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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
7THE MASS MEDIATHE MASS MEDIA
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Chapter Outline
• Sociological Perspectives of the Media• The Audience• The Media Industry• Social Policy and Mass Media: Media Vi
olence
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
Figure 7.1: Rise of the Mass MediaSource: Author’s calculations based on Bureau of Census, 1975: 43, 783, 796; 2000a: 567: Newburger 2001; Television Bureau of Advertisers 2001
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Agent of Socialization
– --The media increases social cohesion by presenting a more or less standardized common view of culture through mass communication.
– --Mass media provides a collective experience for members of a society.
– -- “The Internet has become for many the public commons, a place where they can come together and talk.” (Miller and Darlington 2002)
Functionalist View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• The most obvious function of mass media is to entertain.
• While this is true, we may be overlooking other important functions of mass media.
Functionalist View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Enforcer of Social Norms
--The media often reaffirms proper behavior by showing what happens to people who act in a way that violates societal expectations.
--The media plays a critical role in shaping perceptions about the risks of substance use, although not necessarily in a positive fashion.
Functionalist View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Conferral of Status
--The mass media confers status on people, organizations, and public issues.
--The media singles out one from thousands of other similarly placed issues or people to become significant.
Functionalist View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
Table 7.1: Status Conferred by Magazines
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Surveillance of the Social Environment
--The surveillance function refers to the collection and distribution of information concerning events in the social environment.
--The media collect and distribute facts about a variety of events and generally define what “constitutes a fact” to be reported.
--In defining events to be reported, the media reflects the values and orientation of the decision makers within media organizations.
Functionalist View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Dysfunctional Media: The Narcotizing Effect
– --Narcotizing dysfunction: the phenomenon whereby the media provide such massive amounts of information that the audience becomes numb and generally fails to act on the information.
– --Interested citizens may take in the information, but they may make no decision or take no action.
Functionalist View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Conflict theorists emphasize that the media reflect and even exacerbate many of the divisions of our society and world, including those based on gender, race, ethnicity, and social class.
• They point in particular to the media’s ability to decide what gets transmitted through gatekeeping.
Conflict View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Gatekeeping
--The mass media constitute a form of big business in which profits are generally more important than the quality of the product.
--Within the mass media, a relatively small number of people control what material eventually reaches the audience, a process known as gatekeeping.
--Gatekeeping is not as dominant in the Internet.
Conflict View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Dominant Ideology: Constructing Reality
– --Conflict theorists argue that the mass media serve to maintain the privileges of certain groups.
– --While protecting their own interests, powerful groups may limit the representation of others in the media.
Continued...
Conflict View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Dominant Ideology: Constructing Reality
--Dominant ideology: the set of cultural beliefs and practices that help to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests.
--The media transmit messages that virtually define what we regard as the real world, even though these images are frequently at wide variance from the larger society.
--Stereotypes: False images of a particular group that become accepted as accurate portrayals of reality.
Conflict View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Dominant Ideology: Whose Culture?
--Globalization projects the dominating reach of the U.S. media into the rest of the world.
--These media-cultural exports undermine the distinctive traditions and art forms of other societies and encourage their cultural and economic dependence on the United States.
Conflict View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Feminists continue the argument advanced by conflict theorists that the mass media stereotype and misrepresent social reality.
• The media are a powerful influence on how we look at men and women, and, according to this view, their images of the sexes communicate unrealistic, stereotypical, and limiting perceptions.
Feminist View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Three Problems Arising From Media Coverage:
– Women are underrepresented
– Men and women are portrayed in ways that reflect and perpetuate stereotypical views of gender
– Depictions of male-female relationships emphasize traditional sex roles and normalize violence against women
Feminist View
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Sociological Perspective of the Media
• Interactionists are especially interested in shared understandings of everyday behavior.
• They examine the media on the microlevel to see how they shape day-to-day social behavior.
• Scholars increasingly point to the mass media as the source of major daily activity.
• The interactionist perspective also helps us to understand more about one important aspect of the entire mass media system—the audience.
Interactionist View
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The Audience
• Mass media distinguished from other social institutions by the necessary presence of an audience.
• It can be an identifiable, finite group or a much larger, undefined group.
Who is the Audience?
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The Audience
• Microsociological view of audience: Considers how audience members interacting among themselves would respond to the media.
• Macrosociological view of audience: Considers the broader societal consequences of the media.
