INTRODUCTION TO MASS MEDIA

INTRODUCTION TO MASS MEDIA
WEEK ONE – LECTURE POST (SUMMER EDITION)

Again, let me welcome you to the class!

Week One’s Lecture Post will guide you through this week’s readings and videos while providing you with
some additional course material. It’s a substiute for a class lecture. I realize for many of you, this may be your
first online class. Feel free to contact me to get assistance, I get back to emails pretty quickly. This week’s
Lecture Post is lengthy, so you may choose to print out this document instead of reading a lot of text on a
computer screen.

While we’ve got a decent amount of theory to cover, if you can get through this week, I assure you that the
content will probably get more interesting to you. Soon, we’ll focus more on what you probably expected to
talk about when you signed up for a mass media course: influential TV shows, recording artists, and films.
We’ll begin looking at specific television shows next week, and we’ll discuss, for example, “I Love Lucy” and
“The Twilight Zone.” Week Two is probably a much better look at what this course is like in the average week.
This week is instead more of a foundational week where we’ll cover a lot of basic concepts that we’ll be using
all term. When you have friends over to your house, while you aren’t excited to show off the foundation of the
house, the foundation is obviously really important to support everything else. Think of this foundational week
in the same way.

Since the study of popular culture is the basis for this entire course, before we get to anything else, let me tell
you a brief history of the academic study of popular culture.

The academic study of popular culture is relatively new. It became a phenomenon, essentially, in the 1970s.

Before universities began studying popular culture, there was a branch of study called “American Studies” but it
was fairly elitist in nature. The popular viewpoint among academics at that time was that movies, television,
and popular music were mindless entertainment with no educational or artistic value. In other words, the
thought was that if something was massively popular, it must be bad art with no important message, and
therefore, it’s not worthy of any serious academic consideration. So, Elvis Presley = mass popularity = bad art.
The “American Studies viewpoint” was that, for example serious literature and classical music could be studied.
So, it was acceptable to study the work of poet Walt Whitman, but not the work of animator Walt Disney. It
was acceptable to study Bach and Beethoven, but not the Beatles or Bob Dylan.

Through the 1950’s and 1960’s, American Studies was primarily descriptive in nature, not analytical. Mass
culture was condemned but no effort was made to understand it. Then, the Popular Culture Association of
America was founded in 1969.

At an American Studies convention in Toledo, Ohio, a scholar named Ray Browne convinced 200 people to
form the PCA as an alternative to the elitist practices of American Studies. By 1971, you could major in
popular culture at Bowling Green State University, the first university to have such a program.

In the 1970s, lots of academics began studying popular culture and its influence on audiences. We will look at
some of them soon. Obviously, now the study of popular culture is quite popular among colleges and
universities, even though it is still sometimes looked down on by members of other fields. However, since you
are enrolled in “Introduction to Mass Media” you are now a part of this academic study of popular culture.

The argument for the study of popular culture is based on a few simple questions.

1. Do most people watch movies, listen to music, and/or watch television? If so, these things are at least a
part of our culture, for better or for worse, and are worthy of consideration. There must be some need,
no matter how small, that’s being fulfilled through these different media. Otherwise, people wouldn’t

choose to spend their time that way. Also, if something is very popular in a culture, it has at least the
potential for a lot of widespread influence and a collectively shared experience.

2. Can people be persuaded and influenced by contemporary entertainment? If so, whether the creator
intended to send a message or not, persuasion can often happen through these arts. And through
distribution via mass media outlets, persuasion could be happening to many, many people, on a wide
scale.

3. Does art (including art distributed through mass media) reveal anything about a nation’s culture? If so,
we can learn something about our own values, beliefs, dreams, priorities, struggles, shortcomings, and
goals through the study of popular culture. Since the beginning of time each culture has had its own art;
it’s just that, for the past hundred years or so, much of ours is distributed through the mass media.

With that being said, READ Chapter 1 of Wilson and Wilson’s “Mass Media, Mass Culture” before
returning to this lecture post. It will provide some of the terminology and basic concepts that we’ll be using
this entire semester. Note that the file is a PDF file and you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it. Also,
please note that the concepts mentioned in it will DEFINITELY appear both on your mid-term and final exam.
(Hint, hint.)

Pay special attention to the terms Communication, Popular Culture, Elite Culture, Mass Culture, and Mass
Communication.

