A large group of people who have who have similar interests or behaviours (Bell, 2013)

The singular form of ‘media’ is ‘medium’ (Long and Wall, 2012) which refers to the communication of messages from a sender to a receiver (O’Sullivan et al., 2003). This includes language and speech as well as pictures and symbols (O’Sullivan et al., 2003). Types of media include books, adverts, websites, newspapers, games and computer networks (O’Sullivan et al., 2003).

 

Mass media is the communication of a message from one source to a large group of people simultaneously creating an audience (Long and Wall, 2012). For example, radio and television (Scott, 1994).

 

The majority of mass media companies are owned by the government or private families (Djankov et al., n.d.). There are only a small group of these companies, but they tend to be very large and powerful conglomerates (Ott and Mack, 2014) with 90% of the largest companies being owned by Americans (Painter, 2013). Blondel (cited in Painter, 2013) argues that no individual group has control over the media due to the diversity of the media representing the diversity of society. However, Marxists argue that the media is controlled by the large media company owners because they have the power to control employees, content and the opinions which are printed and broadcast to the masses including political opinions (Painter, 2013).

 

 

One-to-one communication is sharing information (Oxford, 2019) from one individual to another individual (Dictionary.com, 2019). The most common type of one-to-one communication is face to face conversations including speech, sign language, body language and gestures (Scott, 1994). One-to-one communication also includes media like telephones and faxes which deliver messages from one individual to another (Long and Wall, 2012). 

 

One-to-many communication is messages sent from a source to a mass audience (Scott, 1994) and is seen as a product or service (O’Sullivan et al., 2003). This type of communication is uni-directional because a media company sends out a message and the mass listens (Carah and Louw, 2015). This creates a gap between the sender and audience as there is no direct feedback creating an unbalanced relationship between the media and its audience (O’Sullivan et al., 2003). One-to-many communication can now reach worldwide due to the development of technology and satellites through media like television and the internet (O’Sullivan et al., 2003).

 

It could be argued that there are four types of communication (Scott, 1994). The first two, one-to-one communication and one-to-many communication, can be seen above. The third type of communication is self-talk which is communication within and with yourself (Vocate, 1994). The fourth type is extra personal communication which is communication with non-humans, for example animals (Viviers and Van Schalkwyk, 1992). Extra personal communication also includes communication with machines, for example video games, mobile phones and bank machines, which has increased with the development of technology (Scott, 1994).

 

 

 

Bell, K (2013) Mass. [online]. Available at: https://sociologydictionary.org/mass/ [Accessed 22 March 2019].

 

Carah, N. and Louw, E. (2015) Media & Society. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

 

Dictionary.com (2019) One-to-One. [online]. Available at: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/one-on-one [Accessed 22 March 2019].

 

Djankov, S., McLiesh, C., Nenova, T. and Shleifer, A. (n.d.) Who Owns the Media? [online]. Available at: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shleifer/files/media.pdf [Accessed 22 March 2019].

 

Long, P. and Wall, T. (2012) Media Studies Texts, Production, Context. 2 ed. Abingdon: Routledge.

 

O’Sullivan, T., Dutton, B. and Rayner, P. (2003) Studying the Media. 3 ed. London: Arnold Publishers.

 

Ott, B. L. and Mack, R. L. (2014) Critical Media Studies: An Introduction. 2 ed. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

 

Oxford Dictionary (2019) Communication. [online]. Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/communication [Accessed 22 March 2019].

 

Painter, E. (2013) Key Concepts in Sociology. London: Collins.

 

Scott, J. (1994) Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

 

Viviers, D. and Van Schalkwyk, H (1992) Success with English Language and Communication Skills. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman Ltd.

 

Vocate, D. R. (1994) Interpersonal Communication. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

-        Cliff Richard – 2014. BBC reported Richard was being investigated for an alleged historic sex offence. The police searched his Berkshire home. Reporters and a helicopter were sent to the house. He was on holiday in Portugal with friends at the time. Police dropped the investigation 22 months later with no charge. Richard sued the Police (who settled for £700,000 and a public apology) and the BBC. On July 18, the High Court of England and Wales found against the BBC and ordered payment of general, aggravated and special damages. Cliff Richard argued ‘both the fact of the investigation and the search’ were private issues and therefore the BBC shouldn’t have named him in the media. The court were tasked with balancing Richards privacy rights and the BBC’s freedom of speech. The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights was relied on. For Richard: ‘Sir Cliff’s privacy interests included…protecting the identities of police suspects as well as the public stigma attached to the fact of an investigation of serious allegations.’ For BBC: Child sexual abuse is of serious public concern and came at a time of exposing many other celebrity paedophiles. Justice Mann: Cliff Richards celebrity status ‘emphasises the need for privacy in a case such as this’ and criticized the BBC for working with the police and reporting the case. Discussion: Would the BBC still have been criticised if the Richard had been charged and found guilty? (Hovenkamp and Beswick, 2018)

