Sociology - Media Flashcards
(23 cards)
What is the term Mass media
**Agencies of communication: **
- technology (computers, phones)
- institutions concerned with mass communications (press, advertising)
- the products of these institutions
Traditional vs New media
- Traditional: one way communication (eg: bbc news, usually to large mass audiences)
- new: two way communication, we can interact, through technology
Formal controls on the media
The law
legal limits to the media’s freedom
Legal limits to the media’s freedom:
- Racial and Religious hatred act 2006: forbid expression of opinions which will encourage discrimination against people because of their ethnic group or religious beliefs.
- obscene publications act 1959: forbids anything the court considers to be obscene and indecent
- The official secrets act: makes it a criminal offence to report without any authorization any official government activity
Formal controls on the media
Ofcom
the office of communications
- a powerful media regulator across television, radio and telecommunications
- ensuring high quality services with broad appeal
- protecting the public from any offensive or potentially harmful effects of broadcast media
formal controls on the media
The BBC
- established by the royal charter, state funded and governed by the BBC trust (whose members are appointed by the Queen)
- partly regulated by Ofcom and partly by the trust
- financed by the state through tv liscence fee income
- not a private business run soley to make a profit
- not dependent on advertising for it’s income
- has to compete with commercial broadcasting by attracting large audiences to justify the licence fee
formal controls on the media
Independent broadcasting
- all the non-BBC television and radio stations
- regulated by Ofcom, which licenses the companies which can operate in the private sector
- they are responsible for the amount and quality of advertising
- responsible for dealing with any complaints
formal controls on the media
Independent press standards organisation
IPSO
- an independent regulator for the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK
- established in sept 2014 by the newspaper industry itself
- considers and investigates complaints
- ISPO is still in its infancy, however many have criticized it for not holding journalists and newspapers accountable for their actions.
ʙᴀɢᴅɪᴋɪᴀɴ ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴀ ᴏᴡɴᴇʀꜱʜɪᴘ
Concentration of ownership
most of the media are concentrated in the hands of a few large companies
ʙᴀɢᴅɪᴋɪᴀɴ ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴀ ᴏᴡɴᴇʀꜱʜɪᴘ
Vertical Intergration
Where one company owns all of the stages of production of media products
ʙᴀɢᴅɪᴋɪᴀɴ ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴀ ᴏᴡɴᴇʀꜱʜɪᴘ
Horizontal intergration
Where one company diversifies to own more types of media – e.g. when a film production company also gets into book publishing.
ʙᴀɢᴅɪᴋɪᴀɴ ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴀ ᴏᴡɴᴇʀꜱʜɪᴘ
Global ownership
ownership of the media is becoming more concentrated and is international
ʙᴀɢᴅɪᴋɪᴀɴ ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴀ ᴏᴡɴᴇʀꜱʜɪᴘ
Global conglomeration
where companies in one country buy up companies in other countries
ʙᴀɢᴅɪᴋɪᴀɴ ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴀ ᴏᴡɴᴇʀꜱʜɪᴘ
Synergy
Media companies have moe than one type of product and are using them in several different ways
ʙᴀɢᴅɪᴋɪᴀɴ ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴇᴅɪᴀ ᴏᴡɴᴇʀꜱʜɪᴘ
Technological convergence
several media technologies, once contained in seperate devices, are combined in a single device (like a mobile phone)
ɢᴏᴠᴇʀɴᴍᴇɴᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ɪᴅᴇᴏʟᴏɢʏ
Rupert Murdoch
- owner of hundreds of internatinal publishing outlets
- owns broad sheets and tabloids (lets him spread his ideology across the classes)
- owns the sun, the times, fox and daily telegraph
- News of the world scandal (interfeered with the police investigation of missing girl)
ɢᴏᴠᴇʀɴᴍᴇɴᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ɪᴅᴇᴏʟᴏɢʏ
Marcuse
one dimensional man
- mass media determines how we view the world
- promotes a false class conciousness
- creates a pattern of one dimensional thought and behaviour
ɢᴏᴠᴇʀɴᴍᴇɴᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ɪᴅᴇᴏʟᴏɢʏ
Milliband
Ruling class/ marxism
- ruling class use the media to control society
- we are presented with a false reality (makes capitalism look positive)
- media presents class inequalities as inevitible
- proletariat accepts capitalist society
- media is the ‘new opium of the people’
ɢᴏᴠᴇʀɴᴍᴇɴᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ɪᴅᴇᴏʟᴏɢʏ
Glasgow Media Group’s
View on journalists
- most journalists working for national media tend to be male, white and middle class
- they claim these journalists believe in consensus views, listeners and readers
- the journalists are not motivated by a desire to defend capitalist interests (media companies are profit making businesses)
ɢᴏᴠᴇʀɴᴍᴇɴᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ɪᴅᴇᴏʟᴏɢʏ
Hegemonic model
Gramsci (neo-marxists)
- neo marxists argue the media strengthen ruling class hegemony
- journalist and broadcasters tend to be white middle class, male and more than 50% attended private schools)
- promote ruling class hegemonic ideas because they themselves share these norms and values of this group
Pluralism
Pluralist approach
- power in democratic, free market societies is spread out among diverse competing interest groups
Pluralism
Supply & Demand
- media professionals driven by the market they serve and compete for customers
- wouldn’t be successful in the market place if they didn’t represent different social groups fairly
- media representations of social groups reflect society (will change when society does)
Pluralism
Diversity and choice
- representation of social groups reflects the diversity of society
- there are a range of channels that serve interests of different groups (eg: asian TV)
Pluralism
Media workers as skilled professionals
- the media professionals are alert to the responsibilities that they have to represent groups fairly
- if they were represented unfairly, people would stop buying (eg: if women didn’t like the stereotypical image in magazines they wouldn’t buy them
