The sociology of mass media examines the institutions, products, and audiences of broadcast,
print, and, more recently, online media...
What is media content?
Media content is complete quantit
ative or qualitative range of verbal non verbal information shared to the masses in any medium available.
ative or qualitative range of verbal non verbal information shared to the masses in any medium available.
Institutions, media workers, and practices
Max Weber (1919/ 1998), suggested that
sociological research should focus on the institutions of journalism and examine them in
terms of who owns and controls them and the political and commercial influences on how
they operate.
Weber’s suggestions provide an early example of researching how wider
political and economic societal contexts influence media organisations. Following this line
on inquiry, Siebert et al. (1956) claim that organisations take on the form and structures of the
social systems in which they operate
, and Hallin and Mancini (2010) add that media
organizations’ relationship with the State (or government) is a key feature in this process. In
western democratic countries, governments establish rules to regulate media organizations,
including how large they can grow, who can own them, and how they can operate (e.g.,
according to impartiality and freedom of speech).
Media sociology has also argued that the connections among media organisations and
other elites in western democracies are more varied than a singular relationship with state
governance. For example, the shareholders and funders of media organisations bridge media
organisations and other industries (Curran 2005). In their positions, they can influence the
direction of a media organisation and prevent them from covering issues or areas that will
harm their interests. Moreover, (private) owners of mass media outlets exercise authority by
defining “the overall goals and scope of the corporation” and determining “the general way it
deploys its productive resources”
This approach to media institutions also highlights the profit motive as a significant
factor that underpins the actions of most media owners.
studies have charted the structural position of workers in
roles within media institutions. This has not only helped to uncover the institutional authority
over their work activities but also workers’ experiences of different levels of autonomy.
Often introduced is the importance of a set of norms and values
Content, representation, and social power
Whereas the above research has looked specifically at the dynamics that surround media
organisations and production, the sociological study of media products also offers insights
into the wider connections among the media, culture and society. In short, research in this
tradition has explored the relationship between media content and the social structure of
society. Media representations, particularly those depicting gender, ethnicity, and class,
reflect the influence of power and influence the thoughts and actions of individuals (Hall,
1997).
The term (media) “representation” commonly appears in discussions of media
content. It describes the simple idea that media content constructs or builds a version of
reality rather than reflecting actual reality, as would be produced from holding a mirror to the
world. Early media sociology explored this process by comparing differences between
observed political events (such as political rallies) and media reports of them. For example,
Lang and Lang (1953) revealed that the media were constructing ideas of public sentimen
Influences, audiences, and technology
Early work on the influence of the media on audiences likened media outputs as the contents
of a syringe which when injected could stimulate audiences and create “behavioural effects”
– such as aggression. This notion of the unsuspecting and largely passive audience that
underpinned this “hypodermic syringe” model (see McQauil 1997) was soon to be
superseded. These works described the media as either setting the publics’ agenda of issues
(McCombs and Shaw 1972), cultivating a view of society among audiences similar to that
reproduced on television (Gerbner 1972), or creating those ideological or discursive effects
suggested in studies introduced in the previous section.
media sociology has become an increasingly
important subfield in sociology. It has helped mainstream sociology to take the mass media
seriously, not only in terms of the increasing use of media in individuals’ social lives but also
in their economic and cultural lives, as media employees or as citizens of nation states in
whose economies the mass media institutions play a significant role.
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