In this class, we defined the term “minorities” from a sociopolitical perspective rather than a strictly numerical perspective. What is the sociopolitical definition of “minorities” stated in class? (4)

people characterized by some combination of political oppression, economic exploitation, socialdiscrimination and cultural marginalization

The sociopolitical definition of minorities is complicated by three factors discussed in lecture. List and explain each of the factors.  (9)

In lecture we discussed three features of racial hierarchy, as it exists in the United States. List and describe each of these features. (9)

A racial hierarchy helped accomplish three things for European and the North American society. List and describe each of these. (9)

. Wilson, Gutierrez and Chao offer three terms to help us think about cultural pluralism in the United states, to which we added a fourth term in lecture.  List each of these terms and describe three of the four terms. (10)

Melting pot:The immigrants migrate to the dominant culture and once that happens the idea is that people will be happy

Stew pot: everyone keeps their cultural background but share a common language to interact with each other and share each others culture

Salad bowl: everyone retains their cultural background but do not share a common language so we simply live together but do not share language or culture

In class, we summarized six ways that ethnicity is created and maintained. List and describe three of them. (9)

Joseph Turow describes two strategies media organizations use to cope with the risks of production. List and describe both. (6)

Administrative strategies: the business side of the media production (the accountants, managers etc) including things like relying on people with track records, market research, hiring specialists to do certain tasks

Content-based strategies: the creative side of the media productions ( the writers or actors) the tendency to cast known stars instead of unknown actors, telling the same type of story instead of branching off relies on stereotypes,

Vincent Parrillo reviews three “umbrellas” of multiculturalism. List and describe each of them. (9)

The inclusionists- to have a common culture but one that incorporated the contributions of all racial and ethnic groups.

The separatists- they seek specific, separate group identities that will withstand the assimilation process

The integrative pluralists- to not have a common culture but to have everyones cultures intertwine and work together while still having some separate aspects

In class we discussed four theories of mass media impact. List and describe three of them. (9)

gate keeping- The media decision makers decides what information gets through to the audience and what is held back for us not to see

agenda setting -They don’t tell us what to think but they organize what our main thoughts are, they show us what they want us to think about but not what side to take

framing- the way the media words certain events can change how we think about it.

Stereotypes, once created, have an impact on the way we think. We discussed several such impacts. List and describe three of them. (9)

assign blame- it allows people to blame a person of a certain race for doing something that "that race usually does"

assist others- people are more likely to help a white person because they are "safer" than other races

link negative qualities with particular groups- claiming that all black people are lazy, ghetto, ignorant, and classless when not every black person has these traits

C. Richard King summarized five arguments people have made in defense of using Indian mascots. List and describe three of these. (9)

the indian mascots are meant to honor native americans- the names and mascots portray them as brave, agile, and strong

others arnt offended- people are not getting upset over the minnesota vikings or the notre damn fighting irish

they are just names- the nicknames and mascots are not affiliated with the native american culture they are just names and shouldnt be taken so seriously

Wilson, Gutiérrez and Chao discuss five ways journalists learn the “unwritten policies” in newsrooms that often have an impact on news coverage of race. List and describe three of the ways journalists learn these policies. (9)

content observation- the new journalist would observe what other veteran journalists write about when it comes to minority involved stories.

Editing by superiors- when the new journalist would write a piece, they would quickly learn what not to put in their articles by looking at what their editor takes out of their writing or what they alter

News planning conference- by going into the conference and seeing how the superiors rank what is most important and what is not important the new journalist will learn what should be covered and what should be looked past and not used

. Michael Schudson presents three models that explain “why news is the way it is.” (A) List the names of three models. (1 point each = 3 points).  (B) Describe the main elements of one of them. (3)

Anthony Cortese presents three models that explain how minorities tend to be represented in U.S. advertising. List and explain two of the three models. (6)

equal representation- whites and minorities are depicted in the same situations

social reality model- advertising reflects the full reality of ethnic group life and avoids symbolic racism

Wilson, Gutiérrez and Chao discuss five functions of mass media. List and describe three of the five functions. (9)

Transmission- companies transmit to us what the essential lessons we need to learn through media

Surveillance-shows the lives of other in tv shows, shows what is going on all over the world in the news

Correlation- shows comparisons and connections to different topics and items

In class we discussed five patterns of news coverage (based on Wilson, Gutiérrez and Chao). Please list and describe 3 of these patterns, indicating details for minority group status, majority reaction and mainstream news about minority group. (9)

Exclusionary

1. Presence is minimal but noticed by majority group
2. Majority group reaction is an annoyance, fascination with difference between majority and minority
3. Virtually no coverage; few stories that ridicule or exoticize minorities

Threatening phase –

1. perceived as “threat” to labor, economy, law and order, women
2. The majority group reaction is Exclusion, segregation
3. Us vs. them imagery

Confrontation Phase

1. Status as “threat” intensifies
2. Majority group reaction is confrontational and racial violence
3. Mainstream news about them is “moral panic”

. List and describe the paradigmatic and syntagmatic dimensions of framing. (6)

. In class we discussed cognitive, behavioral and social/historical definitions of racism. List and define two of them.  (6)

cognitive-Making causal connections between physical characteristics and mental, psychological or physical abilities or propensities 

behavioral- Behaviors that create/perpetuate racial stereotypes and/or racial inequality 

socio-historical- The establishment of comprehensive systems of race-based group privilege 

In class we discussed the consequences of deploying the techniques for denying racism. Describe these two consequences. (4)

allows bigots to save face- people who are ignorant and use racist expressions get away with it and dont get put in their place

racism is perpetuated- since they got away with it people think that they can get away with it as well so racism just continues and can potentially get worse

In class we discussed five reasons why, in the context of slowly increasing diversity in newsrooms, improving news quality is difficult. List and describe three of these. (9)

Racial Profiling in the Newsroom – minority reporters are mostly put on stories that are related to minorites and not but on stories that are general while white reporters cover the general stuff and not minority related stories

Few minorites in power- that way minorites don’t get to decide what to cover they just have to follow what the white person in power thinks is important to cover

Poor retention record- burn outs due to racism  in the work place and no role models so the minorities don’t think they can make it to the high paying jobs

Agenda setting theory suggests that there will be a high correlation between the issues receiving most coverage from news organizations and the issues the news consumers feel are most important.  In class, we discussed three implications for this agenda setting process. List and describe two of them. (6)

–For public debate

–For language of debate

The earliest minority media in the United States were newspapers that arose because the minority group perceived itself as being in some type of crisis. WGC mentioned (and we discussed in class) various crises that led to the establishment of these newspapers. List and describe 3 of these crises. (9)

Racial violence- lynching and other acts of violence lead to the creating of media

Cherokee newspaper was created for the political coverage of the trail of tears which was a problem of displacement

Lack of access to political process- freedoms journal, minorites didn’t have access to political process because of language barriers and the fact that some were in poverty and could not afford to buy media

. In class we discussed three ways of reporting and writing that the mainstream news media could learn from the minority news media. List and describe two of these. (6)

move away from always viewing things from the dominant perspective emphasis minority perspectives

advocate for social justice- talk about discrimination and power difference, take the side of justice not majority

In lecture we discussed four prevalent views of race. They are:

A. Scientific view

            B. Darwinian view

            C. Legalistic view

            D. Social construction view

Now read the following statements. Write in the blank space the letter corresponding to the view of race that you think is represented by the statement. (2 points each)