Communication

1. Communication • Is a symbolic process using symbols with SHARED MEANING to exchange ideas and information. • MASS COMMUNICATION-(in general) requires symbols that can be relevant to a mass audience that is:

2. Mass Audience symbols • Highly Diverse

3. Mass Audience symbols • Highly Diverse • Widely Diffused

4. Mass Audience symbols • Highly Diverse • Widely Diffused • Easily Distracted

5. Mass Audience symbols • Highly Diverse • Widely Diffused • Easily Distracted • Increasing Fragmented

6. Media Criticism Com 327 • Mass Communication defined

7. Media Criticism Com 327 • Mass Communication defined • Mass communication occurs when a small number of people send messages to a large anonymous and usually heterogeneous audience through the use of specialized communication media.

8. Media Criticism Com 327 • Mass Communication defined • The units of analysis for mass communication are the messages, the mediums, and the audience.

9. Media Criticism • Understanding the MESSAGE • Teleliteracy • Visual literacy • TV Programs and their styles

10. Media Criticism • Understanding the AUDIENCE • Identification/Classification • Consumption • Measurement

11. Media Criticism • Understanding the MEDIUM (Television) • Transmission • Reception • History

12. Television viewing appears to be effortless. To some extent it is, but it requires a set of skills referred to as “Teleliteracy” and “Visual Literacty”

13. THE MESSAGE • Teleliteracy • The understanding of visual and aural production techniques not available in human perception and not a part of our physiological and psychological repertoire

14. Unnatural elements • The Point of view editing in cinema verite(Pictorial storytelling)

15. Unnatural elements • The Point of view editing in cinema verite(Pictorial storytelling) • Time Manipulation -Flashback, time leaps,dreams sequences,time lags.

16. Unnatural elements • The Point of view editing in cinema verite(Pictorial storytelling) • Time Manipulation • Extreme perspectives -extreme zooms, aerial views, fast/slo mo, replays

17. Unnatural elements • The Point of view editing in cinema verite(Pictorial storytelling) • Time Manipulation • Extreme perspectives • Audio tracks -laugh tracks, mood music, voice overs, transistions

18. Unnatural elements • The Point of view editing in cinema verite(Pictorial storytelling) • Time Manipulation • Extreme perspectives • Audio tracks • Segmentation/discontinuity -scene to scene, show to show, episode to episode to episode

19. Acquired knowledge • Repeated exposure • Assimilation (making sense of collective whole) • Suspension of disbelief • Cognitive Complacency

20. THE MESSAGE • VISUAL LITERACY • The Physiological & Psychological skill necessary to visual scan, mentally perceive & understand the outside world or The application of real world perceptual abilities to TV’s 2 dimensional world

21. THE MESSAGE • VISUAL LITERACY • Acquired and mastered through social experience & Interaction • Applicable to TV Presentation/storytelling that replicate real world experience ( Verisimilitude-appears real)

22. DimensionLife is 3D, TV is 2D so we must apply our real world visual literacy to the TV World

23. DimensionLife is 3D, TV is 2D so we must apply our real world visual literacy to the TV World • Binocular Disparity- the ability to focus on an object within a wide range of vision, giving it clarity=Camera lens

24. DimensionLife is 3D, TV is 2D so we must apply our real world visual literacy to the TV World • Binocular Disparity • Motion Parallax – Understanding that closer objects move “faster” within field of vision. (TV is flat.. No “distance” just illusion of it.

25. DimensionLife is 3D, TV is 2D so we must apply our real world visual literacy to the TV World • Binocular Disparity • Motion Parallax • Occlusion – Closer=bigger, capable of blocking sight of further objects

26. DimensionLife is 3D, TV is 2D so we must apply our real world visual literacy to the TV World • Binocular Disparity • Motion Parallax • Occlusion • Paraproxemics- Closeness = intimacy Distance, camera angles=power, Dutch angle=something is wrong batman. “The Graduate” “Push Nevada”

27. DimensionLife is 3D, TV is 2D so we must apply our real world visual literacy to the TV World • Binocular Disparity • Motion Parallax • Occlusion • Paraproxemics • Perceptual continuity-Point of sight, we tend to focus on objects of importance, dominance, attention ie phone ring,

28. DimensionLife is 3D, TV is 2D so we must apply our real world visual literacy to the TV World • Binocular Disparity • Motion Parallax • Occlusion • Paraproxemics • Perceptual continuity EXPERIENCING THESE IN THE REAL WORLD ALLOWS OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THESE ON TV Easy transference..Mr Rodgers, West Wing

29. Motion…Head/eyes replaced by the Camera/lens • Pan/tilt • Dolly • trucking • Zoom • Crane • Wire camera’s – Sports applications

30. HOW do we make TV?

31. How do we make TV? • By pulling from symbols that reflect both internal reality and external reality& creating an interaction of the two. • A balance of part fantasy/part reality

32. Internal reality -artistic expression -creative enterprise -existing technology -storytelling devices -budget External reality -The human conditions we share -The times in history we share Reality breakdown

33. Internal reality -narrative structure -plot convention -time frames-length -dramatic formal -Institutional constraints-fines External reality -societal norms -legal system -cultural values -rites and rituals -fads and fashions Reality breakdown

34. NON-NARRATIVE NARRATIVE TV PROGRAMS

35. NON-NARRATIVE -non-scripted stories -social actors -directly address/ acknowledge audience -cheap to produce NARRATIVE TV PROGRAMS

36. NON-NARRATIVE -non-scripted stories -social actors -directly address/ acknowledge audience -cheap to produce NARRATIVE -scripted story -episodic -actors-recurring cast TV PROGRAMS

37. NON-NARRATIVE NARRATIVE Genre/Types of programs

38. NON-NARRATIVE -talk shows -game shows -sports -reality NARRATIVE Genre/Types of programs

39. NON-NARRATIVE -talk shows -game shows -sports -reality NARRATIVE Comedy -cartoons -Seinfeld Drama -soap -family -SCI-FI Genre/Types of programs

40. Genre Evolution • Caused by Audience expectations due to sophistication/boredom/competition

41. Genre Evolution • Primitive – Original rules derived from old medium

42. Genre Evolution • Primitive – Original rules derived from old medium • Classical – Matured and firmly established rules

43. Genre Evolution • Primitive – Original rules derived from old medium • Classical – Matured and firmly established rules • Revisionist – experimentation, bending or breaking of rules (genre bending) ie “firefly” sci-fi-western, “Mary Hartman” comedy-soap

44. Genre Evolution • Primitive – Original rules derived from old medium • Classical – Matured and firmly established rules • Revisionist – experimentation, bending or breaking of rules (Genre Bending) • Paradic – makes fun of firmly established rules

45. Genre Evolution Examples SITCOM “I love Lucy” “Father knows Best” “Roseanne” “Married….with children”

46. Genre Evolution Examples Western “Lone Ranger” “Gunsmoke” “Wild, Wild West” “F-Troop”

47. Genre Evolution Examples Comedy/Variety “Your Show of Shows” “Carole Burnett Show” “SNL” “Dana Carvey Taco Bell hour”

48. Genre Evolution Examples Reality “Candid Camera” “Cops” “Survivor” “Joe Schmoe”

49. Immaterial No Physical properties of ownership TV Programs are unique commodities

50. Immaterial Novel No Physical properties of ownership One time event TV Programs are unique commodities