Sociology of Mass Media: News Selection, Presentation, and Theories

This journal article examines the role of mass media in society, focusing on news selection and presentation processes. It delves into the 'Hypodermic Syringe' model and other media effect theories, exploring how mass media influences audiences. The report discusses sociological theories like agenda-setting, neo-Marxist, neo-pluralist, and postmodernism, providing a comprehensive understanding of media's impact. The article also evaluates the concept of news as a socially constructed entity, influenced by various internal and external factors, including media ownership and journalist biases. The report concludes by highlighting the influence of the mass media on shaping public opinion and lifestyle choices.

Sociology of Mass Media
Title: Unit 9 – Sociology of Mass Media
Question 1
The role of the mass media and the process of selection and presentation of the news
Assignment Name:
Student Name:
Course Name and Number:
Professor:
Date:
0

Sociology of Mass Media
Abstract
Mass media makes the world smaller by connecting the people across the globe. It helps in
bringing social change. This study provides a brief description of the role of mass media, the
selection and presentation of news while interpreting some sociological theories. The role of
mass media describes the impact of mass media on society while influencing the belief
system and lifestyle of a society. This issue is discussed in the media effect theories. The
sociological approaches discuss the agenda-setting theory, Marxists' theory, Neo-pluralist's
theory, and Postmodernism theory.
Keywords: news values, news selection process, media impacts, social impacts of mass
media, mass communication impact
1

Sociology of Mass Media
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Role of Mass Media in Society..................................................................................................3
The ‘Hypodermic Syringe’ Model (HSM):............................................................................3
Publicly Owned Media:..........................................................................................................4
Privately Owned Media:........................................................................................................4
Sociological Theories in Mass Media........................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
2

Sociology of Mass Media
Introduction
Mass media covers the stories from a culture or society. This media motivates people
to adapt a lifestyle or belief system which follows the culture of a different region or country.
People want to follow the trend covered by the mass media as they are highly influenced by
the media personalities and imagines themselves to become like them by copying their
fashion. Mass media helps to create social awareness like Child abuse, Female
empowerment, AIDS, etc. For instance, People’s notion or attitude is changed about AIDS or
HIV virus after the media awareness. This study will discuss the media effect theory such as
hypodermic syringe’ model (HSM).
Role of Mass Media in Society
Weaver (2015) argues that not all the facts having evidence can be regarded as the
events but a few of them can be considered as news. It is a socially manufactured good as a
selective process produces it. The journalists or editors make a decision regarding the choice
of news and the process of covering them. News values are similar to a new category which
determinant of the priority given by the media and the audience (Weaver, 2015). News values
can differ as per the culture. This study describes how the journalists and editors of mass
media consider a piece of information news and neglect others. According to a report of
2005, 67% of people prefer television news, 10% depends on newspaper and rests are relied
on the radio.
The ‘Hypodermic Syringe’ Model (HSM):
This model believes that mass media injects the content in the mind of the audience
who accepts the message passively. It is also termed as the “magic bullet effect”. This theory
is used to analyse the impact of propaganda by Nazi Germany during the time of public
hostility caused by media demonization (McQuail and Windahl, 2015). This theory suggests
3

