Glossary

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A

absolute poverty    A level of economic deprivation in which people do not have the means to secure the most basic necessities of life.

accreditation   Certification by the government of members of the press to cover wartime action or other official government business.

achieved status   A social position that a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort.

activity theory   The proposition that people tend to shift gears in late middle age and find substitutes for previous statuses, roles, and activities.

affiliates   Broadcast stations that use broadcast network programming but that are owned by companies other than the broadcast networks.

age stratification   The inequalities, differences, segregation, or conflict between age groups.

ageism   Prejudice and discrimination against people on the basis of age, particularly when they are older persons.

agenda-setting   The principle that members of the press do not tell people what to think but do tell people what and whom to think about.

agents of socialization   Those persons, groups, or institutions that teach people what they need to know in order to participate in society.

aggregate   A collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time but share little else in common.

aging   The physical, psychological, and social processes associated with growing older.

alienation   A feeling of powerlessness and estrangement from other people and from oneself.

alternative press   Newspapers that become outlets for the voices of social protest; also called the dissident press.

analog   In mass communications, a type of technology used in broadcasting, whereby video or audio information is sent as continuous signals through the air on specific airwave frequencies.

ancillary-rights market   The revenue opportunity for a movie beyond its theatre audience, including television and videocassette sales.

animism   The belief that plants, animals, or other elements of the natural world are endowed with spirits or life forces having an impact on events in society.

anomie   Emile Durkheim's designation for a condition in which social control becomes ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and a sense of purpose in society.

anticipatory socialization   The process by which knowledge and skills are learned for future roles.

apartheid   The policy of the South African government that required the separation of the races.

ascribed status   A social position that is conferred on a person at birth or received involuntarily later in life.

assimilation   A process by which members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups become absorbed into the dominant culture.

authoritarian leader   A leader who makes all major group decisions and assigns tasks to group members.

authoritarian personality   A personality type characterized by excessive conformity, submissiveness to authority, intolerance, insecurity, a high level of superstition, and rigid, stereotypic thinking.

authoritarianism   A political system controlled by rulers who deny popular participation in government.

authority   Power that people accept as legitimate rather than coercive.

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B

basic class location   Positions in the class structure where issues of property ownership and control are relatively clear.

bilateral descent   A system of tracing descent through both the mother's and father's sides of the family.

blanket licensing agreement   An arrangement whereby radio stations become authorized to use recorded music for broadcast by paying a fee.

blind booking   The practice of renting out films to exhibitors without showing the films to the exhibitors first.

block booking   The practice of scheduling a large number of movies for a theatre, combining a few good movies with many second-rate features.

body consciousness   How a person perceives and feels about his or her body; it also includes an awareness of social conditions in society that contribute to this self-knowledge.

bourgeoisie (or capitalist class)   Karl Marx's term for the class comprised of those who own and control the means of production.

browser   Software that allows people to search electronically among many documents to find what they want on-line.

bureaucracy   An organizational model characterized by a hierarchy of authority, a clear division of labour, explicit rules and procedures, and impersonality in personnel matters.

bureaucratic personality   A psychological construct that describes those workers who are more concerned with following correct procedures than they are with doing the job correctly.

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C

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)   The principal public broadcaster in Canada.

Canadian Radio/Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)   The federal commission charged with regulating the telecommunications sector in Canada.

CANCON   Canadian content regulations for radio music programming administered by the CRTC.

capitalism   An economic system characterized by private ownership of the means of production, from which personal profits can be derived through market competition and without government intervention.

caste system   A system of social inequality in which people's status is permanently determined at birth based on their parents' ascribed characteristics.

category   A number of people who may never have met one another but who share a similar characteristic.

catharsis theory   The proposition that televised materialism and violence provide viewers with a vicarious outlet for their own greed or aggressiveness.

censorship   The practice of suppressing material that is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.

central city   The densely populated centre of a metropolis.

channel   In mass communication, the medium that delivers the message.

charismatic authority   Power legitimized on the basis of a leader's exceptional personal qualities.

chronological age   A person's age based on date of birth.

church   A large, bureaucratically organized religious organization that tends to seek accommodation with the larger society in order to maintain some degree of control over it.

civil disobedience   Nonviolent action that seeks to change a policy or law by refusing to comply with it.

class   The relative location of a person or group within a larger society, based on wealth, power, prestige, or other valued resources.

