Week3 - Production
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This document discusses the complexities of media production and consumption, emphasizing the role of human labor, structures, and agency in shaping the media landscape. It highlights the barriers, such as the 'glass ceiling,' that impede women's and minorities' advancement in the media industry, alongside the analysis of various levels of media—individual, organizational, and institutional. Additionally, it addresses the economic implications of media, particularly regarding reality TV and the accessibility of media narratives.
![Levels of Analysis
• At the organizational level of analysis, we study
the actual place where media production takes
place [rather than the individual].
• After watching the clip from The Newsroom
(Season 1 Episode 1 from 50:00 to 1:03:00)
can you recognize some of the organizational
specific practices (access to action, sources,
beat, voice of authority, timeliness, neutrality of
balance)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/week3-1-170202134516/85/Week3-Production-20-320.jpg)
Week3 - Production
- 1. Intro to the Media Spring 2017 – MACS 101
- 2. Basic Model Sender Message Receiver
- 4. Corporations Message Consumer Production Circulation Consumption Political Economy
- 5. Human Labor and Production 1. Everything is produced. 2. All production involves human labor. 3. All consumption also involves human labor. 4. Even when media are managed by automatic systems, the maintenance requires human labor (from Chapter 3 of e-text)
- 6. Human Labor and Production • Interpretation is actually work. • How do you understand this idea?
- 7. Human Labor and Production • At the core of production in Media Studies, or any field for that matter, is the interaction between structure and agency that governs individuals, organizations, and institutions • In our last session we talk about how each undergraduate program teach you a set of rules to make you a professional. Tell other people in your group about those rules. How do you think that can be examples of the distinction between structure and agency in the etextbook?
- 9. Agency / Structure • Are individuals in control of their own actions and destinies? • Or, are they merely (and unconsciously) subject to particular social circumstances which determine their behavior?
- 10. Agency Structure• Individuals possess the ability to plan, define, understand, organize, and execute their actions. • Society is a result of human creativity, rationality and autonomy.
- 11. Individual Structure • Powerful “structures” are dominant and responsible for orchestrating the conduct of human individuals.
- 12. Agency / Structure in Media Production • The Stars: Talented? or Trained? • Can “a genius” change the whole field? or is it somehow meeting the audiences’ expectation?
- 13. Agency / Structure in Media Consumption • “Oh, I love …..”: Is this because I do love them really? Or, does something allure me strategically?
- 14. Levels of Analysis • At the individual level of analysis, we have a large number of roles, as the production of media is multifaceted • Think of the most common roles in film crew. Directors, producers, writers. Have you heard of any uncommon role in producing a film? What are for example Gaffer, Child wrangler, Best boy and Dolly Grip.
- 15. • Gaffer The gaffer is the head of the lighting department, responsible for the design of the lighting plan for a production. Sometimes the gaffer is credited as chief lighting technician. • Best boy (lighting) The best boy is the chief assistant to the gaffer. They are not usually on set, but dealing with the electric truck, rentals, manpower, and other logistics.
- 16. • Dolly grip The grip in charge of operating the camera dollies and camera cranes is called the dolly grip. They place, level, and move the dolly track, then push and pull the dolly, and usually a camera operator and camera assistant as riders.
- 18. Levels of Analysis • Finally, many recent forms of media bring together many of these roles • What example of media producers can you named as people who bring together these roles in platforms like Youtube?
- 19. Levels of Analysis • The series chronicles the behind-the-scenes events at the fictional Atlantis Cable News (ACN) channel. It features an ensemble cast including Jeff Daniels as anchor Will McAvoy who, together with his staff, sets out to put on a news show "in the face of corporate and commercial obstacles and their own personal entanglement.
- 20. Levels of Analysis • At the organizational level of analysis, we study the actual place where media production takes place [rather than the individual]. • After watching the clip from The Newsroom (Season 1 Episode 1 from 50:00 to 1:03:00) can you recognize some of the organizational specific practices (access to action, sources, beat, voice of authority, timeliness, neutrality of balance)
- 21. Level of Analysis • Media Studies research reveals that written and unwritten rules at the organizational level, as well as some of the blocks that result from these rules, interfere with women's and minority group's ability to move up the organizational ladder. • After watching the clip from 'Good Girls Revolt" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7RmbSs M9xo) can you recognize other instances of glass ceiling.
