The Media of Mass Communication - Book Report/Review Example

It is a pleasure to write to you with much appreciation of the book, The Media of Mass Communication: Eleventh Edition. I relished the book as we used it in our class of Intro to Mass Media, instructed by John Knowlton, at the Green River Community College. I have come to learn that it is your every intention to make a revision on your book soon. For our final assignment, Mr. Knowlton has instructed us to provide detailed recommendations o the additions, deletions and modifications, on a particular chapter, that you ought to consider in the course of your revision. I opted for Chapter 6, which is on Motion Media for my review.I amcontented that it is important for you to add more information on the recent attempts to consolidate two of the major movie studios and the statistical information on the decline in the evening newscast viewers, as well as the way the decline takes place in NBC, ABC and CBS. Besides, I recommend that you modify the section of Do-It-Yourself Quality to consider the brand advertising value of viral videos posted in sites like YouTube and Time Warner to be the leader, and not Disney, among the major movie studios. Lastly, you should delete the statistical numbers placed on the subscribers of DirecTV and Dish network. Additions The reader needs information on every aspect of the Hollywood Studios and what has taken place currently. The book has only given trivial information on the recent trends in Hollywood. To that end, I believe adding more information on the attempted mergers among the Major Hollywood Movie Studios is important. For instance, Michael Cieply, Brooks Barnes and Bill Carter, in The New York Times’ article “A Potential Combination of Two of Hollywood’s Most Successful Studios” (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/17/business/media/a-potential-combination-of-two-of-hollywoods-most-successful-studios.html?_r=0) ( Examined: Aug. 13, 2014), details the turning of an anticipated possibility of merging of the major studios into a real option. The article reports of Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of 20th Century Fox, bid to acquire Time Warner Inc. at $80 Billion, a request that was turned down. The major reason for the merger was to cut down on studio overheads and back-office operations, something that Warner bros was not supporting. Although the initiative has not been successful, including the information in the book will aid the reader in gaining more insight on the current trend. In addition, it would be much better to provide statistical predictions of the past and future of the evening newscast. In the book, you have just made a general conclusion of the future of evening newscast being bleak due to the declining and aging viewership. However, putting a number on these assertions would be much better. According to Emily Guskin, Tom Rosenstiel and Paul Moore, in a 2011 article in The State of the News Mediatitled, “Network News: Durability & Decline”(http://stateofthemedia.org/2011/network-essay/) (Examined: Aug. 13, 2014), nightly news viewership has been losing an average of a million viewers each year for a period of 20 years, prior to 2010. In addition, the article asserts that the decline in viewership was not spread evenly across the networks. NBC Nightly News lost 121,300 viewers; ABC World News lost 298,100 while CBS Evening News lost 330,000, all in 2010 alone. This additional information is essential for the reader to be able to predict the future of evening newscast. Modifications Under the small-screen genres, the Do-It-Yourself Quality needs modifications. In the book, you have stated posting of own videos on sites like YouTube has no quality outcome other than bizarre, funny and attraction content once they videos go viral. It is necessary to modify the statement in such a manner that it accommodates the current trend of brands using this avenue for marketing their products, a quality outcome. In an April 2nd, 2014 article in Mashable, titled “Branded Viral Videos: The Secret Marketing Weapon” (http://mashable.com/2014/04/02/viral-branded-videos/) (Examined: Aug. 13, 2014 ), Sarah Angmaintains that brands are shifting their advertisements from broadcast and print to mobile and digital, where they can be seen everywhere.According to her, brands are intending to communicate the qualities of their products through enjoyable viral videos posted in sites like YouTube. To that end, you should consider changing the generalization made on viral videos because, with the advancement of technology, viral videos go