I've been swamped the last week or so and haven't checked in with all of you. I had planned to post another quiz but, well, like I said I was swamped at my other jobs. I did want to touch base with all of you who I expect and hope are busy cranking out Long Tail papers. I haven't had any questions from any of you in a week or so so I hope things are going smoothly.
Let me know if you need help.
Cheers,
Rob
Monday, December 12, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
The Long Tail essay assignment
This graphic illustrates the Long Tail Effect. The y axis (that's the line the runs up and down) shows how popular a product is, or how great its sales. The x axis (the horizontal line) shows the distribution of sales of all of the products in a category. If we were considering movie ticket sales this weekend, the latest Harry Potter release would be represented by a place on the x axis very near its intersection with the y axis. In other words, Harry Potter ticket sales are in the red area designated as the "Head," as ticket sales for that movie are quite high. Some art house movie only showing on a few screens, primarily in big cities near universities with a concentrated population of pretentious intellectuals, would be represented by a point on the x axis far to the right of the Head. Our art house movie, let's call it "Jacques Confronts the Meaninglessness of Existence While Drinking Pinot," would be placed somewhere out on the orange "Long Tail."
Why is this Long Tail important? Consider for a moment a different type of product: music. When I was a young lad in college I worked at a record store, Licorice Pizza (Get it? if you've never seen a vinyl record you might not, so check this out). Record stores where the place were everyone purchased their music back in the prehistoric 1980s. Record stores were a great place for distributing music, but they had a significant limitation: space. That limitation meant that we could only carry the best sellers, or records that sold well enough to fall in the Head section of the x axis.
What that meant was that if you were looking for the latest Phil Collins album (he was big back in the day) we had plenty on hand. But if your tastes ran more in the direction of "Echo and the Bunnymen," an arty New Wave act of that era, we might have had a copy stuck in a bin with the latest releases by "The Jam," "X" and "Magazine," other New Wave/Punk bands with considerable talent but sales that never climbed beyond the Long Tail into the Head.
But today my 17-year-old daughters have never purchased music in a record store, and have only been in Rockin Rudy's in Missoula a time or two. They purchase all of their music online in iTunes and load it directly on their iPods.
Your assignment is to write a 1,200 word essay examining the Long Tail and its impact on Mass Media. Your essay should answer to the best of your opinion, an opinion formed by research of course, the five questions listed below.
Before you try answering these questions a little research is in order. I'd start here if I were you.
You may also find this helpful.
Your questions:
1 — Music on iTunes is distributed digitally. As the cost of digital storage space (memory) has declined, how has this affected digital music distribution?
2 — Retailers once focused their efforts on the few top products in the Head. What are the implications for profit making when products in the Long Tail can be distributed at virtually no cost?
3 — It you were an independent producer of low volume product, be it music, video or a manuscript, how would you seek to exploit the Long Tail to maximize sales and exposure?
4 — Has the distribution of intellectual property changed permanently, and if so is this good or bad (you may steal some ideas from your Kindle papers for this one)? If we lose the communal space of bookstores and record shops forever have we lost something of value?
5 — Do you expect the forces of the Long Tail to play out for books the way it did for music, or do you expect something different to happen?
Public Relations quiz open
The Chapter 10 quiz on Public Relations is now open.
Look for posts on great moments in Public Relations, and great failures. We'll likely consider what's happening at Penn State, where, in addition to the great human tragedy that is unfolding, we are also witnessing a significant and important institution grappling with how to communicate to its various publics. This is of course a very serious topic due to the nature of the crimes for which Jerry Sandusky and others at Penn State have been accused. For our purposes in our Mass Media class I want to focus on how the institution has responded to this tragedy from a communications — or in this case public relations — point of view.
There have been a couple of situations in recent days in the GOP presidential race which have also required creative communication in order to control potential PR disasters. Herman Cain is facing charges of workplace sexual harassment when he was the head of the National Restaurateurs Association, and Rick Perry is trying to overcome gaffs in recent debates. So far Cain's approach has been to deny the charges and blame the media, and his accusers. His numbers have begun to drop after he took a lead over Mitt Romney in recent weeks. Perry has kind of taken the "Aw shucks, I guess I screwed up" approach. His numbers have been dropping like a rock for weeks.
So who's winning in all this? Don't look now but Newt Gingrich appears to be the beneficiary of his rivals foibles.
Look for posts on great moments in Public Relations, and great failures. We'll likely consider what's happening at Penn State, where, in addition to the great human tragedy that is unfolding, we are also witnessing a significant and important institution grappling with how to communicate to its various publics. This is of course a very serious topic due to the nature of the crimes for which Jerry Sandusky and others at Penn State have been accused. For our purposes in our Mass Media class I want to focus on how the institution has responded to this tragedy from a communications — or in this case public relations — point of view.
There have been a couple of situations in recent days in the GOP presidential race which have also required creative communication in order to control potential PR disasters. Herman Cain is facing charges of workplace sexual harassment when he was the head of the National Restaurateurs Association, and Rick Perry is trying to overcome gaffs in recent debates. So far Cain's approach has been to deny the charges and blame the media, and his accusers. His numbers have begun to drop after he took a lead over Mitt Romney in recent weeks. Perry has kind of taken the "Aw shucks, I guess I screwed up" approach. His numbers have been dropping like a rock for weeks.
