CHAPTER 11 MASS MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURAL …



CHAPTER 12 MASS MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURAL CHANGE

Questions for discussion

1. What effects of the convergence of global media ownership can you think of apart from those listed in the chapter? Which of these do you think are evident already and how?

2. How might critical theory perceive and explain the phenomenon of blogging?

3. It is commonly stated that the internet allows ordinary people to participate in news production, removing the reliance on professional, commercially-driven journalists and news agencies. What do you see as potentially the advantages and disadvantages of this?

4. Agenda-setting theory suggests that the media influences not only what issues are on the public agenda, but also how we should think about them. With this in mind, how are we encouraged by the media to think about the war in Iraq? How is this issue framed to us? Has that changed over time? Are there other ways to think about this issue apart from that presently set by the mass media?

5. In one of his studies, Herzog identified three uses and gratifications associated with media use; emotional release, wishful thinking and advice seeking. What other uses and gratifications could be associated with (a) blogging, (b) viewing a new Hollywood-produced action movie, (c) watching a commercial news station?

6. What stereotypes of non-Western cultures do you think are perpetuated by the mass media? What examples can you think of that attest to this?

7. In what ways do you think OhmyNews is an example of ‘hybrid media’? Do you believe that a project like OhmyNews could be successful in any society? What factors would contribute to its success or failure in a different national context?

8. Do you believe that you must be in mainstream journalism in order to speak to the public, or do you think one needs to join alternative types of media to successfully reach your audience?

9. How is social media affecting your life? What measures do you think we should take to deal with cyber-bullying and internet deception?

Activities

1. Make a list of media events you can think of and compare them with the rest of the class. Is there much similarity in everyone’s lists? Why or why not?

2. Discuss further Dayan and Katz’s terms ‘civil religion’ and ‘electronic monument’ used in relation to media events. What element of media events are Dayan and Katz trying to capture in applying these terms?

3. Over each of the next few days read through a national newspaper, watch evening news broadcast and check out an online new service, making a list of the major issues covered in each. To what extent is there commonality between what is covered in print, electronic and broadcast media? What appear to be the common issues on the public agenda? Compare and discuss your results with those of other class members.

4. Make a list of as many Western consumer brands that you can think of (e.g. Coca Cola, Disney) and compare with the class. Which ones appeared most frequently across all lists? What values or images do they seek to portray? To what extent are these ‘typical’ Western consumer values? What is the impact of the presence of these brands in other cultures?

5. Locate an example of the mass media perpetuating a particular stereotype, bring it to class and explain its significance to other class members; what stereotype does it perpetuate and how?

6. Think of a mainstream Hollywood movie you have recently seen – what stereotypes do you think it reinforced? What aspects of Western consumer culture did it exemplify?

7. Research the ‘Bowling grim reaper’ anti-Aids public information campaign sponsored by the Australian Government in the 1980’s (there is plenty of information available on the internet). How did this media campaign facilitate cultural change?

8. What media campaigns can you think of that have contributed to widespread changes in social thinking? It would be extremely interesting to compare responses from students from different countries.

9. Select a news story from the international section of a newspaper. How might one’s (a) culture, (b) gender, (c) age, and (d) socio-economic status affect the preferred reading of this text?

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download