Media Studies Matters- Although people tend to view “the media” as one thing, it is actually

quite diverse. In order to classify it all, we put it into 7 types:

1. Propaganda Media- Media that is filtered and shown with a certain goal or lens
in mind, such as China filtering internet and TV.
2. Public Service Media- Media that is designed for the public and is not intended
as propaganda. It is only liable to the public and their representatives and
commercial interests are forbidden.
3. Advertising Media- Media funded by advertising that shows ads and
commercials.
4. Cult Media- The trendsetters and media that breaks from the mold. It isn’t non-
commercial, but the media is very influential.
5. Alternative Media- Similar to propaganda media in that there is an agenda, but
this is more underground and run by the relatively powerless.
6. Social Media- Media that is mainly user generated content. This creates better
communication and media personalization, but actions online are not private and
that can be a threat.
7. Psychic Media- The root of fears about media affecting human behavior. Ex.
telepathy, Ouija boards, clairvoyance, etc.
Studying these types of media is important because it allows us to understand our world and
how the media affects it.

The Medium is the Message- The new distribution mediums are actually more influential than
the content within them because of how they affect behavior patterns in cultures. McLuhan, a
media expert who identified media’s impact on society, labeled 3 stages in human history of
communication: the tribal age relying on speech and song, the detribalisation age of
mechanical media and print forms, and the retribalisation age of electronic media. Mediums
such as TV have been accused of making the population less intelligent because they are
watching TV and not challenging their brains through textual sources. Media has also
encouraged placelessness because people of different cultures and classes have access to the
same information and influences, closing societal gaps.

Media Effects- The media is bound to affect human behavior and thought patterns, the
question is how it does. The stimulus-response model believes that media injects its beliefs
deep into the human mind, it believes the media is dangerous. The social cognitive theory
believes that media is a key source of observational learning, meaning that people copy actions
they see on TV similar to how they copy each other in society. Priming is similar to the social
cognitive theory, but it emphasizes how media can trigger personal memories and have subtle
effects over time. Cultivation theory is more related to how much someone is exposed to media
over time. When they are, their world view changes to match what they see in the media. The
agenda-setting theory believes that media can inform people more about politics and get
information to them about key issues and topics. Finally, the innovation-diffusion model has to
do with how media spreads through the population. This theory states that first come innovators
who create something, then early adopters are first to try it, then the early and late majority are
the public who catch on, and then the laggards do not adopt it until the rest of the population
convinces them.

Consumer Power- Consumer power studies are the opposite of media effects because they
have to do with the power that the consumers have over media. The two-step flow model shows
that facts and information travel from media to opinion leaders and then travel from those
opinion leaders to more passive consumers, adding an aspect of consumer power. The uses
and gratifications theory believes that the audience uses media and is active and intelligent in
their choices. The consumer resistance approach is different in that it believes that consumers
routinely resist media influence and effectively “fight back” against it. Cultural capital is an
approach that believes that a person’s ability to appreciate and analyze the media dictates their
consumption of it. Media literacy is also a factor, since modern media requires viewers to
understand the system and know how to interact with it. The most recent approach to consumer
power is prosumption. This states that the lines have blurred between the creators and the ones
who are watching what they create.

Political Economy- Political economy is based on the belief that corporations and politics
dictate what media can do and say. The culture industry is standardized and mass produced
and includes everything from music to movies. This standardization remains popular because
the people who come home from work and are tired and never use their brains much do not
want something for leisure that will require significant thought. The public sphere of
communication and small media distribution that used to exist has given way to large
corporations and big name media brands. Media imperialism is also taking place, during which
one nation’s media begins to infiltrate and take over another. The propaganda model explains
how the media backs up government policies and conceals dissenting opinions. It has 5 news
filters:
1. The size and ownership of mass media that prevents new, alternative media from
challenging the big corporations that have interest in government policies and
conforming
2. Companies rely on advertising to do business, so if they try to break from the
mold they risk losing the advertising and therefore their funding
3. Media uses what is essentially propaganda given by “reliable” sources such as
the government bodies
4. Media that tries to break the normal way of doing things are said to not be
objective and suffer a loss of credibility and end up submitting to the rules
5. The ideology of anti-communism lets the government continue with capitalist
policies that hurt the people, which filters down to the consumers

