Media and Society

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Media and Society

• Chapter17

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Media and Reality Rothman and Lichter studies

• Major American media are out of touch with the
  American people media are more liberal.
• TV scripts favor feminist positions in 71 of
  shows. (p.404)
• 3 of TV murders are committed by blacks.
• Only 1 out of 3 business people is presented
  favorably.
• News If it bleeds, it leads. But U.S.
  violent crime rates are lowest in decades.

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Social Stability

• The mass media create rituals around which
  people structure their lives. This is one of the
  ways in which the media contribute to social
  stability. (p. 404)
• Film at 1100 Northwest Airlines pilots, flying
  west at night, watched the lights go out in the
  Dakotas as people went to bed after the
  late-night news.
• In 1878, E.W. Scripps started the evening
  newspaper tradition in Cleveland. It created a
  shopping pattern ritual. (p.405)

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Historical Transmission of Cultural Values

• In olden times, people gathered around fires and
  in temples to hear storytellers. It was a ritual
  through which people learned the values that
  governed their community. (408)
• Five thousand years ago, the oral tradition was
  augmented when Middle Eastern traders devised an
  alphabet
• Books remain the primary repository of our
  culture.
• Today, other mass media are kept in archives to
  preserve history.
• Museum of Broadcasting NY and Chicago
• Ohio States Library for Communication and
  Graphic Arts
• Vanderbilt Television News Archive
• The National Archives in the Library of Congress
• UD Archives special collections
• Numerous depositories and archives

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Contemporary Transmission

• Music, fashion, and pop culture especially
  movies and television
• Diffusion of Innovations a 2-step process (409,
  410)
• Media present a new idea
• Opinion leaders influence its acceptance or
  rejection