Mass Media

1.1

Which social groups or individuals does the media effect? Well the media, affects anyone in anyway. There are examples of how media influences public opinion, one being the ‘Hypodermic syringe theory’ this suggests that there is a direct correlation between how violence is portrayed in film, video games, television, rap music and real-life violence. Examples would include drug use and teenage knife crime. This model suggests that children and teenagers are vulnerable to media content because they are impressionable and have not been socialised properly yet. Supporting evidence or this would be ‘Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment’ “He tested 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford university Nursery School aged between 3 to 6 years old. There were three stages the first being the modeling stage this had 24 children in it 12 boys and 12 girls, they watched a male or female model behaving aggressively towards a toy called a ‘bobo doll’. The adults attacked the bobo doll in a distinctive manner, they used a hammer in some cases. Another 24 children (12 boys 12 girls) were exposed to a non-aggressive model who played in a quiet and subdued manner for 10 minutes. The final 24 children again 12 boys and 12 girls were used as a control group and were not exposed to any model at all. Results were children who observed the aggressive model made far more imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non -aggressive or control groups. The findings support banduras social leaning theory, that is children learn social behaviour such as aggression thought the process of observation learning. (Flanagan, C, et al, 2016). Another example would be ‘The uses and Gratification Model, this model “assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting ad integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs” (Cruickshank, 2019). The model argues that the media satisfies particular needs that individuals have. “it suggested that the uses and gratification theory has to fulfil one the following when we choose a form of media: identity, educate, entertain and social interaction” (Cruickshank, 2019).  (362 words)

1.2

So, what Is the media? the media can be seen to influence our everyday opinions, this shows that the media is a massive part of our lives in society today, for example it controls our view of the world, a main example of that at the moment would of course be Brexit, as this Is all that everyone Is talking about. Some sociologists often believe that the media does not transmit neutral information, but it presents it in such a way that it promotes an agenda or ideology. “The Oxford Dictionary defines the media as the main means of mass communication (television, radio and newspapers) regarded collectively” (Bown, et al, 2016). This type of media is known as ‘traditional media’ this is used to differentiate them from new forms of digital communication. “Hence new media means digital technologies which are used for mass communication. This is a wide-ranging term, and could include social networking, blogs, vlogs, digital interactive television, text messaging, websites” (Bown, et al, 2016). Who owns the media? The media is owned by a few powerful companies and individuals, the content of commercial terrestrial television is mainly controlled by one company, ITV plc, whilst access to satellite cable and digital TV in Britain is generally controlled by two companies- News Corp and Virgin media. The UK magazine market is dominated by two major companies. “Our Newspapers, television stations etc, are owned by a small number of large companies – oligopoly. Press Baron- an influential newspapers publisher or owner who usually controls more than one widely circulated newspapers, for example in 1937 four men owned nearly 50% of all national and local daily newspapers sold in Britain” (Albion mill, 2015). The ‘media ownership’ issue provides a debate about whether what we read, hear and see is what we are being told by a powerful, dominant group, or whether all views in society are shared via the mass media. Doyle (2002) suggest that examination of ownership and control patterns is important for two reasons: all points of view need to be heard if society is to be truly democratic, and abuses of power and influence by elites need to be monitored by a free media. Davies (2008) argues that the journalism is about facts or events. However, he argues in practice, contemporary journalism has been corrupted by an endemic failure to verify news stories.  (393 words)

2.1

There are four different perspectives that have views on the mass media, these being the Marxist approach, they believe that media owners’ control what we see in the media, the second perspective is Neo-Marxist they believe the media reflects the ideas of the ruling class. The next perspective is pluralists, they believe there is no dominant ruling class but numerous competing groups with different interests, the final perspective is postmodernism, they believe the media shapes our identities and lifestyles, they also believe that hyper reality TV does not just represent the world to us it just defines us. In this section it will be going into detail on just two of them, these being Marxism and Pluralist. Marxist argue that owners have control over the media, they also ague that owners exercise influence over the media content. “The traditional Marxist approach argues the concentration of ownership of the mass media in the hand of a few corporations enables owners to control the media output and send out ideas/ideologies which benefit ruling class interests” (Thompson, C, 2013). The media promotes ideas which legitimise ruling class dominance. “Marxist argue that the media is a very powerful part of socialisation which ensures that the working class accepts capitalist ideology. In turn, the media form part of a false class consciousness in which the working class are not aware of their true position of exploitation” (Bown, D, et al, 2016). Pluralists tend to define the role of the media in democratic societies in three ways. The first being, it provides an information service which keeps people in touch with political economic developments, it also serves specialists interest groups, a major role, therefore is the information provider increasingly complex society. The second way is they provide means whereby the activities of powerful groups can be policed, criticised, held in cheek and reformed in modern society. The function of the media due to this is one of providing a counter-balance to the power enjoyed by politicians and business groups. The third is where the media performs a social control function is that it is powerful enough to represent the interests of ‘ordinary people’. “The pluralist approach argues that there are a number of different and competitive views expressed by different owners of the media” (Bown, D, et al, 2016). “Unlike Marxists and neo-Marxists pluralists suggests there is no dominant ruling-class but numerous competing groups with different interests” (Thompson, C , 2013).      (405 words)

