...Item A In late modern society, the mass media are at the centre of culture, and the media are obsessed with crime. As a result, they are our main source of knowledge about crime. However, the media present us with a distorted picture. For example, crime fiction, whether TV 'cop shows' or the individual genius of a Sherlock Holmes, offers a false image of policing. Similarly, many sociologists accuse the news media of creating folk devils and of promoting unrealistic fears of crime. Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the relationship between crime and the mass media. Item A refers to a late modern society of which we are surrounded by the mass media, the media consists of any way in which a message can be delivered to a large population for example TV, Newspapers, Magazines etc. Crime and deviance take up a large percentage of news coverage as found in Williams and Dickinson's study which highlighted how British newspapers devoted 30% of news space to crime. This coverage may then give members of society a distorted image of the amount of crime, the types of crime and how crime is overcome within a society. This then creates a dramatic fallacy of crimes such as violent crime such as rape and drug crime within gang culture. Stanley Cohen developed the idea that the media creates moral panics, whereby a story is exaggerated and a targeted group is labelled as a folk devil. The exaggerated story-often shown in a negative light- then...
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...Assess the hypodermic syringe model of the relationship between the mass media and the audience. (18 marks) There are a variety of sociological theories and evidence that suggests that the hypodermic syringe model has a relationship between the mass media and the audience however there also some flaws to these ideas. The hypodermic syringe model assumes ideas/ideologies transmitted in mass media products are automatically ‘injected’ into the minds of the audience for example a newspaper telling its readers who to vote for. The audience is seen as passive recipients. The hypodermic syringe model shows that we are a passive homogenous audience. The hypodermic Syringe Model (HSM) is an early theory model, which believes that there is a direct correlation between the violence and anti-social behavior portrayed in different media types (e.g. Television, computer games and films). Sociologists found that the most venerable audience to the HSM is children and teenagers. This is because they are still in the early stages of socialization so are therefore very impressionable. A prime example to support this theory is the case of Jamie Bugler. Jamie was a 2 year old boy that was abducted and murdered by two 10 year old boys. The boys had apparently watched 'Childs Play 3' before they murdered the toddler, and as the murder was very similar to the death in the film newspapers such as 'The Sun' created a debate to whether such violence in the media should be accepted. However, when the case...
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...Com 1020 Assignment 2 Introduction Mass communication is the variety of all the media mediums together, and is aimed at a large audience. A ritual view is directed not towards the addition of messages in space but the maintenance of society in time, not the act of imparting information or influence but the creation, representation, and celebration of shared even if illusory beliefs, James,(1988: 43). This essay will discuss how mass communications has transformed the temporal and spatial foundations of the social-sphere. This essay will start by defining the key terms which are communication, mass communication, and the para-social. The separation of social space from the physical place by mass communications, time and space and mass communications will also be discussed in the essay. The para-social interactions, how mass communications transformed the temporal and spatial foundations of the social sphere will then follow. The ritual dimensions of communication will also be discussed, the essay will then sum up the essay and give the researcher’s opinion. Definition of key terms Communication refers to the transmission of meaningful messages; these messages are conveyed in images, language, gestures, or other symbols. Thompson. (1997:30) Anthony R, (2004), defines mass communication as the process in which professional communicators design and use media to disseminate messages widely, rapidly, and continuously in order to arouse intended meanings in large...
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...The education of our children has always been emotive and when the mass media is added to the mix, volatility is inevitable. Hardly a country in the world is spared controversy in education, but when one looks behind the sometimes anarchic scenes, there is a lot about which to be optimistic and hopeful. Traditionally, the mass media and education have enjoyed a love-hate relationship. On one hand television and newspapers particularly, have provided extensive and extremely useful education content. On the other, however, their newsrooms never seem to hesitate when controversy rears is ugly head. In theory, it is absolutely vital for the mass media to keep an eye on the way in which governments administer and develop education, but it has to be said that in this day and age of a battle for survival within the mass media industry, the watchdog does tend to become somewhat rabid at times. Like most businesses the mass media often takes a line of least resistance when problems occur and a first step always seems to blame the trades union movements. In South Africa the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) inevitably faces tremendous criticism from the mass media when its members protest the enormous challenges and deprivations they face in the classrooms. Many of those challenges having very little to do with actual teaching. Regrettably, the relationship between the mass media and education involves a lot of indulgence in blame-games and reaction by...
