MACS 110 | Introduction to Mass Communication Theory    translate

                Week 12   Media and Culture: Media-Making in the Social World    back to MACS 110 Home

Questions for consideration

                    Symbolic Interactionism

To what extent is this perspective useful in understanding the role and influence of the media on individuals ?   In what ways might symbols "condition" the thoughts and behaviour of individuals ?  To what extent do they construct our social reality and exercise power over us ?        

Framing

Give an example of how the public is made to think about some topics as the major issues.  Also, in what way can agenda setting encourage us to think about them ?  Include a discussion of priming, i.e. the "idea that the media draw attention to some aspects of political life at the expense of others." 

How might framing - frames - influence how an audience think about an issue - i.e. their "interpretive schemas." ?

Spiral of Silence

What perspectives promoted in the mainstream media might people fear to speak out against for fear of isolation and rejection ?  Also, what topics, or perspectives, might the mainstream media fear drawing attention to in case of a negative reaction to the broadcaster/publisher ? 

Media System Dependency Theory

According to this theory, the more we use media, the more dependent we are.  What is an example of both "short-term situationally induced dependency" and "long-term, chronic dependency"  ? In what ways might new media increase or decrease this dependency ?

Cultivation Analysis

TV creates or cultivates a world view - e.g. effect of year in year out violence in the 'media world'.  This is particularly true among heavy viewers.  How might excessive violence in the media, and "mean-world syndrome," contribute to social control ?

Give an example of how cultivation occurs by mainstreaming.

How might cultivation theory be understood within the context of critical theory ?

Commodification of Culture

How have "American media entrepreneurs developed their strategy for creating universally attractive cultural commodities" ?

                    Why is the commodification of culture a useful framework through which to study globalization of culture ? 

                    News Production Research

What is "gee whizz" or "disco news" ?  Give examples of how "most news stories centre around people" and how triviality often dominates the news agenda.   What does media critic Todd Gitlin mean when he refers to journalists as "stenographers with amnesia" ?       

 

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