Media & Money: Crash Course Media Literacy #5

Summary

This episode of Crash Course Media Literacy explores the complex relationship between media and money, emphasizing how financial considerations influence media production and representation. It highlights that while media serves purposes like entertainment and information, its creation is often driven by profit motives. Stereotypes and ideologies in media often persist due to financial interests, reinforcing familiar representations instead of diverse voices. The episode also notes the importance of understanding who creates media and why, given its ubiquitous presence in our lives.

Highlights

• Finding Dory made $486 million, showing just how lucrative media can be! 💰
• Media's purpose—entertain, inform, persuade—shapes its impact on us. 🎯
• Hollywood movies aren't just for entertainment; they often spark cultural conversations! 🎥
• Stereotypes in media prevail due to financial power holders reinforcing what's familiar. 📉
• Social media creates opportunities for diverse, previously unheard voices. 🌟

Key Takeaways

• Media is a big money-making business, influencing what gets produced and how! 💰
• Every piece of media is created with specific intentions and impacts. 🎬
• Representation in media often skews toward stereotypes due to who controls the money. 🤔
• Social media is changing traditional media dynamics by amplifying diverse voices. 📱
• Understanding the financial influences behind media helps us decode its messages. 🕵️

Overview

In this eye-opening episode of Crash Course Media Literacy, the intricate dance between media and money takes center stage. Our host Jay Smooth dives into how financial motivations underpin nearly every decision in the media industry, from Hollywood films to soda commercials. By understanding media's dual role as both cultural touchstone and profit generator, viewers are better equipped to interpret the content they consume every day.

One of the most compelling discussions revolves around the concept of representation in media. Media is predominantly controlled by those with money, leading to the perpetuation of stereotypes. The "gay BFF" trope, for example, reveals how financial interests sideline diverse representation and uphold familiar characterizations. Such choices in turn shape the audience's perceptions of different communities.

