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BCM110 NOTESWEEK 1:BCM110 TOPICS Media Audiences Media representations and interpretation Media Industries and ownership Media theories Media Issues Things to think about: Intertextuality The industry perspective Representation Audience perspective Media theories WEEK 2: Goggle box is a global forma...

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BCM110 NOTES WEEK 1: BCM110 TOPICS - Media Audiences - Media representations and interpretation - Media Industries and ownership - Media theories - Media Issues Things to think about: - Intertextuality - The industry perspective - Representation - Audience perspective - Media theories WEEK 2: - Goggle box is a global format shown all over the world - The changing environment of media - People have much more choice about how and what they watch - The Unitam System captures, who is watching, time, duration and date, whether each TV is on or off, the television audio signal - Majority TV is now reality TV, sport, news and old movies - Paying upfront (Netflix) for watching what you like, avoiding advertisements - The ratings do not tell us how it will affect the audience emotionally and psychologically - Qualitative vs Quantitative research - Media audience is the audience we can see, together in one place, at the same time, having ‘the same’ experience. Being part of the media audience involves the use of a media technology, some form of content, and an experience that is shared. - 19th century, emergence of the ‘mass media’ and a growth in literacy… - Psychology emerges as a study - Gustave Le Bon “The unreal has about as much influence on them as the real” - Utopian vs dystopian - Dystopian: The passive audience – gullible, easily influenced, ‘feminised’, ‘childlike’, ‘passive’. Who’s at most risk? Children, youth, uneducated, women, men too, not me. - Aristotle’s model of Communication Speaker  Speech  Occasion  audience  effect - Lasswell’s Communication Model. Be careful that there are effects that may “stop” people from communicating fully with what is being presented. e.g. Tiredness in a lecture Communicator  Message  Medium  Receiver  Effect - What is we thought of the audience as active? - Being critical, discriminating, creative, using media content to manage things in their own lives? - John Fiske 1989 WEEK 3: - “It is not a pipe, it is a representation of a pipe” René Magritte - Semiotics The science of signs, origins in linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Peirce

e.g. Tree = Signifier, The idea of a tree = The Signified, Sign = shared/individual understanding of a visual image of a tree Image of a tree is not a tree, its an IMAGE of a tree, through shapes, colours, arrangements - The relationship between a sign and what it stands for is arbitrary (based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system) - Signifier = Denotation, Signified = Connotation - Interpretation of signs, words and images, may depend on what you already know or believe Ideology - “The way we imagine the world to be” - Beliefs and ideas which are the product of our social practices and experiences which may be challenged or reinforced by the media - A system of ideas and ideals - The set of beliefs characteristic of a social group or individual - ‘The way in which we imagine the world to be’ - e.g. family, marriage - An ideology is ‘in trouble’ when you can spot and ideal that is changing - People interpret ‘signs’ differently… based on their ‘ideological’ position… - The same ‘sign can be read in different ways Contested Ideologies - Within a democracy there is often ideological conflict - Debates about how society should be and how we should be governed WEEK 4: Media Industries and Ownership - Outfoxed, Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism – Murdoch’s editorial and ideological control of Fox News - “Media is the nervous system of a democracy…” – Jeff Cohen, Founding Director of the Park Center for Independent Media - 2/3 legislation where one media owner could not own more than 2 tv, newspaper, radio etc in a commercial licencing area - The combining of commercial media over different platforms of media could skew commercial news, unlike public broadcasting e.g. SBS. This could mean fewer regional voices especially if there no minimum require for locally produced content. - It is significant that we are aware of media ownership, as there is a lot of bias and influence and abuse of power if one owner owns all of Australian commercial media. - Propaganda on a passive audience “The Frankfurt School” - Marxist inspired thinkers - Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt - Moved to Columbia University, New York in 1934 - MAX HORKHEIMER & THEODOR ADORNO (important for exam) -

