Water Crisis in Pakistan
IMPACT OF MEDIA ON SOCIETY:
The mass media are diversified media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication. Broadcast media (also known as electronic media) transmit their information electronically and comprise television, radio, film, movies, CDs, DVDs, and other devices such as cameras and video consoles. Alternatively, print media use a physical object as a means of sending their information, such as a newspaper, magazines, comics, books, brochures, newsletters, leaflets, and pamphlets. The organizations that control these technologies, such as television stations or publishing companies, are also known as the mass media. Internet media is able to achieve mass media status in its own right, due to the many mass media services it provides, such as email, websites, blogging, Internet and television. For this reason, many mass media outlets have a presence on the web, by such things as having TV ads that link to a website, or having games in their sites to entice gamers to visit their website. In this way, they can utilise the easy accessibility that the Internet has, and the outreach that Internet affords, as information can easily be broadcast to many different regions of the world simultaneously and cost-efficiently. Outdoor media is a form of mass media that comprises billboards, signs, placards placed inside and outside of commercial buildings and objects like shops and buses, flying billboards (signs in tow of airplanes), blimps, and skywriting. Public speaking and event organising can also be considered as forms of mass media.
Media has served as a boon to mankind. It has provided us with an exposure to the world outside our cozy homes. It has resulted in an exchange of views on a variety of subjects of a wide variety of people from all around the world, thereby leading to a global exchange of information and knowledge. Mass media has given each of us a platform to voice our opinions on all sorts of social and political issues and share information with one another. It has brought out easy ways of communication and provided us with easily accessible means to reach out to people in various parts of the world. Thanks to technological development, we have been able to obtain a platform that enables us to present ourselves to the rest of the world. The negative influences of media that are a result of an overexposure to it, are most often talked about. It is true to a certain extent that media has affected the society in a negative manner. But, undoubtedly, media has proved being a bliss. In order of introduction, they are: 1. Print (books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, etc.) from the late 15th century 2. Recordings (gramophone records, magnetic tapes, cassettes, cartridges, CDs, DVDs) from the late 19th century 3. Cinema from about 1900 4. Radio from about 1910 5. Television from about 1950 6. Internet from about 1990 7. Mobile phones from about 2000
Each mass media has its own content types, its own creative artists and technicians, and its own business models. For example, the Internet includes web sites, blogs, podcasts, and various other technologies built on top of the general distribution network. The sixth and seventh media, internet and mobile, are often called collectively as digital media; and the fourth and fifth, radio and TV, as broadcast media. Some argue that video games have developed into a distinct mass form of media
While a telephone is a two way communication device, mass media refers to medium which can communicate a message to a large group, often simultaneously. However, modern cell phones are no longer a single use device. Most cell phones are equipped with internet access and capable of connecting to the web which itself a mass medium. A question arises of whether this makes cell phones a mass medium or simply a device used to access a mass medium (the internet). There is currently a system where marketers and advertisers are able to tap into satellites, and broadcast commercials and advertisements directly to cell phones, unsolicited by the phone's user. This transmission of mass advertising to millions of people is a form of mass communication..
Characteristics
Five characteristics of mass communication have been identified by Cambridge University's John Thompson: * "comprises both technical and institutional methods of production and distribution" This is evident throughout the history of the media, from print to the Internet, each suitable for commercial utility. * Involves the "commodification of symbolic forms", as the production of materials relies on its ability to manufacture and sell large quantities of the work. Just as radio stations rely on its time sold to advertisements, newspapers rely for the same reasons on its space. * "separate contexts between the production and reception of information" * Its "reach to those 'far removed' in time and space, in comparison to the producers". * "information distribution" - a "one to many" form of communication, whereby products are mass produced and disseminated to a great quantity of audiences.
"Mass media" is sometimes used as a synonym for "mainstream media", which is distinguished from alternative media by the content and point of view. Alternative media are also "mass media" outlets in the sense of using technology capable of reaching many people, even if the audience is often smaller than the mainstream.
