and corporations
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Diffusion of Innovations
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Technological Determinism
• Media determine shape & direction of
culture
• Form, not content, that matters
– Marshall McLuhan
• High Culture vs. Mass Culture
– Postmodernism questions this distinction
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