Lecture 5 PDF

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Lecture 5 Ideology: particular world views that shape our perceptions of the world around us take their shape as we immerse ourselves in social institutions Dominant Political Ideologies: - neoliberalism - Neoconservatism - Transformative ideologies Discourse: “The boundaries within which a topic is understood and talked about” (Singh, 2015, p. 30)

Models of Social Analysis  Triangle Model - Individual acts, ideologies, institutions  Self-Reflective Social Action Model - Differs from the triangle model in that o 1) it begins with a self-analysis o 2) in that focuses on social action and change - “The self-reflective social action model suggests that our understanding of social problems and social change is an ongoing process. o This particular framework requires continual reevaluation of our understanding of social problems, lifelong learning about how we are implicated in perpetuating social problems and ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of strategies for engaging in social change” (Singh, 2015, p. 84) •

Critical Media Literacy: “The ability to analyze and evaluate how media messages influence our beliefs and behaviours. In this process, the viewer is not a passive recipient of these messages, but an active participant who is able to critique the content communicated by media.” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, p. 95).

Media - A dictionary definition from Collins Gage Canadian Intermediate Dictionary, 2006, your textbook provides gives us the following, that media can be understood as “all the forms of communication that reach a huge audience, such as newspapers, radio, TV, magazines, film, and the Internet” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, p. 95).

Read, Text and Media Messages • Read media texts • “read”: “critically analyze the direct and indirect messages, to probe further, and ask what is not being told. What is missing can have as much or even a greater effect on our understanding of what is told. Reading is active, it is not passive” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, p. 95). • Media text or “text”: “‘Text’ refers not just to words, but also images, sounds, and video taken as a whole message” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, p. 95). • Media message - the things that media in whatever form wants to convey to us that may not always be clear or on the surface of texts. • Nike ad • “advertising creates the most revenue for all media companies; therefore, most media message are constructed to maximize profit. These messages are not just created to sell us products but also to sell us ideas about what it means to be human and promote unattainable ideals that can make us anxious about our current lifestyle” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, p. 95).

Critical Media Literacy: Revisited - Become a “literate” viewer - Social analysis of media texts - Assumptions present in media texts and how they help shape our reality

Debrief:  Each media source has a slant or bias in how they told us the story  Imagine reading this story without knowing too much about Sam Hughes  Shaping what you know Debrief #2  Media transmits ideas and shapes perspectives  Media bias, or bias: “refers to a particular slant or perspective on specific issues” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, p. 96).  Elements of bias: • Headline • Placement • Selection and omission of facts, knowledge, words  The words that are used, and the way they tell a story all hint towards a bias, and reading that is going to affect our perception and perspectives as well.  Can you think of why Ngozi Adichie’s danger of a single story becomes important for us to consider in this light?

Media Consolidation • Media consolidation: “the process of concentrating the ownership of media outlets by a small number of large corporations” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, p. 96). • Rogers • Bell • Shaw + Corus • TorStar • Postmedia • The Woodbridge Company + Thomson Reuters • What are the consequences of consolidation? • Media corporations regulated by the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) • Not very powerful • Media regulation: “Government control of mass media through laws for the purpose of protecting the public interest or promoting competition among media outlets” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, p. 96). Ideology and Mass Media • Ideology: “An ideology is a set of beliefs or ways of thinking that shapes how we see the world. Ideologies are linked to power as they are used by those who own media to decide which representations of people and events we see and hear about” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, pp. 97-8). • Question of power • Media representations – shaping what we can know about people and events • Media representation or representation: “The way in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective (University of Minnesota, n.d.)” (Malik and Purdy, 2015, p. 98)....