The media - theorists Flashcards

Question

Miliband (1973) | Marxist

Answer 1

Argues that the owners of the media share particular interests and ideas known as cultural capital For example: May have attended similar universities and have a social network based on supporting their own interests

Answer 2

Media owners are rarely taking a hands-on appaorch in directing output but the fact they own the company influences the journalists and production teams who generally reflect their views Gramsci calls this hegemony Whereby the ideas of the ruling class are perceives to be dominant and therefore widely accepted Media may even challenge the conventialr ruling-class ideology to appear more balanced however the range of ideas expressed and reinforced ruling-class ideology on the whole

Answer 3

Claim that some academics and intellectuals occupy neither working-class nor ruling-class positions and use the media to explore academic discussions which may or may not support prevailing ideas

Answer 4

Rather than society being dominated by the ruling-class there are a number of competing groups in society with different vieews/priorities They claim that there are a number of measures of the views of the public, such as surveys, which are fed directly back into the type of programmes that are available Futhermore pluralists argue that the media is free from political control and therfore able to present a range of views with freedom and without risk of being challenged They argye that news values is decided by the consumers of the media

Answer 5

Argues that the media today reflects much of the characteristics of postmodern society He claims that we live in a media-saturated society where the line between the media and reality is becoming increasingly blurred We are continually bombarded with images, ideas and information to the extent that the truth becomes very difficult to pick out Therefore argues that the media plays a key role in shaping and distorting people's view of the world Suggests that because of the media saturation the world we see through the media becomes more real than realty Baudrillard calls this media-saturated view of the world hyper-reality ## Footnote AO3: Assume that people absorb the media in an unquestioning way without criticism of the content or a rejection fo ideas expressed. Not true for those who avoid engaging with the media (audience=passive)

Answer 6

Marxist Argues that there has been a marked decrease in the number of owners of media companies This means that the owners of these companies have considerable power Applies the concept of monoply (the exclusive ownership of a service or a commodity) to the media industry Explores the ratio between profit and the number of companies, known as the concentration ratio The number of companies generally within the media has dropped sharply over the past decades meaning that the concentration ratio has increased significantly Reports that in the USA 1985 there were 50 major media companies but by 2003 there were only 5. Giant companies own almost every mass medium. By buying every different medium these powerful giants communicate messages based on the owner's interest thus narrowing down the available sources of information ABC, CBS and NBC networks control the majority of the national television in the USA These companies invest millions in different types of media for money and influence. The power of these companies is so great that they can strongly influence people's poliical and social views ## Footnote AO3: Rupert Murdoch has vecome very powerful owning over a fith of all UK media. He is known to have conservative political views which are reflected in his media AO3: There are European regulations to prevent individual companies becoming too dominant. These controlls challenge Marxist views on media domination by a few companies. Some of the programmes broadcast by dominant companies such as sky do challenge the sytem for example the simpsons which reveals dysfunction within "normal" family life

Answer 7

GMG = a group of academics Carried out resarch into television-based news coverage Claim that the news reflect the views and priorities of the woners of media comapnies whose ideas are imposed as journalists These journaists go on to shapre the perspective of thier viewers considerably Argue therefore that television news is far from objectivve claiming it is laden with values Suggests media tries to manipulate viewers into a particular emotional response (e.g. anger to political issues which work against the interests of the dominant group) thus reinforcing the ideas of the dominant Media encourages viewers to reproduce the views of the powerful which are seen as central to journalists

Answer 8

A standard criticism of the press is that it is dominated by rich shareholders who create a situation where those workig in the media are unrepresentative of the publix This distorts the press in mediating public debate and tends to encourage the promotion of politically conservative or centre-right perspective The press has functioned as an extension of the government rather than as an independent institution serving the public

Answer 9

Marxist approach to the ownership of the media

Answer 10

The media is inherently political and owned by the ruling class who seek to uphold other powerful members of the ruling-class groups such as politicians Conservative ideological motivations of a capitalistic press Describes how the media attacks anything that that does not reflect the views of the government Convinced that the mainstream media was a crucial tool ised by elites against the working class to fragment, distract and disempower citizens Describes the growing influence of advertising and public relations and discusses their role in encouraging people to identify with capitalistic society