The episode further explores how social media platforms are disrupting traditional power structures in media. By elevating varied voices and critiquing mainstream content, social media is fostering a more inclusive media landscape. Yet, the "mega players" in the industry continue to wield significant influence, reminding us that understanding the financial and cultural workings of media remains crucial for true media literacy.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Media and Money The chapter 'Introduction to Media and Money' discusses the substantial financial impact of the media industry, highlighted by impressive earnings such as Finding Dory's 486 million dollars revenue in 2016, Barack and Michelle Obama's 65 million dollar book advance, and Beyonce's 105 million dollar income in 2017. It emphasizes that media is not only a tool for communication and cultural expression but also a significant economic force.
• 00:30 - 01:00: The Business of Media The chapter titled 'The Business of Media' explores the media as a conglomerate of profitable industries. It emphasizes that the majority of media content is created by individuals with financial incentives, which significantly affects the nature of media production. Understanding the financial dynamics behind media creation is essential for complete media literacy. The focus shifts from the psychological impact of media explored in the previous episode to analyzing the financial motivations and influences on media production.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Challenges of a Movie Director The chapter 'Challenges of a Movie Director' delves into the various challenges faced by a successful director in Hollywood. Despite being a superstar with a series of award-winning films, the pressure to deliver continues. The director must first decide on the idea for the film, whether it will be an original project, a remake, or a sequel, and then select or hire a writer. The chapter questions whether the director would opt to collaborate with someone they admire creatively or choose a writer already associated with the studio. Furthermore, it explores the complications of working with different studios, the potential influence they might exert on the script, casting, and overall production, and the logistical challenges involved in shooting the movie.
• 01:30 - 02:00: The Process of Making Media This chapter delves into the detailed and multifaceted process of making media, highlighting the myriad of tasks and decisions involved in producing a piece of media content. It outlines the need to find the perfect cast, build sets or scout locations, manage finances for CGI, and hire a costume designer, among other responsibilities. It also points out the importance of maintaining the production schedule and navigating the challenges of distribution and advertising, including how the cast will promote the project. The chapter humorously contrasts these complex duties with the more mundane act of procrastination, offering a relatable perspective to those not in the media industry.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Purpose of Media Creation The chapter titled 'Purpose of Media Creation' explores the intricate process involved in producing various forms of media, such as movies, video games, and newspapers. It highlights how each piece of media is deliberately constructed by individuals or groups, who make choices based on their experiences, preferences, and financial motivations. These decisions, in turn, influence the consumers who interact with the media.
• 02:30 - 03:00: Movies Beyond Entertainment The chapter "Movies Beyond Entertainment" explores the underlying purposes of media creation beyond just entertainment. It begins by discussing the various reasons media is created, such as to entertain, inform, or persuade, and emphasizes understanding these purposes to grasp their impact. For instance, advertisements are crafted to persuade viewers to purchase products, like a soda ad aims to boost soda sales. The chapter then questions the assumption that movies are made solely for entertainment, acknowledging that while movies do entertain and generate revenue, there could be more nuanced purposes behind their creation.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Media Focus and Its Implications The chapter 'Media Focus and Its Implications' discusses the different purposes movies can serve beyond entertainment. While some might believe the primary goal of films is to entertain, others are made to highlight important issues and spark cultural discussions. The chapter uses examples like 'Titanic', hailed as a masterpiece of entertainment, Pixar's 'Inside Out', which delves into human emotions and complexity, and 'Get Out', a horror movie with underlying social commentary, to illustrate how movies function on multiple levels.
• 04:00 - 05:10: Representation in Media The chapter titled 'Representation in Media' delves into various aspects of media representation, particularly focusing on contemporary racism and its impact, especially on black men, as illustrated through film. It discusses the multiple purposes of media, highlighting how these intentions shape media from conception. It emphasizes 'purpose' as the 'why' behind media creation and 'focus' as the 'what,' addressing the topics included or excluded in media. The chapter also touches upon the challenges in deciding focus, akin to editorial choices in newspaper front-page story selections.
• 05:10 - 06:40: Stereotypes and Ideologies This chapter discusses how media can manipulate information to shape public perception, often through selective focus. It compares scenarios such as advertisements or government reports that highlight beneficial aspects while omitting potentially negative details. The overarching theme is how media influence can extend to altering perceptions of others, particularly those who are different from ourselves.
• 06:40 - 08:10: Financial Barriers in Media Creation The chapter titled 'Financial Barriers in Media Creation' delves into the influence of media on perceptions of various social categories like race, gender, and sexual orientation. It discusses the concept of representation, highlighting how media portrayals are choices made by creators. The chapter points out that because most media is produced by straight, white men, portrayals of other groups can often lean towards stereotypical depictions, such as the 'gay BFF' trope commonly seen on television.
• 08:10 - 09:10: Homogeneity in Mass Media The chapter titled 'Homogeneity in Mass Media' discusses the stereotypical depiction of gay men in media. It highlights characters such as Kurt and Blaine from Glee, Cameron from Modern Family, and others from shows like Ugly Betty, Will & Grace, and Sex and the City, noting their common traits: being best friends to major female characters, fashion-conscious, theater-loving, with broad personalities. The chapter critiques how media representation has often presented a narrow and stereotyped view of gay men, emphasizing the lack of diversity in their on-screen portrayal.
• 09:10 - 10:00: Social Media and Diverse Voices This chapter explores the inclination of mainstream media to rely on stereotypes rather than investing in diverse representation. It highlights how our brains favor familiar narratives, posing challenges for complex portrayals of marginalized groups such as LGBTQ communities and people of color. The chapter emphasizes the issue of using stereotypes for monetary gain and to maintain a status quo that minimizes controversy, ultimately stifailing understanding between diverse cultures.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Understanding Media Creation The chapter discusses the impact of media representations and stereotypes, particularly focusing on minority groups. It emphasizes how repeated stereotypes can reinforce beliefs, and highlights the creator's influence on audience perception through these portrayals. The chapter advises being mindful of these representations, acknowledging that not all media choices are part of a larger agenda, but they do have the potential to shape societal views.
• 11:00 - 11:40: Conclusion and Next Episode Preview The chapter delves into the complex and multi-faceted nature of the media industry. It discusses the various roles individuals and systems play in either perpetuating or blocking certain stereotypes and ideologies. Cultural theorist Stuart Hall is referenced to highlight how media can spread racist ideologies, but he argues against viewing the media as a monolithic entity with a single, unified perspective. The chapter emphasizes that the notion of 'the media' as a uniform entity is a misconception.