class conflict   Karl Marx's term for the struggle between the capitalist class and the working class.

class system   A type of stratification based on the ownership and control of resources and on the kinds of work people do.

cohabitation   The sharing of a household by a couple who live together without being legally married.

cohort   A category of people who are born within a specified period in time or who share some specified characteristic in common.

collective behaviour   Voluntary, often spontaneous, activity that is engaged in by a large number of people and typically violates dominant group norms and values.

commonsense knowledge   A form of knowing that guides ordinary conduct in everyday life.

comparable worth (pay equity)   The belief that wages ought to reflect the worth of a job, not the gender or race of the worker.

complete observation   Research in which the investigator systematically observes a social process but does not take part in it.

concentration of ownership   The trend among the media industries to cluster together in groups.

conflict perspective   The sociological approach that views groups in society as engaged in a continuous power struggle for control of scarce resources.

conformity   The process of maintaining or changing behaviour to comply with the norms established by a society, subculture, or other group.

conglomerate   A combination of businesses, in different commercial areas, all of which are owned by one holding company.

consumer magazines   All magazines sold by subscription or at newsstands, supermarkets, and bookstores.

content analysis   The systematic examination of cultural artifacts or various forms of communication to extract thematic data and draw conclusions about social life.

content   The multimedia term for information sources and programs that can be digitized for the new communications network.

contingent work   Part-time work, temporary work, and subcontracted work.

contradictory class location   A class position within the productive process that possesses a combination of elements from two different basic class locations (for example, a department head who controls the work of sales personnel but still is accountable to the company's owner).

control group   Subjects in an experiment who are not exposed to the independent variable but later are compared to subjects in the experimental group.

conventional (street) crime   A term used to denote all violent crime, certain property crimes, and certain moral crimes.

convergence   The blurring of lines between the publishing industry, the communications industry, consumer electronics, and computers because of advances in technology.

cooperative news gathering   A practice first used by the New York Associated Press, whereby member newspapers share the expenses of acquiring news and returning any profits to the members.

core nation   According to world systems theory, a dominant capitalist centre characterized by high levels of industrialization and urbanization and a high degree of control over the world economy.

corporate crime   An illegal act committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support.

corporation   A large-scale organization that has legal powers (such as the ability to enter into contracts and buy and sell property) separate from its individual owners.

correlation   A relationship that exists when two (or more) variables are associated more frequently than could be expected by chance.

counterculture   A group that strongly rejects dominant societal values and norms and seeks alternative lifestyles. .

CPM   In advertising, cost-per-thousand, which is the cost of an ad per one thousand people reached. (M is the Roman numeral for 1000.)

credentialism   A process of social selection in which class advantage and social status are linked to the possession of academic qualifications.

crime   Behaviour that violates criminal law and is punishable with fines, jail terms, and other sanctions.

criminology   The systematic study of crime and the criminal justice system, including the police, courts, and prisons.

cross-ownership   Used to describe a company that owns television and radio stations in the same broadcast market.

crowd   A relatively large number of people who are in one another's immediate face-to-face presence.

crude birth rate   The number of live births per 1000 people in a population in a given year.

crude death rate   The number of deaths per 1000 people in a population in a given year.

crude net migration rate   The net number of migrants (total in-migrants minus total out-migrants) per 1000 people in a population in a given year.

cult   A religious group with practices and teachings outside the dominant cultural and religious traditions of a society.

cultural capital   Pierre Bourdieu's term for people's social assets, including their values, beliefs, attitudes, and competencies in language and culture.

cultural imperialism   The extensive infusion of one nation's culture into other nations.

cultural lag   William Ogburn's term for a gap between the technical development of a society (material culture) and its moral and legal institutions (nonmaterial culture).

cultural relativism   The belief that the behaviours and customs of a society must be viewed and analyzed within the context of its own culture.

cultural universals   Customs and practices that occur across all societies.

culture shock   The disorientation that people feel when they encounter cultures radically different from their own.

culture   The knowledge, language, values, customs, and material objects that are passed from person to person and from one generation to the next in a human group or society.

