Shannon model and social model
Look at the message itself and think about the idea in message itself. How message is constructed? How media content constructed?
Talking about process… process can be also of :

“Signification” - The process of creating “signs” – (anything that you can read meaning into)

Semiology or semiotics: the study of signs and sign systems(understanding of sign)

|Signifier what we see |Signified what is in our head |
|Sign anything we can make meaning of |

Words are also signs
The thing you see (hear, feel, etc.) – signifier -- and what the thing you see (hear, feel, etc.) stands for -- signified; (also “referent”)

3 kinds of signs (multiple choice test)

Icon: looks like the thing (photo, map) apple

Index(indicates): associated with its object (smoke indicates fire, animal droppings) tree

Symbol: arbitrary/abstract relationship (language)
Collection of signifiers is:
Text: Any collection of signs from which meaning is made.
(Book, TV show, film, radio, sky, map, etc.) Any collection of sign, which has meaning

Mix and match signifiers to create signs with new/different meaning (e.g. underwear; beer ad) signifies bad prostate treatment. Underwear signifies good treatment of prostate.

Women wearing beer bottle cloths signify that it was very sexist ad and deliver message that women can be consumed.

What flag signify: flag of US signifies corporate companies. Show America is about making money.

The struggle over how to signify different people and events can have strong consequences. (Who’s a terrorist?)

Simpsons cartoon talking about the struggle shown in particular context (beer)

Some Perspectives on Content (Encoding)

• Literary Criticism (auteur theory) emphasis on the role of the author, (ideas in the story or text originate with the author) flag is symbol. What the content influence or person do. Decenter the author

• Structuralism(meaning is being imposed upon us), Semiotics (look at the text itself), and Post-structuralism (doesn’t matter what history or text itself is what important is the history of decoder, talk about how meaning is made): emphasis not on the personal, but on the larger social context/structure (history)

• Political economy: emphasizes the ways in which political and economic forces enable and constrain the production, distribution, and consumption of media messages why is the simpson on the cbc? Bcoz of economic reason (money).
So author write in a way to meet a commercial television program to earn money eg of Simpson when pulled by police

• Discourse Analysis: focuses on how language, as a system of representation, provides us with a particular perspective or position in the world. (Language of news {you will look for news not the history}, language of love, discourse of texting)

Four different takes on how meaning is put into messages or how content is generated.

A couple perspectives on content itself:

• Content Analysis: Simple analysis of ideas in a message. (Counts words, images, sources, etc.)

• Media Form Analysis (Medium Theory): Considers how the form of communication structures/determines the content. (eg. TV = images; radio = aural; advertising, inverted pyramid news story, music videos, investigative TV reports all provide specific form)

Media and Audiences (Decoding)

Agency:

• Effects Research (1930’s -); Looked direct media effect on audience members (S->R) aka. hypodermic needle model; transportation model

Never proved anything. Why?

But persists thru perspectives today...

e.g. i) Media and Violence (esp. children and teenagers)

ii) Agenda Setting Perspective... (less direct) the media doesn't tell us what to think, but it tells us what to think about
Media tells us what to think about.

iii) Gerbner's cultivation analysis (Media “cultivate’ or promote particular perspectives)

All 3 tend to draw a straight line between what goes on in the media and what goes on in people’s heads. Downplay agency.

Use and Gratifications: Response to no direct effects. Asks why people use media (e.g. information tool, leisure activity, escapism) doesn’t consider larger relations between the media and society.
Perspectives will be on exam.

Other perspectives anchor media content in broader social processes. See media as part of “culture” or “whole way of life;” as promoting "ideology."

i) Marxism, Frankfurt School: media promote ideology; make current economic system appear natural, legitimate; also
Promote the growth of capitalism and the commodity form. Only encourages activities that can be profited from. (e.g. Sports and leisure time all turned into commodities or products you have to pay for.) “”

ii) British Cultural Studies: sees media as promoting a “way of life” but rather than put emphasis on economic system looks to broader systems of subordination (e.g. includes class, race, gender, ethnicity)

Media and media professionals important in defining reality in terms of the dominant relations of power.. (e.g. media turn to “important” people e.g. politicians, experts etc. to define events. Hence, we see the world from their perspective, not alternative explanations (e.g. private market vs. gov’t. ownership). Reinforces status quo.

iii) Feminist Media Research Similar to “cultural studies only focus on gender ... eg. how does the media reinforce/perpetuate relations of power between men and women.

And one more:

Industry Audience Research: Most familiar. Concerned with ratings, demographics) No deep questions about the larger relationship between the media and society.
*demographic= a descrption od population based upon social trades and variables.

Myth of consumer sovereignty; Do we get what we want or just what we are offered (exam)z