module 5

Question 1

when was tv invented?

Answer 1

• it was only in 1952 that televisions were introduced into Canada, which eventually replaced the radio as the most common household medium. In short, the forms of mass media we see today—namely digital media—are quite new in the history of human evolution.
the media is now a feature of daily life

Question 2

how does the media operate? Who coined the term mediasphere? why?

Answer 2

the media operates like an atmosphere covering the planet
• John Hartley coined the term mediasphere to highlight the media as
something big enough to cover the plant, coherent enough such that each tiny part may interact with all the others, and small or local enough to affect each individual person.

Question 3

what audience does mass media? what does media mean?

Answer 3

• Mass media are forms of communication that target large audiences
  
  • the word “media” is plural of the word “medium,” which means a middle layer. In this way, media operates as the middle between producer and consumer of information

Question 4

forms of old media?

Answer 4

• books, newspapers, magazines, cinema, music, radio, and TV as traditional forms of media

Question 5

forms of new media?

Answer 5

• modern media technologies as new media. Modern media technologies include the Internet (which has revolutionized the delivery of many traditional forms of media), social networking sites, web apps, YouTube, podcasts, blogs, and smartphones.

Question 6

what did the telegraph allow for?

Answer 6

• 1837 that the telegraph was invented, and into the 1840s when it was widely used.
  
  • the telegraph allowed for instant communication over long distances. Though the telegraph was not a form of mass media, it did speed up news reporting like its close cousin the telephone, which was invented in 1876 by Canadian Alexander Graham Bell

Question 7

why was the radio important?

Answer 7

• first form of broadcast radio invented by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895.
  
  • important invention because it meant that media producers no longer had to physically distribute their products
  • nor did consumers have to travel to get information (Croteau, 2008, p. 10). The invention of the radio has also withstood the changing media landscape

Question 8

why is the television important?

Answer 8

• Introduced in Canada in 1952, by the end of the 1950s the majority of North Americans had a television in their home.
  
  • TV remains the most heavily consumed form of mass media, despite TVs themselves becoming obsolete through the consumption of television online.

Question 9

phones as a form of media

Answer 9

• 2002, the first Blackberry was introduced, where users could access the Internet, send and receive emails, and text other smartphones
  
  • the Apple iPhone had taken the lion’s share of the market despite other competitors also introducing their version of the smartphone
  • are of the market despite other competitors also introducing their version of the smartphone. In the United States, 91% of the population owns a cell phone, and 53% of these phones are smartphones (Croteau, 2008). As your text states, there are 480 million newspapers in daily circulation around the planet and yet “eight times more people subscribe to a mobile network” (p. 123).

Question 10

why is the internet important?

Answer 10

“the Internet changes everything” (Symbaluk & Bereska, 2016, p. 121). As a relatively new addition to the mediasphere, most Canadians spend more time on the Internet than they do in front of a TV. The World Wide Web started in 1990 as a simple user interface that has since changed how we engage in media. One of the biggest changes with the advent of the Internet is that users can now produce (and help produce) the media through such venues as personal websites, blogs, YouTube videos, personal networking sites, and comments sections on online articles. This kind of audience participation was much less possible in the early days of print and broadcast media.

Question 11

facebook as a form of media

Answer 11

• One of the major changes with the introduction of Facebook (and other social networking sites) is that users could now personalize their online experiences. Now, at least a part of peoples’ online experiences entails social engagement and interaction with friends, family, and other community members.
  
  • As people become more displaced due to changing work demands, social networking sites enable a greater degree of social proximity.

Question 12

what are youtubes functions

Answer 12

• YouTube has a dual function: it is both a distributor of popular culture (e.g., music videos, commercials, etc.) and a creative outlet for the masses.

Question 13

what readings of mass media do sociologists differentiate?

Answer 13

• Sociologists differentiate between dominant and critical readings of mass media and emphasize the importance of the latter.

Question 14

describe a critical focus

Answer 14

a critical focus on the mass media enables us to look beyond common sense assumptions at one of the most omnipresent agents of socialization in contemporary society.

Question 15

describe a dominant point of view

Answer 15

• A dominant (common sense) understanding of the media is that they simply inform us of the world around us: it introduces us to new products; it operates as a form of entertainment; it offers a variety of viewpoints; and it exists as “window onto the world,” representing an already-existing reality.

Question 16

what does media shape our opinions on?

