Media / Society 4Th Edition Chapter 9 (Bit 8)

Front 1

What are the 3 kinds of audence activity?

Back 1

1. collective interpretation : family, friends, other media such as reviews – social networks

2. collective political action: audiences can organize themselves around certain media

3. interpretation : audiences construct own meaning around media

Front 2

What does intertextuality mean?

Back 2

Media texts refer to each other.

Front 3

What is polysemy?

Back 3

Signs have many more than one possible connotation.

Front 4

What are the 3 readings? Explain briefly.

Back 4

1) Dominant reading:
the reader fully shares the text's code and accepts and reproduces it. Most common interpretation!

2) Negotiated Reading:
The reader partly shares the text's code and broadly accepts the preferred reading, but sometimes resists reflects their own position.

3) Oppositional Reading:
The reader understands the preferred reading but does not share the text's code and rejects this reading.

Front 5

What is technological determinism(=TD)?

Back 5

The approach that identifies technology, or technological developments as the central causal element in processes of social change.

Front 6

Explain Fisher’s “Billiard ball” metaphor:

Back 6

Technology is seen as an external force introduced into a sociological situation, producing a series of ricochet (abprallen) effects.

ein billiard ball stößt den anderen weg

Front 7

What are the limitations of technological determinism?

Back 7

1) technology is only one element of the media process in the social world

2) no human agency, all structural constraint

Front 8

Define the influence of social forces (Williams):

Back 8

It argues that technologies are determined by social forces. There is an acknowledgement that technology matters, but social forces shape the ways in which technologies are developed and used.

human agency takes central stage!

Front 9

What is he main assumption of the social constructions of technology (a.k.a social shaping of technology)?

Back 9

The development and application of new technology is neither fixed, nor fully predictable. They are embedded in ongoing social processes that affect their evolution.

Front 10

What is the 90-9-1 principle?

Back 10

90% of internet users are lurkers (Beobachter), 9% occasionally (gelegentlich) provide content, 1% who accounts for most contributions (Beiträge).

Front 11

What is the medium theory?

Back 11

It refers to the body of literature that focuses on the technological aspects of media beyond their content – the nature of the medium can be the key to its social impact.

Front 12

Explain McLuhan’s "the medium is the message":

Back 12

We need to focus on the ways each new medium disrupts tradition and reshapes social life.
The real message is the ways the media themselves extend our senses and alter our social world.

New media technologies rework the balance of our senses

Front 13

Explain the concept of a global village:

Back 13

People are involved in global events through media - you know what is happening in the world everywhere at any time. -> Connectedness

Im dorf kennt jeder jeden und weiß alles

Front 14

What is the impacts of media on time and space (3)?

Back 14

1) Time shifting: refers to the practice of recording or downloading media content to watch or listen at a later time that is more convenient for the audience
2) Place shifting: enabling users to acces media content anywhere/anytime
3) Crossing social boundries: distances are not a big deal anymore; transcended physical boundaries

Front 15

What is virtual community (Rheingold)?

Back 15

Communities have no longer need to be geographically based. People can become “virtual” neighbors through the space-bridging technology of the internet.

internet can constitude a powerful antidote to the loss of traditional community values and can help re-establish social ties.

Front 16

Explain Castels “the network is the message”

Back 16

The internet is a technological basis of a new organizational form the network.
- our network society is rooted in telecommunications and new media
- our perception of time is modified my the immediacy of communication technologies

! shaped by human agency

Front 17

What does Neil Postman mean by "amusing ourselves to death":

Back 17

A society infatuated (vernarrt) with entertainment tv is no longer able to think seriously about social and political issues.

- Mitten im Leben, Dschungelcamp, DSDS,.. lässt die Gesellschafft verdummen.

Front 18

What are pseudo events?

Back 18

The express purpose of producing dramatic images
that can be disseminated or reported – events that have no independent existence -> only for making it public – neither true, nor false appearance, not substance -> BUT APPEAR MORE REAL TO AUDIENCE!

Front 19

What is Hyperreality?

Back 19

Implodation of boundary that is used to separate
reality from its representation.
leaving images with no real-world reference.

Front 20

What does the metaphor of tug of war mean?

Back 20

The push and pull between technical capabilities of new media and other social forces.

Front 21

Explain Birkerts thinking of new media:

Back 21

- Print culture = dead, we’re losing the sense of unmediated experience
- New media = rapide processes -> increasing commitment to the nature of computer mediated
communication
- Changing ways of thinking -> retraining and referencing, rather than understanding the world
- Hyptertext: replaces the process of listening to a coherent argument with a process that involves bouncing from text to text

Front 22

Explain Maggie Jackson's thinking of new media:

Back 22

attention-deficit culture (by constant stimulation) produces distraction and leads to ‘McThinking’.

-Fun & engaging, but little intellectual value is provided – undermining of our focus and concentration

Front 23

Explain William Powers’ conundrum of connectivity:

Back 23

History tells us that wisdom, insight,... are gained from being disconnected (solitude! Einsamkeit).

Now: everyone is connected 24/7

Front 24

What does ‘long tail’ mean?

Back 24

A large number of items sold in relatively small quantities.
-combined total of small-audience media products -> large, high profitable consumer market
- equivalent to new media: few major websites everyone knows -> more small ones (blogs,…)