_{MEDIA LANGUAGE}

Semiotics

Key words	-Sign: The idea that elements in media products can represent another thing. -Dominant Signifier: The main representative sign on a product, usually supports the main representative in a way. -Code: The code of a product is how a combination of elements create a meaning -Convention: Repeated construction of media products using codes that have become accepted over time. -Anchorage: Words that pair with an image to provide context.
C S Pierce’s ideas on Semiotics	-Iconic Sign: A sign that has a clear link/resemblance to its meaning -Indexical Sign: A sign that has an associated link/resemblance to its meaning -Symbolic/Arbitrary sign: A sign where the relationship between its meaning is purely conventional and culturally specific.
Saussure’s ideas on Semiotics	-Signifier: A signs physical form/representation. -Signified: The clearest meaning or idea expressed by a sign from the physical form in which it is expressed. -Ideology: A system of ideas and beliefs
Barthes’ ideas on semiotics	-Signification: The orders of analyzing signs and their interpretation. First order; The denotation of the sign Second order; The interpretations that derive from conventions about the sign (mythmakers) or                 the subjective interpretations that derive from an individual’s feelings towards a sign   -Denotation: The literal or primary representation of a sign despite the feelings or ideas that the sign presents (First order of signification) -Connotation: The subjective interpretation that derives from an individual’s feelings/ideas towards a sign -Myth: The interpretation of a sign that derives from cultural meanings that have become accepted throughout time, when the sign detached from its primary representation and becomes a conveyor of cultural meaning -Paradigm: A collection of similar signs to convey an interpretation. -Syntagm: The sequence in which signs work to convey an interpretation

Narratology

Key words	-Narrative: The story and how it is told -Narrative code: The sequence of events in a coherent and meaningful order to create a story/meaning which appeals to a target audience -Diegesis: Diegesis refers to the story/constructed world and the events that occur within it, things which occur outside the story world are non-diegetic. -Quest Narrative: The authors describe their desire to do/see/experience something -Causality: The cause-and-effect relationship between events -Plot: The sequence of events in which each event affects the subsequent one through the principle of causality -Masterplot: A plot that is commonly seen across multiple narratives; the bareboned structure of a plot that is tweaked and repeated.
Propp’s ideas on narratology	– ‘Character Types’: Propp suggests stories use “stock characters” to structure stories; that all stories draw on familiar characters performing similar functions to provide familiar narrative structure. This repetition and therefore familiarity of characters is important to increase consumption (Steve Neale: Genre link). Hero, Helper, Princess, Villain, Dispatcher, Father, False hero. -Spheres of Action: Propp claims the character types can be defined by their “spheres of action” meaning the role they play in progressing the story.
Chatman’s ideas on narratology	-Kernels: Elements (narrative structure, key moments) that are essential to the story/plot/ and narrative development. -Satellites: Elements (developments, aesthetics) that could be removed and the overall logic would not be disturbed
Todorov’s ideas on narratology	-Narrative structure: Todorov recognized most stories can be broken into Equilibrium, Disruption and New equilibrium. -Equilibrium: The stage of equilibrium- peace, happiness. -Disruption: The conflict that disrupts this initial equilibrium. -New equilibrium: The resolution that brings about a new equilibrium.
Freytag’s ideas on narratology	-Freytag’s pyramid: Freytag builds upon this theory of narrative structure and presents it as a pyramid describing the plot as an exposition, climax and denouement.

Genre

Genre summarized by Neale	-Conventions and rules: Genre is described as a repertoire of conventions and rules to attract audiences based around predictable expectations, which are then reinforced with unique elements to attract audiences via the unexpected. -Sub-Genre: A sub-genre is a smaller sub-class of a broader genre. -Hybridity: A blend of themes or elements from two or more genres creating a hybrid genre -Corpus: Body of similar texts/products that can all belong to the same category -Verisimilitude: The appearance of being realistic or true to life- miming convincing aspects of life in an important or fundamental way. – ‘Genres as cultural category’: Interacting with genres subconsciously reinforce the conventions within society
Genre summarized by Schatz	-Genres or order and integration: Schatz argued that filmmaking followed two dominant narrative strategies: order and integration   Genres of order: genres that transport the audience to places where “fundamental societal values are in a state of sustained conflict” that highlights the conflict within our own culture. e.g: Kidnapping, the police redeem the conflict, the conflict highlights occurrences in our culture Genres of integration: genres that follow “the struggle of a character to bring principles from their own views to align with the views of the larger community” e.g: Progression of a characters inner values that change to conform to the dominant ideology
Genre summarized by Barthes	–Proairetic code: Action, movement and causation -Hermeneutic code: Reflection, diagram, character and thematic development; used heavily in genres of integration -Enigma code: Codes that raise intrigue and ideas to encourage the audience to want more information

