A2: Media TOPIC 1 Flashcards
What do pluralists believe about the audience’s role in media consumption?
Audiences actively choose what to consume, influencing media companies to meet their demands.
This perspective sees the audience as engaged and pivotal in determining media success or failure.
How do pluralists view mass media in relation to modern liberal democracy?
Mass media is crucial as it informs voters about their choices, ensuring they are not manipulated or indoctrinated.
This highlights the importance of media in a democratic society.
What concept do postmodernists discuss regarding media choice?
Media saturation.
They argue that in a society with constant media exposure, control by individual owners or editors is impossible.
According to postmodernists, who has the most control over media?
The audience.
Audiences have some freedom to choose which media they consume.
What do neo-Marxists refer to when discussing social media narratives?
Counter-hegemony.
This term describes how individuals can control media narratives rather than being controlled by them.
What do Marxists argue about audience choice in media?
The audience is manipulated and the media deliberately creates false needs.
They believe audiences do not make free choices in media consumption.
What do Barnett and Weymour suggest about the variety of television channels?
There is not really an offer of greater choice; there is just lots of the same thing.
Audiences often choose channels based on branding or presenter preference.
What is ‘tabloidization’?
The decline of serious news reporting and coverage of current affairs replaced by more simplified content.
This process leads to a decrease in the quality of media.
What did Curran et al. (2009) find in their content analysis of media?
Media were becoming more market-oriented and entertainment-centered, leading to less serious journalism.
This shift limits citizens’ knowledge of public affairs.
True or False: Postmodernism argues that media control is primarily in the hands of a ruling elite.
False.
Postmodernism suggests that media control is increasingly decentralized and in the hands of the audience.
What does ‘the media’ refer to?
The technology involved in communicating with large audiences without any personal contact, the institutions and organizations concerned with mass communication, and the products of those institutions.
What are examples of traditional media?
Terrestrial television channels, radio stations, newspapers.
How do traditional media communicate messages?
They communicate uniform messages that are non-interactive and delivered to large mass audiences.
What characterizes traditional media in terms of consumer choice?
Requires little consumer choice and is homogeneous.
When did ‘new media’ emerge?
In the late 20th to early 21st century.
What is a key feature of new media?
It is usually interactive and screen-based.
What types of content does new media integrate?
Sound, text, and images.
What are examples of new media?
- Social media sites (Facebook, X, TikTok)
- Streaming of video and audio files
- Digital/satellite and ‘smart’ television
- Computer games/online gaming
- Apps for mobile telephones and tablets.
What is a characteristic of user-generated media content?
Includes videos on platforms like YouTube.
Fill in the blank: Traditional media are delivered to large mass audiences, while new media offers _______.
[interactivity and choice]
True or False: All old media today exists only in traditional formats.
False
What is an example of old media existing in new media formats?
Newspaper websites that involve multimedia approaches to news.
What is one way televisions have evolved in the context of new media?
Televisions have become ‘smart’.
What is the significance of consumer choice in new media?
New media encourages choice by offering hundreds of channels, films, videos, music, and books.
