Media

Question 1

Information provided outside the realm of control of mainstream media.

Answer 1

Alternative media

Question 2

The extent to which an industry, such as the media, is increasingly owned and controlled by fewer large corporations and conglomerates.

Answer 2

Demographic diversity

Question 3

The inequality between groups in terms of their access to and use of information and communication technologies.

Answer 3

Digital divide

Question 4

The range of viewpoints expressed in the media.

Answer 4

Idea diversity

Question 5

The process of sending one message to many people.

Answer 5

Mass media

Question 6

The technological processes that facilitate communication between a sender and a receiver.

Answer 6

Media

Question 7

An educational tool that helps individuals analyze and evaluate the messages they receive from the media.

Answer 7

Media literacy

Question 8

Accessible on demand, digital, and is interactive, meaning users may comment and provide feedback.

Answer 8

New media

Question 9

C. Wright Mills’s name for the interwoven interests of society’s military, corporate, and political leaders.

Answer 9

Power elite

Question 10

A type of new media, it allows for the creation and online sharing of information in communities and networks.

Answer 10

Social media

Question 11

How are the mass media organised? What structures are there? How are they linked to society at large? What is the role or function of the media?

Answer 11

Sociologists look at media As institutions:

Question 12

What sort of messages or values do media transmit? What is the content of media?

Answer 12

Sociologists look at media As cultures

Question 13

Who owns the media? Who has power within the media? How far does the media influence society and politics?

Answer 13

Sociologists look at media Shaping the discourse

Question 14

refers to the technological processes that facilitate communication between a sender and a receiver. Mass media means sending a message from one source to multiple people. Modern society has many kinds of mass media from the Internet to television to newspapers. Media are socializing agents as they teach us about the norms and expectations for different people and situations.

Answer 14

Media

Question 15

argued that the media are more effective if they know how to target their messages: Instead of appealing to rational thought, they should appeal to basic visceral emotions, and bypass critical thought.

Answer 15

Marshall McLuhan “The medium is the message”

Question 16

He argued that:

The content of the medium is not as influential as the physical and psychological effects of the medium.

o Different media have different effects because of the form of their message.
* He argues that visual media (e.g. television) are more direct, and thus more effective, than printed media (e.g. books)
* We respond more directly and less critically to certain media because they affect us at an irrational level.

oTheir forms alter how we experience the world, how we interact with others, and how we process and communicate information.

oThe medium’s properties, not just its content, affect us as individuals and our social world as a whole.

Answer 16

Marshall McLuhan “The medium is the message”

Question 17

defined as accessible on demand, digital, and is interactive, meaning users may comment and provide feedback.

Social media is a new type of media that allows for the creation and online sharing of information in communities and networks.

Social media is used mainly for interaction and are fulfilling important social functions.

Our expectations and norms about love, friendship, and identity are strongly informed by our use of social media.

Answer 17

New Media

Question 18

• The inequality in terms of access to and use of information and communication technologies.
• Within a country, divides exists between individuals, households, and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels.
• Between countries, divide is referred to as the global digital divide; measures the gap between the digital access and use of technologies across countries.

Answer 18

Digital divide

Question 19

The prevalence of violence in contemporary media is a significant concern for social scientists.

Violent content has been shown in the research to have serious consequences.

It may lessen people’s concern for the well-being of others and desensitize them to the consequences of violence in societies.

Viewing violence in the media can have serious implications for viewers’ attitudes and behaviours.

Viewing violence is associated with more aggressive behaviour and a more tolerant attitude to using violence to solve problems.

Answer 19

Violence and the Media

Question 20

Exposure to media may lead viewers to overestimate their risk of victimization and be more fearful of crime.

explore ways television contributes to creating a climate of fear that moral entrepreneurs such as politicians can exploit.

This produces Mean World Syndrome – the mistaken belief that the world is more threatening than it really is.

Answer 20

George Gerbner & Larry Gross (Cultivation Theory)

Question 21

o Argues that constant images of threats, violence, and conflict on tv lead the public to be constantly terrified, and hence more supportive of hardline solutions for nonexistent problems.

Answer 21

Cultivation Theory

Question 22

A key concern in the study of media is how the media are increasingly owned and controlled by a smaller number of people, organizations, huge media corporations and conglomerates.

This increasing density is referred to as corporate concentration of media ownership. Media concentration leads to fewer viewpoints being expressed.

