StereoscopyA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWan individual has (see cultural capital).
Occupation or the ownership of property may
bestow status or require attributes such as a
high level of education – hence the link between
status and class. Status may be ascribed, that
is based on fi xed criteria over which a person
may have no control – such as ancestry, ethnic
affi liation or sex – or achieved, that is gained by
endeavour or luck. Status given may not coincide
with an individual’s perception of his/her status.
Status must normally be endorsed by behav-
iour, such as the possession of status symbols,
accent, manners, and social skills consistent
with the status position. Much communicative
behaviour is involved in the display of status, for
example the use of accent and dress. Th e mass
media carry many images of status. Advertisers
in particular appeal to status-consciousness as
a way of selling a wide range of products and
services.
Status quo As things are: the way in which things
are done or were done in a period of time under
discussion. Within the social-science disciplines
the term is often used to mean the prevailing or
recent social, economic or political system – the
way it works, usually by tradition, and who in the
community works it.
Th ere is some controversy within media stud-
ies as to whether or not the mass media generally
play an important role in reinforcing the status
quo by presenting it as the ‘natural’ or ‘real’
state of things, and by rarely, in their presenta-
tion of aspects of human life, calling it into
question. For example, Denis McQuail in Mass
Communication Th eory (Sage, 2010) argues that
within critical political-economic theory rests
the proposition that ‘opposition and alternative
voices are marginalized’ within the mass media.
If this is the case, media output clearly services
the maintenance of the status quo. See common
sense; consensus; establishment; ideol-
ogy; power elite.
Stereophonic sound See gramophone.
Stereoscopy Th e creation of the visual illusion of
relief or three dimensions. Th e stereoscope was
invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802–75) in- Th e process has had many applications. In
photography, two separate photographs, taken
from minimally diff erent angles and correspond-
ing to the position of two human eyes, are
mounted side by side on a card. Viewed through
the angled prisms of the stereoscope, they inter-
act to give the appearance of depth or solidity.
In the cinema, experimental processes of
stereoscopy were demonstrated as early as the
1930s. Th e technique was developed as Natural
tion (1789) across the water, Stamp Duty was
raised to two pence per newspaper copy, with an
additional Advertising Tax at three shillings per
advertisement. In 1797 Stamp Duty was raised
to three-and-a-half pence, and the hiring-out of
papers was forbidden. In the year of the Battle of
Waterloo, 1815, the Duty went up to four pence
and the Advertising Tax was also raised.
These Taxes on Knowledge, as they were
described, eventually provoked the ‘War of the
Unstamped’ – the struggle of papers unable or
unwilling to pay the duties. William Cobbett
(1763–1835) dropped news from his Political
Register so as to evade tax, and concentrated
on opinion. Unstamped, and costing two pence,
Cobbett’s periodical achieved sales of 44,000.
‘Here, in these critical years’, writes Raymond
Williams in Th e Long Revolution (Penguin, 1965),
‘a popular press of a new kind was emerging,
wholly independent in spirit, and reaching new
classes of readers.’
Two of the six Acts of 1819 were directed
against the press, and the 1820s and early 1830s
featured clashes, fines, imprisonments and
heroic defi ance. In 1836 Stamp Duty was reduced
from four pence to one penny, three years after
the Advertisement Tax had been reduced from
three shillings and sixpence to one shilling and
sixpence per insertion. In 1853 the Advertising
Tax was fi nally abolished; in 1855 the last penny
of the Stamp Duty was removed; and in 1860
the duty imposed on paper was abandoned.
‘Th e era of democratic journalism had formally
arrived,’ writes Joel H. Wiener in Th e War of the
Unstamped (Cornell University Press, 1969),
‘and the daily newspaper became the cultural
staple of the social classes.’ See newspapers,
origins; press barons; underground press.
See also topic guide under media history.
Standards and practice in advertising See
advertising standards authority (asa).
Status The concept of status derives from the
work of the sociologist Max Weber, who argued
that status, though linked to class, is a distinct
dimension of social stratifi cation. Status is the
social evaluation of an individual or group; the
degree of prestige or honour accorded to him,
her or it by society. Wealth and high income
may confer status, but do not necessarily do so.
The reasons why individuals or groups may
enjoy considerable status within a community
or society are complex, subject to change and
derive from many sources, such as the degree of
power or authority a person or group may have,
the perceived social usefulness of the abilities of
an individual or group, or the level of education