the media

Question 1

Ownership of the media

Answer 1

• Concentrated in the hands of a few large companies.

Bagdikian ‘Lords of the global village’
The lords control ever step of the information, creation and distribuition.

Main features of media ownership:
Concentration of ownership, being in the hands of a small wealthy group
Having a wide variety of products besides media
Made in different forms for people to consume

Question 2

Manipulative/Instrumental approach

Answer 2

Believe that…

Owners directly control and manipulate the audience and the media to protect their profits and spread the dominant ideology.

Media editors and managers don’t have influence, boundaries set by the owner.

Sees that audiences are passive, easily manipulated, unthinking robots.

Question 3

Hegemonic approach

Answer 3

They believe that…

• Media owners = powerful but don’t have day to day control of the media, this is left to the editors + journalists. Still support the dominant ideology by choice and aren’t manipulated.

The GMG say that most journalists tend to be white, middle class men who follow the dominant ideology anyway.

Question 4

Agenda setting + Gatekeeping GMG

Answer 4

Agenda setting - People can only discuss and form opinions about things they know about, media provides this info. Media influences the subjects of discussion

Gatekeeping - Choosing certain media stories to show and not show to keep the media owners and dominant ideology happy.

Question 5

Pluralist approach

Answer 5

Media content is not driven by the dominant ideology or political interests of the owners but instead for profits.

Media is free from the government, they can produce any news they want.

Audiences are free to ‘pick’n’mix’ whatever suits them.

They have the freedom to ACCEPT, REJECT or REINTERPRET media content due to their beliefs.

Question 6

Globalisation in the media

Answer 6

Increasing connectiveness of societies from across the world who are exposed to the same cultural and media produts.

McLuhan argues that the world is becoming a global vilage in which ‘rapid technological change has caused space + time barriers in human communication to collapse’

Question 7

High culture in media

Answer 7

Of lasting and artisitic value, worth preserving. Often art in art galleries, opera, museums and theatres. Often consumed by the upper class audiences.

Question 8

Popular culture in the media

Answer 8

Passive and sold to the masses. Dumbed down, not providing anything against the dominant ideology. (TV shows like Love Island etc)

Question 9

Ritzer + Sklair Globalisation

Answer 9

Ritzer = Companies and brands operate on a global scale, promoting a global culture along with consumerism with them. This weakens local cultures, starting to make a global culture.

Sklair = Media blurs differences between entertainment and information (infotainment) to sell products all across the world, promoting idealised western lifestyles.

Question 10

Cultural + Media Imperialism (Fenton) Cocacolozation

Answer 10

Fenton - Most media conglomerates are based in the US and dominant the media. This is referred to as ‘cocacolozation’ This is where non-western cultures are getting western cultures pushed on them

Question 11

Pluralists view on the media and globalisation + popular culture

Answer 11

No such thing as a popular culture, the intro of new media has led to more choices.

Question 12

Postmodernist view of the media

Answer 12

Diversity of media means that the audiences can make more choices in terms of their consumption and lifestyles.

Baudrillard - We live in a MEDIA SATURATED society. They distort the way we see the world this is hyperreality.

Strinati - Power of the media shaping consumer choices. Popular culture form our sense of reality and increasingly dominate how we define ourselves.

Question 13

Globalisation and New tech (24 hour)

Answer 13

Mass of news providers across the world to choose from. New tech like social media and phones means you can access news instantly, 24 hours a day.

Question 14

Citizen journalism + Bivens

Answer 14

New tech means that people can upload videos of events to social media. This is normal people who are involved in collecting and reporting news stroies.

Bivens argued that citizen journalism is changing normal journalism, people are there at the scene of the news which means they are immediate and usually unbiased, no media moghuls controlling them

Question 15

Churnalism

Answer 15

Journalists uncritically churning out articles based on secound-hand news, not what they researched

Question 16

Two step flow model (active audience)

Answer 16

Katz + Lazarsfield - media audiences are not directly affected by the media. audiences adopt opinions after discussions with a group leader. the group leader looks at the content and then people listen to their interpretation of the content.