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...MODELS OF COMMUNICATION Models: • Aim to present communication as a process. • It is like a map, representing features of a territory. But it cannot be comprehensive. • We need therefore to be selective, knowing why we are using it and what we hope to gain from it. Transmission models - criticism The Shannon and Weaver and Lasswell model are typical of so-called transmission models of communication. These two models also typically underlie many others in the American tradition of research, showing Source-Message/Channel-Receiver as the basic process of communication. In such models, communication is reduced to a question of transmitting information. Although transmission models have been highly influential in the study of human communication, it can be argued that, although Shannon's and Weaver's work was very fertile in fields such as information theory and cybernetics, it may actually be misleading in the study of human communication. Some criticisms which could be made of such models are: The conduit metaphor Their model presents us with what has been called the 'conduit metaphor' of communication (Reddy (1979) The source puts ideas into words and sends the words to the receiver, who therefore receives the ideas. The whole notion of 'sending' and 'receiving' may be misleading, since, after all, once I've 'sent' a message, I still have it. The underlying metaphor is of putting objects into a container and sending them through some sort of conduit...
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...The media of mass communication have long played a fundamental role in people’s lives. The media informs, persuades, entertains, and even sells. For the most part; mass media is only owned by a few private companies, as we learned in the “media ownership” discussion. According to the “Telecommunications Act of 1996,”, this act was to spawn some competition the broadcast companies. It also eased the restrictions on the number of television stations one individual company can own. The media, controlled by power corporations and government organizations, has positioned itself to influence people in all manner of ways, but no one group controls the system as a whole. 90% of all television media is controlled by only six broadcast corporations. Media can provide companionship, shape perception. They are fundamental to an informed and educated public.(Pavlik, McIntosh 2004). “An important aspect of digitization is that the boundaries between different media have brought into question, and a presupposition has the developer that we are in an era of media convergence” (Storsul,Fagerjord (2008). Strosul and Fagerjord believe that “blurring the border between media does not have to mean convergence. There is also development toward stronger differentiation of media in which elements from earlier separate media and sectors are combined in new ways.” In communication, there are three forms of interpersonal, intrapersonal...
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...Mass Marketing is Diminishing Some claim that mass marketing will always exist for the large brands that target the mass market. Others claim that mass marketing is becoming less significant. I believe mass marketing is becoming less significant due to advancements in technology and the impact of cultural diversity. I will describe why I think these two major factors are eliminating mass marketing along with what I believe the future holds for mass marketing. Advancements in Technology Technology has evolved over the years from the Internet to smartphones to social media and is now a part of our everyday lives. In addition, with technological advancements companies now have more than ever the ability to maintain customer databases. I believe for a company to become successful marketing strategies need to adapt to changes in technology. Internet, Smartphones, Social Media Prior to the emergence of the Internet companies used mass marketing because the strategy was to reach as many consumers as possible. Then the Internet enabled consumer’s endless access to information, thus changing their purchasing behavior. Consumers are able to become more knowledgeable about products than ever before. Marketing efforts need to be adjusted to appeal to Internet users. According to Kotler and Keller (2012), “The widespread usage of the Internet allows marketers to abandon the mass market practices that built brand powerhouses in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s” (p. 135). Then once...
