1 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 J200: Journalism and Mass Communications - Week III

1 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003___________________________Spring 2004

J200: Journalism and Mass Communications - Week III


J200: Journalism and Mass Communications - Week II & III

Functions of the Media General Systems Theory Production / Distribution Controlling Influences Ethical Considerations


Process of MassComm

Source

“Encodes”

MessageChannel

Receiver “decodes” message

Feedback


In all mass media industries, organizations carry out four primary activities:

Production Distribution Exhibition Finance


Key Questions to Analyze the Communications Process 1. Who were the senders of the message? The

receivers?

2. With what symbols was the message encoded? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using these symbols?

3. Through what channel was the message sent, and by what technology or means?

- What are the advantages and disadvantages of the channel and technology?

1.- What are common sources of noise or static?


Key Questions to Analyze the Communications Process

4. What were the motivations of the principal actors? Why did they enter into the communication process?

5. What was the nature of the message, the content of the news, i.e. what was considered newsworthy? By whom?

6. What were the principal effects of the message on the sender? On the receiver?


Key Questions to Analyze the Communications Process7. How was society affected by this type

of message? Whose interests were helped? Were any group or class’s interests harmed?

8. Were there any important exogenous variables (outside influences) on the communication process (such as the social or political context — including censorship, licensing or other regulation).


An analysis matrix:

Type/Variable

Prod. Distrib. Exhibition Finance

BooksNewspprsMagazinesRadioTVetc.


An analysis matrix:

Type/Variable

Prod. Distrib. Exhibition FinanceGov't.Regs

BooksNewspprsMagazinesRadioTVetc.


Brief introduction to General Systems Theory Attributes of a system….

Composed of variables, i.e. elements that can be defined, or described, separately. Sub-variables. Tree-to-branch-to-leaf-to-cell

There are relationships between variables Horizontal relationships Vertical (i.e. hierarchical) relationships


Brief introduction to GST

A system has boundaries Conceptual Legal: corporate, jurisdiction Geographic Cultural

A system has goals, self-defined or with a definition imposed by an observer/researcher Make money Provide for group security, happiness,

procreation


A newspaper as a system

Editorial

Production

Circulation

Advertising

“Backoffice”


A newspaper as a system

Editorial

Local News

Int’l News Business Sports


A newspaper variables and sub-systems

Editorial

Local News

Int’l News Business Sports

High SchoolCollegeProfessional


Online enterprise Dynamic system model


Example of Media Concentration

The Powerful 20 (c. 2001)


The Big One: AOL Time Warner

January 10, 2000 America Online and Time Warner announce a merger in a stock swap valued at $350 billion.

October 11, 2000 The European Commission clears the merger but makes Time Warner drop its plans for merger with EMI, the U.K.-based music group.



December 14, 2000 The Federal Trade Commission approves the merger.

January 11, 2001 The Federal Communications Commission approves the merger with conditions to maintain competition on Time Warner's high-speed cable lines. AOL's shares have fallen by 35 percent since the merger was announced from $160 billion to around $105 billion.

When AOL "merged" with Time Warner it was valued at $164 billion -- largest such transaction in history.

Gerald Levin, the chairman and CEO of Time Warner, was so besotted with the "synergies" the combined companies would produce that he sold out Time Warner's incomparable assets to Steve Case, the chairman and CEO of AOL.http://www.redherring.com/columns/2002/friday/lastword071902.html



January 16, 2001 Allan Sloan comments in The Washington Post: "So this isn't a merger. It's a takeover by the incredibly prescient — or incredibly lucky — people at American Online. In return for shares that, absent this deal, would probably be trading at roughly the level of whale droppings, AOL gets to own some of the most valuable media properties on the face of the planet."

Chairman, Steve Case; CEO, Gerald Levin Employees: 79,000 Revenues: $31.8 billion


AOL Time Warner TODAYPosted on Mon, Jan. 13, 2003

AOL Time Warner's Steve Case to resignLISA SINGHANIA -Associated Press

NEW YORK - Blamed by shareholders for AOL Time Warner's sharp fall in fortunes, Steve Case said he will step down as chairman of the conglomerate he helped create - a marriage of old and new media first hailed as revolutionary but now struggling for a future.

