Learning Unit 1

Question 1

Critically discuss the statement: “the power of the radio can be compared to the power of the atomic bomb.”

Answer 1

• people are concerned about how h e mass media are everywhere and they realize mass media is powerful

FAR REACH (able to reach many people) 
MASS DEVASTATION (they believed radio will have)
USED FOR GOOD/BAD
REQUIRE CONTROL  (or it will be bad)

Question 2

List Lazarsfeld and Merton’s social functions of mass media.

Answer 2

The status confederal function
The enforcement of social norms
The narcotising dysfunction

Question 3

Explain the ‘status conferral function’ as a social function of mass media.

Answer 3

• mass media gives status to issues, people, orgs and social movements
• raised social standing if you get favourable attention from mass media
• mass media gives prestige to groups or individuals by legitamising their status
• recognition by mass media testifies that you’re NB enough to be singled out from large anonymous masses
• e.g. Justin Bieber tissue

Question 4

Explain the ‘the enforcement of social norms’ as a social function of mass media.

Answer 4

• “the power of the press”
• mass media can initiate organised social action by exposing
• public exposure operates as follows:
  social norms are inconvenient = go against instant gratification = lenient when applying norms to self and others = deviant behaviour
• private toleration as long as don’t have to take public stand
• publicity requires public stand to be taken
• publicity closes gap between “private attitudes” and “public morality”
• e.g. Tiger Woods - loses Nike sponsorship

Question 5

Explain the ‘the narcotising dysfunction’ as a social function of mass media.

Answer 5

• this consequence goes largely unnoticed
• “dysfunctional” it is not in the interest of modern society to have a politically apathetic population
• more time spent on mass media products
• mass media allows us to stay in touch with the world
• superficial concern with societal problems
• spend more time reading/listening rather than organized action
• intellectual conversations and informed people may congratulate themselves for being informed
• e.g. Increased petrol prices

Question 6

Explain what is meant by social conformism

Answer 6

• mass media influence comes form what they say and what they don’t say
• mass media affirm the status quo and this affirmation encourages acceptance
• mass media don’t raise essential Qs about structure of society = social conformism = approval of present structure of society
• media restrain the potential for a critical outlook
• media is commercially sponsored
• supported by business concerns therefore contribute toward the maintenance of social and economic systems.

Question 7

Critically discuss how mass media has impacted upon popular taste.

Answer 7

• must look at pop taste in historical and sociological terms to understand impact
• what is the historical status of low level of pop taste?
• seeming decline of pop taste with the rise of pop education
• large no of people have acquired “formal literacy”
• – can read but superficial meaning
• – gap between literacy and comprehension
• – read more but understand less
• there are some people with good/high aesthetic standards but more who don’t have a good in depth understanding of the arts
• proves decrease in standards and tastes of audiences
• some sectors of pop’s tastes have been raised
• total no of people exposed to comm contents = increased
• stereotypical formulae used by media to create “interesting content”

Question 8

List the three building blocks of media literacy.

Answer 8

• personal locus
• knowledge structures
• skills

Question 9

List the skills most relevant to media literacy.

Answer 9

• analysis
• evaluation
• grouping
• induction
• deduction
• synthesis
• abstracting

Question 10

Explain “personal locus” as a building block of media literacy.

Answer 10

• personal locus is goals and drives that shape the info processing tasks by determining what gets in and what gets out
• the more personal locus one has, the easier it is to direct process of info seeking and the more effort you’ll expend to attain your goals
• low personal locus = default to media control (allow media to control your exposure to info)
• the more you know about this locus and consciously shape it the locus and increased engagement of locus = increased media literacy)

Question 11

Explain “knowledge structures” as a building block of media literacy.

Answer 11

• sets of organised info in a person’s memory
• made up by carefully crafting info into an overall design
• skills are the tools we use to search for relevant info and shape this info into a proper structure
• info is essential in creating knowledge structures but not all info is equally useful
• if all someone has is superficial info , they’re operating at a low level of media literacy because they can only answer “what”
• ## more useful info answers “how” and “why” but person first needs to know “what”

Question 12

Explain “skills” as a building block of media literacy.

Answer 12

• tools developed by people through practice
• use these skills in all sorts of ways in our everyday lives
• we all have these skills to some extent, challenge is to get batted at using each of these skills as we encounter media messages

Question 13

Explain “analysis” as a relevant skill of media literacy.

Answer 13

• breaking down message into meaningful elements
• dig deeper, break down into components and examine composition of elements
• e.g. Breaking down a news story into: who what when where why and how to determine if the story is complete

Question 14

Explain “evaluation” as a relevant skill of media literacy.

Answer 14

• making a judgement about the value of an element
• process involves comparing a message element to a standard
• is take info elements and compare them to our standards - if they meet or exceed our standards, message = good
• if they fall short, message is unacceptable

Question 15

Explain “grouping” as a relevant skill of media literacy.

Answer 15

• determining how elements are alike and how groups of elements is different from other groups of elements
• first need to determine a classification rule
• media has classification rules - we’ll end up in groups they want to use
• if we make up our own classification rules, we’ll end up with groups that have more meaning and value for us

Question 16

Explain “induction” as a relevant skill of media literacy.