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...powerful influence of the media – the ability to tell us what issues are important. As far back as 1922, the newspaper columnist Walter Lippman was concerned that the media had the power to present images to the public. McCombs and Shaw investigated presidential campaigns in 1968, 1972 and 1976. In the research done in 1968 they focused on two elements: awareness and information. Investigating the agenda-setting function of the mass media, they attempted to assess the relationship between what voters in one community said were important issues and the actual content of the media messages used during the campaign. McCombs and Shaw concluded that the mass media exerted a significant influence on what voters considered to be the major issues of the campaign. Core Assumptions and Statements Core: Agenda-setting is the creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news media. Two basis assumptions underlie most research on agenda-setting: (1) the press and the media do not reflect reality; they filter and shape it; (2) media concentration on a few issues and subjects leads the public to perceive those issues as more important than other issues. One of the most critical aspects in the concept of an agenda-setting role of mass communication is the time frame for this phenomenon. In addition, different media have different agenda-setting potential. Agenda-setting theory seems quite appropriate to help us understand the pervasive role of the media (for example on political...
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...In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, society is shallow and disconnected due to mass media. Bradbury thought that our society today would become like this, and in many ways he was right. Throughout the novel, Bradbury portrays mass media as a facade that hides real experience and interferes with the characters' ability to think deeply about their lives and relationships. Some examples of how mass media corrupts the society in the novel include the parlor TV walls, the way companies advertise, and how the authorities use television to lie to people. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, it is common to have one or more parlor TV wall. A parlor TV wall is a wall-sized TV, with interactive entertainment, similar to a video game. Mildred, Montag’s wife,...
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...audience Media uses are closely bound up with our social life. The way that people obtain information is changing every day in every aspect of our daily life, along with the developments of new technologies. Some researches tend to show us that the audience has become more active in a range of ways since the emergence of social media. Social media generally applied to web-based services that facilitate many forms of social interactions or networking. The design principles behind these websites enable users to create and develop online relationship with others. We are communicating with potentially large and invisible audiences by using social network sites or blogs (Zappavigna, 2012, p. 2). People has drawn attention to the fact that social media is changing the way of how we use media in daily life. All these indicate that audience research is no longer in the old-school. This article will provide a theoretical framework of how media is used, and the challenges that the emergence of social media has posed on audience theory. Audiences play critical roles in any types of mediated communication. We all participate in the mass media, and most people have a sense of audience in every aspect of it. Back to the decades ago, some audience theories such as linear communication theory is about the direct relationship between the mass media and audience. It instils the ideas to the passive audience directly. Moreover, the two-step flow theory of mass communication. The mass media inspires...
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...are non-verbal means such as body language, sign language, touch, eye contact and writing. Good Communication = Good Business * Helps an organisation to thrive * Cost effective | Poor Communications = Bad Business * Can cost market share & jobs * Can damage reputation & image | GENERAL THEORIES OF COMMUNICATION One Step Flow Theory This theory stated that mass communication media channels, communicate directly to the mass audience without the message being filtered by opinion leaders. The best known model of this theory is the hypodermic needle model. Dating from the 1920s, this theory was the first attempt to explain how mass audiences might react to mass media. It suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciousness of the audience unmediated. This theory suggests that our behaviour and thinking might be easily changed by media makers. It assumes that the audience is passive. Two Step Flow Theory The Hypodermic Model quickly proved too clumsy for media researchers seeking to explain the relationship between audience and text more precisely. As mass media became an essential part of life in societies around the world, a more sophisticated explanation was sought. Paul Lazerfield et al suggested that the information from a text does not flow directly into the minds of its audience unmediated but is...
