Mass Communication & Journalism

  SUBLIMINAL PERCEPTION A subliminal message is a signal or message embedded in another object, designed to pass below the normal limits of perception. These messages are indiscernible by the conscious mind, but allegedly affect the subconscious or deeper mind. Subliminal techniques have occasionally been used in advertising and propaganda; the purpose, effectiveness and frequency of such techniques is debated.  Subliminal perception occurs whenever stimuli presented below the threshold or limen for awareness are found to influence thoughts, feelings, or actions. The term subliminal perception was originally used to describe situations in which weak stimuli were perceived without awareness. In recent years, the term has been applied more generally to describe any situation in which unnoticed stimuli are perceived. CONCEPT The concept of subliminal perception is of considerable interest because it suggests that peoples' thoughts, feelings and actions are influenced by stimuli that a

  AUTOMATIC EXPOSURE Automatic exposure is based on the theory that people are often exposed to a media environment while doing other things.  Donohew, Nair, & Finn (1984): media users' cognitive systems pay attention as needed, with attention levels varying over time. "Most media exposure is carried out in a nearly mindless state".  TV viewing, and radio use may be habitual or ritualistic.  For instance, this theory says that when you do homework with the radio on, you may selectively perceive songs and mentally "tune out" commercials. Exposure to mass communication may not always be highly deliberate or purposeful. Many times people seem to be making their way through the mass communication environment while on a kind of “automatic pilot” (Donohew, Nair, & Finn, 1984). Common everyday examples of this phenomenon include people working at their desks with the radio on in the background, or washing dishes while also giving some attention to the televisio

  SOCIOLOGY Sociology is the study of society. Sociology is both topically and methodologically a very broad discipline. Its traditional focuses have included social stratification (i.e., "class"), social mobility, religion, secularization, law, and deviance, while approaches have included both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. As all spheres of human activity are sculpted by social structure and individual agency, sociology has gradually expanded its focus to further subjects, such as medical, military and penal institutions, the Internet, and even the role of social activity in the development of scientific knowledge.  The range of social scientific methods has also broadly expanded. The linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-twentieth century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophic approaches to the analysis of society. Conversely, recent decades have seen the rise of new mathematically and computationally rigorous techniques, suc

  Word culture is often used to refer to refined tastes in art, literature, or music etc. the sociological use of the term in much wider, and includes that entire way of life of a society. ·          Everything that is human in form and origin - - our language, technology, relationships & other activities ·          Culture is the sum or total of all things happening in an organization ·          It’s the way things are done - the written and unwritten rules of performance ·          Culture is what gives meaning to the way things are In this sense everyone who participates in society is “cultured”. To the sociologists,  culture consists of all the shared products of human society”.   SOCIETY A society or a human society is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations such as social status, roles and social networks. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals sharing a distinctive culture and institutions. Without an a

  INSTITUTION Institution is an established way of behaving or established forms of procedure. It consists of all the structural components of a society through which the main concerns and activities are organized and social needs such as those for order, belief and reproduction are met. The term institution was used by Parsons and Spencer in this sense. These sociologists considered institutions as central to the notion of society as an organism or functioning system. In every society there are certain basic social needs. It is a must for the society to meet these needs for the survival and satisfaction of its members. In each society, therefore, people create social institutions to meet these needs. What is an Institution? The sociological concept of the term is different from its common usage: An institution is a system of norms to achieve some goal or activity that people feel is important, or more formally, an organized cluster of  folkways and mores centered around a major human

  MODERNIZATION Modernization it the process of economic and social change that is brought about by the introduction of the industrial mode of production into a society. Modernization theory  is a theory used to explain the process of Modernization within societies. The theory looks at the internal factors of a country while assuming that, with assistance, "traditional" countries can be brought to development in the same manner more developed countries have. Modernization theory attempts to identify the social variables which contribute to social progress and development of societies, and seeks to explain the process of social evolution. Not surprisingly, modernization theory is subject to criticism originating among communist and free-market ideologies, world systems theorists, globalization theory and dependency theory among others. Modernization theory not only stresses the process of change but also the responses to that change. It also looks at internal dynamics while re

  SOCIAL CHANGE It is impossible for a man to step into the same river twice, Heraclitus said. It is impossible for two reasons: the second time it is not the same river and the second time it is not the same man. In the interval of time between the first and the second stepping, no matter how short, both the river and the man have change. Neither remains the same. This is the central theme of the Heralictean philosophy, the reality of change, the impermanence of being the inconsistency of everything but change itself. Social change is the transformation of culture and social organization/structure over time. In the modern world we are aware that society is never static and that social, political, economic and cultural changes occur constantly. There are a whole range of classic theories and research methods available within sociology for the study of social change. CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE There are four main characteristics of social change (Macionis 1996): - 1.         It ha