c-190 final
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Film
- -Photo chemically based medium -Mechanical and later electrical medium
- Characteristics of film
- -mainly a public amusement -Main precursors: -Theater/vaudeville -Kinetoscope; praxinoscope; etc.
- Television
- At first electro-mechanical, and later fully electronic medium
- Characteristics of television
- -Medium of domestic entertainment -Liveness -Flow -Main precursors: -Telegraph -Telephone -Radio
- Paul Nipkow
- -Nipkow disk (1884) -First electro-mechanical TV scanning system
- Charles Jenkins
- -1st mechanical TV ("Radiovision) -transmits moving TV images
- Vladimin Zmorkin
- -Cahode Ray Tube (CRT) -Kinescope
- Filo Farnsworth
- -"boy genius" -dissector tube -responsible for turning images into electrical impulses, then on the other side turns the electrical impulses back into images
- TV develops into domestic medium
- -Primarily but not exclusively inhabits the private home -Follows radio
- Development of "broadcast day"
- -Television programming is organized on the basis of who is watching -Different times -> different audiences -Reflects people's existing schedules -Creates new schedule -Inserts itself into everyday life, but also reconfigures everyday life in certain ways
- Transmission view
- -Message/content-centered view -Emphasizes the importance of the message being transferred -Purpose of communication: convey message across space -Modern view (late 19th century-present) -Goals: understanding; social control/compliance/persuasion
- Ritual view
- -Message/content = less important -Fact of communication = important -It doesn't matter what you say as much as that you are engaging in the act of communication at all -Purpose of communication: "social glue" -Older view of communication (pre 19th century) -Goal: maintain social bonds/values/traditions over time
- TV as a cultural forum
- -TV reflects/comments on culture's hopes/dreams/values/conflicts -TV poses problems but solutions are often ambivalent -TV represents and challenges people's beliefs/morals/values -"uses and graffications" traditions of TV research
- Shows about African Americans
- -may feature African American characters -Typically produced/written by whites and African Americans -Results in boundaries for representing: -Social themes/race relations -People of color and white characters -ex. Good Times and The Cosby Show -Presumed white spectator
- 3 frameworks for representing African Americans on TV
- -Assimilation -Pluralism -Multiculturalism
- Assimilation
- -Racism treated as individual problem -Blackness present but rendered invisible/incidental -Mostly white narrative universe
- Pluralism
- -Black and white: separate, parallel, narrative universes -narratives minimize effects of/challenges to white dominance -Obscures diversity within black communities -ex. Sex and the City and Girlfriends
- Multiculturalism
- -Strong black presence in TV production -Narratives and images: diversity of black and white styles/images/identification -Lack of narrative closure about race -Programs make, don't just reflect, "real life" black images -Multi-racial spectator -ex.)Frank's Place, Whoopi, K-ville
- Television spectatorship
- -Domestic context -Part of everyday life/routine -Sometimes attentive, sometimes not
- Race in broadcasting
- -programming made to fit presumed "white" majority -"least objectionable programming" -"reassuring" images of African Americans (for white folks)
- Race in narrowcasting
- -Unprecedneted opportunities/outlets for African American programming, but marginalized -BET
- Globalization
- -Growing circulation of cultural goals on the world scene -National audience still important -Increase planetary reach of TV programing -ex) Dallas is popular in Britain and Holland; Baywatch is popular in Germany
- Epistemology
- -The study of nature of knowledge and reality -How do we know what we know? -2 broad epistemology positions: -Empiricism -Social constructionsim
- Empiricism
- -Reality exists "out there" -Regardless of human beings -Does a tree make a sound? Yes!
- Social constructionism
- -Reality may exist out there but humans make it intelligible and meaningful -Does a tree make a sound? No! -Socially constructed meanings and practices become taken for granted. -ex) money, countries, the roast -We live and experience social constructions as though they were reality
- Sex
- -Biological aspect designating one as a male or female -Socially constructed
- Gender
- Socially constructed conventions by which sex is lived and understood. -ex) clothes, hairstyles, spaces -ex) femininity and masculinity -ritualized, habitualized identity performances
- Gender in Broadcasting
- -Women's TV was historically daytime -Advertisers presume women are at home -Soaps -talk shows -Melodrama -Second class TV
- Gender in Narrowcasting
- -Women were greater targeted and represented on TV -Gaining a "voice" -Women become increasingly lucrative TV market -ex) Lifetime
- Sexuality vs. Sexualities
- Sexuality: static sexual identity Sexualities: multiple, changeable sexual identities
- Queer sexuality
- -Claim: most-maybe all-people are to some degree -Varied sexual practices and tendencies that challenge any clear cut sense of sexual normalcy -Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
- Symbolic Annihilation
- -Intentional or unintentional, non-representation, under representation, or misrepresentation
- Semiotics
- -Field of study introduced by Charles S. Peirce -Study of signs and their meanings
- Signs
- -word, image, smell, sound, etc. -Representations -Stand for something else -ex) a heart = love, dog - furry creature -Abstract
- Symbolic signs
- -Highly abstract -Share no necessary relationship to what they represent
- Iconic signs
- -Some what abstract -Bear a physical resemblance to what they represent
- Indexical signs
- -Least abstract -Produced by what they represent -Complex relation to reality
