Audio Media: Introduction
Audio media, such as music and podcasts, share the power to communicate deeply and personally with listeners, often using sound and words to tell stories and set moods. Both forms have been fundamentally changed by digital technology, which has made content abundant and accessible, mainly through mobile devices and streaming. These digital changes mean that algorithms and platform rules are now major forces in deciding what listeners discover and consume.
Interactive Media - Introduction
Interactive media, such as games and social media, use many of the same "rules of notice" as visual and video media, but also use “rules of action” that both allow users to make choices but also limit and influence those choices.
Visual Media - Introduction
Visual media, such as art, photos, and movies, use special techniques called "rules of notice" to guide what viewers pay attention to and how they feel about what they see. Understanding these rules helps both creators and those trying to understand the messages in visuals.
Guiding the eye in visual media
Visual media, encompassing art, photography and film, communicate meaning to an audience by strategically employing "rules of notice" – deliberate techniques used by creators to guide a viewer's attention and influence their interpretation of an image or narrative.
Essential elements of the news genre
At its core, news is defined by what’s considered newsworthy, a criterion that has evolved over time. Traditionally, a story is deemed newsworthy if it’s unusual, as encapsulated by Jesse Lynch Williams’ adage "a dog bites a man, that's a story; a man bites a dog, that's a good story.”
Key norms of the news industry
Journalism is guided by a set of norms that reflect its aspirational role in society, though these norms are constantly debated and challenged. There are standard practices that guide how the industry works.
Health and science news
As with other kinds of news, newsworthiness is the essential element of health and science coverage. Along with the factors that generally influence newsworthiness, Boyce Rensberger, in A Field Guide for Science Writers, identifies four factors specific to science stories:
Recommendation algorithms
Recommendation is where the role of algorithms is most visible to the public.
Generative AI
Generative AI is what we call AI systems that can generate things like images, video, voice and text. They do this by first encoding many examples of the kind of content they’re going to make, then decoding to make something new.