Structuralism

Levi-Strauss

-Binary oppositions: The theory of binary opposites describes the use 2 opposites in most narratives in media forms to thicken the plot and introduce contrast -Mytheme: The smallest component if a myth. -Ideological reading: An interpretation of text through the lens of a particular ideology -Cultural codes: Broadly standardized codes and conventions familiar with a specific subculture or culture

Postmodernism

Key words	-Pastiche vs Parody: -Pastiche: : imitate past of the previous artist –Parody: does this with the use of irony and humour- arguably to create a more entertaining product to consume to promote specific concepts. -Intertextuality: The concept that the meaning of the text does not reside in the text but is produced by the reader in relation to the complex network of signs and the interpretation of the reader (Signs only have meaning in reference to other signs)
Barker and Jane’s ideas on postmodernism	-Bricolage: A montage of available information of previously unconnected signs and conventions to convey a newer meaning.
Baudrillard’s ideas on postmodernism	-Postmodernism: The theory of postmodernism can be referred to the concept of new production and an approach to understanding life is built from an addition of repetition of elements from past aspects and/or media formats and therefore is referential to existing concepts. -Simulation: The idea of simulation suggests that the media favours the generation of copies over the generation of new original things. Through repeated copying, representations become increasingly distorted until they form simulacra –Simulacra: Simulacra are copies that depict things that either had no original or that no longer have an original. -Hyperreality: The inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation. -Implosion: The tendency of society to collapse in on itself that arose from society’s own dynamics It refers to the destruction of meaning do to the presence of simulacra.

MEDIA REPRESENTATION

Theories on Representation

Key words and ideas	-Positive and negative stereotypes:  An widely held, simplified belief about a particular type of person or a specific group, reinforced through conventions in media and society -Countertypes:   An idea or belief that goes against stereotypes -Misrepresentation: A false or misleading statement or material which renders other statements as misleading with an intent to deceive -Reactionary representation: A representation that conforms to stereotypes -Radical representation   A representation that counters to stereotypes -Selective exposure:  Individuals favour information that reinforces their pre existing views while avoiding contradictory information, selective representation can be used in media to favour a stereotype to enforce a specific ideology. -Dominant ideology: Shared ideas or stereotypes which serve to justify the interests of dominant groups -Constructed reality:   The theory that reality is not objective but rather something unique to each individual which is shaped from their interactions -Audience positioning: Media producers carefully consider the way audience engage and interact with media products, based on how the text is encoded and decoded, and shape/produce their product to convey a particular meaning
Hall’s ideas on representation	-Encoding: A system of coded meanings and signs are used by the sender/producer in order to convey a meaning to the audience. In which the sender used verbal and/or non-verbal symbols for which they believe the receiver will understand. -Decoding: How an audience member is able to interpret and translate coded information into a comprehensive form; they reconstruct the idea by giving meaning to symbols. Distortions and misunderstanding occur when the meaning is interpreted or understood in a different way than what the sender was trying to convey
Gramsci	-Hegemony:    The moral or political leadership of a social group that is obtained by taking control of culture and ideology through conventions in mass media

Theories on identity

Gauntlet’s ideas on identity

–Fluidity of identity:   The idea that identity has the potential to be changed and shaped frequently in many directions throughout life and even in specific social environments. –Constructed identity:   Identity that is changed and altered throughout experience. –Negotiated identity:   The balance between expressing ones identity between their own desires and the expectations of others. –Collective identity:  Identity that refers to the sense of belong to a group

