Assignment 10 group coursework presentation of research draft 2 part 1.5
- 3. Topic Research - Sociology Development 90’s 2012 There has been an upsurge in progressive activism (basically Web 2.0) since the 90’s within democratize of the content, practices and structures in dominant media (basically we all now have equal freedom throughout media in comparison before)
- 4. Topic Research - Sociology Mass Media Sociologists believe that the Mass Media is one of the main factors that reinforce modern culture – and most significant at that. They find that we are bombarded with messages to either promote, reflect and create a culture that society should follow. Some call this ‘medicated media’
- 5. Topic Research - Sociology Web 2.0 Keen 2007 Web 2.0 has been ushered in by rhetoric of ‘democratization’ Keen defined this by stories and images of ‘the people’ reclaiming the internet and taking control of its content’ a kind of ‘people’s internet’ or less positively, the emergence of the cult of the amateur. O’Reilly 2005 He notes that operating software and applications move above the level of single devices, which further Lash 2000 states technology moved from the desktop to WebTop Led to… • New collaborative • Participatory • Open culture Anyone can get involved -> potential to be seen and heard
- 6. Topic Research - Sociology Web 2.0 Balnaves, Donald and ShoeSmith 2009 “4 Distinct revolutions in the history of media” Mosoco 2004 Cautions about the significance and effects of current media and public communication – noting the warning of “digital sublime”, Woolgar 2002 even discusses the “cyberbole”, and the five-stage technology ‘Hype Cycle’ described by Gartner Research 2008. Therefore not agreeing that … Battelle 2005 states Web 2.0 shapes public communication. However the development of Web 3.0 is well advanced and is predicted to accelerate changes, as well as lead to a range of new functions and dysfunctions
- 7. Topic Research - Sociology Reform Activism Media reform and activism can be politically conservative or reactionary, in the sense of reinforcing patterns of hierarchy and exclusion. An example are campaigns by fundamentalists religious groups against gay-positive representations or policies (e.g Disney corporation was the target of a campaign against same-sex partner employee benefits) This concerns media activism that is democratic and progressive – in the sense of seeking a more equality sharing of political, economic, social, cultural and informational resources and status.
- 8. Topic Research - Sociology Mobilisation to Collective Action Charles and Tilly - 1978 Mobilisation to Collective Action 1978 They note the emerging shape and form of social activism – changing the repertoire of collective action. This grasps democratic media activism. Therefore they point our four predominant forms of action to democratize communication – which ultimately makes media equal and fair. #1 #2 #3 #4 influencing content advocating reform building hanging the and practices of of government independent, relationship mainstream media policy/regulation of democratic and between audiences media in order to participatory media. and media, chiefly e.g. finding openings change the structure by for oppositional and policies of e.g. skills training, empowering voices, media media themselves distribution services audiences to be monitoring, more critical of campaigns to change e.g. media reform hegemonic media specific aspects of coalitions representation e.g. media education and culture jamming.