So who's winning in all this? Don't look now but Newt Gingrich appears to be the beneficiary of his rivals foibles.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Extra credit
Sorry for the late notice but if you go to this event at the school tonight you can skip this week's quiz and I'll credit you for 10 points. You'll need to email me a brief paragraph as proof of your attendance.
It's about new media ethics, our topic for this week.
It's about new media ethics, our topic for this week.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Midterm week
OK folks, since its midterm week there won't be a quiz or any discussion thread. I will open the exam this evening and it will be available for you until Sunday night. Review the material we have covered so far. If you have any questions before the test, shoot me an e-mail. Since I have a day job try to give me a little lead time so I have an opportunity to get back to you.
Also, some of you have missed earlier chapter quizzes and would like to make them up. I will allow that this week, but what I need you to do is email me to tell me which quizzes you have missed.
Finally, if you wonder why I consider the state of the American newspaper with such despair, take a look at this. Who cares about Wall Street? It's time to occupy the newsrooms of America.
Also, some of you have missed earlier chapter quizzes and would like to make them up. I will allow that this week, but what I need you to do is email me to tell me which quizzes you have missed.
Finally, if you wonder why I consider the state of the American newspaper with such despair, take a look at this. Who cares about Wall Street? It's time to occupy the newsrooms of America.
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Bartman incident
I want to talk this week about the "Bartman Incident" in the 2003 National League Championship Series. If you haven't had a chance to watch the ESPN film "Catching Hell" about the game, here are a couple of resources to help bring you up to speed.
Wikipedia page on the game.
Short clips from the film.
A link to a plethora of You Tube clips about the incident.
What I want to focus on is the role television played in elevating the play into an ugly mob scene at Wrigley Field. If you were able to see the ESPN film you learned a couple of interesting things about the game. There is no big screen in Wrigley for replaying key moments as there is in every other big league ballpark. So fans at the game were not seeing the replays over and over as was the television audience. But outside the ballpark, where fans gather in the streets surrounding Wrigley Field during big games, one man was carrying a television. He held the set on top of his head while the fans in the street watched the same replays as viewers at home. The chants of "Asshole. Asshole. Asshole" directed by all 40,000 plus fans in the stadium at Steve Bartman began outside Wrigley with those fans watching the television out on the street.
Steve Bartman will never live down that moment at Wrigley Field. The replays of that play have seared the image of him deflecting the ball away from Moises Alou into the minds of Cubs fans forever. But what if that play had happened 50 years earlier? There wouldn't have been television cameras in the stadium as the game would have been broadcast only on the radio. The only way that play might have been recorded at all would be if some newspaper photographer had gotten really lucky. If television hadn't been there to record the play, and amplify it, would it even be remembered at all?
So I have two questions I'd like you to answer this week. Did the amplification effect of television make the "Bartman Incident?" And if so, what are the implications for subjects of more importance in society?
Wikipedia page on the game.
Short clips from the film.
A link to a plethora of You Tube clips about the incident.
What I want to focus on is the role television played in elevating the play into an ugly mob scene at Wrigley Field. If you were able to see the ESPN film you learned a couple of interesting things about the game. There is no big screen in Wrigley for replaying key moments as there is in every other big league ballpark. So fans at the game were not seeing the replays over and over as was the television audience. But outside the ballpark, where fans gather in the streets surrounding Wrigley Field during big games, one man was carrying a television. He held the set on top of his head while the fans in the street watched the same replays as viewers at home. The chants of "Asshole. Asshole. Asshole" directed by all 40,000 plus fans in the stadium at Steve Bartman began outside Wrigley with those fans watching the television out on the street.
Steve Bartman will never live down that moment at Wrigley Field. The replays of that play have seared the image of him deflecting the ball away from Moises Alou into the minds of Cubs fans forever. But what if that play had happened 50 years earlier? There wouldn't have been television cameras in the stadium as the game would have been broadcast only on the radio. The only way that play might have been recorded at all would be if some newspaper photographer had gotten really lucky. If television hadn't been there to record the play, and amplify it, would it even be remembered at all?
So I have two questions I'd like you to answer this week. Did the amplification effect of television make the "Bartman Incident?" And if so, what are the implications for subjects of more importance in society?
Sunday, October 16, 2011
So digital didn't kill the music star
I think that as a group you have zeroed in on an important point: music isn't dead because of change, music is changed because of change. I'll admit a certain nostalgia for the old 12-inch vinyl package, but I still listen to music and I haven't bought one of those relics in nearly 30 years. I didn't care for aspects of the change from vinyl to CDs, but I did get that the practicality of the format made it a superior product.
So music has changed. Bon Jovi is probably being an alarmist, or at least a sentimentalist pining for the memories of youth. Interesting in that we had another reading assignment this week that described Steve Jobs as the enemy of nostalgia, which was part of his genius. I remember when the first iMac came out and it didn't have a floppy disc drive. People freaked out. Now they are making Macs that don't include a disc drive and iTunes may soon give way to iCloud.
Nice work this week. I'm going hunting in the morning and I will mull over a discussion point for the week based on "Catching Hell." I'll post tomorrow evening.
