Homework questions

Homework questions

What are the critical differences between scholarship that focuses on media production and media consumption? What are their relationships with audiences, and how do they understand the meaning-making within media?

According to Boczkowski and Siles (2014), most scholarship focusing on media technologies are organized along two primary dimensions of inquiry. These are consumption and production. The researchers highlight the scholarship on the consumption of content is fundamentally the purview of sociological, anthropological, and cultural inquiries of medial audiences. The scholars further attribute the scholarship on media consumption as discussing the way audiences often appropriate media artifacts and how they have analyzed the interpretive strategies deployed by users to make sense of the content dispensed through the artifact. In stark contrast, Boczkowski and Siles (2014) document that the scholarship on media production is the purview of not only historical but also sociological analyses of technology construction while some work has been in the political-economic of communication. Furthermore, unlike the scholarship on media consumption, the scholarship on media production conceptualize media technologies as a crystalized set of material and social reactions, or, alternatively, a relational effect. Additionally, while the audience interpretations in scholarship work on consumption tend to diverge founded on the symbolic resources related to their gender, socioeconomic position, and ethnicity, the meaning-making among the production scholarship diverge based on practical, ideational, technical, material, and environmental changes.

We covered two different dimensions of branding: (1) the origins of commodity branding, and (2) the contemporary normalization of branding the self. Be ready to discuss each one as well as your perspective on the latter.

Unlike what many people often believe, modern-day global capitalism did not mark the onset of commodity branding. Instead, the origins of the phenomenon were during the beginnings of urban life in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, which occurred at around 4^th millennium B.C. Wengrow (2008) claims that commodity branding was a product of the various developments taking place during this time including labor specialization, settlement growth, mass production, as well as, extended economies. The scholar identifies that commodity branding was perceived as an approach used as a solution to problems of scale that predated capitalism during the millennium. I believe that the contemporary normalization of branding as the self is primarily due to the unstable labor market, which places the onus of the workers to address the threats posed by neoliberalism by adopting an entrepreneurial model to the self. In support of the finding by Whitmer (2018), I also think that, as self-branding often encourages employees to create strong brands that remain consistent across distinct contexts, the phenomenon necessarily ignores the situated equality of the self.

Discuss “mass media theory,” considering its origins, its central tenets, its interventions, and its blind-spots (if you think it has any).

Mas media theory holds out that mass communication media channels often communicate directly to the audience in the absence of the opinion leaders filtering the message. The theory was coined between the 15^th and 16^th centuries but has since been developed, such that there are numerous categories of the model, each trying to address a specific aspect of mass media. A good example of a constituent theory is development communication theory, which purports that the media has taken up the role of carrying out positive developmental programs, coming into terms with prohibitions and instructions from the state. The theory also presents that the media has subordinated itself to economic, political, cultural, and social needs, therefore the emphasis on development communication as well as development journalism. The major loophole of this theory, however, is that the development is, in most cases, equated to the challenge of propaganda.

Discuss the “Frankfurt School” of thought, considering its origins, its central tenets, its interventions, and its blind-spots (if you think it has any).

The “Frankfurt School” of thought took effect between 1929 and 1930 after the start of the Institute for Social Research prompted the arrival of Frankfurt School philosophers, not mentioning the inaugural lecture by Max Horkheimer (Cole, 2019). Central to this school of thought was the development of a critical theory along with the popularization of a dialectical method of learning, which encompassed the need for interrogating the society’s contradictions. The core concern of the school of thought was the rise of mass culture, which referred to the technological developments that provided a platform for the dissemination of cultural products, including film, music, and art, on a mass scale (Cole, 2019). Those affiliated with this school, particularly Horkheimer and Adorno, were discontent with how technological advent promoted sameness in the cultural and production experience. The philosophers and theorists purported that technology made people politically passive and intellectually inactive because they allowed mass-produced values and ideologies to wash over them while allowing them to infiltrate their consciousness (Cole, 2019). The chief blind spot of the Frankfurt School of Thought is that it rejects the convergence of science, capitalism, and critical theory.

Discuss the “Birmingham School” of thought, considering its origins, its central tenets, its interventions, and its blind-spots (if you think it has any).

The “Birmingham School” of thought was founded in 1964 by Richard Hoggart during his research into the press, youth cultures, television, and film as part of his contribution to the newly-founded Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham (Corte, 2013). The earliest objective of this school of thought was to contest the positivism of the British sociology and the cultural elitism of literary theory (Corte, 2013). The school acknowledged the essence of culture in sustaining the political order of the contemporary society. The Birmingham School of thought held out that the ruling elites tended to carve out a form of domination or hegemony via culture and ideas that induced a form of consent among the ruled or governed. Hegemony, as defined by the Birmingham School, has a critical role in the cultural studies, considering the observation that pop culture tends to converse the domination in cultural framework, a thing that was highly prevalent in academia at the time of the onset of the school (Corte, 2013). Despite the growing prominence of the school, Corte (2013) claims that it has been criticized in that some of the earliest works prioritize the development of social theory over the collection of data to an extent where studies were primarily performed in the absence of subjects.

