Tagged: media

Gender & Sexuality / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

Mediated Domestic Violence: Is the New Visibility Short Lived?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mr4kXW6mOU] by NickieWild The media in the United States, especially television, re-discovers the severity of violence against women when a highly visible image or story occurs. The latest incident, involving singers Chris Brown and Rihanna, has been extensively covered on local, national, and cable news, and talk shows like Oprah and Dr. Phil. However, as academic writers on the subject have noted, the media continually “rediscover” this problem in response to a specific incident that is either particularly horrific (such...

Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance

‘Hoodies or Altar Boys?’

by paulabowles Recent research commissioned by the group Women in Journalism has looked at the portrayal of teenage boys in the press. By analysing both national and regional papers, the research team hoped to gain some insight into the representation of youth by the British media. Perhaps, unsurprisingly the overarching theme was one of negativity, with labels such as ‘yob’, ‘thug’, ‘feral’, ‘scum’ and louts cropping up again and again. The only exception to this representation appears to have been...

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Orientalism, Globalism, Hybridization

by linanne10 Tokyo may be one of the most extreme examples of a hybridized international city, in an age of rapid globalization. Cultural negotiation and reconciliation between Western notions of modernization and traditional Japanese civilization (or to some extent, Asian civilization) found their way in this kaleidoscopical urban space, whether in tension or in peace. The film, Tokyo! (opening on March, 6 in New York City), is a triptych by three foreign directors, Bong Joon-ho, Leos Carax and Michel Gondry,...

Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

“I Missed the Joke”: Race, Rupert Murdoch, and the NAACP

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4mBRYueMss] by NickieWild Last week, a very racially charged cartoon appeared in the New York Post, featuring a couple of police officers having killed a chimpanzee, with the caption, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” The cartoon was supposedly a somewhat weak joke about an animal that attacked a woman, and was shot by police in Connecticut, linked tenuously with commentary of a sort about President Obama’s economic plan. Civil rights leaders weren’t laughing....

Class & Stratification / Social Psychology & Lifecourse / Sociology of Media & Communication

‘What’s it all about, Alfie?’

                                                                                                       by paulabowles Once again the emotive issue of teenage pregnancy has hit the headlines in the UK. The recent news that 13 year old Alfie, and his 15 year old girlfriend Chantelle have become parents, has sparked a frenzy occupying all branches of the media from the broadsheets to the tabloids and the BBC to YouTube, as well as attracting the attention of senior politicians. Although, very young, Alfie and Chantelle are by no means, the youngest children to...

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

New Technology, Fear, and the Priming Effect

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imLOGgs9Qyk] by NickieWild There is perhaps no more frightening an image to today’s parents of pre-teen and teenage children in the U.S. than that of the internet predator. A lone adult man siting behind a computer screen in a darkened room lures the innocent child into an unsafe situation. But is this just an image – a bogeyman created by the media? Shows like NBC’s To Catch A Predator certainly increase concerns. Although old shows still continue to be aired,...

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Game Studies

by bmckernan Towards the end of 2008, the PEW Internet & American Life Project released two studies on video games whose results were met with some shock by the mainstream media. The first PEW survey focused on youth and video games and found that 97% of the respondents (ages 12 to 17) play video games, including 99% of boys and 94% of girls. A few months later, the project followed this up with a second study which found that 53%...

Science & Technology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Multiple Births as Media Spectacle

by theoryforthemasses In the past week considerable debate has emerged over the birth of a set of octuplets to a California woman. Controversy has surrounded both the doctors who facilitated the births as well as the mother herself, who is single, unemployed, and has six other children. The attention that is being paid to this family by both the media and ordinary people who are eager to share their opinions on fertility treatments and parental responsibility has created nothing short...

Class & Stratification / Race & Ethnicity Studies / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

Conflict, Propaganda, and “Homeland Security”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6akE9YDEUo] by NickieWild A new television show on the U.S. broadcast network ABC called “Homeland Security USA” has been stirring up controversy within the immigrants’ rights community. Ostensibly a Homeland Security Department version of the long-running show “Cops,” this version includes border and port security activity. Critics ask, is this just another reality show, or an elaborate piece of propaganda? Some civil rights groups believe the latter, and one has organized a protest and boycott directed against the show. They...

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Tupac in Gaza

by bmckernan  A while back, the NY Times published an extended article on the reception of American cultural products in the Gaza. In some significant ways, the article mirrors many of the arguments recently put forward by social scientists who have become increasingly unsatisfied with the cultural imperialism thesis. Among this academic group includes recent work by the sociologist Ronald Jacobs as well as the anthropologist Daniel Miller. Both assert that while there is insight to gain from the cultural...

Sociology of Law, Crime and Deviance / Sociology of Media & Communication

“High Status” Crime That Does Pay

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMQTiD-FAlw]by NickieWild The Bernard Madoff investment scandal has wiped out dozens of individual investors. Many charitable organizations and non-profit groups have been affected by the scam, such as the Innocence Project, Human Rights Watch, and The Center for Constitutional Rights. The JEHT Foundation, dedicated to funding organizations that promote open government and voter registration drives, has been forced to close completely. The scam he has admitted to carrying out is a Ponzi scheme, which is a type of white-collar crime...

Political & Economic Sociology / Social Movements / Social Change / Sociology of Media & Communication

Closed for Mourning

by kiddingthecity To what extent, I have been thinking recently, can we feel, understand, and represent the suffering of other people? Is it reasonable to argue that the continuous exposure to images of the atrocity of the war – most notably children – has rendered those atrocities a media spectacle and “Us” a privileged passive audience? Would this prevalent opinion make any difference to the crude ‘reality’ of the conflicts? Or, on the other hand, if we maintain that “We”...

Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Just Where Do Trusted News Sources Get Their Information?

by NickieWild [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu-PF3O0ZpY] Remember all the reports immediately following the conclusion of the presidential campaign that an unnamed McCain-Palin campaign policy advisor leaked to the media that Sarah Palin didn’t know that Africa was actually a continent, and not a country? Remember all the interviews Palin did denying the reports, and calling the unnamed sources cowards and liars? Soon afterwards, reports swirled on cable news that the source of the leak had identified himself as Martin Eisenstadt, a member of...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Internet (Community) Organizer?

by socanonymous Popular media and pundits alike are praising President-Elect, Barack Obama and his campaigners for taking his message to the internet. Much of Obama’s skills and experience in community organizing have been taken online. This election has definitely been history in the making, in more than one way. The successful linkage of technology, namely the internet, and politics has been proven effective in this election. There are countless benefits to the use of the internet for political gains including...

Political & Economic Sociology / Sociology of Media & Communication

Social Media and Politics

No one can deny that the technology available today is changing the face of politics.  With the explosion of the internet, candidates are conducting much of their fundraising efforts and the promotion of their campaigns on a virtual campaign trail.  Information concerning nominees of both parties can be found on social networking websites such as Facebook and Myspace, an infinite amount of blog sites, and video sites such as Google video and YouTube.  In the video clip below from Newsworld, the use of...

Race & Ethnicity Studies / Sociology of Culture / Sociology of Media & Communication

Chocolate or Milk Chocolate?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoDbO3NeTj4] (by linanne10) Race has long time been a crucial issue for the American society. The representation of people of color is especially tricky in the media, where the mainstream discourses are produced and reproduced largely by and for the white community. The recent debut of the comedy, “Chocolate News,” unrolls with the idea of creating a black sitcom “by and for” the African-American community. The French theorist, Michel Foucault, has noted the relationship between power and the production of...