- Transparency Fallacy
- Belief that indexical signs depict reality more or less accurately, without bias or mediation
- Live TV
- -LIVE presentation -Increased sense of immediacy -Decrease of editorial intervention
- CHS and reality TV
- -Minimal intrusion of director and editor -eye-line match, SRS, continuity editing, etc. -CHS produces the appearance of realism of film -borrowed/adapted for TV
- Dramatic realism
- -Fictional stories -Use of CHS techniques to convey "realism" for story and images -Steady Cameras -Story/narrative driven -"suture" effect
- Suture
- Combination of techniques that media use to invest you into the show or movie. -ex) Greys Anatomy and Lost
- Documentary realism
- -No apparent script or planning -Apparently unplanned shots -"Shaky-cam" - hand held cameras -Often full of seams -Inconsistent sound quality and/or sound editing -ex.) Laguna Beach and The Hills
- Modernity
- -Roughly 1500-1950 -New forms of political governance -> give rise to modernity -From to church to nation-state or countries -Growing importance of identity -Development/growth of capitalism -Mass/industrial production -Emergence of mass "communication" -Roads, canals, printing, electronic media
- Postmodernity
- -+/- 1950- -Decline of "Metanarratives"/Truth -Breakdown of modernity's guarantees -Claim: people now living in different historical moment than modernity -Felt across whole fabric of society -Proliferation of media and images -From reason -> affect/emotion -Blurring of art/commerce
- Hyper-reality
- the image becomes more real/authentic than the real thing -ex) Miami Vice
- Internet as postmodern medium
- -Online identities (easily changeable, fragmented sense of self)' -Decentralized network/authority -Digital ('democratic") reproduction: increasingly people have access to instruments of media production -Media crossover/convergence (ipod) -Instantaneous and constant communication
- Utopian Narratives
- -Utopia: "no place" -Fantastic, too good to be true, state of perfection -Cultural myths that structure stories we tell -ex) Apple 1984 advertisement -5 utopian promises of new media: -transcend limits of human body -increase convenience/efficiency/free time -increase community/human connection -strengthen democracy -new consciousness/enlightenment
- Dystopian narratives
- -Nightmare vision of the future -CAE: dystopian vision of internet -"liberated body" -> surveillance -"convenience" -> non stop work -"community" -> loneliness -"democracy" -> authoritarianism -"new consc." -> new imperialism
- History of radio
- -Amateurs vs. corporations/government -"Invented" by Marconi, 1895 -developed largely by amateurs -point-to-point communication medium -not initially a broadcast medium
- Radio Act of 1927
- -Airwaves = public resource -Licensing of airwaves -Must broadcast in "the public interest" -Often interpreted as corporations and/or gov. -Rarely "the people", local groups, or non-commercial entities
- Micro radio
- -Amateur radio operators: often low-power -Less than 100 watts -1980: FCC sets minimum broadcast power to be 100 watts -fewer amateurs can broadcast -more corporate radio
- Why micro radio matters
- -Alternative to corporate/government voice -Alternative to Clear Channel -Greater diversity -economic -gender/sexuality -racial -programming/music
- Alternative media
- -Politically disagreeing/objective media -Radically challenge dominant interests and interpretation of events -Often show how media maybe used differently -ex.) Papertiger TV, Deepdish TV, and Free Radio Berkley
- Why alternative media matters
- -Expand range of voices -More democratic form of media production -Forum for dissent -Non-commercial -Grassroots
- Post modern politics
- -Increasingly image based -Less about reason and good argument -Growth of advertising and PR
- Composition of signs
- -Signifier (Sr): material form of a sign -sound,smell,etc. -exist in the real world -Signified (Sd): thought or idea attached to the symbol -exist only in the brain -S=Sr/Sd -Symbols are composed of both
- Articulation
- -Process of connecting Sr and Sd or sign to sign -Produces signs meaning -Disarticulation: the process of disconnecting a signifier from it's existing signified -Re-articulation: producing a new connection between a signifier and a new or different signified
- Culture Jamming
- -Attempt to fight signs with signs -Post modern politics of resistance -Disrupts/draws attention to norms of politics
- Forms of culture jamming
- -Subvertising -Media Hoaxing -Audio Agitprop -Billboard Banditry
- Subvertising
- -Anti-advertising -Challenges consumerism -ex) Adbuster, IRaq
- Media Hoaxing
- -Fake (real looking) media events -Exposes biases/inaccuracies in journalism
- Audio agitprop
- -Digital audio sampling/remixing -Challenges corporate copyright
- Billboard banditry
- -Like subvertising -draws attention to excesses of consumerism -reclaims public space -www.billbarddeliberation.com
- Active audience theory
- -Theory underpinning media activism -Contrasts with hypodermic needle theory of media effects -Developed by Stuart Hall, et al. -Claim: People actively engage with media and media texts -Sender -> Creativity <-Audience
- Media Texts
- Raw material for audience
- Media consumption
- Opportunity for creative reworking -ex) Star Trek; culture jamming
- First public demonstration of TV
- -Bell Telephone and AT&T -Speech by Herbert Hoover -Image transmitted by wire and air -Washington DC -> NYC -Live
- Film spectatorship
- -The way in which a medium imagines and positions it's audience -Theatrical exhibition -Break from everyday routines -More attentive viewing
- Texts
- Individual episodes of individual TV shows
- Technologies
- -Appended technologies (stuff that we plug into the TV) -Remote control, DVR, DVD player
- Liveness
- Impression of events as they are happening
- Flow
- -A movement away from studying TV -TV is always in motion