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Chapter 18

• The Mass Media

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Chapter Outline

• The Significance of the Mass Media
• Theories of Media Effects
• Domination and Resistance on the Internet

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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).

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

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4 Media Usage, 2005 (Projected dollars/Capita)
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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

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5 Development of the Mass Media
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5 Development of the Mass Media
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5 Development of the Mass Media
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5 Development of the Mass Media
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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

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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.

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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.

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7 Magazine Advertising and Circulation Revenue,
United States, 19602004
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8 Theories of Mass Media Effects
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Question

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

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Answer c

• According to functionalists, strengthening of
  community, is not a function of mass media.

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9 Media Bias

• Advertising
• 93of 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.

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9 Media Bias

• Advertising
• 93of 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.

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9 Media Bias

• Advertising
• 93of 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.

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9 Media Bias

• Advertising
• 93of 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.

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Relationship Between Centrality of Values and
Diversity of Media Opinion
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 medias justification for
  abortion.
• Pro-choice working-class women
• Pro-choice working-class women who aspire to
  middle-class status
• Pro-choice middle-class women

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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

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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

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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 women believe only an
  individual womans 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.

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12 Representation of Minority Groups in Television
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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

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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.

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13 Top 10 Countries, Millions of Internet Users
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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

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GSS National Data
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14 Internet ConnectivityPopulation Density
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15 Population With Internet
Access
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Question

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

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16 Media Imperialism

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

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17 Media Convergence

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

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Quick Quiz
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• 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

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Answer b

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

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• 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

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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.

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• 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

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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.

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• 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

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Answer b

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

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• 5. Americans spend more time interacting with
  the mass media than they do working.
• True
• False

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Answer True

• Americans spend more time interacting with the
  mass media than they do working.