Media Flashcards
What characteristics distinguish new media from old media?
Digitalisation
Interactivity
Choice
Participatory culture
Define digitalisation
The convergence of information into binary code
Define participatory culture
Audiences are no longer passive receivers of information but collaborators or media producers.
Define collective intelligence
The pooling of resources and information which allows people to share knowledge.
Define horizontal integration
Bigger media companies owning a range of different types of media outlets
Define vertical integration
Media conglomerates controlling all levels of media production.
Define lateral expansion
When media companies diversify into new business areas in order to spread economic risk. Losses made in one area may be compensated for by profits in another.
Define global conglomeration
A small number of media companies becoming transnational conglomerates that monopolise ownership of a diversity of media across dozens of countries.
Define synergy
Media companies using their diversity to package the same product in several different ways in order to increase profit.
How many people dominate the ownership of all UK national newspapers?
7
Define regulatory favours
As long as the media is promoting government policies, the government will not intervene to act and enforce media regulation
Turnstall and Palmer
What do marxists believe the media is used for?
Used as a tool by the ruling class to enforce the ruling class ideology and keep the proletariat in a state of false class consciousness
What is candy floss culture?
Idea suggested by Harvey, TV speaks to everyone and nobody in particular. Mass media audiences are fed a dumbed down media diet to avoid them focusing on serious issues.
How do media owners control what is published?
They control their workers economically, so workers produce what their bosses want out of fear of losing their jobs therefore the media is biased.
What did Boyle note about choice?
Society’s use of television has evolved from a system of supply led television to a demand led television, organised around the idea of viewers choosing what they want to watch and when.
What did Jenkins note about choice?
The audience can now interact with a variety of new media often using a single device in search of entertainment, information, social relationships and services.
What did Olson et al find about boys and video games?
Boys are more likely to play violent video games because they wanted to express fantasies of power an glory
What did Royse et al find about female gamers?
Found them to be mainly motivated by the technical competition offered by games that allowed them to challenge gender norms
What did Ofcom 2014’s report find about female and male use of the internet?
Males were more likely than females to access the internet, 23.3 hours compared with 17.8 hours
Women are more likely to use social media sites than men (67% versus 60%)
What does Helpser (2011) say about the digital underclass?
A digital underclass has emerged, characterised by unemployment, lower education levels and lower digital skills.
80% of the richest households in England have internet compared to…
11% of the poorest households
What is the impact of the generational digital divide?
Boyle suggests that adults have new fears and anxieties around media, for example accessing pornography and terrorist propaganda
70% of young people (16-24s) use Twitter and Facebook compared to
40% of old people
85% of content online is in…
English
In which countries do government limit social media access?
North Korea and China
What percentage of African inhabitants are online?
7%
Who is an example of someone who was radicalised online?
Shamima Begum at 15
Neophiliacs are…
optimistic about the spread and influence of new media as it leads to more choice and participation
Cultural pessimists see…
the new media as having a negative impact upon society as it has created new crimes, undermined the democratic process and created a decline in culture
What do neophiliacs say convergence and interactivity has led to?
An increase in consumer choice, the competition between this diversity of media will improve the quality of media output
What is the e-commerce revolution?
E-retailers have undermined high street sales, e-commerce has led to more choice for consumers as it increases competition, leads to lower prices and puts consumers in control as they can compare prices from a huge range of products and services.
How do neophiliacs argue that new media has led to the revitalization of democracy?
New media offers people to acquire the education and information that is needed to participate actively in democracy.
You can access alternative interpretations and viewpoints which are unlikely to be found in the mainstream
You can communicate with giant corporations or politicians on sites such as twitter, holding them accountable
What does Itzoe argue?
The internet is ‘perhaps the freest forum of speech in history’
What can activists use the internet to do?
Monitor immoral activities of big businesses
To harness support for causes
To coordinate protests
What did Hill and Hughes find about the new media and politics?
Only 6% of webpages are dedicated to political issues
78% of political opinions expressed on American websites are…
mainstream
Why do Cornford and Robins believe that the new media reinforces elite power?
