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Sociology Media Revision Questions & Answers 2024/2025 What is the new media? - ANS-types of media that utilize digital technologies What is technological convergence and what does Jenkins argue it leads to? - ANS- Technological convergence is when a single device has combined various media technologies and Jenkins argues this leads to cultural convergence which is how the users interact with the media content. What are three main key features of the new media? - ANS-- Hyper textuality - Interactivity - Virtuality What does Jenkins argue interactivity leads to? - ANS-A participatory culture as well as a collective intelligence What is the 'growing synergy’ between old and new media? - ANS-BBCs newspapers are now digitalized What are the effects of the new media? - ANS-- Evolving and modernizing news values - Reduced power and influence of owners (Browne - Citizen Journalists have growing power to influence reported news) What are the main arguments for the Neophiliac view of the new media? - ANS-- More choice as well as greater user participation - More access to a wider range of info - Menair - Internet gives everyone power to report and criticize What are the main arguments for the Cultural Pessimist view of the new media? - ANS-- Harder to source information - Fake news is very prevalent - Threat to Democracy - Increased surveillance (online shopping) How much does 1/5th of the British Adult population use the internet? - ANS-40 hours What are the age differences in usage of the new media? - ANS-- Younger people are greater users of the internet and more likely to digitally read the news What are the gender differences in usage of the new media? - ANS-- Men spend 3x more than women watching videos online - Women make more calls and texts - Li and Kirkup: Men are less likely to use the internet for studying What does Jones argue the new media amplifies? - ANS-Existing societal inequalities such as poverty and unemployment - there is a digital underclass. What are some formal controls of the media? - ANS-- Law of libel - 2010 Equality Act forbidding any opinions encouraging hatred against ethnic or religious groups What is Ofcom? - ANS-Media regulator who aim to further consumer interests etc. What are Bagdikian’s features of media ownership? - ANS-- Global conglomeration - Vertical and horizontal integration - Concentrated ownership - technological convergence What do Marxists argue about the media and ideology? - ANS-The media acts as an ISA and induces a false consciousness onto the proletariat What is the main argument for instrumental marxists? - ANS-- Owner's control media content and manipulate the audiences by spreading capitalist ideologies - Owners ultimately dictate the content - The audience is passive and sees no issues What are two critiques of instrumental marxists? - ANS-- Pluralists argue with the growth of citizen journalism; more and more power is given to the powerless. - The state regulates the media so no one person has too much influence What are the main arguments for hegemonic marxists? - ANS-- Media spreads the ruling class ideology therefore legitimizing the elite power - However, owners don’t have direct influence (50% journalists are privately educated) and many have a very Eurocentric white middle class view. - Media contains very minimal critical content in order to attract more audiences and gain higher revenue. What is a criticism of the hegemonic Marxist view? - ANS-- They undermine the power and influence of the owners - for example Rupert Murdoch got all 175 newspapers he owned to adopt his political right-wing views. What are the main arguments for Pluralism? - ANS-- Media content is driven by the consumers and journalists have high editorial independence as long as they attract and gain audiences to make profit - Audience are active and can choose what they do and don’t want to watch and the new media allows everyone to share ideas. Give two criticisms of the pluralistic view? - ANS-- Media owners hire editors and managers who share similar views to them - Journalists views normally come from those higher up in power. - Conspicuous consumption This all indoctrinates consumers with capitalist ideology and producing a homogenized culture What does Barber argue is an extreme response to cultural imperialism? - ANS-- Islamic fundamentalism Give some criticisms of the cultural imperialist view - ANS-- People in developing countries aren’t just simply going to abandon their own cultures for the American culture - Alot mix them and hybridize a new culture. - Western culture is still being enriched by other cultures, there are reverse culture flows. What does postmodernist Thompson argue ‘glocalization' is? - ANS-- Where traditional cultures are influenced by western culture without being completely subsumed by it. e.g. Bollywood What does postmodernist Murthy argue? - ANS-- Global media sites help to increase political awareness and can help coordinate a mass political response. What does postmodernist Shirky argue? - ANS-- Global culture has become more democratic as users