Media Effects and Cultural Approaches to Research ch. 15

• What were the earliest types of media studies, and why weren't they more scientific?

In the early days of the United States, philosophical and historical writings tried to explain the nature of news and print media. During most of the nineteenth century, media analysis was based on moral and political arguments. For example, the French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, noted differences between French and American newspapers in the early 1830’s.

• What were the major influences that led to scientific media research?

More scientific approaches to mass media research did not begin to develop until the late 1920s and 1930s. Walter Lippmann’s Liberty and the News called on journalists to operate more like scientific researchers in gathering and analyzing factual material. Lippmann’s next book, Public Opinion (1922), was the first to apply the principles of psychology to journalism which led to an understanding of the effects of the media, emphasizing data collection and numerical measurement. Four trends contributed to the rise of  modern media research: propaganda analysis, public opinion research, social psychology studies, and marketing research.

• What is content analysis, and why is it significant?

Researchers developed a method known as content analysis to study the specific media messages (gun, violence, fistfight, etc.). Such analysis is a systematic method of coding and measuring media content. Although content analysis was first used during World War II for radio, more recent studies have focused on television, film and internet. The limits of content analysis have been well documented. First, this technique does not measure the effects of the messages on audiences, nor does it explain how those messages are presented. Second, problems of definitions occur!

• What are the differences between the hypodermic-needle model and the minimal-effects model in the history of media research?

The concept of powerful media affecting weak audiences has been labeled the hypodermic-needle model, sometimes also called the magic bullet theory or the direct effects model. It suggests that the media shoot their potent effects directly into unsuspecting victims. Cantril’s research helped to lay the groundwork doe the minimal-effects model, or limited model. With the rise of empirical research techniques, social scientists began discovering and demonstrating that media alone cannot cause people to change their attitude and behaviors.

• What are the main ideas behind social learning theory, agenda-setting, the cultivation effect, the spiral of silence, and the third-person effect?

Albert Bandura studied links between the mass media and behavior, and developed social learning theory as a four-step process: attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation. A key phenomenon posited by contemporary media effects researchers in agenda setting: the idea that when the mass media focus their attention on particular events or issues, they determine – that is, set the agenda for – the major topics of discussion for individuals and society. The cultivating effect suggests that heavy viewing of television leads individuals to perceive the world in ways that are consistent with television portrayals. The spiral of science theory links the mass media, social psychology, and the formation of public opinion. The third-person effect theory suggests that people believe others are more affected by media messages than they are themselves.

• What are some strengths and limitations of modern media research?

The wealth of research exists partly because funding for studies on the effects of the media on the young people remains popular among politicians and has drawn ready government support since the 1960s. Media effects research is inconsistent and often flawed but continues to resonate with politicians and parents because it offers and east-to-blame social cause for real-world violence. Funding restricts the scope of some media effects and survey research, particularly the government, business, or other administrative agendas do not align with researchers’ interests.  

• Why did cultural studies develop in opposition to media effects research?

During the rise of modern media research, approaches with a stronger historical and interpretive edge developed as well, often in direct opposition to the scientific models. An important body of research – loosely labeled cultural studies – arose to challenge mainstream media effects theory. Cultural studies research has focused on how people make meaning, understand reality, and order experiences by using cultural symbols that appear in the media. This research has attempted to make everyday culture the centerpiece of media studies, focusing on how subtly mass communication shapes and is shaped by history, politics, and economics.  

• What are the features of cultural studies?

Cultural studies research focuses on the investigation of daily experiences, especially on issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality, and on the unequal arrangements of power and status in contemporary society. Such research has emphasizes how some social and cultural groups have been marginalized and ignored throughout history. The major analytical approaches in cultural studies research today are textual analysis, audience studies, and political economy studies.

• What is the major criticism about specialization in academic research at universities?

