March Mock Flashcards
Outline and explain two ways in which the ownership and control of the media may have been affected by the growth of new media [10 marks]
P1 – Marxism argues New media = increased outlets but increased concentration of media ownership e.g. Rupert Murdoch
AO2: Bagdikian 2004 – 1953 50 corps owned majority of media, 1992 22 companies. UK magazine market is dominated by 2 major companies. 27 million adults read magazines by IPC ‘International Publishing Corporation’. Own: Marie Claire, Woman, Nuts, Country Life, What’s on TV, Elle, FHM
AO3: Rise of social media disproves this, people can say what they want and sites like YouTube provide alternative media created by normal people rather than corporations/media moguls like Rupert Murdoch
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P2 – Public Journalism (phones can record, internet people can post and report on news without being a journalist/qualified)
AO2: Hillsborough Disaster. Diverse Media representations. Pluralism in media emphasises the important of diverse voices and perspectives. Initial media coverage presented a variety of viewpoints, reflecting different narratives and interpretations of the Hillsborough disaster.
AO3: Comprehensive understanding capturing various angles and opinions. Against pluralism: Misinformation, so many angles’ people exaggerating points others haven’t covered leading to misunderstanding
Outline and explain two ways in which research design may be influenced by feminism [10 marks]
P1 – Qualitative methods (preferred by interps e.g. Becker) such as unstructured interviews (explanation of what this is) influenced by feminism. (Verstehen approach)
AO2: Dobash and Dobash use interviews to research DV. Scottish refugee women
AO3: Difference feminism – not all women are the same, emphasis of individual. Sample used in Dobash and Dobash does not reflect every other woman. Low generalisability.
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P2 – Prefer overt research design & participatory research methods to be socially sensitive to not negatively impact women. Women know what they are signing up for and data won’t be mis constructed and will instead empower them as they take part and are aware. They can avoid research that may be sexist/not socially sensitive via this method (informed consent & right to withdraw). Emphasising and promoting just and fair research
AO2: Reality shows like Big Brother are an example of overt observations
AO3: May negatively impact research design due to Hawthorne effect/demand characteristics
Applying material from Item N and your own knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of the ways in which the media represent people from different social classes [20 marks]
‘Some sociologists suggest the media have often presented stereotypical representations of social classes. For example, working class people are often represented negatively in comparison to other social classes. Marxists suggest the ruling class use the media to present ideas that suit their interests. However, others argue that new media platforms are being used to challenge stereotypes presented by the mass media.’
Intro – different social classes -> working class, middle, upper. Upper tends to be represented positively, working class negatively
P1 - “working class people are often represented negatively in comparison to other social classes”
Typically in most media there is demonisation of working class. Scapegoating
AO2: Shameless TV show depicts working class members immoral and abusive of welfare state. Shildrick and MacDonald (2007) labelling of poor as work-shy and welfare dependent
AO3: Too deterministic, not every form of media does this e.g. social media, Demi Moore had alcoholic parents & lived in a trailer
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P2 – “Marxists suggest the ruling class use the media to present ideas that suit their interests”
Media represent upper class positively. The media glamorizes the ruling class lifestyle, promoting a consumerist culture that aligns with capitalist ideologies done globally via streaming platforms e.g. Keeping Up with The Kardashians. Marxism – Karl Marx says this creates a smoke screen and emphasises false class consciousness.
AO2: According to Press Gazette, 80% of journalists come from upper-class backgrounds. Oxfordstudent.com saying that the proportion of working-class journalists is declining. Upper-class media ownership is increasing
AO3: Bad news coverage on rich people e.g. Elon Musk, Donald Trump, JD Vance
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P3- “suggest the media have often presented stereotypical representations of social classes”
Middle class seen as default audience. News reflects middle-class interests such as economy, monarchy and promotes conservative values. This results in stereotypes of working class leaching off benefits, middle class being the hard workers in society as seen in Modern Family and upper class being glamorised
AO2: Altman 2005 increased media focus on wealthy, Nairn 1998 limited criticism of monarchy in mainstream media
AO3: Not the case in all media. Too deterministic
Conclusion - media represents social classes in various ways, stereotypes seem to be changing as society modernises and moves away from tradition
Applying material from Item M, analyse two reasons why the media may not always have a direct influence on their audiences [10 marks]
P1 – Ownership and control is much more diverse due to social media & internet, easy access to technology (civilian journalism). Able to publish ideas and thoughts on current events happening on apps such as Facebook/Instagram. These can be updated at any time and constantly updated. Due to this constant update, it is very hard to monitor and restrict what is being written about. Allows them to challenge stereotypes promoted by mass media as government bodies cannot regulate it
AO2: Any social media platform
AO3: Government bodies still regulate the new media (social media) through blocking certain websites, topics, images and key terms etc. (e.g. China conservativeship). As seen on X this can be used for the upper class to promote ideas they find favourable rather than what the algorithm is aiming to perform
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P2 - “may also be less trusted sources of information than they used to be”
When media was controlled by gov officials all info published was based on official statistics and other trusted research allowing less misinformation and more quality news. Cultural pessimists believe the internet is the cult of the ammature this had led to the degradation of quality information
AO2: Wikipedia, anyone can edit this without any qualification or regulation. Info may not be reliable and of someones opinion and information they’ve seen elsewhere
AO3: Feminists agree but further that misinformation would be negative towards women. Allows negative stereotypes of women to be perpetuated across media
