The Media Landscape Exam
Week 1
Media industry → broadcasting, print, film, recording industries, social media companies,
marketing, PR, advertising;
- Broadcasting → transmission of programs or information by radio or TV -
media industry implies commerciality
Companies distribute media content → e.g. Google (but they have multiple objectives not just
the media)
Media Company→ a company whose primary function is to produce or distribute media content
- Boundaries (of media) are changing due to technological change
Mass Media content in the traditional sense → radio, TV, print, newspapers
● 5 Characteristics of Mass Media:
1. One to-many, one way→ one same message sent at the same time to a mass
audience (mass message), getting no feedback from the audience
2. Experiential Goods → the value of products of mass media comes from the
experiece we get → it has non touchable attributes ( intellectual property, stories
that are told, it is entertaining); we can’t know how valuable the media message is
until we consume it → experience gives the value
3. High fixed (first copy) costs → products that mass media produces have low
marginal costs (cost per additional unit) leads to:
→ Economies of Scale→ price per unit decreases (low marginal costs) as the
quantity of output increases; it takes a lot of money to produce the “first copy”
(most of the money is invested in the first copy, the following copies are cheaper
because its cheap to reproduce)
e.g. newspaper
4. Potential for (cheap) Re-versioning→ it’s relatively cheap to make different
versions of original content, such as Spin-offs (branded products)
- Economies of Scope → average cost of production decreases as the
variety of output increases
5. High Risk: Product has high first copy costs regardless of consumer, means that
company is taking risk by creating the product (doesn’t mean that the product will
succeed)
, - Consumer taste is changeable and hard to predict
- High “first copy” costs exist regardless of the number of outcomes
Mass Media Market → A Dual Product Market:
- Media companies produce 2 things:
1. Content → that is sold to the audience (which can be customer and product) 2.
Audiences → that are sold to advertisers (our attention; media companies sell the
eyes of audiences to advertisers, by showing them ads)
Attention Economy → attention is the product that is being sold/bought and not the content;
media users are being sold;
- Results in: advertising goals influence content; creative industries vs commercial needs
Hodkinson: digitalization is the biggest force of change
● 4 main Outcomes of Digitalization:
1. Convergence → digitalization entailed the prospect of bringing media into a
single sphere of technical possibilities from previously separate (traditional)
forms of communication the; merging of different channels that used to be
separate; channels → the physical conduit through which media travels; content,
computing
E.g. progressive merging of traditional broadcast and internet content.
2. Interactivity → two-way communication; users become mass producers 3.
Diversification → different types of content, higher user control, fregmentationa
and expansion of content
4. Mobility → media on the “go” becomes a norm
Media Core Responsibilities: Social Responsibility → care about how media is changing
1. Exchanging ideas/opinions
2. Integrating diverse societies
3. Protecting core value
High Stakes of Media: media companies have a potentially significant influence on young,
vulnerable audiences
When changes happen people have strong reactions → they care about how industry functions:
1. Who gets a voice and who doesn’t
2. How are they represented
3. Which values are shown
There are 2 reactions to Technological Changes:
1. McLuhan’s Optimism → technology gives us new opportunities
- New technology extends our senses + there is new cooler media
, - Liberates audiences from hierarchies, isolation
- Aims toward “Global Village” → communication across the world
- It is a magic solution to man-made problems
2. Postman’s Pessimism→ criticizes TV, blames technology for social problems -
Technological pessimism → less powerful interests off the hook by deferring the
blame for social problems onto intimate objects
- Print age was detailed, relevant, and rational, while post telegraph age consists
of dazzling stories, outweigh relevant news
- TV and images → superficial, doesn’t egage our brains; TV empowers elite
minority while disorienting the passive audience
- Attention and rationality of people goes down
- People become a passive audience
Both reactions are a part of Technological Determinism → technology is the primary cause of
social change
● Critique on Technological Determinism:
- Simplifies and overplays technology and ignores its social context →It misses a
societal element → and that is: technology are tools whose development and use
is dependent on social context and human principles
- Ignores power relations behind the technological use
- Optimism: sees techn. as solution to man made problems
- Pesimism: blames techn. for social problems
Media Life: there is no point in separating media from our life (+ 4 outcomes of digitalization)
- Media is central→ the media now are so central that we don’t notice it; we don’t live
with but IN media
2 Manifestations (of media):
1. Personal/Individualized information space
2. Available (non-stop) global connectivity
2 Consequences:
1. No boundaries/liquified boundaries between work/play and alone/interaction →
2. Life is changed to accommodate media → e.g we wouldn’t go somewhere where
there is no signal because we wouldn’t have access to media?
