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Page 1: McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Page 2: McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

7THE MASS MEDIATHE MASS MEDIA

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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Chapter Outline

• Sociological Perspectives of the Media• The Audience• The Media Industry• Social Policy and Mass Media: Media Vi

olence

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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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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McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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.

Page 31: McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

McGraw-Hill © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Media Industry

Email

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