key terms

Question 1

Active audience approaches

Answer 1

Active audience approaches – theories that stress the effects of the media are limited because people are not easily influenced.

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Question 2

Agenda setting

Answer 2

Agenda setting – Controlling which issues come to public attention

Question 3

Synergy

Answer 3

Synergy – a mutually advantageous combination of distinct elements, as where two or more related businesses work together, e.g. to promote and sell a film, computer game and toys more effectively than they could individually.

Question 4

Symbolic annihilation

Answer 4

Symbolic annihilation – the way in which women’s achievements are often not reported, or condemned or trivialised by the mass media.

Question 5

Allocative roles

Answer 5

Allocative role – The power to set the goals of an organisation and make key financial decisions rather than day-today control.

Question 6

Beaty ideal

Answer 6

Beauty ideal – the idea that women should strive for beauty.

Question 7

Catharsis

Answer 7

Catharsis – the process of relieving tensions – for example, violence on screen providing a safe outlet for people’s violent tendencies.
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Question 8

Churnalism

Answer 8

Churnalism’ – uncritical over-reliance by journalists on ‘facts’ produced by government spin doctors and public-relations experts.

Question 9

Citizen journalists

Answer 9

Citizen journalists – members of the public who record news events, for example, using mobile-phone cameras.

Question 10

Collector intelligence

Answer 10

Collective intelligence – the way in which users of new media combine skills, resources and knowledge.

Question 11

Compression

Answer 11

Compression – the way which digital technologies can send many signals through the same cable.

Question 12

Content analysis

Answer 12

Content analysis – a research method that analyses media content in both a quantitative and qualitative way.

Question 13

Convergence

Answer 13

Convergence – the combination of different ways of presenting a variety of types of information (e.g. text, photographs, video, film, voices, music) into a single delivery system.

Question 14

Copycat violence

Answer 14

‘Copycat’ violence – violence that occurs as a result of copying something that is seen in the media.

Question 15

Correlation

Answer 15

Correlation – a relationship between two or more things, where one characteristic is directly affected by another.

Question 16

Cross-media ownership

Answer 16

Cross-media ownership – Occurs where different types of media, e.g. Radio and TV stations are owned by the same company

Question 17

Cult of femininity

Answer 17

Cult of femininity – the promotion of a traditional ideal where excellence is achieved through caring for others, the family, marriage and appearance.

Question 18

Cultural effects model

Answer 18

Cultural effects model – the view that the media are powerful in so far as they link up with other agents of socialisation to encourage particular ways of making sense of the world.

Question 19

Cultural hegemony

Answer 19

Cultural hegemony – the interests of the ruling class being accepted as ‘common sense’ by the mass of the population.

Question 20

Cultural imperialism

Answer 20

Cultural imperialism – The imposition of Western Culture on developing countries.

Question 21

Cultural pediments

Answer 21

Cultural pessimists – Commentators who are pessimistic about the spread and influence of new media technologies.

Question 22

Cyber media

Answer 22

Cyber media – the internet and worldwide web.

Question 23

Desensitisation

Answer 23

Desensitisation – the process by which, through repeated exposure to media violence, people come to accept violent behaviour as normal.

Question 24

Digital citizenship

Answer 24

Digital citizenship – The ability to participate in online society.

Question 25

Digital citizen

Answer 25

Digital citizens – Those who use the internet regularly and effectively.

Question 26

Digital divide

Answer 26

Digital divide - The divisions between those with access to the internet and the skills to use it and those who lack access an appropriate skills.

Question 27

Disinhibition effect

Answer 27

Disinhibition effect – effect of media violence, whereby people become convinced that in some social situations, the ‘normal’ rules that govern conflict and difference, i.e. discussion and negotiation, can be replaced with violence.

Question 28

Diversificatiovc

Answer 28

Diversification – the practice of spreading risk by moving into new, unrelated areas of business

Question 29

E-commerce

Answer 29

E-commerce – Commercial activities conducted on the internet, e.g. advertising and selling goods and services.

Question 30

Effect approach

Answer 30

Effect approach – an approach based on the hypodermic syringe model which believes that the media have direct effects on their audiences.

Question 31

Empower

Answer 31

Empower – make powerful.

Question 32

Folk devil

Answer 32

Folk devil – a stereotype of deviants which suggests that the perpetrators of the so-called deviant activities are selfish and evil and therefore steps need to be taken to control and neutralize their actions so that society can return to ‘normality’.

Question 33

False consciousness

Answer 33

False consciousness – a Marxist term to describe the way in which people’s values are manipulated by capitalism.

Question 34

Gatekeepers

Answer 34

Gatekeepers – people within the media who have the power to let some news stories through and stop others, e.g. editors. They therefore decide what counts as news.

Question 35

Ghettoisation

Answer 35

Ghettoization – in this context, scheduling programmes aimed at minority ethnic groups at times or on channels which ensure small audiences.

Question 36

Global conglomeration

Answer 36

Global conglomeration – the trend for media corporations to have presence in many countries and operate in a global market.

Question 37

Globalisation

Answer 37

Globalisation – the process by which societies become increasingly connected.

Question 38

Global risk society

Answer 38

Global risk society – A global society in which human-made risks cross national boundaries.

Question 39

False class

Answer 39

False class- consciousness – Coming to believe (wrongly) that capitalism is a fair system which benefits us all equally. Associated with Marxism.

Question 40

Hegemony

Answer 40

. Hegemony – domination by the consent (used to describe the way in which the ruling class project their view of the world so that it becomes the consensus view.

Question 41

Homogenous

Answer 41

Homogeneous – the same throughout, undifferentiated.

Question 42

Horizontal integration

Answer 42

Horizontal Integration – Also known as cross-media ownership. Refers to the fat that the bigger the media companies often own a diverse range of media.

Question 43

Hypodermic syringe

Answer 43

Hypodermic syringe model – the view that the media are very powerful and the audience very weak. The media can ‘inject’ their messages into the audience, who accept them uncritically. Ideology – a set of ideas used to justify and legitimate inequality, especially class inequality.

Question 44

Infrastructure

Answer 44

Infrastructure – The economic base of society.

Question 45

Interactivity

Answer 45

Interactivity – digital technologies that are responsive in ‘real time’ to user input.

Question 46

Investigative journalism

Answer 46

Investigative Journalism – Journalism that aims to expose the misdeeds of the powerful.