Remember to read lecture AFTER reading the chapter. :)
This chapter provides a good overview of things to come. In it, Turow
discusses the media business as a whole from the framework of the "five and five" -- the five activities of a media company
and the five genres of content.
The two most important concepts to understand from this chapter are the
industrial nature of the media and the idea that audiences are constructed by the media. Our notions that we, with our
remotes, are in charge is simply not true.
As we will see in future chapters, advertising has been a driving force in the development
of the media forms (radio, television, etc.). The role of the media has evolved into one of delivering audiences for
advertisers in order to cover costs and make money with the least amount of risk.
Early in media history, describing audiences was much easier. Taking television as an example,
there were only three networks, NBC, CBS, and ABC. media practitioners could be reasonably sure who their audiences
were. Now, however, there are hundreds of stations and audiences have become fragmented or dispersed among these choices.
Hence, we have seen the rise of "niche" networks. Think of all the options available to us: Discovery Channel,
MTV, Food Network, ESPN, just to name a few. No longer are we one large audience with three choices. Now, we are
hundreds of niche audiences with a variety of choices.
The fragmentation of audiences has made it difficult for media practitioners to market audiences
to advertisers. Consequently, the use of research (e.g., demographic, psychographic, and lifestyle categories) has become
a well-developed science.
To take these concepts further, media executives work with advertisers to "create audiences."
How? By relying on formulas which have worked (e.g., the genres). That is why so much of programming follows predictable
story lines, even though the shows are "new". It sort of raises the question of "is there really anything new under
the sun?"
Monroe's Motivated Sequence: On a slightly different (but equally
relevant) note, I would like to explain a technique called Monroe's motivated sequence. Monroe was a communication researcher
at Purdue in the 1930's, who spent his career researching how to get people motivated to the point of action. He developed
the below rubric for persuasive public speaking, but it worked so well, it became the foundation of advertisement construction.
If you watch closely, you will see the sequence followed on nearly all of the advertisements you encounter. Let's walk
through an example.
Example: A few years ago, the Olive Garden ran an advertisement showing an Italian family
sitting down to a meal. The Olive Garden was promoting it's "taste of Italy" platter. Here's how Monroe's motivated
sequence comes into play.
Step One: Get the audience's attention. The Olive Garden
did this visually by showing the warm, family enviornment of the Italians. Everyone was laughing and hugging and enjoying
themselves at a meal.
Step Two: Identify unfulfilled needs. Here, the advertiser's
goal is to highlight something that you're missing--even if you don't know it's missing! In our example, you were missing
the gusto and warmth of the Italian meal.
Step Three: Show how the unfulfilled needs can be met. So,
you don't know you have the need until they tell you. Rather than feel bad, you can be happy--because they have the
cure! In the Olive Garden example, all you needed to do was order the "taste of Italy" platter.
Step Four: Visualization. Here, you visualize what your life
would be like with your need filled. In the commercial, they tell you that "you, too" can enjoy life with the same gusto
as the Italians--hugs instead of handshakes, etc. Because everyone seems so happy eating their family meal, you assume
it would work for you, too.
Step Five: Call to action. So, let's recap. You
have this need, that they can meet, and gee, won't your life be great when that need is met. Now the only issue is to
"hurry down" and get your need met. After all, this cure will only be available for a "limited time only." Other calls to action might sound like,
"one at this price," "sale ends tomorrow" etc.
Hopefully, this sequence sounds vaguely familiar to you. I encourage you to think about
it and view advertisements through this lense. I think it helps illustrate the mindset that media executives and advertisers
have.
However, one of the best ways to wrap your brain around how media executives thinks is to
try to create an audience. Think through the worksheet below and e-mail me your responses.
