Chapter 18

1. Chapter 18 The Mass Media

2. Chapter Outline • The Significance of the Mass Media • Theories of Media Effects • Domination and Resistance on the Internet

3. 1 Mass Media • The mass media are print, radio, television, and other communication technologies. • “Mass” implies the media reach many people. • “Media” signifies that communication is usually one way. • There are few senders (or producers) and many receivers (or audience members).

4. 2 Media Usage, 2005(projected hours/capita)

5. 3 Media Usage • Hours in a year: 8,760 • Hours per year the average American uses the mass media: 3,649 • 63% of waking hours assuming eight hours of sleep per day • Increase since 1996 in hours per year the average American uses mass media: 11%.

6. 4 Media Usage, 2005 (Projected dollars/Capita)

7. Question • Which media source do you think has the strongest impact on attitudes and behaviors of your generation? • Advertising • Television • Music and music videos • The Internet • Magazines

8. 5 Development of the Mass Media

9. 5 Development of the Mass Media

10. 5 Development of the Mass Media

11. 5 Development of the Mass Media

12. Question • The mass media refer to communication technologies that: • reach many people • do not take place directly through face-to-face interaction • are usually one way or at least one-sided in the sense of having few senders and many receivers • all of these choices

13. Answer: d • The mass media refer to communication technologies that reach many people and communication technologies that do not take place directly through face-to-face interaction and communication technologies that are usually one way or at least one-sided in the sense of having few senders and many receivers.

14. 6 Causes of Growth of the Media • Protestant Reformation of the 16th century encouraged people to read the Bible themselves. • Democratic movements in the late 18th century encouraged people to demand literacy. • Capitalist industrialization in the late 19th century required rapid communication.

15. 7 Magazine Advertising and Circulation Revenue, United States, 1960–2004

16. 8 Theories of Mass Media Effects

17. Question • According to functionalists, which of the following is not a function of mass media? • coordination • socialization • strengthening of community • social control

18. Answer: c • According to functionalists, strengthening of community, is not a function of mass media.

19. 9 Media Bias • Advertising • 93%of newspaper editors said advertisers tried to influence their news reports. • 37% of newspaper editors admitted to being influenced by advertisers. • Sourcing • Most news agencies rely on press releases, news conferences, and interviews organized by corporations and government agencies. • These sources slant information to reflect favorably on their policies. • Flak • Governments and big corporations attack journalists who depart from official points of view. • 60 Minutes refused to broadcast a damaging interview with a former Philip Morris executive because CBS was threatened with legal action by the tobacco company.

20. 9 Media Bias • Advertising • 93%of newspaper editors said advertisers tried to influence their news reports. • 37% of newspaper editors admitted to being influenced by advertisers. • Sourcing • Most news agencies rely on press releases, news conferences, and interviews organized by corporations and government agencies. • These sources slant information to reflect favorably on their policies. • Flak • Governments and big corporations attack journalists who depart from official points of view. • 60 Minutes refused to broadcast a damaging interview with a former Philip Morris executive because CBS was threatened with legal action by the tobacco company.

21. 9 Media Bias • Advertising • 93%of newspaper editors said advertisers tried to influence their news reports. • 37% of newspaper editors admitted to being influenced by advertisers. • Sourcing • Most news agencies rely on press releases, news conferences, and interviews organized by corporations and government agencies. • These sources slant information to reflect favorably on their policies. • Flak • Governments and big corporations attack journalists who depart from official points of view. • 60 Minutes refused to broadcast a damaging interview with a former Philip Morris executive because CBS was threatened with legal action by the tobacco company.

22. 9 Media Bias • Advertising • 93%of newspaper editors said advertisers tried to influence their news reports. • 37% of newspaper editors admitted to being influenced by advertisers. • Sourcing • Most news agencies rely on press releases, news conferences, and interviews organized by corporations and government agencies. • These sources slant information to reflect favorably on their policies. • Flak • Governments & big corporations attack journalists who depart from official points of view. • 60 Minutes refused to broadcast a damaging interview with a former Philip Morris executive because CBS was threatened with legal action by the tobacco company.

23. Relationship Between Centrality of Values and Diversity of Media Opinion

24. 10 Two-step Flow of Communication • The two-step flow of communication between mass media and audience members involves: • respected people of high status and independent judgment evaluating media messages • members of the community being influenced by these opinion leaders.

