COMM 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Narrowcasting
3/13/18
●Mass Comm (continued)
○Government’s influence on media (cont.)
■Rules w children’s advertising
●Education tv
■“Raising eyebrows” at media industry
●Hearings, threat of regulation, media shaming
●Relationships with reporters and press
○Technological influence on media
■Recording and time-shifting ability
●Vcr - dvd - streaming
○Allows for personalized entertainment and news
○Ability to “binge”
●Increased interactivity
○Facilitate audience participation and selectivity
○Economic influence on media
■Messages are expensive to make/deliver
■Amazingly high failure rate
●Exponentially: only a small proportion of product account for
MOST of the revenue
■Media revenue
●Consumers
●Advertising
○Consequences of economics
■Need “hits” (big audience)
●Traditional view: media content must be “dumbed down”
○Appeal to “lowest common denominator”
○Low mental effort base human desires (sex, violence,
sensationalism)
●However, selectivity and media diversity now challenge traditional
view
●Competing viewpoint: competition for audiences can lead both to
“low/stupid” content as well as “highblow/smart” content
○1990s: shows with narrative complexity
●Fragmented audience led to “narrowcasting”
○#s still matter, but some media can be successful targeting
smaller loyal audiences