-        July 18, 2018 - Sir Cliff Richard OBE won his court case against the BBC who were ‘held liable for infringing his privacy rights over the filming and broadcast of a search of his UK property by South Yorkshire Police in relation to allegations of historical child sexual abuse’. Due to insufficient evidence Richard was never arrested or charged. Justice Mann – Richard had ‘a reasonable expectation of privacy’ from the police and BBC. Richards privacy rights ‘were not outweighed by the BBC’s rights to freedom of expression’. Justice Mann considered the damage done to Richards reputation, finances and health due to the infringement on his right to privacy. Fran Unsworth, BBC news director – the ruling isn’t ‘compatible with liberty and press freedoms’ and ‘it will make it harder to scrutinise the conduct of the police and we fear it will undermine the wider principle of the public’s right to know’ (Hills and Feikert-Ahalt, 2018)

-        Cliff Richard: Media now has to wait for an arrest before identifying someone. Justice Mann – ‘The fact of an investigation…will of itself carry some stigma, no matter how often one says it should not’. ‘A lower key report of the search and investigation for example … a measured reading of the relevant facts by a presenter in the studio would … be a serious infringement … what the BBC did was more than that’ the BBC appeared to add drama to the coverage by using helicopter footage. (Smith, 2018)

-        Rolf Harris was named in the media, before being arrested, while voluntarily facing police questions about serious sex offences = other victims came forward and he was convicted. (Smith, 2018)

-        News of the World broke the privacy of the people they hacked. (Davies, 2014)

-        News of the World: felt they had the right to report on peoples private lives. Brought up discussions about the balance between freedom of speech and rights of the individual. Led to greater privacy for the individual. (Baldwin et al., n.d.)

-        On the internet it is easy to come across harmful or inappropriate content, for example pornography, violence and images that can trigger people with mental illnesses, for example images of self-harm or content promoting eating disorders. Some social media sites do have a censorship setting which will block certain words and images from your news feed, like twitter.  (Edwards, 2018)

-        Crimes including violent crimes and murders have been live streamed on Facebook. This is harmful to everyone but especially teenagers. Facebook has worked on resolving this issue, but live streaming is difficult to regulate (Homayoun, 2018)

-        It could be argued that there should be freedom of speech when it comes to celebrities because they have sought publicity and therefore consented to the loss of their privacy and their private lives have become public interest. (McStay, 2017)

-        In Europe, celebrity’s privacy is protected by article 8 in the 1950 European convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms: ‘Everyone has a right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. There shall be no interference by a public authority … except … in accordance with the law and is necessary’. This must be balanced against article 10 which states that ‘everyone has the right to freedom of expression’. (McStay, 2017)

-        Public interest = sometimes ‘warrants intrusion’. UK Press Complaints Commission defines public interest as ‘detecting or exposing crime or serious impropriety; protecting public health and safety; preventing the public from being misled by an action or statement of an individual or organisation; or public interest in freedom of expression itself.’ (McStay, 2017)

-        Molly Russell, 14, committed suicide in 2017. She had accessed images on Instagram (owned by Facebook) and Pinterest of self-harm and suicide. Instagram argue that sharing individuals’ stories and connecting with others can be helpful with mental health recovery and therefore don’t remove certain content, however it will review its policies. Pinterest does censor harmful images like self-harm and is reviewing its guidelines. The minister of health, Matt Hancock, has strongly encouraged social media companies to remove all harmful content and when asked, said that a government ban on social media was a possibility. (BBC, 2019) Freedom of the individual to post and view what they want without censorship. Can be used for bad eg encouragement of negative patterns or good for advice and support.

