McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 1 SOCIOLOGY Richard T. Schaefer The Mass Media 7.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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SOCIOLOGYRichard T. Schaefer

The Mass Media7

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7. The Mass Media

• Sociological Perspectives of the Media

• The Audience

• The Media Industry

• Social Policy and Mass Media

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

– The media:• Socialize us• Enforce social norms• Confer status• Promote consumption• Keep us informed about our environment• May act as a narcotic

• Functionalist View

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

• Media increases social cohesion by presenting common view of culture

– Provide collective experience for members of a society

– Socializing effects can promote religious as well as patriotic exchanges, uniting believers around the world

– Socializing effect of media means programming can easily become controversial

• Functionalist View– Agent of Socialization

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

• Media reaffirm proper behavior by showing what happens to people who violate societal expectations

– Conferral of Status• Singles out one from thousands of other

similarly placed issues or people to become significant

• Functionalist View– Enforcer of Social Norms

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

• Media advertising– Supports economy– Provides information – Underwrites cost of media

• Functionalist View– Promotion of Consumption

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Figure 7-1. Number of Hours per Week Spent with Media,1997—2008 (projected)

Source: Veronis Suhler Stevenson LLC 2003:166-167 for 1997; 2004:184-185 for all other data

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Table 7-1. Status Conferred by Magazines

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

•Surveillance Function: collection and distribution of information concerning events in the social environment

– Dysfunction: The Narcotizing Effect•Narcotizing Dysfunction: phenomenon in

which the media provide such massive amounts of information that audience becomes numb and fails to act on the information

• Functionalist View– Surveillance of the Social Environment

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

– Gatekeeping: how material must travel through a series of checkpoints before reaching the public

• Conflict View

• Ethnicity• Social class

– Conflict theorists emphasize that the media reflect and even exacerbate many of the divisions of our society and world, including:• Gender• Race

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

• Dominant Ideology: set of cultural beliefs and practices that help to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests

• Mass media serve to maintain the privileges of certain groups

• Stereotypes: unreliable generalization about all members of a group that do not recognize individual differences within the group

• Conflict View– Dominant Ideology: Constructing Reality

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

• Globalization projects the dominating reach of the U.S. media into the rest of the world

• Media cultural exports undermine the distinctive traditions and art forms of other societies and encourage their cultural and economic dependence on the U.S.

• Conflict View– Dominant Ideology: Whose Culture?

Nations that feel a loss of identity may try to defend against the cultural invasion

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

– Feminists share conflict theorists’ view that the mass media stereotype and misrepresent social reality• Women underrepresented• Perpetuate stereotypical views of gender• Emphasize traditional sex roles and

normalize violence against women

• Feminist View

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

– Interactionists especially interested in shared understandings of everyday behavior

– Examine media on micro level to see how they shape day-to-day social behavior

– Scholars increasingly point to mass media as source of major daily activity

• Interactionist View

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Figure 7-2. The Internet Explosion

Source: National Geographic 2005:21

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Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Table 7-2. Sociological Perspectiveson the Mass Media

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The Audience

– Mass media distinguished from other social institutions by necessary presence of audience

– Identifiable, finite group or a much larger, undefined group

• Who Is In the Audience?

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The Audience

– Increasingly, media market themselves to a particular audience

– The role of audience members as opinion leaders intrigues social researchers

• The Segmented Audience

Opinion leader: someone who, through day-to-day personal contacts and communication, influences opinions and decisions of others

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The Audience

– Response often influenced by social characteristics:• Occupation• Race• Education• Income

• Audience Behavior

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The Media Industry

– Handful of multi-national corporations dominate publishing, broadcasting, and film industries

• The Media’s Global Reach– Mass media have begun to create global

village in terms of communication– Internet key to creating truly global

network

• Media Concentration

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The Media Industry

Figure 7-3. Media Penetration in Selected Countries

Source: Bureau of the Census 2004a:870

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Social Policy and Mass Media

• 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– The Issue

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Social Policy and Mass Media

• We spend great deal of time with the media

• Does watching hours of mass media with violent images cause one to behave differently?

– Some studies linked exposure to media violence to subsequent aggressive behavior

• Media Violence– The Setting

It is important to recognize that other factors besides the media are also related to aggressive behavior.

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Social Policy and Mass Media

• If function of media is to entertain, socialize, and enforce social norms, can violence be part of that message?

• Even if viewer does not necessarily become more violent from watching violent images, there could be desensitization

• Media Violence– Sociological Insights

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Social Policy and Mass Media

• Conflict and feminist theorists are troubled that victims depicted in violent imagery are often:

– Women– Children– Poor– Racial minorities– Citizens of foreign countries– Physically disabled

• Media Violence– Sociological Insights

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Social Policy and Mass Media

• Interactionists especially interested in finding out if violence in media may then become script for real-life behavior

• Media Violence– Sociological Insights

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Reluctance to pass laws regarded as censorship

Social Policy and Mass Media

• Policymakers responded to links between violence depicted in media and real life aggression:

– Public statements of support for family-oriented, less-violent media content

• Media Violence– Policy Initiatives

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Social Policy and Mass Media

Figure 7-4. Violence on Prime-Time Television, 1998—2002

Source: Parents Television Council 2003