SOC 224 The Role of Media

Media

Any form of communication that targets a mass audience in print of electronic format

Vehicles used to transmit information in acts of communication

Traditional forms: print, radio, cinema, TV, recordings

New/emerging forms: use of computer tech

• few people are able to communicate to many people

• Audience often has no effective way of answering; (now you sort of can with social media)

Patterns of Media Use

Adults: 70 hrs/week

• simulmedia: using more than 1 form of media simultaneously

Children: 52.5 hrs/week

• social networking

Digital divide

Those who have access to computers + the internet and those who don’t

• shift in power + access

The Impact of Media

One of the core teaching forces in contemporary society

• not a neutral provider of information (biases)

Defines social problems, shapes public debates + defines boundaries between groups, indicates which people + issues we should be concerned about + why

• teaches use how to be consumers, vote + maintains stereotypes of certain groups

Serves as gatekeepers

Administrative Approach

Focuses on practical, data driven studies

Focuses on the effect of media messages on individuals

• often using quantitative methods like surveys to measure effects for institutions, advertisers + policymakers

• Analyzes individuals who constitute the audience + the effects of media messages

• Interested in uncovering cause + effect relationships; knowldge that can be used in changing the way individuals will act

Administrative Approach + Correlational Studies

Small, statistically significant relationship

Measures the statistical relationship between variables without manipulation

• cannot prove causation

Administrative Approach + Experimental Studies

ST effects of media violence

• try to determine causation

In some people more than in others (media violence); doesn’t impact us all the same

LT effects: desensitized; more impacts for already aggressive individuals

Critical Approaches

Structures of power + processes of social control; control pop through others (between media = other aspects of society)

How the media constructs events, issues + identities

Use of interpretive + critical theories; role played in broader construction of deviance

Framing

How the media selects some aspects of a perceived reality + make them more salient to promote a particular definition, interpretation or moral evaluation

• Conflict, human interest + economic consequences

Framing of “fact”, gender, race/ethnicity/culture

Fake News

New articles that are intentionally + verifiably false + could mislead readers

• 2000’s growth of online news: made it easier for anyone to present “real” news

• Exacerbated concerns with social media; content can be relayed to users without 3rd party “fact checking”, filtering or editorial judgment

• Many who see fake news report they believe them

Cousins of Fake News

1. Unintentional reporting mistakes

2. Rumours that don’t originate from a particular news article

3. Conspiracy theories

4. Satire that is likely to be misconstrued as factual

5. False statements by politicians

6. Reports that are biased or misleading, but not outright false

Growing Importance of Fake News

1. Barriers to entry in the media industry have dropped precipitously (easy for anyone to post)

2. Social media = well suited for fake news dissemination + has risen sharply

3. Continuing decline of “trust + confidence” in mass media; “reporting news fully, accurately + fairly”

4. Increasingly negative feelings each side of political spectrum holds towards the other

Who Produces Fake News?

Some sites established entirely to print fabricated articles

Satirical sites that be interpreted as factual

Mix of factual (perhaps biased) + fake news combined

Motivations towards fake news

Financial + Ideological

Framing Femininity

• Feminine touch

• Ritualization of subordination

• Licensed withdrawal

• Infantilization; presented as more childlike than they really are

Power of Music + Portrayals in Music

Lyrics = a force with the ability to persuade + socialize

Youth use music to: manage moods + achieve group identity

Can affect perceptions + behaviours; risk taking behaviours + negative emotion + mental health outcomes

Sexualizing of women in hip hop music

Country Music + Women

Between 2010-2014:

• less likely to portray in traditional roles, family roles, and empowered

• More likely to refer to their appearance, in tight or revealing clothing, as objects + to women via slang

Framing Masculinity

More than 80% of frames are negative

• villain

• Aggressor

• Pervert

• Philanderer

Media Frames of Ethnic Minorities

• As invisible; underrepresented

• As stereotypes

• As social problems

• As adornments

• As white-washed

Frames of Ethnic Minorities: Implications

Erased from public consciousness; maintaining the power of the majority

Voices remain unheard in public discussions of important issues

Representations may be integrated into children’s identities (internalization)

Impact on social policy; reproduces inequities

Media Portrayals of Asians

Model Minority(?); “non problematic”, “more desirable” “masked racism”

Asian women: exotic, fetishization, subservient, high maintenance, money hungry

Media Portrayals of Terrorism

No universal definition

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”

Is socially constructed; varies from time to time + communities

• those with power define what acts qualify

Racialization of National Security

Change in perception + treatment of South Asian (Muslim) since 9/11

• have now become the ultimate “other”

Mainstream media:

• demonization

• Racialization

• Ceriminalization

Middle eastern = “terrorist”

Demonization of Muslims/Arabs

Have been the primary targets of government surveillance + policing

• not a new phenomenon, but intensified since 9/11

• Widespread belief that they are incompatible with western values + traditions (aren’t applied to other groups)

• Race, ethnicity, religion

Media Ownership

Content = intertwined with the structure of ownership

Convergence (companies owning multiple forms of media) + conglomeration (companies merging) = Concentration (few control majority)

Administrative Research + Advertising

Repeatedly exposed; brand recognition increase, develop positive associations with those brands + subsequently intend to purchase those specific products

• effectiveness lies in ability to persuade people

• Brand placement

Administrative Research: Violence in the media

Research finds a mall, but statistically significant relationship between media violence + various types of aggression (physical, verbal, attitudinal + relational)

• Correlational: ~ consume more also tend to be more aggressive

• Experimental: at least in ST, exposure = lower levels of empathy, greater acceptance of aggressive behaviour as problem solving

• Greater effect on those with higher pre existing levels of aggression

Media causes deviance?

Administrative research rests on the assumption that the content of media messages influences individual’s thoughts, feelings + behaviours

• specific media messages may propel certain individuals into various forms of deviant behaviour

Media Constructs Deviance + Normality

Critical research rests on the assumption that the media influences the culture through its power to define boundaries, identify social problems + shape public debates

• shape the dominant moral codes that govern what is perceptive as acceptable + unacceptable

Cybercrime + phishing

Sending targets a fraudulent email or call to convince them to reveal sensitive information

Hacking

When people access + sometimes alter computer systems without authorization

• most malicious attacks towards businesses or societal infrastructure (cyberterrorism)

• Used as a form of social protest or activism (hacktism)