MEDIA CONVERGENCE & MEDIA LITERACYMedia & Society

MEDIA CONVERGENCE

Media Industry Structure• Media content industry prior to 1990 was composed of

many smaller independent corporations specializing in content creation and distribution in separate industries

• Still organized largely as separate vertical stovepipes, with each segment dominated by a few key players

• Growing use of digital creation tools and growth of Internet as delivery vehicle offer promise of convergence toward a more unified creation and distribution platform

Media Utilization

Media Revenues by Channel

What is Media Convergence?• The media infrastructure includes all of the

communication companies and channels of communications such as radio, television, newspapers and magazines.

• Media convergence is the process by which different types of media content are evolving into a single media platform through the internet.

What conditions make media convergence possible?

• The conversion of analog signals to digital signals has been one of the major steps in making media convergence possible.

• Some of the key factors are:

• Continued advances and decreasing cost of digital technology.

• Low Cost digital network infrastructure.

• Media Proliferation.

• Media-Usage Fragmentation in American households.

• Forecasted continued Media proliferation and media usage fragmentation.

Convergence: Definition• Convergence has been defined as:

the ability of one or different networks to carry different services.

Or

the bringing together of industries in the communications area, which were previously viewed as separate and distinct in both the commercial and the technological sense.

• Examples are the provision of Internet access and TV to mobiles and triple or quad play services offered by ISPs or Cable TV Operators.

Media Convergence: Technology, Content and Industry Structure• Technological convergence:

• Development of hybrid devices that can combine the functionality of two or more existing media platforms into a single device

• Example: PDAs that can also be used as cell phones and book readers

• Content convergence has three aspects• Convergence in design• Convergence in production• Convergence in distribution of content

• Industry convergence: • Merger of media enterprises into synergistic combinations that

create and cross-market content on different platforms• Best known example: AOL/Time Warner

Convergence: Benefits• Convergence creates possibilities for companies to develop and deliver services

across technology platforms, and for users to get access to new kinds of communication and media services

• Promotes the expansion of competition, allowing the introduction of inter-modal competition where networks and technologies compete with each other with no technological or regulatory restrictions;

• Reduces costs of telecommunications services;

• Fosters the development of more efficient technologies and services;

• Opens the door for new ways for people to obtain Internet access

• Technology convergence provides the possibility for new competitors to enter the markets. Telephony can be offered by cable TV operators, TV to telephony providers

Challenges & Risks in Media Convergence

• Consumers still prefer traditional media

• Technology is not quite ready to distribute content effectively and conveniently

• Content creators (artists, writers, producers) do not yet know what features consumers are willing to pay for and are still creating content for each of the separate media types

• Profitable business model has not yet emerged

MASS COMMUNICATION

Communication

Communication - the evoking of a shared or common meaning in another person

Interpersonal Communication - communication between two or more people in an organization

Communicator - the person originating the messageReceiver - the person receiving a messagePerceptual Screen - a window through which we interact

with people that influences the quality, accuracy, and clarity of the communication

Communication

• Message - the thoughts and feelings that the communicator is attempting to elicit in the receiver

• Feedback Loop - the pathway that completes two-way communication

• Language - the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used & understood by a group of people

Communication

• Data - uninterrupted and unanalyzed facts

• Information - data that have been interpreted,

analyzed, & and have meaning to some user

• Richness - the ability of a medium or channel

to elicit or evoke meaning in the receiver

Basic Interpersonal Communication Model

Event X

Message• Context• Affect

Perceptual screens

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Perceptual screens

Communicator Receiver

Influence message quality, accuracy, clarityInclude age, gender, values, beliefs, culture, experiences,

needs

Definition of communication:• The process of creating and exchanging meaning through

symbolic interaction.

• As a process communication constantly moves and changes. It does not stand still.

• Meaning involves thoughts, ideas, and understandings shared by communicators.

• Symbolic means that we rely on words and nonverbal behaviors to communicate meaning and feelings.

Five Levels of Communication• Intrapersonal Communication is communication that

occurs in your own mind.

• It is “self-talk” which are the inner speech or mental conversations that we carry on with ourselves.

• It is the basis of your feelings, biases, prejudices, and beliefs.

• Examples are when you make any kind of decision – what to eat or wear. When you think about something – what you want to do on the weekend or when you think about another person.

• You can also communicate with yourself when you dream at night.

Five Levels of Communication

• Interpersonal communication is the communication between two people but can involve more in informal conversations.

• Through this kind of communication we maintain relationships.

• Examples are when you are talking to your friends. A teacher and student discussing an assignment. A patient and a doctor discussing a treatment. A manager and a potential employee during an interview. Any one on one or informal communication.

Five Levels of Communication

• Small Group communication is communication within formal or informal groups or teams.

• It is group interaction that results in decision making, problem solving and discussion within an organization.

