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Media as social problem?
- Does something represent a problem (does it have undesirable consequences)?
- uninformed, misinformed electorate–what happens to groups that don’t fit the media business model (e.g., lower income)? Who covers their interests?
- Possible problems–one is the news media industry–corporate concentration, business models put profit ahead of news; second, how does this affect people’s understandings of social problems?
- Are they social? Do they affect a large number of people?
- What are the possible causes?
- What are the consequences?
- Government may represent monied interests (‘required’ to get elected);
- People may be misinformed;
- Groups without political connections or access to media may be marginalized, and their perspectives neglected, ignored, or even stigmatized
- For example, welfare is often portrayed as a system characterized by widespread fraud and waste–which may exist, but is the exception.
- Democracy may be dysfunctional;
- Who benefits?
- Who has the ability, the power, to influence public debates about a particular social problem (in other words, framing)?
- Hmmmmm . . . . think about this one and the assignment you’re working on.
- Project Censored — who goes there for news?
- Who should do something about the social problem?
- Consumers, journalists, media outlets, government (e.g., break up the media conglomerates), ‘media democracy‘ and ‘citizen journalist‘ movements, open access/architecture . . .