25. 11 Cultural Studies • Cultural studies is an increasingly popular interdisciplinary area of media research. It focuses not just on the cultural meanings producers try to transmit but also on the way audiences filter and interpret mass media messages in the context of their own interests, experiences, and values.

26. Feminist Approach to Media: Abortion Study • Study by Andrea Press and Elizabeth Cole of audience reaction to abortion as portrayed on TV shows. • Over 4 years, they conducted discussion groups involving 108 women. • The women watched shows focusing on abortion and discussed their reactions. • The programs dealt with women who chose abortion to avoid poverty.

27. Feminist Approach to Media: Abortion Study 4 Opinions • Pro-life women from all social classes form the most homogeneous group. • They think abortion is never justified. • They reject the mass media’s justification for abortion. • Pro-choice working-class women • Pro-choice working-class women who aspire to middle-class status • Pro-choice middle-class women

28. Feminist Approach to Media: Abortion Study 4 Opinions • Pro-life women from all social classes • Pro-choice working-class women adopt a pro-choice stand as a survival strategy, not on principle. • They fear laws restricting abortion would be applied prejudicially against women of their class. • At the same time, they reject the TV message that financial hardship justifies abortion. • Pro-choice working-class women who aspire to middle-class status • Pro-choice middle-class women

29. Feminist Approach to Media: Abortion Study 4 Opinions • Pro-life women from all social classes • Pro-choice working-class women • Pro-choice working-class women who aspire to middle-class status distance themselves from “reckless” members of their own class who sought abortions on the TV shows. • They tolerate abortion for such people but reject it for themselves and for other “responsible” women. • Pro-choice middle-class women

30. Feminist Approach to Media: Abortion Study 4 Opinions • Pro-life women from all social classes • Pro-choice working-class women • Pro-choice working-class women who aspire to middle-class status • Pro-choice middle-class womenbelieve only an individual woman’s feelings can determine whether abortion is right or wrong in her own case. • Many reservations about abortion, and reject it as an option for themselves. • They staunchly defend the right of all women to choose abortion.

31. 12 Representation of Minority Groups in Television

32. Question • Which of the following groups was not highly underrepresented among American fictional television characters who appeared in prime-time and daytime series, films, and animated cartoons in the period 1994-97? • poor people • African Americans • disabled people • Hispanic Americans

33. Answer: b • African Americans were not highly underrepresented among American fictional television characters who appeared in prime-time and daytime series, films, and animated cartoons in the period 1994-97.

34. 13 Top 10 Countries, Millions of Internet Users

35. Question • Of friends and relatives you keep in contact with at least once a year about how many do you stay in contact through e-mail? • None • 1-5 • 6 and up

36. GSS National Data

37. 14 Internet ConnectivityPopulation Density

38. 15 % Population With Internet Access

39. Question • How likely is it that you would be willing to pursue an Internet romance? • Very likely • Somewhat likely • Unsure • Somewhat unlikely • Very unlikely

40. 16 Media Imperialism • Media imperialism is the domination of a mass medium by a single national culture and the undermining of other national cultures.

41. 17 Media Convergence • Media convergence is the blending of the World Wide Web, television, and other communications media as new, hybrid media forms.

42. Quick Quiz

43. 1. Which of the following was not a factor that led to the rise of the mass media? • the Protestant Reformation • the Catholic Counter-Reformation • the democratic revolutions in France, the United States, and other countries • capitalist industrialization

44. Answer: b • The Catholic Counter-Reformation was not a factor that led to the rise of the mass media.

45. 2. According to conflict theorists: • the mass media stimulate social conflict • the mass media create widespread acceptance of social inequality • the mass media are themselves a source of economic inequality • b. and c. only

46. Answer: d • According to conflict theorists: the mass media create widespread acceptance of social inequality and the mass media are themselves a source of economic inequality.

47. 3. The two-step flow of communication refers to the fact that: • ideas, fashions, and fads originate in the press and only later make their way to TV • ideas, fashions, and fads originate on TV and only later make their way to other mass media • respected people of high status typically evaluate mass media messages and then may influence the broader public • b. and c. only

48. Answer: c • The two-step flow of communication refers to the fact that respected people of high status typically evaluate mass media messages and then may influence the broader public.

49. 4. Media convergence refers to: • the restriction of access to the mass media to paying customers • the blending of the World Wide Web, television, and other communications media into new, hybrid forms • global inequality in access to the mass media • the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth by media conglomerates

50. Answer: b • Media convergence refers to the blending of the World Wide Web, television, and other communications media into new, hybrid forms.