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The Media are defined as large scale organisations which use one or more communication technologies

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Marxists and feminists focus on the power of the media in ... They are gate keepers - deciding what we should and shouldn't see - Gus in Drop the Dead Donkey ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: The Media are defined as large scale organisations which use one or more communication technologies


1
Introduction
  • The Media are defined as large scale
    organisations which use one or more
    communication technologies to communicate with
    large numbers of people.
  • Sociologists are interested in the media for a
    whole host of reasons.
  • Marxists and feminists focus on the power of the
    media in influencing behaviour. The media are
    ideological tools used to maintain the status
    quo.
  • Pluaralists argue that this is far from the case
    and as their title suggests they point out that
    there is such a variety to choose from no one
    group can dominate.

2
Introduction
  • C Wright Mills 1956
  • Gave 2 important sociological characteristics of
    the media
  • Very few people can communicate to a great number
  • The audience has no effective way of talking back

3
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • Hypodermic Syringe Model
  • Media exerts powerful influence on a passive
    audience
  • Communication is seen as a one way process
  • Media is a powerful drug
  • Now seen as too simple in academic circles but
    has a lot of popular support - particularly with
    regard to the effects on the young.
  • Glasgow Media Group argue that this power of
    the media is evident in advertising

4
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • 2 Step Flow Model Katz Lazersfieldl
  • More complex picture
  • Intermediaries exist between the medium and the
    recipient
  • These opinion formers/leaders act as go betweens
  • egs - politicians, doctors, pub know all
  • Again implies a passive, non questioning audience
    at the end
  • Advertisers use this approach in getting famous
    people to endorse products

5
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • Uses and Gratifications Approach
  • Katz 1959
  • Focus shifts from what the media don to people to
    what people do with the media.
  • The same programme can have different effects
    depending on what the viewer is looking for.
  • This more complex picture than the above models
    has close links to interpretive approaches

6
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • Uses and Gratifications Approach
  • McQuail 1972
  • identifies a number of uses and gratifications
  • Diversion - for escape
  • Personal relationships - where we become involved
    in a community e.g. soaps
  • Personal Identity - lifestyle progs
  • Surveillance - Keeping us informed, News etc.

7
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • Uses and Gratifications Approach
  • Lull 1990
  • Media can act as..
  • Background noise
  • A focal point for domestic interaction
  • Companionship
  • Entertainment

8
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • The above approaches focus on the micro (small
    scale) level, looking at how the individual is
    affected by the media.
  • The following approaches shift the focus to the
    macro level looking at such things as who owns
    the media,
  • what effect does it have on groups of people,
  • does the organisation of society affect the role
    of the media

9
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • Marxist Influenced Approaches
  • See the British national press as Conservative
  • Only The Mirror openly supports Labour - though
    The Sun backed Tony Blair in1997
  • However Marxists see all the main media in
    Britain as pro-capitalist

10
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • Ownership and control of the media
  • The Capitalists own the means of production and
    consequently the means of mental production
  • Their ruling ideas filter down to the masses via
    the media
  • Neo Marxists such as Hall(1978) argue that the
    ruling class set the agenda
  • They aim to preserve the status quo
  • Halls article on mugging showed how the media
    presented a biased view
  • Owners Of the media -Murdoch, Branson etc have
    become household names

11
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • The Manipulative Model
  • Traditional marxist view - the media are used to
    protect the position of the ruling class
  • Control is exercised through ownership
  • Editors etc can be influenced by owners
  • Football clubs and merchandise are seen as an
    extension of this process

12
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • The Hegemonic Model
  • Associated with the work of Gramsci (1971)
  • Hegemony refers to control via a dominant set of
    ideas and beliefs rather than direct means
  • Media people are white, male, middle class etc
    and their view of the world dominates
  • Janet Street Porter called them M people - middle
    aged, middle class, male and mediocre
  • They are gate keepers - deciding what we should
    and shouldnt see - Gus in Drop the Dead Donkey
  • Helps keep the illusion of a happy society

13
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • The Glasgow Media Group
  • Not directly Marxist -but a critical view
  • Researchers at Glasgow University in the 1980s
    examined bias in TV reports
  • Used content analysis on miners strike, The
    Falklands War and N Ireland
  • Strike breaking miners were heroes
  • Blatant censorship of Falklands events
  • Pro republican songs banned on TV