-        There are many posts on Instagram which encourage extreme dieting. Instagram can also be used to offer support and advice to people with mental health issues. In 2012 some social media sites like Instagram banned certain hashtags and searches linked with eating disorders. (Crawford, 2019) 

-        Instagram is going to ban graphic images of self-harm (Marsh, 2019)

-        ‘It took 29 minutes for Facebook to detect the livestreamed video, which was eight minutes longer than it took police to arrest the gunman. About 1.3m copies of the video were blocked from Facebook but 300,000 copies were published and shared.’ (Anderson, 2019)

-        New Zealand law – Not allowed to possess material that depicts extreme violence or terrorism and inciting racial disharmony. 2 people have been charged for sharing the 17 min Facebook video on social media, with the possibility of spending 14 years in prison. A woman has been arrested over comments made on Facebook which incite racial disharmony under the Human Rights Act. New Zealand (NZ) does have the legal right of freedom of expression but is more restricted then the USA. NZ have a chief censor who decides what material is forbidden. A senior doctor in Auckland was suspended for writing anti-Islamic comments on a blog a few years ago. ‘Facebook said that during the 24 hours after the shooting, the company blocked more than 1.2 million attempts to upload the video. It took down more than 300,000 copies of the video that had been uploaded.’ Defining white supremacy activity can be difficult and can vary across different countries and areas. (Graham-McLay, 2019)

-        Facebook took down any praise and support for the Christchurch video. The internet can guide, encourage and support people to extremist, hateful and violent views. (Roose, 2019)

-        A video of a baby being killed in Tailand was live streamed on Facebook and wasn’t taken down for 24 hours. Mostly, content is only reviewed and taken down if users report it. ‘Facebook says it does not want to act as a censor, as videos of violence, such as those documenting police brutality or the horrors of war, can serve an important purpose’. (Chan, 2019)

-        There have been calls for censorship of extremist content from social media after the Christchurch mosque shooting. Pros for censorship – less people will be influenced by hate speech and violence and less people will be inspired to commit similar crimes. Censor the ‘minority to protect the welfare of the majority’. Against censorship – Allowing hate speech and extremist websites allowes law enforcement to monitor risks to the public. Censorship wouldn’t stop speech, it would make it more hidden and surveillance of it more difficult. Doesn’t stop the extremist ideology. (De Havilland, 2019)

I am going to be looking at the debate of freedom of speech and freedom of the individual in journalism and social media. 

The phone hackings by the News of the World invaded the privacy of individuals which they felt they had a right to do in the name of public interest. The UK Press Complaints Commission defines public interest as ‘detecting or exposing crime … ;protecting public health and safety; and preventing the public from being misled’ and therefore McStay argues that sometimes journalism does ‘warrant intrusion’. However, others argue against this level of freedom of speech. 

For example, in 2014 Cliff Richard was investigated for an alleged historic sexual offence which led to his house being searched by police while he was on holiday, without his knowledge, which he found out about when he saw reports and helicopter videos of the search on BBC news. Police dropped the investigation after 22 months and Cliff Richard sued the South Yorkshire Police and the BBC arguing that the ‘investigation and the search’ were private issues and therefore he should not have been named in the media. Justice Mann concluded that Cliff Richards privacy rights ‘were not outweighed by the BBC’s rights to freedom of’ speech and that ‘a lower key report of the search and investigation, for example a measured reading of the relevant facts by a presenter in a studio would be a serious infringement … what the BBC did was more than that’. However, Hovenkamp and Beswick wonder whether the BBC would still have been criticised if Cliff Richard had been charged and found guilty? 

In the case of Rolf Harris, who was named in the media while voluntarily facing police questions about serious sexual offences, before being arrested, there was no criticism of the media and the exposure in the media led to more victims coming forward leading to Rolf Harris’s conviction. 

All these cases involve people with celebrity status and therefore McStay argues that when these individuals sought publicity they gave up their right to privacy and therefore, when it comes to celebrities, there should be freedom of speech. 

With the development of the internet and social media, control, censorship and freedom of the individual has become a big issue. It is now very easy for anybody to purposefully or accidentally access harmful or inappropriate content online, for example, violence, pornography or extremist ideology. Although there are certain censorship settings in place to block certain words or images on some social media sites like twitter, many people argue that not enough is being done to protect people, especially children and vulnerable individuals. 

Molly Russell was 14 when she committed suicide in 2017. She had accessed images of self-harm and suicide on the social media sites Instagram and Pinterest. Without asking Molly it is impossible to know whether these images had an influence on her death, but her death has brought about issues of whether individuals should be free to view and post anything without censorship. 

It could be argued that censorship is needed to protect young and vulnerable people from accessing images and posts on social media which could encourage mental health issues. Matt Hancock, the minister of health, has strongly encouraged social media companies to remove all harmful content and said that a government ban on social media was a possibility. However, censorship of harmful material on social media could be argued to be a negative thing. Instagram doesn’t remove certain content because sharing of individuals stories and recovery and connecting with others can be very helpful and positive for those suffering with mental health issues. 

But more recently, there have been more criticism of the lack of censorship in the media after the Christchurch mosque shooting in March which Natalie mentioned earlier. 

