Exam

Question 1

Medium

Answer 1

Channel of communication used to send and receive information

Question 2

Culture

Answer 2

Beliefs and behaviours held by a social group (material and non-material)

Question 3

Society

Answer 3

Group of people who share a common and definable region and culture

Question 4

What are the two traditional models of communication?

Answer 4

Interpersonal and Mass

Question 5

How much of the world are internet users?

Answer 5

2/3

Question 6

What is communication media?

Answer 6

Different technological processes that facilitate communication

Question 7

What does the internet do to users?

Answer 7

Makes them more active

Question 8

What is the sociological perspective?

Answer 8

Emphasizes the interaction among elements of the media world and the larger social world

Question 9

What is structure?

Answer 9

Constraint on human actions

Question 10

What are the levels of relationship?

Answer 10

Among institutions
Within an institution
Between institutions and the public

Question 11

What level of constraints on media exist in totalitarian societies?

Answer 11

High constraints

Question 12

What is positivism approach?

Answer 12

Formulate research in terms of cause and effect relationships between measurable cause

Question 13

What is the positivist analysis of media?

Answer 13

That media performs a very important function in society

Question 14

What are some of the functions performed by media?

Answer 14

Ensures conformity
Reinforces ideas of what kinds of people deserve punishment vs. Rewards
Provides entertainment and escapism
Agent of socialization
Typically does not critique or destruct the status quo

Question 15

What can causal relationships within the media be modelled on?

Answer 15

The different social functions that media perform in supporting and perpetuating the processes of society

Question 16

What is the behaviourism analysis of media effect?

Answer 16

Because you see something done, you do it. This is used in the argument against violent video games, saying there is a link between media usage and violent behaviours. However this is not a very strong causal relationship, and usually the worst effect of video games is that they might make people more hot-headed.

Question 17

What is the bystander effect in regards to violent media?

Answer 17

Increased insensitivity towards violence against others.

Question 18

What are manifest functions?

Answer 18

Recognized and intended consequences

Question 19

What are latent functions?

Answer 19

Unrecognized and unintended consequences

Question 20

What is the social solidarity function?

Answer 20

Rooted in Durkheim, it is the concept that the collection representations that are shared and circulated through the media are part of collective conscience.

Question 21

Mediascape

Answer 21

A common stock of media images, celebrities and news events that circulate around the world through digital and other media

Question 22

What is the social coordination function?

Answer 22

Mass media of the 19th and 20th century were key to creating the public spheres and common sources of information

Question 23

What is the entertainment function?

Answer 23

Media provide forms of popular culture that do not require much more effort to access

Question 24

Socialization function

Answer 24

Media enables societies to pass along norms, values and beliefs to the next generation

Question 25

Social Control function

Answer 25

Media performs the function of producing conformity to social norms and thereby a means of exercising social control over populations.

Question 26

What is critical sociology?

Answer 26

Focuses on the creation and reproduction of power relations and inequality through the media.

Question 27

What is the Marxist perspective of media?

Answer 27

The media represent an image or idea of the world from the narrow pov of the wealthy and powerful.

Question 28

What is the critique ideology?

Answer 28

Presenting a partial view of the world as universal

Question 29

Ideology critique

Answer 29

Practice critical sociologists use in the study of media to analyze and challenge the underlying ideological assumptions of media texts

Question 30

Platform capitalism

Answer 30

A business model in which value and competitive advantage are extracted from the data of platform users

Question 31

What does critical sociology say about media bias?

Answer 31

The ways that bias in media messaging supports dominant economic and political structures of power while marginalizing dissent

Question 32

What is interpretive sociology?

Answer 32

Emphasizes the processes by which media producers and audience actively create and interpret meanings in the media

Question 33

What are the 3 general frameworks of decoding?

Answer 33

Dominant hegemonic: agree with framing, accept dominant perspective of society
Negotiated: mostly accepts the dominant perspective but with some exceptions
Oppositional: rejects the dominant perspective

Question 34

What is post modern culture characterized by?

Answer 34

Fragmentation of knowledge
Simulation or blurring of the boundaries between reality and representation
Skepticism of grand narratives and universal truths

Question 35

What are the five filters of mass media machine?

Answer 35

Ownership
Advertising
Establishment manages the media
Flack
Common enemy

Question 36

What is the three prong test for obscene materials?

Answer 36

Whether the average person would find something about it appealing
Whether the media is offensive
Whether it lacks artistic or scientific value