Mass Media

Questions

• How does the mass media affect our social institutions and how do they influence social behavior?

• 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?

What is Mass Media?

• Means of communication that carry messages to large audiences with no personal contact between the individuals sending the info and those receiving it

Examples of Mass Media

• Books• Films• Magazines • Newspapers• Internet• TV

• Which of these is the most influential on young people today? Which do you think is the most influential for your parents’ generation? What about for people over the age of 65?

History of Mass Media

Early Forms of Communication

• Early Nomadic Tribes– Small groups– Constantly in move for food– Relied on spoken word

*What are some of the difficulties of the spoken word as the only method of communication?

Developing Writing

• Development of Agriculture allowed people to settle down

• Early settlements and job specialization encouraged trade

• Trade made it necessary to record business transactions

Developing Writing• 5,000 years ago: Sumerians

developed cuneiform– Symbols representing objects– Ex. To the right: head

• 1,800 B.C.E: development of the alphabet– Symbols representing sounds

Types of Paper

• 3,100 – 2,500 B.C.E: Egyptians start writing on papyrus

• 200’s B.C.E: Greeks develop parchment (skin of animals) – used until 1400s in

Europe

• 100 C.E.: Chinese developed papermaking techniques

The Printing Press

• 1450s: Johannes Gutenberg– Movable metal type– Mechanical press punched

paper back and created readable text

– Production of books became inexpensive

– Widespread distribution of info (Ex. Bible – 25 million copies a year)

– Audience still remained the rich and powerful

Industrial Age

• Importance of Factories• Higher education was needed to get better jobs• More people learned how to read and write• Higher wages=more income• More money=People could spend it on buying more

products• Businesses started to advertise in order to attract customers• 1st True Mass Medium: Newspapers• Why would Marx criticize this system? What was his view

regarding this emerging capitalist society?

The First Printed Newspaper

• “Relation”• 1605• 1st newspaper• Germany

Photographs

• World’s First Picture• 1826-1827• “View from a Window

at La Gras”

Electronic Media

• Electronic signals to transmit info– Telegraph, Telephone: Communicate over long

distances– Movies: Mass Entertainment– Radio, TV: Entertainment brought into people’s

homes

Film

• 1898

• Lumiere Brothers

presented the first publicly shown film

• “Arrival Of A Train A La Ciotat”

• Some people were frightened

• Let’s Watch It!• http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dgLEDdFddk

• Can you think of any examples of moments that have changed the way we look at a film? What about any films that have changed the way we look at movies?

Mass Media in the 1900s

• Radio• TV• Propaganda • Advertisement

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1X2YkRyg2s

• Video: Mass Media• 1900s to 1950s• What are some of the

different forms of mass media depicted in the video? What important historic events are shown in the video?

Information Society• United States: community in which the exchange of information is

the main social and economic activity

• 1980s: Digital Computer starts to become available

• 1990s: Internet

• Computers have changed the way in which we storage and access information

• Do you agree with the idea that the exchange of information is the main social activity in our society? Can you cite examples to support your ideas?

2000’s

• Media becomes more participatory

• Why is it said that media has made you more of a participant today? Compare it to the earliest forms of mass media. How has it changed?

2006

• User generated content

• “Time” Magazine names “You” as person of the year.

• Why do you think that Time chose that cover?

• What does Time magazine mean by saying that you control the Information Age?