The growth of mass media departments in colleges and universities has led to an increase in specialized jargon, which tends to alienate and exclude nonacademic. The larger public has often been excluded from access to the research process even though cultural research tends to identify with marginalized groups. The scholarship is self-defeating if its complexity removes it from the daily experience of the groups it addresses. Researchers themselves have even found it difficult to speak to one another across disciplines because of discipline-specific language used to analyze and report findings. Also, researchers become isolated from the outside of society.

• How have public intellectuals contributed to society's debates about the mass media? Give examples.

Public intellectuals have contributed to society by writing about race, class, and politics.  In recent years, public intellectuals have encouraged discussion about media production in the digital world. Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig has been a leading advocate of efforts to rewrite the nation’s copyright laws to enable noncommercial “amateur culture” to flourish the internet. 

The Culture of Journalism ch. 14

• What are the drawbacks of the informational mode of journalism?

First, we many just be producing too much information. Postmen believe that scientists, technicians, managers, and journalists merely pile up mountains of new data, which add to the problems and anxieties of everyday life. A second related problem suggests that the amount of data the media now provide has questionable impact on improving public and political life.

• What is news?

News is defines as the process of gathering information and making narrative reports – edited by individuals for news organizations – that offer selected frames of reference; within those frames, news helps the public make sense of important events, political issues, cultural trends, prominent people, and unusual happenings in everyday life.

• Explain the values shift in journalism today from a more detached or neutral model to a more partisan or assertion model.

Even though journalists transform events into stories, they generally believe that they are – or should be – neutral observers who present facts without passing judgment on them. News media outlets that hope to survive no longer appeal to mass audiences but to interest groups – from sports fans and history buffs to conservatives or liberals. Partisanship has become good business.

• How do issues such as deception and privacy present ethical problems for journalists?

Even today, journalists continue to use disguises and assume false identities to gather information on social transgression. In terms of ethics, there are at least two major positions and multiple variations. First, absolutist ethics suggest that a moral society has laws and codes, including honestly, that everyone must live by. In other words, the ends of exposing a phony clinic never justify the means of using deception to get the story. At the other end of the spectrum is situational ethics, which promotes ethical decisions on a case-by-case basis. If a greater public good could be served by using deceit, journalists and editors who believe in situational ethics would sanction deception as a practice.  

• Why is getting a story first important to reporters?

Reporters often learn to evade authority figures to secure a story ahead of the competition. There is an important role journalisms play in calling public attention to serious events and issues. It is not important for stations to run self-promotions about how they beat competitors to a story. Journalistic scoops and exclusive stories attempts to portray reporters in a heroic light: they have won a race for facts, which they have gathered and presented ahead of their rivals. With a fragmented audience and more media competition for news, the mainstream news often feels more pressure to lure an audience with exclusive and sometimes sensational stories.

• Why have reporters become so dependent on experts?

A ritual of modern journalism – relying on outside sources – has made reporters heavily dependent on experts. Today, the widening gap between those with expertise and those without it has created a need for public mediators. Reporters have assumed this role as surrogates who represent both leaders’ and readers’ interests. With their access to experts, reports transform specialized and insider knowledge into the everyday commonsense language of news stories.

• Why do many conventional journalists (and citizens) believe firmly in the idea that there are two sides to every story?

The quest for balance presents problems for journalists. In recounting news stories as two-sided dramas, reporters often misrepresent the complexity of social issues. People whose views fall somewhere between positions are seldom represented. In this manner, “balance” becomes a narrative device to generate story conflict. In claiming neutrality and inviting readers to share their detached point of view, journalists offer a distant, third-person all-knowing point of view, a narrative device that many novelists use as well enhancing the impression of neutrality by making the reporter appear value free or value less.

• How is credibility established in TV news as compared with print journalism?

While modern print journalists are expected to be detached, TV news derives its credibility from live, on-the-spot reporting; believable imagery; and viewers’ trust in the reporters and anchors. Viewers tend to feel a personal regard for the local and national anchors who appear each evening on the TV sets in the living room. The three top news outlets with the highest “positive” rating from those polled were “Local TV news”, 60 Minutes, and ABC news.     

