Summary Understanding Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication (Version 2.0) by Jack Lule

UNDERSTANDING MEDIA & CULTURE
AN INTRODUCTION TO MASS COMMUNICATION | VERSION 2.0
Jack Lule




Chapters 1-14 and 16

, Chapter 1 Media and Culture
1.1 The lost cell phone
- Example of someone who lost her cellphone – writer got his inspiration from The New York Times
 Same story used in another book – shows symbolic the multitude between media and culture
- Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan – book used as inspiration
 Medium (broadcast/print/etc.) more important than media (content)
 Affect the human central nervous system – medium is the message
- Culture = particular way of life and how life is acted out in work/practice/activities


1.2 Intersection of American media and culture
- Mass communication = communication transmitted to large segments of the population
 Happens using all kinds of media
- Mass media = means of transmission for wide audience
- Culture = expressed and shared values/attitudes/beliefs/practices of a social group/organization
- In this book: the American experience
- 1960 first tv debate: John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon – also broadcasted on the radio
 Radio listeners considered it a tie, whereas tv viewers believed Kennedy was better
 Changes in media technology have a big impact on culture


1.3 How did we get here? The evolution of media
- 2017: mobile  facebook/snapchat/twitten – 7 out of 10 use social media to connect
- We are everywhere exposed to media
- 15th century: printing press by Gutenberg – cheaper and easier
- Newspaper previously used to connect with home, keep culture and national identity
- 1830 invention of the penny press: low price – more entertainment and murder/drama
- 20th century film and radio – boon for advertisers
- 1930s Great Depression (bad economy)
- 1837 the telegraph – fast long distance communication
- 1940s television – consumer based economy
 Just three major networks controlled 90% of all aired programs
- 1980s cable television  more channels
 Tv sold advertising and commercial driven programs (CBS) – Britain used licensing fees (BBC)
 Technologies form and cause cultural changes
- Why do media seem to play such a big role
 Entertainment and imagination
 Information and education
 Public forum = discussion of important issues
 Monitor government, business and institutions (journalists)
- Each media/medium has his own benefits – medium is the message
 Internet seems to hold other media within it: webpage includes text/images/video


1.4 How did we get here? The evolution of culture
- Cultural period = time marked by way of understanding the world through culture & technology
- Modern age = post-Medieval era (1500) – modernity
 Technological innovations, urbanization, discoveries and globalization
1. Early modern period: starts with printing press invention – 15th-18th century
 Rising literacy rates  educational reform

, 2. Late modern period – 18th-20th century
 Industrial revolution in England, America and France
 Change in production/economics/social/cultural – invention of steam power and machines
 People moved to cities – manufacturing instead of an agriculture
 Industrialized nation – focus on individual and rational thinking
 Mass media: united people regional/social/cultural
 Modernism = 19th/20th artistic movement: questioned limitations of ‘traditional’ art/culture
- Post-modern age = second half of the 20th century
 Skepticism, self-consciousness, celebration of difference and modern conventions
 Questioned of dismissed assumptions from the modern age
 No believe in an objective truth of autonomous self
 Reject grand narratives = large-scale theories that explain totality of human experience
 Instead micro narratives = localized understandings of the world
 Diversity of human experience
 Mistrusted originality – borrowed across cultures and genres: long live the thief


1.5 Media mix: Convergence
- Media convergence = previously technologies come to share content, tasks & resources
 Mobile phone: pictures, videos and calls = convergence
- 5 categories how media is consumed and produced (process)
1. Economic convergence: single company with multi kinds of media
2. Organic convergence: stories in different media platforms
3. Cultural convergence: stories in different media platforms
 Participatory culture = consumers react/remix a culture
4. Global convergence: geographically distant cultures influencing
 Cultural imperialism = developing countries pressured to shape corresponding institutions
5. Technological convergence: merging of technologies
- Generation gap because of cultural changes
- Convergence transformed who and how ‘old’ media is used


1.6 Cultural values shape media; Media shape cultural values
- Cultural values shape media and mass communication
- Value of free speech and press – however, shifted limits
 Obscenity = offensive or disgusting by accepted standards
 Copyright law = protect creative rights
- Organizations (government/school) shape media to promote their values
 Can become propaganda = attempts to persuade an audience
- Gatekeepers = determine which stories make it to the public


1.7 Mass media and popular culture
- Popular culture = media/products/attitudes considered to be mainstream or part of everyday life
 for example: American Idols | The Beatles | Jenny Lind
- tastemakers = mass media that encourages adoption of trends
 also used to create demand for new products
 now also professional tools Yelp | blogs | SMS | social media
- crowd-surfing = product reviews (tripadviser/yelp)
 form of mass tastemaking – not very fair though


1.8 Media literacy
- Literacy = the ability to read and write