Hot media, cold mediaA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWHorse-race story Approach to news coverage
of elections anchored in the metaphor of horse
racing (or any other competitive sport), in which
the political party ahead in the opinion polls
is ‘winning at a canter’ or is losing ground to
the opposition, which is coming up fast on the
outside. Todd Gitlin in ‘Bites and blips: chunk
news, savvy talk and the bifurcation of American
politics’ in Communication and Citizenship:
Journalism and the Public Sphere (Routledge,
1991), edited by Peter Dahlgren and Colin
Sparks, calls this mode of campaign journalism
an ‘enchantment – with means characteristic
of a society which is competitive, bureaucratic,
professional and technological all in one ... Th is
is a success culture bedazzled by sports statis-
tics and empty of criteria for value other than
numbers to answer the question, “How am I
doing?” Journalists compete, news organizations
compete, the channel aggression of the race is
what makes their blood run’. See topic guide
under news media.
Hot buttons Barry Feig in Hot Button Marketing
(Adams Media, 2006) argues that ‘consumers
buy from motivations they are not even aware
of. Th ose motivations are the Hot Buttons of
marketing ... Hot Buttons are the keys to the
psyches of your customers’. He claims, ‘People
don’t buy products and services. Th ey buy the
satisfaction of unmet needs.’ Feig identifies
sixteen such emotional hot buttons that can be
pressed to hook into the motivations of consum-
ers. Th ese range from ‘the desire for control’ to
the ‘wish fulfi llment’ hot button. Th e choice of
which hot button(s) to use will depend on factors
such as the needs, interests, values, lifestyles and
priorities of the consumer group being targeted.
See hidden needs; motivation research
(mr); vals typology.
Hot media, cold media Terms coined by
Marshall McLuhan, author of The Gutenberg
Galaxy (University of Toronto Press, 1962) and
Understanding Media (Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1964), and forming a basic tool of his analysis of
the media. For McLuhan, ‘hot’ media extend one
sense-mode with high-defi nition data: examples
of ‘hot’ media are radio and film. ‘Cold’ media
provide, in contrast, low-defi nition data, requir-
ing much more participation by the individual.
Examples are TV, telephone and cartoons. As
Ralph Berry queries in Communication Th rough
the Mass Media (Edward Arnold, 1971), ‘all this
is highly controversial ... for example, the “hot-
cold” metaphor runs speedily into diffi culties (is
the living theatre signifi cantly diff erent in the
front or the rear stalls?)’.Holography With the invention of the laser in
1960 an intriguing new form of three-dimen-
sional photography, named holography, became
possible. Though the theory originated with
Dennis Gabor as early as 1947, development was
not possible until an intense source of ‘coherent’
light became available, which the laser supplied.
Coherent light is light of ‘pure’ colour containing
waves of a single frequency whose wave-fronts
all move in perfect step.
Derived from the Greek, holos, or whole, and
gram, message, the hologram is made without
a lens by splitting a laser beam so that part of
it is directed at the subject and part becomes
a reference beam. When light reflected from
the subject and light from the reference beam
meet on the photographic plate, the wave-fronts
create interference patterns which contain all
the visual information needed to construct a
three-dimensional image of the subject, amaz-
ingly lifelike, and viewable from diff erent angles.
Recent developments have enabled holograms to
be made for viewing by ordinary white light.
Holography has proved a boon to the world
of business. Machine-readable refl ection holo-
grams store digital information in hundreds of
layers within the emulsion of a fi lm or plastic
card. The holographed data on a credit card,
passport, security access card or ticket to a
high-priced event, forming a three-dimensional
pattern, can be read electronically, thus provid-
ing a formidable obstacle to counterfeiting.
Home Service Name of the BBC’s prime talk
radio channel, founded in 1939. The name
was changed to BBC Radio 4 in 1967. See bbc
digital; radio 1, radio 2, radio 3, radio 4,
radio 5 live.
Homo narrans See narrative paradigm.
Homophily Interacting individuals who share
certain attributes – beliefs, values, educational
background, social status – are said to be
homophilous. Communication is commonly
believed to be closer when between people who
are homophilous as they are more likely to share a
common language-level and pattern of meaning.
On the other hand, heterophily refers to the degree
to which interacting individuals diff er in these
attributes. Generally, heterophilic interaction is
likely to cause some disturbance and confusion to
the individuals concerned, and thus more eff ort
is required to make communication eff ective. See
cognitive consistency theories.
Horizons of expectation See expectations,
horizons of.
Horizontal integration See integration:
vertical and horizontal.