In common usage, the term "mass" denotes not that a given number of individuals receives the products, but rather that the products are available in principle to a plurality of recipients.
Mass media is distinguished from local media by the notion that whilst the former aims to reach a very large market such as the entire population of a country, the latter broadcasts to a much smaller population and area, and generally focuses on regional news rather than global events. A third type of media, speciality media, provides for specific demographics, such as specialty channels on TV (sports channels, porn channels, etc.). These definitions are not set in stone, and it is possible for a media outlet to be promoted in status from a local media outlet to a global media outlet. Some lcoal media, which takes an interest in state or provincial news can rise to prominence due to their investigative journalism, and to the local region's preference of updates in national politics rather than regional news. The Guardian, formerly known as the Manchester Guardian is an example of one such media outlet. Once a regional daily newspaper, The Guardian is currently a nationally respected paper.
The media like television, radio and the Internet increase an overall awareness of the masses. They enhance the general knowledge by providing us with information from all over the world. News broadcast through different media helps us know about the day-to-day events in the world. News, tele-films and documentaries revolving around social issues increase a social awareness in children and develop their concern towards society.
Newspapers, apart from updating us with the latest news and new information, also contribute to the enhancement of our vocabulary. Newspapers are the best beginners in developing reading habits in children. Through the print media, they provide the general public with a platform to give updates about their parts of the city, exchange their views over different issues that the society faces and share their thoughts on a larger scale.
Media serve as the best means for a speedy spread of news about important incidents or events taking place. What has happened in the remotest corner of the world can reach us within minutes, thanks to media. The speed that technology has achieved is helpful in times of crisis when media is to be used for reporting news needing immediate attention.
Research has revealed that media is responsible for influencing a major part of our daily life. Media contribute to a transformation in the cultural and social values of the masses. Media can bring about a change in the attitudes and beliefs of the common man. The persuasive nature of the content presented over media influences the thoughts and behavior of the general public. Media has a direct impact over the lifestyle of society.
The recent advent of blogging in the media world and practices like public polls and citizen journalism, have led to the achievement of a social control. These concepts have strengthened the relationship between the media and the common man. They have brought the general masses closer to their society.
Media has brought about a major transformation in the way people think. Media has given them an excellent platform to present themselves before the world and contribute in their own way to the changing world scenario. Media has been responsible for making the world a smaller place to live.
Media is known to be the most powerful means of communication. The print media, electronic media and the Internet are all the subsets of mass media. The newspapers, newsletters, magazines and brochure are included in the print media, while the electronic media consists of the television, radio and other modes of communication. Internet is without doubt the fastest known way of communicating with millions of people across the globe. However, the effects of mass media on society can be positive as well as negative.
Effects on the Society :
The best thing about the mass media is, that it immediately provides us with the latest information about the things happening around us. Mass media reports news from all the fields such as politics, sports, international relations, wars, natural calamities, meetings, entertainment, etc. Because of the keen efforts and dedication of the people working in the media and the entertainment sector, our knowledge remains fresh. With the gained knowledge, we become more smart and outgoing. Many times, we understand what is good and bad for us through the media programs. For example, the anti-tobacco and narcotic programs launched by the media, have benefited many people to date. The information conveyed about various diseases and their possible treatments has saved the lives of many of us. The contribution of mass media in the fields of arts, education, technology and health care is laudable. We also get the correct information about the various crimes and illegal activities happening in our surroundings quite easily. Media is a boon for youngsters in many ways. They get useful information related to their career and higher education mostly through the mass media. The mass media influence or the effects of mass media on the minds of the youth is significant.