Answer 11

Highly commercialised media, designed to be sold to a wide audience Simple, accessible, easy entertainment, with a broad appeal requiring very little abstract thought A fast turnover of mass produced products often considered to be kitsch (expensive looking) ## Footnote AO2: tabloid newspapers, pop music, TV programmes such as soap operas, reality or celebrity baded TV programmes, books and magazines wrote in an easy and accessible form

Answer 12

Critical of mass culture Argues it lacks meaning and in order to appeal to as many people as possible appeals to the lowest common demoninator It seeks not to challenger or provoke a strong repsponse It is generated for commercial purposes and threatens to engulf other forms uf culture By strenghtening mass culture, alternative cultural practices and ideas become underepresented Argues that such mass culture can lead to a state of totalitarianism whereby the media can support the control of a particular group in power in a dangerous and unquestioned way ## Footnote AO2: alternative music, food and languages are often ignored by many forms of media

Answer 13

Mass culture has much to offer Mass culture is not simply recieved passively by the unquestioning audience in an undiscerning way Within mass culure there are different styles, tastes and options It isn't simply a blanket pehenomenon Mass culture is not fixed it is fluid, constantly changing and evolving

Answer 14

View that globalisation is simply a number of processes through which more people became increasingly connected in various ways across even greater distances View that globalisation is a process through which capitalism expands to a wider range of places around the world to pursue cultural dominance and profit

Answer 15

Supports the idea that rapid technological advances have played a significant role in accelerating the globalisation process and this is significant in both traditional media forms and new social media Argues that emerging forms of new media technology have played a central role in the development of a global culture Technology-based media can be instantly transmitted to a global audience and therefore becomes more efficient in raching a global audience Argues that one major effect of increasing technological capacity is that the media transmitted often becomes homogenised (becomes increasingly similar acrross the world) This means that cultural differences betwen groups become less pronounced and that similar ideas and products are shared universally ## Footnote AO2: Big Brother was shown in 54 countries

Answer 16

Marxist view of global media Argues that it is an extension of capitalistic ideology offeing the ruling class an even more effective and sophsticated way of maintaining ideological cotrol over the working-class as a global context The global media simply means Western media (which is based on ruling class ideology) is being spread to other parts of the world in a process he calls cultural imperialism Cultural imperialism is damahing since it means Western culture threatens to dominate other alternative forms of local culture and becomes seen as superior to alternatives Means that capitalism has become more globalised and is less likely to be challenged ## Footnote AO2: Big brother/ Keeping up with the Kardashians which are watched simultaneously across the world and selling a Westernised capitalistic ideology

Answer 17

Develops Weberian ideas of the world becoming increasingly rationalised to develop the term globalisation which refers to the tendency of countries, businesses and other organisations to impose their culturalpractice on other parts of the world He sees this process negatively as a form of imperialism Ritzer agues that such imperialism aims to increase profit through cultural homogenisation Consumer goods and the media play a key role in spreading a rationalised Western view of the world Sees globalisation as underming local practices effectively reducing the value of local culture and ideas