BTW, Molly gets extra credit for slipping in that Buggles reference. Click here for a look at the first music video ever played on MTV. Sorry for the annoying message that pops up at the start of the song. Just hit the play arrow and it goes away. Watching that video makes my a tad nostalgic the early 80s, when I was a young college boy working in a record store. But most of those memories wouldn't be appropriate for serious academic discourse.
So music has changed. Bon Jovi is probably being an alarmist, or at least a sentimentalist pining for the memories of youth. Interesting in that we had another reading assignment this week that described Steve Jobs as the enemy of nostalgia, which was part of his genius. I remember when the first iMac came out and it didn't have a floppy disc drive. People freaked out. Now they are making Macs that don't include a disc drive and iTunes may soon give way to iCloud.
Nice work this week. I'm going hunting in the morning and I will mull over a discussion point for the week based on "Catching Hell." I'll post tomorrow evening.
BTW, Molly gets extra credit for slipping in that Buggles reference. Click here for a look at the first music video ever played on MTV. Sorry for the annoying message that pops up at the start of the song. Just hit the play arrow and it goes away. Watching that video makes my a tad nostalgic the early 80s, when I was a young college boy working in a record store. But most of those memories wouldn't be appropriate for serious academic discourse.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Apple and the rise of digital music
There was a brief moment in the not too distant past when music was distributed for free on the Internet somewhat like news is today. Napster was the place where listeners downloaded and "shared" digital versions of their favorite music with other fans. The music industry took notice of all this free traffic and when to court to shut down Napster. iTunes rose Phoenix-like from Napsters' ashes to become the dominant music distribution system.
For newspapers grappling with a way to put the genie back in the bottle and figure out a way to get folks to start paying for their product again, the rise of iTunes may offer some hope: "Maybe we can get people used to getting something for free to start paying for it again?"
But were interested in the music story here, and from the business side of things, iTunes has been an unqualified success. Still, there are detractors. Jon Bon Jovi seems to think the move toward digital has diminished the discovery experience of music, going so far as to claim Steve Jobs is killing the music business. I wonder sometimes. Certainly my teen-age daughters experience music far differently from how I did when I was their age. I hung out in record stores, thumbing through racks of 12-inch vinyl, admiring the cover art and wondering how it represented the music inside. No need for that (either the record store or the experience of hanging out in one) when you have iTunes. My kids gather round the computer with friends, sample songs and buy the ones they like. I'm not sure my kids have ever put on the headphones and listened to an album from start to finish the way I did.
There are other criticisms of the digital model. For instance, does it give industry leaders, some of whom have "control" issues, too much influence over music they way they once did during the payola days? Or does the Long Tail Effect level the playing field, allowing more artists to get their music to their fans?
So our question for the week: How much is there to Bon Jovi's claim that digital killed the music industry? We've talked about the tactile experience of ink-on-paper media. Is there a similar experience that the old album cover and liner notes, as well as being grounded to a fixed-site device like a turntable, that changes music forever? Is that really a change, and if so, is it necessarily a bad thing?
I'll look for your comments by Friday. The Sound Media is open and ready for your test-taking pleasure.
For newspapers grappling with a way to put the genie back in the bottle and figure out a way to get folks to start paying for their product again, the rise of iTunes may offer some hope: "Maybe we can get people used to getting something for free to start paying for it again?"
But were interested in the music story here, and from the business side of things, iTunes has been an unqualified success. Still, there are detractors. Jon Bon Jovi seems to think the move toward digital has diminished the discovery experience of music, going so far as to claim Steve Jobs is killing the music business. I wonder sometimes. Certainly my teen-age daughters experience music far differently from how I did when I was their age. I hung out in record stores, thumbing through racks of 12-inch vinyl, admiring the cover art and wondering how it represented the music inside. No need for that (either the record store or the experience of hanging out in one) when you have iTunes. My kids gather round the computer with friends, sample songs and buy the ones they like. I'm not sure my kids have ever put on the headphones and listened to an album from start to finish the way I did.
There are other criticisms of the digital model. For instance, does it give industry leaders, some of whom have "control" issues, too much influence over music they way they once did during the payola days? Or does the Long Tail Effect level the playing field, allowing more artists to get their music to their fans?
So our question for the week: How much is there to Bon Jovi's claim that digital killed the music industry? We've talked about the tactile experience of ink-on-paper media. Is there a similar experience that the old album cover and liner notes, as well as being grounded to a fixed-site device like a turntable, that changes music forever? Is that really a change, and if so, is it necessarily a bad thing?
I'll look for your comments by Friday. The Sound Media is open and ready for your test-taking pleasure.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Catching Hell
I'm getting a little ahead of the course, but I wanted to give you a heads up. "Catching Hell," an ESPN documentary on the infamous "Bartman foul ball" in the 2003 Major League playoffs will be broadcast 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2 (that's why DVRs and TiVo were invented) and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday on ESPN. In that game, Cubs' fan Steve Bartman interfered with Cubs outfielder Moises Alou as he tried to catch a foul ball. The play, along with subsequent Chicago errors and Florida Marlin rally, cost the Cubs the game and they later lost the National League pennant, allowing Florida to advance and go on to win the World Series.
Those of you who are baseball fans know that the Cubs are the lovable losers of the Major Leagues, having gone more than 100 years since they last won it all (they beat the Tigers in 1908). Despite this legacy of losing, the Cubs have one of the most passionate fan bases in all of sport. But the Bartman play revealed a darker side, as the crowd turned on Bartman and he had to be escorted from the stadium to protect his safety.
