media studies

(noun)

Academic discipline that deals with the content, history, meaning, and effects of various media, and in particular mass media.

Related Terms

Examples of media studies in the following topics:

  • Documents

    • Typically, sociological research on documents falls under the cross-disciplinary purview of media studies, which encompasses all research dealing with television, books, magazines, pamphlets, or any other human-recorded data.
    • Regardless of the specific media being studied, they are referred to as texts.
    • Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass communication, communication, communication sciences, and communication studies.
    • Content analysis refers to the study of recorded human communications, such as paintings, written texts, and photos.
    • It falls under the category of unobtrusive research, which can be defined as ways for studying human behavior without affecting it in the process.

  • New Media

    • An important promise of new media is the "democratization" of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content.
    • Another important promise of new media is the "democratization" of the creation, publishing, distribution, and consumption of media content. illustrates the interactive form of communication that may exist in emerging social media.
    • While this perspective suggests that the technology drives – and therefore is a determining factor – in the process of globalization, arguments involving technological determinism are generally frowned upon by mainstream media studies.
    • Social movement media has a rich and storied history that has changed at a rapid rate since new media became widely used.
    • Explain the influence of the new media on politics and social movements

  • Selective and Differential Media

    • Selective media allows for the growth of specific organisms, while differential media is used to distinguish one organism from another.
    • There are many types of media used in the studies of microbes.
    • Some examples of selective media include:
    • Differential media or indicator media distinguish one microorganism type from another growing on the same media.
    • Examples of differential media include:

  • Organization and Ownership of the Media

    • Media consolidation has resulted in fewer companies owning more media sources, thereby increasing the concentration of ownership.
    • Concentration of media ownership, also known as media consolidation or media convergence, is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.
    • Over time the amount of media merging has increased and the amount of media outlets have increased.
    • This means that there are fewer companies owning more media sources, thereby increasing the concentration of ownership.
    • In the United States, media consolidation has been in effect since the early twentieth century with major studios dominating movie production.

  • Agenda-Setting Theory

    • Donald Shaw in a study on the 1968 presidential election.
    • In the 1968 "Chapel Hill study," McCombs and Shaw demonstrated a strong correlation between what 100 residents of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, thought was the most important election issue and what the local and national news media reported was the most important issue.
    • American news media are more obsessed than ever with the horse-race aspects of the presidential campaign, according to a new study.
    • Media experts contend that the OJ Simpson case was a prime example of media agenda-setting.
    • Summarize the results of the key "Chapel Hill" study of the media and public opinion

  • Statistical Literacy

    • This research was reported throughout the media.
    • The article contains the strong caution: "It's only a tiny sample, so large conclusions must not be drawn. " This caution appears to be a welcome change from the overstating of findings typically found in the media.
    • But has this report understated the importance of the study?

  • News Coverage

    • Media coverage strongly influences people's perception of politics, society, and culture.
    • Media coverage strongly influences people's perception of politics, society, and culture.
    • In addition, the U.S. media has been accused of prioritizing domestic news over international news, as well as focusing on U.S. military action abroad over other international stories.
    • American news media emphasizes more than ever the "horse race" aspects of the presidential campaign, according to a new study.
    • Almost two-thirds of all stories in U.S. news media, including print, television, radio and online, focused on the political aspects of the campaign, while only one percent focused on the candidates' public records.

  • Media Bias

    • Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media, concerning the selection of events and stories that are reported, and how they are covered.
    • Although a process of media deregulation has placed the majority of the Western broadcast media in private hands, there still exists a strong government presence, or even monopoly, in the broadcast media of many countries across the globe.
    • At the same time, the concentration of media in private hands, and frequently among a comparatively small number of individuals, has also led to accusations of media bias .
    • This approach theoretically allows diverse views to appear in the media.
    • Studies done by FAIR, a progressive media watchdog organization, argue that the majority of media citations come from conservative and centrist sources.

  • The Media

    • The media has changed how citizens perceive and approach about U.S.
    • In the media's most famous case in involvement on foreign affairs was its involvement in the Vietnam War.
    • A self-described liberal media watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), in consultation with the Survey and Evaluation Research Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University, sponsored an academic study in which journalists were asked a range of questions about how they did their work and about how they viewed the quality of media coverage in the broad area of politics and economic policy.
    • Their study concluded that a majority of journalists, although relatively liberal on social policies, were significantly to the right of the public on economic, labor, health care, and foreign policy issues.
    • Explain the media's role in setting the agenda for foreign policy debate

  • Enrichment and Isolation

    • The most common growth media for microorganisms are nutrient broths and agar plates; specialized media are required for some microorganisms.
    • An important distinction between growth media types is that of defined versus undefined media.
    • Undefined media are sometimes chosen based on price and sometimes by necessity - some microorganisms have never been cultured on defined media.
    • Differential/indicator media distinguish one microorganism type from another growing on the same media.
    • Batch culture is the most common laboratory-growth method in which bacterial growth is studied, but it is only one of many.