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6: The Mass Media Sociology: A Brief Introduction, 12th edition

Richard T. Schaefer

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Inside: • Sociological Perspectives on the Media • The Audience

• The Media’s Global Reach

• Social Policy and the Mass Media: The Right to Privacy

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A Look Ahead

• Why are the media so influential?

• Who benefits from media influence, and why?

• How do we maintain cultural and ethical standards in the face of negative media images?

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Sociological Perspectives on the Media

• Mass media: media that embrace print and electronic means of communication to carry messages to widespread audiences

• New forms of mass media changed people’s viewing and listening habits

– Cultural convergence: flow of content across multiple media, and the accompanying migration of media audiences

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Functionalist Perspective

• Media entertain us and serve other important functions

– Socialize us

– Enforce social norms

– Confer status

– Promote consumption • May act as a desensitizing narcotic

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Functionalist Perspective (Continued)

• Agent of Socialization

– Media increase social cohesion by presenting a common, more or less standardized view of culture through mass communication • Mass media play significant role in providing a collective

experience for members of society

– Some are concerned about use of television as a babysitter; and impact of violent programming on viewer behavior

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Functionalist Perspective (Continued, 2)

• Enforcer of Social Norms

– Media often reaffirm proper behavior

– Can glorify disapproved behavior

– Media play critical role in human sexuality

• Conferral of Status

– Media single out one from thousands of other similarly placed issues or people, making them significant • Confer celebrity status by publishing information about frequency

of Internet searches

• Many ways status is conferred via innovations like social media

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Table 6-1 Status Conferred by the Media Source: Author's content analysis of primary cover subject for the full run of the periodicals beginning on the following dates: People, March 4, 1974; Ebony, November 1945; and Rolling Stone, September 1967; ending February 4, 2016. When a periodical runs multiple covers, each version is counted. In case of ties in ranking, the person on the more recent cover is listed first. Google rank based on Google Trends. Top Charts 2015, accessed February 4, 2016; IMDb rank based on cumulative 1990–2015 page views by more than 250 million unique viewers per month at IMDB.com.

Google Rank/Person/ Searches in 2015

People Rank/Person/ Times on Cover

Ebony Rank/Person/ Times on Cover

Rolling Stone Rank/Person/ Times on Cover

IMDb Rank/ Person

1. Lamar Odom 1. Princess Diana (54) 1. Janet Jackson (18) 1. John Lennon (31) 1. Johnny Depp

2. Caitlyn Jenner 2. Jennifer Anniston (43)

2. Halle Berry (17) 2. Mick Jagger (30) 2. Brad Pitt

3. Rhonda Rousey 3. Julia Roberts (35) 2. Michael Jackson (17)

3. Paul McCartney (29)

3. Angelina Jolie

4. Donald Trump 4. Brad Pitt (33) 4. Muhammad Ali (16)

4. Bob Dylan (25) 4. Natalie Portman

5. Tony Stewart 5. Prince William (29) 4. Whitney Houston (16)

5. Bruce Springsteen (24)

5. Pamela Anderson

6. Ruby Rose 5. Demi Moore (24) 6. Beyoncé (11) 6. Bono (23) 6. Tom Cruise

7. Charles Sheen 7. Angelina Jolie (23) 6. Denzel Washington (11)

7. Keith Richards (21) 7. Orlando Bloom

8. Brian Williams 8. Britney Spears (19) 6. Diahann Carroll (11)

7. Madonna (21) 8. Jennifer Lawrence

9. Adele 9. Michael Jackson (17)

6. Lena Horne (11) 8. George Harrison (19)

9. Robert Pattinson

10. Josh Duggar 9. Elizabeth Taylor (17)

6. Sidney Poitier (11) 9. Jimi Hendrix (18) 10. Leonardo DiCaprio

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Functionalist Perspective (Continued, 3)

• Promotion of Consumption

– Postmodern societies characterized by hyperconsumerism • Hyperconsumerism: practice of buying more than we need or

want, often more than we can afford (Jean Baudrillard)

– Impossible to escape commercial messages

– Advertising serves several functions—and dysfunctions • Supports economy

• Provides information

• Underwrites cost of media

• Also contributes to consumer culture that creates “needs” and raises unrealistic expectations

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Figure 6-1 Branding the Globe

Based on revenue and name recognition, these are the brands that dominate the global marketplace. Note: Map shows the top 100 brands in the world in 2015 by country of ownership, except for the United States, for which only brands in the top 20 are shown. The United States has a total of 57 of the 100 leading brands. Source: Based on Interbrand 2015.