Media plays a very important role in shaping the personality of people. It has been observed that citizens become more sensible and capable to shoulder their responsibility towards the nation and the society because of the media. We get our role models by hearing about the appreciation of their great deeds from the media itself. Over the years, mass media has played an important role in making people understand the meaning of democracy. We also come to know about the strengths and weaknesses of the economy of our country, the population figures, the various problems faced by the nation, achievements of the nation in different sectors, through the prompt and precise reporting of different forms of media. Media plays an important role in building the sense of unity and pride among the people of the nation. In those countries where there are many castes, religions and languages spoken, media has even more tough responsibility of conveying the true news to the citizens. Media makes the citizens aware of their fundamental rights and their duties towards their families, state and the nation. Utility of the mass media in the areas of advertising and marketing is simply great. The effects of mass media are truly everlasting.
Though the positive mass media effects are many, there are some cons associated with the mass media as well. The news which is published without having bothered to check whether it is a fact or not, can create unnecessary confusion and extreme feelings among the common masses. There have been many instances of huge fights and controversies emerging, because of improper reporting. It becomes the duty of media to provide only relevant and precise information to the masses.
Influence and sociology:
There are 3 theories to describe the influence of mass media. The website CliffNotes explains in detail the theories with examine the role that mass media plays in modern society. The limited-effects theory, which was originally tested in the 1940s and 1950s, states that "because people usually choose what media to interact with based on what they already believe, media exerts a negligible influence". The class-dominant theory states that "the media reflects and projects the view of a minority elite, which controls it". It continues by explaining that the people who own and control the corporations that produce media comprise this elite. The culturalist theory, which was developed in the 1980s and 1990s, combines the other two theories and claims that "people interact with media to create their own meanings out of the images and messages they receive". This theory states that audience members play an active, rather than passive role in relation to mass media.
In 1997, J. R. Finnegan Jr. and K. Viswanath identified 3 main effects or functions of mass media. The Knowledge Gap: The mass media influences knowledge gaps due to factors including "the extent to which the content is appealing, the degree to which information channels are accessible and desirable, and the amount of social conflict and diversity there is in a community". Agenda Setting: People are influence in how they think about issues due to the selective nature of what media choose for public consumption. Cultivation of Perceptions: The extent to which media exposure shapes audience perceptions over time is known as cultivation. Television is a common experience, especially in places like the United States, to the point where it can be described as a "homogenising agent" (S. W. Littlejohn). However, instead of being merely a result of the TV, the effect is often based on socioeconomic factors. Having a prolonged exposure to TV or movie violence might affect a viewer to the extent where they actively think community violence is a problem, or alternatively find it justifiable. The resulting belief is likely to be different depending of where people live however.
Since the 50s, when cinema, radio and TV began to be the primary or the only source of information for a larger and larger percentage of the population, these media began to be considered as central instruments of mass control. Up to the point that it emerged the idea that when a country has reached a high level of industrialization, the country itself "belongs to the person who controls communications."
Mass media play a significant role in shaping public perceptions on a variety of important issues, both through the information that is dispensed through them, and through the interpretations they place upon this information. They also play a large role in shaping modern culture, by selecting and portraying a particular set of beliefs, values, and traditions (an entire way of life), as reality. That is, by portraying a certain interpretation of reality, they shape reality to be more in line with that interpretation
Ethical issues and criticism:
Lack of local or specific topical focus is a common criticism of mass media. A mass news media outlet is often forced to cover national and international news due to it having to cater for and be relevant for a wide demographic. As such, it has to skip over many interesting or important local stories because they simply do not interest the large majority of their viewers. An example given by the website WiseGeek is that "the residents of a community might view their fight against development as critical, but the story would only attract the attention of the mass media if the fight became controversial or if precedents of some form were set".
The term "mass" suggests that the recipients of media products constitute a vast sea of passive, undifferentiated individuals. This is an image associated with some earlier critiques of "mass culture" and mass society which generally assumed that the development of mass communication has had a largely negative impact on modern social life, creating a kind of bland and homogeneous culture which entertains individuals without challenging them. However, interactive digital media have also been seen to challenge the read-only paradigm of earlier broadcast media.