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D

data compression   A process that uses software and hardware to squeeze information into a tiny electronic package.

deductive approach   Research in which the investigator begins with a theory and then collects information and data to test the theory.

demand programming   Request radio that is controlled completely by the listener.

democracy   A political system in which people hold the ruling power, either directly or indirectly.

democratic leader   A leader who encourages group discussion and decision making through consensus building.

democratic socialism   An economic and political system that combines private ownership of some of the means of production, governmental distribution of some essential goods and services, and free elections.

demographic transition   The process by which some societies have moved from high birth and death rates to relatively low birth and death rates as a result of technological development.

demographics   The analysis of data used by advertising agencies to target an audience by sex, age, income level, marital status, geographic location, and occupation.

demography   A subfield of sociology that examines population size, composition, and distribution.

denomination   A large organized religion characterized by accommodation to society but frequently lacking in ability or intention to dominate society.

dependent variable   A variable that is assumed to depend on or be caused by one or more other (independent) variables.

deregulation   The process of ending government monitoring of an industry.

descriptive study   Research that attempts to describe social reality or provide detailed facts about some group, practice, or event.

deviance   Any behaviour, belief, or condition that violates cultural norms.

differential association theory   The proposition that individuals have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with persons who are more favourable toward deviance than conformity.

diffusion   The transmission of cultural items or social practices from one group or society to another.

digital   A way to store and transmit data by reducing it to electronic signalsÑdigitsÑand then reassembling them for an exact reproduction.

digital audio broadcast (DAB)   A technology that uses computer codes to send music and information, which eliminates the static and hiss of current broadcast signals.

digital audiotape (DAT)   A new type of audiotape that uses computer codes to produce recordings.

digital film   The electronic manipulation of film images.

direct sponsorship   Feature of early radio and television programming in which the advertiser sponsored an entire show, which often bore the name of the product or company in the title.

disability   A physical or health condition that stigmatizes or causes discrimination.

discovery   The process of learning about something previously unknown or unrecognized.

discrimination   Actions or practices of dominant group members (or their representatives) that have a harmful impact on members of a subordinate group.

disengagement theory   The proposition that older persons make a normal and healthy adjustment to aging when they detach themselves from their social roles and prepare for their eventual death.

disinformation   The planting by government sources of inaccurate information.

dissident press   See alternative press.

domestic partnership   A household partnership in which an unmarried couple lives together in a committed, sexually intimate relationship and is granted the same benefits as those accorded to married heterosexual couples.

dramaturgical analysis   The study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation.

drive-time audiences   Term coined by Gerlad Bartell in 1957 to describe people who listened to the radio between 6 and 9 a.m. and between 4 and 7 p.m.

dual-earner marriage   Marriage in which both spouses are in the labour force.

dyad   A group consisting of two members.

dysfunctions   A term referring to the undesirable consequences of any element of a society.

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E

e-mail   Electronic messages delivered on-line.

ecclesia   A religious organization that is so integrated into the dominant culture that it claims as its membership all members of a society.

economy  The social institution that ensures the maintenance of society through the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

education   The social institution responsible for the systematic transmission of knowledge, skills, and cultural values within a formally organized structure.

egalitarian family   A family structure in which both partners share power and authority equally.

ego   According to Sigmund Freud, the rational, reality-oriented component of personality that imposes restrictions on the innate pleasure-seeking drives of the id.

elder abuse   A term used to describe physical abuse, psychological abuse, financial exploitation, and medical abuse or neglect of people age 65 or older.

elite model   A view of society in which power in political systems is concentrated in the hands of a small group of elites and the masses are relatively powerless.

emigration   The movement of people out of a geographic area to take up residency elsewhere.

empirical approach   Research that attempts to answer questions through a systematic collection and analysis of data.

employment equity   A strategy to eliminate the effects of discrimination and to make employment opportunities available to groups who have been excluded.

endogamy   Cultural norms prescribing that people marry inside their own social group or category.

ethnic group   A collection of people distinguished, by others or by themselves, primarily on the basis of cultural or nationality characteristics.

ethnic pluralism   The coexistence of a variety of distinct racial and ethnic groups within one society.

ethnicity   The cultural heritage or identity of a group based on factors such as language or country of origin.

ethnocentric  Characterized by the attitude that one's own culture is superior to those of others.

ethnocentrism   The belief in the superiority of one's own culture compared with that of others.

ethnography   A detailed study of the life and activities of a group of people by researchers who may live with that group over a period of years.

ethnomethodology   The study of the commonsense knowledge that people use to understand the situations in which they find themselves.

exogamy   Cultural norms prescribing that people marry outside their own social group or category.

experiment   A research method involving a carefully designed situation in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects' attitudes or behaviour.

experimental group   A research method involving a carefully designed situation in which the researcher studies the impact of certain variables on subjects' attitudes or behaviour.

explanatory study   Research that attempts to explain cause and effect relationships and to provide information on why certain events do or do not occur.

expressive leadership   Group leadership that provides emotional support for members.

extended family   A family unit composed of relatives in addition to parents and children who live in the same household.