Print Media

• Newspapers, Magazines, Books

• 1,400 daily newspapers • 53 million copies a day• 48% of American adults

read 1 newspaper a day• 85% of Americans over the

age of 18 read magazines• 150,000 books are

published every year

• $36 billion annually on book sales

• 25% of Americans read more than 10 books a year

• Audience is large but declining

• 16% of Americans do not read books

Audio Media

• Sound recordings and radio

• $10 billion industry• 13,280 radio stations in

the U.S.• 99 percent of homes in the

U.S. have a radio• Americans over the age of

12 listen to about 18 hours a week of radio on average

• Satellite radio gaining popularity

• Around 20 million in 2010

Visual Media

• Movies, Television, Videocassettes, and DVDs

• 500 to 600 movies a year• + 1.5 billion people in

more than 40,000 movie screens

• More than 6,000 theaters • Box Office: $10 billion

Visual Media

• 98% of American homes have TV sets

• Average 2.6 sets per household

• Average 32 hours a week watching TV

• DVD sales over $16 billion

• 87% of houses have DVD players

Online Media

• Internet• Services such as E-mail,

online chat, social-networking sites

• 65% of Americans have Internet access at home

• 43% log on for more than an hour a day

• Shopping, entertainment, news

Media Consumption

• Each American spends nearly 3,600 hours a year using media

• TV consumption = All other media combined• People younger than 30 account for 50% of

movie admissions• Newspaper and book readership increases

with education and income

Functionalism on Mass Media

• Media’s Purpose: – Socializes us– Enforces Social Norms– Promotes Consumption– Entertains us– Informs us

Functionalism - Media Socializes Us

• Media presents a common view of culture• Provides a collective experience for members

of society• Passes on basic values and beliefs

• “Media is the new babysitter” • Do you agree or disagree with this quote?

Why?

Conflict Perspective on Media

• Purpose of media is to maintain the present social order (status quo)

• Persuade people to accept existing power structure• Media decides what information is provided and how

it is presented• Represents elite’s point of view• Encourages culture of consumerism• Misrepresentation and non-representation of

minorities reinforce social inequality

How much power does Media have?

How to think about an issue• Spiral of Silence

– Media covers the same stories, bombarding people with info and influencing public opinion about an issue

– As people accept these opinions, people who disagree are less likely to voice their opinions.

What to think about• Agenda Setting

– Sets the boundaries of public debate by deciding what issues will be covered

• Gatekeepers– Media executives, editors,

reporters, who choose to cover a story or not

• Opinion Leaders– Respected individuals in the

community review and evaluate issues

Conflict Perspective

• Knowledge-gap Hypothesis– As new info enters society, wealthy and better

educated members acquire it faster. A gap develops between these classes.

• Digital Divide– Gap between those with access to technology and

those without (ex. Computers, online media)– “Information Rich” : those with better information

skills and more resources

Interactionist Perspective on Mass Media

• Interested in how Media shapes everyday social interaction

• Planning of Social events around media– Families gathering for Super Bowl Party– Is watching TV a group activity or does it encourage social

isolation?– Is the Internet providing a new, creative form of social

interaction, or is it creating a virtual world that is making us more isolated?

– Is the Internet broadening our horizons or does it allow for us to avoid others with a different point of view?

Sports and Mass Media Coverage

Functions of the Sports Media

• Information– scores, statistics, highlights, general information– Interviews, live coverage

• Interpretation– Subjective– Opinions and analysis by “experts” – Possible biases

Functions of the Sports Media

• Entertainment and Excitement– ESPN:

Entertainment/Sports/Programming/Network– Why does Entertainment come before sports?

• Escape and Diversion– Temporarily escape from frustrations– Can sport create more frustrations instead of

escape?

Functions of the Sports Media

• Economics– Job Creation– ESPN pays NFL more than $1 billion a year for rights

to Monday Night Football– Fundraising, Sponsorship

• Integration– Bonding among fans

• National Identity– Source of pride and identity

Activity #1

• Cite one example for each of the functions of sports media. – Information– Interpretation– Entertainment– Escape/Diversion– Economics– Integration– National Identity

Steve Bartman and The Chicago Cubs

Case Study

Steve Bartman as a Scapegoat

• Scapegoating – Redirecting conflict

by holding one person responsible for whatever goes wrong

• Why could Steve Bartman be considered a scapegoat?

• How were people redirecting conflict in this case?

