Mass Communications: A Review &
Cross-Platforms
A Brief History of Communication
2012 Presidential Election
• The rise of social media
and political clout turned
out to play a larger role
than traditional television
advertising in the most
recent presidential
election.
• It is worth asking whether
TV will continue to play
an outsized role in future
federal elections.
Culture and the Evolution of Mass
Communication
• Mass media are the cultural industries that
produce and distribute
– Songs
– Novels
– TV shows
– Newspapers
– Movies
– Video games
– Internet Services
The Digital Era
• The ability to send
words, pictures, and
sound using a digital
code allowed for
modern communication
technology, including
the Internet and cable
television. This led to
the emergence of email, blogging, and
social media.
The Digital Era Cont.
• Digital communication
redefined news and
social interaction.
– Bloggers have become
an important part of the
news industry.
– E-mail has assumed
some of the functions of
the postal service.
– Social media like Twitter
and Facebook connect
people in a new way.
Figure 1.1: Daily Media Consumption by Platform, 2010
(8-to-18-year-olds)
The Linear Model of Mass
Communication
• Senders (authors,
producers)
• Messages (programs, ads)
• Mass media channel (TV,
books)
• Receivers (viewers,
consumers)
• Gatekeepers (editors,
executive producers,
media managers)
• Feedback (messages from
receivers back to senders)
Cultural Model for Mass
Communication
• Recognizes that
individuals bring diverse
meanings to messages
• Audiences actively
affirm, interpret,
refashion, or reject the
messages and stories
that flow through
various media channels
The Evolution of a New Mass Medium
• Emergence or novelty
stage
• Entrepreneurial stage
• Mass medium stage
• Convergence stage
Media Convergence
• The term convergence is used by media critics and analysts
to describe recent changes in media content and media
companies.
– 1. The Dual Roles of Media Convergence. Media convergence
involves the technological merging of content as well as crossplatform, the business model of consolidation of media holdings
under a corporate umbrella.
– 2. Media Businesses in a Converged World. This business model
is revealed through digital age strategies of companies like
Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Google.
– 3. Media Convergence and Cultural Change. The Internet and
social media have changed the ways in which media culture is
engaged and consumed. Media multitasking has led to growing
media consumption, particularly for younger people.
Media Convergence cont.
• Dual roles
– Technological merging of content across different
media channels
– Cross platform, the consolidation of media
holdings under one corporate umbrella
• Media businesses
– Companies like Google make money by selling ads
rather than by producing content
Media Convergence and Cultural
Change
• Changes in how we consume and engage with
media culture
– Watch TV shows on Hulu and Netflix or DVR/OnDemand options
– Make media choices based on social media
recommendations
– Upload our own media
– Discuss programs as we watch them through “livetweeting”
Hashtags
• Nike – #MakeItCount:
• Nike’s #MakeItCount
campaign started in 2012
as part an effort to
publicize the release of
the Fuel Band. It started
with a viral YouTube
effort, and then expanded
to include Nike
encouraging their fans
and followers to tell them
how they planned to
“Make it Count” in 2012.
Hashtags
•
HBO Game of Thrones – Influencer Boxes
•
HBO shipped “Influencer” boxes to
celebrities, bloggers and influential Twitter,
which contained physical items from the
fictional world of Westeros, where the series
takes place. The creative campaign show
HBO’s belief that the best strategy to draw
new subscribers is not just to promote the
show itself (which they continue to do), but
rather the idea of the show as a social media
event.
•
In additional to several physical items and
trinkets contained in a wooden box, the
Influencer Box also includes “exclusive extras
which the owner can use on their social
media sites to show off their fandom,” which
HBO is now extending out to the “real fans”
through a collection of site-specific
giveaways on sites.
Hashtags
• Pepsi unveiled its global, multiyear campaign Live for Now in
2012, and made social media,
and the use of hashtags a core
component of the large
campaign.
• The campaign includes TV,
radio, cinema and outdoor
advertising and Pepsi
partnered with Twitter to
organize a series of exclusive
pop-up concerts. In
conjunction with the roll out
of the Live for Now marketing
initiative, Pepsi also debuted
Pepsi Pulse, a social mediadriven interactive dashboard
for everything pop culture.
• Pepsi – Pepsi Pulse