Answer 16

media as an agent of socialization that shapes our opinions about particular topics: it can stereotype various groups of people, normalize violence, and promote commercialization and consumption

Question 17

4 negative (controlling) effects of mass media

Answer 17

• Mass media filters information, sets agendas, centralizes power, and finally, distracts viewers from important social and political issues.

Question 18

critical socialization of media

Answer 18

• Critical sociological questions of the media include how the media constructs the “truth” of an event, how are we encouraged to care about certain issues over others, and whose interests does the media serve?
  
  • With a variety of media available, many of us may presume that the media also offers a variety of viewpoints

Question 19

what dis noam chomsky argue about the media

Answer 19

• Media theorist Noam Chomsky (1989) argues that one of the “necessary illusions” of the mass media is that media producers are in competition with one another. While there exists some competition between mediaconglomerates(see text page 127), there isn’t as much competition as they’d have us believe.

Question 20

media ownership description

Answer 20

• Media ownership in Canada is minuscule in comparison to the centralization of media power in the United States. Your text outlines the “big five” of Canadian television: the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Global, CTV, the French-language networks, and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

Question 21

what is commercialization of culture

Answer 21

theprocess through which brand names and corporate values infiltrate our everyday life
• The commercialization of culture can be seen in a wide range of contemporary examples like billboards on highways, bus shelters, and in bathroom stalls. There is an incessant string of advertisements on the radio and television, in magazines, and onYouTubevideos andFacebookfeeds

Question 22

when was advertising invented? why?

Answer 22

• Advertising was invented at the end of 19th century (alongside urbanization) to deal with the problem of low consumption, and ultimately, created a culture where personal identity became fused with commodities

Question 23

what does exposure of ads lead to?

Answer 23

udies have consistently found that an increased exposure to advertising leads to an increase in materialistic values.HovlandandWolburg(2010), for instance, found positive correlations between the number of television watching hours and the importance of having nice things, the importance of high income, the frequency of thinking about finances, the importance of a high paying job, and the acceptability of getting rich even if others are poor. It’s easy to see advertising and consumption as individual

Question 24

what 3 things is consumer behavior?

Answer 24

onsumerbehaviouris socially embedded, institutionally organized, and enmeshed in complicated relations of power.
• The effects of commercialization areextensive—bothpersonally and politically.

Question 25

what is corporate assault? who is targeted?

Answer 25

corporate assault on the public sphere (for instance, protesters are not allowed to sleep outside without a permit, but shoppers are). Youth are now targeted in unprecedented marketing tactics (to be covered in more depth in the following section)

Question 26

what is corporate consolidation? what are companies doing that harm society? (4 things)

Answer 26

We have more corporate consolidation (as seen in the case of media) and thus shrinking options for consumer choice.
• re, companies are increasingly turning to sweat shopslabour, temporary jobs, low quality of work, and environmentalshortcuts—allof which will harm society in the long run.

Question 27

how can we question the medias info?

Answer 27

• One way to critically question the media is to questionthe type of information presented.
1. What information sources are being presented?
2. Does there exist any potential biases or conflicts of interest in the information presented?
It’s pretty easy to see how biases and conflicts of interest affect the results of the information presented. It is important to know who is presenting the information and question whether they have a vested

Question 28

another way to critically interrogate the media?

Answer 28

• A second way to critically interrogate the media is through ananalysis of the language used.
  
  • While language is often seen as a neutral medium for communicating information, it is also a way in which the world is actively shaped.

Question 29

how can a passive voice being made an active voice change things?

Answer 29

By changing the passive voice to an active one, we get a different reality of the crime.

Question 30

brock et al (2012) 6 techniques for analyzing the role of language in popular media

Answer 30

1. Were metaphors (i.e., comparisons) used and to what effect?
   
   2. Was alliteration (i.e., the repetition of the same first letter) used and to what effect?
   3. Were hyperboles (i.e., overt exaggerations like” I am so hungry I could eat a horse”) used and to what effect?
   4. What was the choice of language used and to what effect?
   5. Were numbers used and to what effect?
   6. And what isn’t represented (i.e., what might have been strategically omitted) and why is this significant?

Question 31

3 ways to critically interrogate the media

Answer 31

analyze images, language, and info given

Question 32

which ways do images in media encourage particular meanings?

Answer 32

• The composition and focus of the image
  
  • The framing of the shot (e.g., what’s centred, what’s peripheral)
  • The specific colours used
  • The setting (where the image is taken)
  • The lighting and brightness of the image
  • The angle of the image (e.g., looking down or up)
  • The specific bodies used (e.g., women, men, persons of colour, etc.)
  • Whether an action or still shot was used