Crowds and Masses• Crowd

– large number of people who are in one another’s immediate vicinity

• Mass– People who share an

interest in a specific idea or issue but who are not in one another’s immediate vicinity

– Ex. Bloggers

Types of Crowds

• Casual crowds

• people who happen to be in the same place at the same time

• may share momentary interest

• few emergent norms

• Conventional crowds

• people who come together for a scheduled event

• share a common focus • generally act in line with

institutionalized norms

Activity #2

• Cite an example of how crowd behavior can influence your behavior. You can identify examples from your own life in which you have behaved differently because you were part of a crowd

Crowd Behavior

• Contagion Theory– People feel anonymous

and invulnerable in crowds

– Individuals turn into a collective mind

– People do things they would never do as individuals

– Irrational Behavior takes over

Crowd Behavior

• Convergence Theory– Individuals in the crowd

have common characteristics

– Crowds express collective emotion

– Individuals share a common belief or emotion before they gather in a crowd

– Rational Behavior

Crowd Behavior

• Emergent-Norm Theory– certain people start

behaving in a particular way

– becomes a trend and then becomes normative

– accepted as “normal” within that group

– Sociologists call these leaders/trend setters.

Collective Action

• When people in groups behave in similar ways together to try and achieve a certain goal.

Questions to Think About

• What is the personal connection that the filmmaker has with the documentary? Is there some type of bias he may have towards the material?

• Why had Buckner’s play become a symbol for Red Sox failure? What other symbols can you find depicted in the film?

• What are some of the events that led to the crowd’s reaction at the Cubs’ stadium?

• Would you consider the crowd’s reaction unfair towards Bartman? Can their reactions be rationalized?

• Do media have the right to expose Bartman’s identity to the public if he did not choose to become public figure?

Questions to Think About• What is the role of media in the creation of sports’ fanaticism?• Can you think of examples of other famous people (athletes or

not) who are recognized now for a particular failure in their profession?

• How is the documentary’s coverage of the Bartman incident different from the TV coverage at the time of the incident? What advantages does the documentary have as a form of mass media?

• Identify examples of different ways in which fans from both the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs use non-scientific ways to explain events in their clubs’ history.

Mass Media and Sports Coverage

Contemporary IssuesBullying and Hazing

Richie Incognito – Is there bullying in professional sports?

• http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000276563/article/richie-incognito-directed-racial-slur-at-jonathan-martin

• http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/9925596/is-put-end-nfl-hazing?src=mobile

What is bullying?

• Purposeful attempts to control another person through:

– Verbal abuse– Exclusion– Physical means– Violence

Why does bullying occur?

• Cultural Causes: culture fascinated with winning, power and violence

• Institutional Causes: Institutions do not have high standards for treatment of people

• Social Issues: more social recognition for negative behaviors than for positive ones

Why does bullying occur?

• Family Issues: Families that are not warm and loving and in which feelings are not shared are more likely to have children who bully

• Bully’s Personal History: Children who experience social rejection themselves are more likely to "pass it on" to others

Bullying Statistics

• Nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying

• 160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying

• 60 percent of boys who bullied during middle school are convicted of a crime by the time they reach the age of 24.

Do sport teams encourage bullying?

Is bullying and hazing part of professional sports?

Listen and Comment

• What is the tone of the radio host? • What is his position on the topic?• Do you agree with his position? Why or why

not? • http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?

id=9925973

NFL Reactions Against Martin

• "I think Jonathan Martin is a weak person," said one personnel man, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "If Incognito did offend him racially, that's something you have to handle as a man! Mike Pouncey was a rookie at one point while Incognito was there and you never heard any complaints from him. There's no other way to put it, other than him being sofTTT!“ (Source: Sports Illustrated)

• Said another: "Guys are going to be guys, if you know what I mean. I'm sure there are some instances of 'taking things too far,' but that happens everywhere. You handle it in house -- fight, handle it on the field, joke about it, etc -- and keep it moving.“ (Source: Sports Illustrated)

More NFL Reactions

• "Locker room culture will never be understood unless you've lived or have been around it," said a personnel man. "This is another ploy in the league's 'player safety' book. Incognito knew who to try. You never heard anything like this come from John Jerry or Mike Pouncey. Instead of being a man and confronting him, he acted like a coward and told like a kid.“ (Source: Sports Illustrated)

Hazing

• Humiliating or dangerous activity expected of a student in order to join a group.

• Activities usually involve an unreasonable risk of physical harm.

• http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7397604n

Hazing

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_59eAY0kY

• Florida A&M Case Study