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Functionalist Perspective (Continued, 4)

• Dysfunction: The Narcotizing Effect

– Narcotizing dysfunction: phenomenon in which media provide such massive amounts of information that audience becomes numb and fails to act on the information

– Ill effects of addiction to screen time

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Conflict Perspective

• Conflict theorists emphasize how media reflect and exacerbate divisions of society and world

• Gatekeeping

– Gatekeeping: how material must travel through a series of checkpoints before reaching the public

– Less dominant on Internet • Internet has some restrictions

• Many countries today try to control political dissent by restricting access

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Conflict Perspective (Continued)

• Media Monitoring

– Interest groups’ monitoring of media content

– Government monitoring of individuals’ communications without their knowledge • Beneficial role in disaster relief

– Parents’ monitoring of children’s media use and communications

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Conflict Perspective (Continued, 2)

• Dominant Ideology: Constructing Reality

– Dominant ideology: set of cultural beliefs and practices that helps maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests

– Media tend to ignore lives and ambitions of subordinate groups • Stereotypes: unreliable generalizations about members of a group

that do not recognize individual differences within the group

– Television distorts political process

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Conflict Perspective (Continued, 3)

• Dominant Ideology: Whose Culture?

– U.S. media still most powerful worldwide, though this position evolving

– Many popular U.S. programs originated elsewhere

– Growth of hyper-local media: reporting that is highly local

– Nations that feel loss of identity may try to defend against cultural invasion

– Developing nations argue for improved two-way flow of news and information

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Conflict Perspective (Continued, 4)

• The Digital Divide

– Low-income groups, racial and ethnic minorities, rural residents, and citizens of developing countries have less access to latest technology

– Internet and new media becoming essential to economic progress

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Feminist Perspective

• Feminists share conflict theorists’ view that mass media stereotype and misrepresent social reality

– Women underrepresented

– Perpetuate stereotypical views of gender

– Emphasis on traditional sex roles

– Normalize violence against women

– Cautiously optimistic about new media

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Interactionist Perspective

• View mass media in the context of social capital: collective benefit of social networks, which are built on reciprocal trust

• Internet and social media provide constant connectivity with others

• Online social networks as new way of promoting consumption

• New forms of communication and social interaction

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Interactionist Perspective (Continued)

• Internet has also presented negatives

– New means for terrorists or extremists to organize and spread message

– Pornography and abuse of minors

– Egocasting: personal management of media exposure to avoid messages one does not like • May lead to less tolerant society

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Figure 6-2 Marketing Online through Social Networks

Traditional forms of advertising allow only one-way communication, from the advertiser to the consumer. Online social networks offer two-way communication, allowing advertisers to develop a relationship with consumers.

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Figure 6-3 Who’s On the Internet

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Note: Based on a national survey as of September 2015 (gender data January 9–12, 2014).

Source: Pew Research Center 2014; Rainie 2015.

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Table 6-2 Sociological Perspectives on the Mass Media

• Functionalist emphases:

– Socialization

– Enforcement of social norms

– Conferral of status

– Promotion of consumption

– Narcotizing effect (dysfunction)

• Conflict emphases:

– Gatekeeping

– Media monitoring

– Construction of reality

– Digital divide

• Feminist emphases:

– Misrepresentation of women

– Differential impact on women

• Interactionist emphases:

– Impact on social behavior

– Source of friendship networks

– Social capital

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The Audience

• Important aspect of entire mass media system

– How do we actively participate in media events?

– How do we construct with others the meaning of media messages?

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Who Is in the Audience?

• Identifiable, finite group; or much larger, undefined group

• Can be examined at the level of both microsociology and macrosociology

• Audience whose members don’t know one another can still be distinguished by age, gender, income, political party, schooling, race, ethnicity

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The Segmented Audience

• Increasingly, media market themselves to a particular audience

– Driven by advertising

– Has led some to question the “mass” in mass media

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Audience Behavior

• Opinion leader: someone who, through day-to-day personal contacts and communication, influences opinions and decisions of others

– Example: attention gained by certain participants in online discussions

• Audiences not necessarily passive

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The Media’s Global Reach

• McLuhan predicted a global village

• Gitlin considers it a global torrent

– Internet has facilitated all forms of communication

– Television taken for granted in U.S.; but in Nigeria and Bangladesh, more than 70% of households go without • Advances likely to change this pattern:

battery power; digital signal transmission

• Media can take on critical importance in developing nations

– Example: cell-phone mapping of malaria outbreak in Kenya

Figure 6-4 Media Penetration in Selected Countries

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Cell phone ownership is high around the world, but in some countries outside the United States, texting is more common than calling. Note: Data from multinational interviews of 26,210 adults, March–April 2012.