The attack was livestreamed on Facebook which was online for 29 minutes before Facebook detected it. This isn’t the first-time live streaming has been used for violence, suicide or murders. For example, in Thailand it took 24 hours for a livestream video to be taken down of a baby being killed. Facebook blocked about 1.2 million copies of the Christchurch shooting livestream within 24 hours of the event.

New Zealand law does not allow possession of material that shows extreme violence or terrorism and 2 people have been charged for sharing the video on social media. Another woman has been arrested for the comments she wrote on Facebook which incite racial disharmony. New Zealand does have the legal right of freedom of the individual however this is more restricted then countries like the USA and New Zealand has a Chief censor who decides what material is forbidden. 

This level of censorship or an increased level of censorship could be argued to be a positive thing because the internet and social media can guide, encourage and support people to extremist, hateful and violent views. This could influence and inspire others to commit similar crimes. However, Facebook says that it ‘does not want to act as a censor’ because videos of violence, police brutality, and war for example ‘can serve an important purpose’. De Havilland argues that its important to not have censorship because censorship wouldn’t stop the ideology or the hate speech, it would just make it more hidden. Therefore, it would be more difficult for law enforcement to monitor extremist websites and risks to the public. 

Anderson, C. (2019) Censor Bans ‘Manifesto’ of Christchurch Mosque Shooter. [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/24/censor-bans-manifesto-of-christchurch-mosque-shooter [Accessed 22 April 2019].

Baldwin, R., Scott, A. and Murray, A. (n.d.) Informing Media Regulation in the Wake of the Phone-Hacking Scandal. [online]. Available at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/Research/research-impact-case-studies/informing-media-regulation-phone-hacking-scandal [Accessed 5 April 2019].

BBC (2019) Mental Health: UK Could Ban Social Media Over Suicide Images, Minister Warns. [online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47019912 [Accessed 5 April 2019].

Chan, K. (2019) Tech Companies Scramble to Remove New Zealand Shooting Video. [online]. Available at: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/tech-companies-scramble-remove-zealand-shooting-video-61707100 [Accessed 22 April 2019].

Crawford, A. (2019) Instagram Eating Disorder Content ‘Out of Control’. [online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47637377 [Accessed 14 April 2019].

Davies, N. (2014) Phone-hacking Trial was Officially About Crime; but in Reality, it was About Power. [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/25/-sp-phone-hacking-trial-rebekah-brooks-rupert-murdoch [Accessed 2 April 2019].

De Havilland, P. (2019) Tragic New Zealand Shooting Must Not Lead to Knee-Jerk Censorship. [online]. Available at: https://www.ccn.com/tragic-new-zealand-shooting-must-not-lead-to-knee-jerk-censorship [Accessed 22 April 2019].

Edwards, C. (2018) Social Media and Mental Health. Newark: Trigger.

Graham-McLay, C. (2019) Spreading the Mosque Shooting Video is a Crime in New Zealand. [online]. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/world/asia/new-zealand-attacks-social-media.html [Accessed 22 April 2019].

Hills, B. and Feikert-Ahalt, C. (2018) United Kingdom: Cliff Richard Wins Privacy Case Against BBC and South Yorkshire Police. [online]. Available at: http://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/united-kingdom-cliff-richard-wins-privacy-case-against-bbc-and-south-yorkshire-police/ [Accessed 2 April 2019].

Homayoun, A. (2018) Social Media Wellness. London: Sage Publications.

Hovenkamp, E. and Beswick, S. (2018) Don’t Talk About Him: Sir Cliff Richard OBE v. BBC. [online]. Available at: https://blogs.harvard.edu/nplblog/2018/07/19/dont-talk-about-him-sir-cliff-richard-obe-v-bbc/ [Accessed 2 April 2019].

Marsh, S. (2019) Molly Russel Death: Police ‘Likely’ to Access Teenagers Phone Data. [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/18/molly-russell-death-police-likely-to-access-teenagers-phone-data [Accessed 14 April 2019].

McStay, A. (2017) Privacy and the Media. London: Sage Publications.

Roose, K. (2019) A Mass Murder of, and for, the Internet. [online]. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/technology/facebook-youtube-christchurch-shooting.html [Accessed 22 April 2019].

Smith, R. C. (2018) Cliff Richard Judgement a New Shift in Legal Balance Between Free Speech and Privacy. [online]. Available at: https://theconversation.com/cliff-richard-judgment-a-new-shift-in-legal-balance-between-free-speech-and-privacy-100254 [Accessed 2 April 2019].