• What roles are pundits now playing in 24/7 cable news?

Prior to cable news (and the internet), most people turned on their local and national news late in the afternoon of evening on a typical weekday, with each program lasting just thirty minutes. But today, the 24/7 news cycle means that we can get TV news anytime, day or night, and constant news content has led to major changes in what we consider news. Because it is expensive to dispatch reporters to documents stories or maintain foreign news bureaus to cover international issues, the much less expensive “talking head” pundit has become a standard for cable news channels. Such a programming strategy requires few resources beyond the studio and a few guests.

• In what ways has the Internet influenced traditional forms of journalism?

Both print and TV can continuously update breaking stories online, and many reporters now post their online stories first and then work on traditional versions. This means that readers and viewers no longer have to wait until the next day for the morning paper or for the local evening newscast for important stories. This might allow readers and viewers to see full interviews rather than just selected print quotes in the paper or short sound bites on the TV report.

• What role do satirical news programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report play in the world of journalism?

News satires tell their audiences something that seems truthful about politicians and how they try to manipulate media and public opinions. But most important, these shows use humor to critique the news media and our political system. For example: SNL’s sketches on GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2008 drew large audiences and shaped the way younger viewers thought about the election.

Media Economics and the Global Marketplace ch. 13

1.       How are the three basics structures of mass media organizations – monopoly, oligopoly, and limited competition – differ from one another?

 

A monopoly occurs when a single firm dominates production and distribution in a particular industry, either nationally or locally. On the local level, monopoly situations have been more plentiful, occurring in any city that has only one newspaper or one cable company, however many individual local media monopolies have been purchased by national and international firms. In an oligopoly, just a few forms dominate an industry. For example, book-publishing and feature-film businesses are both oligopolies. Sometimes called monopolistic competition, limited competition characterizes a media market with many producers and sellers but only a few products within a particular category.

 

2.       What are some of society’s key expectations of its media organizations?

 

Some key expectations of media organizations include introducing new technologies to the market place, making media products and services available to people of all economic classes, facilitating free expression and robust political discussion, acting as public watchdogs over wrongdoing, monitoring society in times of crisis, playing a positive role in education, and maintaining the quality of culture.

 

3.       Why has the federal government emphasized deregulation at a time when so many media companies are growing so large?

 

Although the administration of President Carter actually initiated deregulation, under President Reagan most controls on business were drastically weekend. Deregulation led to easier mergers, corporate diversifications, and increased tendencies in some sectors toward oligopolies (especially in airlines, energy, communications, and finance).

 

4.       How do global and specialized markets factor into the new media economy? How are regular workers affected?

 

The new globalism coincided with the rise of specialization. Beyond specialization, what really distinguishes current media economics is the extension of synergy to international levels. This typically refers to the promotion and sales of different versions of a media product across the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate. Regular workers were affected by finally being able to afford what they could not before.

 

5.       Using Disney as an example, what is the role of synergy in the current climate of media mergers?

 

Disney came to epitomize the synergistic possibilities of media consolidation. It can produce an animated feature for both theatrical release and DVD distribution. With its ABC network, it can promote Disney movies and television shows on programs like Good Morning America. A book version can be released through Disney’s publishing arms, Hyperion, and “the-making-of” versions can appear on cable’s Disney Channel of ABC Family. Characters can become attractions and Disney’s theme parks, which themselves have spawned Hollywood movies such as the lucrative Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.   

 

6.       Why have Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft emerges as the leading corporations of the digital era?

 

Each company has become powerful for different reasons. Amazon’s entrée is that it has grown into the largest e-commerce site in the world, shifting to distributing more digital products. Apple’s strength has been creating the technology and the infrastructure to bring any media content to user’s fingertips. Facebook’s strength has been the ability to become central to communication and social media. Google draws its huge numbers of users through its search function, has much more successfully translated those users into an advertising business. Microsoft is making the transition from being the top software company to competing in the digital media world with its being search engine and successful devices.