Feminist theory’s

Key concepts	–Patriarchy: The idea that the men hold the position of power and therefore media tends to demean men in positive stereotypes/reactionary representations to favour the way men want to be portrayed. Such portrayals can influence perceptions of expectations between women and men and promote and unbalanced vision of the roles of men and women in society.
Van Zoonen’s theories on feminism	-Gender and discourse: Van Zoonen believes mass media is a socializing agent that secures continuity, order and transmission of dominant values. This is described as discourse. This results in individuals developing with large exposure to media to mimic and reflect the behaviors of their role models. -Gender and power:  Van Zoonen makes reference to the relationship between power in gender representation and the patriarchal society, whereas the media favors traditional stereotypes of men being domestic and women being nurturing in order to maintain the dominant ideology. Only by competing in male-dominated fields can women break free of the conventions used to oppress them over time, and that the media should support this change by regularly portraying radical representations of gender within the media. However, she also argues that rising counter stereotypes within media still portray a distortion of reality as they are often impossible to achieve.
hook’s theories on feminism	-Intersectionality:  Intersectionality highlights the way ideas and concepts such as “female” and “feminine” intersect with other ideas and approaches- such as sexuality, class, age etc. This idea emerged as their was differences in black and white women’s experiences and cultural representations –Cultural criticism and transformation: hooks advocated for the need to engage with popular culture as displayed by media products to understand class struggle, domination and revolution. This is a critique on stereotypical portrayal of race and gender in the media, such as types of characters ethnic group’s are often cast in, that help to reinforce stereotypes which leads to harm on and off-screen. Through analyzing popular cultural moments in the media we can make differences between the way groups are treated, this knowledge leads to a transformation in the way individuals think.
Laura Mulvey’s theories on feminism	-Voyeurism: The gain of pleasure from watching others naked or engaged in sexual connotations, often used within media products to exploit feminine traits to encourage male interaction. -Male gaze: The theory that women are forced to identity with a passive object for the gaze of a man. Sexualisation through voyeurism and therefore objectification of females limit the development of women in media products, for example having female characters for the gain of pleasure but less of them and with less hermeneutic code. This is in comparison to men who have development throughout. –Female gaze:  More autonomous representations of females, where sexuality and sex-related content can be involved without sexualisation and therefore objectification. It allows the 3 dimensional image and rawness of feminine topics to be discussed and portrayed in narratives without sexualisation of them and without stripping them from their more intimate meanings.
Ariel Levy’s ideas on feminism	–Sexualisation/Raunch Culture: Ariel Levy’s book “Female chauvinist pigs: women and the rise of raunch culture” refers to the idea of Raunch Culture Raunch Culture is a critique on the highly sexualised culture in which women are objectified, objectify one another and are encouraged to objectify themselves as a product of the unresolved conflict between women’s movements and the sexual revolution. The rise of sex-positive feminism embraced expression within the form of sexualisation which lead to empowerment, however, it also adheres to the older conventions and patterns of misogyny and exploitation of sexualisation- such as voyeurism.
Naomi Wolf’s theories on feminism	-Third world feminism: Third-world feminism began in the 1990’s, Naomi Wolf describes it as the movement into feminist attitude becoming intersectional -The beauty myth: Naomi’s book “The beauty myth; how images of beauty are used against women” describes the proportional relationship between the rise in social prominence of women and the rise in pressure to adhere to unrealistic physical beauty standards. This pressure leads to unhealthy behaviors such as eating disorders and cosmetic procedures.
Kilbourne’s contribution in feminism	-The link between advertisement and women’s health and safety: Kilbourne looked at visual narrative culture/media primary in reference to advertising. She explains how the influence of objectification in of women in advertising encourages unhealthy habits within society to meet expectations set by the repeated conventions in those advertisements, e.g.: heavily photoshopped women in adverts setting unrealistic ideas of beauty. She also explores sexualisation in adverts such as personification of food to become a sexualised connotation of femininity, and the encouragement of violence through objectification. She spreads awareness on these public health issues to spread awareness on these issues.

Gender performativity

Key words

-Sex: An organism’s biological sex -Gender: Social construct or personal identification of one’s gender

Judith Butler’s ideas and theories on gender performativity

-Gender as performativity (‘a stylized repetition of acts’): Our genders are not stable; rituals and performative actions constantly reinforce our identities. Examples include mannerisms, learned micro performances (such as makeup etc.) and behaviors work together to signal our identity or ourselves and others, and that these gender-based cues can be initiated through media products. -Gender as historical situation rather than natural fact:  Conventions within culture reinforce a specific traditional gender binary, therefore the concept of gender corresponds with the cues initiated from mass media- which in itself is shaped to encode the dominant ideology. -Subversion:  The maintenance of an identity that falls outside of the heterosexual norm in our society. This is highly challenging because of the heteronormative ideals that’re so deeply entrenched within the fabric of language and other cultural practices. -Parodic representation: Representations within media that reference the core values of something in an exaggerated way with the addition of humor- ultimately creating a myth surrounding the origin E.g. Mocking specific collectives by narrowing them down to a comedic aspect, typically favoring the heteronormative ideals and harming the collective.