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F

fad   A temporary but widely copied activity followed enthusiastically by large numbers of people.

false consciousness   The term used by Karl Marx to indicate that people hold beliefs they think promote their best interests when those beliefs actually are damaging to their interests.

family   A relationship in which people live together with commitment, form an economic unit and care for any young, and consider their identity to be significantly attached to the group.

family of orientation   The family into which a person is born and in which early socialization usually takes place.

family of procreation   The family a person forms by having or adopting children.

fashion   A currently valued style of behaviour, thinking, or appearance that is longer lasting and more widespread than a fad.

FCC (Federal Communications Commission)   Five-member commission in the United States responsible for administering the provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

feedback   In mass communication, a response sent back to the sender (source) from the receiver.

feminism   The belief that all people—both women and men—are equal and that they should be valued equally and have equal rights.

feminization of poverty   The trend in which women are disproportionately represented among individuals living in poverty.

fertility   The actual level of childbearing for an individual or a population.

folkways   Informal norms or everyday customs that may be violated without serious consequences within a particular culture.

formal organization   A highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain tasks or achieving specific goals.

free media   Used to describe over-the-air broadcast media.

freelancers   In magazine or newspaper publishing, journalists who write for more than one publication and are paid separately for each article they write.

functional age   A term used to describe observable individual attributes such as physical appearance, mobility, strength, coordination, and mental capacity that are used to assign people to age categories.

functional illiteracy   The condition in which reading and writing skills are inadequate to carry out everyday activity.

functionalist perspective  The sociological approach that views society as a stable, orderly system.

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G

Gemeinschaft   (guh-MINE-shoft) A traditional society in which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship and kinship and on intergenerational stability.

gender   The culturally and socially constructed meanings, beliefs, and practices associated with sex differences.

gender bias   Behaviour that shows favouritism toward one gender over the other.

gender identity   A person's perception of the self as female or male.

gender role   Attitudes, behaviour, and activities that are socially defined as appropriate for each sex and are learned through the socialization process.

gender socialization   The aspect of socialization that contains specific messages and practices concerning the nature of being female or male in a specific group or society.

generalized other   George Herbert Mead's term for the child's awareness of the demands and expectations of the society as a whole or of the child's subculture.

genocide   The deliberate, systematic killing of an entire people or nation.

gentrification   The process by which members of the middle and upper-middle classes, especially whites, move into the central-city area and renovate existing properties.

Gesellschaft   (guh-ZELL-shoft) A large, urban society, in which social bonds are based on impersonal and specialized relationships, with little long-term commitment to the group or consensus on values.

global interdependence   A relationship in which the lives of all people are intertwined closely and any one nation's problems are part of a larger global problem.

goal displacement   A process that occurs in organizations when the rules become an end in themselves and organizational survival becomes more important than achievement of goals.

gossip   Rumours about the personal lives of individuals.

government   The formal organization that has the legal and political authority to regulate the relationships among members within a society and between the society and those outside its borders.

group consciousness   An awareness that an individual's problems are shared by others who are similarly situated in regard to race/ethnicity, gender, class, or age.

groupthink   The process by which members of a cohesive group arrive at a decision that many individual members privately believe is unwise.

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H

Hawthorne effect   A term used in research to describe changes in the subjects' behaviour caused by the researcher's presence or by the subjects' awareness of being studied.

hermaphrodite   A person in whom sexual differentiation is ambiguous or incomplete.

hidden curriculum   The transmission of cultural values and attitudes, such as conformity and obedience to authority, through implied demands found in rules, routines, and regulations of schools.

high-definition television (HDTV)   A type of television that provides a picture with a clearer resolution than do normal television sets.

home page   The first page of a Web site that welcomes the user.

homogamy   The pattern of individuals marrying those who have similar characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, religious background, age, education, or social class.

hospice   A homelike facility that provides supportive care for patients with terminal illnesses.

HTML (hypertext markup language)   A computer programming language developed by Tim Berners-Lee that allows people to send text and pictures on the Web.

HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol)   A computer programming language developed by Tim Berners-Lee that allows people to create "links" on the Web from one source of information to another.

hypothesis   In research studies, a tentative statement of the relationship between two or more concepts or variables.

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I

id   Sigmund Freud's term for the component of personality that includes all of the individual's basic biological drives and needs that demand immediate gratification.

ideal culture   The values and standards of behaviour that people in a society profess to hold.

ideal type   An abstract model that describes the recurring characteristics of some phenomenon.

illegitimate opportunity structures   Circumstances that provide an opportunity for people to acquire through illegitimate activities what they cannot achieve through legitimate channels.

IMAX films   A large-screen movie format developed in Canada.

immigration   The movement of people into a geographic area to take up residency.

independent variable   A variable that is presumed to cause or determine a dependent variable.

individual discrimination   Behaviour consisting of one-on-one acts by members of the dominant group that harm members of the subordinate group or their property.

inductive approach   Research in which the investigator collects information or data (facts or evidence) and then generates theories from the analysis of that data.

industrialization   The process by which societies are transformed from dependence on agriculture and handmade products to an emphasis on manufacturing and related industries.

infant mortality rate   The number of deaths of infants under 1 year of age per 1000 live births in a given year.

infertility   A medical term used to describe one year of attempting to achieve pregnancy without success.

informal structure   A term used to describe the aspect of organizational life in which participants' day-to-day activities and interactions ignore, bypass, or do not correspond with the official rules and procedures of the bureaucracy.

ingroup   A group to which a person belongs and with which the person feels a sense of identity.

institutional racism   A term used to describe the rules, procedures, and practices that directly and deliberately prevent minorities from having full and equal involvement in society.

instrumental leadership   Group leadership that is goal or task oriented.

interactionist perspective   The sociological approach that views society as the sum of the interactions of individuals and groups.

interactive   A two-way, viewer-controlled electronic process that allows the consumer to select among a variety of services.

intragenerational mobility   The social movement (upward or downward) experienced by family members from one generation to the next.

interlocking corporate directorates   A term used to describe members of the board of directors of one corporation who also sit on the boards of one or more other corporations.

internal colonialism   According to conflict theorists, a practice that occurs when members of a racial or ethnic group are conquered or colonized and forcibly placed under the economic and political control of the dominant group.

Internet   A web of interconnected computer networks that sprang from a U.S. government effort to connect government and academic locations. It currently links about 15 million people.

interview   A research method using a data collection encounter in which an interviewer asks the respondent questions and records the answers.

invasion   The process by which a new category of people or type of land use arrives in an area previously occupied by another group or land use.

invention   The process of reshaping existing cultural items into a new form.

invidious distinction   A term used to describe wide discrepancies in the income, wealth, life conditions, life chances, and lifestyles between people as a result of systems of stratification.

iron law of oligarchy   According to Robert Michels, the tendency of bureaucracies to be ruled by a few people.

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J

job deskilling   A reduction in the proficiency needed to perform a specific job that leads to a corresponding reduction in the wages paid for that job.

juvnile delinquency   The violation of a law or the commission of a status offence by young people less than a specific age.

K

kinship   A social network of people based on common ancestry, marriage, or adoption.

L

labelling theory   The proposition that deviants are those people who have been successfully labelled as such by others.

labour union   An organization of employees who join together to bargain with an employer or a group of employers over wages, benefits, and working conditions.

laissez-faire leader   A leader who is only minimally involved in decision making and encourages group members to make their own decisions.

language   A system of symbols that express ideas and enable people to think and communicate with one another.

latent functions   Hidden, unstated, and sometimes unintended consequences of activities within an organization or institution.

laws   Formal, standardized norms that have been enacted by legislatures and are enforced by formal sanctions.

libel   A false statement that damages a person's character or reputation by exposing that person to public ridicule or contempt.

life chances   Max Weber's term for the extent to which persons within a particular layer of stratification have access to important scarce resources.

life expectancy   The average length of time a group of individuals of the same age will live.

line doubers/line quadruplers   Devices that can double and quadruple the number of lines scanning the TV screen to make the picture sharper.

links   Electronic connections from one source of information to another.

looking-glass self   Charles Horton Cooley's term for the way in which a person's sense of self is derived from the perceptions of others.