     Pluralists believe that industries are representative of the diversity of society (Punch et al., 2013). This means that there can’t be a monopoly or dominating power in any industry (Cameron et al., 2008). However, pluralists do believe there is an oligopoly within the media industry, but this is for economic reasons (Revisionworld, 2007). The media industry has become more diverse alongside society with all areas of society being catered for, for example the BBC Asian Network (Painter and Zarifi, 2013) and there being no dominant ruling class in the media (Thompson, 2013). This can be seen with the development of technology allowing more citizen journalism on websites like Youtube and Twitter (Hazeldine et al., 2016). The pluralist view on control and the media is that the public have the power instead of media owners due to their ability to buy or view one companies media or their competitor’s media (Revisionworld, 2007). Therefore, the media isn’t biased and just ‘mirrors what the audience wants’ (Haralambos et al., 2013). However, Keane (cited in Punch et al., 2013) argues that not all aspects of society are catered for in the media because not all areas of society can afford to produce or buy media and therefore don’t affect the consumer demand. On the other hand, consumer demand could be supported by Murdoch who bought The Sun newspaper in the 1960’s when it was a socialist newspaper and failing to gain readers and profit (Cameron et al., 2008). He changed it into an entertainment newspaper which ‘gave the consumers what they wanted’ (Cameron et al., 2008). Also, the pluralist view that media owners don’t have control of the media could be supported by the unbiased and objective journalistic integrity that journalists and editors hold (Hazeldine et al., 2016) meaning that editors and journalists wouldn’t allow the media owner to force their bias opinions in the media content. Media content is also monitored by the state, for example the Office for Communications (Ofcom) which monitors tv and radio content, with rules in place the limit the amount of media companies one person owns to stop their opinions becoming dominant (Haralambos et al., 2013). Whale (cited in Haralambos et al., 2013) adds that ‘media owners have global problems’ and therefore don’t have time to intervene in the day to day running and content of the media. Pluralists also argue that the media is very important for democracy because it provides the public with the information they need to be able to vote (Punch et al., 2013) and that media owners are ‘trustworthy managers and protectors’ of democracy (Revisionworld, 2007). 

     Marxists however, have the opposite view on control in the media than the pluralists. The Marxist belief in the capitalist elite in society is reflected in their belief that ruling class ideology is transmitted through the media by capitalist media owners (Revisionworld, 2007). This is done to brainwash the passive public into accepting a capitalist society and false class consciousness (Haralambos et al., 2013). Miliband (cited in Hazeldine et al., 2016) argues that this is evidenced by capitalism always being portrayed positively in the media and class inequality never being included in the media. However, Browne et al. (2016) argues that this is an unrealistic understanding of the public who aren’t as passive or easily manipulated as the Marxists believe. This control of media content by the media owners is established through the employment of editors and journalists who have similar opinions (Cameron et al., 2008) and who rely on the media owner for their job (Browne et al., 2016).  The former The Times editor Harold Evans (cited in Browne et al., 2016) claims that Murdoch, who owns The Times, undermined ‘editorial independence and pressed editorial staff to adopt his right-wing, conservative views’. Murdoch (cited in Browne et al., 2016) also stated that he is ‘hands on both economically and editorially’. These statements appear to support the Marxist view on media owners controlling the media, however, Curran (cited in Revisionworld, 2007) argues that Murdoch is not one of the capitalist elite because his aim is to make a profit rather than promote any ideology. However, Cameron et al. (2008) states that Murdoch controls the political views of The Sun and News of The World but not The Times or Sunday Times. This could be because the former two are aimed at the working-class whereas the latter two are aimed at the higher classes (Cameron et al., 2008). Another criticism of the Marxist perspective on media control is that the state laws and monitoring wouldn’t allow the media owner to manipulate the media or biased content (Browne et al., 2016). However, Marxists would argue that the government allows the media owner to break these rules in exchange for government support in the media and not releasing certain information to the public (Haralambos et al., 2013). Marxists also argue that media owners have an influence over politics because of their control of media content (Painter and Zarifi, 2013). This could be supported by Curran (cited in Revisionworld, 2007) who argues that, during the 20^th century, newspapers were used for propaganda of the media owner’s political views. Another example is Berlusconi who won the 1994 Italian presidential election while owning 3 tv stations and having access to 40% of the Italian public audience (Haralambos et al., 2013).

     Overall, although the Pluralist perspective on media control does have some supporting evidence, it appears to be an unrealistic fantasy of what the media should be like. On the other hand, the Marxist perspective has much more supportive evidence and could be argued to be more relevant in todays capitalist society. Therefore, the evidence suggests that it is more likely that media owners control the media.

