Interactivity Consumers have an opportunity to engage or interact with the media. E.g. they can press the red button on their digital remotes to explore their own interests, vote in reality shows etc. While traditional media involves different devices for different media content-printed format for books, telephones to make calls and radios to listen to music. New media often involves using a single device to do several Convergence things. -More convenient (people can send and receive texts, emails and connect to the internet) New media is less centralised and controlled than old media. There is a huge scope for people to create and spread their own information outside the control of media companies and the agencies of social control. It is dispersed Exam questions Identify two types of digital media. (2 marks) Explain with examples, what sociologists mean by the term mass media (2 marks) Describe and explain two ways in which the technology of the mass media has developed over the last 30 years (4 marks) (hint: think about the differences between the traditional and new media) The effects of the Mass Media on audiences There are a number of different approaches that sociologists have adopted to the question of whether media content does actually have an influence or effect on audiences, mainly centred around the issue of whether audiences are passive dopes mindlessly consuming media content, or active interpreters of that content, giving it their own meanings and interpretations. The different approaches are summarised below. Audience model Summary of explanation Criticisms Hypodermic Audiences are PASSIVE. This means…. -Audiences don’t all react syringe model Audiences don’t question media messages, they accept in the same way-they may them. reject violence they view The media is like a ‘drug’ – as audiences we are rather than copying it. injected with images, ideas, instructions, words, -There is little research behaviours and so on that we take on board and act on. that supports this view of We follow media messages as if they were direct the effects of the media. instructions without considering if we agree with
Interactivity Consumers have an opportunity to engage or interact with the media. E.g. they can press the red button on their digital remotes to explore their own interests, vote in reality shows etc. Convergence While traditional media involves different devices for different media content-printed format for books, telephones to make calls and radios to listen to music. New media often involves using a single device to do several things. -More convenient (people can send and receive texts, emails and connect to the internet) It is dispersed New media is less centralised and controlled than old media. There is a huge scope for people to create and spread their own information outside the control of media companies and the agencies of social control. Exam questions Identify two types of digital media. (2 marks) Explain with examples, what sociologists mean by the term mass media (2 marks) Describe and explain two ways in which the technology of the mass media has developed over the last 30 years (4 marks) (hint: think about the differences between the traditional and new media) The effects of the Mass Media on audiences There are a number of different approaches that sociologists have adopted to the question of whether media content does actually have an influence or effect on audiences, mainly centred around the issue of whether audiences are passive dopes mindlessly consuming media content, or active interpreters of that content, giving it their own meanings and interpretations. The different approaches are summarised below. Audience model Summary of explanation Criticisms Hypodermic syringe model Audiences are PASSIVE. This means…. Audiences don’t question media messages, they accept them. The media is like a ‘drug’ – as audiences we are injected with images, ideas, instructions, words, behaviours and so on that we take on board and act on. We follow media messages as if they were direct instructions without considering if we agree with -Audiences don’t all react in the same way-they may reject violence they view rather than copying it. -There is little research that supports this view of the effects of the media.
4.-MASS-MEDIA-REVISION-BOOKLET-2016-with-exam..docx