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M

macrolevel analysis   Sociological theory and research that focuses on whole societies, large-scale social structures, and social systems.

magic bullet theory   A belief that ideas from the media create a direct causal relationship to behaviour.

majority (dominant) group   An advantaged group that has superior resources and rights in a society.

manifest functions   Open, stated, and intended goals or consequences of activities within an organization or institution.

marginal job   A position that differs from the employment norms of the society in which it is located.

marriage   A legally recognized and/or socially approved arrangement between two or more individuals that carries certain rights and obligations and usually involves sexual activity.

mass   A large collection of people who share an interest in a specific idea or issue but who are not in another's immediate physical vicinity.

mass behaviour   Collective behaviour that takes place when people (who often are geographically separated from one another) respond to the same event in much the same way.

mass communication   Communication from one person or group of persons through a transmitting device (a medium) to a large audience or market.

mass hysteria   A form of dispersed collective behaviour that occurs when a large number of people react with strong emotions and self-destructive behaviour to a real or perceived threat.

mass media industries   Used in Media/Impact to describe the seven types of media businesses: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, movies, recordings, and books.

master status   A term used to describe the most important status a person occupies.

material culture   A component of culture that consists of the physical or tangible creations (such as clothing, shelter, and art) that members of a society make, use, and share.

matriarchal family   A family structure in which authority is held by the eldest female (usually the mother).

matriarchy   A hierarchical system of social organization in which cultural, political, and economic structures are controlled by women.

matrilineal descent   A system of tracing descent through the mother's side of the family.

matrilocal residence   The custom of a married couple living in the same household (or community) with the wife's parents.

means of production   Karl Marx's term for tools, land, factories, and money for investment that form the economic basis of a society.

mechanical solidarity   Emile Durkheim's term for the social cohesion that exists in preindustrial societies, in which there is a minimal division of labour and people feel united by shared values and common social bonds.

media   Plural for medium.

mediamorphosis   A term coined by information designer Roger Fidler to describe the intense rate of change that occurs when all media change simultaneously.

medicalization of deviance   A term used to describe the transformation of deviance into a medical problem that requires treatment by a physician.

medium   In mass communication, the transmitting device by which a message is carried.

megalopolis   A continuous concentration of two or more cities and their suburbs that have grown until they form an interconnected urban area.

meritocracy   A social system in which status is assumed to be acquired through individual ability and effort.

message pluralism   A broad and diverse representation of opinion and culture by the media.

metropolis   One or more central cities and their surrounding suburbs that dominate the economic and cultural life of a region.

microlevel analysis  Sociological theory and research that focuses on small groups rather than large-scale social structures.

migration   The movement of people from one geographic area to another for the purpose of changing residency.

minority (subordinate) group   A disadvantaged group whose members, because of physical or cultural characteristics, are subjected to unequal treatment by the dominant group and who regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination.

mixed economy   An economic system that combines elements of a market economy (capitalism) with elements of a command economy (socialism).

mob   A highly emotional crowd whose members engage in, or are ready to engage in, violence against a specific target, which may be a person, a category of people, or physical property.

monarchy   A political system in which power resides in one person or family and is passed from generation to generation through lines of inheritance.

monogamy   Marriage between two partners, usually a woman and a man.

monotheism   Belief in a single, supreme being or god who is responsible for significant events such as the creation of the world.

mores   Strongly held norms with moral and ethical connotations that may not be violated without serious consequences in a particular culture.

mortality   The incidence of death in a population.

muckrakers   Turn-of-the-century magazine journalists who wrote articles to expose big business and corrupt government.

multimedia   The blending of different types of media—audio, video, and data—into a single product or service.

multinational corporations   Large companies that are headquartered in one country and have subsidiaries or branches in other countries.

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N

narrowcasting   In broadcasting, identifying a specific audience segment and specifically programming for that segment.

National Film Board of Canada (NFB)   Federal government film production agency originally set up to produce government films in wartime. It now produces short, animated films and a small number of feature films, in addition to made-for-television programming.

Navigator   A software program that allows one to browse easily through program services.

neolocal residence   The custom of a married couple living in their own residence apart from both the husband's and the wife's parents.

network   A collection of radio or television stations that offer programs, usually simultaneously, throughout the country, during designated program times.

new media   All emerging communications media that combine text, graphics, sound, and video, using computer technology.

news services   Originally called wire services, agencies formed to provide information to print and broadcast news operations from locations throughout the world.

nonmaterial culture   A component of culture that consists of the abstract or intangible human creations of society (such as attitudes, beliefs, and values) that influence people's behaviour.

nonverbal communication   The transfer of information between persons without the use of speech.

normative approach   The use of religion, custom, habit, tradition, or law to answer important questions.

norms   Established rules of behaviour or standards of conduct.

nuclear family   A family comprised of one or two parents and their dependent children, all of whom live apart from other relatives.