Also, make sure have a good understanding of the “EPS Cycle.”
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Finished? Okay.
There’s no need for me to regurgitate and repeat the information you just read, but let me provide a little
additional information for you.

Wilson and Wilson’s definitions are a little broad, but I think they are still effective.

For example, they define culture as “EVERYTHING that occurs in a society – ALL the customs and practices
handed down from generation to generation.” That clearly covers a lot. It includes, but is not limited to, our
knowledge, experiences, values, beliefs, and opinions.
But think about our many sources of culture… our family, school, friends, and church. And, given the name of
the course, another obvious source of culture is the mass media.
As we focus on the mass media this term, let me acknowledge that there are a lot of things that shape our
culture, and often despite the common tendency to point the finger at the media, there are thankfully, often more
influential aspects of our culture.

In the reading, Wilson and Wilson actually provide several definitions of communication, but I prefer the one
on page seven. “The process by which individuals share information, ideas and attitudes.” I like this definition
for several reasons. One, it’s much easier to understand and remember than the one that appears on page 12.
Secondly, it states that communication is a process. We don’t think much about the process of communicating,
because we do it all the time. However, to send you this lecture post for example right now, my communication
is going through a process. I choose the words to write down to best communicate my message and I send that
through a channel, in this case iLearn, to you with the hopes that you’ll fully understand my intended message.
Then, if you want to, say, ask me a question about something I said, the communication process begins again as
you send me feedback. Finally, the definition states that communication is a sharing of information and ideas.
Communication is not one-way and because it’s a sharing process, a lot of meaningful content can be shared
and passed along.

Like the reading says traditionally culture was divided into two parts: “elite culture” and “folk culture.” Elite
culture in, medieval times, was the culture of the royalty. Kings could enjoy fine literature and had access to

the finest artists and musicians. This elite culture, sometimes called high culture, is commonly considered to
include the fine arts. In contrast, the average person, or the peasant, couldn’t access those things; he/she
probably couldn’t even read. But did the peasants have their own culture and their own entertainment? Of
course. They enjoyed oral storytelling, dancing, and drinking games. This folk culture was the popular culture
of the day because it was enjoyed by the majority.

Today, we use the word popular culture instead of folk culture to describe the “culture of everyone in a
society.” The interesting thing about this divide is that everyone participated in popular culture, but only the
powerful, educated, aristocratic and wealthy would enjoy the elite culture. Think of it this way… Any king
could leave their castle and enjoy the peasant’s culture, but the peasants couldn’t scale the castle wall. Not
everyone can understand, access, or afford the elite culture.

Does this divide exist today? I would say yes. Many would probably still think of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” or
the opera as elite culture because those things are considered to be fine art and are most often enjoyed by either
the well educated or wealthy. For example, there’s a certain level of understanding you have to have to fully
understand and appreciate the opera, Emily Dickenson, Shakespeare, or ballet. Sure, in 2014, thanks to the
Internet especially, we have easier access to elite culture, but it’s not the same as popular culture.

In contrast, popular culture would include things that are popular in our culture, yet things that are often taken
for granted as throwaway entertainment like “The Simpsons,” “Star Wars.” Again, “the culture of everyone in a
society.” However, I would argue, like so many others before me that these examples contain powerful
messages and influence a lot of people. Yet to say that either of them are a part of elite culture would be
ridiculous.

Here’s a fun example of the influence of popular culture. “D’oh!” is a word Homer has been saying on “The
Simpsons” since 1989. It was a funny expression created for the show for Homer to use when he got frustrated.
Obviously, fans of the show started saying it. It caught on over the years. People that didn’t watch the show
started saying it. It was added to the prestigious “New Oxford Dictionary of English” in 1998, cementing its
place in culture as a new, commonly used word.

Some would argue that within popular culture, there is also what’s called low culture. Low culture in
entertainment, while often very popular with audiences, is most often criticized for having no artistic or
educational value. Think “Jerry Springer” or “The Hills.”

Today in America, “Popular Culture” and “Mass Culture” are nearly synonymous terms. We use them
interchangeably. That’s because so much of our popular culture is shared through the media. Remember that
mass culture is defined as “things in our popular culture that are mass produced and/or shared through the mass
media.”

