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, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
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.
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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 to 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.
å
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 to 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.
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 (Look for another post from me later today), 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.
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.
On Monday I will post on the chapter we are reviewing that week (Look for another post from me later today), 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.
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.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Your first assignment
Take a look at these:
It's hard to believe CNN was once considered a quality news channel
Alanis Morissette isn't the only one who doesn't get irony
Now, log in and post that your name so I know you're able to do so. We'll have assignments requiring posts in the future.
It's hard to believe CNN was once considered a quality news channel
Alanis Morissette isn't the only one who doesn't get irony
Now, log in and post that your name so I know you're able to do so. We'll have assignments requiring posts in the future.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Paper check in
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
Let me know if you need help.
Cheers,
Rob
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.
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