Binary Models J1

In a class lecture on August 29, 2014, we talked about binary models. We talked about hot and cool media, elitist--populist, content--distribution, and information--entertainment models. 

The Hot--Cool binary model has many different media forms within it labelled hot or cool depending on how much of your attention they require. Books are very hot media; you can't read a book and drive a car at the same time. Both need all of your attention. Music, however, is a cool medium. You can have it playing in the background while you wash dishes or go for a run. It doesn't require all of your focus at that point in time. 

Next up is the Elitist-Populist model. Elitist media focuses on getting their message to their readers. Even if it's a tiny target audience they're writing for, Elitist media will stick with them. An example of this would be Slashdot, a news website for "nerds" as they put it. Most of what they write is incomprehensible to people who don't speak the language. 

Populist media looks to please the people. What do the people want? How can we get more people to read/watch/listen to our magazine/television show/radio station? An example of Populist media would be Buzzfeed, a website for "hot social content."

Now we come to the Content-Distribution model. Let's look at this in terms of television: content would be a TV show such as, say, Doctor Who. There are companies that create television shows, like Warner Brothers Television. Then you have the distributors, such as Amazon or iTunes. They make content available to the consumer (you). There are also such things as companies that are both content provider and distributor. Netflix is a prime example. They've created their own shows, but have shows available from other content sources as well.

Finally, we come to the information-entertainment model.  Informational media is aimed toward informing the public. Entertainment (obviously) aims to entertain. These two mix, but only one way. Unlike the content-distribution model, we see more cases of infotainment. This is the shift of television (or any other media) from an informational view towards the aim of entertaining. They want to please the public.