GCSE sociology – Mass Media revision

What is the mass media? / A form of communication which reaches a large audience
What is the difference between old and new media? / Old media is that which reaches a large audience slowly – like a traditional book. New media is that which reaches an audience quickly and you are able to interact with it- like the internet or digital TV where you can press the red button
How is the media an agency of social change? / It influences our ideas, beliefs and can affect our culture/way of life/
How can the media affect an audience?
What is hyper- reality? / An alternative reality based on the person’s experience of the mm- in particular the TV and the internet. E.g. second life where people no longer know what is real and fiction
Culture of simulation – a virtual world that becomes more important than the real one
What affect does the mass media have on society
What is media imperialism? / The idea that western cultural values are imposed by a dominant society on a smaller society that cannot compete with the large media conglomerates. I.e. American culture taking over…this is sometimes known as ‘Americanisation’ or ‘Macdonaldisation’
What are media stereotypes?
Class / Working class – wear flat caps, are poor, ignorant, not well educated, live in social housing, often criminals
Middle class, pillars of society, wear ‘nice’ clothes. Educated, own their own house – punish the law breakers
Age / Elderly – frail, dependant, doddery
Youth – thugs
Childhood – being shortened, remember my rant about sexualised clothes for female children? - childhood is socially constructed as our society creates the image of a short childhood
Gender / As wives, mothers – successful ones are shown as role models to be admired
Sex objects – objectification of female bodies is normalised in tabloids
Male authority – still presented as normal. Females in powerful positions are often shown to be struggling at home
Ethnicity / Criminals, thugs, Asian doctors, black male runners
What is deviancy amplification? / When the media blows a story out of proportion. The media makes a criminal story seem worse than it is creating ‘a moral panic’
What is a moral panic? / Once deviancy amplification takes place the general public are seriously concerned about that particular issue – this is a moral panic. The public then call for a higher police presence which leads to a higher crime rate for that crime as there are now more police officers focusing on it reinforcing the panic.
Who owns the media? / The BBC is owned by us. It is paid for by TV license holders. It is viewed as the most objective form of media and many people turn to the BBC for the ‘truth’
Newspapers are privately owned and paid for by advertising. It is argued that those advertisers hold much power over the content of the news.
Does it matter who owns the media?
Pluralism / Competition is healthy. We read or hear what we do because it is what we want/demand. If the pubic were not happy with the content of the media they would simply stop buying it and the company would go out of business. Therefore pluralism argue it is in the media’s best interest to give the public what they want, they are in control of the content
Marxists / The owners of the media decide on the content. They argue that the content maintains capitalism and that competition is fair and those with power and money earned it fairly. (they don’t agree with it but say it is what happens). They do this through gatekeeping and agenda setting
What is gatekeeping? / The way that content is edited. The gatekeeper, usually the editor will decide which stories get published and which don’t
What is agenda setting? / It is the way the story is put together, where it is places in the newspaper for eg, front page or middle, large/small article.
What is propaganda? / It is the way a story is spun, or changed to control peoples’ views. This often takes place for political purposes. This can cause problems as the public will never be sure about what is the ‘truth’
What is censorship? / When certain information is prevented from becoming public knowledge.
What do different theories argue about the affect of the media on the public?
The Hypodermic syringe model / This theory argues that the media injects messages into a passive audience; the audience reacts without questioning what they have seen

The uses and gratification model

/ BlumerMcQuail (1968) and Lull (1995) argue that the media is used to satisfy a need of the audience. Blumer and McQuail identify 4 basic needs which the media satisfies
Diversion
Personal relationships
Personal identity
Surveillance
The cultural effects model / This theory combines the hypodermic syringes and active audience approach. The effect is more gradual and long term like drip feeding stereotypical images of the perfect female form is likely to filter down to the audience consciousness and may cause eating disorders.