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

Answer 22

C. Wright Mills Corporate Concentration and the Media

Question 23

o Large business structure with interests in a variety of fields (e.g. gambling, drinks, media).

o Emphasis on profit, not ‘quality news.’

o Importance of market considerations in choosing stories: Media is driven by commercial concerns as they’re increasingly owned by large conglomerates focus on profit, not news.

Answer 23

Conglomerate

Question 24

chains of local newspapers owned by same company all have identical stories; ignore local issues.

Answer 24

Horizontal integration

Question 25

radio stations mostly play music produced by record company owned by same corporation.

Answer 25

Vertical integration

Question 26

companies own different types of media (tv, papers etc), and repeat same issues across them to save money.

Answer 26

Cross-ownership

Question 27

Corporate concentration in the media can limit the free exchange of ideas and diversity of content we receive as media consumers.

Two main types of media diversity:

Answer 27

1. Idea diversity
2. Demographic diversity

Question 28

The range of viewpoints expressed in the media marketplace.

• Media concentration allows corporations to censor information according to their interests.
• Elites make media which serve their interests.
• Noam Chomsky and others argue that the media and elites wield this power to reproduce the class system and their position within it, and hence the inequalities inherent to it.

Answer 28

Idea diversity

Question 29

• How the media 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.

Answer 29

Demographic diversity

Question 30

An ongoing concern of social scientists studying the media is the decline in diversity of ideas due to media concentration.

o Increases the diversity of perspectives available to consumers.

o Is based on media that falls outside the purview of the mainstream media. Mainstream media is defined as any kind of media that is commercial, publicly supported or government owned.

Answer 30

Alternative media

Question 31

1. The message is not corporately controlled and is not motivated by profit. This makes alternative media non-profit in nature.
2. Its content is anti-establishment and tends to subvert the messages of the mainstream media. They also tend to be change-oriented, focused on upending the status quo.
3. It is usually distributed in a creative way. Focuses on being visually appealing and interesting. Distribution depends on the creativity and imagination of the producer.
4. There is a fundamentally different relationship between the producer and consumer. Mainstream media is unidirectional—the receiver only receives the message, they do not shape it. Alternative media is based on a two-way relationship between producer and consumer.

Answer 31

Alternative Media is defined by four main characteristics:

Question 32

o Gatekeeping
o Agenda-setting
o Framing

Answer 32

Media and Shaping the discourse:

Question 33

Media can have influence by selecting which topics or stories among many thousands of possible ones get published.

1950 study examined decisions on which stories to publish by newspaper editor ‘Mr. Gates.’
* Mr. Gates’s decisions highly subjective, based on personal views, tastes, writing style, interest in particular themes.
* More generally, criteria may include whether a story will appeal to a wide market (‘clickbait’), organizational values etc.

As a result, some topics get ignored. For example, crimes against Indigenous peoples (Residential Schools, police mistreatment) historically received almost no coverage.

Answer 33

David Manning White Media and Shaping the discourse: Gatekeeping

Question 34

o Process of selecting from a huge flow of information or news to decide which ones pass ‘through the gate’ to the public.

o Often, these decisions are in the hands of a small number of Gatekeepers

Answer 34

Gatekeeping

Question 35

the media can’t tell us what to think, but good at telling us what to think about.

Answer 35

Bernard Cohen Media and Shaping the discourse: Agenda-setting

Question 36

coin ‘agenda-setting’ in studying how voters chose candidates in 1968 US election.
* Most voters did not actively investigate political news, but still picked up plenty of knowledge passively.
* What passive voters saw as important strongly correlated with amount of coverage in media, e.g. crime, economy.

Answer 36

Max McCombs & Donald Shaw Media and Shaping the discourse: Agenda-setting

Question 37

a form of second-level agenda setting: over time, media set terms by which we judge issues highlighted by agenda-setting.

Answer 37

Priming

Question 38

o Media’s ability to determine what themes are viewed as important in public/political debates.

o Audiences are likely to think topics covered frequently and prominently in the media are most important issues.

Answer 38

Agenda-setting

Question 39

News stories are presented through a ‘frame,’ often cultural, which pre-interprets information.

How the media presents a particular news story, emphasizing certain aspects over others, and putting a particular spin on it to affect how audience interprets it.

Answer 39

Framing

Question 40

o Choice of words: News may refer to ‘undocumented workers’ or to ‘illegal aliens.’

o Structure of coverage: Viewers of ‘episodic’ news stories on poverty looking at particular cases saw it as responsibility of the individual; those who saw ‘thematic’ coverage placing it in broader context saw it as social problem. (Iyengar, 1991)

o Angle of coverage: The term ‘carbon footprint’ introduced by oil company BP in 2005, to re-frame climate change, and turn attention away from oil companies.

o Use of sounds and images: Media may use a smiling family photo or a sinister mugshot to depict alleged criminals.

