Midterm 2 Flashcards
(225 cards)
What is media?
Any form of communication that targets a mass audience in print or electronic format
List and define the 4 functions of media in society.
Surveillance: ways that information is collected and distributed in society; how we know what is happening around the world
Correlation: ways that information about our world is interpreted and prescriptions for behaviour in response to events - we have a certain way to react or respond
Transmission: communication of information, norms, values from generation to generation - history minutes or books for example
Entertainment: communication intended to amuse or relax - everything from books to videos and the internet etc.
Who is responsible for defining the functions of media in society in regards to deviance?
Charles Wright; functionalist that provides a viewpoint on how media affects deviance
How can the impact of media in society be defined in regards to crime rates?
the media is responsible for discrepancy between dropping rates of crime and the perception that youth crime is out of control
What is differential reporting?
When some topics are being covered in the media, and others are not. For example, street crimes, violent crimes, and crimes committed by strangers are often more reported than corporate crimes, property crimes, and crimes committed by those known to the victim, which are all more common.
What is the dramatization of crime?
media is in business and therefore needs to be made dramatic to draw viewers
What are the 3 ways that crime is dramatized?
Language, atypical cases, brief and horrific headlines
what is meant by the incompleteness of reporting?
public is made unaware of how courts work and reasons for sentences for example. This may cause the public to be less sympathetic for the offender, or cause Canadians to become angry at the system and demand change.
How does media desensitize violence?
through music videos and movies for example.
What are the effects of increased exposure and violence?
The more exposure to violence in media and real life, the more tolerant people become.
What are the emotional and physiological effects of becoming tolerant to violence?
lower levels of anxiety, lower heart rates and blood pressure respectively
What did Moynihan say in regards to the normalization of deviance?
Deviant behaviour is so common that we are not even recognizing it as such anymore - we are subscribing to a new idea at the time called the broken windows theory .
Ex. the newspaper title “Edmontons first murder of the year” only is normal if violent crime is normalized in Edmonton
What is the broken windows theory?
crime occurs whenever/wherever social controls are not strong. This theory argues that communities that are run down invite crime, through the assumption that since they are already run down, individuals will get away with it
What is a moral panic?
an exaggerated and sensationalized concern over a particular phenomenon
List the 5 items that characterize a moral panic and define them in regards to the Salem Witch Trials.
- heightened concern: seizures were happening, perhaps by cases of epilepsy, but since there was no scientific understanding, this set off panic.
- Hostitility towards the offending group: inequality of women before the onset of deviance, but now women seen as bringing evil
- A certain level of consensus that there is a real threat: deeply religious community, so there is already a spiritual aspect. This jump of evil spirits was just a small step beyond what was already believed.
- disproportionality: belief that people became hysterical due to fear and anxiety
- volatility: the potential for things to become very serious very quickly - oppressive leaders in the Church increased tensions and fights for power.
How did the media play a role in creating a moral panic in the 1600s?
Newspapers, books, and pamphlets wrote about the Salem Witch Trials and spread the news this way.
Who is associated with the term folk devil?
Stanley Cohen
What is a folk devil?
those who possess characteristics that make them a suitable screen upon which society can project sentiments of guilt and ambivalence upon; ie. scapegoating
What is an example of a folk devil?
homosexual men during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s; blamed for this crisis, as same sex relations was stigmatized.
What role did the media play in the Mods and Rockers in 1964?
created a moral panic about the young urban male youth.
How did the Mods and Rockers scenario show the different items that characterize a moral panic?
Increased concern: through the medias portrayal of the minor riots, it showed that British youth were out of control
Manufactured hostility toward offending groups: media manufactured gang image, even though there was no gang affiliation
Increased consensus over the threat: all newspapers framed the story the same, and convinced everyone else that they were out of control
Disproportionality: exaggeration tactics
volatility: gang fighting image; threat that the marginalized youth posed
What were the Mods and Rockers?
2 young male groups: the Mods: punk rock; and the rockers: leather jacket rockers
there were no gang affiliations or violent activity, and members were part of the working class.
Upset when they arrived and the coffee shops were closed.
What is the Kerner Commission?
A report that was released in 1968, after seven months of investigation from riots in the USA. It blamed lack of economic opportunity, failed social service programs, police brutality, racism, and the white-oriented media for the causing the riots.
Why were the riots painted a race riot?
Most blamed the riots on African American young men, due to “black unrest”