When we move to Motion Media Oct. 17 I'd like to focus on the Bartman play and the fan reaction as well as the role television played in fueling the ugliness that filled the friendly confines of Wrigley Field that night. If you are able, watch "Catching Hell" this weekend. If you're unable you will still be able to participate in the discussion. You can view short clips from the film here. The film is also available on iTunes but they will charge you $4.99. Again, watching the entire film will not be necessary for the class, but it will be helpful. The film is damn good and you absolutely do not have to be a sports fan to find "Catching Hell" compeling viewing. Any of you who have watched any of ESPN's previous "30 for 30" documentaries already know this. BTW, "Catching Hell" was directed by Alex Gibney, who directed the Academy Award winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" about the war in Afghanstan.
I will put together a post on Steve Jobs to focus our discussion on Sound Media for next week. "Catching Hell" and Motion Media will be for the week that begins Oct. 17.
Those of you who are baseball fans know that the Cubs are the lovable losers of the Major Leagues, having gone more than 100 years since they last won it all (they beat the Tigers in 1908). Despite this legacy of losing, the Cubs have one of the most passionate fan bases in all of sport. But the Bartman play revealed a darker side, as the crowd turned on Bartman and he had to be escorted from the stadium to protect his safety.
When we move to Motion Media Oct. 17 I'd like to focus on the Bartman play and the fan reaction as well as the role television played in fueling the ugliness that filled the friendly confines of Wrigley Field that night. If you are able, watch "Catching Hell" this weekend. If you're unable you will still be able to participate in the discussion. You can view short clips from the film here. The film is also available on iTunes but they will charge you $4.99. Again, watching the entire film will not be necessary for the class, but it will be helpful. The film is damn good and you absolutely do not have to be a sports fan to find "Catching Hell" compeling viewing. Any of you who have watched any of ESPN's previous "30 for 30" documentaries already know this. BTW, "Catching Hell" was directed by Alex Gibney, who directed the Academy Award winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side" about the war in Afghanstan.
I will put together a post on Steve Jobs to focus our discussion on Sound Media for next week. "Catching Hell" and Motion Media will be for the week that begins Oct. 17.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Let's beat that horse good and dead
One final comment thread on the future of print. I'd like you all to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 (one being the afore mentioned horse, five being they'll thrive forever) the fate of the three ink on paper mediums we've considered this week. I'll go first:
Magazines — (-100)One isn't low enough. Magazines are dead tree media walking. The iPad finished them off, they just don't realize it yet.
Books — (3) Big, art or foto driven coffee table books will live on. But mass market paperbacks and most best sellers are moving to tablet devices before too long.
Newspapers (1) — I think small-market dailies such as the Inter Lake face a future of contraction. Weeklies such as the Beacon probably have a brighter future. And a few national dailies will survive for now, NY Times and USA Today, at least until some future tech development pulls an iPad and finisheds them off too.
Post your votes by Friday please. Look for some additional information posts on the death of Steve Jobs and and our upcoming unit on sound media. All for now.
Magazines — (-100)One isn't low enough. Magazines are dead tree media walking. The iPad finished them off, they just don't realize it yet.
Books — (3) Big, art or foto driven coffee table books will live on. But mass market paperbacks and most best sellers are moving to tablet devices before too long.
Newspapers (1) — I think small-market dailies such as the Inter Lake face a future of contraction. Weeklies such as the Beacon probably have a brighter future. And a few national dailies will survive for now, NY Times and USA Today, at least until some future tech development pulls an iPad and finisheds them off too.
Post your votes by Friday please. Look for some additional information posts on the death of Steve Jobs and and our upcoming unit on sound media. All for now.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Thoughts on print
My kids are in high school. When they were much younger and I still worked in the business, they used to read the funnies in the newspaper everyday. But it has been a long time since we've received home delivery of a newspaper and they rarely if ever look at a newspaper anymore.
But a funny thing happened this weekend. The kids play soccer for Glacier High and one of the girl's picture appeared in the Daily Inter Lake Sunday. It was a nice, large color shot on the front of the sports section. It was a big deal, a big deal. Friends are saving extra copies for me and my daughter wants to send some to our out-of-state relatives.
It's interesting because I've taken thousands of fotos of them playing soccer over the years, and many of them have been posted on Facebook and shared among friends and family. And frankly I've taken plenty of fotos that were better, or at least more dramatic, than the one that appeared in the paper. Still, none of those fotos has generating anything like the excitement of appearing in the paper.
It's a shame that product is going away, as I am certain it will.
The Ink on Paper Quiz is open until Friday. I have one more post requiring a response form all of you on this topic planned for the week. I enjoyed your thoughtful posts on our most recent discussion thread.
But a funny thing happened this weekend. The kids play soccer for Glacier High and one of the girl's picture appeared in the Daily Inter Lake Sunday. It was a nice, large color shot on the front of the sports section. It was a big deal, a big deal. Friends are saving extra copies for me and my daughter wants to send some to our out-of-state relatives.
