As with Chapter 3, this chapter has many important concepts that you should spend time reviewing.  Here is a recap of the chapter:

I.                     Six trends

A.      Media fragmentation

B.      Audience segmentation

C.      Distributing across media boundaries

D.      Digital convergence

E.      Conglomeration

II.                   Media Fragmentation—Growth of new media delivering many genres:

A.      Cable

B.      UHF

C.      VCR and DVD

D.      Personal computer

E.      Internet

F.      Telemarketing

G.     Out of home media

Media fragmentation leads to audience erosion for any one medium and causes networks to search for audience niches:

H.      Big three networks attract 90% or higher of viewing audiences in 1980’s

I.         In the late 1990’s, the big three only get 51% (drop of 54%)

J.       Fox (the fourth network) gets 13%

III.                  Audience Segmentation

A.      These are audience niches

B.      The search for these audiences is called targeting

C.      This happens both in advertiser supported media and direct payment media

IV.                Advertiser-Supported Media

A.      The target is the audience the advertiser desires

B.      For example, BMW uses Fortune magazine to reach those who work hard and play hard

C.      Advertisers use both psychographics and demographics to define and select their desired audience

D.      Work hard/play hard is a psychographic description

E.      High income is a demographic description

V.                  Reasons for Distributing Across Media Boundaries:

A.      Cover cost of production in different markets/media

B.      Make target audience aware of product’s existence (achieving “good share of mind”)

VI.                Covering Cost:

A.      TV producers have learned to cover costs and go into profits by selling to both networks and the secondary syndication markets (neither by itself pays profits)

B.      Movie producers have learned to rely on theatrical/TV/video and both domestic and foreign markets in order to cover high costs and go into profits

VII.               Globalization:

A.      Media products are distributed across national boundaries for the same reason they are distributed across media boundaries

B.      The media companies themselves are global, and foreign companies have bought U.S. media firms:

1.                   Sony (Japan) owns Columbia pictures and Columbia Records

2.                   Vivendi (France) owns Universal Studies

3.                   News Corporation (Australia) owns 20^th Century Fox, Fox TV, New York Post

4.                   Bertelsman (Germany) owns Random House, RCA Records, Family Circle Magazine

C.      Do foreign audience segments have the same tastes as Americans?

D.      Does American media globalization hurt native mass media firms?

E.      Is this an instance of global co-optation of local cultures?

VIII.             Conglomeration and Synergy:

A.      Media conglomerates become different in the 1980’s (in response to audience erosion)

B.      Now media conglomerates are formed to pursue proper “share of mind” and to forestall competitor’s control of distribution and exhibition outlets.

C.      Synergy is when the whole is greater than its parts

D.      Media conglomerates are formed to pursue synergy, to facilitate cross-media exploitation of genres and content

IX.                 Digital Convergence:

A.      Digital technology has altered production, distribution and exhibition of most media products

B.      Since text, images, sound are all digitized, this enhances the possibilities for cross-platform formats

C.      MP3 is a cross platform format since it is software that allows the transfer of music to various digital media including the internet

D.      Napster used MP3 for grass-roots sharing of music (declared to be an infringement of music copyright)

E.      Media executives are formulating plans to use cross-platform formats without losing control of the content to piracy and unauthorized transfers

X.                   Three Criticisms of Conglomerates:

A.      They narrow media agenda to the mainstream

B.      They homogenize world culture

C.      They jeopardize democratic political processes.

Review:

Review the chart on pp. 204-205 which provide a good summary of the pros and cons of media trends.  Reflect on these developments as you complete the assignment below. 

APPLICATION EXERCISE:   Ch. 5--Crossing Media Boundaries