can now produce culture themselves. Give some criticisms of the postmodern perspective on globalization - ANS-- People still see class, race and gender having more influence over their identity (PMs argue society is media defined) What does sociologist Thussu argue against the globalization of pop culture and the media? - ANS-- Globalization of TV and media competition has led to the majority of news being tabloidized - infotainment. - The media promote a false global 'feelgood factor’ based on western lifestyles thus diverting people’s attention from real issues. Give a critique of Thussu's argument - ANS-- American sitcoms dominate all media forms and are replacing the serious and critical news. What does sociologist Garrod argue about the effects of globalization? - ANS-- social media and reality shows dominate our sense of reality and identity - Celebrity culture and media induced trends. What do sociologists mean by the social construction of the news? - ANS-- The news is presented as objective, factual and reality however it is a media product, therefore is subject to many pressures, influences and constraints. - Thus, itis socially constructed. What do Galtung and Ruge mean by news values? - ANS-- The way in which journalists and news corps attach significance to a particular story. - Stories are more likely to be pursued and published if they are - Unexpected, Personalisable, Brief, About celebrities and Familiar. What does McQuial argue? - ANS-- not all events can be reported due to too many occurring What have media sociologists found are the 3 influences on news selection? - ANS-- News values - Organizational/Bureautic routines - Ownership of news organizations What does Spencer-Thomas argue about news values? - ANS-- News values are the general guidelines or criteria that determine the worth of a news story. How do owners influence the news? - ANS-- Owners impose their views onto editors - Editors’ jobs depend on not upsetting owners. - Owners are mainly concerned with making profits and attracting mass audiences, this can lead to infotainment What did Bagdikian find about making profits and the news? - ANS-- Due to the importance of profits some stories may be wrote off to make sure no one is offended - This leads to conservatism in the media (Unpopular opinions are underrepresented) - This pressure to attract audiences in the global market leads to infotainment and tabloidization. How has new technology impacted the news? - ANS-- News has become instantly available - News companies must compete for survival -> attract large audiences with short and snappy stories. What did Bivens find about citizen journalism? - ANS-- Its transforming traditional journalism through livestreams, photos and videos - Videos can go viral thus attracting large audiences - This can make it difficult for mainstream media not to cover these stories from citizen journalists How can citizen journalism actually benefit mainstream news organizations? - ANS-- Footage they can obtain from citizen journalists is free and therefore it’s much easier and cheaper than sending out reporters. How have our news habits changed? - ANS-- We expect instant news access on our phones. - Twitter has 316 million monthly active users who see 500 million tweets a day What did Galtung and Ruge find about news values? - ANS-- News values are heat make a story newsworthy - Reference to elite nations or people - Negative - Unexpected - Personalization - Frequent What are some examples of new stories that had these news values? - ANS-- Arab Spring 2010-11 - Japan Tsunami and Earthquake 2011 - Furthermore, news values are aided by the growth of phones and ability to collect masses of recorded material through citizen journalism. What do the GMG suggest about journalists’ assumptions? - ANS-- Shape and alter media content. What did Becker find on journalists? - ANS-- Operate within a hierarchy of credibility - Attach the greatest importance to those in power - Politicians, civil servants etc. - Hall et al calls them primary definers What are the most popular demographics for journalists? - ANS-- Tend fo be white, male and middle class therefore tend to share the dominant ideology. - 50% privately educated. - Therefore influencing the opinions, they choose to include, their views on what's important and how issues should be presented. What did Davies find about churnalism? - ANS-- 80% of stories of the Guardian, Times and Daily Mail were all mainly/partially constructed from second hand material. What is an evaluation point of the social construction of the news? - ANS-- Pluralist Jones argues the news does fairly reflect society - Researched radio news broadcasts and concluded there was a balanced even-handed discussion of industrial disputes. Give one more evaluation point - ANS-- Often the media do target the powerful and the news can expose corruption and abuse of power. Extra KEY STUDIES - ANS-. Seaton + - ANS-- New media’s good to arrange protests - Arab spring - going against traditionalist governments e.g. Egypt BLM challenged white supremacy - New media such as social media e.g. Twitter aided