English for Specific Purposes (Social Sciences) Spring 2020-2021

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Due by: Sunday, March 14th, 15:00

Name and surname: Mariam Aptsiauri

Sociology and Journalism: A Comparative Analysis

Herbert J. Gans (Contemporary Sociology (47) 1, American Sociological Association, 2018)
DOI: 10.1177/0094306117744794

Task 1. Find the definitions/synonyms of the following words/phrases. Be ready to discuss these
words/phrases in class.

1. To disparage- belittle something

2. To be condemned- When you critize someone’s creativity with horrible words.
3. Methodological shortcomings- a reason or set of reasons given with the aim of persuading
others that an action or idea is right or wrong, but those arrguments is unclear for us or short.
4. To eschewing disciplinary concepts- when you are in an area of the specific activities and
protecting them.
5. Conversely- in a contrasting or opposite way —used to introduce a statement that contrasts with a
previous statement or presents a differing interpretation or possibility.
6. Complimentary- expressing praise or admiration: expressing or containing a compliment.
7. Opaque writing- speech that is difficult to understand
8. To impair- to diminish in function, ability, or quality.
9. To generalize- to give a general form to.
10. Bulwark for democracy- to fight for democracy and defense it with all your mights
11. Citizenry- a whole body of citizens
12. Deviant event- to violate norms, acts that involve physical behavior, verbal behavior and etc.
13. Lay audience- group of people without special or expert knowledge about the subject
14. Concisely- marked by brevity of expression or statement: free from all elaboration and superfluous
detail.
15. To invent new concepts- to come up with an an idea or invention to help sell or publicize a
commodity.
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16. Labor intensive- kind of form of work that needs a large workforce or a large amount of work in
relation to output.
17. Profit-seeker- a person who is a lover of lucre and eager to make money
18. Economic decline- downward trend
19. Shrinking audience- declining, small in amount
20. Legacy news-old media (newspapers, radio)
21. Overt competition- clear and observable
22. Pervasive economic decline- extensive and ubiquitous that happens everywhere
23. A convenient scapegoat-  a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their
place.
24. To urge someone to do sth- to feel strongly about something
25. To reinforce- to strengthen by additional assistance, material, or support : make stronger or more
pronounced.
26. To scoop- a deep shovel or similar implement for digging, dipping, or shoveling.
27. Prestige- standing or estimation in the eyes of people : weight or credit in general opinion.
28. Humongous- extremely large : HUGE
29. To replicate-duplicate
30. Substantive findings- relating and essential
31. Inconceivable- impossible to comprehend
32. Reduction cuts- to  shorten a branch by removing a stem back to a lateral branch that is large
enough to resist extensive disfunction and decay behind the cut.
33. Underfunded- to provide insufficient funds for
34. To resort to fieldwork- make use of, turn to
35. Norm- standard, rule.
36. Backstage behavior- closer to the real self, less varnished, less an act…
37. Front-stage behavior- make oneself look good.
38. Agreed-upon- stipulated
39. To stick to the facts- to be honest
40. False equivalence-inequality
41. Polarized- to cause to vibrate in a definite pattern
42. To antagonize- to incur or provoke the hostility of

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43. Scarcity of similarity- different, distinction

44. Backup- one that serves as a substitute or support
45. Familiar- aware of something, well-known
46. To do fieldwork- practical work in the natural environment
47. Substantive- having substance : involving matters of major or practical importance to all
concerned
48. To complement sth- something that fills up, completes, or makes better or perfect.
49. To theorize - to form a theory : SPECULATE
50. Detachment- the action or process of detaching : SEPARATION
51. Objectivity- lack of judgment
52. Paradigm- example, pattern.
53. Zeitgeist- particular period of history
54. Groundless- having no ground or foundation
55. To over rely on sth- to depend on something, to trust
56. Legacy media- old media (newspapers, radio)
57. To enhance- to increase.

Task 2. Read the article and answer the following questions. You need to summarize author’s
ideas/views for each of the following questions.