 

7.       What is cultural imperialism, and what does it have to do with the United States?

 

Cultural imperialism is a process where American styles in fashion and food, as well as media fare dominate the global market. Today, many international observers contend that the idea of consumer control or input is even more remote in countries inundated by American movies, music, television, and images of beauty. For example, consumer product giant Unilever sells Dove soap with its “Campaign for Real Beauty” in the United States, but markets Fair & Lovely products – a skin-lightener line – to poor women in India.

 

8.       What do critics and activists fear most about the concentration of media ownership? How do media managers and executives respond to these fears?

 

The pressing concern is the impact of mergers on news operations, particularly the influence of large corporations on their news subsidiaries. Because of the growing consolidation of mass media, it has become increasingly difficult to sustain a public debate on economic issues. Media reform groups are forming usually united by geographic ties, common political backgrounds, or shared concerns about the state of the media.

Public Relations and Framing the Message ch. 12

 

·         What did people like P.T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Body contribute to the development of -modern public relations in the 20th century?

 

P.T. Barnum used gross exaggeration, fraudulent stories, and staged events to secure newspaper coverage for his clients; his American Museum; and later, his circus. His performers became some of the earliest nationally known celebrities because of Barnum’s skill in using the media for promotion. Buffalo Bill Body was one of the first to use a wide variety of media channels to generate publicity; promotional newspaper stories, magazine articles and ads, dome novels, theater marquees, poster art, and early films.   

·         How did railroads and utility companies give the early forms of corporate public relations a bad name?

Railroad began to use press agents to receive federal fund, and successfully gained government support by developing some of the earliest publicity tactics. Eventually, wealthy railroads received the federal subsidies they wanted and increased their profits, while the American public shouldered most of the financial burden of rail expansion. Historians argued that ironically the PR campaign’s success actually led to the decline of the railroads: Artificially maintained higher rates and burdensome government regulations forced smaller firms out of business and eventually drove many customers to other modes of transportation. Utility companies PR and lobbying efforts were so effective that they eliminated all telephone companies with the government’s blessing, until the 1980’s.

·         What are two approaches to organizing a PR firm?

 

To carry out the mutual communication process, the PR industry uses two approaches. First, there are independent PR agencies whose sole job is to provide clients with PR services. Second, most companies, which may or may not also hire the independent PR firms, maintain their own in-house PR staffs to handle routine tasks, such as writing press releases, managing various media requests, staging special events, and dealing with internal and external publics.

·         What are press releases and why are they important to reporters?

 

Press releases, or news releases, are announcements written in the style of news reports that give new information about an individual, a company, or an organization and patch a story idea to the news media. Through press releases, PR firms manage the flow of information controlling which media gets what material in which order. Reporters sort through hundreds of releases daily to determine which ones contain the most original ideas or at the most current.

 

·         What is the difference between VNR and PSA?

 

VNRs are video news releases which are 30-90 second visual press releases designed to mimic the style of a broadcast news report. Although networks and large TV news stations do not usually broadcast VNRs, news stations in small TV markets regulate footage use material from VNRs. The equivalent of VNRs for nonprofits are public service announcements (PSAs): 15-60 second audio or video reports that promote government programs, educational projects, volunteer agencies, or social reform.

 

·         What special events might a PR firm sponsor to build stronger ties to its community?

Public relation practice involves coordinating special events to raise the profile of corporate, organizational, or government clients. Typical special-events publicity is a corporate sponsor aligning itself with a cause or an organization that has positive stature among the general public. For example, John Hancock Financial has been the primary sponsor of the Boston Marathon since 196 and funds the race’s prize money.

·         Why have research and lobbying become increasingly important to the practice of PR?

 

In many industries, government relations has developed into lobbying: the process of attempting to influence lawmakers to support and vote for an organization’s or industry’s best interest. This is important to be able to maintain connections with government agencies that have some say in how companies operate in a particular community, state or nation. Both PR firms and the PR divisions within major cooperations are especially interested in making sure that government regulations neither becomes burdensome nor reduces their control over their businesses.