both Itzel - ANS-- Anarchic confederation - Best vehicle of free speech - e.g. Snowden releasing that the government were monitoring people on their phones Levene - ANS-- New media means there’s no more meta-narrative e.g. that America is great Trawler - ANS-- Medias messages are polysemic Jewkes - ANS-- Audiences are not passive to ideological manipulation Drudge - ANS-- Every citizen has the same voice as those in power - Citizen journalism empowers people to challenge for example, Janna Jihad Curran - - ANS-- Global conservatism e.g. Murdoch spreading agenda through high concentration of ownership - UK -7 individuals dominated media ownership. Bagdikian - ANS-- Media conglomerates have shrunk and power is reduced to very small number of people - Algorithms promote capitalism and adverts reinforce power structures Jenkins - ANS-- Western culture is dominant and Americanization is spread through new media and advertising Marcuse - ANS-- Bread and Circus: E.g. Daily Mail will give only a bit of coverage on important issues (bread) - Heavy focus on trivial stuff such as the Kardashians (circus) - divert audience’s attention away and promotes capitalism through heavy coverage of rich influencers - will make audiences aspire to ideals such as the American Dream. - False needs and conspicuous consumption Keen - ANS-- New media is making people dumber and less educated - Cut and Paste generation Castles and Kosack - ANS-- Division of the proletariat to shift blame of societal issues from bourgeoise onto working class immigrants for example. McQuaid - ANS-- gatekeepers McChesney - ANS-- Media owners choose values What is symbolic annihilation according to Tuchman? - ANS-- Women's achievements are often not reported and are condemned or trivialized by the media. - Portrayed in a very limited range of social roles - achievements are viewed as less important What did the Children Now study find on male perceptions aged 10-17 in the media? - ANS-- Men are violent - Men are funny, confident and rarely cry or show vulnerability What did McNamara find on media representations of men? - ANS-- 80% media representations of men were negative - Men are shown as irresponsible - 20% of men were shown as emotional and expressed through their appearance - metrosexual man - metrosexual men: in touch with femininity, emotionally connected. What did Gauntlett find on metrosexual values? - ANS-- Men's media such as FHM and Men's Health transmit metrosexual values as they portray men as fundamentally caring and generous - Magazines like these help men to be considerable lovers, healthy and fashionable What have sociologists found about cyber patriarchy? - ANS-- Caroline Criado-Perez, a human rights campaigner was subjected to 50 rape and murder threats every hour for two days in 2013 - Women are highly sexualized on the internet including through porn, social media and advertising What did Green and Singleton argue Mumsnet reinforced? - ANS-- Notion women should perform emotional work. What do liberal feminists argue about women's representation? - ANS-- There is a cultural lag due to women rarely achieving high positions in media organizations - Very few female editors in British Newspapers - Mills - News is very male cultured and off putting to females What did Liberal Feminist Lauzon find? - ANS-- In 2014/15 women accounted for: - 20% of creators, directors and writers in prime television - 12% of protagonists - 30% of all speaking characters What do Marxist feminists argue about representations? - ANS-- Stereotypical images of men and women are to maximize profit - Women who do not fit the stereotype are excluded due to fears traditional audiences will be turned off - E.g. the diet industry is worth $100 billion in the USA alone. - Women are encouraged to retain their youth and resist ageing - therefore buying lots of beauty products What does radical feminist Wolf argue? - ANS-- Media have deliberately duped women into believing the beauty myth. - Women are encouraged to see beauty as central to their personal happiness and this creates false consciousness whereby women do not make the most of opportunities afforded to them What does McRobbie argue about representations? - ANS-- McRobbie argues media reflects a form of popular feminism around the idea of girl power - This has allowed feminist discourse into mainstream commercial culture What did Postmodernist Gauntlett argue? - ANS-- As people are exposed to more identities there is more choice about what the ideal person is like - There is anew emphasis on ‘feisty, successful girl power icons' and emotionally open men. What do pluralists argue about representations? - ANS-- The concept of symbolic annihilation underestimates women's ability to see through gender stereotyping and manipulation - They claim there is no real evidence that girls and women take any notice of media content or that it affects their behavior What did Batchelor find about representations of sexuality? - ANS-- Aspects of sexuality were represented very positively in terms of sexual health info - issues of consent and when couples are ‘ready’ to have sex. - However, 