Media & the Social World

Social World

Active Audience

Technology

Media Industry

Media Message/Product

Adapted from Croteau & Hoynes, 2000

Mass Media in Society

Media teach what to think…what to think about

Media socializeMedia “mediate” social relations

what we know how we know things

Media Interpretation

Does TV have too much sex & violence?

Are news media biased?Should the Internet be better

regulated?

Who should decide the answers to these questions?

Media Economics

Patterns of Ownerships

Concentration -- fewer companies own less about 30 major companies worldwide increased concentration in the U.S. after

1996

Patterns of Ownership

Conglomeration -- media companies become part of larger, more diversified companies Westinghouse/CBS General Electric/NBC MSNBC

Patterns of Ownership

Integration -- horizontal -- different media owned by

same company vertical -- different aspects of same

medium owned by same company

Integration

Musicians

Record Label

CD Manufacture

Record Club

Rec. Stores

Authors

Publisher

Printer

Trucking

Bookstores

Actors

Studios

Film/Video Manufacture

Theaters

Video Stores

Music Books Film

Integration & Self Promotion

Can news outlets impartially report on other areas of their firm?

How is the information we receive shaped by corporate forces?

ABC-- pets.com, Disney CNN-- MI2, Pokemon

Effects of Concentration

Political power political contributions discursive power

Hegemony legitimization of ideas

dominant, naturalized ideology

absence of alternative frameworks or ideas

Corporate Discourse

Is the “corporate” view “our” view?Discourse of Monday Night Football

competition survival of the fittest fan power oligarchy salaries violence