Media Flashcards
What is Mass Media?
The means of conveying information to large public audiences cheaply and efficiently. It happens from the upper reaches of the political world to everyday citizens.
What is Media Convergence?
The merging of traditional media with digital communication technologies such as telecommunications and the internet.
This is affected by how politicians scramble to stay on top of innovations.
What is Commercial Bias?
Is the tendency of the media to make coverage and programming decisions based on what will attract a large audience and maximize profits.
Journalistic judgment and ethics are at odds with the imperative to turn a profit.
What is Public Sphere?
Area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.
What is Group Polarization?
Within-group debate tends to push people toward extreme opinions.
Refers to the tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members.
What are Social Cascades?
(false) opinions easily reinforced, travel rapidly.
Also called Information Cascades, is a situation in which an individual makes a decision based on observation of others without regard to his own private information.
What is Microtargeting?
Using “big data” analysis to predict voting behavior and to target voters with highly individualized messages
* Requires blending voter registration files, lifestyle data from private firms, and polling information