·         How does the Internet change the way in which public relations communicates with an organization's many publics?

 

The internet offers public relations professionals a number of new routes for communicating with publics. A company or organization’s web site has become the home best of public relations efforts. Companies and organizations can upload and maintain their media kits, giving the traditional news media access to the information at any time. Also, the Web enables PR professionals to have their clients interact with audiences on a more personal, direct basis through social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, and blogs.

 

·         Explain the historical background of the antagonism between journalism and public relations.

 

Journalists have long considered themselves part of a public service profession, but some regard PR as having emerged as a pseudo-profession created to distort the facts that reporters work hard to gather. Over time, reporters and editors developed a derogative term flack to refer to a PR agent. The term flack symbolizes for journalists the protective barrier PR agents insert between their clients and the press.

 

·         Overall, are social platforms a good thing for practicing public relations, or do they present more problems than they are worth?

 

Social platforms are not a completely good thing for practicing public relations. Journalists have objected that PR professionals block press access to key business leaders, political figures, and other newsworthy people. Further, they argue that PR agents are now able to manipulate reporters by giving exclusives to journalists who are likely to cast a story in a favorable light or by cutting off a reporters access to a newsworthy figure altogether if that reporter has written unfavorably about the PRs agency’s client in the past. Another criticism is that PR firms with abundant resources clearly get more client coverage from the news media from their lesser known counterparts. Social platforms cause more problems than not.

·         Considering the Exxon Valdez, BP, and Tylenol cases in this chapter, what are some key things an organization can do to respond effectively once a crisis hits?

One important duty of PR is helping a corporation handle a public crisis or tragedy, especially if the public assumes the company is at fault. PR advisors encourage a quick response, and to take responsibility, and show compassion for affected people and wildlife. As a part of the PR strategy to overcome negative publicity and to resore Tylenol’s market share, Burson-Marsteller tracked public opinions nightly through telephone surveys and satellite press conferences to debrief the news media. Also, the company set up emergency phones lines to take calls from consumers and health-care providers.

Advertising and Commercial Culture chapter. 11

1.       Whom did the first ad agents serve?

The First American advertising agencies were newspaper space brokers, individuals who purchased space in newspapers and sold it to various merchants. In the US, national advertising initially focused on patent medicine. The first full-service modern ad agency (N. W. Ayer & Son) worked primarily for advertisers and product companies rather than for newspapers. The Agency helped create, write, produce, and place ads in selected newspapers and magazines.

2.       How did packaging and trademarks influence advertising?

Manufacturers came to realize that in their products were distinctive and associated with quality, customers would ask for them by name. Advertisers let manufacturers establish a special identity for their products, separate from those of their competitors. With ads creating and maintaining brand-name recognition, retail stores had to stock the desired brands. Product differentiation associated with brand-name packaged goods represents the single biggest triumphs. Studies suggest that although most ads are not very effects in the short run, over time they create demand by leading consumers to associate particular brands with quality. 

3.       What role did advertising play in transforming America into a consumer society?

As US advertising became more pervasive, it contributed to many social changes in the twentieth century. First, it significantly influenced the transition from a producer-directed to a consumer –driven society. By stimulating demand for new products, advertising helped manufacturers create new markets and recover product start-up costs quickly. From farms to cities, advertising spread the word – first in newspapers and magazines and later on radio television. Second, advertising promoted technological advances by showing how new machines such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and cars, could improve daily life. Third, advertising encouraged economic growth by increasing sales. To meet the demand generated by ads, manufacturers produced greater quantities, which reduced their cost per unit, although they did not always pass these savings along to consumers.

4.       What influences did visual culture exert on advertising?

By the early 1970s, agencies had developed teams of writers and artists, thus granting equal status to image and words in the creative process. Visual-style ads soon saturated television and featured prominent performers. By the twentieth century a wide range of short, polished musical performances and familiar songs were routinely used in TV ads to encourage consumers not to click the remote control. Visual design had evolved to become more three-dimensional and interactive. Also, logos appeared on mobile phones and internationally.

