Media
Any form of communication that targets a mass audience in print or electronic format
→ one of the core pedagogical forces in society (how we learn)
→ define boundaries between groups, define social problems, and shape public debates (frames things in certain ways)
Stigmatized others
People or groups who are presented as a threat to decent people’s way of life (failing to conform)
→ powerless in society
Absolute others
Represent what is truly evil (rejection from society is necessary/natural)
→ Ex. Pedophiles, terrorists
Administrative approach to media analysis
- Explores the effect of media on thoughts, feelings, and behaviour (relates to objectivist/positivist views)
→ attempts to identify cause and effect relationships (want to change the way people think and behave) - advertising: based on persuasion, who says what to whom and with what effects
→ cognitively-based ads: influence the way we think about a certain product
→ affectively-based ads: influence the way we feel about a certain product (appeals to emotions) - media violence: trying to determine whether media violence desensitizes people to violence or whether it stimulates vulnerability in which we resort to violence as a wall of protection
→ correlational: explores relationship between exposure to violent media and subsequent violent behaviour
→ experimental: showing people violence and putting them in situations where they can use violence
Critical approach to media analysis
- Explores now the media is constructed through power dynamics (relates to subjectivist views)
- framing: refers to the ways in which an issue is depicted in the media (shape people’s perspectives and reality)
Frames of race/ethnicity (critical)
→ inauthentic presence: stereotypical or non-representative of the experience of racial/ethnic groups
→ racializing the body: facial features or accents are overemphasized in the media
→ being a social threat: certain groups portrayed as a threat or a drain on society
→ implications: erased from public consciousness, voices go unheard
→ symbolic annihilation: absence in media makes people seem nonexistent (excluded by social policy)
Frames of gender (critical)
Femininity:
→ feminine touch: women depicted in femmine associated way (feminine poses, sensual etc.)
→ ritualization of subordination: women presented as subordinate or submissive to men
→ licensed withdrawal: depicts women as not having any thoughts in their head
→ infantilization: women presented as little girls, childlike, vulnerable
Masculinity:
→ violent, aggressor, pervert
Media ownership (critical)
Media content is interturned with the structure of media ownership
→ media convergence: refers to media companies owning multiple forms of media
→ media conglomeration: refers to large companies merging or buying out smaller companies to become an even larger company
→ media concentration: a small number of corporations control a majority of media products (power rests in fewer companies
The media-deviance nexus
How media and deviance intersect:
1. Media as a cause of deviance (ie. Media violence)
2. Media constructs deviance and normality (ie. Media framing)
3. Media as a tool for deviance (ie. Includes cyberdeviance)
4. Media as a site for the deviance dance (varied points of view and debates within the media)
5. Deviantization of forms of media (subject to social control such as government censorship and parental controls)
Cyberdeviance
- Digital piracy: the illegal copying of music, software, and video
- digital piracy is facilitated through:
→ anonymity
→ speed of transmission
→ shift in mindset about “ownership” (free for the taking since it’s on the internet)
Media strategies
→ sensationalism: media emphasize the most dramatic stories and elements of stories (produce more engagement)
→ simplification: media presents issues/events in simplistic terms (distorts complex situations)
→ standardization: media presents stories in familiar and predictable ways (set formula)
→ symbolization: media creates and perpetuates stereotypes
Moral panic
An exaggerated and heightened concern over a particular phenomenon, hostility towards the offending group, the belief that there is a real threat
Risk society
A society in which people are advised that risks are everywhere around and they must be identified and managed