- 22. Glass Ceiling
- 23. The Glass ceiling • Media Studies research reveals that written and unwritten rules at the organizational level, as well as some of the blocks that result from these rules, interfere with women's and minority group's ability to move up the organizational ladder. • The blocks in this context, often referred to as a glass ceiling, refer to the invisible set of rules and barriers that prevents particular individuals, as members of a certain group based on gender, ethnic, national, and/or sexual orientation, from being promoted in any workplace, including media industries. • These barriers are not written or even legal, yet have a great impact in terms of who moves up to the top executive positions in any given organization. While there are certainly examples of people who break through the glass ceiling, there are many more still bound by its limitations. (from Chapter 3 of e-text)
- 24. Institutional Level of Analysis • Institutions are everywhere, governing our lives in fundamental ways. Many institutional norms and values inform and govern the media. • The institutional level is a set of values and norms that cannot be found in a location, but rather exists normatively, philosophically, legally, and ethically.
- 25. Institutional Level of Analysis • “How’s is media regulated?” • “Why media-product in some countries excel, but not in others? • “What is the role of government?”
- 26. Corporations Message Consumer Production Circulation Consumption Political Economy
- 27. Global
- 28. Global • As well you might want to consider the environmental cost - not just of producing - but of disposal of the unending obsolescence of digital hardware. • What do you understand by the term obsolescence? What other cases of media affecting the environment can you imagine?
- 29. What is invisible in media production?
- 30. Intro to the Media Spring 2017– MACS 101
- 31. Level of Organization • Individual • Organizational • Institutional
- 32. Glass Ceiling
- 33. The Glass ceiling • Media Studies research reveals that written and unwritten rules at the organizational level, as well as some of the blocks that result from these rules, interfere with women's and minority group's ability to move up the organizational ladder. • The blocks in this context, often referred to as a glass ceiling, refer to the invisible set of rules and barriers that prevents particular individuals, as members of a certain group based on gender, ethnic, national, and/or sexual orientation, from being promoted in any workplace, including media industries. • These barriers are not written or even legal, yet have a great impact in terms of who moves up to the top executive positions in any given organization. While there are certainly examples of people who break through the glass ceiling, there are many more still bound by its limitations. (from Chapter 3 of e-text)
- 34. Institutional Level of Analysis • Institutions are everywhere, governing our lives in fundamental ways. Many institutional norms and values inform and govern the media. • The institutional level is a set of values and norms that cannot be found in a location, but rather exists normatively, philosophically, legally, and ethically.
- 35. Institutional Level of Analysis • “How’s is media regulated?” • “Why media-product in some countries excel, but not in others? • “What is the role of government?”
- 36. Corporations Message Consumer Production Circulation Consumption Political Economy
- 37. How ”reality” is produced?
- 38. Case Reality TV
- 40. Reality TV • 1. A *hybrid genre combining *fly-on-the-wall *documentary, quiz show, and popularity contest which involves television broadcasts supported by *internet content such as webpages and streamed media in which selected members of the public spend time together in the same location. Notable examples include Big Brother and Survivor, which first aired in the UK in the 1990’s. • 2. Broadly, any *documentary programme from the 1990s onwards which is designed primarily to entertain rather than inform. • Chandler, Daniel; Munday, Rod. A Dictionary of Media and Communication (Oxford Quick Reference) (p. 355). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
- 41. • “Reali-TV, then, is an umbrella term for a number of programming trends that have rapidly expanded since the late 80s across all hours of network schedules, first-run syndication, and cable” Political economy of Reali-TV by Chad Raphael. Jumpcut, May 1997
- 42. • extensive use of "actuality" footage of their subjects, • reenactments of events, performed by professional actors, or by the people who experienced them, or a mix of both; • a tendency to avoid the studio in favor of "on- scene" shooting, • mixing footage shot by unpaid amateur videographers with that of professionals; • appealing to the conventions of "liveness," and "immediacy" and appropriating traditional conventions of news coverage,
- 43. • U.S. television underwent a dramatic restructuring in the 1980s, largely precipitated by changing patterns of distribution with the spread of cable and VCRs • Feeling the squeeze on profits, production companies and the networks initiated a series of cost-cutting strategies that translated into an attack on labor, mainly on below-the-line workers such as technicians, engineers, and extras
- 44. • Economically, the genre fit the needs of producers and distributors alike for cheaper programming. • First, these programs largely did away with higher- priced stars and union talent. The only "name" actors on these shows were briefly seen as hosts. • The home video programs relied on amateur camcorder enthusiasts and freelance professionals. • Reali-TV programs also cut costs by wholeheartedly embracing low-end production values • Producers and network investors have also been attracted to Reali-TV because of its ability to sell abroad.
