CMN 149 Midterm 1 Study Guide PDF

CMN 149 Midterm 1 Quizlet Link Incomplete Questions Explain how we come to “know” things, the world, experiences, etc. - Somatic: you experience it (ie taste, touch, smell) - Symbolic: we “know” it through someone or something else/ media (mediated) - Most of what we know is an interpr...

CMN 149 Midterm 1 Quizlet Link Incomplete Questions Explain how we come to “know” things, the world, experiences, etc. - Somatic: you experience it (ie taste, touch, smell) - Symbolic: we “know” it through someone or something else/ media (mediated) - Most of what we know is an interpretation/ perception of the person telling it - Eg: a video of you in the class - Eg: Grease - interpretation of the 60s - Eg: Bible in English - shifts based on how we understand it - Vast majority of what we know is symbolic, which is specifically true when it comes to us thinking about people who are not like us - Simulacra: Jean Baudrillard, everything we experience is a simulated experience/ copy of “reality” that replaces and hides the fact that there is no “original” reality - Socialization: how people learn and internalize prevailing cultural beliefs, values, societal norms - Substitution Hypothesis: related to symbolic knowledge; your knowledge on the reality for people unlike yourself is provided by the media (think Y2K fashion, but depicted now) Describe the difference between “mediated” and “medium.” - Mediated: experienced through media (adjective for the message if it goes through medium) - Limitations of spoken and direct written correspondence - Not uniform - What you have access to - Potential for distortion - Lacks the MASS in mass communication - Medium: the channel that you actually use - Eg: The difference when reading vs watching with sound, music, etc. - The media has an effect on whether or not you buy the message - Eg: looking at a pie graph may not be as impactful as a story Explain cultural hegemony. - Hegemony: Greek word: “to lead” - Usually associated with ideas of domination and control - Riddle of Steel - Control beliefs and you control people - People don’t wield power, power wield people - Media holds a lot of power in terms of who believes what: communication drives who has power  - Dominance of ruling class, how the world views - Eg: Who decides why you use pine trees for christmas - How much agency do you really have? - What are the things that we have actually chosen for ourselves? Explain the impact/importance/significance of Birth of a Nation and The Jazz Singer. - The Jazz Singer - First “talkie” – combined motion picture + sound sync - Dialogue: Him singing and being able to talk to his mom in real time - Synchronism: makes the narrative more powerful - Blackface: presented as unproblematic & how the public engages with film - Blockbuster: extremely racist, but everyone is talking about it - Birth of a Nation - Resurfaced things like KKK and lynching; - The silent movie screened by the President - Criminalized Black people & made KKK seem like a hero - Every interaction with a Black person was negative – aggressive and overly violent + sexualized so that reinforce negative stereotype Be able to identify the different categories of media. - Size and reach of mass media - Print - What is used to disseminate information in print forms such as newspapers, magazines, and direct mail, came before broadcast - Motion picture and sound - Eg: when film first came out, it was silent, but when sound came out it amplified its power - Broadcast media vs new media - Broadcast media: any media that has the ability to be widespread - Ability for radio and film to be broadly casted - Access: if we own radio/tv, we have similar access to someone who also have TV/radio → Accessibility was free; antenna ensure accessibility - New Media: 1990s Internet popularized (used to be easier to differentiate) - All things digitized, harder to make a distinction Briefly describe convergence, mobility, and fragmentation. - Convergence - Economic (Eg: monopolies, oligopolies) - Organic (Eg: watching Netflix + listening to music on Alexa/ taking notes and listening in class)  - Technological: the merging of technologies that were previously developed and used separately (Eg: you play video games/internet/email/scan PDF on your phone (ability to access multiple technologies on sth.)) - Global (Eg: Bollywood due to globalization - emerged from Hollywood + give it a unique spin → Now Holly and Bolly copy each other) - Cultural (Eg: Harry Potter - book that became merch, rides, movies) - Mobility - denis mcquail- media theories - You carry with your media (ie: phone) - Don’t have to go somewhere to watch sth. - Fragmentation - Categorize audiences into different categories and show the audiences different things based on their culture. - Eg: Documentary channels will have a niche audience: Older people no longer have younger kids, so they won’t waste money on presenting fisher price toys. - Provide advertisers with a specific market advertising area, the content is there for the advertising. - See what shows are on during the day vs at night and see what ads are on the tv - Fragmenting on who they’re able to market to - Eg: type of person who watches documentaries - Interested in providing content for a certain community, the idea is that it’s what they want - Feeding them what they can purchase based on the demographic information about them that you have - Marketer - wants