DEFINING THE FIELD

CMST 1A03 – WEEK 1B (MAY 6)

What is Communication?
Definition:
¨ “the action of making a message or idea common to
two or more people” (Gasher et al., 2020, p. 13)
 What is Mass Communication?
Definition:
¨ “the transmission and transformation of information on a large

scale” (Gasher et al., 2020, p. 15)

Mass Communication considered as one of:

1. Production and transmission of information and entertainment
2. Decentralized production, wide accessibility
3. Interactive exchange or “network” of people, objects, etc.

¨ Thus, mass media is not only “traditional” media (e.g., radio,

television, etc.)
 Media vs. Mass Media vs. New Media
Medium: vehicle that conveys information (e.g., language)
¨ Media: plural of medium (e.g., language, images)

Mass Media: vehicles for mass communication (e.g., radio, television)

¨ Information that contacts large group

New Media: technologies, practices, and institutions designed to

facilitate broad participation – or interactivity – in information
production and exchange (e.g., email, podcast, Wikipedia)
¨ Often synonymous with “digital” media

- Gasher et al., 2020, pp. 16-18

 A Changing Ecosystem

Initially:
¨ Television, radio, movies all referred to their
analogical distribution
¨ Few producers and many consumers

Now, digitization:
¨ Blurs definitions of what media like television, radio,
and movies are since delivery has changed.
¨ Has allowed consumers to become producers of
content à prosumers or produsers
 A Changing Ecosystem

Work:
¨ People expected to master many jobs

¨ Much work is unpaid or underfinanced online

Surveillance:
¨ State and corporate interference with people’s privacy,
constantly “watching”

Corporations:
¨ Integrate across communication industries
Power of Media
Media:

¨ frame the way we understand the world

¨ organize information

¨ structure the way we communicate

¨ build (imagined) communities

¨ coordinate, facilitate, and incite action

Time-biased vs. Space-biased Media

Time-biased media: technology that can last over generations

but is difficult to physically transport.
¨ Stone tablets, orality

Space-biased media: technology that can move easily across

physical space, but its materiality does not benefit surviving
long periods of time.
¨ Paper, USBs

Harold Innis (1951/2008). The Bias of Communication

 Innis - Bias of Communication

Technology, whether space-biased or time-biased,

shapes the way people communicate.

¨ If a society relies on one form of communication, there

is little opportunity for revolution.

¨ Monopoly of knowledge: those in power maintain

power by controlling communication materials, spread
of information
 Imagined Communities
Nations are imagined communities:

“because the members of even the smallest nation will

never know most of their fellow members, meet them or
even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the
image of their communion” (p. 6)

¨ Citizens are seen as equals/comrades in national

consciousness, sharing a national identity.

-Benedict Anderson (2006). Imagined Communities.

 Imagined Communities
Like Innis, Anderson argues that:

¨ If those in power in a society (or nation) control dominant mode

of communication, they can control how people communicate
and thus, their actions and thoughts.

¨ Those who control media control the messaging of how citizens

view themselves and others in the same space.

¨ People read the same content through the same media about
all citizens and are in agreeance of the meaning of being a
citizen to a nation
 Remediating Old Media

Remediation:

¨ Online technologies are not just replacing analogical

media

¨ Rather, online technologies are repurposing analogical

media

¤ Same products, new distribution

Lisa Gitelman (2006). Always Already New.
 Remediating Old Media

Television/film à streaming (Netflix, Crave, Disney+)

Radio à podcasts

Vinyl, cassettes, CDs à iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify

Books à audiobooks

*Same characteristics in new form

 Remediation as “New Media”
Media is defined by:
1. Its technical components
2. Social and cultural uses of it.
¤ Called “protocols”: standard conditions and practices

Like Anderson, Gitelman (2006) argues:

¨ Media carry knowledge of nation’s past to

reaffirm what it means to belong to that nation.