- 45. Who “invented” it? Sarah Gertrude Shapiro
- 54. Political Economy questions • how much you know about the owners and workers that produce the media of your daily life?. • Who decides which stories will be made into Hollywood movies? • Who decides which events will be covered by news outlets? • Who decides the narratives and quests to be pursued in digital gaming? What are the motivations for these decisions?
- 55. • What raw materials are necessary to build a smartphone or a tablet? • Where are these devices built and why? • Who owns Google and how do they decide which web pages to show when you search for something? • Who owns Twitter and how do they make money if the service is free?
- 56. What is invisible in media production?
- 58. • Ideology itself represents the "production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness," all that "men say, imagine, conceive," and include such things as "politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics, etc."
- 59. • The growth of the cinema industry was especially dependent on the population density of urban areas where theaters could draw consistent crowds for repeated screenings. As with the newspaper, book, and magazine industries of the previous century, the structure of the film industry and the content of films were largely determined by the capitalist economy within which they emerged.
- 60. • The Political Economy of the media concerns the relationship between power structures embedded in the political and economic systems of a society, on one hand, and the organization and content of that society's media system, on the other.”
- 61. Corporations Message Consumer Production Circulation Consumption Political Economy
- 62. Corporations Message Consumer Production Circulation Consumption Political Economy
- 63. Corporations Message Consumer Production Circulation Consumption Political Economy
- 64. Assignment 3 • Who "invented” that product or media content? • What institution has been producing it? • Write one paragraph (150-200 words) to talk about the creator (individual level), and another (150-200 words) about the companies and corporations (organizational level) related to your media object. • Chapter assignments must be written 12-point font, Times New Roman, double-spaced with 1-inch margins and stay within the required word count • All assignments must be uploaded as a .doc/.docx file.
- 65. Vocabulary Quiz • Define the concept or describe the nature of the issue. What is interesting or important about his idea? Cite at least one part from the etextbook • Second, in a few sentences, relate the idea, argument or issue you are developing to the media text you’ve chosen. Provide a link to the media text • Finally, write at least 3 questions Pose a point of debate about the issue. Wonder how the concept or idea might be applied to a different media text. Or even ask a point of clarification, if there was something you didn’t quite understand.
Editor's Notes
- #11: Agency is the flip side of the structure coin. Individuals do have the freedom to act on our own choices. People are not robots programmed to perform certain functions. Commonly referred to as free will, it is true that people can make a decision to do something or they may just do it no matter what societal norms had been guiding them. No matter how many norms may exist in a society, people often behave in ways that deviate from those norms. Even when norms are written into the legal code, people break laws. Whatever barriers society may place in the path of people to reinforce the social class or caste system, some people may either break through those systems or operate completely outside them.
- #12: Social structure is a core sociological concept that explains how societies (and other entities) take shape and maintain a particular form. Social institutions are part of that structure—institutions like education, politics, families, media, and religion all maintain and challenge societal norms. Those norms (guidelines for expected behaviors) exist to create social order – which is also a primary function of those institutions. Take all those institutions and their impact on norms, add in the actual physical structures in which they exist, and you have many different levels of societal structures that maintain that society. Families produce and socialize children who are further socialized within religious and educational organizations. Those religious and educational organizations tend to reinforce the societal practices that support the power structure in that society. The media reflects the power dynamics in society and typically reinforces the accepted practices. While the media (and other institutions) may also challenge the status quo, it’s often co-opted by it. Notice how the Internet can be used to share any information across space and time yet as time passes, it has become more commercialized and its uses have been circumscribed and diminished – and more regulated.
- #13: The case of Apple: Steve Jobs with Jonathan Ive made iPhone? Or other staffs did it together?