- 9. Topic Research - Sociology Effects McChesney 1993 & Star 2000 He found encouraging recent surge of work on alternative media as a site of potentially counter-hegemonic cultural and political practice . Therefore media is developing back to its manipulated and influential state Curran 2003 & Downing 2001 Whereas this study has been relatively few effects on resistance, hereby modern societies aren't as democratic as it seems. The debate on society being democratic or hegemonic is therefore very hard to define and state
- 10. Topic Research - Sociology Class Dominance Theory Class dominant theory argues that media reflects and projects the view of a minority elite, which controls it. • Those who control, produce media • Limits competition of big businesses – especially new media • Few people have change to manipulate what people hear and see • Can avoid stories
- 11. Topic Research - Sociology Culturist Theory The culturist Theory sees audiences as playing an active rather than passive role in mass media – how they interact and produce. • Emphasise amount of options • Interpretations, developing knowledge and experience Claim few elite in large corporations exert significant control over what information media produces and distributes and audience play more powerful role
- 12. Topic Research - Sociology Primary I asked… Research Do you think society is being indirectly controlled or is democracy increased in media? My respondents generally think… • Society hegemonic-ally controlled – i.e indirectly being told how to act • Media is a big controlling factor emphasising ideology to society • Democracy is a smokescreen to keep us all dumb from how they are indirectly controlling us
- 13. Topic Research - Sociology Democratic or Hegemonic Democratic Hegemonic Web 2.0 and 3.0 has allowed the The elite still take control over the audience to have greater media as they are the ones who own participation the industries
- 15. Topic Research – Social Media Networking Use of Twitter’s hash tag is used to unite people opinions from all around the world, - Enforcing democracy - this is also used throughout media including TV and Magazines E.G documentary ‘one born every minute’ This allows the audience to participate with the programmes – significantly those who ‘shout-out’ the tweets between intervals to share with viewers, which would have not been done before Web 2.0 However tweets are chosen – presenting a small sensation of hegemony in Networking
- 16. Topic Research – Social Media Networking Followed Facebook is largely democratic as everyone has the equal freedom to create pages and groups on something they like, they think or they do However, other users could be manipulated by these domineering groups and feel pressure to like what they do, ultimately they feel they have to conform the ‘Facebook ideals’
- 17. Topic Research – Social Media Social News Thankfully to Web 2.0 we can all interact and post our own stories on social news sites! However Hegemony and Democracy exists within Although Slashdot emphasises their qualities of allowing their audience participation generate their whole site • Users can post their own stories • However, the stories they get from page are decided by a more powerful figure
- 18. Topic Research – Social Media Social News Where as Digg is largely a democratic website – fully in control by the audience Digg has a voting system put on every user generated story where any user is allowed to vote ‘Digg’ or ‘Bury’ • The story with most votes get from page • The story with too many burys is deleted from the website
- 19. Topic Research – Social Media Blogs Blogs have practically no rules, you can post what ever you want based on your interests This promotes audience freedom, further an equal and fair system i.e – on Tumblr, nothing is censored Celebrity / Idol blog Culture blog Fashion blog
- 20. Topic Research – Social Media Blogs However these systems are tailored to your likes and dislikes – E.G if you type in ‘Fashion blogs’ in Google, only a certain type will come up that you like They rest is not shown to you This almost forms your likes, as the ones your not shown could be something you would like but you cant see it do you don’t have the opportunity. This may come up for me But this would come up to someone else
- 21. Topic Research – Social Media Online Dating Since the internet started online dating has been slowly developing. To now, people can tick boxes and find a partner who is similar to them while being on a website that caters there need whether it be • Age • Sexuality • Culture • Religion • Fetishes Though this system that picks our your match could not be presenting you will all compatibilities – taking control to who you will speak to and who you won’t – you are not in-control and as widespread as you think you are to find love online. However, it depends as a user how much you trust the sites.
- 22. Topic Research – Social Media Wiki’s But who does actually edit the information – Those with the resources and knowledge These faceless ‘professionals’ are the ones who dominate industries and manipulate people below or in less authority than them. Therefore how does anyone know this information is not hegemonic? People always take it how it is – because they think someone more knowledgeable is always right, to which the audience conforms
- 23. Topic Research – Social Media Video sites are again all audience E.G… Video Sites participatory which 48 hours of footage is uploaded every hour! An example of audience participation is - Nam cat - people start posting cats watching the This enforced the things what video people like get popular and allow other to post their own video’s of it – connecting people across the world because of Web 2.0 the creativity that inspires others in technological culture making many so many different versions entire remix community, something we all became a part of. to posting a cat watching a cat watch the video.
