College Advice to consider (from the NYT):

College Advice I Wish I’d Taken

Susan Shapiro

ON CAMPUS OCT. 17, 2017

I taught my first class at Columbia University’s M.F.A. program this month, and even though I’ve been teaching college writing since 1993, I initially felt a little intimidated by the school’s regal campus. That, and regretful.

I enjoyed going to college at the University of Michigan, an hour from home, but my secret humiliation is: I was the type of mediocre student I now disdain. As a freshman, I cared about my friends, my boyfriend and my poetry. Or, I cared about what my boyfriend thought of my friends, what my friends thought of him, and what they thought of my poetry about him. Here’s what I wish I’d known and done differently:

A’S ARE COOL AND COME WITH PERKS As a student, I saw myself as anti-establishment, and I hated tests; I barely maintained a B average. I thought only nerds spent weekends in the library studying. Recently I learned that my niece Dara, a sophomore at New York University with a 3.7 G.P.A. (and a boyfriend), was offered a week of travel in Buenos Aires as part of her honors seminar. I was retroactively envious to learn that a 3.5 G.P.A. or higher at many schools qualifies you for free trips, scholarships, grants, awards, private parties and top internships. At 20, I was too busy freaking out when said boyfriend disappeared (after sleeping with one of said friends). Students certainly don’t need to strive obsessively for perfection, but I should have prioritized grades, not guys.

SHOW UP AND SPEAK UP If a class was boring or it snowed, I’d skip. My rationale was that nobody in the 300-person lecture hall would notice and I could get notes later. Attendance barely counted. When I went, I’d sit quietly in back. Yet as a teacher, I see that the students who come weekly, sit in front, and ask and answer questions get higher grades and frankly, preferential treatment. After 15 weeks, I barely know the absentees or anyone Snapchatting the term away on their iPhones. It’s not just that these students flush $300 down the toilet every time they miss my class; participating can actually lead to payoffs. I reward those who try harder with recommendations, references, professional contacts and encouragement.

CLASS CONNECTIONS CAN LAUNCH YOUR CAREER As an undergrad, I rarely visited my professors during office hours. I didn’t want to annoy teachers with what I considered triviality. Besides, I thought I knew everything already. In graduate school, on the other hand, I went to the readings of a professor I admired. Eventually, I’d go to his office just to vent. Once, after I complained about a dead-end job, he recommended me for a position at The New Yorker, jump-starting my career.

But it’s not just your professors who will help your life trajectory. Several classmates of mine from graduate school wound up working as editors at other publications, and they have since hired me for freelance work. Years later, I’ve helped students and colleagues where I teach, at the New School and New York University, land jobs, get published and meet with editors and agents.

PROFESSORS ARE PEOPLE, TOO As a teacher, I’ve kept all the letters, cards and poems of gratitude I’ve been sent. It’s nice to be appreciated, and it makes a lasting impression. After one of my intro sessions, a freshman from Idaho blurted out: “Awesome class! It’s like you stuck my fingers in a light socket.” I laughed and invited her to speed walk with me around the local park — an activity I take part in nightly as a sort of active office hours — and we workshopped ideas that led to her first book. And when a student confided she was dying to take another class with me but had lost her financial aid, I let her audit. In retrospect, I should have been more open with the instructors I admired.

FIND YOUR PROFESSORS ON SOCIAL MEDIA I answer all emails, and while I may not accept all friend requests, I respond to students who follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. More important, social media is where I post about panels, job openings and freelance work. Checking out students’ social media feeds also allows me to see new sides of their personalities. Naked beer pong photos may not impress, but witty posts and original ideas do. Several students have developed book projects from their blogs and Instagram pages, and I promote their work, charities and events on my own social media feeds. You never know if the college president or your professor might retweet or repost your work.

YOU CAN SOCIALIZE BETTER SOBER Drinking and smoking eased my social anxiety and seemed like fun. Until I couldn’t stop. Getting clean — smoke-toke-alcohol-free — led to a huge upswing in my life. Instead of partying, I’d do movie nights, dancing, yoga, aerobics classes and readings with friends and dates. I was surprised to see that my work greatly improved, as did my relationships. I know many students who get into big trouble when they are under the influence, and I still worry about what I missed, wasting so much time wasted.