They developed “Critical Theory” – a way to reveal what is wrong with society and how to change it, especially with economics and social structures. - They ignored popular culture/mass media and understood that that type of media was being used to brainwash audiences and assumed that the audiences believed these facts without question - Their Thesis: “The mass media has contributed to the loss of reason in society by disseminating works that are too easy, with the result that our critical faculties become enfeebled…” – Oxford Dictionary of Critical Theory - Legacy of the Frankfurt School - Cultural and Critical research into the role of the media - A recognition of the media ‘uses and gratifications’ even if these are to be challenged - Cultural Divide – High Culture v Popular Culture - HC – not easy, art, classical music, literature, theatre, opera - PC – low, easy, commodified and standardised, mass entertainment, pop music, film and tv, popular fiction Herta Herzog - Woman theorist - She represented a progression from ^ - ‘On Borrowed Experience” 1941 - A study of women and the daytime radio soap operas to which they listened. - Recognised from her study a “USES AND GRATIFICATIONS” Model (now outdated however a big movement of the time it was created), acknowledge that people used the programs to work through issues in their home lives, gratifications – felt good, talk to their friends, chain reaction.. - However she still emerges from the same time of Horkheimer and Adorno, still wondering if mass media is being used to influence people. Louis Althusser - RSA’s – communitive powers, Repressive State (Apparatus) Institutions e.g. Police and the Army - ISA’s – Ideological State Institutions e.g. Religion, Education and the Media - ^ Most important because it concerns how ideologies are being used to persuade the mass media Difference between traditional owner vs media platform owner - Mark Zukerberg and FB – A social utility that connects you with the people around you - Issues, Privacy, Use of data, Trust, “Connecting People” David McKnight - Academic at UNSW - Free market ideology - Unified positions on matters - Global editorial positions - Opposition to liberal (left wing) bias News Corp (News Corporation) - 20th Century Fox - Fox TV Network - BskyB (UK) - Newspapers - Publishing - Murdoch’s political influence Phone Hacking Scandal 2011 – News of the World - a journalist had hacked into people phones e.g. Prince Williams and Hugh Grant - Milly Dowler Case (2002) Was murdered, her phone was hacked by a Personal Investigator employed by News of the World The Leveson Inquiry - Hacked Off Campaign after Leveson (UK) -

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Lord Justice Leveson opened the hearings 14 Nov 2011: “The press provides an essential check on all aspects of public life. That is why any failure within the media affects all of us. At the heart of this Inquiry, therefore, may be one simple question: who quards the guardians?” Witnesses including newspaper reports, proprietors, police officers and politicians of all parties gave evidence to the Inquiry under oath and in public There should be a new press standards body, tighter control… recommendations included a new press standards body created by the industry and backed by legislation Ruling Party in the UK decided that since 2012 the media outlets have been behaving themselves they no longer need tighter press controls http://www.breitbart.com/

Fairfax media owns Illawarra Mercury WIN owned by Bruce Gordon Larry Page and Sergey Brin own Google  Youtube owned by Google Time Warner owns HBO Facebook owned by Marc Zuckerberg  Instagram owned by Facebook Buzzfeed owned by Jonah Peret WEEK 5: The Media Theory Toolbox - Both Q&A + KUWTK panels deal with issues - Issues being presented in two very different formats demonstrating “the example of being a “mediated” pub sphere”. - “Q&A puts punters, pollies and pundits together in the studio to thrash out the hot issues of the week, live to air. It’s about democracy in action – on Q&A the audience gets to ask the questions.” The producers carefully control the environment to create a “live” atmosphere even though it has been carefully edited and cut and choreographed prior to the live taping. - KUWTK “…Kardashian/Jenner clan are determined to remember that family always comes first… … As the family’s fame grows, they become more dependent on one another for support through all the highs and lows of being in the limelight.” What the shows have in Common - A presentation of an issue - In this case, a concern with changing attudes to gender and sexuality - Highlighted in the media today - The media brings this and offers us to a medium Ideology - Is this debate evidence of potential change in the way in which we think about gender and sexuality? Theories are proposed - A theory is a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something - By People - They are propositions - If they have explanatory power - And if they are useful - People may adopt them and apply them to different examples Sometimes - A theory may need to be challenged QUICK SUMMARY NOTES - Media Effects - A. Bandura - Linear models of Communication - Aristotle - Ideology - L. Althusser - Semiotics - Saussure and Pierce - Coding and Encoding – Stuart Hall The Public Sphere