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O

O & O's   Broadcast stations that are owned and operated by a broadcast network.

objective   Free from distorted subjective (personal or emotional) bias.

observational learning theory   The proposition that we observe the behaviour of another person and repeat the behaviour ourselves.

occupation   A category of jobs that involve similar activities at different work sites.

occupational (white-collar) crime   A term used to describe illegal activities committed by people in the course of their employment or financial affairs.

oligopoly   The situation that exists when several companies overwhelmingly control an entire industry.

operational definition   An explanation of an abstract concept in terms of observable features that are specific enough to measure the variable.

organic solidarity   Emile Durkheim's term for the social cohesion that exists in industrial societies in which people perform very specialized tasks and feel united by their mutual dependence.

organized crime   A business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit.

outgroup   A term used to describe a group to which a person does not belong and toward which the person may feel a sense of competitiveness or hostility.

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P

panic   A form of crowd behaviour that occurs when a large number of people react with strong emotions and self-destructive behaviour to a real or perceived threat.

participant observation   A research method in which researchers collect systematic observations while being part of the activities of the group they are studying.

pass-along readership   An audience of readers who share a magazine with its original owner.

patriarchal family   A family structure in which authority is held by the eldest male (usually the father).

patriarchy   A hierarchical system of social organization in which cultural, political, and economic structures are controlled by men.

patrilineal descent   A system of tracing descent through the father's side of the family.

patrilocal residence   The custom of a married couple living in the same household (or community) with the husband's family.

payola   A contraction of the words pay and Victrola (an early record player), used to describe the payment of a fee to a disc jockey in exchange for playing a recording on the air.

peer group   A group of people who are linked by common interests, equal social position, and (usually) similar age.

penny paper   First popularized by Benjamin Day of the New York Sun in 1833, a newspaper produced by dropping the price of each copy to a penny and supporting the production cost through advertising.

peripheral nations   According to world systems theory, a nation that is dependent on core nations for capital and has little or no industrialization.

personal space   The immediate area surrounding a person that the person claims as private.

perspective   An overall approach to or viewpoint on some subject.

photojournalism   The use of photographs and text to tell a better story than either could tell alone.

pink-collar occupation   A term used to describe the relatively low-paying, nonmanual, semiskilled positions primarily held by women.

pluralist model   An analysis of political systems that views power as widely dispersed throughout many competing interest groups.

polite racism   A term used to describe an attempt to disguise a dislike of others through behaviour that appears to be nonprejudicial.

political crime   A term used to describe illegal or unethical acts involving the usurpation of power by government officials or illegal or unethical acts perpetrated against the government by outsiders seeking to make a political statement, undermine the government, or overthrow it.

political party   An organization whose purpose is to gain and hold legitimate control of government.

political socialization   The process by which people learn political attitudes, values, and behaviour.

political sociology   The area of sociology that examines the nature and consequences of power within or between societies.

politics   The social institution through which power is acquired and exercised by some people and groups.

polyandry   The concurrent marriage of one woman with two or more men.

polygamy   The concurrent marriage of a person of one sex with two or more members of the opposite sex.

polygyny   The concurrent marriage of one man with two or more women.

polytheism   The belief in more than one god.

pool reporting   A system in which a group of reporters is approved by the government to cover a specific event. This device often limits journalists' access to cover an event.

popular culture   The component of culture that consists of activities, products, and services that are assumed to appeal primarily to members of the middle and working classes.

population composition   In demography, the biological and social characteristics of a population.

population   In a research study, those persons about whom we want to be able to draw conclusions.

population pyramid   A graphic representation of the distribution of a population by sex and age.

positivism   A belief that the world can best be understood through scientific inquiry.

power   According to Max Weber, the ability of people or groups to achieve their goals despite opposition from others.

power elite   C. Wright Mills's term for a small clique composed of top corporate, political, and military officials.

prejudice   A negative attitude based on faulty generalizations about members of selected racial and ethnic groups.

presentation of self   Erving Goffman's term for people's efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favourable to their own interests or image.

prestige   The respect or regard with which a person or status position is regarded by others.