YOU’RE NOT STUCK Don’t be afraid to ask for emotional support. It was a graduate school professor who recommended my first therapist to me: She was a fantastic listener who charged on a sliding scale. Therapy can be cheap, fun and easily available — not to mention lifesaving.

And if it turns out you’re in the wrong school, don’t worry. A third of college students transfer before graduating. If you’re unhappy or not thriving at your school, take the long view. I couldn’t have made it in Manhattan as an undergraduate, but four years later, graduate school at New York University offered me a chance to live in my dream city. It took me only three decades of work to make it to the Ivy League — to teach one class, at least.

Susan Shapiro (@Susanshapironet), a writing professor at the New School, is the author of “Five Men Who Broke My Heart,” and the forthcoming “The Byline Bible.”

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. 

Communication: Mass and Other Forms

Communication:

Mass and Other Forms
___________________________________________________________________
THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

At a general level, communication events involve the following elements:

. a source
. a process of encoding
. a message
. a channel
. a process of decoding
. a receiver
. the potential for feedback
. the chance of noise

Transmitting the Message

The Source. The source, or sender, initiates the communication process by having a thought or an idea that he or she wishes to transmit to some other entity. Sources can be individuals, groups, or even organizations.

Encoding the message. Encoding includes all the activities that a source goes through to translate thoughts and ideas into a form that can be perceived by the senses. It can take place one or more times in any given communication event. In a face to face conversation, the speaker encodes thoughts into words; if a telephone is used, subsequently encodes sound waves into electrical energy

Message. The message is the actual physical product that the source encodes which may range from the short, simple and inexpensive to the long, complex and costly. Humans usually have a large number and wide range of messages at their disposal that they can choose to send. Messages can be directed to an individual or to millions.

Channels. Channels refer to the ways in which the message travels to the receiver. These include sound waves, light waves, air currents, and touch. Some messages may go through multiple channels.

Decoding the message. Decoding the message is the opposite of the encoding process. It's the process by which a message is translated into a form the receiver can understand. Both people and machines can be message decoders. Some messages can involve many decoding stages.

Receiver. The receiver is the target of the message. The target can be an individual, a group, or an anonymous collection of people. Most people receive far more messages than they send. Receivers can be targeted for a message (a phone call) or they can self-select themselves (choosing which movie to watch). Receivers and senders can be in immediate contact (talking on the phone) or they can be separated by space and time (reading a Shakespearean play).

Feedback. Feedback refers to responses from the receiver that shape and alter later messages from the source. Feedback represents the reversal of the communication flow (sender becomes receiver). It answers the source’s unstated question, “How am I doing?”
. positive feedback: encourages current communication message or pattern
. negative feedback: tries to change the communication or even terminate it
. feedback can be immediate or delayed

Noise. Noise is anything that interferes with the delivery of the message.

. Semantic noise occurs when people have different meanings for different words

. Mechanical noise occurs when there is a problem with a machine being used for
communication

. Environmental noise occurs when noise external to the communication process
interferes with communication

. As noise increases, message fidelity (how closely the message sent resembles the
message received) degrades

. The more immediate and better the feedback, the more chance a source has to reduce
or eliminate noise interference with the message


COMMUNICATION SETTINGS

Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication involves one person (or group) interacting with another person (or group) without the aid of a mechanical device. The source and receiver are in the immediate physical presence of one another. Characteristics of interpersonal communication include the following:

. source and receiver can be individuals or groups
. encoding is usually a one-step process
. a variety of channels are usually available for use
. messages are relatively difficult for receiver to terminate
. produced at little or no expense
. messages can be private or public
. message can pinpoint highly specific targets
. decoding is usually a one-step process
. feedback is immediate
. noise can be semantic or environmental

Machine-Assisted Interpersonal Communication

Machine-assisted interpersonal communication involves one or more people communicating by means of a mechanical device or devices with one or more receivers. It combines characteristics of interpersonal and mass communication situations and blurs the line between the two types of communication, especially when involving the Internet and World Wide Web. Machines can give communication permanence and/or extend its range. The source and receiver can be separated by time and space. A great deal of modern communication falls into this category. Characteristics of machine-assisted interpersonal communication include the following:

. source may be an individual or group; may or may not be easy to identify
. source may or may not have first-hand knowledge of the receiver
. the encoding process can range from the simple to the complex
. Two encoding stages:

(1) source translates his/her thoughts into words or other symbols
(2) machine encodes the message for transmission or storage

. channel options are more restricted than interpersonal communication
. machine-assisted messages have at least one machine between source and receiver
. message customizability varies; messages can be private or public
. messages relatively inexpensive to send
. decoding requires one or more stages depending upon the encoding process
. receiver may be an individual or group; may or may not be easy to identify
. receivers can be selected by the sender for a message or they can self-select themselves
. feedback can be immediate or delayed; may be difficult or limited to one channel
. noise can be semantic, environmental, and mechanical
. use of mechanical-assisted interpersonal communication will continue to grow

Mass Communication (What we emphasize in this course).

Mass Communication is the process by which a complex organization produces and transmits public messages directed at large, heterogeneous and scattered audiences with the aid of one or more machines. Many communication situations will fall in a gray area between machine-assisted and mass communications, especially when considering the Internet and World Wide Web. Characteristics of mass communication include the following:

. source can be a group of individuals who usually act within the predetermined roles
of an organizational setting, or, since the advent of the Internet, one person
can become a mass communicator

. sender usually has little detailed information about particular audiences

. encoding is always a multi-stage process

. channel options are more restricted than interpersonal communication

. mass media channels characterized by the imposition of at least one and usually more
than one machine in the process of sending the message

. messages are public, and the same message is sent to all receivers

. message termination is easiest here

. typically requires multiple decoding

. message flow is generally one-way, from source to receiver

. feedback is usually harder to initiate than in interpersonal communication

. noise can be semantic, environmental, and mechanical

A prime distinction between mass communication and interpersonal and mechanical communication is that audience members are:

. large
. heterogeneous
. geographically dispersed
. largely anonymous to one another
. almost always self-defined

Defining Mass Media

A medium is the channel through which a message travels from source to receiver (“medium” is singular; “media” is plural). Mass media include not only the mechanical devices that transmit messages, but also the institutions that use these devices. A media vehicle is a single component of the mass media, such as a newspaper, radio station, or magazine, web site, video game, television station, etc.

TRADITIONAL MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS


Traditional defining characteristics of mass communicators include the following:

. complex and formal organizations
. multiple gatekeepers
. need large amount of money to operate
. exist to make a profit
. highly competitive

Formal Organizational Structure

Mass media typically have a well-defined organizational structure characterized by specialization, division of labor, and focused areas of responsibility. Communication is generally the product of a bureaucracy, with decisions made on multiple levels, often within highly formalized channels (group decisions and committees, for example)

Many Gatekeepers

A gatekeeper is any person (or group) who has control over what material eventually reaches the public; the more complex the organization, the more gatekeepers will be found.

High Operating Expenses

It often costs millions of dollars to buy and maintain a mass media organization, which is one reason for the current trend towards media consolidation of ownership.

Competition for Profits

Most media organizations in the US exist to make a profit; if they don’t they will soon go out of business. Most profits are usually made by selling audiences to advertisers; hence media organizations compete with one another to attract audiences.



THE INTERNET
AND MASS COMMUNICATION

The Internet created a new channel for machine-assisted and mass communication, and brings the cost of mass communication to a level at which many can afford it. In addition, the personal ability to publish online creates new definitions of what it takes to be a “mass communicator,” many of which are at variance with the traditional defining characteristics of mass communicators. For example:

. Web sites can be produced by a single individual, so there’s little need for large staffs
or formal organizational structure;

. Web sites may bypass gatekeepers; creativity reigns (although there are, conversely, no
safeguards that what is “published” is tasteful, worthwhile, or even accurate);

. Web sites are characterized by low start up and maintenance costs;

. Web sites may or may not exist for profit;

. Competition for audiences, typical of traditional mass media, often doesn’t play a vital
role in individual web sites

The Internet has evolved into both a mass medium (we watch TV, movies, read newspapers, read books online, play video games, etc.) and an interpersonal medium (we go online to communicate with others via Facebook, Twitter, email, etc.).