Answer 18

Argues that the way that the media is organised leads to journalists deeming particular events more newsworthy than others This is reflected in this criteria: 1. Frequency - Events that occur suddenly and happen to be convient with the new's organisation's timing schedule are more likely to be reported than slow events/long-term issues 2. Familiarity - Where events are connected with people or places near to where people live/work, they are more likely to be reported 3. Negativity - Bad news is consindered to be more newsworthy than good news 4. Unexpectedness - If an event is out of the ordinary it will have a greater effect than something that is an everyday occurence, it generates greater interest 5. Unambiguity: Events whose implications are clear make for better news than those that are up for interpretation as it allows greater ease of acess for the audience 6. Personalisation - Events that can be portrayed as the actions of specific individuals will be more attractive than one in which there is less human interest allowing the audience to indentify more closely with the issues 7. Meaningfulness - This relates to the sense of identification the audience has with the topic. The closer the issue is to the audience's own culture the more likely it is to be reported 8. Reference to elite nations - Stories concerned with the rich, powerful, famous and infamous ge more coverage particularly if the story involved them acting in a negative way 9. Conflict - Where groups or individuals clash resulting in a dramatic effect 10. Consonance - Stories that fit the media's expectation recieve more coverage than those that challenge them as the media is less willing to report events that are harder to report or don't conform to the companies' idea of news 11. Continuity - A story that is already in the news gathers a following interest. This is because the media organisations are already in place to report the story and because prievious reportage may have made the story more accessible to the public (making it less ambigious) 12. Composition - There is a competitive element to news reporting with each media company competing for the most popular story. News coverage is organised to reflect a range of subjects The more of this criteria an issue includes the more likely it is to appear in the news ## Footnote Criticised for being unable to explain where these priorities and values originate from

Answer 19

Media operates on a tight logistical system whereby news has to be reported in time for deadlines before the printing and distribution to occur This means that traditional forms of media are often quickly out of date Become more of an issue with the emergence of 24-hour news programmes and the interest which provide almost instataneous news coverage Critics suggest that this means the quality and accuracy of the coverage of news is questionable Although the internet communications are becoming easier even from very remote regions, the ability to place and control production workers, technical staff and equipment can determine whether a news story is covered

Answer 20

Showed how media over reactions to particular groups or actions that are seen as a threat to society and people's safty create pressure on the authorities to act to prevent further similar behaviour Therefore a moral panic is a surge of public concern about an issue which is not proportionate to the actual problem This can lead the police and society to be more vigilante leading to an increase in th crime rate making the perception of the problem worse Groups who are percieved to be a threat to society are known as folk devils ## Footnote AO2: Media coverage suggests that disabled people are scroungers' living ccomfortably from state benefits without making any effort to work. This study claims that the media encourages the public to think of all disabled people in the same way as folk devils

Answer 21

Marxist See moral panics as meeting the needs of capitalism to turn attention away from the real causes of problems in society (capitalism) towards blaming the working class ## Footnote AO2: Blaming young people's antisocial behaviour for the riots turns away from the increasing inequalities in society

Answer 22

The journalists themselves were influenced politiclly by their media company owners to shape the news in significant ways News reporting relating to crime is a clear example of this One of the most prevalent messages which is shared across much of the UK's contemporary media especially in the conservative press is that people commit crimes because they are not like us Despite having differences news about crimes share a number of characteristics one of the most important of which is what they tap into and reinforce cultural fears of otherness

Answer 23

The people who own the media form part of a powerful group of elites including politicnas, business leaders, and financial leaders who have similarly conservative values These values are often expressed though the media in subtle ways which are hard to trace back to the media owner but are still significant This leads to news which does not challenge inequality or corruption and helps to cover up poor political decisions

Answer 24

The media has the ability to socially construct meaning of childhood Studied paintings from the middle ages and found that children appeared to be treated as minature adults as they were partaking in the same work and leisure activities By the 1970s a market had developed for children's literature which started to distinguish children from adults By the 1990s the mass media was representing childhood as a time of innocence and vulnerability ## Footnote Some sociologists further argue that the media represents children as perfect angels downplaying individual variation between children or problems that children might cause AO3:Supernanny shows children as troublesome

Answer 25

Media represents teenagers negatively Symbolically criminalising them by frequently associating teenagers with violent crime Found that television news rarely offers teenagers the oppurtunity to have their voice heard 1% of all television news studied by Wayne et al featured a teen's opinion Society view youth as problematic and to be feared rather than recognise theproblems teenagers experience such as unemployment and mental health issues ## Footnote AO2: Coehn's study of Folk devils and Moral Panics (1972) showed how youth subcultures of mods and rockers were scapegoated by the media as violent criminals who were responsible for many of society's issues

Answer 26

Found that teen dramas and youth magazines were sensitive and helpful in addressing dilemmas faced by teenagers even if these media outlets focused on the issues that heterosexual teen girls face rather than treating the youth as the diverse group that it is