Ethnicity and postcolonialism

Key concepts:	-Cultural imperialism: The domination of cultural relationships in which values, practises and meanings of a powerful foreign culture and imposed upon one or more native cultures, such as the great British empire.   -Multiculturalism:   during the postcolonial timeframe, numerous distinct ethnic and cultural groups seem to be politically relevant.
Antonio Gramsci’s theories in reference to postcolonialism	-Cultural hegemony: This is the dominance of a cultural diverse society by the ruling class that manipulate the culture of society, including beliefs and perceptions so that the ruling class becomes the socially accepted norm and that this creates misrepresentations of the other cultures within it.
Anderson’s ideas on postcolonialism	-Imagined communities:   Anderson’s book depicts a nation as a socially-constructed community imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of a group, the media creates imagined communities by defining a mass audience through dominant ideologies and stereotypes.
Hall’s theories in reference to postcolonialism	-Otherness (alterity):  The idea that the hegemonic culture portrays other cultures within the culturally diverse society as different, putting them as “others” that are judged against the the dominant ideology.
Gilroy’s theories on postcolonialism	-Cultural Diaspora:   The integration of black Atlantic cultures into the hegemonic culture. -Marginalization: When ethnic communities are positioned as being on the margins of society- similar to the otherness idea -Chronotope: How media symbolically represents time and space -Double Consciousness:  The is an internal struggle of being both European and black, causing a duality in their identity which can cause a further decision and confusion within black people in the community
Edward Said’s theory on postcolonialism	-Orientalism:   ‘In this view, the outlying regions of the world have no life, history or culture to speak of, no independence or integrity worth representing without the West.‘ The idea the the west strip the true and original culture of the east and create a simulation of which they are simultaneously portrayed as cruel/uneducated and sensual/mystical.

MEDIA INDUSTRIES

Cultural Industries

Key words
Cultural industries as summarized by Hesmondhalgh	-Cultural industries:   Hesmondhalgh explores the media from the perspective of commercial production practises and makes two main observations; 1) Products exist as a result of their economic context 2)The media industry is a high risk business; through the impossibility of predicting audience taste coupled with the high costs of production. The media industry is structured in highly specific ways with risk minimization. -Vertical integration:    Through acquiring production, distribution and marketing subsidiaries, media conglomerates can control all aspects of their supply chain while also achieving cost-saving efficiencies.
Chomsky’s ideas on cultural industries	-Propaganda model: An explanation on how propaganda and systemic biases function in mass media to manipulate the population and to manufacture consent. Corporate media is structured through advertising and concentration of media ownership, and this acts as propaganda. -The five filters of the mass media machine: In his book “Manufacturing consent: the political economy of the Mass media” he describes the five main filters that’re used to manufacture consent 1) Structure of ownership: Media concentration via conglomerates owning multiple chains of a product (eg newspaper the I and Daily mail both being owned by the same conglomerate) results in a lack of choice and therefore reduced opinion amongst the public. 2) The role of advertising: Where advertisements is structured in a way where we are the product and adverts buy our attention, rather than adverts selling us a product. Funds production of media. 3) Links with the establishment: Media producers are in debt with those in power for funding or validity so the majority write for them or catered to their political bias. 4) Diversionary tactics (Flack): Media that goes against the dominant ideology and present radical opinions that oppose the systemic hierarchy will be discredited. 5) Uniting against the common enemy: Manipulation of the public to come together against a community of people.

