Communications Midterm

Question 1

Medium materiality

Answer 1

each medium has its own technological capabilities and limitations

Question 2

Technological determinism

Answer 2

Technology is in control

Question 3

Technological momentum

Answer 3

Humans are in control at first, but as time goes on it becomes very hard to change

Question 4

Medium theory

Answer 4

How people have been worried about technology and the negative effects it will have on society

Question 5

Social constructionism

Answer 5

Humans are in control of technology

Question 6

Global village

Answer 6

The idea that modern technologies would connect all people worldwide.

Question 7

Neil Postman

Answer 7

“We are entertaining ourselves to death”
“It is becoming harder to discern image from reality”

Question 8

What is a product company

Answer 8

Produce media that we read, watch, or listen to

Question 9

What is a platform company

Answer 9

Companies that host the media, provide content to watch

Question 10

What is a pipe company

Answer 10

Companies that do not product or use content, but specialize in making cable, dsl, and fiber optics

Question 11

Owned activity

Answer 11

Content that is created by and official account

Question 12

Organic activity

Answer 12

Content created by users

Question 13

Conglomerate

Answer 13

A massive company that owns many smaller companies

Question 14

Vertical integration

Answer 14

One product (movies, tv) wanting to be able to control every part of the process (actors, direction, music)

Question 15

Horizontal integration

Answer 15

A product trying to integrate multiple companies to promote one another’s operation

Question 16

Platform decay

Answer 16

At first platforms start out great, but start forgetting about the user and do it for the money, eventually degrading in quality and slowly dying out

Question 17

What are some of the biggest investment companies

Answer 17

Blackrock, Vanguard

Question 18

Companies only exist to

Answer 18

connect buyers and sellers to make profit

Question 19

Venture funding

Answer 19

Very risky process, investors provide money for companies starting out in exchange for ownership (companies do not have to pay back right away)

Question 20

Switching costs

Answer 20

Once on a platform for a long time, it may be very hard to switch off because you’ve already been on and dedicated so much to said platform (switching costs can be high or low depending on what ur switching from)

Question 21

Platform decay steps

Answer 21

1.Prioritize the user
2.Prioritize the sellers and market
3.Abuse both the sellers and user for profit, which causes the company to slowly die out

Question 22

What is the biggest advertising night in America

Answer 22

The Super Bowl

Question 23

Product placement

Answer 23

A product being advertised in media, like someone mentioning mcdonalds, drinking a coke, driving a bmw, etc.

Question 24

Branded entertainment

Answer 24

The brand is the center of the media product (The Lego Movie, The Mario Movie)

Question 25

Brand integration

Answer 25

Variation of product placement, tries to seamlessly integrate the brand into the media to make it seem natural

Question 26

In authoritarian systems...

Answer 26

They can silence and censor information

Question 27

It is believed that no media regulation

Answer 27

Is bad because there is no filter to what people can find, including all the negative things (suggestive content, violence)

Question 28

Prior restraint

Answer 28

When you prevent something from being published/made before it's released

Question 29

Marshall McLuhan

Answer 29

"The Medium is the message"