 Remediation as “New Media”

Bolter and Grusin (1999):

Goal of remediation is to multiply media while erasing

their traces.
¨ Convert analog devices to digital realm
Remediation as “New Media”
Bolter and Grusin (1999):

“What is in fact new is the particular way in which each

innovation rearranges and reconstitutes the meaning of
earlier elements. What is new about new media is
therefore also old and familiar…” (p. 272).
 Modernizing Older Practices

Digital media help people do things more efficiently,

or “shrink space”:

¨ Fundraising à GoFundMe and Kickstarter

¨ Conversation à email, DMs, @’s, Zoom
¨ Activism à congregate online towards same cause
¨ Art à music, design, AI generation
¨ News à instant updates; open access to info?

But are there issues with digital media?

New Media’s Democratic Potential?
New Media: technologies, practices, and institutions
designed to facilitate broad participation – or interactivity –
in information production and exchange (e.g., email,
podcast, Wikipedia)

Ideally:
¨ Lack of barriers to entry with digital media

¨ More voices

¨ Instant feedback

¨ Contact people directly

¨ Access to information
Digital Divide
Does digital media fully democratize participation?

Despite prominence of media in everyday lives:

¨ Not everyone has access to required technology

¨ Not every region has required technical
infrastructure
¨ Not every government/platform allows people to
voice themselves
 Convergence Culture
Definitions:

Technological convergence: merging media practices and

technologies

Corporate convergence: investing in multiple media and culture

industries

Audience convergence: consumers can participate in final products,

as well as use digital media to (re)create their own products.

*These types collectively create convergence culture.

 Convergence Culture
Examples:

Technological convergence: listening to music on the computer

Corporate convergence: MARVEL comics, movies, action figures

Audience convergence: vote on gameshow; write Harry Potter

fanfiction

*No longer distinct “producers” and “consumers,” but “produsers”

CORPORATE CONVERGENCE -
THE MATRIX
 CORPORATE CONVERGENCE

MARVEL
Top Left: Shang-Chi figures

Top Right: Into the Spider-Verse

movie

Bottom Left: Avengers game

Bottom Right: Black Panther

Funko Pop
 Audience Convergence
¨ Audiences can “translate their interests in the stories
and the franchise into a range of media messages,
from concordances and Wikipedia entries, fan
fiction, and fan videos to fan films, ‘cosplay,’ and
game mods.”
¨ (Schiller, 2018, pp. 98-99)

• Top-Down Production: corporate

• Bottom-Up Production: grassroots/fans
¨ HP Fan Fiction
 Audience Convergence

“Audiences have much more reason to become part of

the intrinsically social phenomena of
reading/seeing/discussing this popular object of
interest.”
¨ (Schiller, 2018, p. 100)

¨ Consumers want to be part of a (online) community

where they understand and discuss with others the
popular content of the day.
 Public Sphere(s)
Habermas (1991) posited that the public sphere was
a space where people conversed about topics of the
day.

¨ Digital media has created multiple (counter)public

spheres or spaces to talk about topics of the day.

Catherine Squires –
Counterpublic Spheres (2002)
 Networked Public Spheres
Definition:
“the range of practices, organizations, and
technologies that have emerged from networked
communication as an alternative arena for public
discourse, political debate, and mobilization
alongside, and in interaction with, traditional media.”

- Benkler et al., 2015, p. 596

¨ Social platforms are networked spheres
The Roles of Communication

1. Politically

2. Economically

3. Identity construction

¨Media are used in these various

ways
 Political Role of Media

Politics: “issues of collective concern with other members of

society” (Gasher et al., 2020, p. 21).

Political discussion and action appears in the public sphere

(Habermas, 1991)

¨ Public sphere: space(s) where people openly discuss areas

of common concern, critique government

Media transmit information that is discussed in these spheres.

 Political Role of Media

Think about how you know what is going on in the world

politically?

¨ Did you read/see/hear it on tv?