MODELS FOR STUDYING
MASS COMMUNICATION


The Traditional Mass Communication Model

This one-way model of mass communication is adapted from an early model presented by Wilbur Schramm. In it, communication flows from left to right. According to this traditional model, information (news and entertainment) comes from the environment and is filtered through a mass media organization. The information is decoded, interpreted, and encoded. Messages passing through the gatekeepers are reproduced multiple times and sent through the appropriate channel. Each copy of the message is identical. Audience members are not passive; they decode, interpret, and encode messages themselves. They are socially connected to others, and the messages may be discussed, reinterpreted, and acted upon. Some audience behavior is observed by the media organization and serves as feedback to shape future messages. There is little direct interaction between sources and receivers.


An Internet Mass Communication Model

This model allows several levels of communication:
. one to one (email, Facebook message, IM, etc.)
. one to many (CNN.com, NYtimes.com, gawker.com, huffingtonpost.com, etc.)
. one/few to few (Facebook posts, blog posts, Twitter posts, online discussions groups, etc.-- though, admittedly, Facebook and Twitter posts CAN be one to many, most are one to few)
. many to many (e-Bay, Craigslist.org, etc.)

This is not a left-to-right model; communication flows inward. In this model, content can be provided by organizations and by individuals. There are no organizational gatekeepers. One person decodes, interprets, and encodes the content. The receiver initiates the process, choosing the time and manner of the interaction.

Messages flowing through the model are not identical, nor are they linear. The Internet’s use of hypertext (a means of presenting information that allows you to jump between one source of information or another in whatever order you choose) allows the receiver to access information in any order he or she sees fit. Some writers have characterized the traditional mass communication model as a “push” model (wherein the sender pushes the information to the receiver) whereas the Internet model is a “pull” model (wherein the receiver pulls only the information that he or she wants to receive).

Individuals and organizations are linked in a computer-mediated environment. This makes interaction and feedback easier, and supports totally new forms of interaction.


THE FUTURE OF MASS MEDIA


Segmentation

Mass communication has become less mass and more selective over the past few decades. This process is called fractionalization or segmentation of the mass media audience. Causes include:

. an increase in one-parent families
. an increase in the number of media vehicles from which to choose
. more time spent with media alone, as opposed to with friends or family members
. an increase in demand for special interest content
. commercial organizations are turning from mass-marketing to target-marketing

Despite these changes, the definition of mass communication given earlier still applies. Organizations are still complex, audiences still large. The channels of mass communication remain the same, though more mass media are using those channels to reach more selective audiences. Specialization is evident, but the potential for reaching a mass audience still exists.


Convergence

Convergence means coming together or uniting in a common theme or focus. It has become common in discussions of media trends. There are several levels of convergence.

Corporate convergence. Originally referred to in the 1980s as "synergy," corporate convergence occurs when companies acquire assets that extended the range of their activities. For example, a movie studio might acquire a distribution channel such as cable TV. The biggest example of corporate convergence was the 2001 merger of AOL and Time Warner. It looked like a good idea, but it didn't work, and in 2003 AOL was officially dropped from the company name. The current trend in corporate circles seems more toward divergence than convergence.

Operational convergence. Occurs when owners of several media properties in one market combine their operations. For example, a newspaper, a Web site, and a local cable news channel might operate a joint (converged) news department. Currently, about 50 instances of this kind of convergence are operating. Critics worry whether this will result in fewer independent and diverse forms of journalism.

Device convergence. One mechanism contains the functions of two or more devices. Examples include laptop computers that can play DVDs; smart phones that come equipped with digital video cameras, etc.


Disintermediation

Disintermediation refers to the process whereby access to a product or service is given directly to the consumer, thus eliminating the intermediary, or “middleperson,” who might typically supply the product or service. This phenomenon is particularly evident now on the Internet and on the World Wide Web. Disintermediation is of special concern to traditional media organizations because any large disruption of the distribution process can wreak economic havoc in the traditional distribution and production processes.

