Mass Media Flashcards
Agency of social change
Influencing social attitudes and government policy.
Alienated
Lacking connection with the social world.
Bias
Not taking a neutral view but favouring one side of an argument or debate.
Blog
Web-based comment by both amateurs and professional writers (from the word ‘weblog’).
Censorship
Preventing certain information from becoming public knowledge.
Culture of simulation
A virtual world that becomes more important to the individual than their day-to-day lived experience.
Cumulative effect
Long period of exposure to particular media messages.
Deviancy amplification
The process by which the mass media can exaggerate the significance of a particular social issue.
Elite
A small dominant group (that may own and control the mass media).
Ethnicity
The classification of people into groups that share the same culture, history and identity.
Freedom of speech
The democratic principle that protects legitimate comment regarding the actions of the government or issues of public interest.
Gatekeeper
In the media, a person who has editorial control over media content.
Global culture
The idea that many cultural values (generally Western and often American) are now shared by people across the world.
Hyper-reality
An alternative reality based on the individual’s experience of the mass media – particularly television and the internet.
Image
The identity that individuals wish to present to the world, for example, the media image of a particular politician as young and dynamic.
Industrial disputes
Disagreements between management and workforce, often leaders to workers going on strike.
Information overload
The enormous volume of modern electronic communications (sometimes more than an individual can cope with).
Internet
A global system of interconnected computers.
Junk mail
The postal equivalent of SPAM.
Lad’s magazine
Publication aimed at a young male readership often containing images of women as sex objects.
Liberal democratic values
The dominant political and social values of western society, for example freedom of speech and free elections.
Mainframe computer
Large, room-sized early computers that stored data using reel-to-reel magnetic tape.
Mass culture
The transmission of cultural values through mass media communication, for example, television.
Media imperialism
The idea that Western cultural values are imposed by a dominant cultural empire (swamping local cultures that lack the resources to match the volume of media output from countries like the USA).
Media stereotype
Simple media image based on prejudice.
Modernity
Relating to the modern world.
Neo-liberalism
A political approach based on the belief that governments should limit their activity to maintaining law and order. In particular, governments should not interfere with market forces in the economy.
New media
Computerised communications technology.
News value
The importance attached to a particular news item.
Norms and expectations
Generally accepted and expected patterns of behaviour in a particular society.
Ofcom
The independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries.
Old media
Print media and electronic communications (radio, television) developed during the mid-20th century or earlier.
Pluralism
Theories about the mass media that see variety and competition as healthy sigs of a working democracy.
Propaganda
The selection and control of information usually for political ends.
Social class
People having the same social status measured by such things as occupation and income.
Social construct
Patterns of behaviour that are based on society’s norms and expectations, for example, masculinity and femininity.
Social convention
A generally expected form of social behaviour, for example, politeness and consideration of the needs of others.
Social networking site
Virtual community that enables members to establish a user profile and communicate and share images and information.
Socialisation
The lifelong process of learning the skills, customs, attitudes, norms and values of a culture.
SPAM
Unwanted and unasked for bulk electronic messages accounting for much of the increased volume of e-mail traffic.
Spin
Managing the message to influence the way in which events are reported.
Stereotype
A simple, fixed mental image (usually unfavourable) of a group of people generally based on the behaviour of a few individuals from within that group.
Stigmatise
To mark a particular social group or individual as different, disapproved of and even dangerous to others.
Substitute hearth
The idea that the television replaced the fireplace as the focus of the living room.
Survey
A research tool, for example a questionnaire or series of interviews.
Telesales
The selling of goods and services over the telephone/
World information order
The idea that information is now available almost instantly in a global marketplace.
World view
A general view of the way that society works.
Tabloid
Popular newspapers (e.g. The Sun, The Daily Mail) which used to be published in a smaller format than the so called ‘quality press’ (e.g. The Guardian, The Times)
