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Media Studies Midterm Study Guide
Terminology:
 Mass Communication: Communication (Message) sent from a person/group
through a transmitting device (A Medium) to a large audience (Market).

Medium: The means by which a message is delivered to an audience. (Singular) –
Example - Internet, radio broadcast etc.

Media: Plural form of the word medium.

Mass media Industries: The eight types of media businesses: (Print) Newspapers Books - Magazines. (Sound) Radio - Recordings. (Visual) Movies - Television Internet.

Convergence: The combining of the communications, electronics and computer
industries. Also, the co-operation of various media companies with each other in
order to take advantage (economically) of the newest technology.

Conglomerates: Companies that own media companies as well as unrelated
businesses.

Deregulation: The government removal of restrictions on industry and business
operations.

Demographics: Consumer characteristics – Age, sex, income, marital status,
occupation etc.

Viral Marketing: Creating an online message so entertaining that consumers pass
it along like a virus.

Public Relations: Creating an interest, understanding or good will towards a
company, product or person.

Disinformation: The intentional planting of false information by government
agencies or sources.

Dissident Press: Media that present alternate viewpoints from the mainstream
press.

Yellow Journalism: Sensational news that emphasizes sex, crime and violence.

Muckrakers: Investigative journalists who target abuses in government and
business.
The Five Core Concepts of Media Studies:
1.
All media messages are constructed.
2.
Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own
rules.
3.
Different people experience the same messages differently.
4.
Media have embedded values and points of view.
5.
Media messages are constructed to gain profit and/or power.
Monroe’s Motivated Sequence:
 Five step process to effective persuasion esp. in media
1. Attention- demographic and target audience
2. Need- physical, emotional, financial
3. Satisfaction- solve for the need
4. Visualization- show the solution
5. Action- provide a means of satisfaction
News Story Structures:
1.
Inverted Pyramid
2.
Focus News Structure
3.
News Narrative Structure
Credibility
 Media must establish credibility
o Pathos-emotional
o Logos- logic
o Ethos- personal credibility
Credible vs. Bias
 NPR, BBC, Fox News, MSNBC, The Atlantic, CBS, USA Today, Time, local
news, etc.
US Media Timeline
 1800’s- Media begins
 1840’s- Advertising begins (mostly newspapers)
 1841- First advertising agency opens
 1861- Beginning of advertising regulation
 1875- Ad agency: Ayer and son become the 1st company to offer clients
planning, creation, production, and placing of their campaigns
Media Studies Defined:
 Media studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the
content, history, and effects of various media. An emphasis is usually placed on
“mass media”.

Media has the potential to alter or strengthen attitudes, beliefs, and actions.

Media Studies Theories:
o Agenda setting
o Priming
o Framing
o Political economy
o Discourse analysis
o Content analysis
o Representation theory
o Imagined community
o Public sphere

Agenda Setting Theory- Theory that the mass-news media have a large influence
on audiences by their choice of what stories to consider newsworthy and how
much prominence and space to give their stories.

Salience Transfer- Refers to the capacity of the media (or other actors) to
influence the relative importance of individuals attached to policy issues.

Framing- The idea that the importance and interpretation people attach to
potential items on the public agenda are strongly influenced by how the media
presents news stories.
Agenda Setting in Policy:
 Status Quo- the way things are

Two goals to making policy
1. Maintain/preserve status quo
2. Change the status quo

Requirements of changing status quo
1. Inherency- shows there is a problem that won’t go away on its own
2. Harms- Physical, Emotional, Financial
3. Plan- (parts=planks) specific steps necessary to change the s.q.
4. Solvency- does the plan work without causing disadvantages?
Inverted pyramid
 Ideal for editing purposes
 Front loaded
 Ideas and facts
o Major details
o Minor details
o Sub details
The Focus News Structure
1. Focus on the individual
2. Transition to larger issue
3. Report on issue
4. Return to opening focus
The News Narrative Structure
 Set the scene
o Imagery, description, detailed hook
 Traditional lead information
o Who, What, Where, When, Why, How
 Support lead
o Specific lead details
 Transition back to chronology
o Chronological review of events and lead
Advertising and Fallacy:
 Fallacy - false argument
 Ad Hominem- attack person instead of idea
 Non Sequitor- (superficial/non-related links)
 Slippery slope – series of non-sequitor arguments
 False cause- claim that two non-related events are somehow linked
 Circular argument- use of a claim to support the same claim
Political Satire
 Social and Political Cartoon- a drawing depicting a humorous situation by a
caption. A drawing representing current public figures or issues symbolically and
often satirically.
 Satire- the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like in exposing, denouncing, or
deriding vice, folly, etc.
 Verbal Irony- a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is
meant.
 Situational Irony- an outcome that turns out to be very different from what was
expected, the difference between what is expected to happen ; what actually does
happen.
 Dramatic Irony- irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is
understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play
 Humor- a comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement; the humor
of a situation.