Now, before I give you some additional examples of the EPS cycle, which was discussed in the reading, take a
look at the “Culture as a Skyscraper” reading from “Media and Culture.” It’s a PDF file. If you need
more information about the concepts of elite culture, popular culture, or low culture, you can also read the few
pages of their explanations there. However, everyone should look at Page 3, which presents these
categories of culture as a spectrum. It presents an example of culture not as a social process but as a set of
products sorted into high, low, or middle positions on a cultural skyscraper. It should provide clear, modern
examples of high culture, popular culture, and (within popular culture) low culture.
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Got it? Good. Did you see examples that you disagreed with? People usually argue with some of them, which
is okay. Hopefully you see as the skyscraper climbs how the content and its primary audience changes.

Let me tell you a little bit about the EPS Cycle.

It was proposed by John Merrill and Ralph Lowenstein in 1971. It was created to describe how different types
of mass media and technologies get adopted. They argued there were three stages. The elite stage, the popular
stage and the specialized stage.

Take a moment and think about your favorite television channel, the channel you watch most. We’ll come back
to that in just a moment.

ELITE STAGE
The stage of the early adopters. Typically, these people are educated and wealthy.

POPULAR STAGE
This is the stage that has participation by a majority of citizens. Often barriers, especially the barrier of cost, are
removed which allow more people access.

SPECIALIZED STAGE
At this stage media is divided into specialized segments and interests.

Let’s consider the EPS Cycle and Television.
The first time television was displayed in public in a major way was the 1939 World’s Fair. In fact, you could
a television there. However, a television cost in today’s money (adjusted for inflation) about $2,000 for the
cheapest model. The television was black and white and the screen was about the size of a CD case. Imagine
paying $2,000 for a small television today. And could you afford to one? Probably not. But a few people
in the 1940s bought a television, despite a lack of regular quality programming. Yet, it was accepted by the
elite.

TV moved from Elite to Popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Why? Cost went down. Families could save up to
one television. It was still expensive but growing in popularity. By 1955, almost everyone knew someone
that owned a television and the majority of people wanted one despite the high price tag. If you’ve seen “Back
to the Future” (which you should, it’s great) you may remember the scene set in 1955 when Marty McFly
claims he has two television sets and his grandmother claims “He’s just joking. No one has two television
sets!” By 1952, there were about 15 million sets in use in America, 10 million of which tuned in to “I Love
Lucy” each week.

TV is now in the Specialized stage, and has been for some time. In the 1950s, you were lucky to have about
four or five channels. The channels were ABC, CBS, NBC, and maybe an independent local channel or two.
These channels featured sports, news, comedy, drama, and lots of other types of programming. They tried to
have a little something for everyone. However, think back to what you said when I asked about your favorite
TV channel. Chances are it was not ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX. It was probably a specialized channel like
Food Network, ESPN, E!, or Comedy Central. We live in an age of specialized networks. If you only want to
watch sports, we have several channels for that. If you only want golf coverage, there’s a channel for that. If
you only want to watch sci-fi programs, there’s a channel for that. The media is now divided into specialized
groups for more niche audiences.

Consider the iPod and the EPS Cycle. If you bought an iPod in 2001, you paid over $400 for it. It was then in
the elite stage, only purchased by the early adopters, primarily the wealthy, who had enough money to this
new-fangled thing called an MP3 player. Now, I would argue that MP3 players are in the popular stage, because
a growing majority of the people have them or at least can afford them. For example, you can get an iPod
Shuffle now for less than 50 bucks! The barriers of price and accessibility are removed and the elite stage is
gone.

Finally, consider the DVD player as an example. I remember getting my first DVD player for Christmas when I
was in college, back in 2001. It was, by then, I would say in the early days of the popular stage. However,

when they were first introduced in the mid-90s, you had to pay hundreds of dollars for a DVD player. Some
people paid over $500 for one then. They were in the elite stage, until about 2000, when “Titanic” became the
first DVD to sell a million copies, proving that people began to start adopting the DVD player instead of the
VCR.

What would you say about the Blu-Ray player or the iPad? What about the smartphone? What stage of the
EPS Cycle are they in? It’s worth thinking about.

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Next, let’s examine some early developments in the history of mass media.

We must begin with a poor German printer who went on to be named by a panel of scholars as the most
influential person of the past millennium. I’m talking about Johannes Gutenberg and his invention, the
printing press. The printing press allowed efficient copying of words for the first time in history. Entire books
have been writing about the invention’s importance, but I’ll be brief.

For Western Culture, mass communication begins around 1455 when Gutenberg invents movable type and
makes printing possible. The Internet, TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, books… they all start with
Gutenberg. He completely changed our world by starting mass communication.