Browne, K., Blundell, J. and Law, P. (2016) Sociology for AQA Volume 2 2^nd-Year A Level. 3 ed. Cambridge: Polity Press. 

Cameron, J., Flowers, T., Hart, M., Peace, M., Renton, N., Watts, D. and Wright, M. (2008) AQA Sociology A2. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.

Haralambos, M., Holborn, M., Chapman, S. and Moore, S. (2013) Sociology Themes and Perspectives. 8 ed. London: Collins.

Hazeldine, A., Purcell, S., Renton, N., Rippin, F. and Walker, A. (2016) A-Level Sociology AQA. S.l.: Coordination Group Publications Ltd.

Ott, B. L. and Mack, R. L. (2014) Critical Media Studies an Introduction. 2 ed. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Painter, E. and Zarifi, E. (2013) Key Concepts in Sociology. London: Collins.

Punch, S., Marsh, I., Keating, M. and Harden, J. (2013) Sociology. 5 ed. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Revisionworld (2007) Ownership and Control of the Media. [online]. Available at: https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/sociology/mass-media-0/ownership-and-control-media [Accessed 19 May 2019].

Thompson, C. H. (2013) Pluralist View of Media Owners. [online]. Available at: https://sociologytwynham.com/2013/07/16/pluralist-view-of-media-owners/ [Accessed 20 May 2019].

Gender 

     Women in the media are mainly portrayed as sexual objects for the gratification of men (Cameron et al., 2008). Kilbourne (cited in Haralambos et al., 2013) argues that the media represents women as ‘mannequins: tall and thin, often size-zero’. This stereotypical ‘beauty ideal’ for women can be seen across many media platforms and affects women’s concepts of beauty and self-confidence (Rayner et al., 2004). Tebbel (cited in Haralambos et al., 2013) found that magazines aimed at teenage girls focus on beauty and weight loss. Orbach and Wolf (cited in Hazeldine et al., 2016) argue that this has a direct link to the increase in women’s eating disorders. This is supported by the finding that societies without an established media rarely have cases of eating disorders (Haralambos et al., 2013). Eating disorders were the reason for 16,023 hospital admissions in the UK in the year leading up to April 2018 (Marsh, 2019) and has the highest death rate of all psychiatric illnesses (Mirasol Recovery Centers, 2018). However, within the 21^st century the media has started portraying women as strong, self-confident, intelligent and independent (Gauntlett cited in Haralambos et al., 2013). For example, in British soaps women like Bet Lynch and Rita Fairclough from Coronation Street are portrayed as strong, independent and positive role models (Punch et al., 2013). Although women are still under-represented in positions of power in the media (Cameron et al., 2008), the start of strong female roles coming into the media creates positive role models for young girls. 

     The working-class are portrayed in the media as a source of trouble for society (Hazeldine et al., 2016). For example, during the Miners’ Strike 1984 picketers were represented as violent (Cameron et al., 2008). Butsch (cited in Cameron et al., 2008) argues that the working-class are portrayed in the media as ‘buffoons who are immature, irresponsible and require the supervision of their betters’. It is argued that the media portrayal of the working class is from the point of view of the middle class due to the film and television industries being mainly dominated by the middle class (Giddens and Sutton, 2013). On the other hand, the upper-class are portrayed positively in the media. For example, shows like ‘Downton Abbey’ create a ‘romantic picture of life and class’ (Hazeldine et al., 2016). Marxists argue that the impact of this is that it keeps the working class distracted from the inequality of capitalism (Haralambos et al., 2013) and allows the dominance of the upper class and capitalist ideology to continue (Hazeldine et al., 2016).

     Young people are portrayed in the media negatively as being problems to society, for example in the news young people are represented as a threat with their drug use, binge drinking, unplanned pregnancies (Hazeldine et al., 2016), knife and gun crime, and gang culture (Cameron et al., 2008). This impacts society because it creates a sense of fear and danger (BBC, 2019). This also impacts young people because their issues like homelessness, unemployment, and poor mental health are ignored or not taken seriously (Wayne cited in Haralambos et al., 2013). However, younger children are positively represented in the media as adorable and innocent (Hazeldine et al., 2016). The impact of this on society could be that it helps to continue the natural instinct to protect vulnerable young and the next generation. Children are also portrayed as helpful and social by helping in the community with clubs like Scouts (Gordon et al., 2015) and charities like Children in Need (BBC, 2019). This could be argued to create a sense of hope and happiness in society for a positive world in the future. 

