Journalism: A Slow Decline

News of the World Newspaper Headline
http://carycitizen.com/2011/07/17/editorial-the-long-sad-decline-of-journalism/

"Americans were the world's preeminent newspaper-reading people, with by far the largest per capita circulation of any country" (McPherson 48)

Print journalism was once at the forefront of society. Even dating back to the Civil War in 1862, the newspaper was the driving force of public opinion, often exaggerating victories and downplaying defeats. All major cities had a paperboy on every corner selling the most up to date headlines, as well as rural areas employing the youth to deliver daily news before breakfast. In James McPherson’s Crossroads of Freedom Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes is quoted as saying, “We must have something to eat and the papers to read. Everything else we can do without . . . . . . Only bread and newspaper we must have.” That is not the case anymore. 

The charm of getting today’s news tomorrow is no longer plausible. Release of information is instantaneous and with today’s fast paced society, no one wants to wait the next day to hear what is going on. With the release of new handheld technology every few months, news stories break in a matter of minutes instead of days. Every major news station has an app that delivers news to your handheld device. The newspapers of the world are now relegated to a forgotten corner of the supermarkets. Radio is used to boost the newest singers ratings instead of informing citizens of what is going on.  Journalism, in its most traditional sense of print media, is dying.

Social Media as citizen journalism

Journalism as we know it is on a steady declining trend. In todays society, not just nationally but globally, people are relying more on alternative means of receiving the latest in current events. All over Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, individuals can find out about anything happening around the world. 

With the rise in "smartphone" technology, most major news outlets and all social media sites are right at ones fingertips with the increase in app developments and constant updates. You do not even have to actively try to keep yourself informed with the goings on of the world because those very same apps will send a notification to your phone or tablet when something note worthy happens.

Journalism has failed to evolve in a manner that keeps print media a relevant source for news in the modern age. If anyone walks into a store they will find the checkouts saturated with magazines.  They are not, however, filled with current world news. They are filled cover to cover with images of the most current celebrities and their antics. The likes of The National Enquirer and People magazine ensure that current readers occupy their time and money reading of who wore it best instead of recent events. Unlike these entertainment magazines, the newspapers are hidden in little corners of the stores. They are bought mainly for the Sunday coupons than as a source of news. If someone wants to know the latest in current events they can turn on a TV or bring up a search engine to research their topic. Print media has become obsolete because the companies have not found a way for print media to compete with their electronic counterparts. How can something that takes hours to print compete with something that merely takes the time to type and upload.  

Comparison graph showing trust vs. no trust
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1663/Media-Use-Evaluation.aspx

Nielsen TV Research on Cable TV Viewership
http://www.journalism.org/2014/03/26/state-of-the-news-media-2014-key-indicators-in-media-and-news/

Graph showing the decline in news magazine sales.
http://www.journalism.org/2014/03/26/state-of-the-news-media-2014-key-indicators-in-media-and-news/

Continual decrease in newspaper sales 2010 (Canada, USA, Great Britain)

Statistics about Print Media
http://www.mergeagency.com/digital-marketing/death-of-print-media

Luxo Jr.: An Architect's Lamp

Who is Luxo Jr.?

Short Film poster for Pixar's first short-film (1986).
http://www.shortfilmposters.com/1986/luxo_jr.html

This famous architect's lamp is the creation of, Chief Executive officer, John Lasseter. Quickly becoming the face of a common household name, Pixar. As Anthony Lane, writes it in The New Yorker magazine article, "The Fun Factory: Life at Pixar", 

There was a time when movie fans would thrill to Warner Bros., for the sake of Jimmy Cagney, or to M-G-M, for musicals; but who now would go to a picture because it was made by Universal, or Twentieth Century Fox? Most of us, as we leave the theater, can no more remember which company produced the film we just saw than we could tell you who manufactured the hand dryer in the men’s room. The exception is Pixar, the only studio whose products people actively seek out. Everyone knows Pixar.

Company Overview

American film studio: CGI animation and Motion Pictures
• Subsidiary company of The Walt Disney Company since 2006
• Headquarters: Emeryville, California
• Competitors: Viacom’s DreamWorks SKG and Paramount Pictures, Fox
Entertainment, and Time Warner’s Warner Bros. Entertainment
• Approximately 1,200 employees
• Opened an offsite campus in Vancouver, Canada for 3 yrs. Then shut
down to focus operations at one location
Co-founders: Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith
• Didn’t go public until the November 29, 1995 after the release of
Toy Story.
• Ed Catmull, President
– Ran company for 10 yrs. before Steve Jobs claimed the role as CEO
• Alvy Ray Smith, V.P until 1991
– Quit after being bullied by Jobs.
– John Lasseter took his position
• Steve Jobs is now listed as a co-founder although that
information is incorrect
Currently:
• Ed Catmull, President of Walt Disney & Pixar animation studios• John Lasseter, former director at Pixar, Chief Creative Officer
for Walt Disney & Pixar animation studios
– Principal Creative Advisor for Disney Imagineering

Facts

Initially, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company
whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer
• 15 Short-films since 1986
– LAVA set to release 6.19.15 along with feature film #15
• 14 Feature-films since 1995
– #15 Inside Out 6.19.15
– #16 The Good Dinosaur 11.25.15
– #17 Finding Dory 6.17.16
• All 14 feature films have taken the #1 spot in the box office
• 30 Academy Awards
• 8 Golden Globes
• Grossed $7.8 billion in the global box office since 1995 (Toy Story-
Monsters University)
• Bought by Disney for $7.4 billion in 2006