Through a series of assertive tactics- alliances, mergers, take overs, licensing deals, patents and copyright restrictions media corportations seek to monopolise key strategic links within the new media.
How can political parties use new media to ensure their world view dominates the world?
By creating websites, social media campaigns etc
Describe Conford and Robins idea of the ‘not-so-new-media’
Interactivity is not new, people have phoned into radio shows, written in to newspapers for years.
The only new thing about the media is its speed, information, news and entertainment can be accessed in ‘real time’. E.g 9/11
Why do cultural pessimists argue that commercialisation and consumer choice is a bad thing?
Many companies sell products and services on the internet that lead to consumer surveillance through cookies.
This means that companies can monitor engagement and target future audiences and enchance profits. FALSE NEEDS.
What does Turkle refer to new media users as?
Cyborgs because they are always connected to other people at any time, anywhere. However whilst being constantly connected it has led to people feeling anxious and isolated.
Cultural pessimists argue that increased choice and digitalisation of television has led to a decline in quality of popular culture. What does Harvey say about this?
The digital television may have drastically increased the number of television channels for viewers to choose from but this has led to the dumbing down of popular culture. Companies fill channels with cheap, imported material, films, repeats, reality TV
It is argued that ITV and BBC have experienced the process of tabloidisation over the past 10 years because they have to compete with Sky and other channels. What has this led to?
A decline in high culture material such as documentaries, news coverage and instead an increase in reality TV
Cultural pessimists argue that the new media is dangerous because there is a lack of regulation which has led to…
Easy access to pornography, sites that are homophobic or racist or incite terrorism. New crimes, e.g trolling, global cyber crime, sexual grooming of children online
Keen argues that new media is chaotic. He claims there are is no governing moral code and truth is selective and frequently subject to change. What are his four main criticisms?
1) social networking do not contribute to democratic process as they are vehicles for narcissistic self broadcasting
2) user generated sites like Wiki are open to abuse and bias and are unreliable sources of info.
3) The internet has created a generation of ‘cut and paste’ plagiarists and intellectual thieves
4) Output on new media outlets are unchecked and uninformed opinions, lies and trolling are the norm
5) the internet is contributing to cultural illiteracy, young people are less actively engaged
Cultural pessimists argue that the role of transnational media conglomerates in the development and control of the new media undermines…
the potential for media democracy
News selection is generally dependant on 3 broad influences…
1) the news values held by the organisation
2) organisational constraints
3) ownership of media organisations
McQuail argues that…
events happen but this does not necessarily mean they will become news.
The news is a social construction because it is the end result of a selective process, gatekeepers such as editors and journalists make choices and judgements about what events are important enough to cover and how to cover them
Ofcom suggests that the majority of the UK population trust television news more than any other news and they regard it as…
‘a window on the world’
Galtung and Rouge identified ten news values which makes news more newsworthy. What are they?
Extraordinariness, threshold, unambiguity, reference to elite persons, reference to elite nations, personalisation, frequency, continuity, negativity, composition
Describe extraordinariness (Gultang and Rouge)
rare, unpredictable events have more newsworthiness than routine events because they are extraordinary e.g the reporting of Felicite Tomlinson’s death as she died young (18)
Describe negativity (Gultang and Rouge)
Bad news is regarded by journalists as more exciting and dramatic than good news.
Describe reference to elite persons (Gultang and Rouge)
The famous and powerful are more newsworthy than those who are ‘ordinary’.
A ‘cult of celebrity’ has developed and extended the definition of who counts as worthy of public interest so celebrity gossip is increasingly front page news e.g James Charles gossip
neo marxist Hall suggests that a hierarchy of credibility exists in the media. What is this?
This is the idea that journalists rank the views of politicians, police officers, civil servants and business leaders (primary definers) as more important than those of ordinary people.
Glasgow University Media Group suggest that the way the news is selected and presented is as a result of…
journalists middle class background
Davies argues that journalists should be renamed…
churnalists because they are generally engaged in uncritically churning out facts or stories given to them by government spin doctors and public relations companies working for celebrities and corporate interests.