Reaction #2 Prompt

For your second reaction piece, write a reaction (250 words, minimum) to the article titled "The Messy, Confusing Future of TV? It's Here."

Some prompts that may help you include:

Has your own TV viewing behavior changed since the time you were a child until now? If so, how?

In just a few short years, odds are you'll be living out on your own. Will you subscribe to cable TV? Why or why not?

Do you think there's an economic threshold that media consumers won't cross? What is it? $50 per month? $100? $200? What is your own threshold?

Is there anything the industry might do to make it more likely that you'll subscribe to their services to watch content (live sports, scripted shows, non-scripted, news, etc.)?

Please post your responses to Sakai under Tests & Quizzes.

Thanks.

Jack

Review Sheet #1

Review Sheet Quiz #1

Intro to Media Industries

Winter 2018

Understanding Television System(s) in the United States (mostly from blog and class) 

Why do the media exist in the United States?

How are the media in the U.S. different from media outlets from around the world?

Commercial broadcast network system

            - networks

            - affiliates

            - studios

            - syndicators

            - advertisers

Know how each component makes $

Cable/satellite television system (know how cable TV makes $)

Public television system 
 - What are the three ways the Public TV System generates revenue? 

Ad rates for top shows of 2016 season- Have a general idea of how much a 30-second commercial costs for each of the following shows): 
- Top Show Overall: Sunday Night Football
- Highest Scripted Show on Cable: The Walking Dead
- Highest Scripted Comedy on Broadcast: The Big Bang Theory, 
- Highest Scripted Drama on Broadcast: Empire 

Know the major networks and the parent companies of each and the affiliated movie studios for each network. (For example, NBC is a major network, its parent company is Comcast, and its affiliated movie studio is Universal). 

The importance of "built-in audiences" for movie studios 

Articles to be covered on Quiz #1

• Studio Profitability, 2017 Box Office
• "Is the Live Sports Bubble Finally Bursting"
• "The Perils of Promotion: Pricey TV Campaigns, Fear of Change Shackles Movie Spending"
• "Why I Asked My Students to Put Away Their Laptops" 
• Costs of advertising on prime time on the broadcast networks , 2016
• "Is the Live Sports Bubble Finally Bursting?" 
• How "AI" might change Hollywood
• Self-driving cars and Hollywood
• Summer Box Office Bombs
• Real Campus Scourge
• Social Media, Loneliness, and Anxiety in Young People
• 2 Things All College Students Should Know

There will be at least one question from each article on the quiz. As long as you've read and understood the article, the question(s) should be easy. 

Historical and Cultural Context

Historical and Cultural Context

1. LANGUAGE
The birth of spoken language marked a major development in the evolution of our species. By necessity, oral-based societies became very dependent upon their members to have exceptional memories. The challenge was to accurately pass down from generation to generation as much information as could be remembered. That limitation, however, caused our collective knowledge and information base to grow slowly. As hunter-gatherer societies evolved into more complex agricultural societies, our need for better record keeping intensified.


2. WRITING
Two problems needed to be solved before writing emerged: (1) what symbols to use to represent sounds and ideas, and (2) upon what type of surface could these symbols be recorded.

Sign Writing vs. Phonetic Writing
The first problem was solved in two ways: (1) with systems that used graphic symbols to represent objects, sounds and ideas, e.g., Chinese pictographs and Egyptian hieroglyphics, and (2) with systems that used symbols (later known as alphabet letters) to primarily represent sounds; groups of letters made a word and groups of word made a sentence, a complete thought. The Phoenicians are generally credited for creating the first alphabet. The Romans later modified our alphabet to its present 26 characters.

Clay vs. Paper
Writing surfaces evolved. In Sumeria, soft clay tablets were inscribed with wedge-shaped tool. Egyptians wrote on woven papyrus plants made semi-smooth by rock polishing. Greeks used parchment made from sheep or goat hides; parchment sheets could be stitched together to form scrolls. The Chinese made paper from a pressed pulp made of tree bark and fibrous materials; in use by 100 AD, but unavailable in Europe for another 1,000 years.