Question 17

Uses and gratification model (active audiences)

Answer 17

Blumer + McQuail suggest people use the media actively fufill thier own personal needs which is dependent on who they are (class, age etc) They use media for a distraction, personal identity, relationships and surveillance

Question 18

Selective filter model (active audiences)

Answer 18

Klapper, three filters people apply when interpreting the media:

1. Selective exposure - people choose what to expose themselves too
2. Selective perception - people may choose to accept or reject a media message depending if it fits their views
3. Selective retention - people will forget material that is not in line with their views

Question 19

Hypodermic syringe model (passive audiences)

Answer 19

Media acts like a syringe in which it injects messages, attitudes and beliefs into its audience. Audience is passive and powerless, therefore accept these messages

Question 20

Cultural effects model (passive audiences) Drip drip

Answer 20

Marxist model (GMG) media transmits capitalist norms and values through a slow drip drip effect over a long time. Media contains ideological messages, reflecting the dominant ideology.

Question 21

Violence in the media

Answer 21

Effects of violence in the media:

• Imitation = Media violence causes children to copy what they see and be violent in real life
• Catharsis = Media violence doesn’t make viewers violent but instead reduces violence as it allows individuals to live out their violent tendencies in a fantasy
• Desensitsation = Repeated exposure to media violence has a gradual ‘drip drip’ effect, accepting a culture of violence
• Sensitisation = Exposure to media violence can make people more sensitive to consequences of it in real life

Question 22

New media definition

Answer 22

Digital, screen-based technology used for consuming media. These are phones, tablets etc

Question 23

Features of the new media (5)

Answer 23

Digitality = Digital over analogue
Interactivity = Consumers of media can contribute to a collective culture and intelligence
Hypertexuality = Links between different media texts form connections
Dispersal = The new media has become less centralised and has adapted to individual choices
Vitruality = People can immerse themselves in a wholly unreal interactive experiences and exist in a virtual world

Question 24

Users of the new media (Helsper)

Answer 24

Helsper = healthy, young educated people are more likely to be users of the new media

Social class differences = Helsper - digital underclass, those who have lower education levels falling behind other groups in their access to the internet

Age differences = Boyle, younger people grow up with the internet and new media, predisposed to it

Gender differences = Both females + males are avid users of new media, but differ for what they use it for. Men are more likely to play games and own tablets, wheras women are more likely to have a kindle. Men have more of a positive attitude to the internet and know how to use it more than women.

Question 25

Cultural optimist perspective of the new media

Answer 25

Good for society.

• More informed consumers, wider choice etc. People have more oppertunities to participate in using and producing media through media websites
• Greater democracy. McNair = information is power. Internet is accessible to anyone, people can report, publish and read what they want, gives them a better informed information
• Global village, better understandings of cultures, people from different cultures are brought together due to time and space barriers being broken down in communication now.
• Social life and social interaction is enhanced, people are able to contact whoever also uses new media, enhances social diversity and helps people stay in touch.

Question 26

Cultural pessimist view of the new media

Answer 26

New media is bad for society

• Lack of valid info, fake news. Not sure where the info comes from and who publishes, can’t validate information.
• Lack of regulation, undesirable things such of violent media, pornography can thrive in new media as there is limited regulation on these things.
• Increased surveillance, new media has operated to increase social control, mobile signal can be used to track mobile users.
• People may not be able to communicate in real life due to being so used to socialising online through new media, COVID

Question 27

Representations in the media - Children

Answer 27

Kids are seen as…

Victims, accessories, cute etc

Question 28

Representations in the media - Young people (Cohen)

Answer 28

Negative stereotyping in the media, exaggerate deviant behaviour of young people.

Cohen found that young people are often blamed for society’s problems. Moral panic against ‘folk devils’

Question 29

Representations in the media - Older people

Answer 29

Invisible or negatively. Usually as being poor, a burden or having illness.