     In the media, black people are stereotyped as criminals, involved in drugs, gun crime and gangs (Hall cited in Cameron et al., 2008). This portrayal of black people as dangerous encourages racism and racial conflict (Cameron et al., 2008). The REACH report in 2007 states that ‘violence within the black community was partly the result of the media’s failure to portray black men positively’ (Haralambos et al., 2013). This has a negative impact on young black men’s self-image and confidence and causes them to have low expectations and aspirations for life (Haralambos et al., 2013). On the other hand, Asian people are often represented as being the ‘model minority’ in the media (Paner, 2018). For example, stereotypes of Asian people being intelligent, hardworking, successful (Paner, 2018) and computer geniuses (Allred, 2018) and having careers in medicine, law and business (Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), n.d.). However, this can have a negative impact on the Asian community because it misrepresents the diversity of the Asian work force (MANAA, n.d.) and undermines the struggles that Asian people face who don’t fit into the stereotypes (Paner, 2018). 

 

     In conclusion, representations of women can have a negative affect on their mental health, however recent changes are creating better role models for women. The working class are stereotyped, similarly to black people and young people, as dangerous and threats to the community. Whereas, the upper-class benefit from their positive stereotype in the media along with the positive stereotype of children which has a positive impact on society. However, the positive representation of Asian people has a negative impact on Asian communities. Overall, the representation of gender, class, age and ethnicity in the media can be both positive and negative and have both positive and negative affects on society and individuals.

 

Allred, L. (2018) Representation for Asians in Media Expands, Austin Responds. [online]. Available at: https://www.dailytexanonline.com/2018/09/09/representation-for-asians-in-media-expands-austin-responds [Accessed 6 June 2019]

BBC (2019) Representation of Age. [online]. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zx6qsg8/revision/1 [Accessed 5 June 2019]

Cameron, J., Flowers, T., Hart, M., Peace, M., Renton, N., Watts, D. and Wright, M. (2008) AQA Sociology A2. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.

Creative Commons (n.d.) Media. [image]. Available at: https://stearns.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/beyond-the-numbers-media-diversity-and-local-news/ [Accessed 6 June 2019]

Giddens, A. and Sutton, P. W. (2013) Sociology. 7 ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Gordon, F., McAlister, S. and Scraton, P. (2015) Behind the Headlines: Media Representation of Children and Young People in Northern Ireland. [online]. Available at: https://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/files/15482673/Behind_the_Headlines_Printed_Summary_Report.pdf [Accessed 5 June 2019]

Haralambos, M., Holborn, M., Chapman, S. and Moore, S. (2013) Sociology Themes and Perspectives. 8 ed. London: Collins.

Hazeldine, A., Purcell, S., Renton, N., Rippin, F. and Walker, A. (2016) A-Level Sociology AQA. s.l.: Coordination Group Publications Ltd.

Marsh, S. (2019) Hospital Admissions for Eating Disorders Surge to Highest in Eight Years. [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/hospital-admissions-for-eating-disorders-surge-to-highest-in-eight-years [Accessed 5 June 2019]

Media Action Network for Asian Americans (n.d.) Restrictive Portrayals of Asians in the Media and How to Balance them. [online]. Available at: http://www.ntac.hawaii.edu/AAPIcourse/downloads/pdf/readings/AsianAmericaStereotypes.pdf [Accessed 6 June 2019]

Mirasol Recovery Centers (2018) Eating Disorder Statistics. [online]. Available at: https://www.mirasol.net/learning-center/eating-disorder-statistics.php [Accessed 5 June 2019]

Paner, I. (2018) The Marginalization and Stereotyping of Asians in American Film. [online]. Available at: https://scholar.dominican.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=honors-theses [Accessed 6 June 2019]

Punch, S., Marsh, I., Keating, M. and Harden, J. (2013) Sociology. 5 ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Rayner, P., Wall, P. and Kruger, S. (2004) AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction. 2 ed. New York: Routledge.

 

 

     Neophiliacs believe that the new media due to the development of mass communication technology is a good thing (Curran and Seaton cited in Hazeldine et al., 2016). One reason for this is that mass communication allows people to make more social connections and nurture current relationships through media communication like gaming where social interactions and teamwork is encouraged (Punch et al., 2013). Social interactions are also aided by mass communication developments because it is now easier to keep in contact with friends and family anywhere in the world through Facebook, Twitter, email and Skype (Rayner et al., 2004). It also allows for the education of cultures and opinions which helps societies to be more diverse, understanding, accepting and social with the world (Hazeldine et al., 2016). This bring people around the world together to create a global community (McLuhan cited in Hazeldine et al., 2016). 