Social Impact of Writing:

. created a new division among people; those who could write and read, and those who
  could not, the result was an access or non-access to power garnered through knowledge
. facilitated the birth, growth, and maintenance of powerful ancient empire civilizations
. knowledge could be accumulated by preserving and passing it down to new generations
. laws could be codified and applied consistently throughout the land

The Middle Ages

Began with the fall of Rome in the 6th century. Demand for books continues to rise, but the slow, error-prone, expensive, method of hand-copying each manuscript kept supplies minimal.
Monks in monasteries often took a year to copy just one commissioned book. Mistakes were common and cumulative, and there was no standard book filing or cross-indexing system in use.

By 1150, trade routes were expanding, the idea of universities was emerging, strong central governments began forming, and the need to accumulate information continued to grow. Over the years the demand for more books continued to increase, and eventually book production moved from the religious to the secular arena. Helped by the widespread introduction of paper from China, writing shops, or scriptoria, opened all across the European continent. Nonetheless, supplies were still limited by the number of books that scribes could hand-produce.


3. PRINTING
Though early Asian variations of printing existed before Johann Gutenberg, his use of moveable metal type in 1453 revolutionized communication. Printing could become cheap, quick, and error-free.

Effects of the Gutenberg Revolution

. helped standardize and popularize vernacular (everyday) languages (as opposed to Latin),
which in turn helped spawn the growth of nationalism in Europe in the later Middle Ages
. information quickly became more accessible to a wider range of people
. more books fueled the demand for literacy which in turn created a demand for more books
. generated new schools of social and religious doctrines during the Reformation era, such as Martin Luther’s Protestantism
. accelerated the publication of and interest in scientific research
. helped encourage exploration by the timely publishing of maps, geographical information,
and the colorful accounts of early explorers
. had a profound effect on the growth of accumulated knowledge, with more books resulting
in an increased number of scholars and students; helped make possible the Renaissance of the 16th Century
. led to the development of current concept of “news”

Technology and Cultural Change

If we ascribe too much credit for cultural change to a specific technology, we risk viewing social development through the narrow lens of technological determinism, the view that technology drives historical change. A more moderate position might suggest that technology functions with various social, economic, and cultural forces to help bring about those changes.

The introduction of moveable type marked the start of what we generally define as mass communication, a critical event in Western history.



4. THE TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE

Development of the Telegraph

Before the telegraph, messages traveled only as fast as the fastest form of transportation; but with one invention the speed of communication went from 30 miles per hour (train) to 186,000 miles per second (the speed of light). It was the first device that made possible instantaneous point-to-point communication at huge distances. The word telegraph comes from Greek words meaning “to write at a distance.” It was also the first technology to use digital signals—dots and dashes.
Using a device to vary the time an electric current was sent across the wires, the telegraph made point-to-point communication possible by sending codes across the wires. Samuel Morse’s code of telegraphic dots and dashes, still in use today, is the most famous.

Cultural Impact of the Telegraph

. by 1850, almost every city on our Western frontier was linked with other cities
. in 1866, the U.S. laid a trans-Atlantic cable connecting America with Europe

Parallel to the expansion of the railroads, the telegraph helped change the way we moved goods, coordinated services (particularly military actions), and helped speed up communication between buyers and sellers. Because of near-instant communication, market prices between cities were standardized and stabilized. The telegraph also affected the flow of news, making it both possible and a commercial “must” to carry up-to-the-day’s events from far distant points. News stories also became shorter due to the fact that telegraph services charged by the word.

Government and Media

Unlike other countries where the telegraph was seen as an extension of the postal service, and therefore under logical control and operation of the government, the United States followed a model of private ownership and commercial development.

A Change in Perspective

The telegraph changed how people thought of distance; as the new device reconfigured old concepts of space and time, every “there” became a “here.” We began rethinking our world, as mass media writer Marshall McLuhan came to describe it, as a “Global Village.” Thanks to the telegraph system, most countries on the planet became inextricably linked together.

Soon after the telegraph, the telephone began linking people together by voice, eliminating the need to understand telegraphic codes. Its ability to network and offer private communications made it a “must have” in homes and businesses. And just as big business came to dominate the telegraph industry (Western Union), AT&T (which later acquired Western Union) quickly became the giant of the telephone industry.


