[an error occurred while processing this directive] Week 9: What is happening to the 'old' (mass) media?
 "...the monolithic empires of mass media are dissolving into an array of cottage industries."  (Nicholas Negroponte, 1996:57)
"...while the audience has been segmented and diversified, television has become more commercialized than ever, and increasingly oligopolistic at the global level." (Manuel Castells,. 341)

Is the new digital media paradigm going to transform existing media? This is of course what the convergence debate is all about. This week we will focus on what changes have occurred and what will occur with the mass broadcast (TV and radio) and mass print (newspaper and magazine) industries. Will the technology dissolve old media empires founded on mass media as Negroponte suggests, or will the existing giants be able to capture the Internet and the digital broadband networks?

Core Reading:
o Henwood et al Technology and In/equality: Questioning the Information Society. London: Routledge, 2000.
o Herman, E.S. and McChesney, The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Global Capitalism, London: Cassell, 1997 (Chapter 4:'Global media, the Internet and the digital revolution')
o Castells, Manuel 'The culture of real virtuality: the integration of electronic communication, the end of the mass audience, and the rise of interactive networks' Chapter 5 of Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
o Wasco, Janet Hollywood in the Information Age: Beyond the Silver Screen, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994

Supplementary Reading:
o Aston, R and J. Schwarz, (eds) Multimedia: Gateway to the Next Millennium, Boston: AP Professional, 1994 .
o Browning, G. 'New Media, Old Messages', Media Studies Journal, Vol.10, No.1, (1996) pp.67-74
o Collins, R. (ed) Converging Media? Converging Regulation?, London: Institute for Public Policy Research, 1996 .
o Collins, R. and Murroni, C. New Media, New Policies: Media and Communications Strategies for the Future, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996
o Dizard, W. Old Media New Media: Mass Communication In The Information Age, 2nd edition .
o Dodsworth Jr, Clark Digital Illusion: Entertaining the Future with High Technology, Addison-Wesley, 1998
o Gauntlett, David. WebStudies: Rewiring Media Studies for the Digital Age. London: Arnold, 2000.
o Gilder, George. Life After Television: The Coming Transformation of Media and American Life, New York: Norton, 1992
o Goodwin, Peter.ëPublic service broadcasting and new media technology: What the BBC has done and what it should have doneí, Javnost-The Public, Vol.4, No.4, (1997) pp.59-74
o Van Tassel, Joan M. Advanced Television Systems: Brave New TV, Boston: Focal Press, 1996.

This session will end with a discussion of the course as a whole, and will invite suggestions for improvements.  Students will be asked to complete course evaluation questionnaires.


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