- 24. Topic Research – Social Media TED Kevin Allocca Talks Why video’s go viral A part of this video highlights the reason for some video’s popularity is because of the ‘Tastemakers’ who publish it to the world. This means on domineering figure influences others to like a video, that otherwise someone else who is not, it would not have gone viral – presenting some type of Jimmy Kimmel tweeted on the video hegemony
- 25. Topic Research – Social Media Primary I asked… Research Do you think social media is fair or manipulated by the faceless business behind? My respondents generally think… • Being on twitter and Facebook is not beneficial as it leads to bullying and manipulative way to be • Allows us to express opinions, enforces democracy • Some sites have a face behind it, so therefore by knowing who would be manipulating you, allows audience to think and be comfortable with the owner and therefore the website
- 26. Topic Research – Social Media Democratic or Hegemonic Democratic Hegemonic Web 2.0 has dramatically increased Those who own sites generate your our freedom to comment and post results whatever we want
- 28. Topic Research - News Bias The elite control the news, they show what the want History to show and what they don’t Have you ever noticed pieces of history don’t quite add up? Or that it seems as though parts have been deleted or hidden from us? Well the elite have authority to do this. There are plenty if things the News hide from us. It's not hard since most of us blindly follow. • you are told what certain people want you to hear • ever wondered who the groups and names of their people (monsters) behind wars are? • ever wondered why globalisation exists? • ever wondered if history is exactly the way it is or is it only the author's perspective? • do you really think global warming is entirely created by man? No, because News is completely hegemonic, the audience have no say in what we know and what we don’t
- 29. Topic Research - News Corrupt Elite Theoretically the corrupt elite can only be brought down if there is an 'awakening of the people', if people just stop accepting things the way they are, they can actually progress and advance. If there is enough information, technology, freedom to move forwards and invest in rights for humanity, animals, plants and the world, in good food, health, education and shelter for everyone. But why doesn't society do this? The news supress audience knowledge with ‘smokescreen’ information
- 30. Topic Research - News Current Debate The current debate across the UK is whether the News tell us everything we should know? Some think that the news bombards society with a big story e.g ‘Bin Laden's Death’ to cover up a story on the elite, government – and something their doing An example is Hitler who banned smoking in Germany because it caused cancer. However the government kept it a secret & flooded Germany with free cigarettes to increase the death rate. Which was Therefore making it extremely hard for society to become anti-establishment and kept a complete secret to Americans! react to what they show, as there is very little evidence of this – but their dominance and manipulation to the public is greatly evident
- 31. Topic Research - News Dominance Local TV news is the most popular that audiences watch and listen to However, it only cover 12% of international news • Because its cheap • Easy to access • international news is highly corruptive to show because of audience distrust with governments – trying to hide something? However audiences have no control to see this news as they don’t have the resources, therefore we are inevitably manipulated by the news. Most people believe what they are told – if its on TV News its almost officially the truth
- 32. Topic Research - News TED Alisa Miller Talks The news about news The video stated shocking facts such as.. • Death of Anna Nicole Smith covered news on all countries and had 10x more coverage than the IPCC report • News networks have decreased by 50% of foreign bureaus because covering people like Britney Is cheaper • Global news is recycled and does not put their context across in a away the audience could understand it- leading to a decrease in knowledge around the world • All down to dominance as 52% follow global news, but they don’t even know that much about it • And this is all out of our hands -> they are hegemonic
- 33. Topic Research - News Primary I asked… Research - Do you think the news is showing us all that we have the right to see? Or are they hiding stories? My respondents generally think… • Doesn't cover complete stories • Depends on the opinions of the controller • Depends on ownership • Mainstream news is no longer trustworthy • They show the cheaper stories so we aren't shown the more important stories • If we want the truth, we need to do our own research and become more democratic
- 34. Topic Research - News Democratic or Hegemonic Democratic Hegemonic In the future the News could become The news is hegemonic controlled by democratic if people have the the elite, they have the power. resources and come together to They manipulate audiences to become anti-establishment believe what they tell us
- 35. Record of Resources used… Wikipedia Examples of wikis Articles online To see which type of news is more dominant Newspaper articles Too see a general stories the news post compared with others YouTube videos Statistics Textbooks Sociologist research Periodicals - Books - Vimeo videos - TED videos Social media and News search Slide Share Sociologist research Blogs Blogs research Social Media Networking research on twitter and online dating Phone interview, expert - In-person interview public - In-person interview expert - Yahoo! Primary research