Remember: your answers should be provided in the form of a paragraph consisting of a proper topic
sentence, supporting sentences (with minor details), and a concluding sentence. If your answer
comprises a few paragraphs, remember to divide them into an introductory paragraph, supporting
paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.

1. According to the author, what are the main differences between sociology and journalism? Describe
at least three differences.

2. How are the audiences for each discipline (sociology and journalism) described? What is the
relationship between journalists and their audience like? How is the relationship between
sociologists and their audience characterized by the author? Describe them.

3. What similarities exist between sociology and journalism? Describe at least three.

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1. According to the author there are some main differences between sociology and journalism. To
begin with, far from sociologists, journalists use words and phrases that dramatize their findings.
Sociologists themselves are descriptive people, they are devoted to researches and are based on
theories and literature. Secondly, they have different perspectives. For example, journalists try to
find something that would be newsworthy while for sociologists important things could be
different. Thirdly, Journalists report mainly to members of the general public and pay particular
attention to the latest news about government, sociological researches are mostly for their
colleagues or students from that field. Another major difference could be that journalists work on
daily basis, they report daily 24/7 while sociologists choose their topic of research and work on it
for a period of time.
2. The audience for each discipline is described in the following way:
For journalism, the audience is called lay audience, which means people of its target is less of
expertise and knowledge, therefore reports are very brief. For sociologists, the audience mostly
consists of experts, therefore researchers spend years to collect data and to analyze it because they
serve their colleagues and etc.
From this we can describe the relationship too. As it is obvious, journalists need sensations, brief news
to make the audience interesting in it, as journalists have lay audience without expert knowledge, they
try to to find brief but newsworthy information on a daily basis, Journalists are also involved in more
complex relationships with their audiences. They not only report to readers, viewers, and
listeners but must also keep in mind that their work is seen by their sources, the people and
organizations about which they report. Also journalists do not have time to think about their audience;
and when that audience is diverse and in the hundreds of thousands or more, there is no way they can
do so. Sociologists in contrast as we have read in the article has an audience which has expertise,
therefore sociologists try to spend time to collect relevant data and then analyze it because they know
that their audience would be critical.
3. Similarities that exist between sociologists and journalism is the following:

Both disciplines apply some similar methods, for example, they both rely on
interviews with the people they report on. Secondly, both also go backstage in order to find people
who are behaving illegally or violating widely agreed on norms. Journalists and sociologists both
strive to be accurate and they try to avoid plagiarism.

Task 3. Write your response to the article. Do you agree with the author? Why/Why not? What
views do you disagree/agree on most? Is there anything that caused your confusion? (Minimum
number of words - 250)

The article was quite interesting for me. Both sociology and journalism is the field which nowadays plays
an important role. As the world changes all the time, people need to be aware of news, researches to know
what is happening around them. Having read this article I found some major concepts that I agree with.
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For example, according to the author, Sociological researchers and journalists both study society and
write or film reports about their findings. I agree with the author. As my major study at the university is
sociology, I very well realize that in order to be a good sociologist you need to make researches all the
time, you need findings and relevant data to analyze something or to draw trends for your audience.
Journalists do the same. The author is quite right when he wrote that journalists like dramatizing
something. In my opinion dramatizing is a part of their daily routine. Without dramatizing journalists
would not be able to attract their audience. Their audience needs something eye-catching. Most of all that
I agree on is that Journalists like to emphasize the individuals at the center of the events and actions they
cover, therefore they describe the events that are rare and unique, in contrast sociologists focus on
recurring events. From my own experience, as a sociologist I had to do some finding for my course at the
university and I tried to focus on processes that were recurring as such events very well showed the trend
and tendency. Another concept I agree with is that journalists do not have time to think about their
audience as much as sociologists do. For journalists their main aim is to attract the audience with eye-
catching news, therefore they work on daily basis but for Sociologists it is essential to work on a subject
for a long period of time in order to have rational findings as the audience is full of expertise and they will
have lots of critical questions.