• Audiences vary in their composition.
Who is the Audience?
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The Audience
• The media is increasingly marketing themselves to a particular audience.
• This specialization is driven by advertising.
• Members of these audiences are more likely to expect content geared to their own interests.
• This specialized targeting of audiences has led some scholars to ponder whether there is still a “mass” in mass media.
The Segmented Audience
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The Audience
• The role of audience members as opinion leaders intrigues social researchers.
• Opinion leader: someone who, through day-to-day personal contacts and communication, influences the opinions and decisions of others.
Audience Behavior
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The Audience
• Audience members do not all interpret media in the same way.
• Their response is often influenced by social characteristics such as occupation, race, education, and income.
Audience Behavior
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The Media Industry
• A handful of multi-national corporations dominate the publishing, broadcasting, and film industries.
• Without government intervention, media giants will continue to grow as long as there are benefits to being large.
Media Concentration
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The Media Industry
Figure 7.2: Media in Selected Countries
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The Media Industry
• Concerns Over Media Concentration:
– --Is the public interest being best served by the growing concentration of media?
– --Will innovation and independence decline as media empires grow?
– --In some countries, gatekeeping is controlled by political leaders who desire to maintain control of the government.
– --The Internet is a significant exception to the centralization and concentration of media.
Media Concentration
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The Media Industry
• Mass media has begun to create a global village in terms of communication.
• Not all countries are equally connected.
• The media permeate all aspects of everyday life.
• The Internet is the key to creating a truly global network that reaches into workplaces, schools, and homes.
• People are concerned that unhealthy influences and even crime are taking place in today’s electronic global village.
The Media’s Global Reach
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The Media Industry
1984 1989 1993 1997 1998 2000
8.2
15.0
22.8
36.6
18.0
42.1
26.2
51.0
41.5
Percent of households with a computer
Percent of households with Internet access
Computers and Internet Access in the Home: 1984 to 2000
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2001. The Population Profile of the United States: 2000. Figure 10-1. (Internet Release) accessed at http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/profile2000.html#cont.
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The Media Industry
Home computeraccess
Schoolcomputer use
Total access
94.283.5
65.334.5
87.385.7
79.871.7
98.7
96.590.0
78.5
$75,000 or more$50,000 to $74,999
$25,000 to $49,999
Less than $25,000
*Among children in families.
Percent of Children Age 6 to 17 Who Have Computer Access at Home and Schoolby Annual Family Income: August 2000
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2001. The Population Profile of the United States: 2000. Figure 10-2. (Internet Release) accessed at http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/profile2000.html#cont.
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The Media Industry
Informationsearches
News, weather,sports
School researchor courses
Job-relatedtasks
22.2
32.7
10.0
23.9
6.0
19.6
20.7
9.0
12.5
Percent of children 3 to 17 years
Percent of adults 18 years and over
Adults and Children Using the Internet for a Specific Task: August 2000Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. 2001. The Population Profile of the United States: 2000. Figure 10-3. (Internet Release) accessed at http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/profile2000.html#cont.
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Social Policy and Mass media
• The Issue
• --What effect does movie and TV violence have on audiences?
• --Does violence in the media lead people, especially youth, to become more violent?
Media Violence
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Social Policy and Mass media
• The Setting
• --We spend a great deal of time with the media.
• --Does watching hours of mass media with violent images cause one to behave differently?
• --Some studies have linked exposure to media violence to subsequent aggressive behavior.
• --It is important to recognize that other factors besides the media are also related to aggressive behavior.
Media Violence
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Social Policy and Mass media
• Sociological Insights
• --If the function of media is to entertain, socialize, and enforce social norms, how can violence be a part of that message?
• --Even if the viewer does not necessarily become more violent from watching violent images, there could be a desensitization taking place.
Continued...
Media Violence
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Social Policy and Mass media
• Sociological Insights
--Both conflict and feminist theorists are troubled that the victims depicted in violent imagery are often those who are given less respect in real life: women, children, the poor, racial minorities, citizens of foreign countries, and even the physically disabled.
--Interactionists are especially interested in finding out if violence in media may then become a script for real-life behavior.
Media Violence
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Social Policy and Mass media
• Policy Initiatives
--Policymakers have responded to links between violence depicted in the media and real life aggression in two ways:
• Public statements of support for family-oriented, less violent media content
• Reluctance to pass laws that could be regarded as censorship.
Media Violence