3.1

What is the news? Well the news is not something that happens, plenty of things happen in the world without being classified as news. “News is anything that’s interesting, that relates to what’s happening in the world, what’s happening in areas of the culture that would be of interest to your audience” (The News Manual, 2008). “The news that we see in the newspapers, on the internet and on the television does not reflect the range of events that actually occur” (Bown D, et al, 2016). “Therefore, the news is socially constructed, it is created by people with a particular value placed on an event, rather than people seeking to carefully reflect a valid reflection of real events” (Bown D, et al, 2016). The news values of the media organization are clearly very important in terms of initial selection of events. “Galtung and Ruge (1965) argue that the media is organised lends itself to journalists regarding particular events to be more newsworthy than others” (Bown D, et al, 2016). The news is socially constructed because the media cannot and does not report everything that happens everywhere in the news. McQuall (1992) argues that news is socially manufactured, because ‘gatekeepers’ such as editors and journalists make choices and judgments about how much coverage they will give to certain events. Critics argue that the process of news selection is biased because it is dependent on three influences, the first being organisational or bureaucratic constraints, the second being the news values held by media organisations, the third being ownership, ideology and bias. There are many ways that show the news is socially constructed, for example, profit and advertising it Is very expensive to maintain a news channel so reports rely on independent news agencies such as Reuters to collect stores, to offend nobody and appeal to everybody news is conservative and tries to attract as many people as possible. Avoiding criticizing society is a good tactic, as Is representing unpopular viewpoints. Marxists would say this helps to maintain the hegemony of the ruling class and suggests mass media is a method of control. Another reason would be Globalisation, the news market is increasingly competitive, there are more news providers to choose from, the news is instantly available anywhere with an internet connection. Another reason is news values, journalists make decisions about what is and what Is not ‘newsworthy’ their work is referred to as ‘Gatekeeping’.  (402 words)

4.1

What is stereotyping, stereotyping is a belief or a set of ideas about an individual or a group of people, for example, all hoodies are criminals. Stereotyping is based around protected characteristics for example elderly people, people with disabilities, transgender, men and women. What meaning does stereotyping transmit to audiences? stereotyping could transmit an image of someone that they aren’t, for example; in the media it continues “to present both women and men in stereotyped ways that limit out perceptions of human possibilities” (Wood, 1994). In the media men are portrayed as hard workers, athletic, perpetrator of domestic abuse, undomesticated, unemotional, non-committed to relationships, selfish and strong, an example of this would be that Jenifer Lopez’s fiancé was posted all over the media for not being committed and cheating. According to J, A Doyle (1989) whose research mainly focuses on masculinity, “children’s television shows typically shows males as aggressive, dominant and engaged in exciting activities from which they receive rewards from others for their ‘masculine’ accomplishments” (Wood, 1994). How accurate is this evidence? This evidence is quite accurate as it is relevant to children’s television today, and it is a good example to use to show how men are portrayed in the media. Whereas, in the media women are portrayed as home makers, mothers and carers, sex objects, bossy, controlling, unathletic, domesticated and talk too much. Evidence of women being portrayed as sex objects would be page 3 in the sun, how accurate is this evidence? This evidence isn’t very accurate as in society today they don’t use page three in the same way, this evidence is quite old. Stereotyping also transmits an image of disabled people to audiences, according to Colin Barns, (1992) he claimed that “disabled people are becoming increasingly aware that the media was a significant contributor to this institutional discrimination. For barns, the media perpetrates the link between impairment and all that is socially unacceptable” (Bown D, et al, 2016). According to the media, elderly people are stereotyped as always forgetting things, and people are always shouting at them as to think they are death and can’t hear you. Example of how disabled people are presented in the media would be recently in ‘coronation street’ they have a real disabled person playing a disabled character, this shows that they are giving disabled people an opportunity where they thought they wouldn’t. this evidence is accurate, as It is on television today, so it is showing exactly how disabled people are portrayed in the media in every day life, as the television show is shown on television everyday for people to see so is more accurate.  (438 words)