A brief history

In 1979, the screenplay writer, better known for the Star Wars films, George Lucas recruited Dr. Ed Catmull and his team including Alvy Ray Smith, from NYIT, to head the computer division at Lucasfilm Ltd.. At this time Catmull and his group were "charged with developing state-of-the-art computer technology for the film industry" (Pixar). Soon after in 1983, John Lasseter, former employee of the Disney Animation Studio (Lasseter was fired from Disney after expressing a strong interest in developing computer animated films) was invited to join the graphics group over at Lucasfilm Ltd.. In 1984, Lasseter would become a full-time employee as an interface designer producing the short film, The Adventures of Andre & Wally B. with help of Alvy Ray Smith. On February 3rd, 1986, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., made a $10 million investment in the Lucasfilom Ltd. Computer Graphics Division writing his first check out to "Pixar Inc." and the founders Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith. $5 million dollars would allow Pixar to use the software they had developed at Lucasfilm Ltd. The other $5 million dollars would be used to run the company as an independent entity. 

Check signed by Steve Jobs to Pixar Inc

 Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith were co-founders of the Lucasfilm Ltd. spinoff company. During their first year, Lasseter directs and successfully develops the first short-film produced by Pixar, Luxo Jr. airing at SIGGRAPH in August of that year. Luxo Jr. will be the first 3-D computer animated film to be nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar. 1987 - 1989 three more short films were created and released: Red's Dream, Tin Toy, and Knick Knack. Tin Toy from 1988 will be the first computer animated film to win an Academy Award in Best Animated Short Film. In 1989, Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton join the company, making the employee count a mere 46 individuals. Also, in 1989 Pixar began making commercials for Listerine, Lifesavers and Tropicana, which would add to their growing list of successes; they won the CLIO Award twice. 

In 1991, Disney Animation Studios and Pixar "announce an agreement to make and distribute at least one computer-generated animated movie" (Pixar). A $26 million dollar deal that neither company would have thought to be their saving grace. Pixar was struggling financially and Disney was at a standstill with the quality of the films. In the agreement  between the two companies, Disney would handle production and promotional costs while Pixar took care of the content and animation aiming to produce a "quality" film. this agreement will later be amended, permitting Pixar to produce three more quality films. 

Despite their successes, the company still struggled to make ends meet. In 1994 they reported a loss of $2.4 million. Pixar did not report a profit until 1995 after the successful release of Toy Story.
Toy Story
1st computer animated film
– Created solely through computer graphics
– Directed by John Lasseter
• $30 million budget
• Grossed $29 million in first weekend
• Grossed $191 million nationally, $361 million internationally
– First sign of a profit: $3.1 million on revenues of $10.6 million

November of 1995 was the first time the company went public, after the release of their first feature-length film, Toy Story.

Pixar went on to produce A Bug's life, Pixar's first sequel Toy Story 2 which was more successful than the first, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, the most successful pixar film until the release of Toy Story 3 in 2010.

Media and Culture: Chapter 14 Media Effects

Blog Graphic to emphasize points in entry.
http://mediatheorystudies.com/2013/02/27/gauntlett-the-media-effects/

Media effects the thoughts and actions of humans everyday. Some people are effected by it more than others. For several years researchers have studied and conducted tests/experiments in order to yield results that might explain how and why media effects culture.

Book used in class and cited in entry.
www.amazon.com 

Due to the common belief that media has a powerful effect on people, media researches focus on two types of research: cultural studies research and media effects research (Campbell). According to Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, cultural studies focus on "how people make meaning, apprehend reality, articulate realities, and order experience through their use of cultural symbols". They also keen in on the way "status quo groups" use media to circulate their messages and sustain their interests. On the other hand, media effects research tries to "understand, explain, and predict the effects of mass media on individuals and society" (Campbell). Essentially the main objective is to reveal the connection between aggressive behavior and violence in the media, if any.

Walter Lippmann, a journalists that began to operate as a scientific researcher, gathering data and analyzing the material; he is commonly recognized for the rise of modern research methods. Research methods developed in the 1920's: propaganda analysis, public opinion research, social psychology studies, and marketing research. Through these research methods three popular theories of media effects developed.

First came the hypodermic-needle model. This method, also known as the "magic bullet" suggests that the media shoot their formidable effects directly into trusting targets like an injection. In other words, the powerful media could take full control of weak audiences that were susceptible to anything the media said.

The next method is called the minimal-effects model aka "the limited model". After several studies began to disprove the hypodermic-needle model having an affect on a larger population, scientists started discovering that some individuals engaged in selective exposure. This meant that media alone could not have a full affect on an individuals behaviors.

Media such as movies, video games, and television shows have been known to be the main causes of change and influence. Such media is meant to evoke different feelings, be it sadness, fear, anger, or even love. Violence and video games and movies have been on the forefront of conversations and studies about the effects they have on society, especially children. Children are easily swayed and influenced by what they see and hear. Commercials for toys are geared at children, even though they are not the ones buying the product. Video Games are created for game systems that are in the possession of minors, and although these games have age appropriate ratings, parents are still buying them.

Video Game Ratings
From: http://www.tower.com/games/esrb