Prior to Gutenberg’s printing press, if you wanted to pass along facts, ideas, opinions, or stories… you had two
choices. You could tell someone, in hopes they would pass it along by word of mouth. If you’ve played the
“telephone game” as a kid, you know this can be a difficult task. Therefore, only really important histories, like
those found now in the Bible were important enough to be passed on with accuracy. Or you could write it down
by hand. And then write it down by hand again, and give that copy to someone. And then write it down by
hand again, and give that copy to someone. Then write it down by hand again, and give that copy to someone…

It was a long process, so only the most important books and ideas got passed down from generation to
generation. Only the most important writings were hand-written and survived. The Bible, being God’s Word,
was one of the only books that was copied again and again and again by hand. I suggest you take a moment to
appreciate how long this would take. If you were to write out Genesis 1:1… “In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth,” How long would it take you to write it out by hand in your best legible handwriting?
Probably about 30 seconds or so. But, there are over 31,000 verses in the Bible. So, if you were a monk living
in 1400 A.D., prior to the printing press, copying the entire Bible by hand at rate of two verses per minute in
your best handwriting, it would take you over 250 hours of writing (with no breaks) to copy one Bible. Then, to
make another copy, you would start again. We certainly take for granted that we can Xerox almost anything
instantly on our home printer with little to no effort.

However, with Gutenberg, any idea, fact, or story could be easily copied and distributed, for better or for worse.

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To give you a break from reading what I’m writing here, READ “The Beginnings of Mass Communication”
by Wilson and Wilson. It will tell you more about Gutenberg, the printing press, and the first mass movement
made possible by the printing press, the Protestant Reformation.

Then, WATCH the A&E Spotlight on Gutenberg. It features several noted individuals discussing the impact
Gutenberg has had on society. The video runs about eight minutes.
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Interesting, isn’t it? At least I think it is. One thing that I would like to echo about the documentary is the fact
that through the printing press, people suddenly had access to reading material. And when people had access to
reading material for the first time, they wanted to learn how to read for the first time. It makes sense. If I never
owned a hand-copied book, because I wasn’t rich enough to one, reading wouldn’t be important. Suddenly,
if I could have my own copy of a book, I would want to read it. So, mass communication lead to literacy,
which in turn, encouraged people to think differently about the world around them. Power was truly given to
the people. It no longer just belonged to the elite. For example, it led Martin Luther to challenge the teaching
of the Catholic Church and meanwhile, encourage people to read and interpret the Bible for themselves.

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Let me share with you a few more key dates in media history.

1833 – New York Sun becomes the first US metropolitan newspaper. It was sold for a penny; the first
newspaper aimed at general public instead of the wealthy and elite. It was affordable to the average working
man, and it even criticized the powerful and elite.

1895 – Lumiere Brothers debut Cinematographe in Paris. This device allowed moving pictures to be
projected on a screen for the first time. Suddenly, a room of people could share a movie at the same time. The
technology actually hasn’t changed all that much at your local movie theatre today in 2013. Prior to the
Cinematographe, moving pictures were viewed one-person-at-a-time through an eyeglass of shorts, attached to
a big device called the Kinetoscope.

ßCinematographe

ß Kinetoscope

In 1895, if you paid a nickel to go see some movies projected with a Cinematographe, you went to what was
called a nickelodeon. [Yes, this is where the kid’s channel got its name from.] These films weren’t like our
modern films today. They didn’t have sound. They weren’t in color. They certainly weren’t in 3D. In fact,
these early Lumiere films were short movies, less than a minute long. Sure, you got to see a collection of them
at the theater, but you weren’t going to see a two-hour feature.

These are most odd to our contemporary eyes because they also didn’t try to tell a story. Instead, they were
candid films of everyday life. No one was acting out a screenwriter’s plot. Instead someone would film people
leaving the market and turn it into a 30 second film. Another film might simply show people climbing down a
ladder or someone feeding ducks. What you have to keep in mind is that these audiences were fairly new to still
photographs. Therefore, the sheer illusion of movement projected on a screen was exciting. That’s why they’re
still called move-ies or with the correct spelling, movies. At the time, when approximately each second 24 still
photos were played quickly in sequence to create a movie, it was very exciting stuff.

To give you an idea of these shorts, I’ve posted a video file that collects a few of them. Keep in mind, that
unless there was someone improvising on a piano in the movie theater to accompany what was on the screen,
which was VERY rare at the time, these films were also seen without any sound.
WATCH the Lumiere Shorts Video.

