SOCI 1F90 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Symbolic Interactionism, Propaganda Model, Feminist Theory
22 Feb 2019
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SOCIO 1F90 Midterm 2 Review
Lecture 1
Mass Media
● Any medium (device) designed to communicate messages to a mass audience
● EX. newspapers, books, radio, film, billboards, the internet
● Impact on socialization can be substantial
● Helps to define and reinforce standards of behavior, provides role models, and
communicates expectations about all aspects of social life today
● Mass media allows us to communicate ideas, values to many people
● Our capacity to communicate with one another is through symbols and
language
● Language can be verbal and Nonverbal(facial expression) written or unwritten
● Language helps us to interpret how we view reality
● Events mean nothing but WE are humans gives these things meaning (words,
media etc.)
Conflict Theory
● views mass media as vehicles used by the rich and powerful to control the
masses and to reinforce their false consciousness.Taken collectively, media
messages influence our perception of our social environment to promote
corporate interest and perpetuate class differences
● Believe the media intentionally create a social environment favourable to the
dominant class
● They argue media messages influence our perception of our social environment
to promote corporate interest and perpetuate class differences
Propaganda Model
● Asserts that since the dominant media are commercial enterprises, their
content will reflect the interest of the rich and powerful
● Content provided is not simply providing information but, rather,actively
creating content that appears to be truthful and accurate but is instead an
intentional manipulation of the facts to promote a particular position or
worldview
● Intentional manipulation
● EX. In 1988 Tobacco companies hired Heath services to talk to people telling
tobacco is good for stress relief (when we all know tobacco is bad and can kill
you) however they persuaded people to believe them
Symbolic Interactionism
● Symbolic interactionist view mass media as an important part of contemporary
life but one that is no more important than any other
● They explore how media influence our perceptions of our social world
● EX. the association with media presenting the “perfect body type” and the rate
our society has with eating disorders
Baudrillard argument
Hyperreal the result of when people define their own experiences based on a
perception of the world that has been simulated and constructed by the media.
Feminist Theory
Feminist theory has pointed out that the positions and/or worldviews perpetuated in
mass media often draw on gendered and misogynistic (the hatred or deep dislike of
women) beliefs, values, and traditions,
– Mass media (as a patriarchal institution) plays a very important role in
our perceptions/understandings of masculinity and femininity and
ultimately toward shaping our behaviour toward each other.
● They investigates their patriarchal nature by highlighting the use of images of
women in advertising, the exploitation of women in the pornography industry
and the tendency to present a solely masculine view on the world
● EX. The bachelor don’t represent women in good ways just that they need to
compete to catch a men
● Women are being expressed in the media as “sex dolls” that's all we are good
for, we are used for submissive the images are always the men dominance
● Porn is a tool men use to control, objectify and suppressed of women
● Most culturally valued form of femininity (not necessarily the most prevalent)
● Characteristics include supportiveness, enthusiasm and sexual attractiveness
● Stiletto heels, are an enduring signifier of emphasized femininity
Advertising: Turning Women into Objects
● Advertising is part of a cultural climate that perceives and represents women as
things, as objects.
● This objectification is one of the first steps toward justifying violence against
them. Racism, sexism, homophobia are a part of this same process.
● objectification results in violence against women
Critical Race Theory
The interdisciplinary approach used to investigate the intersections of race, class,
ethnicity, gender and sexuality to explain prejudice and discrimination
Homogenization of Culture
● Making our cultures les complex and more alike attempts of cultural
nationalism
● Devoid of any real consequence in our electronic world because global media
content is controlled by a handful of multinational corporations
● EX. shopping malls around the world contains the same megastores catering to
increasingly similar consumers
Erving Goffman Gender Advertisements (1979)
• Analyzed over 500 magazines advertisements and news photographs
• Asked why do most ads not look strange to people.
• Goffman found that advertisements are strange creations, particularly in
regard to their portrayal of gender relation
Goffman employed a coding strategy that arranged the advertisements into the
following five categories:
1. feminine touch: describes the phenomena of women who lightly or delicately
touch objects or their own body parts
2. function ranking: presents women as subordinate to men within the family
structure, the workforce, & nearly any other social arrangement.
3. ritualization of subordination: shows women adopting postures that indicate
submission to men’s authority & control
4. relative size: shows women often smaller than men to reinforce their
supposed delicateness and weaker emotional state
5. licensed withdrawal: depicts women as disoriented & psychologically removed
from a social situation
Gender Display (Goffman)
• Gender display is the process whereby we perform the roles expected of us by
social convention
– It is from gender displays that advertising borrows so heavily
Race and Racialization- Lecture 2
Prejudice
A negative prejudgement about a person or group that is irrational, long-lasting and
not based on fact
Racism
Racism Defined
● An ideology that maintains that one “race” is inherently superior to another
● Ideas and/or ideals that assert and\or imply the normality or superiority of one
social group over another: together with the institutional power, these
idea/ideals are put into practice in ways that control, exclude or exploit those
defined as culturally different or racially inferior
● Includes processes of racialization which can be negative and/ or positive
(positive for people defined as “white”) includes colour symbolisms of black
and white, which get attached to human groups
● Racialized is not natural it is prejudice (not the same as racism)
● Racialization with certain activity, running fast deals with black people,
intelligence focuses on asian people
● Racialization can be negative or positive EX. people defined as white is good
(not negative) however balck it is negative, asian it has been classified mixed
they are good at math HOWEVER we think they are too smart and a threat to
white people
● Sociologist argue the symbols we use help we view and define groups of people
(symbol white and black)
● Black has symbolic weight, EX. black ice, (you can’t see it, deadly dangerous),
blackmail (to extort), Blacklist (people to be shunned, negative), black sheep of
them family, black monday (signify historics of the stocks crash)
● Whiteness have NO symbolic weight
Document Summary
Any medium (device) designed to communicate messages to a mass audience. Ex. newspapers, books, radio, film, billboards, the internet. Helps to define and reinforce standards of behavior, provides role models, and communicates expectations about all aspects of social life today. Mass media allows us to communicate ideas, values to many people. Our capacity to communicate with one another is through symbols and language. Language can be verbal and nonverbal(facial expression) written or unwritten. Language helps us to interpret how we view reality. Events mean nothing but we are humans gives these things meaning (words, media etc. ) Believe the media intentionally create a social environment favourable to the dominant class. They argue media messages influence our perception of our social environment to promote corporate interest and perpetuate class differences. Asserts that since the dominant media are commercial enterprises, their content will reflect the interest of the rich and powerful.