Sociology of Mass Media
that Children are vulnerable to mass media because of the exposure of vengeance and
antisocial traits in the media. It can lead them to ‘copycat’ behaviours as they are in the
process of socialization. This theory is favoured by Albert Bandura's "Bobo Doll" study in
1963, where a group of nursery school children was given Bobo Doll and they were divided
into three groups according to their behaviour towards the doll. One group behaves violently
towards the doll, the second group ignores the doll and behaves like adult and the third group
is not noticed for any adult attitude. In the second phase of this experiment, individual
children were taken in a room full of toys including the Bobo doll and they are observed to be
violent. Hellmueller and Mellado (2015) refute the argument by supporting the media effect
as it teaches the children to act differently in the time of conflict or discussion abandoning the
normal state. The gap of this theory is that it fails to distinct the audience group as per their
cultural background, age, gender, social status, maturity level, education, and religion.
The media effect theory discusses the impact of media on the audience whether the
sociologists suggest that media does not deliver a neutral message, rather it promotes an
ideology or focuses on a specific agenda. The social science perceives the news as a biased
product because the organizational selection process is based on the news values. One of the
variables in this study is the media owner who may have biases for news.
Publicly Owned Media:
When the presentation of the media is controlled by the state or government, it is
called publicly owned media; for example, BBC news which is run by the funding of license
fees (Muddiman and Stroud, 2017). This kind of media perceives an event in the lenses of
government and government has full right to prevent a news story from being exposed to
masses if it is classified as sensitive.
Privately Owned Media:
Individuals own this kind of media channels and newspapers and they are impartial to
government activities (Hellmueller and Mellado, 2015).
4

Sociology of Mass Media
Sociological Theories in Mass Media
 Agenda setting theory –
According to this theory, the stories are selected, packaged and undergoes through the
process of Gatekeeping and produces agenda. This theory implies that the public also
prioritizes a piece of news, prioritized by a press or media. Maxwell McCombs and Donald L
Shaw coin the term while associating it to the important issues in the election campaign
(Funk and McCombs, 2017).
 Neo-Marxist –
Neo-Marxists also have a resemblance of Marxists' view, as they believe that the
media presents a capitalist's ideology in front of the mass people. The owners of mass media
do not set this ideology. Kellner (2018) describes that media represents a ruling class
ideology which gives a pro-capitalists' message. The media gives the example of an ideal
religion, family, and education, which captures the image of the dominant class (Kellner,
2018).
 Neo-pluralism –
While the Pluralists define the journalists as the unbiased follower of truth, the Neo-
pluralists describes that journalists rely upon the government and public relation
professionals in reporting events. Harcup, (2019) introduces the term "churnalism" where the
news is cured out 80% by the government bodies and 20% by the journalists (Harcup, 2019).
 Postmodernism
Due to the rise of a new cultural form the traditional values of news selection is
questioned. Postmodernism describes a culture where the audience is less bothered about the
states or countries and their politics; rather they love to indulge in themselves (Singer, 2018).
Media dominates the desires of people and they are concern about their lifestyle determining
5

Sociology of Mass Media
the status, rather than the income. Media perceives the lives of people are mean to
consumptions.
Conclusion
While selecting news stories, their interpretation, and emphasis, journalists are driven
by various internal and external influences. As a human being, they may be biased in
reporting which leads to an unethical outcome. In order to gain an advantage over the market
competition, they set their objective as seeking interesting stories relevant to the audience. In
the rush of gaining competitive advantage, the media channels are inclined to the news that
creates values to the audience.
6

Sociology of Mass Media
References:
Funk, M.J. and McCombs, M., 2017. Strangers on a theoretical train: Inter-media agenda
setting, community structure, and local news coverage. Journalism Studies, 18(7), pp.845-
865.
Harcup, T., 2019. News Judgment, News Values, and Newsworthiness. The International
Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies, pp.1-8.
Hellmueller, L. and Mellado, C., 2015. Professional roles and news construction: A media
sociology conceptualization of journalists’ role conception and performance.
Kellner, D., 2018. Television and the Crisis of Democracy. Routledge.
McQuail, D. and Windahl, S., 2015. Communication models for the study of mass
communications. Routledge.
Muddiman, A. and Stroud, N.J., 2017. News values, cognitive biases, and partisan incivility
in comment sections. Journal of communication, 67(4), pp.586-609.
Singer, J.B., 2018. Transmission creeps: Media effects theories and journalism studies in a
digital era. Journalism Studies, 19(2), pp.209-226.
Weaver, D.H., 2015. Studying journalists and journalism across four decades: A sociology of
occupations approach. Mass Communication and Society, 18(1), pp.4-16.
7