5.       What are the advantages of internet and mobile advertising over traditional media like newspapers and television?

Many formats of internet and mobile advertising have emerged such as banner ads, video ads, sponsorships, and “rich media” like pop-up ads, pop-under ads, flash multimedia ads, and interstitials. Paid search advertising has become the dominant format of Web advertising. Companies in 2011 and 2012 continued to shirt more of their ad budgets away from newspapers, magazines, radio, and television. 

6.       How does the association principle work, and why is it an effective way to analyze advertising?

The association principle is a persuasive technique used in most consumer ads that associates a product with a positive cultural value or image even if it has little connection to the product. Advertising may associate advertising with nationalism, happy families, success at school or work, natural scenery, freedom, or humor. It is an effective way to analyze advertising because it gives them a way to link products with stereotypes. An example of this is women being portrayed as either sex objects or clueless housewives.

7.       What is product placement? Cite examples.

Product placement is strategically placing ads or buying space – in movies, TV shows, comic books, and most recently video games, blogs, and music videos – so products appear as part of the story’s set environment. An example is Starbucks becoming a name sponsor of MSNBC’s show Morngin Joe – which now includes “Brewed by Starbucks” in its logo. Product placement started out as subtly appearances in realistic settings has turned into Coca Cola being almost an honorary  “cast member” on Fox’s American Idol set.

8.       What is the difference between puffery and deception in advertising? How can the FTC regulate deceptive ads?

A puffery ad features hyperbole and exaggeration. Deceptive ads are likely to mislead reasonable customers based on statements in the ad or because they omit information. A certain amount of puffery ads are permitted, particularly when a product is “new and improved”. When a product claims to be “the best,” “the greatest,” or “preferred by four out of five doctors,” FTC rules require scientific evidence to back up the claims. An example is when the FTC brought enforcement actions against companies marketing their herbal weight-loss supplement ephedra. When the FTC discovers deceptive ads, it usually requires advertisers to change them or remove them from circulation. The FTC can impose monetary civil penalties for companies, and it occasionally requires an advertiser to run spots to correct the deceptive ads.

9.       What are some of the major issues involving political advertising?

Political advertising is the use of ad techniques to promote a candidates image and persuade the public to adopt a particular viewpoint. Political consultants have been imitating this market-research and advertising techniques to sell to their candidates. Can serious information on political issues be conveyed in thirty-second spots? How does a democratic society ensure that alternative political voices, where are not well financed or commercially viable, still receiving a hearing? Although broadcasters use the public’s airwaves, they have long opposed providing free political campaigns and issues, since political advertising is big business for television stations.

10.   What role does advertising play in a democratic society?

Our society has developed an uneasy relationship with advertising. Favorite ads and commercial jingles remain part of our cultural world for a lifetime, but we detest irritating and repetitive commercials. We realize that without ads many mass media would need to reinvent themselves. At the same time we should remain critical of what advertising has come to represent: the overemphasis on commercial acquisitions and images of material success, and the disparity between those who can afford to live comfortable in a commercialized society and those who cannot.

Books and the power of print ch. 10

Why was the printing press such an important and revolutionary invention?

1.       The invention of the printing press produced the first so-called modern books. Printers gradually reduced the size of books and developed less expensive grades of paper, making books cheaper do more people could afford them! This lead to a social and cultural transformation. When people could learn for themselves by what the printing press was producing they could differentiate themselves as individuals. A person’s social identity was no longer solely dependent on what their leaders told them or on the habits of their families, communities or social class. Information and knowledge was able to spread outside local jurisdiction. Slowly, people had access to ideas far beyond their isolated experiences permitting them to challenge the traditional customs and wisdom of their tribes and leaders.

•What has undermined the sales of printed and CD encyclopedias?

2.       Large encyclopedia companies are going digital and leaning online making them CD based. They struggle today as young researchers increasingly rely on search engines such as Google or online resources like Wikipedia to find information. Although people are using these more today, many critics consider these sources inferior in quality to the classic paper encyclopedias.