The role of mass media today :
A basic issue in the discussion of the role of the mass media in today’s society is whether they do reflect social reality in a broad sense, or whether, instead, the elites which control them filter out the view of reality which they see fit to be made public. To my mind, the answer to this question is that the media do both, depending on the way we define reality.
To take, first, political reality, mass media, in one sense, do not provide a faked view of it. Taking into account what is considered as politics today, i.e. the activity of professional politicians ‘representing’ the people, one may argue that it is politics itself, which is faked, and mass media simply reproduce this reality. In this sense, the issue is not whether the mass media manipulate democracy, since it is democracy itself, which is faked, and not its mass media picture, which simply reflects the reality of present ‘democracy’. But, at the same time, if we give a different definition to political reality, mass media do provide, in general, a distorted picture of it. In other words, if we define as real politics the political activity of people themselves (for instance, the collective struggles of various sectors of the population around political, economic or social issues) rather than that of professional politicians, then, the mass media do distort the picture they present about political reality. They do so, by minimising the significance of this type of activity, by distorting its meaning, by marginalising it, or by simply ignoring it completely.
As regards economic reality, mass media, in one sense again, do provide a relatively accurate picture of what counts as economic reality today. This is when the media, taking for granted the system of the market economy, end up with a partial picture of economic reality where what matters is not whether the basic needs of the population are covered adequately but whether prices (in commodity and stock markets), interest rates, exchange rates and consequently profit rates are going up or down. Still, in another sense, the very fact that mass media take for granted the system of the market economy means that they cannot ‘see’ the ‘systemic’ nature of most of the real economic problems (unemployment, poverty and so on) and therefore inevitably end up with a faked image of economic reality. This way of seeing economic reality is not imposed on the media by their owners, important as their influence may otherwise be, or by their internal hierarchical structure etc. The media simply reflect the views of orthodox economists, bankers, businessmen and professional politicians, i.e. of all those who express the dominant social paradigm.
However, one may point out here that although it is true that social reality and mass media are interacting, i.e. that our conception of TV news is a constituent element of reality and at the same time our conception of reality is conditioned by TV functioning, this does not imply that the diversified functioning of mass media creates the conditions for a social dynamic which acts for the institution of society, although it does play this role as far as its reproduction is concerned. Goals and Control mechanisms
The goals of the mass media are determined by those owning and controlling them, who, usually, are members of the economic elites that control the market economy itself. Given the crucial role that the media could play in the internalisation of the dominant social paradigm and therefore the reproduction of the institutional framework which secures the concentration of power in the hands of the elites, it is obvious that those owning and controlling the mass media have broader ideological goals than the usual goals pursued by those owning and controlling other economic institutions, i.e. profit maximising. Therefore, an analysis that would attempt to draw conclusions on the nature and significance of media institutions on the basis of the profit dimension alone, (i.e. that they share a common goal and consequently a similar internal hierarchical structure with all other economic institutions and that they just sell a product, the only difference with other economic institutions being that the product is the audience,) is bound to be one-dimensional. Profit maximising is only one parameter, often not even the crucial one, which conditions the role of mass media in a market economy. In fact, one could mention several instances where capitalist owners chose even to incur significant losses (which they usually cover from other profitable activities) in order to maintain the social influence (and prestige), which ownership of an influential daily offers to them (Murdoch and The Times of London is an obvious recent example).
Given the ultimate ideological goal of mass media, the main ways in which they try to achieve it are: * first, by assisting in the internalisation of the dominant social paradigm and, * second, by marginalising, if not excluding altogether, conceptions of reality which do not conform with the dominant social paradigm.