Media & Money: Crash Course Media Literacy #5 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Did you know Finding Dory made 486 million dollars in 2016? Or that Barack and Michelle Obama received 65 million dollars in advance of writing their newest books? Or that Beyonce made 105 million dollars in 2017? Those are the big bucks, people. Sure, media is a form of communication and the foundation of our shared culture. But it’s more than a collection of songs and books and movies and newspapers. It’s also a lot of money.
• 00:30 - 01:00 The media is a big collection of massive, money-making industries. That means most of the media you digest was made by specific people with specific paychecks. And that money has a specific impact. Understanding how and why media is produced, the business of it all, is key to the full media literacy picture. If last episode was about your mind on media, today is all about your media on money. [Theme Music]
• 01:00 - 01:30 Pretend for a second you’re a superstar movie director with a string of award-winning hits. Hollywood anxiously awaits your next film, but you’re feeling the pressure. First you’ve got to land on idea – should it be an original film? A remake? A sequel? About what? Who’s gonna write it? You? That woman with the funny webseries you love? A studio hack paid by the word? Speaking of studios, who are you going to work with? Will they have a say in what you make, and how it’s written? Or who’s in it? Then you’ve got to shoot the thing.
• 01:30 - 02:00 Find the perfect cast, build all the sets or find locations, pay the CGI company, hire a costume designer, make sure the schedule runs on time. And then it’s not even over! Hopefully a distributor will pick it up. Who will see it? How will it be advertised? Will your cast end up on every late night show to promote it? That’s a lot of questions to answer. So instead of making decisions, you’re sitting on your couch eating cereal and watching Scandal reruns pretending your problems don’t exist. But you’re not a big-shot Hollywood director. (Well if you are – hit me up in the DMs.)
• 02:00 - 02:30 Anyway: have you ever thought about how much goes into a movie before it gets to your screen? Or before a video game gets to the store or a newspaper onto your doorstep? Media is made. Every bit of it is constructed by someone, or groups of someones. Each step of the way they’ve made choices, too, about what to create and how to create it. And they’ve made those decisions based on life experiences, preferences and money – who has it, and how they can make more of it. But those choices affect you, the consumer.
• 02:30 - 03:00 First, let’s focus on why media is created. Its purpose, like to entertain, inform or persuade. The reason a piece of work is created can be really helpful in understanding its impact. An advertisement’s purpose is to convince the viewer to buy a product. You see an ad for soda, you know the company created and paid for it in hopes that you will buy their soda. Great, that’s an easy one. What about movies? You might say they’re made for entertainment, duh. They’re for fun. And yes, movies are made to make money and entertain.
• 03:00 - 03:30 But if that was their only purpose, a lot more movies would just be remakes of Titanic, the greatest and most entertaining film of all time. Some movies are made to bring up important topics and encourage cultural conversations. On the outside, Pixar’s Inside Out looks like a film made to bring families together through entertainment. But if you’ve seen Inside Out you know it’s really a film designed to make you cry while contemplating the complexity of human emotion, and how we’re all so different and yet the same. Or think about the film “Get Out.” On one level, it’s a horror movie about a man whose girlfriend’s family wants to kill him.
• 03:30 - 04:00 But along the way, the film unpacks issues of contemporary racism and how horrifying the modern world can be to black men. Every piece of media has many purposes, and they each impact how the work is made from day one. If purpose is the “why” of media creation,” the “what” is focus. Focus is the topic or subject, what we’re including (and at the same time excluding) when we create. Sometimes deciding what to focus on is the name of the game – like when a newspaper can only fit so many stories on the front page.
• 04:00 - 04:30 They’re deciding what news is the most important. But sometimes focus can be a bit more...manipulative. Like that soda ad you saw earlier; it didn’t mention how much sugar each bottle contains or how it will affect your health. It just wants you to think about that crisp, refreshing taste. Or a government report that touts how many jobs were created last month, but conveniently leaves out that most of those jobs were low-paying, temporary ones. The thing is, the purpose and focus of media can affect how you think about other people, especially when they’re not like you.
• 04:30 - 05:00 Let’s head into the Thought Bubble to wrestle with that a bit. Media texts have the power to impact your understanding of things like race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation. The way they deal with and present these topics is called representation. Like everything else, the way different people and places are represented in media is always a choice. And since the mass media is disproportionately run and created by straight white men, that means the representations of everyone else can skew toward stereotype. Think about a pretty common TV trope, the “gay BFF” stereotype.
