Exam 12: The Mass Media

Media convergence is the blending of Internet, television, telephone, and other communications media into new, hybrid forms.

What role did capitalist industrialization have in the rise of the mass media?

What do we call the practice of a single corporation owning businesses that operate in different commercial sectors?

Although the Internet started out as the plaything of the wealthy, mass production of computers, and especially mobile devices, has had the result that even in the poorest countries and communities the World Wide Web is accessible to almost everyone in the world, regardless of class.

Todd is really upset by the messages he is interpreting from prime-time television. According to the textbook, which of the following actions would be most effective in interrupting or stopping the messages he receives?

Early feminists were among the first sociologists to resist the conclusion that audiences were the passive recipients of the mass media.

When the cell phone was invented, Josh was ten years old. Approximately what age is he today?

Compare and contrast mass media and face-to-face interaction.

Maria can now watch live television on her new android phone, as well as play music and film her friends. How do sociologists refer to this new phenomenon?

Jean decides to find an alternative source to run her exposé on the Apex Mine and, once published, both she and the magazine that published the story come under attack by publicists for the mine, who try to discredit her and the magazine. What name does the textbook give to this biasing mechanism?

News agencies rely heavily upon official press releases, news conferences, and interviews organized by large corporations and government agencies. Both routinely slant information to reflect upon themselves favourably. How does the textbook refer to this process?

Award-winning journalist Jean Collins has factual information that local mining corporation Big Mine Inc. has been exceeding allowable Canadian standards for environmental pollution. Despite the story's excellent sources and factual accounts, the newspaper's editor decides not to publish the story. According to Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, why would the editor most likely have refused to publish the story?

In a discussion in their sociology class, Pia and Abdul disagree about the role of mass media in Canadian society. Pia insists that since everyone is free to turn off the television or their mobile devices, they obviously choose to watch whatever it is that they are watching. It follows that the mass media are producing programming for the audiences that they can find and that it is false to claim, as Abdul does, that mass media's effects are directed to any particular segment or class in society. Which theoretical approach is this consistent with?

What is media imperialism? Illustrate your answer.

Many forms of mass media provide people with pleasure, relaxation, and short-term escape from their problems and worries. What function of media does this reflect?

Outline the historical development of mass media.

Approximately what percentage of their time do Canadians spend interacting with various media today?

How have media conglomerates responded to Napster? How have people interested in sharing music on the Internet responded to the media conglomerates? What does this tell us about how the Internet is different from other mass media, such as television?

What do we call the practice of a single company controlling more and more production in a particular industry?

Which of the following is a criticism levelled at the conflict theory claim that the mass media are the "lap dogs of the powerful"?