But, what are the mechanisms through which the media can achieve their goals? To give an answer to this question we have to examine a series of mechanisms, most of them ‘automatic’ built-in mechanisms, which ensure effective achievement of these goals. It will be useful here to distinguish between ‘internal’ and ‘external’ control mechanisms, which function respectively as internal and external constraints on the freedom of media workers to reproduce reality. Both internal and external mechanisms work mainly through competition which secures homogenisation with respect to the media’s main goals
Starting with ownership, it matters little, as regards the media’s overall goals defined above, whether they are owned and controlled by the state and/or the state-controlled institutions or whether, instead, they are owned and controlled by private capital. However, there are certain secondary differences arising from the different ownership structures which may be mentioned. These secondary differences have significant implications, particularly with respect to the structure of the elites controlling the media, their own organisational structure and their ‘image’ with respect to their supposedly ‘objective’ role in the presentation of information. As regards the elite structure, whereas under a system of state ownership and control the mass media are under the direct control of the political elite and the indirect control of the economic elites, under a system of private ownership and control, the media are just under the direct control of the economic elites. This fact, in turn, has some implications on whether filtering out of information takes place directly through state control, or indirectly through various economic mechanisms (e.g. ratings) .As regards the media organisational structure, whereas state-owned media are characterised by bureaucratic rigidity and inefficiency, privately owned media are usually characterised by more flexibility and economic efficiency. Finally, the ‘objective’ image of mass media suffers less in case of private ownership compared to the case of state ownership. This is because in the latter case control of information is more direct and therefore more obvious than in the former.
An illustrative application of the above analytical framework is the crucial contribution of the mass media in the creation of the subjective conditions for the neoliberal consensus. Thus, the mass media have played a double ideological role with respect to the neoliberal consensus. On the one hand, they have promoted directly the neoliberal agenda : * by degrading the economic role of the state, * by attacking the ‘dependence’ on the state which the welfare state supposedly creates, * by identifying freedom with the freedom of choice, which is supposedly achieved through the liberation of markets etc. * and similar TV shows play a particularly significant role in this respect). On the other hand, the media have also attempted to divert attention from the consequences of the neoliberal consensus (in terms of growing inequality and poverty, the explosion of crime and drug abuse and so on) : * by promoting irrational beliefs of all sorts (religion, mystical beliefs, astrology etc). The film and video explosion on the themes of exorcism, supernatural powers etc (induced mainly by Hollywood) has played a significant role in diverting attention from the evils of neoliberalism. * by manufacturing irrelevant and/or insignificant ‘news stories’ (e.g. Monica Lewinsky affair), which are then taken over by opposition politicians who are eager to find fictitious ways (because of the lack of real political differences within the neoliberal consensus) to differentiate themselves from those in power * by creating a pseudo ‘general interest’ (for instance around a nationalist or chauvinist cause) in order to unite the population around a ‘cause’ and make it forget the utterly dividing aspects of neoliberalism.
Media and culture in a democratic society: Culture and a democratic conception of citizenship The starting point is that the conditions for democracy imply a new conception of citizenship: economic, political, social and cultural. Thus, political citizenship involves new political structures and the return to the classical conception of politics (direct democracy). Economic citizenship involves new economic structures of community ownership and control of economic resources (economic democracy). Social citizenship involves self-management structures at the workplace, democracy in the household and new welfare structures where all basic needs (to be democratically determined) are covered by community resources, whether they are to be satisfied in the household or at the community level. Finally, cultural citizenship involves new democratic structures of dissemination and control of information and culture (mass media, art, etc.), which allow every member of the community to take part in the process and at the same time develop his/her intellectual and cultural potential. The conception of citizenship adopted here, which could be called a democratic conception, is based on our definition of inclusive democracy and presupposes a ‘participatory’ conception of active citizenship, like the one implied by the work of Hannah .In this conception, “political activity is not a means to an end, but an end in itself; one does not engage in political action simply to promote one’s welfare but to realise the principles intrinsic to political life, such as freedom, equality, justice, solidarity, courage and excellence”. It is therefore obvious that this conception of citizenship is qualitatively different from the liberal and social-democratic conceptions, which adopt an ‘instrumentalist’ view of citizenship, i.e. a view which implies that citizenship entitles citizens with certain rights that they can exercise as means to the end of individual welfare.