3 limitations: - Contraception was presented as female responsibility - Stark difference in how male and female characters discussed sex - Lack of positive images of queer teens What did Dyer find? - ANS-- Impossible to know whether a character is gay by looking at them - media constructed stereotypical signs of gayness e.g. Clothing, facials, vocals What signs of gayness did Craig identify? - ANS-- Camp and effeminate - Macho - exaggerated masculinity - Deviant - predatory What are gay men seen as responsible for? - ANS-- AlDs What did Stonewall argue the queer community experience? - ANS-- Symbolic annihilation: Queer characters are often comic relief and lesbianism is overly sexualized - In conclusion, there is an anti LGBT bias in the media How many hours on TV has LGBT related issues discussed? - ANS-- Shrs 46mins - Only 46 mins were positive What did Stonewall argue the rest of the coverage depicted gay men as? - ANS-- effeminate and bitchy figures - promiscuous and predatory - Homophobia often went unchallenged What other stereotypes did Barnes find? - ANS-- Burden - Sexually abnormal - Incapable of participating fully in community life - Objects of ridicule What does Ross argue about disability? - ANS-- Disability issues have to be sensational, unexpected or heroic in order to be interpreted by news reporters as new worthy What did Roper find about TV such as Children in Need? - ANS-- Rely on ‘cute’ children who are not representative of the range of people with disabilities in Britian What did Watson et al find? - ANS-- found articles focusing on disability benefit and fraud increasing by 3x between 2005-11 therefore vilifying the disabled. What do pluralists argue about media representations of the disabled? - ANS-- reflect the dominant medical view that disability is dysfunctional for both the individual and society - representations realistically mirror social anxieties about impairment e.g. individuals experience it as a problematic and abnormal state. What do Oliver, Barnes and Mercer argue? - ANS-- it is important to understand that the societal reaction to people with impairments produces the social condition and experience of disability. What do social constructionists argue are 3 reasons why representations of disability take their form? - ANS-- Medical professionals set the agenda for disabled media portrayals. - Representations reflect the prejudice able bodied people feel towards the disabled - Disabled are rarely constructed by journalists because they concur with the medical view that disabled people are incapable of being ‘normal’ What are postmodernists arguments for media representations of disability? - ANS-- the dominant medical discourse is now fragmenting as the disabled politically organize themselves, and independently construct their own identities. - medical metanarrative is in decline What does Gauntlett argue? - ANS— Sociological theories of representation need to be cautious in approach because of the sheer diversity of the media in the UK - difficult to generalize these critiques to all types of media. How are ethnic minorities often portrayed within the media? - ANS-- Often vilified What are the main stereotypes placed onto ethnic minorities in the media? - ANS-- Criminals - Threats - Abnormal - Dependent - Unimportant - Victims What did Van Dijk and Davies argue? - ANS-- Journalists have demonized Black youth as a threat to white society for decades What else did Van Dijk find? - ANS- Black people are often stereotyped very negatively e.g. Central Park 5 What did Wayne et al find about black crime and news stories? - ANS-- 50% stories on black youths dealt with them committing crime. How many news stories about black men are linked to crime and gang culture? - ANS- 7/10 - Cushion et al. How is black crime often presented? - ANS-- Irrational with little attempt to situate it within socio-economic factors What did Watson find about moral panics? - ANS-- Result of media stereotyping of Black people as criminal. What do Best and Kellner argyle about rap music? - ANS-- Articulates the experiences and conditions of young black people living in deprivation What does Van Dijk argue about ethnic minority groups being less important? - ANS-- The media points out the reporting of violent murders of White people and disasters impacting white dominating countries are more heavily reported. What did Bennett et al find about EM groups being less important? - ANS-- Rarely identify with UK TV culture due to poor representation - media is aimed at liberal, white middle class male elite. How are ethnic minority groups presented as dependent? - ANS-- Black Caribbean mothers are presented as dependent on the state - Problems in non-western countries are presented as the fault of these countries rather than the west How does Newman argue wealth is presented in the media? - ANS-- Positively - Heavy focus on consumer items only the rich can afford What do pluralists argue about wealth in the media? - ANS-- UK is a meritocracy and positive portrayals of wealth = representative of the idea that talented people deserve high rewards - Motivate