Sociology 1025A: Final review Weeks 10 -11

Question 1

What is media from a sociological perspective?

Answer 1

It is a way of personal and social practices.

Question 1

What is a Media-landscape?

Answer 1

the forms of media present in a certain context

Question 2

What is Legacy media?

Answer 2

Form of media that has its origins in the past and is not changing.

Question 3

What is New media?

Answer 3

Media forms that has emerged recently

Question 4

What is Mass media?

Answer 4

Refers to communications that target large audiences

Question 5

According to the functionalist theory how does media impact the institutions of the society?

Answer 5

• The functionalist theorists believe that the media is a part of an institution that helps maintain societal stability.
• Media plays an important political and economic role in society.

-> Politically: the media aids the politicians, government and their parties’ activities and is a vehicle to bring awareness of public issues that affect the nation’s collective well-being.

-> Economically: media contribute to the nation’s economy and avenues for other industries’ economic activities.

(central at building Canada as a nation)

Question 6

What did the Aird commisions conducnted about radio’s?

Answer 6

They argued that radio broadcasting must be employed to create national unity and build a common culture.

Question 7

Why is media one of the KEY socializing agent?

Answer 7

Media serve a social-integrative function, by connecting us to other people, whether through social media, instant messaging, website forums, or video chats.

Question 8

The functions of Media:

Answer 8

• Cognitive function: by providing with information (this is the main deal in regards of the functionalist theory)
• Social-integrative function: connecting people
• tension-reducing function: entertaining us so we can temporarily relax and relieve stress

Question 9

According to the conflict theory, how does media impact the power dynamics within the groups in society?

Answer 9

-Media: From a conflict perspective, media help to perpetuate social inequalities
1. media is at the hands of a certain small group that ultimately has control over a large population with the messages they convey
2. media is part of consumerism and thus provides a way for the elite to stay in power.

Question 10

What is a conglomerate?

Answer 10

Is a corporation made up of several widely diversified companies.

Question 11

3 issues that conglomerates create within the boundaries of the conflict theory?

Answer 11

1. That elite creates propaganda (i.e., biased persuasive communications) about international affairs that becomes the basis of what the public is repeatedly exposed to as daily news.

2.Second, corporate conglomeration can create conflicts of interest that lead to media bias

3. Third, large conglomerates make money in so many different ways, that there is a growing distance between the parent company and any single part of the business.

Question 12

Which term refers to a company’s exclusive control over a particular product or service?

Answer 12

a Monopoly

Question 13

Who controls the news media?

Answer 13

a concentrated elite

Question 14

What is the consumer capitalism?

Answer 14

• a form of double exploitation develops.
• Workers continue to be exploited through low wages and poor working conditions, but consumers are also exploited by manipulative advertising, high prices, and low-quality products.
• The unpaid labour through the internet help rich get richer and mainitna a capitalist structure.

Question 15

Who are prosumers?

Answer 15

People act as both consumers and producers simultaneously in the same setting.

Question 16

What do sociologists mean when they say that mass media ownership is concentrated and part of larger conglomerates?

Answer 16

The mass media is controlled by a small group of elite people that pick and choose what is considered to be the content we see in the media and these chosen people are parts of huge companies that have mass control over what is being put out there for people.

Question 17

According to the interactionist theory what is the impact of media in developing ourselves?

Answer 17

• The media are a key avenue for social interaction, whether we are communicating with a specific person on social media or watching the latest movie or television show.
• Through the media, in part, we develop an understandings of issues and events, other people, and ourselves.

Question 18

Which term refers to an overgeneralization of a group that is often based on faulty assumptions?

Answer 18

stereotype

Question 19

Which Canadian-born social psychologist is famous for his now classic studies on observational learning?

Answer 19

Albert Bendura

Question 20

Which theory proposes that repeated exposure to violence lessens its emotional impact?

Answer 20

desensitization theory

Question 21

What is Media Literacy?

Answer 21

Media literacy refers to the ability to recognize, critically assess, and make informed choices about messages contained in mass media forms.

Question 22

What are the 3 institutions that society labels as legitimate?

Answer 22

• Religion
• Science
• Education

Question 23

What is a “Belief”?

Answer 23

To accept something regardless of it being true or a fact is called a belief.

Question 24

What is a Belief system?

Answer 24

A network or an interrealted set of beliefs by groups of people are called belief system.

Question 25

What are the 3 components of belief systems?

Answer 25

1. Claims about the nature of reality
2. Include ethical and moral claims
3. enacted using technologies(techniques)

Question 26

What is a religion according to Durkheim?

Answer 26

A united system of beliefs and practices related to sacred things.

Question 27

What does secular mean in the context of religion?

Answer 27

The state of not being governed by religion. (Canada is becoming a more secular country than ever before.)

Question 28

What does religious affiliation mean?

Answer 28

The identification with a particular religion

Question 29

What is the most affiliated religion in Canada?

Answer 29

Christianity, then Islam, and then Hinduism.

Question 30

What does religious attendance?

Answer 30

attendance at organized religious services.

Question 31

What does religiosity mean?

Answer 31

A combination of religious affiliations, religious attendance and self-rituals.

Question 32

What is social capital?

Answer 32

refers to resources we accumulate from our social networks (resources that we get from our social connections we form with people)

Question 33

What is bridging capital?

Answer 33

Where the resources we accumulate through interactions with our religious group can be used outside the religious realm

Question 34

What is bonding capital?

Answer 34

A sense of community and belonging, as well as a social identity

Question 35

What is the child’s saver’s movement?

Answer 35

which dedicated itself to the betterment of children’s social conditions

Question 36

What is social capital, and what types of social capital emerge from belonging to a religious group?

