Questions of media ethics address the way media practitioners – journalists, public relations (PR) representatives, bloggers, technical support staff – resolve various types of dilemmas they face, as well as the value judgments that media audiences make regarding media content and performance. What does it mean to be “responsible” as a media professional? How should
This article explores the multifaceted impact of media on the arrest and charging stages within the U.S. criminal justice process. The introduction provides a foundational overview of the criminal justice process, setting the stage for an examination of media’s influential role in shaping public perceptions of arrests and charges. The first section delves into how
The accountability of the media is a normative notion that underlies the balance of freedom and social responsibility across media structure, performance, and product. In order to grasp the concept, we need to understand how closely related the two competing values of freedom and responsibility are. Press freedom has been constitutionally protected to guarantee a
The world of makeup was transformed by the rise of film as popular entertainment. The original black and white films presented actors with stark, dramatically emphasized faces, using the same techniques and makeup made popular on the live stage. With black and white, the vivid contrast between dark and light, shadow and radiance helped to
“Radical media” is a term used by communication scholars to refer to information and communication technologies used by radical media activists to bring about social change. In this sense, the word “radical” means the expression of ideas, opinions, and options to reorganize society that are not sanctioned by the established social order. British communication scholar
Surveillance, correlation, and transmission functions are basic to the role of mass media in society. Surveillance means locating and disseminating news and information. Correlation deals with interpreting and editorializing about this information. Transmission is the socialization of norms, attitudes, and values between groups and generations (Lasswell 1948). Socialization research, for example, has compared the effectiveness
The term “social capital” has become a popular way for academics, activists, politicians, and the public to describe how an individual’s location in a structure of relationships, and the sense of trust and reciprocity that accompanies this social position, can provide the means for citizens to cooperate on problems requiring collective effort (Coleman 1990). It
Because there are various concepts of public opinion there are no general statements about the effects of mass media on it. Instead, the effects of mass media have to be related to specific concepts. Moreover, different study designs and methods have to be taken into consideration. According to the quantitative concept, public opinion is regarded
According to schema theory, the encoding and processing of information depends on learned, relatively stable cognitive structures in long-term memory, so called schemas (Information Processing). These cognitive structures include knowledge about concepts, persons, events, and the self. When individuals encounter a stimulus, they search their minds for the appropriate schema to match the stimulus. The
The term “indirect effects” denotes the consequences of direct effects on individuals who are not exposed to media content. According to Seymour-Ure (1974, 22), “a primary [=direct] effect takes place when the person affected has himself been involved directly in the communication process. A secondary [= indirect] effect takes place when individuals or groups not