Slide 1

SOCIOLOGY
Richard T. Schaefer

The Mass Media

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 2

7. The Mass Media

Sociological Perspectives of the Media The Audience The Media Industry Social Policy and Mass Media

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 3

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Functionalist View
The media:
Socialize us Enforce social norms Confer status Promote consumption Keep us informed about our environment May act as a narcotic

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 4

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Functionalist View
Agent of Socialization
Media increases social cohesion by presenting common view of culture
Provide collective experience for members of a society Socializing effects can promote religious as well as patriotic exchanges, uniting believers around the world Socializing effect of media means programming can easily become controversial
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 5

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Functionalist View
Enforcer of Social Norms
Media reaffirm proper behavior by showing what happens to people who violate societal expectations

Conferral of Status
Singles out one from thousands of other similarly placed issues or people to become significant

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 6

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Functionalist View
Promotion of Consumption
Media advertising
Supports economy Provides information Underwrites cost of media

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 7

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Figure 7-1. Number of Hours per Week Spent with Media, 1997 2008 (projected)

Source: Veronis Suhler Stevenson LLC 2003:166-167 for 1997; 2004:184-185 for all other data

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 8

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Table 7-1. Status Conferred by Magazines

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 9

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Functionalist View
Surveillance of the Social Environment
Surveillance Function: collection and distribution of information concerning events in the social environment

Dysfunction: The Narcotizing Effect

Narcotizing Dysfunction: phenomenon in which the media provide such massive amounts of information that audience becomes numb and fails to act on the information
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 10

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Conflict View
Conflict theorists emphasize that the media reflect and even exacerbate many of the divisions of our society and world, including:
Gender Race Ethnicity Social class

Gatekeeping: how material must travel through a series of checkpoints before reaching the public
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 11

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Conflict View
Dominant Ideology: Constructing Reality
Dominant Ideology: set of cultural beliefs and practices that help to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests Mass media serve to maintain the privileges of certain groups Stereotypes: unreliable generalization about all members of a group that do not recognize individual differences within the group
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 12

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Conflict View
Dominant Ideology: Whose Culture?
Globalization projects the dominating reach of the U.S. media into the rest of the world Media cultural exports undermine the distinctive traditions and art forms of other societies and encourage their cultural and economic dependence on the U.S. Nations that feel a loss of identity may try to defend against the cultural invasion
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 13

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Feminist View
Feminists share conflict theorists view that the mass media stereotype and misrepresent social reality
Women underrepresented Perpetuate stereotypical views of gender Emphasize traditional sex roles and normalize violence against women

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 14

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Interactionist View
Interactionists especially interested in shared understandings of everyday behavior Examine media on micro level to see how they shape day-to-day social behavior Scholars increasingly point to mass media as source of major daily activity
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 15

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Figure 7-2. The Internet Explosion

Source: National Geographic 2005:21

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 16

Sociological Perspectives of the Media

Table 7-2. Sociological Perspectives on the Mass Media

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 17

The Audience
Who Is In the Audience?
Mass media distinguished from other social institutions by necessary presence of audience Identifiable, finite group or a much larger, undefined group

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 18

The Audience
The Segmented Audience
Increasingly, media market themselves to a particular audience The role of audience members as opinion leaders intrigues social researchers
Opinion leader: someone who, through dayto-day personal contacts and communication, influences opinions and decisions of others
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 19

The Audience
Audience Behavior
Response often influenced by social characteristics:
Occupation Race Education Income

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 20

The Media Industry

Media Concentration
Handful of multi-national corporations dominate publishing, broadcasting, and film industries

The Media s Global Reach

Mass media have begun to create global village in terms of communication Internet key to creating truly global network
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 21

The Media Industry

Figure 7-3. Media Penetration in Selected Countries

Source: Bureau of the Census 2004a:870

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 22

Social Policy and Mass Media

Media Violence
The Issue
What effect does movie and TV violence have on audiences? Does violence in the media lead people, especially youth, to become more violent?

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 23

Social Policy and Mass Media

Media Violence
The Setting
We spend great deal of time with the media Does watching hours of mass media with violent images cause one to behave differently?
Some studies linked exposure to media violence to subsequent aggressive behavior

It is important to recognize that other factors besides the media are also related to aggressive behavior.
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 24

Social Policy and Mass Media

Media Violence
Sociological Insights
If function of media is to entertain, socialize, and enforce social norms, can violence be part of that message? Even if viewer does not necessarily become more violent from watching violent images, there could be desensitization

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 25

Social Policy and Mass Media

Media Violence
Sociological Insights
Conflict and feminist theorists are troubled that victims depicted in violent imagery are often:
Women Children Poor Racial minorities Citizens of foreign countries Physically disabled
McGraw-Hill
2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 26

Social Policy and Mass Media

Media Violence
Sociological Insights
Interactionists especially interested in finding out if violence in media may then become script for real-life behavior

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 27

Social Policy and Mass Media

Media Violence
Policy Initiatives
Policymakers responded to links between violence depicted in media and real life aggression:
Public statements of support for family-oriented, less-violent media content

Reluctance to pass laws regarded as censorship

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Slide 28

Social Policy and Mass Media

Figure 7-4. Violence on Prime-Time Television, 1998 2002

Source: Parents Television Council 2003

McGraw-Hill

2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.