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Traditional, Mass, New Media

Traditional, Mass, New Media

1. What are the industrial or economic factors in the evolution of media from print to radio to television?

    Based from our understanding from the readings, we have identified six economic factors that are present in the evolution of media from print to radio to television: conglomeration, economic globalization, availability, consumer fragmentation, hyper-commercialism, and convergence. In this discussion, we will also be mentioning about economic expansion, oligopoly, media quality, revenue, economic competition, mass consumption, and advertising. These terms are economic in a way that it affected and still affects the production, distribution, and services offered by media. Also, please note that some of these terms are only names we coined for easier identification of what was implied in the readings.

    Conglomeration. In the process of media’s evolution, it seems that media companies are being concentrated and owned by bigger conglomerates. One conglomerate can even own multiple media companies. “Through mergers, acquisitions, buyouts, and hostile takeovers, a very small number of large conglomerates is coming to own more and more of the world’s media outlets.” (Baran, 2014) A very small portion of most of these conglomerates is media; they run other businesses like cars, phones, restaurants, etc. Although this oligopoly is financially good as argued by some people (the conglomerate can use profit from other businesses to support media branch), media will not be given much of the attention it truly needs to operate well. Aside from losing focus, it is likely that these conglomerates may use media for their own interests. And because large conglomerates are usually centralized on gaining profit, they tend to focus more on the trend: more on what people want to see than what people need to see. For example, “CNN had 50 people covering the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. It assigned more than 400 to England’s royal wedding.” (Baran, 2014). In addition, this phenomenon results to a decrease in ideas circulating the media; it degrades media content.

    Globalization. The main issue on globalization is the detachment of media from its audience. This is highly linked in conglomeration: for large conglomerates are usually multinational and thus focuses on international issues and affairs. These conglomerates seek to cater the demand of their audience all at the same time and in the process promoting globalization. Hence, the question “Will distant, anonymous, foreign corporations, each with vast holdings in a variety of non-media businesses, use their power to shape news and entertainment content to suit their own ends?” (Baran, 2014).

    Availability and accessibility. The evolution of media allowed for easier access to information and many other contents. Print media introduced mass production of information and allowed wide distributions covering large regions; at the time it was truly unconventional. But in print, though it is easily circulated (because it cheap, for one reason), its primary audience are those who are literate. Radio media solved this because it only required orality while introducing a new way of getting information. The convenience of being able to do other things while getting news and other information brought by radio also contributed to its popularity. Radio operas, live broadcasts, and many other useful forms of delivering information was made possible by radio. In the shift to television, media found itself another useful platform. The pictures of magazines plus voices in the radio was combined (and made better, the pictures were moving) in television. This again attracted more people to engage in communication. Television had a great impact in our culture, and it is very evident in how we make TV’s the center of our salas. These three combined enabled mass consumption of information (in all forms), economic expansion (each new platform introduced a new market), raise in revenue, mass advertising, and others.

    Consumer fragmentation. The evolution of media divided its general audience into many, sometimes overlapping, groups. We have groups that only reads print or newspapers, some that both listens to radio and reads newspapers, those that only watches tv, etc. Furthermore, due to the wide array of information offered by televisions, radio and print media had to find a way to survive. They did this by narrowing the scope of their content focusing more on a specific group of people (e.g. those that likes guns, fishing, cars, etc.) From this, they were able to attract advertisers specific to their content. “This phenomenon is known as narrow casting, niche marketing, or targeting.” (Baran, 2014) Today, we have different sets of audiences and different media titles that cater to these specific groups.

    Hyper-commercialism. As a result of the widespread availability and accessibility from the evolution of media, it has become a very powerful commercial tool. Products, services, and other commercial things can be advertised and seen by many people easily through media. This fact led to media content being overloaded with so much advertisement. Though this is beneficial in terms of revenue, this flooding of advertisements actually has a negative impact: media focuses more on ads rather than the actual content – thus, affecting media quality. This is evident in local networks especially in ABS-CBN: sometimes more airtime is given on commercials than actual shows. On the bright side, however, hyper-commercialism forces media companies to improve on the quality of their content so that they can attract more audiences despite their many commercials. This combined with economic competition further pushes media companies to improve their media content.

    Convergence. The evolution of media also introduced the mixing and overlapping of print, radio, and television. DZMM is one example of media convergence: in here the format is like that in radio but we can see what’s going on inside the booth. We also have print media stories being disseminated in radios and TV's, television commercials being aired on radio, and a lot more examples. Media convergence affected the industry economically by enabling media providers to be flexible in how information is dispersed. This allowed for economic expansion through opening new possibilities for media marketing.

    These factors are very much intertwined. We can see how conglomeration is related to globalization; how availability and accessibility affects consumer fragmentation and hyper-commercialism; how convergence impacts commercialism; and many more relations. The point is, the factors playing in the world of media is interconnected: change one and the others get affected. Economically speaking, media is a very profitable world; but are we going to let this negatively affect media? – Of course we should not. And so in the continuous evolution of media, in our own simple ways, let’s play a part in making it better by participating in the movement of improving media content quality.

2. What does the digitization of videos mean for information producers and consumers?

    Digitization is the process of converting something analog into something digital because of the advancement in technology. This revolutionized the way how information disseminates. By converting and producing large amount of information, both consumers and producers change the way they act.

    Producers of information who have practiced their entire life are awkwardly trying to maintain their professionalism by not changing with the times while others try to keep up with how things work and progress. The ease provided by digitization is perceived as something positive.

    Consumers of information are now more prone to give feedback. Analog consumers don’t have much of a way to give feedback back in their days but in today's times, they can give feedback at the drop of a hat. As opposed to some, as the production of information becomes easier, the consumption then increases. One example is Youtube where too many digital videos are produced and people often stay watching Youtube all day.

    Overall, digitization is positive to both consumers and producers. Producers have more to do but has easier time doing it while consumers have much more information to consume.

3.What are the pros and cons of media accessibility?

    Radio, television, newspapers, magazines and other forms of media including the vast network of technologies and devices wherein we can access the Internet, can be used to disseminate information to people wherever they are. If we come to think of it, accessing to these kinds of media should bring benefit to people especially in acquiring information. However, there are also a lot of instances that it creates problems which is far from how it should be consumed.

    PROS
    We first look at a few advantages of media accessibility. One can be updated to current events and be aware of his/her surroundings without having too much trouble. For example, accessing to media can allow us to see what is happening inside or outside the country, check the weather for the next few days or even see the injustices exposed in the news. With the use of media, people can disseminate information and it gives the audiences an extension of their senses including power, a power to influence and to change another’s perspective unlike before. It can provide entertainment, people nowadays need to unwind from their everyday routine and find ways where they can divert their attention and relax. Media can also provide faster communication for everyone so we can get in touch with others easily.


    CONS
    Some disadvantages of the media includes misinforming the masses. 
While some information can be true, others can be lies and that is a dangerous thing and worst, can harm other's lives. As much as it can provide us more information, it can also give us false news. Also, media can have a bad effect on children if they are not given proper guidance. Less physical interactions can also affect an individual with their communication and social skills.

This shows that media, based on how they are used, can bring both positive and negative effects and influences to anyone with access it.

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