It's interesting because I've taken thousands of fotos of them playing soccer over the years, and many of them have been posted on Facebook and shared among friends and family. And frankly I've taken plenty of fotos that were better, or at least more dramatic, than the one that appeared in the paper. Still, none of those fotos has generating anything like the excitement of appearing in the paper.
It's a shame that product is going away, as I am certain it will.
The Ink on Paper Quiz is open until Friday. I have one more post requiring a response form all of you on this topic planned for the week. I enjoyed your thoughtful posts on our most recent discussion thread.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Keeping it alive
OK, so this will be a followup to our question regarding the future of books, only in this case we consider newspapers. I would like each of you to weigh in on weather you think they will survive. If so, for how long? If not, when do you expect the end will come?
But yes or no and for how long won't be enough for this answer. I also want to to speculate about what role the Internet will play in either the longevity of the newspaper, or in its downfall. If you think newspapers have a future then explain how this legacy product will incorporate the Internet in a way that enhances, rather than diminishes its money-making capacity.
However, if you believe the Internet will slay the newsprint beast, tell me why you think this is so.
Answer by Friday please. I'll have more for us to consider on this topic as the week progresses.
But yes or no and for how long won't be enough for this answer. I also want to to speculate about what role the Internet will play in either the longevity of the newspaper, or in its downfall. If you think newspapers have a future then explain how this legacy product will incorporate the Internet in a way that enhances, rather than diminishes its money-making capacity.
However, if you believe the Internet will slay the newsprint beast, tell me why you think this is so.
Answer by Friday please. I'll have more for us to consider on this topic as the week progresses.
Monday, September 26, 2011
I goofed (but no one said anything)
Over the weekend I received an e-mail from one of you. The student wrote that she hadn't been able to complete the Media Economics chapter quiz. I didn't get a chance to respond until today, and soon realized I'd never opened the quiz and no one has taken it yet. None of you were apparently eager to take a stab at the quiz and so I didn't get an earlier heads up.
In light of my faux pas, this is how we will proceed. The Media Econ quiz is now open, and will remain so until midnight Friday. I will also post a discussion thread tomorrow which you will all need to respond to by Friday. That discussion will be based on our supplemental readings from last week on media econ.
The Unit 5 for this week and next is Chapter 4, Ink on Paper (also known as dead-tree media). You will notice that there are three PowerPoints for this chapter. The reason is that books, newspapers and magazines once all warranted their own chapters in earlier versions of our textbook. But that was then, and this is the digital age.
The quiz for Chapter 4 will be available at the end of the week and you will have until the following Friday (Oct. 7) to complete it. I will not assign any additional readings this week as the stuff we covered last week segues nicely with Chapter 4. There will be some new material next week in which I hope to build on our discussions regarding the fate of Ink on Paper.
Again, sorry about any confusion this may have caused.
In light of my faux pas, this is how we will proceed. The Media Econ quiz is now open, and will remain so until midnight Friday. I will also post a discussion thread tomorrow which you will all need to respond to by Friday. That discussion will be based on our supplemental readings from last week on media econ.
The Unit 5 for this week and next is Chapter 4, Ink on Paper (also known as dead-tree media). You will notice that there are three PowerPoints for this chapter. The reason is that books, newspapers and magazines once all warranted their own chapters in earlier versions of our textbook. But that was then, and this is the digital age.
The quiz for Chapter 4 will be available at the end of the week and you will have until the following Friday (Oct. 7) to complete it. I will not assign any additional readings this week as the stuff we covered last week segues nicely with Chapter 4. There will be some new material next week in which I hope to build on our discussions regarding the fate of Ink on Paper.
Again, sorry about any confusion this may have caused.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Profs frown on digital business model
A professor from the Columbia University's J school, along with a colleague from the Columbia Business school, took a look at the way the media is trying to create success in the digital age. Their findings suggest we have a long way to go.
This is just a summary page. I haven't had a chance to read the full report yet (that will have to wait for my next bout with insomnia), and don't expect you to either.
Look for some further direction from me on these latest readings in the next few days. There will be a assignment or quiz that evolves from it. I'm just not sure what that will be just yet.
Cheers,
Rob
This is just a summary page. I haven't had a chance to read the full report yet (that will have to wait for my next bout with insomnia), and don't expect you to either.
Look for some further direction from me on these latest readings in the next few days. There will be a assignment or quiz that evolves from it. I'm just not sure what that will be just yet.
Cheers,
Rob
Driving readers back to print
A small community daily in Rhode Island made the decision a few years back to create an expensive paywall to its Web site to deliberately drive readers back to its print product.
Two years later, how's that working out?
Two years later, how's that working out?
Paywalls work for some
Some newspapers are making paywalls pay.
The New York Times and the Missoulian both went to similar metered paywall models this year, meaning they allow a certain number of free views, and once you hit the limit you have to start paying.
The New York Times and the Missoulian both went to similar metered paywall models this year, meaning they allow a certain number of free views, and once you hit the limit you have to start paying.
Daily drops three print editions
A move like this at the Daily Inter Lake wouldn't surprise me a bit.
Netflix shift a harbinger of doom for print?