people to work harder - good for the economy What did Evans and Chandler find? - ANS-- Media socializes children into being active consumers and they therefore begin to define their social status by material possessions - This creates pester power (Marcuse) What does Pester Power lead to in parents? - ANS-- Leads to anxiety amongst poorer parents who often go into debt to meet children’s wishes What are some critiques of studying representations? - ANS-- Ethnocentric - Many tend to generalize and ignore other factors of identity - Representations are becoming more problematic - sexualization of childhood How are youth represented in the media? - ANS-Split into two: - Creating lifestyle and identity through media and demonizing the youth as a social problem What do social constructionists argue about representations of youth? - ANS-- Pop music is often associated with certain youth subcultures - Social media is much more influential at determining young people's life choices - Media heavily constructs youth culture and identity How does Wayne et al argue youth are represented through moral panics? - ANS-- Represented as objects of fear and condemnation for example, Skins portrays youth as lacking values - 82% stories on youth focus on them as victims or perpetuators of violent crime. What is the functionalist argument about youth and the media? - ANS-- Trains youth to become better and functioning members of society What is the pluralist argument? - ANS-- Reflects the audiences views and puts out what people want to see How is old age represented in the media? - ANS-- Some media devalues old age - Emphasis on youth and beauty - fear of ageing How else is old age presented? - ANS- Grumpy - Mentally challenged - Burden What did Newman argue about representations of age? - ANS-- Upper and MC men continue to be portrayed in high status roles What do Stoller and Gibson argue? - ANS-- Women over 40 are presented as passive, poor and unpleasant What is the hypodermic syringe model? - ANS-- A direct correlation exists between media behavior and real life - Children are especially vulnerable as they are in early stages of socialization What did Orbach and Wolf argue? - ANS-- Media representations of women bodies have led to eating disorders What did Dines argue about pornography? - ANS-Porn encourages negative attitudes towards women - consent, aggression, normalizes rape culture What do marxists argue about hypodermic syringe model? - ANS-- Pop culture is used to manipulate a passive mass audience - Compared the propaganda in Nazi Germany and culture industry in the US - Consumption of dumbed down content of pop culture made people passive and created false needs What does Norris argue? - ANS-- Media coverage of political issues can influence voting behavior - e.g. Donald Trump through targeted advertising What did Bandura and Gerbner argue? - ANS-- Screen representations of violence contribute to violent crime and antisocial behavior What do McCabe and Martin argue about screen violence? - ANS-- Has a disinhibiting effect on audiences - Suggests violence is normal - Discussion and negotiation can be replaced with violence - it is glorified. What did Anderson and Bushman study on violence? - ANS-- 257 Students played violent video games and found that sustained exposure increased levels of aggression and acceptance of real-life violence What did Johnson et al find? - ANS-- Correlation between time spent watching tv and aggressive behavior in young adults What are two criticisms of the hypodermic syringe model? - ANS-- Ferguson found that youth violence in the US has fallen by 80% in the last 20 years despite increase in violent games - Some sociologists question how one should define violence What is the reception analysis model? (Morley) - ANS-- People interpret news differently based on their social background - 3 reading: - Preferred: Consensus view - Oppositional: Anti-Consensus - Negotiated: General acceptance however interpreted through ones own lens - Selective perception: audiences may reject content if it does not fit their perception of the social world - Selective attention: Audiences generally remember content they agree with What is a study that backs up this model? - ANS-- Festinger found that people usually seek out content which confirms their existing worldview What are two criticisms of the selective filter model? - ANS-- Advertisers use multiple narratives which engage our selective perceptions - Advertisers use hooks to get round selective attention What is Blumer and McQuay’s Uses and Gratifications model? - ANS-- 4 basic needs people use television to satisfy: - Diversion - Personal relationships - Personal identity - Surveillance What is a criticism of this model? - ANS-- Too dependent on the researchers interpretations - Postmodernists argue everyone uses new media differently - the model is not representative What is the postmodernist model? - ANS-- Individuals create their own meanings from media texts - There is no true meaning and all versions of reality hold equal weights - Therefore, the media is a dependent force on individual meaning 