Answer 16

• infer patterns across small no of elements then generalize elements in larger set
• people use elements in media stories to infer patterns about real life
• use elements learned in media messages to dominate their perception of patterns in real life
• don’t use their own life experience therefore don’t use induction well

Question 17

Explain “deduction” as a relevant skill of media literacy.

Answer 17

• use of general principals to explain particulars
• faulty generalizations lead to false explanations of particular occurrences
• e.g. General principle: media has a strong effect on other people (overestimation)
• e.g. General principle: media has no effect on people (underestimation) – in this they argue that media is just a source of entertainment and diversion with no negative effects.

Question 18

Explain “synthesis” as a relevant skill of media literacy.

Answer 18

• assembling elements into new structure
• skill used when building knowledge structures

1. Must analyse/break down new info into useful elements
2. Then evaluate elements to determine which are useful, credible and interesting
3. Elements that are evaluated positively must then be grouped with elements in existing knowledge structures
   (May have to create new groups or look for new patterns)

• using our new media messages to keep reformulating, refining and updating existing knowledge structures

Question 19

Explain “abstracting” as a relevant skill of media literacy.

Answer 19

• creating a brief, clear, accurate description capturing the essence of a message in a smaller no of words than the message itself
• when describing a media message, we use abstraction
• must be able to capture the “big picture” in as few words as possible

Question 20

Define media literacy.

Answer 20

• set of perspectives that we actively expose ourselves to the media to interpret the meaning of messages
• perspectives built from knowledge structures
• use tools or skills and raw materials to build knowledge structures
• raw material = info from media/real world
• active use means we’re aware of messages and purposefully interact with them

Question 21

List the categories of media dimensions.

Answer 21

1. Media literacy is multidimensional

2. Media literacy is a continuum not a category

Question 22

Explain “media literacy is multi-dimensional.”

Answer 22

• when we think of info, we typically think of:
  Textbook, newspaper, magazine article…)
• media literacy requires that we acquire info and build knowledge in more than just the cognitive dimension

Question 23

Explain “medial literacy is a continuum, not a category.”

Answer 23

• it’s not black and white, we each have a position on the continuum
• you can’t say someone has no literacy or that someone is fully literate
• position on the continuum is based on the strength of their overall perspective on the media, which is based on the number and quality of knowledge structures
• quality of knowledge structures is based on the level of person’s skills and experiences, which may vary therefore there will be a higher level of variation of media literacy
• low levels of media literacy lead to:
• –weak, limited media perspectives
• –small, less organized, superficial knowledge structures
• – inadequate perspective to use when interpreting media message
• –reluctant/ unwilling to use skills

Question 24

What is the cognitive domain of media literacy?

Answer 24

• factual info e.g. Dates, names, definitions etc.

- who created Facebook?

Question 25

What is the emotional domain of media literacy?

Answer 25

• info about feelings i.e. Love, hate, happiness…
• some people are sensitive to media exposure (can generate feelings) others aren’t able to experience emotions from media exposure
• e.g. Laughing at horror movies

Question 26

What is the aesthetic domain of media literacy?

Answer 26

• info about how to produce messages
• allows us to judge who are the great writers, photographers, actors, dancers, musicians…(artists)
• allow us to make judgements about other products of creative craftsmanship i.e. Lighting, set designing, costume, layout etc.

Question 27

What is the moral domain of media literacy?

Answer 27

• info about values = basis for judging right and wrong
• highly media literate (focus on narrative level)
• we judge characters on moral dimension (good vs evil)
• increased detail and refined moral info = increased depth in perceiving values = more reasoned judgments
• think past individual characters and separate them from actions

Question 28

List the advantages of increasing levels of media literacy.

Answer 28

1. Appetite for wider variety of media messages
2. More self-programming of mental codes
3. More control over the media

Question 29

Explain “Appetite for wider variety of media messages” as a reason to improve media literacy.

Answer 29

• the media offer a variety of choices (internet = websites ; magazines = titles …)
• however, mass media try to direct and constrain our choices to a smaller set so they can Condition you to habitual exposure of a few types of media
• you become more predictable for marketing which increases mass media’s ability to reduce their business risk
• the choice is still ours but most of us prefer our habituals of exposure
• media literacy encourages exposure to wide range of messages - many messages won’t be useful and some will be highly useful

Question 30

Explain “More self-programming of mental codes” as a reason to improve media literacy.

Answer 30

• the purpose of media literacy is to empower individuals to control media programming (i.e. Individuals can increase exertion of control over the way their minds get programmed)
• therefore purpose of media literacy is to encourage shift of control from media to self
• individuals must first understand how the media program them - usually takes place in a two way cycle that repeats

Phase 1. Constraining of choices
Phase 2. Reinforcing of experience

Question 31

Explain “more control over the media” as a reason to improve media literacy.

Answer 31

• the media are businesses that know how to attract your attention and condition you for repeat exposures
• media are successful in using you to achieve business goals
• often their business goals and your personal goals are the same (win, win situation)
• when your personal goals differ from media goals then media literacy allows you to follow your own goals and treat media messages as tools to help you reach your goals.