What does this story about Netflix and the company's shift away from its legacy product (renting actual DVDs) to a digital product (downloading movies) have to say about the newspaper industry? Newspaper's have their own legacy product (ink on paper) and digital versions (Web sites). Unlike Netflix, however, newspapers still generate most of their revenue from legacy rather than digital products.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Chapter Three
This week we embark on a fairly important chapter, media economics. While there was a bit of economic discussion in chapter 1, the rubber meets the road in chapter three. Read the chapter and then take a look at the PowerPoint I prepared. Be forewarned, the PowerPoint for this chapter is only loosely linked to the text, and represents the kind of get-on-my-soapbox rant I occasionally unload on my face-to-face classrooms.
I'd apologize, but I actually think this stuff is really important. Good newspapers (or TV or radio or online) that do real journalism are really a key part of maintaining a healthy, thriving nation. But there isn't much good journalism left. Instead we're left with a lot of nonsense such as this:
Media ignores the news to focus on manufactured conflict.
Another sad commentary on the state of American media. The Washington press corps, the elite of the journalistic elite, lobbing 23 questions about a faux controversy about when the president would speak, and only nine about what he intended to speak about. Whether you love the president, or hate him, or if you fall somewhere in between, I think you'd all agree that since he wanted to talk about his proposal to create jobs, while we are in the midst of the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression, that the substance of his speech should matter to these knuckleheads.
I suspect contemporary media economics has something to do with this dumbing down of our discourse (to the degree that we allow it to continue, we share some blame). That's my theory at least. You may agree, or disagree. If you are so moved to share, I'd like to hear about. Do worry about offending me with contrary opinions. I love the debate.
Look for more from me on chapter three tomorrow. I have the day off (thank God I'm not counting on a government to get it right and actually pass something that will boost employment) so I will share some additional readings with you then.
I'd apologize, but I actually think this stuff is really important. Good newspapers (or TV or radio or online) that do real journalism are really a key part of maintaining a healthy, thriving nation. But there isn't much good journalism left. Instead we're left with a lot of nonsense such as this:
Media ignores the news to focus on manufactured conflict.
Another sad commentary on the state of American media. The Washington press corps, the elite of the journalistic elite, lobbing 23 questions about a faux controversy about when the president would speak, and only nine about what he intended to speak about. Whether you love the president, or hate him, or if you fall somewhere in between, I think you'd all agree that since he wanted to talk about his proposal to create jobs, while we are in the midst of the worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression, that the substance of his speech should matter to these knuckleheads.
I suspect contemporary media economics has something to do with this dumbing down of our discourse (to the degree that we allow it to continue, we share some blame). That's my theory at least. You may agree, or disagree. If you are so moved to share, I'd like to hear about. Do worry about offending me with contrary opinions. I love the debate.
Look for more from me on chapter three tomorrow. I have the day off (thank God I'm not counting on a government to get it right and actually pass something that will boost employment) so I will share some additional readings with you then.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Chapter 2 preview
I made some minor changes to the Chapter 2 PowerPoint this evening, primarily deleting material that is no longer covered in the chapter along with reorganizing a few slides. If you've already reviewed the PowerPoint don't fret, the changes are not too drastic.
We're really taking a look back in Chapter 2 at the technology that allowed Mass Comm to exist and flourish. It's a bit of a history lesson, which isn't such a bad thing.
The quiz will be open from 6 p.m. Wednesday until Midnight Friday.
Now this week's discussion topic. In May Amazon announced that sales of ebooks had outpaced paper books for the first time. With news increasingly moving from print to online, can you know envision a future in which print technology no longer exists, and the written word is entirely a digital medium?
Ironically the link is to the New York Times, a bastion of the print world which is trying to keep its print product alive by charging readers on its Web site. However, you get 20 free stories online a month. If you've already exceeded your total shoot me an email and we'll work something out.
Please post a response by Thursday evening. I will try to interject comments when possible, but I work during the day so I don't always have the opportunity.
We're really taking a look back in Chapter 2 at the technology that allowed Mass Comm to exist and flourish. It's a bit of a history lesson, which isn't such a bad thing.
The quiz will be open from 6 p.m. Wednesday until Midnight Friday.
Now this week's discussion topic. In May Amazon announced that sales of ebooks had outpaced paper books for the first time. With news increasingly moving from print to online, can you know envision a future in which print technology no longer exists, and the written word is entirely a digital medium?
Ironically the link is to the New York Times, a bastion of the print world which is trying to keep its print product alive by charging readers on its Web site. However, you get 20 free stories online a month. If you've already exceeded your total shoot me an email and we'll work something out.
Please post a response by Thursday evening. I will try to interject comments when possible, but I work during the day so I don't always have the opportunity.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Look for Chapter 2 Tuesday evening
If you're looking for a post on Chapter 2, its not ready yet. I will have a review for you Tuesday evening.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Mass Media messages
Here's an example of Mass Communication that I encountered this morning while I was in the FVCC campus - an electronic message board in the Arts and Technology Building. Chapter 1 discusses Mass Media ubiquity, meaning we are surrounded by mass media messages in all aspects of our life. Here's a relatively simple assignment: post a response describing an example of when you encountered a mass media message in the last 24 hours, the more unexpected the better. I'd like everyone to post their response by 6 p.m. Thursday. Thoughtful replies to posts by other students will earn extra credit.
Also, the Chapter 1 quiz will become available today at 6 p.m. and remain available until midnight Friday. In a previous post I mentioned that we will deal with the economic issues addressed in your text book when we discuss chapter 3, but there is one question on the quiz regarding advertising revenue, so make sure you've read those pages before you take the quiz. Good luck.