The Man Behind the Theory - Jurgen Habermas - The Structural Transformation for the Public Sphere (1962) - He was making SIMILE an 18th century coffee house - Place to get the news and debate about ideas… Habermas defines the ‘ideal’ Public Sphere as: - The ‘space” in which citizens debate about common concerns - separate from the state - separate from the official economy - egalitarian and open The Public Sphere is: - a ‘theatre/arena’ for debating and deliberating rather than for buying and selling Participations in habermas’s version of the public sphere include largely the middle class land-owning “bourgeoisie”. And who has been excluded…? - History of western feminism - Critique of the public sphere because it excludes women and minorities TODAY - The public sphere is highly “mediated” - The media provoke debate about issues… - People use the media to debate issues… Today’s Public Sphere - What is it? - Where is it? - Who participates? Critique - Who participates in this version of the public sphere - Who is excluded? - Whose voices are NOT heard? Has the mediated public sphere been divided by gender? - Masculine About serious stuff, centralised, discursive, relies on words - Feminine Trivial stud, fragmented, spectacular, relies on images Class - High culture - Serious - Non-commercial - Rational - Coherent - Engaged There are TWO Views about the Public Sphere - The public sphere has been degraded and fragmented by the forces of consumer capitalism and the fragmentation of the media - The public sphere has been enhanced by the emergence of different publics and different spaces. RECAP - The public sphere is a metaphor for thinking about how individual human being comes together to exchange ideas and information and feelings about matter to them in a liberal society - It is a concept idea which has been hugely theorised WEEK 6: Introducing Assignment 2 Content - Introduction

- From the personal to the particular - To MORE examples and the implications - To a statement of the general problem - To an invitation Effectiveness what do you remember from this talk what’s the key point? - Fairness and equality Assignment 2 - As a group you will identify a current issue relating to the media and create a presentation that will provide: - an overview of the issue and its significance - an account of how it has been presented in the media drawing on what you have learned about the media and/or relevant media theories - media issue - potential examples - presentation methods creative – audience involvement Where to begin? - What are some of the media issues that interest you? - How can you relate relevant media theories and concepts to the consideration of an issue - What will make for a ‘good’ presentation? - What will make for an ‘original’ presentation? Current Media Issues? - Media Watch - Fake News - Social Media Sources - Books - Academic Papers - Scholarly articles - Evidence WEEK 7: Current Issues in the Media Children and the Media Rhetoric – Overstatement: - “every day – saturated with images of sexuality” (often bombarded) - Taboo – anxieties at the fringes of what we find acceptable in everyday society The male voice over – authoritative and concerned The music – ominous and scary Gathered together in a way that they are never experienced Out of context Editing The use of an expert – La Nauze says paedophilia is about the ‘stealing of childhood’ - And seeks to identify what is ‘sexualised’ an what is not ( the connotations of the signified in semiotic terms) – “bed hair” What is this all about? - Protecting children from paedophiles? - Protecting children from being exploited by their parents for money? - Protecting children from capitalism? As a media issue it brings in - Representation (semiotics - Interpretation - Ideology (of childhood) - Censorship NEW THEORY – A MORAL PANIC

Stanley Cohen 1972 coined the term ‘Moral Panic’ Cohens description: “Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic. A condition, episodes, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interest; its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, bishops, politicians and other rightthinking people.” - Specific groups - Particular conditions - Particular episodes Case Study 1: - In 2006 The Australian Institute release a Report - Corporate Paedophilia by Emma Rush and Andrea La Nauze - Claims…. ‘Corporate paedophilia is a metaphor…used to describe the selling of products to children… it encapsulates the idea that such advertising and marketing is an abuse of children and contravenes public norms.” Evidence - Based on a discussion of advertisements featuring and/or directed at children - The analysis of magazines intended for girls - The assumption of exposure to adult material – such as video clips The underlying assumptions - That the sexualisation of children is a real and present danger - That there is such a thing as the ‘un-sexualised’ or ‘natural’ child - That childhood sexuality is a source of danger rather than healthy exploration What is actually going on here - How does the context of viewing change what we see? - Are we all being ‘required’ to view these images through the eyes of a paedophile? How do we read images? - The ways in which we read and make sense of an image are very complex - Semiotics In Contrast - Catharine Lumby and Kath Albury - ‘Too Much? Too Young? The Sexualisation of Children Debate in Australia, Media International Australia no. 135, May 2010 - “Corporate Paedophilia is a very unconvincing and ill-informed report based on a very limited sample and poor analysis that understand little about childhood sexuality and the way in which young people make sense of and use the media” The role of the Media - May be the source of the panic - May be the means by which the panic is spread Case Study 2: - The photographs of Bill Henson - Friday 23rd May 2008 - Police seize photographs by Henson from RoslynOxley9 Gallery Complicating Factor - The representation of children by Henson in a photograph feeds into the already existing moral panic about ‘sexualisation’ of children by the media which is circulated in the media. The Issue of Pornography - Linked to the oppression of women… But… as Linda Williams (1999) argues: ‘Coming to terms with pornography does not mean liking, approving of, or being aroused by it… For Walter Kendrick - ...pornography is simply whatever representations a particular dominant class or group does not want in the hands of another, less dominant class or group. -

