MEDIA-SOCIETY THEORY

Features of Mass Media Institutions

*           Mass Media Institutions are segmented and classified on the bases of the technologies they utilize

(e.g. print media, broadcast media, transit media, outdoor media, electronic media, film media, etc.)

*           Mass Media Institutions are professional organizations which are normally bureaucratic in form

*           Mass Media Institutions are mainly engaged in the production and distribution of symbolic content

*           The participation of the Sender and Receiver in the Communication Process is voluntary

*           Mass Media Institutions differ from country to country/region to region

*           Mass Media Institutions are an integral component of the society, as such they need to operate in the public sphere, and are accordingly regulated by the society

*           Mass Media are normally free and powerless in nature

The Models of Research

1.             Dominant Paradigm

2.             Alternative, Critical Paradigm

The Dominant Paradigm

It was a perspective which combined the views of a powerful Mass Media in a mass society, with the typical research practices of emerging social sciences, namely social surveys, social psychological experiments, and statistical analysis.

It presumed a certain kind of normally functioning good society which would be democratic, liberal, pluralistic, and orderly. It was influenced by the notion that the model of a liberal, pluralist, and just society was threatened by an alternative, totalitarian form (communism), where the mass media were distorted into tools for suppressing democracy. As such, media took upon themselves as the savior of the values of a just, liberal, and democratic society. The current threats are now in the forms of: Terrorism, Religious Fundamentalism, Extremist Movements, and Revolutionary Movements. The Dominant Paradigm is a Transmission Model possesses Interpretative or Qualitative Elements.

ORIGINS OF THE THEORETICAL ELEMENTS OF DOMINANT PARADIGM

                                                            FUNCTIONALISM                   Sociology:            Offered a functional framework of

analysis for the media

H. Lasswell:         In 1948, formulated a clear structure of the function of communication in Society

Assumptions:      Communications work towards the integration, continuity, and order of the society.                

                                                                                                               

Potential Dyfunctional Consequences are also evident.

INFORMATION SCIENCE                                                                 METHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS

Developed by C. Shannon & W. Weaver (1949)                           A combination of advances in mental measurements

It is concerned with the technical efficiency of                              (individual attitudes, and other attributes), and statistical-

Communication channels. Their model developed                     analysis offering new and powerful tools for achieving

For Analyzing information transmission visualized                     generalized and reliable knowledge of previously hidden

Communication as a sequential process, and                            processes and states.

was designed to account for differences between                       Methods used to determine the influence of Mass Media

messages as sent with messages as received.                            about their effectiveness in persuasion & attitude change.

The differences considered as results of noise or      

interference affecting the channel.                                                  Additional Contribution to the Dominant Paradigm

                                                                                                                High status of Behaviorism in Psychology and of the

                                                                                                                Experimental Method based on one version or another of

Stimulus-Response Theory.

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Alternative, Critical Paradigm

This perspective had a different view of the society. It believed that the society didn’t accept the prevailing liberal-capitalist order as just or inevitable, or the best, one can hope for in the fallen state of humankind. It did not accept the rational-calculative utilitarian model of social life as at all adequate or desirable, nor did it agree that the commercial model was the only or the best way to run the media.

As per this paradigm there was an alternative idealist and sometimes utopian ideology, but nowhere a worked out model of an ideal social system. Promoted by the followers of the Frankfurt School of Thought in the 1930s, as an Alternative View of the Dominant Commercial Mass Culture, the original ideological inspiration had been Socialism and Marxism. There was a sufficient common basis for rejecting the hidden ideology of pluralism and of conservative functionalism, and which provided a strong intellectual base for seeing the process of Mass Communication as Manipulative and Ultimately Oppressive.

C. Wright Mills, who exposed the liberal fallacy of pluralist control, articulated a clear alternative view of the media, drawing on a native North American radical tradition. Influenced by the ‘Ideas of 1968’:  the Anti-War, Liberation, & Neo-Marxism movements, and national issues like student democracy, feminism, and anti-imperialism, the Alternative Paradigm took shape. It is a model having a more complete view of communication as sharing and ritual, and possessing critical elements. It is valuable in extending its range of methods and approaches to popular culture in all its aspects.