¨ Did you read/see/hear it online?
¨ Did a friend tell you about it?
¨ Did you overhear others talking about?

In most of these cases, the initial seed of

political information comes from media.
Surveilling the Masses

Post 9/11:

¨ American government justified breach of rights

and privacy in the name of “national security.”

¨ Anyone under suspicion of terrorism through online

activities were stripped of many rights.

Citizenfour scene
Snowden NSA Leaks
Snowden NSA Leaks

Snowden
news
coverage
The Fourth Estate
Definition

An independent news media or press that operates

outside the boundaries of the established societal
power structure.

Ø Antagonistic

Ø Surveillance

Ø Oversight
The Fourth Estate
Ø “Watchdog” function

Ø Hold power accountable to the public

Ø Investigate to find information to maintain a

representative democracy.

Ø Newspaper names: “Monitor” and “Observer”

The Fourth Estate
“The essential ingredients of the fourth estate

watchdog perspective include substantial autonomy

for the media, their representation of the interests of

the populace rather than the dominant groups, and

their independent power to directly and

independently challenge those dominant groups.”

(Donohue et al., 1995, p. 118)
Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media

Agenda-setting: media often determine what we see

and think about the world through its images, words,
sounds.

Politicians often communicative via media.

Thus: what we think and know about politics is often

shaped by media (Explanation Video)
 How we are told stories by
journalists can
influence the way we think about
LIVE life.

Why do journalists make the

decisions they do when
delivering the news?
 Controlling the Media

¨ If politicians influence what is being reported, they

influence what others think of them…even if its untrue
 Economic Role of Media
Media facilitate consumer culture:

¨ Media employees who purchase products

¨ Employment advertising (e.g., “wanted” ads)
¨ Commercial advertising
¨ Business articles
¨ Corporate public relations
¨ Information about events affecting economy
¨ Production, distribution, and consumption of info itself
 Identity Role of Media
Media help us construct our sense of selves:

¨ Media provide us information about the world

¨ We situate ourselves in relation to this information
¤ Political
viewpoints?
¤ Economic standing?
¤ National pride?

¤ Material objects?
n “linkspecific products to how we feed, clothe, and entertain
ourselves and make ourselves sexually and socially attractive”
(Gasher et al., 2020, p. 27)
Communication Models
The following models describe theories of
communication production, distribution, and reception
in one specific instance:

1. Shannon-Weaver Model
2. Social Model (Encoding/Decoding)

These models are used to map out the process of

communicating a meaning and if that meaning is
interpreted correctly by the receiver.
 Shannon-Weaver Model
1. Encoder has idea

2. Formulates idea into symbols (e.g., language)

3. Transmits symbols through a channel

4. Decoder receives symbols

5. Decoder mis/understands encoder’s message embedded in sent

symbols

6. Decoder responds to encoder, thus becoming encoder themselves

 Shannon-Weaver Model
Potential misunderstanding through “transmission interference” is called
“noise”:

¨ Background sound
¨ Accent
¨ “typo”

This model does not consider larger social context:

¨ Culture

¨ Age
¨ Education
¨ Treats audience as homogenous
 Social Model (Encoding/Decoding)
1. Encoding Context: encoder understands a system of meaning
(e.g., language)

2. Encoded Content: encoder selects text, symbols, and context to

communicate idea in that system of meaning

3. Medium: encoder transmits symbols through a channel

4. Decoding Context: decoder understands a system of meaning

5. Decoded Content: decoder interprets encoder’s content based on

decoder’s knowledge of system being used to communicate.
Encoding/Decoding Model

Goes both
directions
continuously
-
Feedback loop
 Charting Our “Course”
Roles of Communication:
1. Politically
2. Economically
3. Identity construction
¨ Media are used in these various ways

*Our course is going to look at these different communication roles,

relationships, and situations

¨ How do technical, political, economic, social, cultural, etc. work with

and against one another in relation to media, and thus, the
communication of ideas?