Answer 36

Social capital is the resources accumulated through networks and it can be positive and negative depending on the perspective the people take.

Question 37

What are some positive and negative outcomes of religious bonding capital?

Answer 37

Positive would be that people improve the lives of others and help each other while negative could be where the members become extremists and isolate themselves or implicitly harm to those that they deem as different and wrong.

Question 38

What does the functionalist theorist say about religion?

Answer 38

• ## Durkheim suggests that religion plays an important role in maintaining social solidarity.

Question 39

What is collective conscience v.s the collective effervescence?

Answer 39

The collective conscience is when a large group of people gather for religious rituals and then they accumulate the wisdom of the participants.

while,

Collective effervescence is when people get excited which helps them surpress the challenges to a degree every day.

Question 40

What are the benefits of the collective conscience and collective effervescence?

Answer 40

Both the collective conscience and collective effervescence serve important functions: they strengthen social bonds and thereby maintain the social order.

Question 41

What does the conflict theorist say about religion?

Answer 41

• opium of the people (Karl Marx)
• talks about how even though a lot of acceptance and understanding accumulates in terms of all religions other religions besides Christianity still face marginalization.
• Conflict arises in mutlticultures.

Question 42

What does the interactions perspective theorist say about religion?

Answer 42

-Suggest how people’s understanding can impact the change and the structure of the world. (Max weber)
- The accumulation of wealth was a sign of salvation to come, and the accumulation of wealth is the foundation of capitalism.

Question 43

What does the feminist theorist say about religion?

Answer 43

• Indigenous feminists draw attention to the way that religion, patriarchy, and colonialism are all interconnected.
• the focus on heteronormativity in religion
• emphasis the religious traditions on the roles of women in the religion.
  -> ^^ This is analyzed through the institutionalized inequalities, disparate treatment at religious services and socially constructed religious doctrine.

Question 44

What does post-modern theory say about religion?

Answer 44

• Postmodern perspectives highlight the plurality of all religions and spiritualities

Question 45

What does scientism mean?

Answer 45

The worldview that considers only science and empirical research as the ultimate truth.

Question 46

Is an institution that provides a way of “understanding the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence

Answer 46

Science

Question 47

What does Robert Merton say about science?

Answer 47

He believes that social structures and processes intertwined with science are a part of the social endeavour.

Question 48

What are the two approaches of science?

Answer 48

Scientific Knowledge as Objective Truth: Sociologists who perceive scientific knowledge as objective and distinct from other forms of knowledge focus their analyses on particular aspects of science.

-> Normative structure of science: a set of norms that are embedded in the institution of science itself and that make science a self-governing institution based on objectivity.
-> 1. Norm of communism: the notion that scientific information is to be shared with, everyone.
-> 2. Norm of universalism: the scientific knowledge to be free of any social biases like racism.
-> 3. Norm of disinterestedness: Scientists do their work regarding finding the truth rather than doing it for personal gain.
-> 4. Norm of organized skepticism: before a claim is accepted it must be rigorously critiqued.

Scientific Knowledge as Constructed: Those who perceive scientific knowledge as similar to other forms of knowledge focus their analyses on how scientific knowledge emerges, is accepted, and is affected by social and political forces.

-> Paradigms: conceptual frameworks
->Paradigm shift: a movement that is away from a particular conceptual framework.

Question 49

is a major agent of socialization and a formal institution that systematically instills much of the knowledge that individuals require in order to function as productive adults.

Answer 49

Education

Question 50

What do the functionalist theorists say about education?

Answer 50

• Educational practices help maintain stability and order in society.
• helps with maintaining the moral order
• Manifest and latent function of education:
• Manifest function traits: skill and knowledge development, historical and culture transmission, social development, and social control.
• ## The hidden curriculum, suggested by both conflict theories and feminist theorists.

Question 51

What does Hidden curriculum?

Answer 51

This refers to the process whereby students are exposed to a subtle agenda of norms, values, and expectations that fall outside the formal curriculum and are learned via teaching methods and interactions with others at school. (some of these help continue the social inequality.

Question 52

What does Streaming mean?

Answer 52

which places students in specific educational contexts based on levels of achievement

Question 53

What is cultural capital?

Answer 53

Symbolic assets that one acquires by virtue of social class or memebership in other social groups.

Question 54

This refers to the reliance on increasingly higher educational qualifications as the minimal requirements for employment.

Answer 54

Credensialism

Question 55

Self fullfilling?

Answer 55

prophecy is an originally false belief that becomes true simply because it is perceived as such

Question 56

What is the sociology of health and illness, and what are its four general areas of study?

Answer 56

• Degenerative diseases replaced infectious diseases as the primary causes of death and the role of social patterns and lifestyles became more obvious.
• Preventive medicine and public health efforts drew attention to significant factors such as poverty and malnutrition.
• Modern psychiatry emphasizes the role of the social environment in psychological healing.
• Medicine became more bureaucratic and administrative

Question 57

For both men and women in Canada, what are the two leading causes of death?

Answer 57

Cancer and heart disease

Question 58

What does epidemiological trasntiion mean?

Answer 58

The changes in morbidity adn mortality, from a predominance of infectious and parasitic diseases to degenrative deaseases.

Question 59

What are the leading “official” causes of death in Canada?

Answer 59

Top 10 were listed as degenerative diseases:

-cancer, heart disease, stroke, accidents, suicide, liver disease.

Question 60

What is the actual underlying cause of death?

Answer 60

Among the leading underlying “actual” causes of illness and death are smoking, poor diet and inactivity, and alcohol use.