COMPONENTS SUPPORTING THE ALTERNATIVE PARADIGM

                                                SOPHISTICATED NOTION OF

                                IDEOLOGY IN MEDIA CONTENT

                                                                                                                                                Allowed Researchers to ‘decode’ the

Ideological messages of mass mediated entertainment and news (which tend to legitimize established power structures

                                                                                                                                                and defusing opposition)                                                  

ECONOMIC & POLITICAL                                                                 CHANGES OF CONCERN TO

CHARACTER OF MASS MEDIA                                                      WIDER VIEW OF DOMINATION

Mass Media institutions and structures are not taken                  Other concerns (rather than the exclusive concern with

at Face Value anymore, their economic & political                      working class subordination) like the domination especially

characters are being investigated, and they are                           in relation to youth, alternative subcultures, gender, and

assessed in terms of their operational strategies                         ethnicity, and the movement toward more qualitative -

which are far from being neutral or non-ideological.                   Research into culture, discourse or the ethnography of

                                                                                                                mass media use.

RELATIONS BETWEEN CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Mass Media Institution is an integral part of the structure of the society, its technological infrastructure is part of the economic and power base, while the ideas, images, and information disseminated by the media are an important aspect of our culture. As per Rosengran: “Culture will either be influenced by the Social Structure, or it will influence the Society Structure” . Based on these two dimensions, four states concerning media institution (social structure) and media content (Culture) are identified. These are:

Interdependence:               The state wherein the Mass Media and the Society are continually interacting and influencing

one another.

Materialism:                        The state wherein the Culture is dependent on the economic and power structure of the

society. The essence of Marxist position, it is assumed that whoever owns or controls the media can choose or set limits to what they do.

Idealism:                               Under this state it is assumed that Media Content will have a potential for significant influence

on the society.

Autonomy:                            The state wherein the Mass Media and the Society will function independently of each other,

and will not influence each other.

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ROSENGREN’S TYPOLOGY

                                                                        Social Structure influences Culture

                                                                                                                               

Yes                                                 No

 

                                                        

                                                 Yes

Culture influences

                Social Structure

                                                          No

MASS COMMUNICATION

A Mediator of Social Relations and Experience

Mass Communication is a Society Wide Process, as the mass media institutions are primarily concerned with the production and distribution of knowledge, information, ideas, images, etc, They also provide the most continuous line of contact between the mass audience and the main institutions of the society. The mass media to a large extent serve to constitute the perceptions and definitions of social reality and normality for the purposes of a public, shared social life, and are a key source of standards, models, and norms. Without some degree of shared perception of reality, there cannot exist an organized social life.

The Mass media serve as mediators of social relations and experience. Their mediation processes can be in the form of:

·                     Relaying of second hand versions of events, states, and conditions which cannot be directly observed by the mass audience

·                     Referring to the efforts of others who want to contact for their own purposes 

The Mediation Roles undertaken by Mass Media can take any of these forms:

Disseminator:                     Passes-on information to the mass audience.

Filter or Gatekeeper:         Selects or censors the information to be passed on to the audience.

Forum or Platform:            Offers a platform for an audience member to pass on his information, ideas, or views to others.

Interlocutor:                         Acts as an informed member of the society & responds to questions in a quasi-interactive way.

Mirror:                                   Acts as a mirror of events in the society/world, and presents true reflections to the audience.

Window:                                Acts as the window on events, occurrences, and experience, thus letting the audience see for

themselves what is happening.

A Frame of Reference for connecting Media  with Society.

It has already been stated that mass media provide their mass audience with an abundant supply of knowledge, ideas, information, opinions, images, stories, and impressions. These are usually offered as per the anticipated needs or expectations of the audience, but very often the mass media may be guided by other personal motivations like generating revenues or exerting influence over the mass.

As indicated by Westley and MacLean in their model of 1957, mass media interpose in some way between ‘reality’ and the audience’s perceptions and knowledge, but as stated by them some additional elements are required for a more detailed Frame of Reference. Their model can serve as a useful Frame of Reference for formulating of theories about media and the society.

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A Frame of Reference for Theory formation about Media and Society

 

 

THEMES THAT SHAPED THE MEDIA THEORY

Power and Equality

To discuss this theme, it is necessary to identify some of the characteristics of mass media. These are:

·                     Media have an economic cost and value, as such are an object of competition for control and access.

·                     They are also subject to political, economic and legal regulation.

·                     Media are commonly regarded as effective instruments of power capable of exerting influence in many ways.

·                     The power of mass media is very unequally made available.

