Comm Theories Test 3, Muehlhoff

Front 1

What is Mass Communication?

Back 1

1. Aimed at large audiences.
2. Mass media includes books, films, television, radio, computer programs and games, magazines and other forms of visual and print media.
3. Mass communication does not include personal kinds of mediated interaction such as communication with others on the internet or participation in electronic bulletin boards or discussion groups.

Front 2

What are the facts regarding mass communication (TV)?

Back 2

By age 6 the average child has watched 5,000 hours of television, by age 18 the average person as watched fully 19,000 hours.
Most children watch television without parental supervision.
Each year the average person in America spends 3,297 hours engaged with Media (half the time is spent watching television) equals 68, 24 hour days a year.
By age 6 a child's worldview (the parameters) has been established by television (Gerbner, 2001)
Study of college student's news-viewing habits: Most college students use news programs as background noise, and thus do not critically think through things.

Front 3

What is Technological Determinism?

Back 3

A theory that states that technology, especially the media, decisively shapes how individuals think, feel, and act, and how societies organize themselves and operate.

Front 4

What are the four epochs?

Back 4

Tribal, Literate, Print, Electronic

Front 5

What is the Tribal Epoch?

Back 5

Oral tradition reigned. Comm consisted of Face-to-Face interactions. Communities were knit together by stories passed along by oral comm. Hearing is the dominant sense.
RESULT: Highly interdependent and cohesive communities.

Front 6

What is the Literate Epoch?

Back 6

Invention of the phonetic alphabet. Common symbols enabled communication without face to face interaction. Writing required LESS MEMORY than oral comm.
Sight became dominant sense.
RESULT: Written communication cultivated linear thinking (mathematics).

Front 7

What is the Print Epoch?

Back 7

JOHANN GUTENBURG invented the printing press. Up to this point books were rare and expensive, and access to those books were reserved to the elite of society.
RESULT(S):
1) Mass Press cultivated a homogeneity among the people...the same message could be delivered to many people.
2) However, it also caused a type of isolation. People no longer had to be together to share information.

Front 8

What is the Electronic Epoch?

Back 8

Invention of the telegraph. Telegraph made it possible to communicate with someone over great distances. McLuhan believed electronic media resurrected community among people. Through TV we gain insight into what is happening in Iraq, etc; we use technology to communicate around the world. Distance means nothing.
RESULT: the electronic epoch created a "global village"

Front 9

What is a "global village"?

Back 9

Global Village is proof that social media can bring us together as a community (global community).

Front 10

What is McLuhan's legacy?

Back 10

"The medium is the message"

Front 11

What are three classical interpretations of "the medium is the message"?

Back 11

1. The medium or channel of communication determines the substance of communication.
2. "The medium is the MASSAGE"
-meaning, you are coopted by media, and it "massages" your views in a certain direction.
3. "The medium is the Mass-age"
-meaning, that mass communication has become the dominant medium in our age.

Front 12

What is HOT Media?

Back 12

Are those that include relatively complete sensory data. Thus, a person does not have to fill in a lot of information to understand the message.
-PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE: STANDARD TV SHOW
-watching dancing with the stars and NOT call in.
-Watching someone else play a video game.

Front 13

What is COLD Media?

Back 13

Demands involvements from individuals.
PROTOTYPE EXAMPLE: CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Front 14

Define Cultivation Theory (word for word):

Back 14

"the CUMULATIVE process by which television fosters beliefs about social reality"

Front 15

What is the Key Claim of Cultivation Theory?

Back 15

"claims that Television cultivates, or promotes, a view of social reality that is inaccurate but that viewers nonetheless assume reflects real life".
-Effects aren't instant. And the longer a person has been watching, and the amount of time they spend watching tv, the more likely that their beliefs or attitudes will be affected.
-Light Viewer: 2 hours a day or less
-Heavy Viewer: Four hours or more (a day)

Front 16

Why Television? (three things)

Back 16

1. Television is Pervasive
-It is in every home
2. It doesn't require particular skills to use
-anyone (any age) can use it
3. TV is uniquely accessible to all different types of people at all different stages of life.
-All ages

Front 17

What is a synthetic reality? (WORD FOR WORD)

Back 17

An artificial view of how the world works; appears real, but doesn't reflect the way things actually are.

Front 18

What is a result of Synthetic Reality?

Back 18

Mean world syndrome
-the belief that the world is a dangerous place full of untrustworthy people who are out to harm you.

Front 19

What are the two test cases of synthetic reality?

Back 19

1. Power of a Punch
2. Sex
-has pervasive affects on the mind/sex is always depicted as good, not awkward, and there are rarely ever any consequences.

Front 20

Define Critical Theories (word for word):

Back 20

"Theories that critique prevailing social practices that create or uphold disadvantage, inequity, or oppression."

Front 21

What is Feminist Theory?

Back 21

While feminist theory has many goals--document inequities between men and women--it's primary goal is to diminish gender inequalities in cultural life.

Front 22

What are the two key concepts under Feminist Theory?

Back 22

1. Gender
2. Patriarchy

Front 23

What is Gender under Feminist Theory (word for word)?

Back 23

"is a socially created system of values, identities, and activities that are prescribed for women and men"
-Gender is: socially constructed, variable over time, variable across societies/cultures.

Front 24

What is Patriarchy under Feminist Theory?

Back 24

Literally means "rule of the fathers"

Front 25

What is Muted Group Theory?

Back 25

Generally, it is interested in how a dominant discourse silences, or mutes, groups that are not in a society's mainstream. Especially, claims that the masculine bias of western society has silenced and marginalized women's experience.

Front 26

What is Dale Spender's quote?

Back 26

The greatest power is the power to name something.
-if you name it, it becomes real; especially in American culture.

Front 27

What is Laadan?

Back 27

Some feminist scholars created an entire language, called Laadan, to capture women's experiences/perspective and interests.
-Ex: Womankind, Foremother.

Front 28

Define Cultural Studies:

Back 28

The goal of cultural studies is not to simply understand culture but to intervene actively to make, remake, and unmake, culture.
-there are different ways of doing things that we should consider.

Front 29

Define culture under Cultural Studies:

Back 29

Two meanings: 1) ideas, beliefs, and understandings that are common to members of a society. 2) Concrete practices characteristic of a culture (holidays, funerals, marriage ceremonies).

Front 30

Define Ideology (word for word):

Back 30

"a code of meanings that shapes how a group of people sees and acts in the world"

Front 31

Define "dominant ideology"?

Back 31

The "dominant ideology" of a culture is the one that has the greatest power and the adherence of the greatest number of people at a given moment in time.
-inherent in every culture is an ongoing battle for ideological control called the "theatre of struggle". The dominant theology changes over time..