14
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • The Glasgow Media Group
  • Evaluation
  • TV news was more factual than the Press
  • Used semiotics - the study of visual images - and
    how editing is used to put forward a certain view
    point
  • eg managers were interviewed in calm settings
  • strikers were interviewed with the mob
  • Critics claim a left wing bias in the GMG
  • The public are anti-strike therefore such
    reporting is justified

15
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • The Pluralist Model
  • Links with Functionalism and The New Right
  • There are many views put forward in the media and
    people their money and make their choice
  • This reflects libertarian views - people are free
    to watch, read whatever they like (within reason)
  • Some areas are taboo - child pornography etc.
  • Censorship exists to protect the vulnerable.

16
Explaining The Media Early Approaches
  • The Pluralist Model
  • Evaluation
  • Critics say that freedom to choose is an illusion
  • Censorship is used as a tool by the ruling class
  • D notices used by the Gov to gag people
  • Reporting of events still has a MC bias (see
    hegemony above)
  • Wide choice means lowest common denominator
    approach - a load of trivia, sensationalism etc
    is produced.

17
Recent Sociological Explanations Of The Media
  • Most of the previous perspectives dominated in
    the 1970s and 1980s.
  • Since then a variety approaches have been
    developed particularly looking at issue of
    gender and ethnicity.
  • Others have cross fertilised with other
    disciplines and used art, literary criticism,
    semiology and linguistics.

18
Recent Sociological Explanations Of The Media
What do you mean - Im always on the box?
  • Gender
  • Saw the media as patriarchal
  • Men were featured in dominant positions
  • Women in sexist stereotypes
  • Meehan 1983 - American dramas had a good wife
    the bitch and the victim

19
Recent Sociological Explanations Of The Media
  • Feminism and early approaches
  • Liberal Feminists
  • Were optimistic - change was occuring gradually
  • By the 1970s women were portrayed in strong
    roles - particularly with the rise of the soaps,
    more women read the news etc
  • New legislation helped the process along
  • Benefits are for males and females

20
Recent Sociological Explanations Of The Media
  • Feminism and early approaches
  • Radical Feminists
  • Saw little progress for women
  • Patriarchy was still dominant
  • Advertising is prime example of this
  • Domestic role or sex objects dominate

21
Recent Sociological Explanations Of The Media
  • Feminism and early approaches
  • Socialist Feminists
  • Linked to the Marxist position
  • Women portrayed in subservient roles promotes and
    preserves capitalism
  • This is their lot
  • Women are the slaves of the wage slaves
  • Womens bodies are abused to make profits

22
Recent Sociological Explanations Of The Media
  • Feminism and early approaches
  • Evaluation
  • The boundaries between these approaches are not
    clear cut
  • Examples can be found to illustrate each of the
    above approaches
  • Liberal feminists enjoy popular support - more
    women work in the media now
  • Socialists and Radicals see this as cosmetic

23
Recent Sociological Explanations Of The Media
  • Morleys study of family viewing patterns
  • His study in 1986 interviewed 18 families on the
    issue of gender and found 8 key areas of
    distinction between males and females
  • 1.Power and control - often rests with the man -
    control of the remote!
  • 2. Styles of Viewing - Men like to watch more in
    silence - women like to interact and discuss it
  • 3. Planned v spasmodic viewing - Men are more
    systematic and plan ahead more than women (apart
    from soaps)

24
Recent Sociological Explanations Of The Media
  • 4. Technology - Men play dominant role
    controlling the video
  • 5. Watching alone - Women like a good weepie etc
    - seen as a secret pleasure
  • 6. Fact and fiction - men prefer factual progs
  • 7. News - Women prefer local to national news -
    vice versa for men.
  • 8. Talking about TV - women talk more about what
    theyve watched - men are more dismissive

25
Recent Sociological Explanations Of The Media
  • Evaluation Of Gender Approaches
  • There is still much debate about how women are
    portrayed in the media.
  • Males are now being used as sex objects to sell
    things - who is being exploited now?
  • Postmodernists see this as part of the
    fragmentation of society - more choice, more
    emphasis on giving individuals what they want
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