5. PHOTOGRAPHY AND MOTION PICTURES

Early Technological Development

Two inventions were needed to make photography a reality:

. a way to focus light rays from a subject onto a surface
. a way to permanently store (and copy) those images

In the 16th century artists discovered that they could project an inverted image of a subject in the end of a dark box through a pinhole at the other end of the box, a device called the camera obscura (dark chamber).

In the 1830s, two Frenchmen, Joseph Niepce and Louis Daguerre, found a way to capture images on glass plates treated with silver iodide. Early photos (called Daguerreotypes) required long exposure times, and made them particularly suitable for portrait work. At about the same time William Fox Talbot, from England, found a way to store images (and subsequently produce multiple copies) on paper. In the 1890s, George Eastman introduced and marketed his new box camera, the Brownie, thus making photography accessible to the masses.

Mathew Brady

Brady was the first to capture war—in this case our Civil War—on film, giving a more accurate, rather than glorified, record of what war was actually like. Though most of his glass plate negatives were lost, enough survived to show generations then and now the real horrors of warfare; his pictures, and their impact on the public, were a forerunner to what television would show us 100 years later in the Vietnam war.

Photography also affected art, dispensing with any need art may have had to accurately depict the real word. Photography freed artists to interpret the world and events in new and unique ways. Photography itself became its own art form, however, and spawned such noted photographers as Alfred Steiglitz, Margaret Bourke-White, Edward Steichen, and Ansel Adams.

Photography’s Influence on Mass Culture

Once in the hands of the masses, photography enabled people to create a permanent record of their personal histories. Printing advances made it easy to publish photographs in magazines and newspapers, creating a new profession—photojournalism. The 1920s saw a surge in time-saving devices, and the spread of photographic news added to that movement; Americans could now see, rather than have to read, newsworthy events. Printed columns soon decreased while space devoted to pictures increased; the movement later gave birth to such popular picture magazines such as Life and Look. Partly as a result, our definition of news became visually biased; news became that which could be shown.

Pictures in Motion

Helped by the advent of three great social movements (industrialization, urbanization, and immigration), the demand for film entertainment flourished in crude store-front theaters around the 1900s. By 1910 there were over 10,000 of these nickelodeons, which helped create the motion picture industry.

Motion Pictures and American Culture

Eventually, only the large companies who could afford to produce feature length films survived. They soon dominated the production, distribution, and exhibition of movies. The film industry killed Vaudeville and forever altered our concept of leisure time activities. In part due to photography and the  mass appeal newspaper, a mass culture of idolized film stars, movie images, and popularized portrayals of model “American” values and cultural icons was created.

Film gave impetus to a perceived need to study what impact motion pictures (and later other media) might have on the public psyche; the 1930s Payne Fund was one of the first serious efforts to investigate the media’s potential effects. During the 1930s film also injected itself into journalism in the form of newsreels, ten-minute short takes of various news, sports, weather, and human interest stories. Dying out in the 1950s under pressure from TV news, the newsreel format continues to influence the conventions of present day TV news formats.

6. RADIO AND TELEVISION BROADCASTING

A byproduct of electromagnetic research in physics, the advent of radio (or wireless as it was first known) in the 1910s made it possible for one source to send a message to multiple receivers. In World War I military planners quickly saw radio’s applicability to warfare, thus encouraging both research and development in the medium while at the same time ending some long-standing patent wars that had delayed radio’s development.

Broadcasting

Radio’s one-to-many communication format, known as broadcasting, was the first medium to bring sports, music, talk, and news into the American living room. Manufacturing radio sets, the original profit motive for radio, was soon replaced in the 1920s by advertising (selling air time, or rather supplying audiences to businesses for a fee).

Radio growth was so frenzied, however, that the government was forced to intervene in 1927 by establishing the Federal Radio Commission to regulate radio’s technical side. In 1934. the FRC was replaced by the Federal Communications Commission; after that, the government opted to take a hands off approach to radio content, leaving radio’s fortunes in the hands of business.

