Sociology in Modules Richard T. Schaefer

Sociological Perspectives on the Media Mass media: mediums that embrace print and electronic means of communication that 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

Functionalist Perspective The media: Entertain us Socialize us Enforce social norms Confer status Promote consumption May act as a desensitizing narcotic

Functionalist Perspective Agent of Socialization The media increase social cohesion by presenting a common view of culture Play significant roles in providing a collective experience for members of society Some worry about using television as a babysitter and the impact of violent programming on viewer behavior

Functionalist Perspective Enforcer of Social Norms Media often reaffirm proper behavior Can glorify disapproved behavior Media play critical role in human sexuality Conferral of Status Singles out one from thousands of other people or similarly placed issues, making them significant Publishing information about frequency of Internet searches

Functionalist Perspective Promotion of Consumption Hyperconsumerism: buying more than we need or want, often more than we can afford Advertising encourages consumption Media advertising Supports economy Provides information Underwrites cost of media Also contributes to consumer culture that creates “needs” and raises unrealistic expectations

Functionalist Perspective Dysfunction: The Narcotizing Effect Narcotizing dysfunction: phenomenon in which the media provide such massive amounts of information that audience becomes numb and fails to act on the information

Table 20-1: Status Conferred by the Media 8

Figure 20-1: Branding the Globe 9

Conflict Perspective Conflict theorists emphasize how media reflect and exacerbate divisions of society and world Gatekeeping How material must travel through a series of checkpoints before reaching the public Gatekeeping less dominant on Internet Internet has some restrictions

Conflict Perspective Media Monitoring Expanded to include monitoring individuals’ media usage and choices without their knowledge az

Conflict Perspective 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 the 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 the political process

Conflict Perspective Dominant Ideology: Whose Culture? U.S. media is still most powerful worldwide, though this position is evolving Television moving away from U.S. domination Nations that feel a loss of identity may try to defend against the cultural invasion Developing nations argue for improved two-way flow of news and information between industrial nations and developing nations New trend: hyper-local media

Conflict Perspective 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

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

Interactionist Perspective Views mass media in the context of social capital—the collective benefit of social networks Internet and social media provide constant connectivity with others Online social networks New way of promoting consumption New forms of communication and social interaction

Interactionist Perspective 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

Figure 20-2: Marketing Online through Social Networks 18

Figure 20-3: Who’s On the Internet 19

Table 20-2: Sociological Perspectives on the Mass Media

The Audience Who is in the audience? The segmented audience Audience behavior

Who Is in the Audience? Mass media distinguished from other social institutions by necessary presence of audience Identifiable, finite group or a much larger, undefined group Can view through microsociology or macrosociology

The Segmented Audience Increasingly, media market themselves to a particular audience Media have become so segmented, they have taken on appearance almost of individualization (Livingstone 2004)

Audience Behavior Opinion leader: someone who, through day-to-day personal contacts and communication, influences opinions and decisions of others Members of an audience do not all interpret media in the same way Hunt (1997): race caused more different reactions to media than gender and class

The Media’s Global Reach McLuhan predicted a global village Gitlin considers it a global torrent The Internet has facilitated all forms of communication In Nigeria and Bangladesh, more than 70% of households go without television Advances likely to change this pattern: battery power; digital signal transmission

Figure 22-1: Media Penetration in Selected Countries 26

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 Looking at the Issue Recent advances made it easier for business firms, government agencies, and criminals to retrieve and store information about private individuals Threaten privacy, 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 Applying Sociology Culture lag: material culture (technology) changing faster than nonmaterial culture (norms for controlling the 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 a society will use technology to violate the privacy of the less powerful

Social Policy and the Mass Media: The Right to Privacy 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 less vigilant about maintaining privacy

Our Wired World 20-1: Inside the Bubble: Internet Search Filters Have you ever been frustrated by the results of an Internet search? Describe what happened, or what didn’t happen. 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 20-2: 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 20-3: Charity Begins Online Have you ever texted a donation to a charity and then shared your concern with friends and family? If so, did you or anyone you know follow up on the charity’s efforts? If not, why not? If you worked for a charity, how would you deal with the here-today, gone-tomorrow nature of text donations?

Research Today 21-1: Visual Sociology Choose an image or series of images from reality TV or social media and discuss it from a sociological perspective. What can you learn from it? What sociological concepts can you relate to it? Might some images be misinterpreted by researchers? Give an example. How might scholars guard against such misinterpretation?

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?