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Sociology · Sociology Themes and Perspectives (Haralambos and Holborn)

Chapter 12 : The mass media

Table of contents84 sections
  1. 1.The mass media
  2. 2.Introduction: defining the media
  3. 3.Key Terms
  4. 4.📌 Exam Tidbits
  5. 5.Trends in the ownership and control of the media
  6. 6.The facts about media ownership
  7. 7.Strategies consolidating market domination
  8. 8.Key Terms
  9. 9.📌 Exam Tidbits
  10. 10.Theories on the role and control of the mass media
  11. 11.Pluralism
  12. 12.The Marxist theory of ownership and control of the mass media
  13. 13.Neo-Marxism - the Glasgow University Media Group
  14. 14.The postmodernist perspective on ownership and control
  15. 15.Conclusion
  16. 16.Key Terms
  17. 17.📌 Exam Tidbits
  18. 18.The new media
  19. 19.The characteristics of new media
  20. 20.Who is using the new media? A generational divide?
  21. 21.Debates about new media
  22. 22.Conclusions about the new media
  23. 23.Key Terms
  24. 24.📌 Exam Tidbits
  25. 25.The selection and presentation of news
  26. 26.Pluralist views of the news media
  27. 27.The presentation of news in the 21st century
  28. 28.The social manufacture of the news
  29. 29.The news values held by journalists and media organisations
  30. 30.The organisational or bureaucratic constraints on journalists
  31. 31.The decline in the quality of newspaper-sourced news
  32. 32.The rise in 'churnalism'
  33. 33.The rise of spin doctors
  34. 34.Journalistic ethics
  35. 35.The Leveson Inquiry
  36. 36.The decline in investigative journalism
  37. 37.Infotainment
  38. 38.The role of the new media
  39. 39.Citizen journalism
  40. 40.Ownership and ideology
  41. 41.The power elite
  42. 42.The propaganda model of the media
  43. 43.The hierarchy of credibility
  44. 44.The Glasgow University Media Group and cultural hegemony
  45. 45.Criticisms of cultural hegemony
  46. 46.Key Terms
  47. 47.📌 Exam Tidbits
  48. 48.Moral panics
  49. 49.What is a moral panic?
  50. 50.Why do moral panics come about?
  51. 51.Critique of moral panic theory
  52. 52.Key Terms
  53. 53.📌 Exam Tidbits
  54. 54.Crime and the media: a case study
  55. 55.The extent and pattern of crime reporting
  56. 56.Crime fiction
  57. 57.The consequences of media images of crime
  58. 58.The causes of media representations of crime
  59. 59.Key Terms
  60. 60.📌 Exam Tidbits
  61. 61.Mass media effects
  62. 62.The hypodermic model of media violence
  63. 63.Active audience approaches
  64. 64.Postmodernism
  65. 65.Key Terms
  66. 66.📌 Exam Tidbits
  67. 67.Representations of the body in the mass media: gender, sexuality and disability
  68. 68.Traditional media representations of femininity
  69. 69.Traditional media representations of masculinity
  70. 70.Theoretical perspectives on media representations of femininity and masculinity
  71. 71.Representations of sexuality
  72. 72.Representations of disability
  73. 73.Key Terms
  74. 74.📌 Exam Tidbits
  75. 75.Representations of ethnicity, age and social class in the mass media
  76. 76.Representations of minority ethnic groups
  77. 77.How does the media represent social class?
  78. 78.Representations of age
  79. 79.Key Terms
  80. 80.📌 Exam Tidbits
  81. 81.Summary and conclusions
  82. 82.Key Terms
  83. 83.📌 Exam Tidbits
  84. 84.Quick-Recall Box

Chapter preview

The mass media

"Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major - perhaps the major - stake in the worldwide competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control over access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labour." — Lyotard, 1984

Introduction: defining the media

The concept of mass media refers to agencies of communication that convey information, education, news, and entertainment to mass audiences. Until recently, these included two main types:

  • The print media: newspapers, magazines, comics, books, and some forms of advertising.
  • The audio-visual media: television, radio, cinema, and music. This has evolved significantly over the past 25 years. Before 1990, most households received analogue signals via aerials with only five terrestrial channels. Today, digital, high-definition, flat-screen televisions dominate. The five main channels are digitalised and supplemented by satellite, cable, and internet streaming (e.g., Netflix, Lovefilm Instant) offering hundreds of channels.
  • Ofcom (2011) reported 96.2 per cent of UK homes had digital television and 42 per cent had access to high-definition television.
  • In 2012, about 12 million households subscribed to satellite television, while nearly 4 million subscribed to cable.

Sociologists now identify a third type, the new media, which differs from traditional media in four important respects:

  1. New delivery technologies: The last 25 years saw a revolution, most notably the internet/World Wide Web (a global multimedia library in cyberspace via interconnected computers). High-capacity broadband wireless networks eased access. Ofcom (2011) reported 76 per cent of UK adults had broadband access. Cheap delivery modes appeared: laptops, 3G and 4G mobile phones, Kindles, game consoles (PS3, Xbox, Wii), and the iPad (2010).
  2. Convergence of media delivery technologies and systems : Delivery systems converge within single technologies (mobile phones, PCs, smart TVs, iPads). These deliver TV, films, radio, music, books, magazines, newspapers, games, and internet services in one package. Ofcom (2012) : 92 per cent of UK adults…
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Chapter 13 : Age and the life course