Monday, September 5, 2011
OT: Can your instructor write?
BTW, OT is an abbreviation for "Off Topic," just as BTW is online shorthand for "By the way" and LMAO is short for, well, you know what it stands for.
Anyway, I have a column in the current edition of the Flathead Beacon, which you can find here.
Maybe this isn't entirely OT after all. We should start compiling a list of all text/online short hand. It might be useful in class. OTOH, doing so would take a lot of time.
Anyway, I have a column in the current edition of the Flathead Beacon, which you can find here.
Maybe this isn't entirely OT after all. We should start compiling a list of all text/online short hand. It might be useful in class. OTOH, doing so would take a lot of time.
Chapter 1
Here are some things to consider this week as you read Chapter 1 and review the Powerpoint. You do not need to respond to this post. However, if you have a questions about the material please post a question and I will do my best to answer. There will be a post from me requiring a response from you later in the week.
Think about the distinctions between personal, group and mass communication. Understand that Mass Comm, the focus of this class, is a relatively recent development in human history. What is the human invention, or inventions, that was required to allow Mass Comm to occur? Answer: technology. All forms of Mass Comm involve the use of technology.
Keep in mind the kind audience that content producers attract, and how that is changing over time. In the past everyone watched one of the three network nightly newscasts. Today news producers can target smaller audiences, with say Fox attracting a conservative audience and MSNBC going after a more liberal crowd. This change in the kind of audience targeted is an important concept we will touch on time and time again this semester, and it will be central to your Long Tail paper.
Will old models for Mass Comm providers remain viable in the future? Is there a place for USA Today in the 21st century?
What’s the difference between Mass Comm and Mass Media?
Media Literacy is critical if you are going to interact intelligently and understand the messages provided by the Mass Media? Do you have to understand the messenger to understand the message?
The chapter ends with a discussion about media finances. This is a recent change to the latest edition of the textbook, but is really out of place here (Text book publishers make these pointless changes so students and bookstores have toss all the old editions and make everyone buy the new ones). Read through these pages but I will wait to focus on them in chapter three.
Think about the distinctions between personal, group and mass communication. Understand that Mass Comm, the focus of this class, is a relatively recent development in human history. What is the human invention, or inventions, that was required to allow Mass Comm to occur? Answer: technology. All forms of Mass Comm involve the use of technology.
Keep in mind the kind audience that content producers attract, and how that is changing over time. In the past everyone watched one of the three network nightly newscasts. Today news producers can target smaller audiences, with say Fox attracting a conservative audience and MSNBC going after a more liberal crowd. This change in the kind of audience targeted is an important concept we will touch on time and time again this semester, and it will be central to your Long Tail paper.
Will old models for Mass Comm providers remain viable in the future? Is there a place for USA Today in the 21st century?
What’s the difference between Mass Comm and Mass Media?
Media Literacy is critical if you are going to interact intelligently and understand the messages provided by the Mass Media? Do you have to understand the messenger to understand the message?
The chapter ends with a discussion about media finances. This is a recent change to the latest edition of the textbook, but is really out of place here (Text book publishers make these pointless changes so students and bookstores have toss all the old editions and make everyone buy the new ones). Read through these pages but I will wait to focus on them in chapter three.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The way forward
OK, hopefully by now you've had a chance to review the syllabus and other course material. You may still be wondering how the course will proceed. Here's what you can expect each week.
On Monday I will post on the chapter we are reviewing that week, with some guidance on what I consider the most important elements of the chapter. That post may or may not include a prompt requiring a response. It may also lead you to some supplemental sources to help you better understand the material covered. Your job will be to respond to the post (if required), read the chapter, review the chapter PowerPoint, and, at the end of the week, take a quiz on the chapter.
During the week I may add posts to supplement the material in the chapter. Again, they may or may not request a response from you. It's your responsibility to read my posts and understand if you need to respond.
A word of warning about the PowerPoints. I once taught this course face-to-face, and I used the PowerPoints for class lectures. I am reviewing them over time and hope to improve them so that they are more user friendly as a student study guide. But I can't say for sure that I will update all of them this semester (It's a big project and I have a couple other jobs that take up some of my time). So bear with me and I will get to as many as I can. If I can't get to one before the week that chapter is assigned, I will leave it as is until the spring semester.
I still haven't heard from some of you. Please post a reply so I know you are out there. If you have any questions, please post them on the blog so that the other students can learn from the discussion. Or, if you just need to clear something up with me, sent me an e-mail.
I hope all is well and you have a safe holiday weekend.
On Monday I will post on the chapter we are reviewing that week, with some guidance on what I consider the most important elements of the chapter. That post may or may not include a prompt requiring a response. It may also lead you to some supplemental sources to help you better understand the material covered. Your job will be to respond to the post (if required), read the chapter, review the chapter PowerPoint, and, at the end of the week, take a quiz on the chapter.
During the week I may add posts to supplement the material in the chapter. Again, they may or may not request a response from you. It's your responsibility to read my posts and understand if you need to respond.
