Lecture 23

Question 1

Countries spend % of GDP on Welfare. Do countries with higher GDP’s spend higher % on welfare?

Answer 1

No

Question 2

What trend does welfare cause?

Answer 2

Less poverty

Question 3

When did Canada start with Welfare?

Answer 3

Arose around the time of World War II.
* Seeing widespread unemployment and poverty after the Great Depression as public issues, not personal issues, led to its rise

Canadians felt the state had responsibility to citizens

Question 4

(Social programs in the welfare state can be categorized in one of two ways)

What are Universal programs?

Answer 4

• Available to all citizens, regardless of income.
• Everyone benefits equally.
• Sometimes not the most efficient for dealing with certain social problems such as poverty, for example

Question 5

(Social programs in the welfare state can be categorized in one of two ways)

What are Means-tested programs?

Answer 5

• Social programs that rely on a determination of whether an individual
  or family needs government assistance.
• More efficient way to address inequality because they provide more money to those who need it the most.

(Less ppl like these cuz they dont feel like they benefit from paying in. Or feel people are mooching off system)

Question 6

What are Reparation programs?

Answer 6

measures taken by the state to redress
gross and systematic violations of human rights or humanitarian laws.
* Redress comes in the form of compensation or restitution for the victims

Question 7

How does the State involve the public in decisions?

Answer 7

Elections

Question 8

What is the trend in voter turn out?

Answer 8

Less young ppl voting

Question 8

two main theories to explain changing voting patterns:

1. Life-cycle effect
2. Generational replacement theory

Answer 8

Life-cycle effect
● Fewer young people vote because of a variety of structural, social, and
economic circumstances.
● As young voters age, they are more likely to vote.

Generational replacement theory
● Explains voter turnout in terms of “generations.”
● Older generations vote more but they are being replaced by younger generations that don’t vote

Question 9

According to Robert Putnam What creates effective governance?

Answer 9

“Civicness” a fabric of values, norms,
institutions, and associations that fostered higher levels of solidarity, mutual trust, and tolerance among citizens

Question 10

Explain the term “Bowling alone”?

Answer 10

meaning that we are no longer
involved in the civic and community groups, like bowling leagues.
● These sorts of groups and the connections they foster create the foundation for a strong democracy, vibrant
community, and trusting society

● Today Individuals are less likely to trust one another, less likely to participate together in social groups and organizations, and less likely to cooperate with one another

Question 11

Do people “Bowl alone” in Canada?

Answer 11

Nope!

More young ppl in groups

Economic status and education are positively associated with participation in groups

Question 12

What is Media?

Answer 12

Media refers to the technological processes that facilitate communication between a sender and a receiver.

Question 13

What is Mass media ?

Answer 13

sending a message from one source to multiple people.
● Modern society has many kinds of mass
media from the Internet to television to
newspapers.

Question 14

What is media with socialization?

Answer 14

Media are socializing agents as they teach us about the norms and expectations for different people and situations.

● Effectiveness is tied to exposure:
people are highly exposed to the media.

● How has the media changed and what role does it play in society?

Question 15

What does “The medium is the message” mean?

Answer 15

The content of the medium is not as influential as the
physical and psychological effects of the medium.
● Different media have different effects because of the form of their message.

Simplified: the form of a message (print, visual, musical, etc.) determines the ways in which that message will be perceived.

Question 16

What is a A key concern in the study of media?

Answer 16

is how the media are increasingly owned by a smaller number of people and organizations.

● This increasing density is referred to as corporate concentration of media ownership.

● In other words, the media are increasingly owned and controlled by fewer huge media corporations and conglomerates.

Question 17

Canadian trends in the monopoly of media?

Answer 17

Bell taken over everything man :(

Question 18

What are the Effects of Media concentration?

Answer 18

Media concentration leads to fewer viewpoints being expressed

C. Wright Mills argued that the power elite have interwoven interests and that concentrated media ownership helps communicate their interests.

limit the free exchange of ideas and diversity of content we receive as media consumers

Question 19

Two main types of media diversity:
● Idea diversity

● Demographic diversity

Answer 19

Idea diversity
● The range of viewpoints expressed in the media marketplace.
● Media concentration allows corporations to censor information according to their interests

Demographic diversity
● How the media and addresses the interests of a diversity of people from a variety of races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and classes
● The lack in diversity of ownership could limit the diversity of humanity depicted in the media.

Question 20

Effects of lack of Demographic diversity?

Answer 20

How people are being represented
In the U.S the media under-report on victims of homicide coming from racial minority groups, such as Hispanics and Blacks
● Over-report on offenders from these groups

Question 21

How are minority criminals treated different then white criminals?

Answer 21

Troubling behaviours of immigrants or ethnic minorities are considered to reflect their culture,

● Similar acts by white people are regarded as isolated incidences, reflecting individual traits rather than cultural ones.
● “White people are individual actors; people of color are members of groups”

Question 22

What does Noam Chomsky argue about the media?

Answer 22

elites wield this power to reproduce the class system and their position within it, and hence the inequalities inherent to it

Question 23

Explain the issue with reporting murders as “honor killings” ?

Answer 23

murder cases labeled “honor killings” for Middle Eastern / SEA people

associated with Muslims or other immigrants from South Asia and the Middle East, and the motives provided focused on cultural and religious traditions, as well as sentiments of breached honor and shame

When family murders were committed by non-Muslim Canadians, culture and religion
the stories focused on individualistic psychological explanations

Question 24

What is Agenda Setting?

Answer 24

The idea that news media set the agenda for public agenda.

Media do not shape what people think, but do have great influence on what people think about.

● Who sets the agenda?
● Government officials give -1/2 to 3/4 of all news sources info