Technology and News Production
Production	Distribution	Consumption
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MARSHALL MCLUHAN

He wrote a book called ‘The Medium is the Massage’

“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate by the content of the communication” (p. 8: 1967)

For many the role of technology is actually the most defining aspect of Media, for example Marshall McLuhan proposed in 1964 that the Medium was the message, or as he deliberately titled his book the massage.  In other words, the medium (the technology) is more significant than anything else in determining meaning ie over companies, organisations, governments, individuals, representations, texts etc

Key words – new media

stream

story –

Cultivation theory – Gerbner

Cultivation theory is the long-term effects of television. “The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend ‘living’ in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality aligns with reality portrayed on television.” The theory is that the more you see things in the media, your perspective or the way you view things changes. Letter to the freedoms this by using the genre of hip hop to gain an audience as it is a popular genre to listen to. This is a way to persuade the world that their message is right. The music video is a part of a hegemonic struggle of black people in America and how they face racism and discrimination. This theory can be portrayed in Letter to the free because of the black lives matter message that it promotes.The fact that the song was also made in a music video format and used for a documentary

figures: letter to the free 2016

Common is an American musician and actor who has a net worth of $45 million

The music industry distributes their songs in different formats. For example the music video for letter to the free and the documentary. They do this to gain an audience.

The song letter to the free was used for a Netflix documentary on how America has private prisons which are required to be full. This caused especially black people to be put in prison for money. “Shot me with your ray-gun, And now you want to trump me, Prison is a business, America’s the company” are lyrics that refer to this. This also goes with the message that racism is still relevant today as there is more black people in prison today than there were slaves when America allowed slavery.

Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn, better known by his stage name Common, is an American rapper, actor, writer, philanthropist, and activist. Worth $45 million.

When asked about the song’s timeliness, especially as America transitions into a new presidency under Donald Trump, Common told Billboard, “When I say, “We ain’t seen as human beings with feelings/ Will the U.S. ever be us, Lord willing,” that hasn’t changed with the election of Donald Trump. Those things are there. Now it’s just probably going to be in our face even more, and we know we have to resolve it and be the vessel for the change.”

His output is highly politicised, existing in the context of a variety of social and cultural movements aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects in US society (e.g.: Black Lives Matter). The product can also be considered in an economic context through the consideration of if and how music videos make money (through, for example, advertising on YouTube).

• As the soundtrack to the Netflix documentary The 13th the video is an example of cross media promotion and marketing.

Letter to the free music video

• Black and white could represent how everyone should be equal.
• instrumentalists all in different rooms
• No one really acknowledges the camera
• ends with an outside view of the building they were inside of
• low budget
• black box at the end that supposedly represents blackness.
• old run down building

Explain the appeal of low to medium budget films to Hollywood conglomerates.

Three female African-American mathematicians who work at NASA play a pivotal role in astronaut John Glenn’s launch into space. Meanwhile, they also have to deal with racial and gender discrimination at work.

A conglomerate is a combination of multiple business entities operating in entirely different industries under one corporate group, usually involving a parent company and many subsidiaries. Often, a conglomerate is a multi-industry company. Conglomerates are often large and multinational. For example: Disney, Samsung, google. Hidden figures is made by Fox 2000.

• Budget Size: 25 million USD
• Box Office: 236 million USD
• With a budget of $25m Hidden Figures is a low to medium budget Hollywood film, an industry category which has recently been recognised for its profit potential.

A $15 million film, which is considered a small-budget film in Hollywood, might have a promotional budget that’s higher than its production budget. This is because many films that don’t have a built-in audience (like those based on best-selling books like “The Hunger Games”) need to get people into the cinema. Romantic comedies or some children’s films need to promote themselves via TV commercials and media advertisements, posters etc, and those costs add up quickly. For a film budgeted between $40 and $75 million, its P&A budget might be over $20 million.

“on the other hand media play a pivotal role organising how people make sense of the world.”

Globalisation (in terms of media ownership)

Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration

Vertical integration is an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company.

Gatekeepers

Regulation / Deregulation

Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers

Neo-liberalism

Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR

repertoire of elements – A repertoire is a group of generic elements. For example two films may share the same repertoire however they may be seen by different audiences as there is not one film that uses all elements. 

corpus – new texts added to the genre ie, body of text.

hybridisation – Hybrid media represents most modern media and the concept that different media forms can work together to create new media. Eg, romantic comedy genre.

historic specificity – Associated with certain time periods.

repetition and sameness – lack of variety and repeated ideas.

variation – a change or dissimilarity.

narrative image – visual image that tells a story or has meaning.

expectations and hypotheses – A hypothesis is a specific prediction about what you expect to happen.

suspend disbelief – To suspend your own belief to enjoy something surreal. Eg, fantasy films and sci-fi.

generic regime of verisimilitude – It is what is likely to be included in the genre. For example, a fantasy novel that includes an imaginary world has a generic verisimilitude. What is likely to occur based on the genre.

CATEGORY	FAMILIARITIES	DIFFERENCES	THEORY
CHARACTERS	the detective who has a ‘natural’ instinct for law and order	The Killing, The mising has the main detective as female	PROPP
NARRATIVE	the first episode often introduces a lot of different characters	The missing girl was found dead in the first episode.	TODOROV
THEMES	the use of binary oppositions around familiar themes: family, community, law and order, justice.	identity. a female is the main hero.	LEVI-STRAUSS
REPRESENTATION	reactionary representations of police, family, law and order, urban/rural	Radical gender roles and having a male sidekick	SEMIOTICS
TECHNICAL CODES / LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE (music, setting, props, lighting, use of camera, editing etc)	opening montage sequence that often gives clues as to the whole series – themes, locations, characters, events etc.

A Swedish tv programme that’s synopsis is ‘a crime series that follows the police investigation of the murder of a young girl. It interlocks three different stories.’ There is 44 episodes and was produced in Vancouver by Veena Sud it can fit into these genres: Serial, Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime film, Adventure, Crime Fiction, Action/Adventure and Police procedural.

• Who is the primary, secondary and tertiary audience for this product?

The primary audience is people who speak Swedish or are Sweden because it is a language they would understand. Secondary could be Netflix watchers.

Theorist	What does it mean (in your own words)	How does it apply to the advert (in your own words)
Equilibrium	The story structure eg. the beginning, middle and end	Before the use of the makeup, the beat drop and after the use of makeup.
Binary Opposition	A pair of relating things with opposing meaning.	The two makeup artists and the non makeup wearing bell boy. Working in a hotel – staying in a hotel.
Character Types	The villain and hero. And stock characters.	The makeup being the hero and not wearing makeup could be the villain.