Those in power construct the definition of pornography through their power to censor it. (Williams p.12) The famous quote - “I don’t know what it is, but I know it when I see it” – Justice Potter Stewart (1954) - “The middle-class, white male Supreme Court justice…was saying in essence ‘It moves me’ (whether to arousal or outrage hardly matters).” What about Manga? - Japanese genre of manga The Big Picture - What is this anxiety about children, sex and the image really about? - Of what ‘social anxiety’ is it a symptom? - A yearning… a desire to return to a state of innocence of which the child is a potent symbol? Bigger Issues - When was it invented? - When does one become an ‘adult’? How does one learn to be an Adult? - How do children learn about sex? - How ‘consistent’ are we in our approach to sexuality? - Media images? Moral Panic - “Kids seeing stuff” Human Sexuality - Young People, Sex and the Media by David Buckingham and Sara Bragg (2003) – Research with 800 young people (9-17). They found that young people ‘preferred’ to learn about sex from the media than in school and from their parents… - HS Is regulated by cultural and moral codes which may vary considerably in terms of what is considered appropriate – particularly in relation to childhood and adolescence. - What we have is anxiety about the representation of children in the media expressed in the media - What is the ‘moral panic’ if it is one, really about? - What role is the media playing in provoking this anxiety? - How is this anxiety being represented and framed? - Who gets to speak and who is silent? WEEK 8 – Fans Fan Studies - Making the link between audience, and media effects theories and fans Media Recap - Early media effects theories - linear models sender >message>receiver - Multiple theories/theorists: what they have in common is perceptions of the audience as: - Gullible - Easily influenced - Feminised - Childlike…. And most importantly PASSIVE! Fans Today - Fans are too active? - But also - serious anxieties circulate about what these media texts are apparently doing to us Everyone is a Fan! - Fandom requires a special knowledge of texts – and other texts (intertextual references – Umberto Eco). - Fandom/s as a place to find identity; belonging; an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson,1983) – or a ‘community of imagination’ (Duffett, 2013). - The internet has made fan communities more visible than ever – and has enabled us to talk about audiences as ‘produsers’ – users and producers (Bruns, 2006). -

History in Fans - Hills (2000) and Newman (2008) have identified instances of ‘fanlike’ behaviour occuring over 100 years ago. - Film fandom – linked to evolution of Hollywood and the studio system. - Fandom characterised as a disease: “… fans allegedly lost control of their senses…” (Barbas, 2001). - 1970s-90s: academic studies on subcultural groups, popular culture begin to emerge (Hebdige, 1979; Fiske, 1991; Thornton, 1995). Textual Poachers – Henry Jenkins (1992) - One of the first academic texts entirely devoted to the study of fans. - Jenkins was inspired to change the perception of fans - Saturday Night Live clip with William Shatner mocking Star Trek fans. Stereotypes and the ‘BAD’ fan - Stereotypes of the fan: encyclopedic and ‘trivial’ knowledge; obsessive; awkward; cosplayer; - The fan as ‘something to fear’; fan from ‘fanatic’. - Anxiety about perceived lack of distinction between fandom and reality – causing ‘the bad fan’. ‘Get a Life – it’s just a TV show!’ - In opposition to the idea of the crazed fan, Jenkins suggests: - “Fandom functions as an alternative social community… Fandom’s very existence represents a critique of conventional forms of consumer culture. Yet fandom also provides a space within which fans may articulate their specific concerns … as well as their fascination with representations that pose alternatives” (1992, 280- 3). Fans become visible: The Rocky Horror Picture Show - The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975): the ...