Regulation

Livingstone and Lunt’s theories on regulation	-Governance:   The action or manner by which an organization is controlled in how it operates, including the mechanisms and its people are held accountable   -Regulation Theory: The theory that regulation creates conflict between the needs of an citizen and the consumer. This idea explains that the personal needs of a CONSUMER are colliding with the needs of an individual integrated into public, the CITIZEN.  The idea of ignorance within an individual in order to match their own uses and gratifications rather than consuming real issues.   -PSB:   Media products, often television and radio, that are broadcasted to provide information, advice or entertainment to the public without making a profit.  They are free to listen to as a consumer and the production is funded by the government, this means the government can regulate what is included and favor its own political viewpoint.  -Public interest  What the public want vs what should or would be in public interest; creating tension between the consumer and citizen.  -Media literacy:   The ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms to show their role in society    -Power:   Power in industries describes the strength organizations have in their ability to influence the dominant ideology either directly (private interpretation) or indirectly (public interpretation)    -Value:   The value to an individual gained from consuming a product vs the value of the product to a citizen.  -Transnational culture:  A shared pattern of learned, transmitted socializations between two different cultures (symbols, values etc.)   Resulted as the theory of “Convergence culture” by Jenkins in his book “Convergence culture: where old media and new media collide”: where a cultural shift is resulted from the interactions of two different cultures through factors like globalization etc.… (new media/old or two cultures)  -Globalization:  The integration of media through the multicultural exchange of ideas in order to widen target audience to increase media consumptions and therefore creating a transnational culture.
Curran and Seaton	–Deregulation:   Removal of some government controls over a product -Free market:  A market with few government restrictions on how a good service can be produced or sold or on how a factor of production can be employed   -Media concentration:    Mass media is dominated from a small number of mass media conglomerates. Concentrated ownership from mass media conglomerates result in lack of choice and the same products -Public Service Broadcasting (PSB):   Full independence through broadcasting has never been reached as it is too powerful to display over broadcasting, they can only negotiate a political discussion without having a bias to a side. Broadcasters have come to see the state as their enemy yet depend on the state for legitimation. They are being kept running by the state yet can not express their independence via broadcasting as they will be flacked (Chomsky link) and need to keep a “foreground bias” which has ultimately been skewed. -Globalization:  The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence. -Conglomerates:  A major corporation that includes a number of smaller companies in unrelated industries -Neo-liberalism:   A political ideology that favours free market capitalism
Zuboff	-Surveillance:  Monitoring behavior, activities or information and gathering them for the purpose of influencing, managing or direction. -Privacy:   The ability to seclude an individual’s personal information to themselves, privacy is being breached through the age of surveillance capitalism. -The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The widespread collection and commodification of personal data by corporations driven by a profit-making incentive. Zuboff describes how this technology has begun to develop new methods of behavior control capable of altering an individual’s personality and manner thinking.

AUDIENCES

Media uses

Mcquail, Blumer & Brown Katz, Gurevitch & Haas

-Uses and Gratifications: Audiences need media to gratify the specific needs they have, and the products that supply these needs are more likely to be consumed again. -Escapism: Where the audience want to escape their life by exploring and experiencing things outside their normal life. -Surveillance/education: Audiences want to know about the world and seek text that provides this information. -Personal identification: Audiences want to explore and develop their own identity through media, via role models or conventional characters Similar to Van Zoonen’s gender and discourse framework. -Social interaction: Audiences need interaction with other people and to develop bonds with others, media offers this in the opportunity to discuss media texts with others; different negotiated reading surrounding different mystery plots for example.

Media effects

Richard Dyer’s theory on utopian possibilities:

-Utopian possibilities: His essay details the human desire for a better world as it is reflected in joyous musical numbers. He argues that these moments occur universally within all forms of entertainment.