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...being an unbiased medium for the communication of information, the U.S. media plays an intricate role in shaping and controlling political opinions. Media is extremely powerful in the sense that without an adequately functioning media, it is virtually impossible for a sophisticated social structure like the U.S. Government to exist. All known sophisticated social structures have always been dependent upon the media’s ability to socialize. The U.S. government generally will exploit the media, often times manipulating the enormous power of the printed word. This exploitation ultimately empowers the U.S. government by strengthening it with the ability to determine and control the popular perception of reality. One way in which government achieves this objective is by misusing the media’s ability to set the agenda. Contrary to popular belief, the media is in fact an enormous power in society. Separate independent news organizations do not exist for the most part. Rather than creating an independent structured agenda of their own, smaller news organizations adapt to a prepared agenda, previously constructed by a higher medium. Based upon this information alone, it is quite apparent that media has the characteristics of a hierarchical rule. In order for the U.S. government to control and determine the public’s popular perception of reality, the government must shape and oversee the information that the media reports to the people. This particular process of democracy is known and...
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...Department of Radio/TV/Film, The University of Texas at Austin Wei-wei Huang Department of Mass Communication, Fu-jen Catholic University, Taipei, Taiwan Cross-cultural communication scholars have looked at effects of interpersonal communication and both ethnic and host mass media uses on the acculturation behavior of immigrants for a long time. The present study employs an important network analysis concept, the social influence of alters on ego, in the field of cross-cultural communication. Using measures of alters' acculturation, English- and ethnic-language media uses, and years of residence in the U.S., a model is proposed and tested upon a sample of international students from a college campus. The results indicate that the alters' acculturation plays a central role in the pattern of relationships. INTRODUCTION To answer questions such as "what happens when individuals move from one culture to another" and "why are some immigrants more successful than others in adapting a new environment," social scientists have long employed the concept of acculturation to explain the process through which immigrants adapt themselves to the norms and values of the host culture (Gordon, 1964; Padilla, 1980; Gudykunst & Kim, 1984; Kim, 1977, 1988). The immigrant acculturation experiences have been examined from anthropological, historical, sociological, psychological, social-psychological, or media perspectives since the 1890s (Berry, 1980, 1988; Herskovits, 1955; Kim, 1988; McGee, 1898;...
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...A Mediated World: A Study on the Media Equation Theory John Nolan Pelosi University of Kentucky A Mediated World: A Study on the Media Equation Theory We’ve all done it. Whether it is aggressively screaming at the sports team you are watching on television, or frantically warning the victim of a horror movie not to open the door, everybody responds to mediated communication systems. However, the majority of mass media viewers are unaware of just how often they are actively responding. Although there has been a relatively small amount of research done linking interpersonal and mass communication researchers, are constantly aiming to bridge the gap between the sub disciplines of communication. Throughout this research I will be exploring the Media Equation Theory through the mediums of televisions and computers. I will explain what the media equation is, and describe the impact of the two communication mediums. With previous research in mind, I will be discussing how humans have become obsessed with media, and provide historical context as to why. A mass majority of this research focuses on the link between psychology and communication regarding to the positive correlation between the two. More specifically, psychological politeness reports between ‘human to human’ interactions are compared to research reports between ‘human to media’ interactions to prove that life is media, and media is life. Theoretical Background The Media Equation is a general communication...
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...Marnice Thomas Mass Communications 101-5XB 04-14-09 Sex in the Media and Its Effects on Teens The mainstream media portrays sex in a way that permanently scars many teens before their teen years are over. Sex can be portrayed as the way to attain status and happiness in life. Advertisements still use sex to sell products, maybe more than ever. As a society, we are more aware than ever of the danger of sexually transmitted diseases. Yet teens are bombarded with sexually explicit images as if STDs were something that only happened to other people. It is not surprising that some young people today act out their fantasies of sexual domination and power by raping or murdering others. Sex is a gift from God. When a man and a woman marry, they should be able to look forward to enjoying a fulfilling sexual relationship for the rest of their lives. Yet long before people marry in our society, they have been forced to view images of cosmetically perfect bodies engaged in simulations of sexual acts. The way mainstream media portrays sex leaves many teens ill prepared for a life where lasting sexual joy can only come from a relationship built on mutual love, respect, honesty, and trust. Sex is the second strongest of the psychological appeals, right behind self-preservation. Its strength is biological and instinctive. However, its effectiveness...
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