A word of warning about the PowerPoints. I once taught this course face-to-face, and I used the PowerPoints for class lectures. I am reviewing them over time and hope to improve them so that they are more user friendly as a student study guide. But I can't say for sure that I will update all of them this semester (It's a big project and I have a couple other jobs that take up some of my time). So bear with me and I will get to as many as I can. If I can't get to one before the week that chapter is assigned, I will leave it as is until the spring semester.
I still haven't heard from some of you. Please post a reply so I know you are out there. If you have any questions, please post them on the blog so that the other students can learn from the discussion. Or, if you just need to clear something up with me, sent me an e-mail.
I hope all is well and you have a safe holiday weekend.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Question about iTunes
I've heard back from four of you so far. We're halfway there. A question: There are some podcasts available through iTunes that would be useful for our class. Is everyone out there up to speed on accessing content through iTunes? These are all free episodes.
Also, if you want a preview of your essay assignment, the Long Tail post on this page is from the spring semester. We will be doing the same thing this fall.
Also, if you want a preview of your essay assignment, the Long Tail post on this page is from the spring semester. We will be doing the same thing this fall.
First assignment
Hello class. I hope all is going well in your first week back in school. This week will be all about getting organized and understanding how the course will proceed in future weeks. We'll start with this first, simple assignment: Post a short reply to this post just so I know you're out there and have found your way to this blog.
I will be posting more material in the next two days to help you get ready for next week when the actual work of the course begins.
I hope you all have a productive semester,
Rob
I will be posting more material in the next two days to help you get ready for next week when the actual work of the course begins.
I hope you all have a productive semester,
Rob
Monday, April 11, 2011
Long Tail essay assignment
This graphic illustrates the Long Tail Effect. The y axis (that's the line the runs up and down) shows how popular a product is, or how great its sales. The x axis (the horizontal line) shows the distribution of sales of all of the products in a category. If we were considering movie ticket sales this weekend, the latest Harry Potter release would be represented by a place on the x axis very near its intersection with the y axis. In other words, Harry Potter ticket sales are in the red area designated as the "Head," as ticket sales for that movie are quite high. Some art house movie only showing on a few screens, primarily in big cities near universities with a concentrated population of pretentious intellectuals would be represented by a point on the x axis far to the right of the Head. Our art house movie, let's call it "Jacques Confronts the Meaninglessness of Existence While Drinking Pinot," would be placed somewhere out on the orange "Long Tail."
Why is this Long Tail important? Consider for a moment a different type of product: music. When I was a young lad in college I worked at a record store, Licorice Pizza (Get it? if you've never seen a vinyl record you might not, but don't get hung up on that distraction). Record stores where the place were everyone purchased their music back in the prehistoric 1980s. Record stores were a great place for distributing music, but they had a significant limitation: space. That limitation meant that we could only carry the best sellers, or records that sold well enough to fall in the Head section of the x axis.
What that meant was that if you were looking for the latest Phil Collins album (he was big back in the day) we had plenty on hand. But if your tastes ran more in the direction of "Echo and the Bunnymen," an arty New Wave act of that era, we might have had a copy stuck in a bin with the latest releases by "Agent Orange," "X" and "Magazine," other New Wave/Punk bands with considerable talent but sales that never climbed beyond the Long Tail into the Head.
But today my 16-year-old daughters have never purchased music in a record store, and have only been in Rockin Rudy's in Missoula a time or two. They purchase all of their music online in iTunes and load it directly on their iPods.
Your assignment is to write a 1,200 word essay examining the Long Tail and its impact on Mass Media. Your essay should answer to the best of your opinion, an opinion formed by research of course, the five questions listed below.
Before you try answering these questions a little research is in order. I'd start here if I were you.
You may also find this helpful.
Your questions:
1 — Music on iTunes is distributed digitally. As the cost of digital storage space (memory) has declined, how has this affected digital music distribution?
2 — Retailers once focused their efforts on the few top products in the Head. What are the implications for profit making when products in the Long Tail can be distributed at virtually no cost?
3 — It you were an independent producer of low volume product, be it music, video or a manuscript, how would you seek to exploit the Long Tail to maximize sales and exposure?
4 — Has the distribution of intellectual property changed permanently, and if so is this good or bad (you may steal some ideas from your Kindle papers for this one)? If we lose the communal space of bookstores and record shops forever have we lost something of value?
5 — Do you expect the forces of the Long Tail to play out for books the way it did for music, or do you expect something different to happen?
Don't kill yourselves with these. Just give me a short graf or two on each that shows me you understand the concept. If you'd feel more comfortable answering one of the questions with five to 10 grafs instead of all five with one or two, that's find as well. Whichever approach is most comfortable for you.
I'll get some review material for our final chapter quizzes out tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
The Long Tail
Review the Long Tail extra credit assignment posted Nov. 28. This will be the basis for your first writing assignment.
All a twitter in Egypt
Here's a column by Frank Rich of the New York Times is essence pooh-poohing the notion that somehow Twitter or Facebook played key roles in the Egyptian uprising. He suggests they were tools used by activists, but not the catalyst for the uprising.
For a different perspective, you'll find a short video about young Egyptians and social media here.
What you think? Does technology make unrest more likely, or is Facebook just the handbill of the 21st century?
For a different perspective, you'll find a short video about young Egyptians and social media here.
What you think? Does technology make unrest more likely, or is Facebook just the handbill of the 21st century?
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