• Examples would be a group planning a surprise birthday party for someone. A team working together on a project. A focus group discussing the pros and cons of a new product. A group therapy session.

Five Levels of Communication• One-to-group communication involves a speaker who

seeks to inform, persuade or motivate an audience.

• Examples are a teacher and a class of students. A preacher and a congregation. A speaker and an assembly of people in the auditorium.

Five Levels of Communication

• Mass communication is the electronic or print transmission of messages to the general public.

• Outlets called mass media include things like radio, television, film, and printed materials designed to reach large audiences.• A television commercial. A magazine article. Hearing a song

on the radio. Books, Newspapers, Billboards. The key is that you are reaching a large amount of people without it being face to face. Feedback is generally delayed with mass communication.

Components of mass communication• The five m’s of mass communication:

• Mass communicators• Mass messages• Mass media• Mass communication• Mass audiences

MASS MEDIA & SOCIETY

Mass Media & Social Stability• Media-induced ritual

• Media & the status quo

• Media & cognitive dissonance

• Agenda setting & status conferral

• Media & morality

How do we use the mass media in our daily lives?

• Enjoyment

• Companionship

• Surveillance

• Interpretation

• Multiple Use of Mass Media Content

Cultural Transmission

• Historical transmission

• Cultural values to later generations

• Contemporary transmission

• Cultural values to different cultures

• What kind of contemporary values is the mass media transmitting about Pakistani society or culture?

• “Whoever tells the story defines the culture.”• Dr. David Walsh – Raising MediaWise Kids

Media facilitating change

• McLuhan

• Human alienation – written word

• Global village – sensory stimuli of TV

Media Society

Societies organize themselves increasingly in the model (communication version) of media:

Media aesthetics: construction of sense and meaning through news awareness, public presence, visibility, attention, obliviousness, dissipativiness, favourableness

Media Mechanism: construction of reality through technology, standardisation, general connectivity, general accessibility, public control, social mechanism of trust (industrial professionalism)

Media Usability: ubiquity, mobility, casuality, individualization (next-to-next-society)

Media Society• Understanding the reality needs to understand media:

• Medialization of social construction of knowledge and meaning: • All what we know, we know from media (Luhmann): media

discourse dominates every-day-discourse, as well the milieu-discourse: medialization

• Mediatization of social life and social exchange:• There is no media-free existence: any experience of self and any

organization of self is connected to the symbolic environment

MEDIA LITERACY

What is Media Literacy?

It is an umbrella term covering a set of skills, knowledge and understanding of the media and communications technology - i.e. media savvy.

It is an expert term.

While there are several definitions of Media Literacy, the purposes and competences of Media Literacy, and our priorities, are more useful to refer to than the definition itself.

Skills Knowledge

Understanding

Media Literacy

What is media literacy? (Our definition)

‘The ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts’

Access

Use

Navigate

Manage

Understand

Read

Deconstruct

Evaluate

Create

Produce

Distribute

Publish

What does this mean in practice?

Definition Example Competences

Access

UseNavigateManage

•Evaluate and use technology•Use an EPG and web browser•Access, store, retrieve content and services•Search effectively and safely•Customise applications•Use firewalls and filters

UnderstandRead

DeconstructEvaluate

•Recognise editorial, advertising & sponsorship•Understand media contexts and motivations•Critique – i.e. have a view on quality and

provenance of material •Make informed choices

Create ProduceDistributePublish

•Use technology to communicate ideas, information and opinions

•Contribute to the democratic process using electronic media

•Post and transact online•Use media responsibly

What is the purpose of media literacy?

Informed consumers

Active citizens

To help produce...

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The media literacy spectrum:

Why ensure people can access, understand and create communications?

• Protection

• Empowerment

• Culture

Why is media literacy important?

Principles of Media Literacy• Principle 1: The Media Construct Our Individual Realities

• Principle 2: The Media Are Influenced by Industrial Pressures

• Principle 3: The Media Are Influenced by Political Pressures

• Principle 4: The Media Are influenced by Format

• Principle 5: Audiences Are Active Recipients of the Media

• Principle 6: The Media Tell Us about Who We Are as a Society

Media Literacy Tools:• Consider Authorship

• Evaluate the Audience

• Determine the Institutional Purpose

• Analyse the Content

• Identify the Creative Techniques

1. Who created this message?

2. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

3. How might different people understand this message

differently than me?

4. What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented

in, or omitted from, this message?

5. Why is this message being sent?

Five key questions

An Example…

1. Who created this message?

2. What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?

3. How might different people understand this message

differently than me?

4. What values, lifestyles and points of view are represented

in, or omitted from, this message?

5. Why is this message being sent?

Who are they, who has editorial/financial control, what is their political or cultural background?

Images, voice over, music, lighting, camera angle, narrative

Cultural context, political inclination, language, education, ethnicity

Western, commercial, religious, political

Motivation, What do they want? Money, influence, support, actions

Five key questions