Concentration and conglomeration mean that corporations can own either most of the activities
in a given sector of media or they can have control over small parts of many sectors. Either way,
a large corporation and its beliefs can influence a large portion of media more so than maybe it
should.
Representation- The media’s representation of something is how it presents a real person,
place, or thing. This representation can lead to misinterpretation by people of different cultures.
Semiotics may explain how meaning is constructed from media texts, similar to how meaning is
constructed from language and not the other way around. Media can form ideological thoughts
about something based on how it represents it, which can be harmful. The media and
consumers have what may be described as a hegemonic relationship in which one is a sort of
ruler and the other is the lower class and they struggle for power. This can be seen in the
encoding/decoding model of media information. There are three types of audience decoding:
1. Dominated code- when the ruling ideology of the media gets to the public
without resistance
2. Negotiated code- when the consumers accept part of the media representations
but do not accept others; maybe generally accepted but specific individuals find
themselves to be exceptions
3. Oppositional code- consumers do not decode representations as the media
planned
The aforementioned battle is worsened by stereotyping, often occurring with gender, sexuality,
race, and ethnicity.

Postmodernism- Postmodernism believes that there is no longer a true reality for media to
represent because the media ideas have already influenced the culture too much for there to be
a pure reality left to represent, they believe in embracing media. Images are the medium of
postmodernism, with consumers seeing images often out of context from staged events.
Postmodernism also uses pastiche, which is a form of intertextuality in which the other texts are
not acknowledged because it is believed that all major ideas have already been used before, so
copying is unavoidable. Also, the flood of media creates a hyperreal world in which people
experience events solely through media.

Information and Surveillance Society- The third wave of socioeconomic development moves
beyond the agricultural and industrial waves and into a more individualized world of media with
texts tailored to specific regions and groups. Post industrial society has benefits such as higher
living standards, skilled engineers and technicians, accurate and efficient use of resources,
widespread social networks, and altered perceptions of time and space. Knowledge has
replaced material production ability. Unfortunately, this still is limited in who it reaches, even with
widespread media globalisation. Also, with technology comes surveillance power, which can be
misused horribly.

Moral panics- Moral panics occur when people are exposed to things through media that cause
widespread panic. This concept originates from labelling theory, which states that people's
actions are judged by the reactions of others. This effect can be grossly amplified by media and
its presentation. News is manufactured as the need for drama outweighs pure objectivity and
the stories begin to center more on the drama and less on the original reality. The moral panic
theory is similar to this in that it believes the media's embellishment upon real events causes
moral panics and outcries. Censorship can further upset the public as they feel like they cannot
express themselves or watch what they agree with, causing further panic.
Celebrities and Fandom- In the world of modern media, celebrities are anyone from singers to
politicians. Celebrities all possess a certain amount of charisma to appeal to the audiences.
There are 3 main types of celebrities:

1. Ascribed Celebrity- born celebrity based solely on heritage and bloodlines

2. Achieved Celebrity- individuals who achieve greatness through a special talent
or skill
3. Attributed Celebrity- a celebrity who possesses no talent or bloodline, just
media presentation made them a celebrity
Stars are different from celebrities in that they also take on characters to appear in media. They
either have a character that perfectly fits them, that highlights certain parts, or that is entirely
opposite. Media performances of both stars and celebrities can create a false sense of social
interaction.

Narrative and Genre- Narrative and genre connect with audiences and keep them coming
back. The start of this are 6 basic things: who, what, where, when, why, and how. These create
a base for all media texts. Also, the use of realism or non-realism appeals to the viewer and
connects them to the world created by the media text. The type of narrative is also important,
with closed narratives being something with a fixed ending while open narratives can continue
on. Genres are also crucial. Genre theory states that groups of similar media work together for
collective media.

New Media- In the 21st century, media has converged in ownership and use and technologies.
Also, this new media updates and reproduces old media as it replaces it. The web allows more
widespread media usage in a more concentrated form while social media and posting platforms
allow for citizen journalism to sweep across the world. Although there are some negatives, like
online crime and piracy, these changes are largely regarded as positive.

Overall Critique- I feel like this book proved a simple and yet informative source of media
studies information. It broke down concepts simply and limited the names and dates that it used
to further simplify information. The language was not daunting and it had small comical
moments built in as well as thought-provoking sections. But, it did have a few flaws in that it
does not break down each individual media type as well as it could. It merely describes general
concepts, not how they apply to each category of media. But overall, it provided useful and
relevant information.