A-Level Sociology

Ch. 8 Media

Mehar

• 2 min read

Index:

  1. Introduction, New & Old Media
  2. Ownership & Control
  3. Selection & Presentation of Media Content

  1. Impact of New Media
  2. Media Representation & Effects
  3. Media Impact on Behaviour, Violence, & Deviancy Amplification
  4. Globalisation & Postmodernity

Introduction, New & Old Media
Mass Media: The relationship between the production, distribution, and consumption of information.
Medium: Channels of communication (media is plural).
Old Media: Old media involves ‘one-to-many’ communication because information is produced and distributed by a media owner, and this is passively consumed by the audience. Usually owned by the state or private corporations. Examples: books, televisions, and newspapers.

Dutton suggests that the following characteristics of the media set it apart from interpersonal communication (one-to-one such as telephone calls)

Old media communication characteristics:

  • Impersonal ➜ the sender doesn’t know the receiver, and vice-versa.
  • Lacking in immediacy.
  • One-way ➜ creator to audience.
  • Physically and technologically distant, large-scale, and simultaneous.
  • Have organised channels/tools to reach audiences.
  • Commodifies (payment Is necessary to receive information).

Examples of passive consumption are Bandura’s Bobo Dols social experiment and the Hypodermic Syringe Model.

New Media: Contemporary channels of communication characterised by their interactivity, individualisation, and network capabilities.
Communication Types in the New Media:

  • One-to-one ➜ such as email.
  • One-to-many ➜ such as Facebook, Twitter, or a blog.
  • Many-to-many ➜ Shirky calls them group conversations. For ex. peer-to-peer networks (Quora, Reddit).

Crosbie: The New Media has 3 characteristics that differentiate it from other mass media forms:

  1. They can’t exist without the appropriate technology (for ex. a computer).
  2. Information can be personalised.
  3. Collective control means each person in a network can share, shape, and change the content of the information being exchanged.
    People in the lower castes were not given much of a voice before, but now they can make their voices heard.
    For example: More people speak up on particular issues through the Me Too movement, the Black Rights movement, and the Feminist movement.

New Media allows for two-way communication and a consumer-producer relationship. For example, if a person regularly uses social media, they become both a producer and consumer of information, i.e. Twitter. They are called ‘prosumers’.

3 Main Classifications of Media:

  1. Print media: Newspapers, archives, leaflets/brochures, and journals.
  2. Visual media: Television, social media, billboards, and paintings.
  3. Auditory media: Podcast, music, and radio.

Ownership & Control
There are 2 types of media owners:

  1. Private Ownership ➜ Companies that are run by individuals, families, or shareholders.
    Rupert Murdoch owns a major portion of the News Corporation.
  2. State Ownership ➜ The government controls the media to a degree.
    In China, the government constantly regulates television and internet broadcasts. In other countries, public broadcasters have more freedom of speech.
    Such ownership allows the owners to choose the content the audience receives.
    For example, private companies would be reluctant to publish information critical of the company, and state-owned companies may be biased to suit political control.

Censorship: The deliberate suppression of the sharing OR communication of information.
Controllers ➜ Controllers can be editors of a newspaper that manage a company on a daily basis.