•What is the relationship between the book and movie industries?

3.       Books have a mutual relationship with the movie industry; TV can help sell books and books serve as ideas for TV shows and movies. According to a national poll, nearly 30% of respondents said they had read a book after seeing the story or a promotion on television. Oprah’s afternoon talk show has become a major power broker in selling books. The film industry gets many of its story ideas from books, which results in enormous movie rights revenues for the book industry and its authors. Examples of this are Nicholas Spark’s books, Gossip Girl,  and Pretty Little liars.

•Why did the Kindle succeed in the e-book market where other devices had failed?

4.       Original portable reading devices were criticized for being heavy, too expensive, or too difficult to read on, while their e-book titles were scarce and had little cost advantage over full-price hard covered books. Amazon’s Kindle did however catch on. The first kindle had an easy-on-the-eyes electronic paper display, held more than 200 books, and were the first to allow users to download e-books from the Amazon’s online bookstore wireless! Also, book prices were around half the cost of the normal book!

•What are the major issues in the debate over digitizing millions of books for Web search engines?

5.       The Google Books Library project started to make online books available, but only a limited portion. Companies sued them because they claimed Google did not have permission. Now Google must have full permission from authors to make them available at all. Currently, Google is trying to digitize books with expired copy rights.

•What's the difference between a book that is challenged and one that is banned?

6.       Unlike an enforced ban, a book challenge is a formal complaint to have a book removed from a public or school library collection. Common reasons for challenges include sexually explicit passages, offensive language, occult themes, violence, homosexual themes, promotion of a religious viewpoint, nudity and racism.

•What was the impact of the growth of book superstores on the rest of the bookstore industry?

7.       Superstores developed and catered to suburban areas and to avid readers. Barns & Noble is an example of this. Superstores began to dominate bookstore sales and severely cut into independent bookstore business, making the number of independent stores drop.

•What are the concerns over Amazon's powerful role in determining book pricing and having its own publishing divisions?

8.       Amazon quickly grew of the e-book market, which it used as leverage to force book publishers with comply with their low prices or risk getting dropped from Amazon’s bookstore (also done in print book sales). Amazon also has to compete with Apple’s iBook and has experienced lawsuits by the US department of justice. Bookstores responded that investigators should have been more concerned about Amazon because they have been expanding into traditional publishers with the establishment of Amazon publishing. Traditional publishers are beginning to fear Amazon because of that.

•What is Andrew Carnegie's legacy in regard to libraries in the United States and elsewhere?

9.       The industrialist Andrew Carnegie used millions of dollars from his vast steel fortune to build more than 2,500 public libraries across the US and other countries such as Brittian, Australia, and New Zealand. He believed that libraries created great learning opportunities for citizens, and especially immigrants like him.

Newspapers and Magazines ch. 8&9

1.       There are multiple limitations to a press that serves only partisan interests. They were shaped largely by social, cultural, and political responses to British rule. Partisan press refers to political papers. They generally pushed the plan of the particular political group that subsidized the paper. They did not write much about the business. The educated and wealthy men controlled most of local politics and commerce, so they were the primary readers of the partisan press.

2.       Penny papers began to replace the average newspaper by relying on daily street sales on the individual copies. The industrial revolution made it possible to replace the expensive handmade paper with cheaper machine made paper, less than the original 6 cents a copy/ 11$ a year. During this time, the rise of the middle class started the growth of literacy. This allowed for more popular and inclusive press. Newspapers were even more permitted by the breakthrough of technology, especially the steam-powered press replacing the mechanical press.

3.       Yellow journalism has two main features. They emphasized profitable papers that carried exciting human-interest stories, crime news, large headlines, and more readable copy. The first major characteristic were the overly dramatic (or sensational) stories about crimes, celebrities, disasters, scandals, and intrigue. Second, are the legacy and roots that the yellow press provided for investigative journalism: news reports that hunt out and expose corruption, particularly in business and government. Reporting increasingly became a crusading force for common people, with the press assuming a watchdog told on their behalf.

