9 20 18 - Lecture notes 6 PDF

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Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action...

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Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action ● Status conferral function ○ Legitimizes status of policies of political officials ○ Individuals’ heightened/elevated status distinguishes them from the masses ○ Car attract greater public support and attention is consequence of this status ○ Public recognition of 2nd hand familiarity with these individuals and groups ○ Ex. Kardashians ○ Constant exposure reinforced ● Enforcement of social norms ○ Media exposes deviance from social norms ○ Consequently reinforces prevailing social norms ○ Mass communication closes gap, black and white behavior and public opinion ○ Media ‘crusades’ ○ Can motivate public opinion and action ○ Casts issues in stark terms (good/bad) ○ Social norms consecutively broken ○ “Inclusiveness” as a social norm ○ All publicity is good publicity ● Narcotizing dysfunction ○ People flooded with information ○ Audiences left numb ○ Information overload leads to passive knowledge consumption over active participation ○ We are passive spectators ○ Amplified through social media ● Structure of ownership and operation ○ Social effects of mass media depend on ownership ○ Private/state media ○ State owned and run media seem to suppress free speech ○ Media is framed as a profit driven private enterprise ○ State media monopolizes ■ Deny diversity and viewpoints ● Social Conformism ○ Mass media is supported by big business ○ Advertising and sponsorship are the chief forms of revenue ○ Not using media to pose important questions that might challenge prevailing social/political structures ○ More forms of popular resistance ● Impact upon popular taste ○ Mass media affects popular taste ○ Made mass taste deteriorate

○ Entertainment used to be for the elite but now it is for everyone ○ Advertisers are the ones paying for the media they consumer they decide what that media is, want to promote what is safe so it doesn’t diverse from what people think ○ Mass education and formal literacy where people learn just enough to get by ■ Take in information but only learn a little...