Exam Flashcards
Medium
Channel of communication used to send and receive information
Culture
Beliefs and behaviours held by a social group (material and non-material)
Society
Group of people who share a common and definable region and culture
What are the two traditional models of communication?
Interpersonal and Mass
How much of the world are internet users?
2/3
What is communication media?
Different technological processes that facilitate communication
What does the internet do to users?
Makes them more active
What is the sociological perspective?
Emphasizes the interaction among elements of the media world and the larger social world
What is structure?
Constraint on human actions
What are the levels of relationship?
Among institutions
Within an institution
Between institutions and the public
What level of constraints on media exist in totalitarian societies?
High constraints
What is positivism approach?
Formulate research in terms of cause and effect relationships between measurable cause
What is the positivist analysis of media?
That media performs a very important function in society
What are some of the functions performed by media?
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
What can causal relationships within the media be modelled on?
The different social functions that media perform in supporting and perpetuating the processes of society
What is the behaviourism analysis of media effect?
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.
What is the bystander effect in regards to violent media?
Increased insensitivity towards violence against others.
What are manifest functions?
Recognized and intended consequences
What are latent functions?
Unrecognized and unintended consequences
What is the social solidarity function?
Rooted in Durkheim, it is the concept that the collection representations that are shared and circulated through the media are part of collective conscience.
Mediascape
A common stock of media images, celebrities and news events that circulate around the world through digital and other media
What is the social coordination function?
Mass media of the 19th and 20th century were key to creating the public spheres and common sources of information
What is the entertainment function?
Media provide forms of popular culture that do not require much more effort to access
Socialization function
Media enables societies to pass along norms, values and beliefs to the next generation
Social Control function
Media performs the function of producing conformity to social norms and thereby a means of exercising social control over populations.
What is critical sociology?
Focuses on the creation and reproduction of power relations and inequality through the media.
What is the Marxist perspective of media?
The media represent an image or idea of the world from the narrow pov of the wealthy and powerful.
What is the critique ideology?
Presenting a partial view of the world as universal
Ideology critique
Practice critical sociologists use in the study of media to analyze and challenge the underlying ideological assumptions of media texts
Platform capitalism
A business model in which value and competitive advantage are extracted from the data of platform users
What does critical sociology say about media bias?
The ways that bias in media messaging supports dominant economic and political structures of power while marginalizing dissent
What is interpretive sociology?
Emphasizes the processes by which media producers and audience actively create and interpret meanings in the media
What are the 3 general frameworks of decoding?
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
What is post modern culture characterized by?
Fragmentation of knowledge
Simulation or blurring of the boundaries between reality and representation
Skepticism of grand narratives and universal truths
What are the five filters of mass media machine?
Ownership
Advertising
Establishment manages the media
Flack
Common enemy
What is the three prong test for obscene materials?
Whether the average person would find something about it appealing
Whether the media is offensive
Whether it lacks artistic or scientific value
