key terms Flashcards
Active audience approaches
Active audience approaches – theories that stress the effects of the media are limited because people are not easily influenced.
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Agenda setting
Agenda setting – Controlling which issues come to public attention
Synergy
Synergy – a mutually advantageous combination of distinct elements, as where two or more related businesses work together, e.g. to promote and sell a film, computer game and toys more effectively than they could individually.
Symbolic annihilation
Symbolic annihilation – the way in which women’s achievements are often not reported, or condemned or trivialised by the mass media.
Allocative roles
Allocative role – The power to set the goals of an organisation and make key financial decisions rather than day-today control.
Beaty ideal
Beauty ideal – the idea that women should strive for beauty.
Catharsis
Catharsis – the process of relieving tensions – for example, violence on screen providing a safe outlet for people’s violent tendencies.
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Churnalism
Churnalism’ – uncritical over-reliance by journalists on ‘facts’ produced by government spin doctors and public-relations experts.
Citizen journalists
Citizen journalists – members of the public who record news events, for example, using mobile-phone cameras.
Collector intelligence
Collective intelligence – the way in which users of new media combine skills, resources and knowledge.
Compression
Compression – the way which digital technologies can send many signals through the same cable.
Content analysis
Content analysis – a research method that analyses media content in both a quantitative and qualitative way.
Convergence
Convergence – the combination of different ways of presenting a variety of types of information (e.g. text, photographs, video, film, voices, music) into a single delivery system.
Copycat violence
‘Copycat’ violence – violence that occurs as a result of copying something that is seen in the media.
Correlation
Correlation – a relationship between two or more things, where one characteristic is directly affected by another.
Cross-media ownership
Cross-media ownership – Occurs where different types of media, e.g. Radio and TV stations are owned by the same company
Cult of femininity
Cult of femininity – the promotion of a traditional ideal where excellence is achieved through caring for others, the family, marriage and appearance.
Cultural effects model
Cultural effects model – the view that the media are powerful in so far as they link up with other agents of socialisation to encourage particular ways of making sense of the world.
Cultural hegemony
Cultural hegemony – the interests of the ruling class being accepted as ‘common sense’ by the mass of the population.
Cultural imperialism
Cultural imperialism – The imposition of Western Culture on developing countries.
Cultural pediments
Cultural pessimists – Commentators who are pessimistic about the spread and influence of new media technologies.
Cyber media
Cyber media – the internet and worldwide web.
Desensitisation
Desensitisation – the process by which, through repeated exposure to media violence, people come to accept violent behaviour as normal.
Digital citizenship
Digital citizenship – The ability to participate in online society.
Digital citizen
Digital citizens – Those who use the internet regularly and effectively.
Digital divide
Digital divide - The divisions between those with access to the internet and the skills to use it and those who lack access an appropriate skills.
Disinhibition effect
Disinhibition effect – effect of media violence, whereby people become convinced that in some social situations, the ‘normal’ rules that govern conflict and difference, i.e. discussion and negotiation, can be replaced with violence.
Diversificatiovc
Diversification – the practice of spreading risk by moving into new, unrelated areas of business
E-commerce
E-commerce – Commercial activities conducted on the internet, e.g. advertising and selling goods and services.
Effect approach
Effect approach – an approach based on the hypodermic syringe model which believes that the media have direct effects on their audiences.
Empower
Empower – make powerful.
Folk devil
Folk devil – a stereotype of deviants which suggests that the perpetrators of the so-called deviant activities are selfish and evil and therefore steps need to be taken to control and neutralize their actions so that society can return to ‘normality’.
False consciousness
False consciousness – a Marxist term to describe the way in which people’s values are manipulated by capitalism.
Gatekeepers
Gatekeepers – people within the media who have the power to let some news stories through and stop others, e.g. editors. They therefore decide what counts as news.
Ghettoisation
Ghettoization – in this context, scheduling programmes aimed at minority ethnic groups at times or on channels which ensure small audiences.
Global conglomeration
Global conglomeration – the trend for media corporations to have presence in many countries and operate in a global market.
Globalisation
Globalisation – the process by which societies become increasingly connected.
Global risk society
Global risk society – A global society in which human-made risks cross national boundaries.
False class
False class- consciousness – Coming to believe (wrongly) that capitalism is a fair system which benefits us all equally. Associated with Marxism.
Hegemony
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Hegemony – domination by the consent (used to describe the way in which the ruling class project their view of the world so that it becomes the consensus view.
Homogenous
Homogeneous – the same throughout, undifferentiated.
Horizontal integration
Horizontal Integration – Also known as cross-media ownership. Refers to the fat that the bigger the media companies often own a diverse range of media.
Hypodermic syringe
Hypodermic syringe model – the view that the media are very powerful and the audience very weak. The media can ‘inject’ their messages into the audience, who accept them uncritically.
Ideology – a set of ideas used to justify and legitimate inequality, especially class inequality.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure – The economic base of society.
Interactivity
Interactivity – digital technologies that are responsive in ‘real time’ to user input.
Investigative journalism
Investigative Journalism – Journalism that aims to expose the misdeeds of the powerful.