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After watching them, someone usually says in class, “People paid to watch that?” And yes, they loved it. You
have to realize that, in that era, still photography was a relatively new thing and a big deal. Moving pictures, or
movies, were an even bigger, more exciting spectacle for folks in the early 1900s. I know you were probably
waiting for something more to happen in each short, but no. They didn’t really tell any stories or use the
narrative form.

Thankfully, people began to realize that people had been telling stories and watching plays for hundreds of
years. People would probably enjoy films that had a story with a beginning, middle and end, much more than
they would these simple “slice of life” films.

The first American to create such a film was Edwin S. Porter. The movie, released in 1903 was “The Great
Train Robbery.” “The Great Train Robbery” is the first American film to tell a complete story. It’s a western
that featured a plot, good guys, bad guys, a chase scene, gunfights, dancing, death scenes, and even the first ever
special effect in a film. At the time, this film was leaps and bounds better than the Lumiere shorts in terms of
its entertainment value. In fact, when comparing the two, it’s still leaps and bounds better today.

Note that this film is also violent. Sure, it’s not graphic in any way, but there are those that claim we should go
back to the good ol’ days, when American movies didn’t have any violence. Yet, this is the first American
movie and it’s filled with gunfights, death, and punch-outs.

This film didn’t have sound, that wouldn’t come along until 1927’s “The Jazz Singer,” but it did make use of
some common filmmaking techniques. Porter, as the director, was smart enough to realize he could shoot his
actors from different angles and in different locations and then edit them together to tell a more exciting story, a
technique used in almost every movie since then. He also made use of the first special effect in American film
history during a fight that takes place on top of a train, and he provides us with a close-up shot at the end of the
film, literally.

So now, WATCH Edwin S. Porter’s “The Great Train Robbery.” It runs about 10 minutes in length.

—– —-

It’s worth noting how excited and into this film people got in the early 1900s when they watched in the movie
theatre. Keep in mind this was new and realistic technology for that time. Also, this was still a time in our
nation’s history when a lot of guys were still “packing heat,” with pistols at their sides. So, historians tell us
that when the character draws his gun at the end and fires, people in theaters across America instinctively fired
back! That’s funny! And sure, it ruined a few projection screens perhaps, but it speaks to how powerful this
movie was to audiences. It’s been said by many a film author that every movie made since then has been trying
to, in at least a small way, remake “The Great Train Robbery.”

Before we get to even more new material, let’s talk about what you probably don’t want to talk about… your
first paper. Your goal for this first paper is to choose one individual that is involved in shaping our popular
culture and then write an objective, five-page biography about that person.
READ “Requirements for Paper #1.” Read it twice.

For this paper, you can write about your favorite musician, actor, director, athlete, author, model, dancer, artist,
journalist, etc. There are a few exceptions though. Your chosen person must be a real person; you cannot write
a biography of a fictional character. So, you can write a history of George Lucas but not of Luke Skywalker.
Also, I’ve had several experiences (along with Dr. Keith Semmel and Mr. John Varley and others who have
taught this class) that have led me to decide that you cannot write your paper about Michael Jordan. He was an
amazing athlete and a huge influence on our culture, but there are too many old versions of that paper floating
around to okay him as a topic for your first paper.

A few IMPORTANT things about page length: I’m pretty harsh, if you haven’t heard, when it comes to page
length. This is a college course, which comes with some challenges. In the summer, you are required to write
at least five full pages. That doesn’t mean you can write four and a half pages and argue that “there’s
something on the fifth page so it counts as a page.” Make sure each page is filled, including that last one. Also,
though it’s never been a problem in the past, make sure that you don’t go over eight full pages.

Also, you’ll have to have BOTH a works cited page and a title page. These two pages do NOT count toward
the five pages minimum. Make sure that you’re using one-inch margins, double-line-spacing and Times New
Roman 12 point font. I know all of the tricks to make a paper seem longer, because I used to try all those tricks.
Also, avoid using long block quotes to fill space. Try to limit any quotes you use to one or two sentences each.

If I determine that your paper has an excessive number of errors in formatting, grammar, and/or spelling, I will
return your paper to you ungraded. Similarly, if your paper does not approximately meet the minimum page
requirements it will be returned to you ungraded. If so, your paper will be dropped a full letter grade. You will
have 24 hours to …