Media (Lecture 15&16) Flashcards
Mass Media
the TECHNOLOGY (print, radio, television, internet) that allow mass communication
Mass Communication
the actual TRANSMISSION of message from one source to huge audience at same time
Political Economy
- looks at relation between economic ownership and power over society
- looking at media, asks who owns it? and what effect ownership has on media
COnclomerate
- large business structure with interests in a variety of fields (eg: gambling, drinks, media)
- emphasis on PROFIT not ‘quality news’
Horizontal Integration
chains of local newspapers owned by same company all have identical stories; ignore local issues (ie: calgary and toronto news owned by same company)
Vertical Integration
radio stations mostly play music produced by record company owned by same corporation
Cross-ownership
companies own different types of media (tv, papers etc) and repeat same issues across them to save money —> reduces diversity of perspectives
Commodification
- treating an object (or person, idea, value, work of art) as a commodity to be bought and sold
- the overall transformation of part of society so everything in it is commodified
- news coverage focuses increasingly on personality NOT issues
Native Advertising
- adverts disguised as news stories in a respectable news outlet (ie: buzzfeed)
- blurs boundaries of truth and adverts
- ie: if you purchase this you will be as cool/ smart/ funny etc.. as this person
Niche marketing
Advertisers target very specific segments of the population with carefully-focused commercials and message
Colonization of the Lifeworld (Habermans)
- terms for increasing dominance of impersonal system motives (profit, power etc) in areas previously open to free debate
- seen in effects of profit motive on media’s ability to be a space for public discourse
- as society gets more complex, it relies more on impersonal systems
- media should be part of fluid public sphere, with open debate, but instead is governed by motive of efficiency and profit
Integration
in Parson’s AGIL system, the function that brings members of society together in a common set of values, beliefs, and understanding
Structural Functionalists integrating members
- Socialization: like education, mass media can present a single standard view of society as a whole, ensuring cohesion
- Enforcing Social Norms: in both news and entertainment, we see criminals being punished when they break social rules
- Economic Stimulus: media promote consumption through advertising, thus helping economy
- Information and Surveillance: transits vital news
Agenda Setting
- media’s power to select which topics we think and talk about
- whatever gets discussed int eh media is likely to be uppermost in out thoughts
Gatekeeping
actively preventing certain ideas, values, people, lifestyles from appearing in media
Alternative Media
Less prominent media sources, but used by subordinate groups to transmit views
Moral Entrepreneurs (Howard Becker)
An individual who tries to influence a group by setting or upholding a moral norm, often by LABELLING behaviour as good or bad
Rule Creators
those how define a new rule, usually by identifying some threat to society
Rule Enforcers
those whose position depends on ensuring others follow the rules; they can gian personal power in a situation by upholding a rule
Epistemic Closure
When individuals choose only news outlets that agree with they politics, they find only confirmation of their beliefs (ie: Fox news)
• possible in highly marketized media world
Homogenization
when differences disappear, and we all become the same–> mass media encourage cultural homogenization (ie: evrywhr in the world is becoming highly influenced by america)
Cultivation Theory
- Masses are terrified by constant images of threats and conflict on tv
- consequently, they support hardline solutions for nonexistent problems
Narcotizing Dysfunction
- constant exposure to the same messages over and over agin makes us less sensitive to them–> we don’t care as much
- may make us indifferent to violence or to suffering in other parts of world
’ The Medium is the message’
McLuhan’s famous statement that HOW the media says something is more important than WHAT it says
Commodity Fetishism
Originally a Marxist term, but changed and adapted by Baudrillard to describe the way we desire a product for its cultural value, not its actual use
• we don’t actually want the concrete material item, we view the world as a set of brands (which are somehow more important for what they represent than what they are)
Hyperreality
the ultra-bright, fast-moving, sensory overload world produced by the mass media– which overwhelms the dull material world underneath
• impossible for us to distinguish between reality and manufactured hyperreality
Cultural Studies
- sociological study of various aspects of cultures– both ‘high are’ and mass entertainment
- examines movies, tv, news etc to see what we can learn about a society from them
Male Gaze
- Feminist concept to describe the way women are generally expected to present themselves to be judged by men
- Women are trained to spend a long time looking good to attract the ubiquitous male eye
Orientalism
- tendency for Europeans/ western writers to depict other parts of world (especially Asia) as ‘mysterious’ and ‘magical’
- Makes these areas seem irrational and pre-modern–? only there for white man to ‘find’
The Other
- theoretical term to describe any group marked out as different from or somehow inferior to ‘the norm’
- linked to idea of ALTERITY, suggesting dominant groups always define themselves against some Other
