The third approach to studying media industries is found in Joseph Turow’s “power roles” framework. This approach is much different from the other two. It deals not with the study of the political economy or the production of cultural studies, but instead it takes a look at the power roles framework. It also takes into consideration the audience and public, which is very important because they are the one’s who are consuming the media. Turow conceptualizes power as to how an organization use’s its resources to gain agreement with another organization. He try’s to encompass everything and everybody that goes into the production of media and how they use their power to gain control of another organization. I Think Turow gets it right, he describes his approach with a quote, “the use of resources by one organization to gain compliance by another organization” I think is a great way to study media. How companies get other people to comply by using all facets of the organization is very interesting and useful information. Although I liked this approach to studying the media, studies of the political economy and of the culture are extremely important as well. All three studies are needed to have thorough studies conducted about the media industries.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Reading Question #1, Turow's approach
Outsourcing Entertainment Media
Outsourcing has become more and more frequent within media industries. It refers to the process of completing certain elements of production overseas in order to take advantage of cheaper labor and government subsidies. The average television and movie consumer would be surprised to learn that only 47% of Hollywood movies were filmed in the U.S. in 2005. Additionally, only 17% of scripted television was created domestically.
Globalization within media industries is nothing new, American films have dominated international markets for years and are still the standard of entertainment. As competition arises in foreign markets from “Bollywood” and “Nollywood,” outsourcing seems to make the most economic sense for media industries. Despite the economic benefits of outsourcing for the media companies, it cuts unionized jobs in the entertainment market in the United States. Various stage hand and production positions are simply given to a labor force that will work for considerably less. The loss of job opportunities seems less problematic than the exploitation of possible human rights violations. The use of underpaid, un-unionized foreign workers is a clear manipulation of cheap labor.
Additionally, the increased globalization and rise in outsourcing is detrimental to diversity in the entertainment world. The Americanization on international media means less films with true cultural and domestic themes that can be locally pertinent to certain areas. The lack of unique culture within media leads to a standardization of entertainment. People are denied the experience of exposure to foreign cultures and practices as entertainment becomes more formulaic, and thus less unique. An argument is made that the money made from working on Hollywood productions by foreigners goes to projects that tell unique stories of their region. However, the money made from the production of American movies is hardly enough to create a film that can contend with major media conglomerates or have the possibility to be seen outside of that local community.
Entertainment production should be about, first and foremost – entertainment. If outsourcing can help provide greater quality while simultaneously dropping costs for the consumer, than few complaints from the average American will be voiced. But I have not seen my movie ticket price drop yet…
Reading Question 1
The six facets of production that are analyzed all seem to be viable contributors to what the model calls a systemic shaping. Technology, law and regulation , industry structure, organization structure, occupational careers, and market are all factors that are appropriately studied by the production of culture model. In that sense, the approach gets it right.
However, by limiting the study to just cultural industries (as the article mentioned), and leaving out explanations as to the roles of consumers, the power structures created, etc., this model leaves quite a bit to be desired. The approach seems to pigeonhole itself into only describing the basic interactions between the media and the cultural industries, and even falls short of analyzing the ideas and characterizations that the model uncovers.
Overall, the approach gets it right in emphasizing the "symbolic elements of culture" that are shaped by the medium or media that perpetuated them. However, the approach seems to be far to one-dimensional to be a foolproof or all encompassing method of studying media industries.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Traditions of media industry scholarship
Joseph Turow’s (1997) “power roles” framework
- offers an alternative model of power than those found in both political economy and production of cultural studies.
“The uses of resources by one organization to gain compliance by another organization”
- A broad way of summarizing the relationship between the economy, politics and its direct connection to the media of today.
- Media is a business controlled by the politics of the time and economic factors.
- Human role in the relationship is minuscule, “extensions of institutional interests.”
- Interconnection between media and political economics.
I don’t know if my framework is correct in describing the relationships between media and political economy, however it offers a “rudimentary but productive conceptualization of power.” It gives the reader a large-scale approach to the topic. I think the ties between media and culture is far more complex; however there is a connection and underlying ties between the economy, policies, politics and the media. They use each other in different ways, usually in a beneficial and all encompassing approach.
I agree with their belief that culture plays a large role in the media industries, also I believe that economics plays a major role as well. They both need to each other and need to work in compliance to gain power.
The government plays a major role in shaping the culture and media of today, but the government uses to media to gain compliance with other resources. There has to be a connection between the three.
Key Words
*Power sharing* *cultural studies* *power roles*
Turow
Traditions of media industry scholarship
Joseph Turow’s (1997) “power roles” framework
- offers an alternative model of power than those found in both political economy and production of cultural studies.
“The uses of resources by one organization to gain compliance by another organization”
- A broad way of summarizing the relationship between the economy, politics and its direct connection to the media of today.
- Media is a business controlled by the politics of the time and economic factors.
- Human role in the relationship is minuscule, “extensions of institutional interests.”
- Interconnection between media and political economics.
I don’t know if my framework is correct in describing the relationships between media and political economy, however it offers a “rudimentary but productive conceptualization of power.” It gives the reader a large-scale approach to the topic. I think the ties between media and culture is far more complex; however there is a connection and underlying ties between the economy, policies, politics and the media. They use each other in different ways, usually in a beneficial and all encompassing approach.
I agree with their belief that culture plays a large role in the media industries, also I believe that economics plays a major role as well. They both need to each other and need to work in compliance to gain power.
The government plays a major role in shaping the culture and media of today, but the government uses to media to gain compliance with other resources. There has to be a connection between the three.
Key Words
*Power sharing* *cultural studies* *power roles*
Reading Response Question 3
I tend to agree with their belief that culture plays a large role in the media industries. Obviously there are going to economic factors, not many people go to work each day without the incentive of making some money, but these are not the only factors involved. Political factors are also quite obvious; the government plays a large role in regulating and controlling the industry among other things. Though these two factors are quite important, the cultural influence on media industries and what they produce cannot be overlooked, and if it is tossed aside as insignificant, the study of these industries will be slightly skewed and missing some useful insight.
Yahoo Launches Original Series
I found this article on the LA Times Blog, and the title immediately captured my attention. When I think of Yahoo I don’t think of an “original series”. The article says that yahoo is planning to launch a series of original programs this fall. Although this article was pretty surprising to me, it shouldn’t have been. Companies such as Yahoo, and Google, started out as primarily a search engine, but they have transformed into a massive media giant that does much more. Google now offers phones powered by android, has their own email and how has Google+, which is a new form of social media. Yahoo has its own email, its also a news site ranging from sports to the stocks and now they will have an “Original Series”.
I guess we really don’t know how far these media companies will go until they cant do any more. Or maybe they will never stop. The article also touches upon that Yahoo wants to buy the Internet Television Service, Hulu. Hulu is owned by big media giants such as, News Corp., Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, The Walt Disney Co. and Providence Equity Partners. The fact that Yahoo is now moving forward in the television business by creating their own “original series” and having interesting in acquiring Hulu, as well as Google’s recent interest in Social Media and the Cell Phone industry shows that this world of media, is far from slowing down and will only start to get bigger and bigger.