Sociolinguistics - Chapter 4

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture notes on Language and the Media.

Media (Definition)

The main means of mass communication (newspapers, radio, television), reporters and journalists working for organizations engaged in such communication, and a particular means of mass communication.

Ideologies in Media

How particular ideologies are communicated through media.

Media Literacy

Critical discourse analysis related to media consumption.

Language and Power

The language of news can provide information about how power is created and exercised.

Manufacture of Consent

The people's consent is 'manufactured' through misinformation and sleight of hand; by filtering information through the media.

Five Filters (Chomsky and Herman)

Media ownership, Advertising income, The source of news stories, How groups and individuals respond to stories, Communism must be avoided at all costs (fear).

Hard News

News about accidents, conflicts, crimes, announcements, and discoveries.

Soft News

News about celebrities, art, culture, sport, and lifestyle.

Slow News

News that develops over time.

Fast News

News about the stock market or rapid changes.

Collective Common Sense

Dominant ideology.

News Expectations

We expect our news to be true and fair.

Asymmetry in News

Before the internet, news producers had all the information.

Newsworthy

Stories journalists choose to cover based on 'news values'.

News Values

The valuation system by which news agencies choose what to report on.

Construction of Expertise

The media can play a role in creating what is true, including changing the nature of 'expertise'.

News Online

Hypermedia, personal, interactive, up-to-the-minute updates, synchronous and asynchronous communication.

Multimodality

Many shaped/patterned nature of online media changes the way we view its information.

Internet Media Formats

Internet media comes in many formats, often concurrently.

User-Generated Media

Media created by ordinary people, not subject to Chomsky's five filters.

Speed of Consumption

Easier access to media means consumers intake more news and at a quicker pace.

Consumer Interaction

Consumers can interact with producers via social media.

The Comments Section

Allows readers to make their input on the media directly.

Filtering the Facts

Ideology itself acts as a filter, removing ideas that contradict its own properties, even unconsciously.

Media's Propaganda Function

Mass media carries out a system-supportive propaganda function, relying on market forces and self-censorship without overt coercion.

HPV Vaccine Case Study

An example of how media reports can impact public perception and vaccination rates.

Citizen Journalism

The practice of non-professional journalists contributing to news and media outlets.

Digital Divide

The gap between those with and without access to digital technologies and the internet.

Fake News

False or misleading information presented as news.

Actor and events

Key components in understanding news and media (Allan Bell 1991).