Answer 27

Conducted a content analysis on 5 years worth of advertisements in 121 magazines Found most common media representation of the eldery was as 'golden agers' 19.5% of the elderly people featured were lively, active, and enjoying life 18.5% represented the elderly as wise mentors 8.3% were presented as perfect grandparents 9.8% were presented as dozy and incompetent Recognise media representation of the elderly have become more varied but are concerned that the elderly are featured for age-specific reasons (e.g. marketing aimed at them) Rather than being depicted as just people the elderly are categorised as somehow seperate to other adults This distinction may lead into further ageism and marginalisation of the elderly in our society

Answer 28

The media tend to focus on the deviance that working-class individuals may commit such as blue-collar crimes and benefit fraud rather than the normal day-to-day activities of this social class

Answer 29

Interested in the media fascination with very wealthy people (billionaires, royalty etc) He found in the USA the proportion of pages of news magazines focusing on celebrities and entertainment had doubled between 1980 and 2003 whereas the coverage of national affairs had dropped by 10% over the same period ## Footnote AO2: Princess Charlotte's birth dominated the headlines for a three-day period in May 2015 and this occured the same week s the general election, almost all the news stories were either about the royal family or politicians

Answer 30

Neo-Marxist Agrees the media has somewhat of an obsession with celebrity culture and conspicuous consumption such as the dominance of television advertisements which focus on high cost items Both newspapers and the television news report details of daily fluctuations in share prices despite the fact that this information is of interest to the minority who are able to afford to invest in stocks and shares When wealthy people are featured in the media it is typically in a positive light If criticism is made it might be about trivial issues such as appearance or dress sense rather than ddressing serious concerns about inequality in society ## Footnote AO3: Some sociologists would argue that the media is obsessed with wealth specifically not social class and that social class is becoming less significant in contemporary society

Answer 31

Took a deterministic approach to explaining how the media portrays people from various ethnic groups Claimed that the media construct for us a definition of what race is what meaning that imagery of race carries and what the problem of race is understood to be. They help us to classify the world in terms of race The media was responsible for creating and maintaining racist stereotypes and in the process controlling how people think about race. This enables those in power (who are typically white) to exert their authority and dominance The media does this by linking skin colour to human nature suggesting that black and white people are naturally different in terms of thier abilities and personalities. This fixes difference meaning society believes that people from different ethnic groups are fundamentally different legitimating racist stereotypes ## Footnote AO2: Media shows Chinese people as academic and good at mathematics AO3: support - 2011 REACH Media Monitoring Report carried out by Cushion et al. Carried out a content analysis of media coverage of black young men and boys in the British news. Found when young black men featured 70% of the stories were releated to crime. News stories of young men of all ethnic groups were just 40% were linked to cime

Answer 32

Agrees the media is malestream (made by men for men), proven by jobs such as journalists, media executives and editors in the UK being male dominated or at least presented as such. Few would be able to name a female media executive who is seen positively. Argues that if the media isn't ignoring women it is condemning or trivialising them

Answer 33

Media is at least partly responsible for spreading the beauty myth The media publishes photographs of size 0 models and of celebrities whom fitness, nutrition and appearance has become a full-time occupation most of which are edited to remove imperfections Women's magazines and newspaper supplements focus on diet and beauty regimes Pornography suggests surgically enhanced, waxed women are more beautiful than women in their natural form Women are led to believe that to be beautiful is to be slim, large-breasted, young, wrinkle-free, tall, wit perfect white teeth and thick shiny hair 'Normal' women see this standard of beauty as necessary to be attractive to men and to be satisfied and successful Beauty myth controls women's behaviour and reinforces patriarchy ## Footnote To live in a culture in which women are routinely naked where men aren't is to learn inequality in little ways all day long. So even if we agree that sexual imagery is in fact a language it is clearly one that is already heavily edited to protec men's sexual - and hence social - confidence while undermining that of women