to focus on niche because “we care about you: - But it is to better advertise and to better sell - Care about diverse content, inclusion BUT it’s all about market forces - Is the media the basis of what we know? - The less you travel and experience, the more we rely on media for exposure Be able to briefly explain the media theories we covered in class thus far (there will be more media theories in our second half) - Hypodermic Needle/ Magic Bullet - Media message is “injected” - Watch something and automatically “got the drug” - Instant consuming and internalizing it - Injected into recipients consciousness and it taken entirely at face value, but quickly debunked – things are not that simple - Two-step flow theory (added opinion leaders and the “middle person”) - Rather than messages going in direct - Things are in the middle - Media gives you information and it is filtered by opinion givers (pastor, teacher, etc.) - Diffusion of innovation - Everett rogers, less used in media messages and more used in adoption of ideas and products - Can be applied to ideas as well - Identifies stages through which individuals and groups pass as they decide whether to adopt an innovation - These stages include awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption or rejection - S-shaped Adoption Curve: Theory suggests that the adoption of innovations follows an S-shaped curve over time. Initially, adoption is slow, but it accelerates as more individuals adopt the innovation, eventually reaching a point of saturation. Various factors influence the rate and extent of adoption, including the perceived relative advantage of the innovation , its compatibility with existing norms and values, complexity, trialability, and observability - Agenda-setting hypothesis - Media isn’t telling us what to think, but what to think ABOUT - Media sets agenda of what is important - What do they want me to see/pay attention to - Eg: lighting and position of OJ simpson picture (Used his mugshot specifically) - Priming - Predecessor of agenda setting, based on cognitive sci - How we generate associative thoughts - A lot of our thoughts on race stems from not our own memories but what we were told to think about - Hence why stereotypes work - Certain things being more accessible to us than others, how things are enhanced in our minds. - Media messages can influence decisions of the audience/ make them form judgments about a group/idea shown on screen. - This is formed before agenda setting theory and stimulates related thoughts in the audience's mind. - Framing - Media frames issues in very specific issues  - The process of selecting and presenting information in a way that influences public perception - Words, images, and even the same orgs - Social construction - Selecting certain aspects of reality to amplify them and make them more noticeable. In the same news story framed in different ways to convince you of a given position. - Realistic Conflict Theory - There are only a certain amount of resources, which means conflict is inevitable - Mean-world syndrome (Cultivation Theory) - Cognitive bias where people perceive the world to be worse than it is - People who are heavy media watchers will assume that the world is way worse than what it puts out - Frequent TV watchers - Cultivated into thinking the news reflects reality exactly - people out there in the world are out to get them - Uses and gratifications - How do we use media to gratify us at different points and time? - People consume different forms of media to gratify a certain need. - Spiral of silence - People feel more comfortable and outward with their opinion when others in their group share the same thoughts - Researcher wanted to understand how Germans stayed silent even if they disagreed with the Nazis → People stayed silent because they perceived that the rest of the Germans agreed and thus went along - fear of isolation and in turn spiral of silence - Social identity theory - Explains social categorization - Idea that people generally don’t perceive social situations as detached observers – “Is that how people see me” - Either perceive ourselves as part of the “in-group” or “out-group” - Impacts how we feel about ourselves, the group we think we’re part of, and groups that we are not part of - based on our beliefs and perceptions - Social Categorization - How people perceive themselves based on social categories - Race vs ethnicity: social categorization based on skin color vs your shared culture/language/religion/beliefs/heritage - Social Comparison - Value added; comparing themselves to others - Eg: this is green, which is superior than red  - Social Cognitive Theory - We learn from seeing, but the media also fills in for that - Bobo Doll Example: adults mistreating a bobo doll and left the room - the child would do the same when the adult left - Now we’re more influenced by the media - gives us much more information about how to engage - Critical Race Theory - People don’t perceive social situations as detached observers - Actually a law theory, not really taught in grad school - It’s not taught in K-12 but is frequently propagated by the media as something that is always happening - Developed by lawyers - The social construction of race and how it is embedded in our legal system in terms - systemic racism presented in law, policy, economics, education Explain why you, as a UCD student, are not your “typical” American. - US lags