Lecture 15

Question 1

What is mass communication?

Answer 1

The actual transmission of message from one source to huge audience at same time

Question 2

What is mass media?

Answer 2

The technology (print, radio, television, internet) that allow mass communication.
(Medium = singular; Media = plural)

Question 3

What is the public opinion?

Answer 3

Broadly, the consciously-held and explicitly- expressed values, beliefs, opinions, views etc of a significant (or majority) part of society.

Question 4

What is the Public sphere?

Answer 4

Set of social institutions creating a space for
people to come together, discuss broader social problems, and formulate public opinion.

Question 5

What is Integration?

Answer 5

In Parson’s AGIL system, the function of bringing members of society together in a common set of values, beliefs, and views, and the institutions that fulfill that need for society.

Question 6

What does the Hypodermic needle model arguee?

Answer 6

Argues that public uncritically absorbs messages directly ‘shot into’ them by media.

Question 7

What does the Hypodermic needle model assume?

Answer 7

Assumes people are passive consumers of media, not really critiquing the messages they get from news etc.

Question 8

What is the Hypodermic needle model also called?

Answer 8

Also known as ‘magic bullet’ model.

Question 9

What does Two-step flow of communication model argue?

Answer 9

Argues that members of public do not take
messages directly from media.

Question 10

What does the Two-step flow of communication model insist?

Answer 10

Instead, media is filtered by Opinion Leaders, who actively consume, interpret, & spread messages through personal interactions with less-active media consumers.

Question 11

What is Gatekeeping?

Answer 11

Process of selecting from a huge flow of information or news to decide which ones pass ‘through the gate’ to the public.

Question 12

What is Agenda-
setting?

Answer 12

Media’s ability to determine what themes are viewed as
important in public/political debates.

Question 13

What is Framing?

Answer 13

How the media presents a particular news story, emphasizing certain aspects over others, and putting a particular spin on it to affect how audience interprets it.

Question 14

What is the Spiral of
Silence theory?

Answer 14

The way minority opinions, beliefs, views disappear over time from public debate, as people become afraid to express them in case they are ostracized by society; the less frequently they are
expressed, the more afraid people become to express them.

Question 15

What is Alternative
media?

Answer 15

• Sources of news, opinions, communication that presented marginalized or countercultural perspectives.
• non-commercial, and hence not published by large
  media corporations; much more grassroots production.

Question 16

What is Native Advertising?

Answer 16

Advertisements disguised as news stories, often in respectable news outlets, so blurring the boundaries of truth.

Question 17

What is Niche Marketing?

Answer 17

Advertisements and products targeted at very
specific sections of the population, e.g. small subcultures, particular classes.

Question 18

What is Gratifications theory?

Answer 18

Subject-focused: examines the personal reasons people have for choosing the kind and content of media they consume.

Question 19

What does Gratifications theory avoid?

Answer 19

Avoids any value judgments on whether media is good or bad.

Question 20

What is the Political
economy perspective?

Answer 20

• Looks at relation between economic ownership and
  power over society.
• Looking at media, asks who owns it? and what effect
  ownership has on media.

Question 21

What is Conglomerate?

Answer 21

Large business structure with interests in a variety of fields (e.g. gambling, drinks, media).

Question 22

What does Conglomerate emphaize on?

Answer 22

Emphasis on profit, not ‘quality news.’

Question 23

What is Commodification?

Answer 23

• Treating an object (or person, idea, value, work of art) as a commodity to be bought and sold.
• The overall transformation of part of society so everything in it is commodified.

Question 24

What is Homogenisation?

Answer 24

When differences disappear, and we all become the
same. Mass media encourage cultural
homogenisation.

Question 25

What is the Colonization of the Lifeworld by System imperatives?

Answer 25

Growing dominance of impersonal System motives (profit, power etc) in areas previously operated in Lifeworld of free, interpersonal communication, thus trapping us in an automated System we cannot control

Question 26

What is ‘The Medium is the Message’?

Answer 26

McLuhan’s famous statement that how the media says something is more important than what it says.

Question 27

What is Moral Panic?

Answer 27

Widespread and irrational fear of supposed threats to social values, stability, and well-being, typically from some Folk Devil, a group perceived as so deviant that they endanger society.

Question 28

What are Moral entrepreneurs?

Answer 28

An individual who tries to gain status or power by presenting themselves as the defender of certain moral norms. They launch public campaigns through media to promote their cause.

Question 29

What does Cultivation Theory argue?

Answer 29

Argues that constant images of threats, violence, and conflict on tv lead the public to be constantly terrified, and hence more supportive of hardline solutions for nonexistent problems.

Question 30

What is Narcotizing dysfunction?

Answer 30

- Constant exposure to the same messages over and over again makes us less sensitive to them: we don’t care as much. - May make us indifferent to violence or to suffering in other parts of world.

Question 31

What is Commodity Fetishism?

Answer 31

Originally a Marxist term, but changed & adapted by Baudrillard to describe the way we desire a product for its cultural value, not its actual use.

Question 32

What is Hyperreality?

Answer 32

The ultra-bright, fast-moving, sensory overload world produced by the mass media – which overwhelms the dull material world underneath.