Answer 34

The media promotes hegemonic masculinity in society Men's magazine (e.g. FHM) focus on viewinng women as a sexual object through a heterosexual man's eyes (male gaze) and encouraging men to have interests that will confirm their masculinty: macho competitive sports (e,g, rugby), desire to drive fast cars, a fitness regimine that will result in a muscular physique Men who don't live up to this masculine ideal may feel inferior and abnormal

Answer 35

Media is partly responsible for maintaining the hegemonic masculinity that is evident in our society by spreading the belief that macho, heterosexual identities are superior to other identities (feminine and homosexual)

Answer 36

Media's portrayl of teenage sexuality in particular is far more complex than connel suggests Found that there were key differences in the way that different types of media represent sexuality Newspapers: Negative messages - focused mainly on sex crimes and concerns about teenage sexual health however also some advice pages Youth magazines: Varied messages - aimed at boys focus on titillation whereas girls' magazines contain more on sexual health issues with some advice articles included Television: Positive messages - teen programmes emphasised the pleasure of sex. Sex usually seen as the result of negotiation and some girls showed the ability to resist Suggest that the main media message for adults/parents came from newspapers and emphasised the dangers of teenage sexuality whereas youth media was more likely to spread the message to teenagers than sex was pleasurable but relationships brought heartache There was less on the potential negative physical consequences such as teenage pregnancy or sex crimes ## Footnote SUMMARY the media representation of teenage sexuality perputuate gender and sexual stereotypes and fail to address the diversity of sexual relationships especially for young men

Answer 37

Argues that the vast majority of information about disability in the mass media is extremely negative. Disabling stereotypes which medicalise, patrionise, criminalise and dehumanise disabled people abound in books, films, on television and in the press. They form the bed-rock on which the attitudes towards assumptions about and expectations of diabled people are based ## Footnote Disabled people are becoming increasingly aware that the media was a significant contributor to institutional discrimination The media perpetuates the link between impairment and all that is socially unacceptable Carried out a detailed content analysis of previous research of media representations of disabled people and writing to disability organisations, media organisations and advertisers to request information on media portrayls of disabled people Able to identify 11 harmful stereotypes of disability commonly used in the media: 1. Disabled person it pitiful and pathetic 2. The disabled person as sexually abnormal 3. The disabled person as a burden 4. The disabled person as their own worst and only enemy 5. The disabled person as an object of ridicule 6. The disabled person as sinister and evil There has been a recent shift to try to show disabled people as 'normal' downplaying their disability and showing them as participating fully in their community These attempts may be harmful as it won't raise awarness of how disabling society is to people with impariments: it is often a lack of understanding of disability or lack of provision that prevents those with impariments from participating in society rather than a lack of ability or willingness on te part of the person with impairment When disabled people are presented as 'normal' they are unrepresentative of the disabled population and it does little to educate the audience about the wide ranging and often hidden nature of disability Media may be contributing to the simultaneous oppression of disabled members of the lesbian and gay communites, disabled black people, disabled women, disabled members of other marginalised groups. Media can be held responsible for spread of racist, xenophobic, homophobic and sexist ideas Media isnt fully responsible for this but it is widespread enough to likely be a powerful force in shaping people's views

Answer 38

Content analysis of girls' magazines to assess the messages being delivered In the 1960s Jackie focused on romance and boys By the 1980s Just Seventeen aimed at girls who were somewhat independent and wanted to control their bodies e.g. sex education Girls were now learning about experimentation and self-confidence Far less emphasis on love and boys May be result of Feminist movement

Answer 39

Argued ideas about masulinity change over time and are influenced by a multitude of factors including how women view men Wider range of masculine gender identities from metrosexual to camp and homosexual ## Footnote AO2: David Beckham. Masculine traits = love for football and fast cars. Feminine trais = interest in his appearance and in fashion] AO2: Metrosexual = David Walliams AO2: Homosexual and camp = Alan Carr

Answer 40

Neo-Marxist Argues that the mass media is used as a drug by the bourgeoisie to keep the proletariat passive and obedient ## Footnote Neo marxists agree that the media acts in a similar way to a hypodermic syringe in order to control the masses but take the theory to step further by questioning who holds power over media content

