| Mass Media -Idiographic | Social Science -Nomothetic |
| 1 News as unique personality or event
- personality (president 20% coverage) -unscheduled events -exceptional, unique -heaviest, hottest |
1. Explanation, context, relationships,
causes and effects
-patterns are crucial focus -context is important -social forces not individual |
| 2 Dramatic picture-Hard news -bad news
-unscheduled -earthquake -stock market crash -highly emotional |
All occurrences are of interest, most are
expected and
potentially understandable
-typical, normative, average -causal connections, attempt at theoretical explanations |
| 3 Bite by Bite
Who Where What How |
Occurences fit into a context and causall
relationships,
independance, dependance etc are part of this
-Causal connections, attempt at theoretical explanations -Why, Meaning/understanding is central. Connections and relationships are important as well as: Who, Where, What, How |
| 4 Methods
Loose/fast Informal |
Scientific Method: Structured, empirical, explicit, open, frequently slow but precise and as accurate as possible |
Social Science------------------------------------------------------Newspapers/TV
For example a comparison of current publications along a Science--Pop media continuum
|
Science-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pop
Media Wall St Journal---NY & LA Times --S.F.Chronicle---USA Today ---National Inquirer |
(3) A higher level of abstraction, a refined list of "1" above-- difference is related to:
| Mass Media | Social Science |
| 1. Purpose Make Money |
Inform, educate about explanations, the "why", of social life |
| 2. Focus Attention grabbing instances |
Any topic deemed interesting to researcher or supporters |
| 3. Method of information aquisition Informal, quick, little concern as to credibility, objectivity or accuracy |
Data from creditable sources and scientific research (formal, explicit, repeatable, as precise as possible, emphasis on validity, reliability and de-emphisis on quickness of collection.) |
| 4. Presentation Attention grabbing, bit by bit, little or no addressing of Why? |
Explicit structure delineating topic (hypothesis), theoretical explanations, sources, data collection method, conclusions and limits methods, attempts to explain why? |
(4) An outline of an assignment paper comparing mass media and social science with examples would look somewhat like the following:
Paragraph 1The paper must be well organized, clear (correctly used understandable terms), and accurately use the concepts of Social Science and Mass Media.
The article _____________ is a an example of the Mass Media approach to reality. It has the characterstics of...........State examples from the article explain which characterstics of the Mass media approach to reality they fit.Paragraph 2
The article _____________ is a an example of the Social Science approach to reality. It has the characterstics of........... It has the characterstics of...........State examples from the article and explain for each which characterstics of the Socicial Science approach to reality they fit.Paragraph 3
Mass media has the following characterstics...... while social science is ..... The diffirences between MM and SS are.... The similarities comparing MM and SS are.....
Has the ability to assess the credibility of information one receives as well as the credibility of the source of the information
Has the ability to recognize metaphor and other uses of symbols in entertainment, advertising, and political commentary.
Has the ability to discern between appeals to emotion and logic, and recognizes covert and overt appeals.
Has sensitivity to verbal as well as visual arguments.
Has the ability to use critical faculties to assess truth of information gleaned from various sources.
Web
evaluation - Criteria for evaluating a web page.