Case's departure means the company's leadership will be without any of the key architects of the blockbuster merger of America Online and Time Warner in 2001. The company said Sunday he would step down in May.

-- January 12, 2003

“Since January of 2001 when the merger closed, AOL Time Warner's stock price has gone from about $47.23 to close at $14.88 at the end of trading Friday, a drop of just under 70 percent.”


AOL Time Warner Not long ago

July 18, 2002

AOL COO Stepping Down By Thor Olavsrud

AOL Time Warner (Quote, Company Info) Thursday confirmed that Chief Operating Officer Robert Pittman, who is also serving as interim chief of the America Online division, will leave the company and that a management shake-up is in the works.


AOL Time Warner

Sept. 19, 2003

Trapped in a troubled marriage, AOL Time Warner decided yesterday to return to its maiden name, dropping its first three letters.

The company will now be called Time Warner, an attempt to erase a big reminder of the excesses of the Internet era, America Online's acquisition of Time Warner for shares priced at the peak of the boom. [NYTimeshttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/19/business/media/19AOL.html ]


These activities involve resources and power Resources:

The symbolic and material components a system needs to carry out its tasks.

Power: The use of resources by one system in order to gain compliance by another system.


Power role

Power roles Resource-controlling relationships Taken on mostly by systems

Producer Power Role Creates material for release to public Competition over niches


Power Role

Exhibitor Power Role Exhibition is the activity of presenting

mass media materials to audiences for viewing or purchase

Finance can involve two power roles Investor Client


The Client Power Role

Organizations pay for product that exists

Advertisers -- the main support system

But others exist as well


Investor Power Role

Broadly speaking, a company has two ways to get money in anticipation of production Take out loans, and… Encourage investments in the company

Many media firms are public companies -- that is, their stocks are available on the open market.


Other ways to get financing

Venture capitalists Stock offerings IPO -- Initial Public Offerings


Media financing

Large majority of U.S. media are in commercial hands Q: Does that make for better or

worse media content?

That doesn’t mean government is out of the picture+


Government regulation

Can or do government regulations influence the kinds of businesses firms can enter Broadcasting? Cable? Direct mail?

Wireless? I-o-P publications? Can or do government regulations

also influence kinds of materials producers can create and show to audiences? Bomb-making? Pornography? Untrue

advertising?


Controlling Influences: Government

Authority Power Role Certain businesses, such as radio

broadcasting, television broadcasting and cable TV, have government (all levels) regulations directed just at them.

Licensing Copyright

FCC and Powell http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3541-2003Jan2?language=printer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3541-2003Jan2?language=printer









Obscenity Q: Can the police come to your home and

take out an obscene video that you have rented? The Tin Drum case

http://archive.aclu.org/issues/freespeech/tindrum.html











Libel Is an Internet Service Provider libel for

libelous notes that it sends?

The case of Lunney v. Prodigyhttp://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dldefam/lunney.html

http://legal.web.aol.com/decisions/dldefam/lunney.html








Controlling Influences: Ethics

What determines media ethics? Individuals Corporate culture Corporate “standards” Audience pressures Professional organizations


Audience Size Continuum

Targeted deliveryExpensive

Indiscriminate targetCheap

Mass audience

Audience of one

Groups of varying size


Rock carving

BooksMagazines

Media Speed Continuum

Slowest between encoding-receipt-feedback

Fastest between encoding-receipt-

feedback

Newspapers

Radio

TV

I-net


Rock carving

BooksMagazines

Media Content Longevity Continuum

Long degree of permanence

Short (traditionally)

degree of permanence

Newspapers

Radio

TV

InternetInternet


J200: Journalism and Mass Communications - Week IV

Next Week:Chapter 3: Formal and Informal Controls on Media Content: Government Regulation, Self-Regulation, and Ethics

Controlling InfluencesEthical Considerations

Documents

1 J200 - Week © J.T.Johnson 1999-2003 ___________________________Spring 2004 J200: Journalism and Mass Communications - Week III