• 05:00 - 05:30 There’s Kurt and Blaine from Glee. Cameron from Modern Family, Justin from Ugly Betty. Or, throwback, Jack McFarlan from Will & Grace and Stanford from Sex and the City. What do they all have in common? Well, as I mentioned, they’re gay men. They’re all the BFF to a major female character. Also, they’re all fashion-conscious, they all love theater. Most of them have really broad personalities, too. Weird how they’re all so...similar. Media representation of gay men has historically skewed toward these stereotypical depictions, where only one type of gay man is found on-screen.
• 05:30 - 06:00 Our brains love familiar things since they’re easier to understand. So why invest in shows written by and about complex gay men or women, or LGBTQ people of color, when you could save time and money by lazily using stereotypes instead? Plus, as a familiar stereotype, this representation can be used in mainstream media without ruffling too many conservative feathers. That means more viewers and more money. This is a big problem for diverse cultures that have trouble understanding each other.
• 06:00 - 06:30 When minority groups are frequently stereotyped in the media, people may start to believe the associated stereotype is even more true. They reinforce themselves. Paying attention to how different groups and people are represented in the media is critical. Each representation is a choice made by the creator, sometimes because of money, and they can be used to positively or negatively impact how we think. Thanks, Thought Bubble! Of course, every production choice isn’t part of a grand scheme to sell more pop music or prevent more women of color from directing films.
• 06:30 - 07:00 The media is a nebulous group of individuals all doing particular jobs. But there are people and systems at work within the business of media that help block or perpetuate certain stereotypes and ideologies. For instance, cultural theorist Stuart Hall wrote about how racist ideologies are spread through the media. He said, “It would be wrong and misleading to see the media as uniformly and conspiratorially harnessed to a single, racist conception of the world.” The idea of “the media” monolith doesn’t exist.
• 07:00 - 07:30 If it’s not some grand conspiracy, how do stereotypes and ideologies like these persist? That’s right, it’s money again. Who has it, and where they want to spend it. If you’ve ever posted on Tumblr or doodled in a notebook, you were probably able to do that for free. But somewhere along the way, someone had to pay for your internet access and phone or a notebook and pen. Maybe you paid for it, or your parents did. But without that money, you couldn’t have even doodled. All types of media creation require some kind of money. The big, fancy, mass media kind, like publishing a newspaper or making a movie, requires a lot.
• 07:30 - 08:00 And not everyone has the money to create media. When you don’t have the money to create media, sometimes you can get other people to pay for you to create it. Like a patron or an investor. But because media creation costs money, and not everyone has money, it’s most often done by people who already have it. And those who have it often want to spend it on people and things they already know will make more money. How do they decide who to give it to? They consider who has experience making media that makes money.
• 08:00 - 08:30 And usually that’s people who have already had the money to make media to make money. It’s a cycle that prevents different voices from creating different kinds of media, keeping cultural power in the hands of a few. Critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer believed that this closely held, homogenous mass media was dangerous. “Culture today is infecting everything with sameness” they wrote...in 1944. They thought that mass-produced popular culture created for profit lulled consumers into passive contentment.
• 08:30 - 09:00 No matter your situation, you’d be happy as a clam if you could access the easy entertainment of pop culture. At the same time, it manufactured needs in the audience – like I need to see this movie, I need that brand of shampoo to be happy – that could only be solved by buying more stuff. In many ways, social media has helped break this cycle by lifting up diverse voices and challenging the ways media is traditionally made. Social media campaigns have even thrown the spotlight on negative or non-existent representations in mass media. But the mega media players still tend to dominate the scene.
• 09:00 - 09:30 That’s not to say every creative decision is based solely on money. Plenty of decisions are made for practical reasons, or by people just doing mundane jobs. Each one may not seem like a big deal, but when strung together they create all the media we absorb. We spend most of our day with media, so it’s crucial we understand what is created by who, how, and for what reason. It’s almost as important as constantly reminding each other that media is created. It didn’t just appear out of nowhere; humans did that.
• 09:30 - 10:00 And humans do some weird stuff, especially for money. Next time on Crash Course Media Literacy we’re talking about people who do it all for that cold hard cash: advertisers. But until then, I’m Jay Smooth. I’ll see you next time. Crash Course Media Literacy is filmed in the Dr. Cheryl C. Kinney Studio in Missoula, MT. It’s made with the help of all of these nice people and our animation team is Thought Cafe. Crash Course is a Complexly production. If you wanna keep imagining the world complexly with us, check out some of our other channels like SciShow, Animal Wonders, and The Art Assignment.
• 10:00 - 10:30 If you'd like to keep Crash Course free for everyone, forever, you can support the series at Patreon, a crowdfunding platform that allows you to support the content you love. Thank you to all of our patrons for making Crash Course possible with their continued support.