Ch. 4 - The Role of the Media Flashcards
What is the media?
Any form of communication that targets a mass audience in print or electronic formats.
What does the media define and shape?
Boundaries between groups, social problems, and public debates.
What are stigmatized others?
People represented by the media as some kind of threat to decent people’s way of life.
What are some examples of stigmatized others?
Street youth, single parents, the mental ill, etc.
What are absolute others?
Those who are regarded as inherently and absolutely evil.
What are some examples of absolute others?
Psychopaths, terrorists, pedophiles, etc.
What is the nature of stigmatized and absolute others?
It is dynamic, others may find themselves along a continuum at different points in time.
What are the two approaches to media study/analysis?
Administrative and critical.
What does the administrative approach to media study/analysis explore?
The effects of media on thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Focusing in on cause and effect.
What is the ultimate goal of the administrative approach?
To learn how the effects of the media happen so that we can intervene.
What does the critical approach focus on?
How the media constructs events, issues, and identities.
What does administrative research focus on?
Advertising and violence.
What do advertisers try to do?
Get us to feel connected with their product.
What distinction is drawn in advertising?
Cognitively based ads and affectively based ads.
What are cognitively based ads working on?
Our thoughts about a product.
What are affectively based ads working on?
Our emotions over a product.
What are the three types of product placement?
Active, passive, and verbally referenced.
What is passive product placement?
A product just sitting in the background.
What is active product placement?
A character in the show actually using the product.
What is the most researched topic in media studies?
Violence.
What question still remains in the area of media violence research?
Whether exposure desensitizes people to violence or whether it stimulates feelings of vulnerability prompting violence as a wall of protection.
What does framing refer to?
The overall way that an issue is depicted in the media.
What are the three times of frames?
Conflict, human interest, and economic consequences.
What are conflict frames?
News stories that focus on the conflict between different groups.
What are human interest frames?
Stories that people would take interest in. E.g., Dog went to get help when owner collapsed, young girl raised money to build a hospital in Africa, etc.
What are economic consequence frames?
Focuses on the various costs and benefits of something. E.g., Cost of war on terror, benefits of building a school in a particular neighbourhood
What are the 5 frames of race/ethnicity?
Invisible, stereotypes, social problems, adornments, and white-washed.
What is the invisibility frame?
Certain racial minorities are not represented in media, so we end up with a skewed perception of who is and is not part of society.
What is the stereotype frame?
When minorities are included in media, they are presented in stereotypical ways.
What is the social problem frame?
Racial and ethnic minorities are framed as some kind of threat or social problem; a drain on society.
What is the adornments frame?
How different minority groups are presented as the “exotic other;” the reality in which these groups live is completely ignored.
What is the white-washed frame?
Minorities are presented as having experiences, perspectives, and identities very much like those of the majority.
What are the four femininity frames?
Feminine touch, ritualization of subordination, licensed withdrawal, and infantilization.
What is the feminine touch frame?
Meant to imply delicacy or sexuality.
What is the ritualization of subordination frame?
Ritualizing women being submissive to men or literally being placed below them.
What is the license withdrawal frame?
Making it seem as though women don’t have a thought in their head, featuring vacuous, vacant stares.
What is the infantilization frame?
Where adult women are presented as little girls or young girls are made to look older and sexualized.
What are the implications of racial/minority frames?
They may be erased from public consciousness, have their voices left unheard, media representations may become integrated into their identities, and it may have an impact on policy.
What are the four masculinity frames?
Villain, aggressor, pervert, and philanderer.
What is there a trend towards in media ownership?
Convergence, conglomeration, and concentration.
What are the 4 points in the media-deviance nexus?
Media as a cause of deviance, media constructs deviance and normality, media as a tool for deviance, and media as a site of the deviance dance.
Where is media as a cause of deviance reflected?
Studies of advertising and media violence.
Where is media constructing deviance and normality reflected?
Studies of media framing.
Where is media as a tool for deviance reflected?
Cyber deviance.
Where is media as a site of the deviance dance reflected?
Various points of view and debates within the media.
What does cybercrime involve?
Credit card fraud, identity theft, and hacking.
What are 5 elements of the hacker subculture?
Technology, knowledge, commitment, categorization, and law.
What is involved in the technology element of hacker subculture?
A passion and interest in how technology works that typically develops at a young age.
What is involved in the knowledge element of hacker subculture?
The quest for knowledge is important in hacking; refer to themselves on a basis of knowledge.
What is involved in the commitment element of hacker subculture?
Commitment to persist despite the obstacles/failures/challenges they will encounter.
What is digital piracy?
The illegal downloading of music, software, and video.
How does the internet facilitate digital piracy?
Anonymity, speed of transmission, and a shift in the mindset considering “ownership.”
What are the three theoretical explanations about digital piracy?
Differential association (learning techniques and motives), techniques of neutralization, and interpretive theories (identify formation and labelling).
What is an example of differential association in digital piracy?
Learning how to use a VPN.
What are two examples of techniques of neutralization for digital piracy?
Denial of injury: these companies have enough money already, it’s no big deal to download one song. Appeal to higher loyalties: financial resources should be an impediment to having access to these things.
What is cyberbullying?
Refers to the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group that is intended to harm others.
What are three issues with cyberbullying?
Anonymity, visibility, and permanence.
What are three examples of cyberbullying?
Spreading rumors, sharing private photos, harassing/threatening people online.
What is the visibility issue of cyberbullying?
Anyone can see what is online.
What is the primary function of mass media?
To deliver an audience to advertisers.
What are the 5 Ss of media?
Sensationalize, simplify, standardize, sell, and symbolize.
Where does knowledge about deviance and crime come from?
Media exposure.
What does the media disproportionately focus on?
Violence; and there is a lack of attention to underlying causes or relevant social issues.
What type of process is media consumption?
An active process.
What does it mean for media consumption to be an active process?
The meanings and interpretations people make of their media exposure are mediated by their own background experiences.
What are three consequences of biased media exposure?
Moral panics, the emergence of a risk society, and the demand for policy/legislative change.
What is a moral panic?
Believing that a relatively small problem is critically out of control.
How do news media outlets frame deviance and crime?
As a battle of good vs. evil.
What is the proposed purpose of framing deviance as a good vs. evil?
It establishes a moral order and reaffirms power relations.
What is the proposed purpose of news stories individualizing and pathologizing deviance and crime?
To promote social cohesion.
What do news stories perpetuating a “crime does not pay” myth promote?
Social control.