behind in terms of media literacy - Literacy rates, most of people are stuck at 8th grade level - Attend at a top research institution, expensive to go there, much of the population is not as privileged, educated, and exposed to as many diverse perspectives - We’re “above average” What misconceptions are there about America/Americans? - Stereotypes about cultural homogeneity, economic prosperity, and political influence - Those stereotypes overlook the diversity and complexity of American society, as well as the socioeconomic disparities and cultural nuances within the country - Believe that we have the freest press but that’s not true - Not the best prepared for education - Misconception about homeless people – that it’s a drug problem when it’s really a lack of healthcare/ paying bills - Conspired by government to feed off of conspiracy theories - Misconception – US doesn’t have culture; not true – belief system in how we orient ourselves - Consistently improving and changing as a country of immigrants What is the difference between stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination? - Stereotype: cognitive structure that contains the perceiver’s knowledge, expectancies, and beliefs about some human group - We instinctively group things, an automatic process - Stereotypes become negative when race was institutionalized  - Process of Stereotyping: categorize > automatic activation > dependent on personal beliefs > apply to all in the group - Nature of Stereotypes: negative or positive expectations; self-fulfilling and self-reinforcing - Prejudice: hostile or negative attitude toward people in a distinct group based largely on their membership within that group - We’re socialized immediately to have prejudice - They’re perceived social benefits to being superior - Discrimination: the actual behavior that results from prejudice Describe the impact of “representation” across the various facets of society and media. - Strong and positive representation can help fight and break down stereotypes - can improve racial acceptance of ethnic/racial identity - Negative representation: voting; avoidance; norms; self-concept & esteem; perceptions of consensus; group identity - Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence - Absence = symbolic annihilation - When you see yourself in a role and can picture yourself in a space, it affirms your place in the world - Diverse people and communities continue to be underrepresented in mass media: Underrepresentation makes authentic representation problematic - Eg: School shooters are overwhelmingly white men but because they’re so diversely represented in the news, we do not assume every white man is a school shooter Explain media construction. Include how this impacts news. - Everything in media is constructed - When taking a selfie, you construct the angle of the photo - Everything is constructed for you in the same way you construct media - Everything you read, write and listen to - Representations can take many forms: It’s not real, it’s a construction, but we think it represents the reality - Selection/Omission: In taking photos you select the image, make decisions about what to omit - Framing - Media frames issues in very specific issues - Media news doesn’t exist in just a reality - In the media, there is a choice of what is used, highlighted, activities, etc - Construction of a false equivalency for non bias Describe the various phases of representation. Focus on the ones we covered in class. - Exclusionary phase  - Everyone was excluded except for WASC (White, Anglo, Saxon, Christian) - Threatening issue phase: news only concern themselves with not WASC - Irish people, Black people, non-protestant religions, etc. - Eg: Yellow Peril: US went into economic decline as people asked Chinese men to come over to build railroads, etc. → needed someone to take the fall when economy declined so people said they were taking all the jobs - Confrontation phase - Eg: Hurricane katrina – white man was shopping, latino man was looting - You don’t just write about these people like they’re a threat, we tell them what YOU should do to exclude these people and minimize your contact with these people - Stereotypical selection phase - Pretends to celebrate but really highlights that people can’t assimilate - We’ve marginalized all these people on purpose - Non-threatening examples that show marginalized communities to be in “their place” - Examples of individuals escaping the “deficits” of their race and place - Othered groups are causing or having problems - Describing people in completely different ways in the exact same situations - Minimal Group Paradigm: Us vs them mentality that can trigger intergroup conflict/ discrimination - Multiracial coverage phase - Typecasting → Stereotyping → Monolithic representation Explain why the monopolization of the media is a problem. - Oligopoly and monopoly: how money and ownership is distinguished - In 1983, 90% of US media was owned by 50 companies - Today: Media is owned by very few people, it is 90% owned by 6 organizations - Media seeking economic efficiency (monopoly/oligopoly) - Money impacts advertising, programming choices, access to information - They do what is safe and what makes money - Eg: Sinclair Broadcast Group: have the same scripts for content - Owns and operates 294 TV station in 89 markets from large to small - No one is going to stop them as they’re too big. - Media is NOT unbiased, but should be as unbiased as possible - What stories are told, how are they being told? Explain symbolic annihilation. Why is it central to mass media representation issues?  - You are not represented in the media, so you’re essentially non-existent in the media - The phenomenon is a process by which the mass media 1) Omit 2) Trivialize 3) Condemn certain groups that are not socially valued a) In white women syndrome, we’re condemning POC who are missing and white men extended to examine academic literature, census reports, etc. Describe the penny press, muckrakers, and yellow journalism. Be able to identify some of the key features and players we covered in class. - Penny Press: mundane news; 1830s; often favored daily sensational news over dry political theories - Muckrakers: people who exposed the truth, find a cause and lobby for it - To search for and publish scandalous information about famous people in an underhanded way - Exposed horrible practices (investigative journalism) - Eg: Ida B Wells (went into psychiatric hospital and reported on conditions) and Ida Tarbell was brave enough to expose it and women were the most famous muckrakers of the time. They looked at Rockefeller, lynching laws in the south, etc - President called them muckrakers (bc he was making money off the men leading these terrible practices) - Yellow journalism: inquirer, clickbait, stunt journalism - Focuses on crime, violence, emotion sex (things that sold) - Joseph Pulitzer (forerunner on sex news) Explain missing white girl syndrome. How does this tie-into media/race/representation? - A missing white girl is much more likely to be found - “Higher importance” - Physical appearances are highlighted - These cases are more valuable and therefore worth more news coverage. Often from higher socioeconomic status Damsel in Distress (Eg: Gabby Petito: travel vlogger, media does not believe poc women deserve the media attention vs white women, who are also pushed as victims) - Narrative language and pictures differ based on race (mugshot vs graduation photo) - Fit “traditional standards of beauty” and get more coverage when they go missing - The way a case is covered by the media affects the way law enforcement handles it; National and international pressure to solve the case quickly Explain the issues with the welfare queen. Why is this important?  - People who scam the government system - People who have babies after babies for money; work to get money to stay home and get money - Linda Taylor - woman who committed welfare fraud - Political plan to get people to see Black/ Latino people as people on welfare - Individualism: “if you’re poor, it’s your fault” - Reagan got white people to vote against a singular case - Essentially killed the middle class - Got people to vote against their own interest - Shifted the perspective from the “deserving poor” to the “undeserving poor” Describe the various implications of negative news. Why is this a cycle? - Negative sells - News and media want viewers, which attract advertisers - You can have a million positive comments but one negative comment will stay - The ways underrepresented minorities are represented in the news are often inaccurate - Often features crime, drugs, negative things - News reporting out of SF - News gave to pilot names of pilots who went down - Eg: Inaccurate and racist “Sum Ting Wong” - The National Transportation Association said the names were correct - Blamed on a summer intern - The story is given very little attention - Heightened anxiety and fear, the portrayal of the world in a skewed manner that disproportionately criminalizes POC, prioritization of certain issues over others, exacerbates divisions, increased inclination to consume media that confirms existing beliefs and biases Briefly describe the issues around racism in the media. - Racism continues to play out as an individual level - We like to make racism as an individual act in the press - Constantly dealing with racism wears one down - Racial inequality is a systemic issue. Oftentimes when the media is racist, they blame individuals for racism because it’s easier to throw one person under the bus than it is to re-evaluate the entire system. It shifts the blame off of them, and they perpetuates harmful stereotypes, reinforces power imbalances, and contributes to the marginalization of certain groups.  - Often under-represented or represented in stereotypical ways, often disproportionate features of POC in roles associated with crime, drugs, or in negative contexts. - Reinforcing existing power dynamics and justifying oppression, controlling images to help dominant groups maintain power and privilege, limited diversity among media owners, that resulted in biased coverage. Explain the various features of advertising and race. Briefly describe the historical aspect of race in media. - Race: completely made up social construct, not a real thing - More specific to cultural aspects and place of origin - Race is an imposed hierarchy - Media plays a role in hierarchy, maybe more subtle than the past but still - How US history has taken from its institutions and historically treated racism - DEI became a performance rather than an actual thing - Media and Racial Schema - Racial Schemas + How you think about race is influenced by media representations of race/ethnicity - Plastic Representation - Flat/one-dimensional representation; still created and consumed - (Eg. Marvel)