Policy & Regulation
True or false: All media policy comes from the state
False!
Bonus (double or nothing): What term refers to companies and industries that regulate themselves?
True or false: The word "politics" means the same thing in multiple contexts
False: Politics refers broadly to relations of power in a society, but it can also refer to electoral politics or partisan politics, which are more specific arenas of power more regularly discussed in everyday life
Define consumer society
"A consumer society is a world in which commodities (goods) and commodified experiences (services) are bought and sold, i.e., commercially exchanged, within a market, i.e., a capitalist economy." (189)
True or false: Technologies do not have politics. They are neutral and only become political based on how they are used/applied
False: Technologies are not neutral. They are created by people, who have their own biases and preference some interests over others.
Film photography developing to prioritize whiteness and search engines reinforcing racism in their results are two examples
The show Ugly Betty is:
a. An original American comedy-drama
b. An adaptation of a Colombian telenovela
c. An adaptation of a popular Japanese Manga
b. An adaptation of a Colombian telenovela
A recent example of media regulation is the proposed banning of TikTok. What is at issue in this example?
Some U.S. politicians take issue with the Chinese ownership of TikTok and believe it raises privacy concerns that could harm national security. The ban demands sale of TikTok to a non-Chinese company.
What term describes a political subject or participant in political life?
Citizen
True or false: Consumerist media is referred to as advertising
False: Advertising is one prominent type of consumerist media, but all kinds of media can be consumerist (e.g., Lifestyle TV, Hollywood films, TikTok videos)
The development of online "read-write" culture has been labeled ___
Web 2.0
What term describes the phenomenon of importing and exporting culture from place to place?
Media globalization
In media policy, what are the three main categories of regulation (must name all three correctly)
Media ownership regulation, media content regulation, and media infrastructure regulation
Define the term "civic culture"
Civic culture: "culture used to engage citizens in democratic experience and communication. When media addresses audiences as citizens, and when audiences engage with media as participants in democracy, that's civic culture" (161)
Bonus (double or nothing): State an example of a media text that can be described as civic culture and explain how it functions this way
This type of advertising doesn't directly sell a particular product, but works to construct a positive image or "aura" around a brand
Branded entertainment or native advertising
What term describes the tendency to attribute complex social phenomena to the single cause of a technology?
Technological determinism
It's not that technology aren't causes, just that they're not the only causes
True or false: The cultural imperialism thesis refers to the Western domination the Global South through the use of media and culture and is universally agreed upon by scholars
False! Many scholars argue that the cultural imperialism thesis oversimplifies complex dynamics
Bonus (double or nothing): Describe one way that scholars have complicated the issue of globalization and media
What term describes an area of public policy that promotes competition in an industry through regulation of ownership?
Antitrust
Which of the following describes the concept of the public sphere:
a. It's a space where citizens engage in critical deliberation and debate over public concerns
b. It's not a metaphor or ideal; it actually existed in the 17th and 18th centuries
c. It's a realm separate from the state/government
A and C. The scholar Jurgen Habermas described the concept using 17th and 18th century examples, but other scholars have pointed out that this version of a public sphere only included select members of society
Describe how the film Pretty Woman supports the values of a consumer society
Pretty Woman suggests that a ow-class, "unsophisticated" woman can be transformed into a better, more aspirational version of herself by purchasing the right clothes and services
Describe the difference between designer intentions and user affordances
Designer intentions are deliberate design choices made by the creators/inventors of a technology or platform
User affordances refers to the ways people actually use a technology or platform, regardless of whether the designers intended it to be used that way
What does it mean to say that local audiences inflect global media?
Local audiences make "sense of imported texts through their interpretive activity within communities that share common perspectives" (256). In other words, we make sense of texts in ways that are rooted in our own cultures and experiences and not always in the exact ways the creators intended!
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is often cited as advancing the interests of media companies despite paying lip service to consumer interests. What term describes this condition of an industry having the power to influence the terms of its own state regulation?
Regulatory capture
Unlike "read-only" mass media, the Internet is a "read/write" experience that allows users to engage with and participate in media more directly. This more participatory culture is thought to give a voice to ordinary people, though it hasn't always resulted in the spread of Democracy as a political system
Define consumer-citizen and provide a specific example
The intertwining of citizenship/civic engagement with consumerism/consumption in modern capitalist societies. The consumer-citizen attempts to engage civically by purchasing specific products.
An example might be purchasing products from Black business owners after the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protests, or purchasing Dove products over another brand because they claim to promote body positivity
Invention, distribution, regulation, domestication
Explain how reality TV is often an example of media hybridity or glocalization. Provide an example
Unscripted reality TV shows offer "templates" that can easily travel and be adapted that can be adapted (or "localized") to different countries.
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Survivor, Love Island, and many other series are examples of this