Some of the aspects of mass media power can be listed as follows:

·                     Offering selected, censored, or distorted Information

·                     Persuading the public to form certain opinions and beliefs

·                     Drawing public attention and directing it toward a specific object

·                     Influencing the public behaviour

·                     Interpreting/Defining the reality (events, occurrences, and happenings)

·                     Conferring status and legitimacy

·                     More readily available to those with political and economic power

The two models that describe media power are:

Model of Dominant Media:               Which views media as a tool exercising power on behalf of other powerful institutions.

It is that model deployed both by reactionaries and revolutionaries. It is consistent with a view of the media as an instrument of ‘cultural imperialism’ or a tool of political propaganda.

Model of Pluralist Media:                  Which views media as an idealized product of democracy, liberalism, and the free

market.  This model allows for much diversity and unpredictability. There is no unified and dominant elite, and change and democratic control are both possible. Differentiated audiences initiate demand and are able to resist persuasion and react to what media offer.

Social Integration and Identity

It is assumed that mass media are capable of uniting scattered individuals within the same large audience, or to integrate newcomers into urban communities, and immigrants into a new country by providing a common set of values, ideas & information, and helping to form identities. In the year 1979, Hanno Harddt summarized the social integration and identity functions of mass media as follows:

·                     Binding Society together

·                     Giving Leadership to the Public

·                     Keeping to establish the ‘Public Sphere’

·                     Providing for the exchange of ideas between leaders and masses

·                     Satisfying the audience needs for information

·                     Providing society with a mirror of itself

·                     Acting as the conscience of society

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But mass media in principle is capable both of supporting and of subverting social cohesion.  These two forces: one stressing centrifugal tendency, while the other emphasizing centripetal tendency, are both at work in the society, at the same time, each compensating the other.

Centrifugal Tendency:      Refers to the stimulus toward Social Change, Freedom, Individualism, and Fragmentation.

Centripetal Tendency:      Refers to effects in the form of more social unity, order, cohesion, and integration.

As propagated by McCormack and Carey, these two versions of media theory: Centrifugal & Centripetal , each with its own position on a dimension of evaluation (optimism or pessimism), generate four different theoretical positions relating to social integration.

                                                                                      OPTIMISTIC VERSION

 

CENTRIFUGAL EFFECT                                                                                                                       CENTRIPETAL EFFECT

                                                                                     PESSIMISTIC VERSION

1.             Freedom (diversity):                          Stress is on freedom, mobility, and modernization function of the media.

2.             Integration (solidarity):                     Stress is on integrative and cohesive function of the media.

3.             Normlessness (loss of identity):    The pessimistic view of change and individualism points to individual

isolation and loss of social cohesion.

4.             Dominance (uniformity):                  Society can be over-integrated and over-regulated, leading to central control

and conformity.

A German Sociologist, Ferdinand Tonnies tried to explain the critical difference between the earlier forms of social organization and European society as it existed in the late nineteenth century. He proposed a simple dichotomy:

Gemeinschaft:    Traditional folk society, in which people were bound together by strong ties of family, tradition, rigid

social roles. Basic social institutions like family, schools, churches, etc. were very powerful.

Gessellschaft:    Modern Industrial Society, in which people are bound together by relatively weak social institutions

based upon rational choices rather than tradition.

Social Change and Development

Mass media are depicted as a progressive force bringing about changes in the society, but the major question that has arisen in the recent times is: Are media the cause of changes in the society, or are they the effects of changes that are taking place in the society ?  Mass media experts have different views on this subject. There are alternative ways to relate the following three basic elements which reflect the relationship between mass media and social change & development.

1.             The Technology of Communication and the form and content of media

This refers to the effects of media contents on the social change and development.

2.             Changes in society (social structure and institutional arrangements)

This refers to the question of how and whether or not mass media might be applied to economic and social development.

3.             The distribution among a population of opinion, beliefs, values, and practices.

This refers to the opinions and beliefs of the public concerning the influence of media contents on the social change and development.

Space and Time

Mass media bridge the ‘space and time’ gaps. They help to fill the voids created by distance and time. Communications make possible an extension of human activity and perception across distance in many ways. Through the use of  modern technology, mass media have enabled the public to have immediate access to information, knowledge, ideas, views, opinions, events, and advances, from all over the world, regardless of differences in time and space. 

It can be truly said that Mass Media have not only abolished distances, but have eliminated the time differences that exist between ‘reality’ and the audience. 

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