Consumption of media

Lasswell’s theory on media consumption	–Hypodermic needle model: A model of communication suggesting the intended encoded message is received fully and wholly accepted by the receiver. This is a form of passive consumption.
Shannon and Weavers ideas on Lasswell’s theory	-Adapted passive consumption: Shannon and weaver built upon Laswell’s hypodermic needle model by addressing and identifying three basic problems that can disrupt the effectiveness of communication. They state technical, semantic and effectiveness problems that distort the encoded message, such as culturally specific factors, noise, error etc.
Lazarsfeld’s ideas on media communication	-2 Step flow: Lazarsfeld two-step flow analysis builds on Lasswell passive consumption idea. He explains that the encoded message is filtered through influential opinion leaders who then interpret a message first and then relay them back to the mass audiences. Considers the audience as active as they are influenced by opinion leaders rather than directly from media content.
Bandura’s ideas on consumption	-Social learning / Imitation: Describes how individuals learn through observing and replicating the actions of others in media.
Hall’s ideas on media consumption	–Encoding/decoding: Messages are encoded into a medium and then decoded by the audience, the message is not sent directly but the audience interpretation as well as the method of encoding can affect the meaning produced. -Reception theory: Audiences receive and understand the media in different ways based on their background and beliefs. Their decoding is affected by their pre-existing biases and beliefs that alter how they understand the text. It can be understood in three ways: 1) Hegemonic reading: The intended encoded message of the producer, the way the media is meant to be read and how most people will receive it. 2) Negotiated reading: The audience understand the intended meaning but instead read the text somewhere between the intended and oppositional reading; this often means rejecting and accepting different aspects. 3) Oppositional reading: The audience understand the intended meaning but reject this meaning and instead take a contrasting reading of the text. -Preferred readings: Where an audience receives the text in a way that is expected or hoped for by the producer. -Aberrant readings: This is when the audience has a seperate and unexpected reading that goes against what the producer expects
Gerbners ideas on media consumption	Cultivation theory:  Gerbner suggests repeated exposure to television over time can subtly cultivate viewers perception of reality; and that perceptions and values are reflected from what is repeatedly shown on television. –Cultivation differential: This is what Gerbners research established and it suggests that those audiences that were exposed to more television had a heightened perception of real-world violence. He identified the following affects: 1)Resonance: People who live in high crime areas who were also heavy television viewers were subject to a double-dose affect, and those with experience of crime had their fears of real-world crime significantly amplified by television. 2)Mainstreaming: Gerbner concluded that heavy viewers who were significantly less informed about real-world crime, perhaps as a result from living in a safe neighborhood, also reported increased perception of violence in the real world. Therefore he concluded that watching television could lead to attitudinal change irrespective of weather viewers had any objective evidence to corrobate what they were seeing on screen. –Mean World Index: This is an assumption of cultivation theory that describes the phenomenon whereby violence related content in the media makes viewers believe the world is more dangerous than it actually is. Through repeated representations the media can manipulate the public perception to their advantage. –Enculturation: The process of learning social norms or behaviors through watching others or engaging with culture. The media contributes to the enculturation of individuals by making them adopt specific attitudes or outlooks.
Key words:	–Socialization: The life long process in which individuals learn and interact with social standards, rules and values. Media usage affects behavior through prompting imitation, and ultimately influences beliefs, perceptions and changes in personality. –Standardisation: The process of making something conform to a standard, the same type of basic features. This results in easy familiarity which is useful for the audience to engage with while also diverting from originality. Bardic function: Bards were keepers of tradition in the ancient times, media’s specialized language helps us define reality and reinforces dominant myths of our culture, keeping tradition. The media exhibits a bardic function whereas it maintains and reinforces tradition in the form of myths and conventions.

The role of Fandom

Jenkins’ ideas and theories on fandom

-Participatory culture: The act of producing or acting as part of a cultural movement, would include making memes, cosplay, joining groups, discussing texts. -Textual poaching: The act of an audience taking creative ownership of an existing media product and altering it to match their own needs, this can include producing original content with the original text as a strong influence but ultimately replicates the original in a different way. Example editing videos to produce a meaning that aligns with the ideologies of the second producer. -Fandom:   A collective group that have a strong interest in a single topic/product. -Interactivity: The amount an audience member can act upon the media product, could include altering the state of the product or responding to it.

End of audience theories

Shirky’s ideas and theories on ‘End of audience’

-Prosumer: A producer consumer; a member of the audience that actively engages in the production of media products. -‘End of audience’: Refers to the end of traditional passive audiences who simply consumed media texts. In modern society this concept has been overcome by interactive texts and prosumer audiences, where the process has moved away from linear producer –> consumer – and instead shifted to a feedback loops where audiences engage in the production and alteration of media texts. -Digital natives: audiences who grew up using digital technologies and so have developed high levels of media literacy from early ages, making them adept at skills that older age groups have had to learn as a skill later in life -‘We the media’: a few big media corporations cannot control the news we get any longer, now that news is being published in real-time, available to everybody, via the Internet. Instead, independent prosumer journalists are able to provide instant news as ably as large conglomerates, especially since viral news via social media has become a prevalent factor in news distribution e.g: tik tok viral coverage about “unshared” war. -Web 2.0: The significant move from static, fixed websites that just gave information to more interactive and collaborative pages that are editable by the audience. -Mass amateurization: Refers to the capabilities that new forms of media have given to non-professionals and the ways in which those non-professionals have applied those capabilities to solve problems that compete with the solutions offered by larger, professional institutions. In short, this refers to the competition between the prosumer and professional; the ability for non-professionals to have their media produced and distributed to wide audiences on par with other larger institutions e.g. via YouTube. -Cognitive surplus: The extra time available for non-required acts; the additional free time of the 21st century that people have. People are learning how to use free time more constructively for creative acts.