Paralleling an era of newspaper consolidation, two national radio networks (later three) emerged. Radio content quickly moved toward mass appeal programs, which provided huge audiences for major advertisers. During the 1930s, economic pressures from the Great Depression forced many out-of-work Vaudeville performers to enter radio, thus increasing the level of professionalism and appeal of network programming. In the late 1930s, radio journalism came into being as a new and strong news medium and strongly rivaled the newspaper industry.

Cultural Impact of Radio

. radio helped popularize different kinds of music
. radio introduced a new entertainment genre, the soap opera, which by 1940 accounted for
some 60 percent of all daytime network programming
. radio was first medium to introduce mass content aimed at children, thus recognizing
children as a viable commercial market
. radio was first to introduce situation comedies, a program genre that’s become a staple on
television
. radio news came of age in the 1930s-40s as a result of serious world events.
. radio personalized news, giving rise to trusted and well-known news celebrities
. radio changed how Americans spent their free time – by the 1930s-40s, radio had become
the prime source of American entertainment and news in usually during the early evening hours, later known as prime time.

Television

Halted during WW II, television’s growth surged during the prosperous era of the early 1950s. Pent up consumer demand fueled spending (and thus TV ad dollars) following the war years. Sales of TV sets took off (it took only 10 years to be in 85 percent of U.S. homes), and an increasing amount of American leisure time was now being spent in front of the TV set.

Cultural Impact of TV

Television is in 99 percent of all households, and the set is on for over seven hours a day. It’s become our third largest time consumer (third only to sleep and work), and in the process it’s transforming almost every aspect of our culture, from politics, to religion, to news, and to the way we learn.

Today we routinely expect live coverage of events from anywhere at anytime. Time and space no longer seem important, and we have all come to share a national, even global, consciousness through the common visual icons provided by television—the Japanese Tsunami, the Arab Spring, President Kennedy's funeral, the Apollo moon landings, the Challenger explosion, and the planes striking the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, etc.


7. THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Nicholas Negroponte, MIT’s Media Laboratory Director, summed up the digital revolution as the difference between atoms and bits. Information, once solely comprised of atoms (material goods such as paper, film, tapes, and CDs) and which moved to and from the marketplace relatively slowly, is rapidly being replaced by the instantaneous transfer of bits—electronic zeros and ones.

Digital technology is a system that encodes information—sound, text, data, graphics and video—into a series of on-and-off pulses, denoted as zeros and ones. Once digitized, information can be easily copied and transported at extremely low costs. Digital technology and the Internet have triggered a revolution in the way information is stored and transmitted.

Digital technology is now mainstream (Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, DVR, Digital TV, HDTV, Hulu, etc.).


Social and cultural implications of the digital age are considerable.
. many of the creative arts have embraced digital technology.
. the notion of what “community” means may have to be rethought, with relationships that
can be formed on the basis of needs and interests rather than locale
. consider what the digital age might mean for politics; perhaps representative democracy
could be rivaled by a digital democracy made possible by direct and instantaneous links
between the people and their government.
. there’s the problem of the digital divide, or the problem of the “have” and “have-nots”—
those who can afford the technology and have the training to use it, and those who can’t
and don’t.

8. WIRELESS HANDHELD MEDIA

Smart phones, laptop computers, and tablet computers share common characteristics:

. they are linked together using wireless technology
. they are portable and allow users to access information from anywhere
. they are interconnected and allow users to hook into the worldwide phone network or the
Internet
. they combine features of mass communication and interpersonal communication

These devices will eventually merge into one, and have the potential to transform traditional media drastically and to alter American culture. Some of the changes we've already seen include:

. they have changed the practice of journalism, replacing pencil and paper as the tools of the
trade, and allowing reporters to send text, audio, and pictures from the field
. many media organizations are distributing content to wireless media
. wireless mobile media have taken on some of the surveillance functions of the media
. they facilitate mobile parenting
. they have "softened" the concept of time
. on the downside, they allow people to coordinate illegal activities, they can impair driving,
they can create social annoyance, and they cost money – will the digital divide increase?


CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

. it’s difficult to accurately predict the ultimate use of any new medium.

. it appears that the emergence of any new communication advance changes but does not make extinct those advances that came before it.