A2 Sociology Mass Media

Transnational corporations (TNC): a large bussiness with operations and outlets in a range of countries.

Cross-media ownership: when a company owns a range of media forms, such as TV and newspapers. 

Media conglomerate: an organisation that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media, such as television, rasio, publishing and film.

Vertical integration: when a media company controls every stage of media production, e.g. it makes and broadcasts TV programmes.                                                     

Synergy: integration of different media forms.

Market mechanism: of the media, a Pluralist argument that the media sontent is deterined by audiences through supply and demand.

Old media: analogue media such as cinema, 1-5 television channels, and print media e.g. newspapers.

New media: digital media such as internet, PCs and digital TV.

Ideological state apparatus (ISA): a collection of institutions that transmit ideology that supports the existing social arrangements.

Legitimiation: (Neo-marxist) term to describe how the ideology of the ruling class is made to seem fair, just and legitimate.

Hegemony: the ideological control that the ruling-class elite have over the masses. (Neo-marxist term)

False consciousness: the illusion instilled into the working class that the capitalist system is fair for everyone in society.

Globalisation: increased world interconnectedness throuhgh the flow of nations, people, ideas, technology and culture in general.

Cultural imperialism: when the cultural output of one religion dominates the cultural ouput of other regions, especially the aggressive promotion of Western culture, specifically American culture, as superior to non-Western cultures. "Coca-cola-isation" or "McDonalisation" are sometimes used to describe this process.

Public sphere: a real or virtual place where people come together as equal participants in democratic discussions.

Public sphere is a concept made by Habbermas, which he defines as the area of social life that is not controlled by governemnts or the market

News values: the criteria used by journalists and editors to decide if a story is newsworthy.

Dumbing down: the idea that news has become more populist and more sensational, less intelligent and less informative.

Narrative: the idea that stories should have a beginning, middle and end. Journalists and editors try to fit stories into this structure.

News management: spin; the way that governments and others try to manipulate the presentation of news to show themselves in a favourable light.

News diary: a journalist's planner of future newsworthy events.

Social construct: something that is defined by society and that changes according to time and place.

Homogeneous audiences: an assumption that audiences have common social characteristics and react in similar ways to media texts.

Opinion leaders: influential individual in socal networks.

Heterogeneous audiences: a view that audiences have very different social characteristics and react differently to media texts.

Moral panic: when society reacts against perceived deviance, because of media representations.

secondary deviance: when crackdowns pm deviance produce further deviance in response to action by police and others.

Deviancy amplification: when the actions of the media or police cayse more crime to be detected or committed.

Stereotype: a preconceived, standardised and oversimplified impression of the characteristsics that typify a person, and attutude based on such a preconception.

Patriarchal: male dominace of society, and the means by which this is transmitted from generation to generation, e.g the media.

Recpetion analysis: an analysis of how people interpret and use media texts in different ways.

Tokenism: the inclusion of a figure who may be black, female, gay, and so on into a media ext to show that the text is not racist, sexist, etc.

Camp: depiction of gay people as effeminate, mincing men with high voices.

Heterosexual gaze: the idea that homosexual issues are presented by the media from a heterosexual viewpoint.

(No key words on class and age)

Technological determinism: the concept that a society's technology determines its cultural values, social structure or history.

Interactivity: when audiences and participants play an active role in creating and responding to media content.

Virtual community: a community that is formed through digital interaction and that has no physical existance e.g. world of warcraft.