4.       We are changing from a society in which the transmission of knowledge depended mainly on books, newspapers, and magazines to a society dominated by a mix of print, visual, and digital information. In 1992, the authority of modern newspapers suffered in the wake of a variety of “new news” forms that combined immediacy, information, entertainment, persuasion, and analysis. Even the most prominent daily papers are being challenged by “news” coming from the talk shows, television sitcoms, popular films and even rap songs. Online journalism is also completely changing the newspaper industry.

5.       Citizen journalism the phenomenon that combines the online news surge and traditional newsroom cutbacks. It refers to people – activist amateurs and concerned citizens, not professional journalists – who use the internet and blogs to disseminate news and information. The current state of citizen journalism is that they operate community-based websites. Even on occasions they may be replacing professionals. These sites provide an outlet for people to voice their stories and opinions, and new sites are emerging daily.

6.       Even new online news sites face challenges. While many of these sites do not yet have the resources to provide the kind of regional news coverage that local newspapers once provided, there is still a lot of hope for community journalism moving forward.

7.       The newspaper does play a role in democracy by sustaining it and championing freedom. Over the years, they have fought heroic battles in places that had little tolerance for differing viewpoints. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, from 1992-2012, 962 reporters from around the world were killed while doing their job. These tragedies ranged from murder, combat assignments, to even performing “dangerous assignments”. Our nation is dependent on journalists who are willing to do this very dangerous reporting in order to keep us informed about what is going on around the world.

8.       Magazine played a large role in the social reform at the turn of the twentieth century. With the rise in magazine circulation coincided with rapid social changes in America. Many newspaper reporters became dissatisfied with the simplistic and conventional style of newspaper journalism and turned to magazines, where they were able to write at greater lengths and in greater depth about broader issues. These issues included corruption in big business and government, urban problems faced by immigrants, labor conflicts, and race relations. The working class was gradually able to purchase these magazine publications due to the price dropping. As jobs and the population began shifting from farms to small towns to urban areas, magazines helped readers imagine themselves as part of a nation rather than as an individual with only local or regional identities. Also, as magazine circulation skyrocketed, advertisement revenue soared.

9.       Like newspapers, more magazines are increasingly moving to digital formats. Being on a website or an application, magazine companies save on the cost of paper, printing and postage. Unlike on paper, a website gives unlimited space, where they now can include blogs, original video and audio podcasts, social network, games, virtual fitting rooms, and other interactive components that could never work in print. Printable coupons are now being added!  

10.   A move toward magazine specialization was triggered, coincided with the radio, with a general trend away from mass market publications. Magazines traded their mass audience for smaller, discrete audiences that could be guaranteed to advertisers. Magazines are now divided into advertisement type: consumer magazines, which carry a host of general consumer product ads (ex: Cosmo); business or trade magazines, which included adds for products and services for various occupational groups (ex: Advertising Age);  and  farm magazines, which contain adds for agriculture products and farm lifestyle (ex: Dairy Herd Management). In addition to grouping magazines by advertisement style, we can categorize popular consumer magazine style by the demographic characteristics of their target audience – such as gender, age, or ethic group – or an audience interest area, such as entertainment, sports, literature, or tabloids. Some specific specialized groups include men and women’s magazines, sports, entertainment, and leisure magazines, magazines for all ages, elite magazines, minority-targeted magazines, and supermodel tabloids.   

11.   The editorial department of a magazine produces its content, excluding advertisements. Magazines are heavily reliant on advertisement revenue, the more successful, the more it can charge for advertisement space. The average magazine contains about 50% ad copy and 50% editorial material. Some advertisers and companies have concealed ads when a magazine featured an unflattering or critical article about a company or an industry. This affects what gets published, putting enormous pressure on editors not to offend advertisers. Magazines then began introducing different editions of their magazines to attract advertisers such as regional editions, split-run editions, and demographic editions. They can now more easily compete with each other.