Technological changes create individualized connectivity
Socio-technical experience of media→ we are living a media life
Media Industry has shifting borders and definitions → the products and market structures are
unique
- Undergoing massive changes
Week 1
Media industry → broadcasting, print, film, recording industries, social media companies,
marketing, PR, advertising;
- Broadcasting → transmission of programs or information by radio or TV -
media industry implies commerciality
Companies distribute media content → e.g. Google (but they have multiple objectives not just
the media)
Media Company→ a company whose primary function is to produce or distribute media content
- Boundaries (of media) are changing due to technological change
Mass Media content in the traditional sense → radio, TV, print, newspapers
● 5 Characteristics of Mass Media:
1. One to-many, one way→ one same message sent at the same time to a mass
audience (mass message), getting no feedback from the audience
2. Experiential Goods → the value of products of mass media comes from the
experiece we get → it has non touchable attributes ( intellectual property, stories
that are told, it is entertaining); we can’t know how valuable the media message is
until we consume it → experience gives the value
3. High fixed (first copy) costs → products that mass media produces have low
marginal costs (cost per additional unit) leads to:
→ Economies of Scale→ price per unit decreases (low marginal costs) as the
quantity of output increases; it takes a lot of money to produce the “first copy”
(most of the money is invested in the first copy, the following copies are cheaper
because its cheap to reproduce)
e.g. newspaper
4. Potential for (cheap) Re-versioning→ it’s relatively cheap to make different
versions of original content, such as Spin-offs (branded products)
- Economies of Scope → average cost of production decreases as the
variety of output increases
5. High Risk: Product has high first copy costs regardless of consumer, means that
company is taking risk by creating the product (doesn’t mean that the product will
succeed)
, - Consumer taste is changeable and hard to predict
- High “first copy” costs exist regardless of the number of outcomes
Mass Media Market → A Dual Product Market:
- Media companies produce 2 things:
1. Content → that is sold to the audience (which can be customer and product) 2.
Audiences → that are sold to advertisers (our attention; media companies sell the
eyes of audiences to advertisers, by showing them ads)
Attention Economy → attention is the product that is being sold/bought and not the content;
media users are being sold;
- Results in: advertising goals influence content; creative industries vs commercial needs
Hodkinson: digitalization is the biggest force of change
● 4 main Outcomes of Digitalization:
1. Convergence → digitalization entailed the prospect of bringing media into a
single sphere of technical possibilities from previously separate (traditional)
forms of communication the; merging of different channels that used to be
separate; channels → the physical conduit through which media travels; content,
computing
E.g. progressive merging of traditional broadcast and internet content.
2. Interactivity → two-way communication; users become mass producers 3.
Diversification → different types of content, higher user control, fregmentationa
and expansion of content
4. Mobility → media on the “go” becomes a norm
Media Core Responsibilities: Social Responsibility → care about how media is changing
1. Exchanging ideas/opinions
2. Integrating diverse societies
3. Protecting core value
High Stakes of Media: media companies have a potentially significant influence on young,
vulnerable audiences
When changes happen people have strong reactions → they care about how industry functions:
1. Who gets a voice and who doesn’t
2. How are they represented
3. Which values are shown
There are 2 reactions to Technological Changes:
1. McLuhan’s Optimism → technology gives us new opportunities
- New technology extends our senses + there is new cooler media
, - Liberates audiences from hierarchies, isolation
- Aims toward “Global Village” → communication across the world
- It is a magic solution to man-made problems
2. Postman’s Pessimism→ criticizes TV, blames technology for social problems -
Technological pessimism → less powerful interests off the hook by deferring the
blame for social problems onto intimate objects
- Print age was detailed, relevant, and rational, while post telegraph age consists
of dazzling stories, outweigh relevant news
- TV and images → superficial, doesn’t egage our brains; TV empowers elite
minority while disorienting the passive audience
- Attention and rationality of people goes down
- People become a passive audience
Both reactions are a part of Technological Determinism → technology is the primary cause of
social change
● Critique on Technological Determinism:
- Simplifies and overplays technology and ignores its social context →It misses a
societal element → and that is: technology are tools whose development and use
is dependent on social context and human principles
- Ignores power relations behind the technological use
- Optimism: sees techn. as solution to man made problems
- Pesimism: blames techn. for social problems
Media Life: there is no point in separating media from our life (+ 4 outcomes of digitalization)
- Media is central→ the media now are so central that we don’t notice it; we don’t live
with but IN media
2 Manifestations (of media):
1. Personal/Individualized information space
2. Available (non-stop) global connectivity
2 Consequences:
1. No boundaries/liquified boundaries between work/play and alone/interaction →
2. Life is changed to accommodate media → e.g we wouldn’t go somewhere where
there is no signal because we wouldn’t have access to media?
Technological changes create individualized connectivity
Socio-technical experience of media→ we are living a media life
Media Industry has shifting borders and definitions → the products and market structures are
unique
- Undergoing massive changes
