Media & Inequality Flashcards
Mass Media
The technologies, practices and institutions through which information and entertainment are produced and disseminated on a mass scale
-ex: newspaper, magazines, books, billboards, posters
HISTORY OF MEDIA
Block printing (700 bc china)
Newspaper
Television
Internet
4 functions of social order that the media contributes to
- Surveillance of the environment: ways that information is collected and disseminated in society (what’s relevant)
- Correlation of parts of society: ways that information about our world is interpreted and prescriptions for behavior in response to events
- Transmission of social heritage: communication of information, norms, values from generation to generation
- Entertainment: communication intended to amuse/relax
Critical theory
Challenge the type of society we have while analyzing the media in relation to power, equality, conflict and change
Political-economic theory
-Focuses on ownership/control of the media and opposition of subordinate groups.
-Addresses media ownership, the state, media policy, globalization; ‘who decides what’s news?’
Hegemony
dominant group wins the voluntary consent of popular mass
Propaganda Model
media companies as businesses will transmit content that reflects their commercial interests
Public vs Private owned media
-government=non-profit
-corporations=for profit
Symbolic interactionism
-use of everyday forms of social interaction to explain society as a whole
-mass communication does not allow for a mutual exchange of verbal and non-verbal cues
Social constructionism
Goal= to examine how people interact to create a shared social reality
-analyzes the processes by which the objective facts of social life acquire their objectivity
Erving Goffman
gender advising
-Men and women may take their cues for how to act with one another from external sources
-Advertisements don’t depict men and women; they depict masculinity and femininity
-ex; women as sexual objects
Maslow’s Hierarchy
- Self-actualization
- Esteems (self-security)
- Love/belonging
- Safety
- Physiological
Difference between Absolute poverty and Relative poverty
Absolute poverty: lack of necessities
Relative poverty: inadequate compared to average living standards (measured in Canada)
Low-income measure (LIM)
Represents people making less than half of the median income
-LIM-AT in 2016= 14% of Canadians were low income
Low-Income Cut-off (LICO)
Defines low-income as spending 20% more than the average Canadian on food, shelter, clothing
-(difficult to use, especially to compare countries)
Market basket measure (MBM)
Estimates costs of basic goods, representing modest basic standard of living for reference family (1 man, 1 women, 2 children)
why are Indigenous Peoples more effected by poverty?
Geographic isolation
Unemployments
Lack of education
Lack of opportunity
Poor living & health conditions
Intergenerational trauma
Social Stratification
A hierarchical system of inequality that is based on class, socioeconomic status, and power combined with other forms of differentiation such as gender and ethnicity
Social mobility VS Vertical mobility
Social mobility: movement within and between class
Vertical mobility: movement between classes
INTRAGENERATIONAL vs INTERGENERATIONAL
INTRAGENERATIONAL: May be born poor, moves up
INTERGENERATIONAL: Grandparents low-class, parents middle-class, you upper-class (within lifetime)
Systems of Social Stratification (4)
-Slavery (Human trafficking etc)
-Castes (Hereditary rank (born into wealthy/poor class))
-Estates (Feudalism)
-Social Classes
Achieved Status VS Ascribed Status
Achieved status: EARN it
Based on achievement (“American dream”)
“Anyone can make it through hard work” (meritocracy)
Ascribed status: BORN with it
Social mobility is overall limited (generally that of our parents)
GINI COEFFICIENT
used to measure inequality
The David-Moore theory
inequalities exist in all societies and they must be necessary
-Criticism: does not take into account that some people are not able to affords the costs to be educated, ignores disparities between rich and poor that are extreme