 

     Mass communication also helps society to function by helping people access knowledge about maps, business information, health issues and political information (Carah and Louw, 2015). It also allows people to make bank transactions, pay bills and order shopping online while being able to compare prices and get the best deals (Haralambos et al., 2013). The reporting and broadcasting of news stories has also changed with mass communication developments. News stories can now be streamed live to televisions, mobile phones and the internet (Cornford and Robins cited in Haralambos et al., 2013). This is often because news companies have been informed and sent images and videos of ongoing situations before news companies are able to get to the scene (Punch et al., 2013). For example, the pictures shown on television from the London bombings came from the public’s mobile phones (Haralambos et al., 2013). Sites like Twitter make it easier to access more information on these news story by using hashtags to group together all posts about the story (Hazeldine et al., 2016). 

 

 

     Cultural pessimists argue that the new developments of mass communication and media have negative impacts on society (Curran and Seaton cited in Hazeldine et al., 2016). The development of mass communication can allow fake news and unreliable or misinterpreted information to be published through sites like Wikipedia which damages society because it feeds the community with possibly incorrect information and undermines experts and professionals (Keen cited in Haralambos et al., 2013). It could also be argued that mass communication can cause a detachment from the real world because people stay isolated online rather than interacting with their family, friends and community in the real world (Giddens and Sutton, 2013). Online people can create new identities for themselves and have virtual lives (Cameron et al., 2008). This could be detrimental to society because young people aren’t developing the social skills needed for face to face interactions (Punch et al., 2013). On the other hand, mass communication allows for the organisation of groups in the real-world. For example, information sharing, recruitment and the organisation of meetings by extremist groups, like the English Defence League (Cohan and Kennedy, 2013). The lack of regulation of mass communication also allows for abuse, like homophobia, racism (Haralambos et al., 2013) and cyberbullying (Cameron et al., 2008), and inappropriate content, like websites that promote suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, to be made and shared online (Cameron et al., 2008). Mass communication also allows for violence to be shared on websites like Ogrish.com which contains videos of murder, torture and beheadings (Punch et al., 2013). On average by the age of 18 an American child will have seen 18,000 simulated murders on television (Watson cited in Cohen and Kennedy, 2013). This can be harmful to society because there have been cases where violence seen in the media has been replicated in real life (Cameron et al., 2008). Developments in mass communication has also increased the access that paedophile rings have to children through video sharing, chatrooms and social media (Cameron et al., 2008). An example of this was in 2003 when the FBI shut down a child pornography website based in Texas with worldwide subscribers (Cohen and Kennedy, 2013). Mass communication also allows for other crimes, for example sharing personal information on social media sites can increase the risk of identity theft and online banking and transactions can increase the risk of financial fraud (Cameron et al., 2008). National security is also at risk from hackers who can access confidential information and shut down government and business websites (Halliday cited in Cohen and Kennedy, 2013). Marxists argue that the developments in mass communication encourages this materialism and consumerism and therefore aids capitalism and control of the public (Haralambos et al., 2013).

 

 

     To conclude, the changes in mass communication since the 1990’s due to the developments in technology could be argued to have good social implications because it allows communication with people across the world and education of different cultures. However, the developments in mass communication could also be argued to have negative social implications because it could allow for criminal activity and put vulnerable people at risk. Overall, the evidence suggests that mass communication developments do make the world a better place as long as the dark sides of the media and communication are monitored and controlled.

 

 

 

Cameron, J., Flowers, T., Hart, M., Peace, M., Renton, N., Watts, D. and Wright, M. (2008) AQA Sociology A2. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.

 

Carah, N. and Louw, E. (2015) Media & Society. London: Sage Publications.

 

Chapman University (2018) Mass Communication [image] Available at: https://blogs.chapman.edu/communication/2018/10/04/com-151-mass-communication/ [Accessed 14 June 2019].

 

Cohen, R. and Kennedy, P. (2013) Global Sociology. 3 ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

 

Giddens, A. and Sutton, P. W. (2013) Sociology. 7 ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.

 

Haralambos, M., Holborn, M., Chapman, S. and Moore, S. (2013) Sociology Themes and Perspectives. 8 ed. London: Collins. 

 

Hazeldine, A. Purcell, S., Renton, N., Rippin, F. and Walker, A. (2016) A-Level Sociology. s.l: Coordination Group Publications Ltd.

 

Punch, S., Marsh, I., Keating, M. and Harden, J. (2013) Sociology. 5 ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.

 

Rayner, P., Wall., P. and Kruger, S. (2004) AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction. 2 ed. Abingdon: Routledge.