Answer 41

The two-step flow model was proposed by Katz and Lazarfield Media content is designed by journalists and other media professionals and transmitted to audiences Audiences are exposed to the media messages and consider and discuss them The views of opinion leaders (people wose views are respected) about the media content affects people's attitudes and behaviours ## Footnote Acknowledges the audience isn't totally passive but are affected by social interactions

Answer 42

Suggests that the audience have some choice over whether they are affected by the media This is a critique of the hypodermic syringe model as audeince members will not be directly affected by all media content Instead argues that media content is onlay able to influence the audience if it is able to pass through 3 filters ## Footnote 1. Selective exposure - Audience must choose to expose themselves to the media message. This may not be entirely a free choice: an audience member's socio-economic background will influence what they choose to consume and not everyone has access to all media 2. Selective perception - Once the audience is exposed to the media message the audience still have the option to reject the message 3. selective retenton - If an audience has chose to expose themselves to a media message and accept it then significance of it is still tied to wether it is memorable. The media is a secondary inflyence and can reinforce the beliefs we hold

Answer 43

Audience is active and each person chooses the media they experuence to meet their individual needs 4 basic ways in which individuals use the media: 1. Social solidarity - Media is a key part of our culture and being able to experience/discuss it with others helps us to feel a sense of commanality with those around us 2. Entertainment - E.g. picking up a magazine because we're bored 3. Surveillance of the world around us: E.g. the news helps us to keep an eye on current affairs 4. Identity: The media helps us to develop and maintain our sense of self e.g. being inspured by the dress sense of a celebrity

Answer 44

Suggests that the subcultural groups that an individual belongs to based on their personal characteristics such as gender, social class, age, ethnicity etc will affect how we interpret media messages This model suggests that media content is polysemic and that there at least 3 ways in which audience members might decode a message **Dominant or hegemonic reading** - Audience member agrees with the code of the programme (its meaning system of values, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions) **Negotiated reading** - Audience member broadly accepts the prefered rading but modifies it to reflect their own interest or socio-economic background **Oppositional reading** - Audience member rejects the preferred reading and the programme's code instead interpreting it in an alternative way Concludes that the way media affects audiences is complex espeically because most people belong a multitude of subcultural groups and their responses may not always be consistent

Answer 45

Studied a range of social groups and found that their interpretation of an intended media message varied depending on their previous knowledge and experiences on that subject In Philo's research the groups were shown press photographs of the 1980s coal miners' strike and most participants recognised the intended message was to balme the proletariat miners, not the bourgeois state or mine owners Those with little experience or knowledge of the strike were most likely to accept the intended media message Those who had prieviously supported the miners began to question their sympathy for the miners The remaining few participants rejected the intended message This shows how the media is not the sole source of our beliefs but has the capacity to affect them especially if we are exposed to consistent messages over an extended period of time

Answer 46

Quenstions whether it is possible to identify any simple mass media effect as many of the sociological explanations have but are based on little/flawed research Conducted in an artificial environment - Philo's research showed participants media content in groups of strangers outside of their home. This isn't how many experience the media typically questioning the validity of the study. Responses may have suffered from the Hawthorne effect where participants give answers that they think the researchers desire

Answer 47

Criticises many studies of media effects for being selective in the media messages they analyse For example, many sociologists have been interested in the effects of violence in the media on audience members and there are a multiude of studies into the effects of fictional violence on audience for example, from horror films and video games but very little on how violence in factual media such as the news affects audiences It would be inaccurate to assume that all types of violence in the media affect all people in the same so perhaps some of the models over-simplified media effects

Answer 48

Conducted a labratory experiment to see whether children exposed to violence in the media would imitate the behaviour The children watched a video that involved a Bobo doll being beaten by an adult and were individually taken to a room with a Bobo doll and a box which contained toy hammers etc Many of the children began to play violently with the Bobo doll copying the behaviour they had seen in the video and took the aggression further by using the toy hammer This study was unethical as children should not be exposed to such harmful messages in sociological research