Source: Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project 2012:1, 5.

Social Policy and the Mass Media: The Right to Privacy

• The growth of big data, or the rapid collection and analysis of enormous amounts of information by supercomputers, presents a huge challenge to personal privacy

• Is privacy a possibility in the postmodern digital age?

Social Policy and the Mass Media: The Right to Privacy (Continued)

• Looking at the Issue

– Recent advances have made it easier for business firms, government agencies, and criminals to retrieve and store information about private individuals • Threat to privacy and freedom from crime and censorship

– Commercial websites use “cookies” and tracking technology to monitor visitors’ web-surfing • Some see online tracking as form of fingerprinting

Social Policy and the Mass Media: The Right to Privacy (Continued, 2)

• Applying Sociology

– Culture lag: material culture (technology) changing faster than nonmaterial culture (norms for controlling use of technology)

– Functionalists: generally positive view of Internet; point to manifest function of facilitating communication

– Conflict theorists: stress danger that most powerful groups in society will use technology to violate privacy of less powerful

Social Policy and the Mass Media: The Right to Privacy (Continued, 3)

• Initiating Policy

– Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 1986: outlawed surveillance of telephone calls except with the permission of U.S. attorney general and federal judge

– Patriot Act, 2001: relaxed existing legal checks on surveillance by law enforcement officers

– Most online monitoring yet to be tested in court • People nevertheless less vigilant about maintaining privacy

• Weblining: monitoring online activities for negative personal information

Our Wired World (Internet Search Filters)

• 6-1 Inside the Bubble: Internet Search Filters

– How could you craft an Internet search to obtain a wider range of facts and opinions about a topic?

– Choose a topic of interest to you and do an Internet search on it; ask several friends or classmates to do the same. Do your results differ? In what way?

Sociology in the Global Community

• 6-2 The Global Disconnect

– For nations on the periphery, what might be some specific social and economic consequences of the global disconnect?

– What factors might complicate efforts to remedy the global disconnect in developing nations?

Our Wired World (Cellphones in Crises)

• 6-3 Can Cellphones Solve the Refugee Crisis?

– Have you ever used a smartphone for your own or someone else’s safety during an emergency or natural disaster? What are the effects of having (or not having) this technology in such circumstances?

– Are smartphones and other new technologies frills or vital services during emergencies? If you worked for an aid agency, how would smartphone technology help you do your job during a refugee crisis?

Taking Sociology to Work

• Lindsey Wallem, Social Media Consultant

– Have you ever used social media to participate in an online campaign? If so, how did you participate—by donating money, for example, or attending a fundraising event?

– How might you use social media in your own career?

Review

• Mass media are print and electronic instruments of communication that carry messages to often widespread audiences

• In this chapter:

– How mass media affect social institutions and influence social behavior

APPENDIX A Long image descriptions

Figure 6-1 Branding the Globe Appendix

• The fifteen nations that account for all the top 100 brands are the United States, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, China, and South Korea

• The top 10 brands in the world are these:

1. Apple (USA)

2. Google (USA)

3. Coca-Cola (USA)

4. Microsoft (USA)

5. IBM (USA)

6. Toyota (Japan)

7. Samsung (South Korea)

8. GE (USA)

9. McDonald’s (USA)

10. Amazon (USA)

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Figure 6-3 Who’s On the Internet Appendix

• 87% of men and 86% of women are using the Internet

• 97% of all individuals aged 18 to 49 are using the Internet, with the percentage dropping to 80% for people aged 50 to 64, and to 67% for those aged 65 and over

• 87% of white/non-Hispanic people are using the Internet, as are 84% of Black and Hispanic individuals

• 78% of those earning less than $30,000 are using the Internet, compared with 97–98% of those earning $100,000 and above

• 68% of those who have not completed high school are using the Internet, compared with 97% of those who have completed college

• Finally, 89% of those in urban and suburban areas are using the Internet, but the percentage drops to 75% in rural areas

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Figure 6-4 Media Penetration Appendix

• The countries compared are China, the Czech Republic, India, Jordan, Mexico, Russia, and the United States

• In the Czech Republic, 99% of the people own cell phones

• The proportion of those with cell phones in the U.S. is 86%

• 79% in the United States use the Internet

• The highest use of social networking sites is found in the U.S. and Russia, both at 50%

• India, among this set of countries, has the lowest media usage of all: 56% of the people own cell phones; only 11% use the Internet; and only 6% use social networking sites

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