Describe the aesthetic and political moralities of early Rock and Roll and then explain how these moralities helped the genre play a crucial role in the economic objectives of the sound recording industry and radio.

The two aesthetic moralities of the early Rock and Roll were professionalization and corporate partnership or collaboration (Hesmondhalgh, 1999). While professionalization encompassed an entry into a more established, parallel industry, a corporate partnership involved an attempt to deliver superstars through ideologies of authenticity as well as masculinity. The political moralities, on their part, emphasized the influence of anarchism as opposed to socialist politics, which were prevalent in the era (Hesmondhalgh, 1999). Both the aesthetic and political moralities played a role in helping the genre become a central part of the economic objectives of the sound recording industry and radio in that rock and roll musicians adopted a new ideal. As such, according to Hesmondhalgh (1999), they now wanted their music to matter, to be consumed, ad to be battled over on the largest stages, which then pushed the music recording industry to include this type of music in their economic priorities.

Explain the multifaceted relationship between the history and function of the MP3 and leak culture.

Indeed, the relationship between the history along with the function of the MP3 and leak culture is multifaceted. For instance, leaks are often sold as MP3s through blogs and peer-to-peer networks, usually acquiring over-inflated value prior to MP3s find their way to the store shelves. In addition to this, Harvey (2012) expresses that recordings that have been encoded as MP3s have the potential to escape established distribution networks and circulate in manners that performatively instantiate novel interpretative communities with immense access, anticipation, and evaluation. While this is the case, Harvey (2012) supposes that the MP3s are ripped from to form leaks, which are then endorsed on another artist’s blog. The researcher supposes that this cause often triggers the involvement of a web security organization. Consequently, Harvey (2012) confer that the distinction between privacy and promotion is effectively blurred.

Discuss the five key moments when the history of film in the U.S. intersected with major sociocultural discussions about American identity and ethno-racial belonging.

The history of films in American society is marred by points of intersections with fundamental sociocultural discourses concerning the U.S. identity and ethno-racial belonging. One of the key moments occurred between 1900 and 1970s when Bogle chronicled the experience of popular African American entertainers not only on but also of the big screens (Adams, 2010). In this very period as well, the role of black women was prescribed in the film industry in line with this moment in time, resulting in three dominant depictions, namely, social, sex, and political symbols. A third key moment happened in 1988 when the film industry intersected with gender, sex, class, and other numerous determinants of identity and culture in an effort to conceptualize the ideological dimensions of cultural texts fully while appraising the full range of their effects. A fourth key moment, according to Kellner (1995), occurred between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s when critical methodologies were developed to assist the film industry in interpreting cultural texts, hence establish the way varied texts inhibited or supported the advancement of the progressive political movement aims. The ultimate key point entailed between the ideology of the Hollywood film lead to the reproduction of hegemonic conservative discourses during the Age of Reagan (Kellner, 1995).

Unpack the notion of “controlling images,” explaining how these images work, how they produce and shape social and lived realities, and provide an example that illustrates these functions

Central to the controlling images is the sexuality of the African American women, whether portrayed as hypersexual or asexual (Foster, 2010). The supposed primary aim of the controlling images is to add a layer of aesthetics to the media industry while, in reality, the images serve to oppress the black women by producing and shaping harsh, and often deceptive, social and lived realities, presenting them with animalism and grotesque. As an illustration, Hottentot Venus, a woman from South Africa, was brought to Europe in the early years of the 19^th century (Foster, 2010). The controlling images presented Hottentot Venus as a person that represented an intersection between outrageousness and primitiveness. In stark contrast, Alek Wek, also a black woman, was portrayed by controlling images in a way that maintained elements of otherness and exoticness, suggesting that she is not as objectified and displaced in relation to her race when compared to Hottentot Venus (Foster, 2010). This clearly shows that the real purpose of the controlling images is to represent a progression in the ethnic diversification of the western media sector.

References

Adams, V. N. (2010). Messages in the medium: the relationships among Black media images, racial identity, body image, and the racial socialization of Black youth. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1411&context=edissertations

Boczkowski, P. J., & Siles, I. (2014). Steps toward cosmopolitanism in the study of media technologies. Information, Communication & Society, 17(5), 560-571.

Cole, N. L. (2019). The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/frankfurt-school-3026079

Corte, U. (2012). Subcultures and small groups: A social movement theory approach. Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.

Foster, E. (2010). Controlling Images of African women: The Hottentot Venus, Alek Wek & the Thought of Stuart Hall. Concept, 33, 1-12.

Harvey, E. (2013). Collective anticipation: The contested circulation of an album leak. Convergence, 19(1), 77-94.

Hesmondhalgh, D. (1999). Indie: The institutional politics and aesthetics of a popular music genre. Cultural studies, 13(1), 34-61.

Kellner, D. (1995). Media Culture. London, UK: Routledge.

Wengrow, D. (2008). Prehistories of commodity branding. Current Anthropology, 49(1), 7-34.

Whitmer, J. M. (2019). You are your brand: Self‐branding and the marketization of self. Sociology Compass, 13(3), e12662.