Difference in gender:

Older men are often shown in a good light - wise, successful in business etc

Older women are often annihilated in media due to ‘women expected to stay young forever’

Question 30

Representations in the media - Social class, working class

Answer 30

Working class - Curran + Seaton argue the content of newspapers is aimed at working-class audiences. Interested in overdramatic made up stories.

Main representations of them in the media = Dumb, stupid, conflict ‘chavs’

Question 31

Representations in the media - social class, middle class

Answer 31

highly over-represented in media content; their exposure is more than what is justified by how many are in the population. represented as mature, sensible, educated and succsessful. they promote the dominant hegemonic ideology of the middle class life

Question 32

Representations in the media - social class, upper class

Answer 32

Culture, superior. Living lavish lifestyles in luxary home.

Pluralists, coverage is what media audiences want to see

Neo-Marxists, see the coverage of upper class lifestyles as promoting the dominant ideology.

Question 33

Representations in the media - Ethnicity, black people (Hall et al)

Answer 33

Frequently negatively stereotype and scapegoats + folk devils in the media. (Cohen)
BAME groups are often represented by negative stereotypes, used to blame problems on. Usually represented in drug crime, terrorism, mugging etc.

Hall et al, media exaggerate the extent of black crime, and suggest that black people are more prone to criminality than white people.

Main stereotype -
Deviants and lawbreakers
Threats + Threats to british culture - presented as a threat to the british way of life + jobs
Limited talents + skills - Often in low paid jobs, academic failures.

Eastern European - blamed for every social problem (Dowling) were attacked for being lone parents, cheap heroin etc

Question 34

Representations in the media - Women

Answer 34

Media isn’t unrepresentative of women, with men being the owners of larger media corps.

Erotic objects for men
Mulvey suggests there is a male gaze in media content.

Stereotypes of women:
- Sex objects
- The victim
- The angel etc

Question 35

Representations in the media - Men (Rutherford)

Answer 35

Stereotypes =
- The joker, jock
- Strong, silent
- Action

Question 36

Representations in the media - Homosexuality

Answer 36

Homosexuality media view is formed through the heterosexual media gaze. Homosexuality isn’t shown as much in the media due to loss of profits or advertisers.

Gill - to make sure heterosexual audiences aren’t offended, they show homosexuality in a sanitised way.

Gay men are rarely portrayed in a sexual way, but in stylish ways.

However, lesbians are always sexualised in media to appeal to men

Question 37

Representations in the media - Disability (Barnes)

Answer 37

• Under-represented in the media industry

Disability as a social construct - Shakespeare, Argue that disability is created by societies that dont allow people who dont fit the ‘normal’ stereotype

Symbolic annihilation - 25% of us have disabilities but Cumberbatch et al found that 2.5% of people were portrayed as disabled compared to 20% in the world.

Information about disabled people in books, films is negative and full of stereotypes. Presented (GMG) Philo, living on benefits, undeserving. ‘Cheat etc’

3 main stereotypes - The criminal, the subhuman, powerless and pathetic character

Mental health - 63% of reps were negative, critical or something to laugh at.

Represented as pathetic, evil, laughable and non sexual, super cripple.

Question 38

Islamophobia in the media

Answer 38

= Irrational fear/hate to Islam, muslims or islamic culture. Stigmatised.

Negative stereotypes in the media - Sensationalism of events like 9/11, Muslims are seen as a threat to public safety.

Ken Livingstone - showed that 91% of the articles in national newspaper about muslims were negative. They have been demonised in the mass media.

Goffman - Muslims = ‘stigmatised identity’ Has become socially acceptable to hate Muslims and talk about them in a prejudiced way.

Hargrave - The media representations cause moral panics and fear, leading to harassment of muslims.

GMG - Media is ran by mainly white middle class men, media gaze, they create, maintain and reinforce racist stereotypes.

Are things changing? New medi means that EM have got platforms to counter negative stereotypes. In TV shows, there are EM characters which aren’t token EM characters, they have lifes etc.