The Mass Media

How The Fundamental Aspects Of Media Affect Daily Life.

By: Michael Remini

Discuss:

What is mass media?

Answer:

Mass Media - print and electronic means of communications that carry messages towidespread audiences.

The Net Generation

“The Net Generation has arrived! The baby boom has an echo and it’s even louder than the original.” - Don Tapscott, Growing Up Digital

What makes this generation different is that it is the first to grow up surrounded by digital media. Computers and other such digital devices have become

commonplace, and media has become interconnected by the internet.

For the first time in history, children are more comfortable and knowledgeable than their parents about innovations central to society.

Through its knowledge, the N-Generation will develop and superimpose its culture on the rest of society.

Discuss:

With the state of the economy in many countries, including our own, how might this technological boom become problematic?

The Not Generation If left purely to market forces, the digital economy could foster a two-tiered

society, creating a major gulf between information haves and have nots - those who can communicate with the world and those who can’t.

As information technology becomes more important for economic success and societal well-being, the possibility of “information apartheid” becomes increasingly real. For example, in the United States, there is a direct relationship between

family income and access to computers and the internet. Some argue that this is a temporary problem, but research shows

that the digital divide is widening. Globally, most children of the new generation are not growing up

digital. In fact, many of them will not grow up at all. One billion people were born over the last decade - the largest increase in human history. However, 97% of them were born in developing countries that often lack the ability to feed, house, and educate them. More than half of the 1.2 billion children born in the world aged 6 to eleven have never placed a phone call.

Discuss:

How would your life be altered without the use of digital technology? (ex: cell phones, computers, televisions etc.)

Functionalist View

One obvious function of the media is to entertain.

Despite news and educational programs, we often think the explicit purpose of mass media is to occupy our leisure time. While this is true, the media does have other

important functions. It socializes us, enforces social norms, confers

status, and promotes consumption.

Discuss:

How does the mass media bring together members of a community or even a nation by broadcasting important events and ceremonies and by covering disasters?

Media As An Agent Of Socialization Media increases social cohesion by presenting a

common, more or less standardized view of culture through mass communication.

Sociologist Robert Park studied how newspapers helped immigrants to the United States adjust to their environment by changing their customary habits and teaching them the opinions of people in their new home country. Unquestionably, the mass media play a significant role in

providing a collective experience for members of a society.

Discuss:

How has the mass media had an effect on your opinions, views, and/or lifestyle?

Media As An Enforcer Of Social Norms The media often reaffirm proper behavior by showing what happens to

people who act in a way that violates social expectations. For instance the increase in substance abuse amongst youths

during the 1990s were linked to a decline in number of warnings and anti-drug messages from the media.

Within the 200 most popular movie rentals of 1996 and 1997, alcohol use appeared in 93%, tobacco use in 89%, and illicit drug use in 22%.

An analysis of the 1,000 most popular songs during the same time period showed that 27% made references to either alcohol or illicit drugs.

In 1997, a federal law required television networks to provide one free minute for every minute the government bought for a public service announcement with an anti-drug message.

Narcotizing Dysfunction

In 1948, sociologists Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert Merton created the term narcotizing dysfunction to refer to the phenomenon in which the media provide such massive amounts of coverage that the audience becomes numb and fails to act on the information, regardless of how compelling the issue. Interested citizens may take in the information but

make no decision or take no action.

Conferral Of Status

The mass media confer status on people, organizations, and public issues. Whether it is an issue such as the homeless or a celebrity,

they single out one from thousands of other similarly placed issues or people to become significant.

Simply put, the most frequently searched celebrity on the internet reaches a higher status level. Although they are in the same boat as thousands of other celebrities, they have something which sets them apart.

How does your family life compare to that of a television family?

Discuss:

How Does Television Portray The Family? The media don’t just present reality; they filter and interpret it.

A good example of the media’s interpretive portrayal of content is the way the family has been presented on television, from the 1950s to the present.

One of the earliest and biggest hit shows on TV, I Love Lucy starred real life married couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Indicative of the the time period, they were a relatively prim and proper family.

As the decades passed and the American concept of family life changed, The Brady Bunch became a phenomenon. After two families merge to become one, this blended family foreshadowed a trend soon to come.

The Cosby Show presented a realistic picture of a dual-career couple whose family was firmly rooted in the African-American upper middle class.

How Does Television Portray The Family?(cont’d) More recent shows have continued to expand the

boundaries of television families. Family Guy, an animated series featuring a dim-witted,

clueless father, offers an irrelevant and relatively rare look at a working class family.

The Sopranos tells the story of a family that belongs to a crime syndicate, yet it was still able to provide an illustration of the impact of work on the home.

Two and a Half Men, a show in which two brothers (one of whom retains custody of his son after a divorce) live together proves that today’s households come in all varieties

Conflict View

Conflict theorists emphasize that the media reflect and even exacerbate many of the divisions in our society and the world, including those based on gender, race, ethnicity and social class.They point in particular to the media’s

ability to decide what is transmitted through a process called gatekeeping.

Gatekeeping

Within the mass media, a relatively small number of people control what eventually reaches the audience through a process known as gatekeeping. This term describes how material must travel

through a series of checkpoints (or gates) before reaching the public.

Thus, a select few decide which images to bring to a broad audience.

Media Monitoring

The term media monitoring is used most often to refer to interest groups’ monitoring of media content.

Dominant Ideology

Dominant ideology describes a set of cultural beliefs and practices that helps to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests. The media transmit messages that virtually define

what we regard as the real world, even though those images frequently vary from the ones that the larger society experiences.

Stereotypes

Media content may create false images or stereotypes of groups that then become accepted as accurate portrayals of reality.Stereotypes are unreliable generalizations

about all members of a group that do not recognize individual differences within the group.

Interactionist View

Interactionists examine the media on the micro level to see how they shape day-to-day social behavior. Increasingly, researchers point to the mass

media as the source of major daily activity.

The Audience

The mass media is distinguished from other social institutions by the necessary presence of an audience.An audience may be an identifiable, finite

group, or a much larger and undefined group.

The audience is further broken down into secondary and primary groups.

Segmented Audience

Increasingly, the media is marketing to a particular audience.Once a media outlet has has identified its

audience, it targets that group.

Opinion Leader

The role of audience members as opinion leaders particularly intrigues social researchers. An opinion leader is someone who influences the

opinions and decisions of others through day-to-day personal contact and communication.

For example, a movie critic functions as an opinion leader.

Today, film critics often attribute the success of low-budget independent films to word of mouth.

The Media’s Global Reach

Today, physical distance is no longer a barrier, and instant messaging is possible across the world.The mass media has created a global

village, as Canadian linguist Marshall McLuhan predicted over 40 years ago.

Not all countries are equally connected, but the progress has been staggering.

The Internet

The key to creating a truly global network that reaches directly into workplaces, schools, and homes is the internet. The potential to send audio and video via the

internet will increasingly reach into every part of the world.

Social interaction will then trul take place on a global scale.