Answer 40

Framing Media do this in several ways:

Question 41

is about what stories are presented to the public in general, driven by numerous factors e.g. commercial appeal, whim of editor.

Answer 41

These three terms are easy to confuse: Gatekeeping

Question 42

is about what stories are presented (and how frequently/prominently) in regard to public debate, with effects on the way public opinion prioritizes certain issues.

• Priming is part of agenda-setting, defining the standards we come to use when we evaluate those stories.

Answer 42

These three terms are easy to confuse: Agenda-setting

Question 43

refers to how the story is presented (not what is presented).

Answer 43

These three terms are easy to confuse: Framing

Question 44

Sociological study of various aspects of culture – both ‘high art’ and mass entertainment. Examines movies, tv, news, etc. to see what we can learn about a society from them. Sociologists in Cultural Studies don’t just look at the power structures of the media industry – they look at the content of mass culture, i.e. the actual things it says.

Answer 44

Cultural Studies and Media

Question 45

We can learn a lot about a society’s values by looking at the way it represents itself in culture.

• How are different genders or ethnicities represented?
• What sort of values do movie heroes embody?
• What ways of behaving are treated as normal?
• What messages are encoded about society?

Answer 45

Cultural Studies and MEdia

Question 46

Cultural studies scholars examine the roles and the appearance of women in the media:

• What does this tell us about the way women are treated in the rest of society? How are they expected to behave?

Disney’s female characters remain unchanged in appearance:

• Big eyes, small mouths, slim figures – a very narrow interpretation of ‘beauty.

’ * They are there to attract a man!

Women are shown as passive. Male characters are the heroes – they usually end up rescuing the women.

• Even ‘heroic’ women end up finding their ultimate goal in getting married and having children. 4

Answer 46

Male Gaze

Question 47

Material Girls examines the ways women are depicted in media: she suggests women are always represented according to the male gaze:

• Female characters are there to be looked at – they are passive, but pretty.
• They motivate the men but do nothing themselves
• In media more generally, women (e.g. politicians) are much more likely to be described in terms of appearance, not action.

Answer 47

Suzanna Walters’ Male Gaze

Question 48

o Feminist concept to describe the way women are generally expected to present themselves to be judged by men.

o Women are trained to spend a long time looking good – to attract the ubiquitous male eye

Answer 48

Male Gaze

Question 49

Disney heroes rarely talk with non-dominant accents, except for a small number of notable exceptions – usually princesses who are there to be rescued. Characters with ‘foreign’ accents are either villains or ‘lesser’ characters, often for comic effect. Noticeably urban, black accents used to voice villains.

Answer 49

Orientalism

Question 50

Aladdin and Mulan represent Arabic & Chinese cultures as regressive, brutal, or oppressive places.

• The heroes seen struggling against general ‘barbarism.’ Non-western cultures are often presented as strange, undiscovered lands of mystery and magic – just waiting to be penetrated by the enlightened gaze of white men.
• These lands are passive, waiting for active white explorers.
• Edward Saïd describes this as Orientalism.

Answer 50

Orientalism

Question 51

o Tendency for European/Western writers to depict other parts of world (especially Asia) as ‘mysterious’ and ‘magical.’

o Makes these areas seem irrational & pre-modern – only there for white man to ‘find’

Answer 51

Orientalism

Question 52

The dominant culture asserts itself as ‘default’: it’s what we assume people will be like unless otherwise noted.

In news media, racial origin of non-white criminals always noted.

• Race/ethnicity/religion tied in with their crimes, unlike with white criminals. (Most mass shooters were straight white males – this goes unremarked.)

Answer 52

The Other

Question 53

Because of the influence media has on human societies, many social scientists have advocated for an increase scrutiny of the media. They refer to this as media literacy, a concept devoted to individuals regaining control over their media consumption. Media literacy is an educational tool that helps individuals analyze and evaluate the messages they receive from the media.

Media literacy programs can take place in multiple spaces, from schools, to community centres and even online. There are three main stages to media literacy education.

• First stage is to become aware of one’s own media consumption.
• The second stage is to learn specific skills of critical viewing, which requires an analysis of what’s there and what’s missing.
• The third stage is to question who is behind the media you are consuming and who is responsible for the messages in the media.

Answer 53

Media Literacy