beyond fan-made shots, off-the-cut scenes and low-quality videos of our daily lives. In lieu to that, you should modify the sections of ranking Disney as the all-time leader among the major movie studios. The readers are interested in assertions that are backed by evidence. Time Warner has consistently proved to be a notch higher above the other Major movie studios in Hollywood. According to Georg Szalai, in a March 13, 2011 article, in The Hollywood Report titled “Which Movie Studio Is Most Profitable?” (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/movie-studio-is-profitable-166988 ) (Examined: Aug. 13, 2014), Time Warner has turned the trial-and-error kind of business into a predictable and consistent one. Szalai attributes this to the highest and unchanged profits, with insignificant variances, that the Movie studio records each year. For instance, in 2010, the recorded operating profits only dropped by one percent from the one recorded in 2009.My assertions are that profits should be used as a basis of ranking the movie studios, and in that case, Time Warner elevates above the rest, and not Disney.Once you back this modification with this evidence, in your revised book, the point will be made more timely and clearly. Deletions I recommend that the statistical data on the number of subscribers of the satellite delivery’s DirecTV and Dish network be deleted. In the book, DirecTV has 19.2 million subscribers ahead of Dish network that is reported to be having 14.3 million subscribers. Practically, these are no static numbers and there are often fluctuations. It is not necessary to include the number of subscribers because the data is mere estimation and may not reflect the current state of the subscription. Brian Stelter, in the Media Decoder article posted on August 2nd, 2012, titled “DirecTV Reports Its First Drop in U.S. Subscribers” (http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/02/directv-reports-its-first-drop-in-u-s-subscribers/ ) (Examined: Aug. 13, 2014), accounts that DirecTV has Twenty Million subscribers, a figure near the 19.2 million reported in the book.In the same vein, Trefis Team states categorically that Dish network has 14.097 million subscribers, in a May 13, 2014 article in Forbes titled “Dish Adds 40,000 Pay-Tv Subscribers In The First Quarter” (http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/05/13/dish-adds-40000-pay-tv-subscribers-in-the-first-quarter/) (Examined: Aug. 13, 2014). It is evident that there is much contradiction and volatility in the figures that are reported in the book and other sources. The reader is better off to learn that DirecTV has more subscribers that Dish network without confusing him or her with the statistical numbers that are volatile. Conclusion It is my belief that these corrections will ameliorate the word that you are spreading in the purview of mass media. Do not forget to add on the recent attempted consolidation of Timer Warner and 20th Century Fox and the available statistical information on the deteriorating evening newscast viewership. Also, modify the ranking of Disney as the all-time best movie studio to time Warner, without forgetting to modify Do-It-Yourself Quality section to include the brand marketing quality derived from viral videos. As a final point, delete the statistical numbers in the Satellite Delivery sections. I have paid much emphasis on this letter, just as Mr. Knowlton informed the class that you take this letter which much seriousness. Optimistically, some of my recommendations will be integrated into the revision of the book since it has given much insight on the complex area of mass media, and my contributions will just supplement that. Works cited Ang, Sarah. “Branded Viral Videos: The Secret Marketing Weapon”. Mashable, 2 April, 2014. Web. 13 August, 2014. Cieply, Michael, Barnes Brooks & Carter, Bill. “A Potential Combination of Two of Hollywood’s Most Successful Studios”.The New York Times, 16 July 2014. Web. 13 August,2014. Guskin Emily, Rosenstiel, Tom & Moore, Paul, “Network News: Durability & Decline”. The State of the News Media, 2011.Web.13 August, 2014. Stelter, Brian. “DirecTV Reports Its First Drop in U.S. Subscribers”. Media Decoder, 2 August 2012. Web. 13 August, 2014. Szalai, Georg. “Which Movie Studio Is Most Profitable?” The Hollywood Report, 13 may, 2011. Web. 13 August, 2014. Team, Trefis. “Dish Adds 40,000 Pay-TV Subscribers in the First Quarter”.Forbes, 13 may, 2014. Web. 13 August, 2014. Vivian, John. The Media of Mass Communication: Eleventh Edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson, 2013. Print. Read More