This code of democratic ethics may be derived out of the two fundamental principles of organisation of a confederal inclusive Democracy, i.e. the principle of autonomy and the principle of community. Thus, out of the fundamental principle of autonomy one may derive a set of cultural values about equality and respect for the personality of every citizen, irrespective of gender, race, ethnic identity etc. Out of the same fundamental principle one could derive the principle of protecting the quality of life of each individual citizen -- something that would imply a relationship of harmony with nature. Similarly, out of the fundamental principle of community life one may derive a set of values involving solidarity and mutual aid, caring and sharing. These values should constitute an integral part of the dominant social paradigm so that democracy can reproduce itself. This of course does not exclude the possibility, or rather the probability, of the existence of alternative cultural values, or perhaps even of a conflict between personal and collective values ---particularly with respect to those citizens who cannot reconcile themselves with the tragic truth that it is we who determine our own truth and might still adhere to moral codes derived from irrational belief systems (religions, mystical beliefs etc). However, as long as these people are in a minority, (hopefully, a dwindling one, through the Paedeia of a democratic society), the conflict in their personal values with the collectively defined values should not be a problem for the community as a whole.
A NEW WORLD OF COMMUNICATION:
Certainly, the first president of the United States would be awed by the power of these new media to change ideas about the world, perceptions, and even life itself. At the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of a new millennium, there can be little doubt about mass media's impact on the way the world works. Consider a few examples: The communist world collapsed, and mass media played a key role. In the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the American government seemed to be as much concerned with influencing the media as with fighting the enemy. Our politicians have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on television advertising; they are no longer judged by their ideas or leadership but by their ability to project a telegenic image. Athletes no longer seem as engaged in sportsman-like competition as they are in competing for huge salaries as mass entertainers.
Most of us have had some direct experience with the impact of media on our lives, and we have witnessed their power in molding institutions and shaping events. What is still debatable, however, is whether that power is being used for good or for ill. In this discussion there are many sides-and that is what this book is all about.
Without question, the mass media in America are unique. Americans have the most mass media, spend the most time on them, and fulfill most of the mass media appetites of the world. Yet we have not necessarily become the best-informed citizens of the world, nor the most literate. In many ways, we are no longer even the most successful.
Television in America has become the most powerful of all mass media, which is why it gets more emphasis in this book. Simply put, we spend more time on television and are more concerned about its impact than all the other media together.
DEFINING MASS MEDIA
We should begin by defining our terms. Basically, we divide mass media into two categories: print or newspapers, magazines, and books; and electronic or radio, television, sound recordings, motion pictures, and the Internet. These instruments must be able to carry messages quickly to audiences so large that they cannot be gathered together in any one place at any one time. Thus, mass audiences are apt to be diverse, heterogeneous, and multicultural. Mass communicators themselves are not people with whom these audiences have personal contact; they are remote and anonymous. The messages of mass communication are usually transient and impermanent as well. For radio and television, they are here one moment, gone the next, The messages of newspapers last only a day, and magazines only a week or a month. Books and films last a bit longer, but in an age of mass media, even they are displaced quickly.'.
THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT:
Government plays a unique role in American mass media. Unlike that in most other countries, the U.S. government does not own or operate any mass media that are readily available for public consumption within the country. (One exception is Voice of America, the federal government's international radio station, which is broadcast only in shortwave and aimed at foreign countries. Another exception is Stars and Stripes, a daily newspaper published with government funds for personnel on military bases who theoretically might not have access to privately published newspapers.) Also unlike that in many other countries, the American government rarely provides financial subsidy to mass media. (One exception has been government support for public broadcasting, to ensure that some educational programming will get on the air-waves.)
The American philosophy about government's relationship to mass media comes primarily from the tradition that government should not compete with private industry, and that citizens should get their information from private sources, to help ensure that government cannot manipulate information to suit its own purposes or to increase its own power. The philosophy about government control of mass media comes from the First Amendment to the Constitution, which says that "Congress shall make no laws abridging freedom of speech or of the press." (The primary exception are regulations governing broadcasting, but even these restrictions say relatively little about broadcast content.)Thus, American government plays a minor role in legal control of the media. There are few laws and few institutional supports.
THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS:
In any discussion of mass media, we must include advertising, which isn't a medium itself but is so inextricably woven into the fabric of most mass media that it cannot be ignored. By advertising we mean the purchase of time or space in print and electronic media to present a specific message. Advertisers are not employed by any medium, but since they provide critical financial support, they play a key role in the mass communication process.
Increasingly, public relations has become an essential part of mass media as well. Public relations people also are not employees of any medium; rather, they serve the special interests of those outside the mass media. They seek to influence the content of mass media by packaging news and information, by shaping personalities to fit media formats, and by creating or staging events to capture the attention of the media. Their goal is to achieve a particular mass message and (the public relations people would hope) a particular audience response. It is no longer possible to understand mass media without understanding public relations.
MASS MEDIA AS PRIVATE ENTERPRISES:
We must understand that mass media in the United States are market-driven. They are private businesses, usually established to make a profit; to do so, they must provide a commodity that people want. To sell advertising time or space, any medium must have an audience that advertisers want to reach. If the medium does not attract a large enough audience to bring in enough money from subscriptions or advertising sales to cover its costs and make a profit, it will most likely go out of business unless its owners can cover its losses with profits from other businesses.
TWENTIETH-CENTURY PHENOMENA:
Instruments of mass communication are relatively new to human history. Some, like electronic media, were inventions of the twentieth century. Print media, though invented earlier, were essentially reinvented in the last 100 years to reach a mass audience. Advertising developed much earlier, but in the twentieth century, it has became a massive and, to some extent, scientific industry. Public relations is the quintessential twentieth-century profession, perhaps the very symbol of our age; in fact, much of today's news has it origins in, or is somehow affected by, public relations efforts.
The impact of mass media is a fitting subject as we start a new century. For much of the 1900s, scholars argued about the real power of mass media. Now, most concede that mass media have powerful effects, even though questions remain about the precise nature of their impact or the actual cause- and-effect relationship.
LIMITED AFFECTS THEORIES:
Do the media make things happen, or do they merely report what has happened? Do they make us act? Do they influence our opinions? Do they merely reflect our actions, thoughts, and feelings? Obviously, there are many variables for scientists to consider when trying to answer these questions. In the mid 1950s, many social scientists believed that mass media had limited effects, that they affected each individual differently. Two leading social scientists, Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz, concluded their examination of these questions with the following statement:
The effects of communication are many and diverse. They may be shortrange or long-run. They may be manifest or latent. They may be strong or weak. They may derive from any number of aspects of the communication content. They may be considered as psychological or political or economic or sociological. They may operate upon opinions, values, information levels, skills, taste, or overt behavior
Berelson and Janowitz didn't mean that it was useless to be concerned about the impact of mass media. They meant that every conclusion had to be qualified. They meant that one must be exceedingly careful in making generalizations and assigning blame. They believed that the effects of mass media must be measured and predicted on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration all the variables in each situation.
POWERFUL EFFECTS THEORIES:
The carefully guarded conclusions of Berelson and Janowitz, however, were stated at the middle of the twentieth century, before television had become such a powerful force. In the mid-1950s television was still primarily a limited adult activity. Most people's values had already been shaped by other forces namely, family, religion, teachers, and print media. By the end of the twentieth century, social scientists were ready to assign a more direct and powerful impact to television.
Most important, perhaps, has been the work of George Gerbner, whose "cultivation analysis" is based on the theory that television, as the dominant medium, has a cumulative effect, ultimately creating the culture in which we live. Today, according to Gerbner, it is television-not parents, teachers, or religious leaders-that establishes the values of young children, the ethics they will hold for their lifetime. Television tells the stories on which our society is based. Gerbner writes:
Television is the overall socializing process superimposed on all the other processes. By the time children can speak (let alone go to school and perhaps learn to read) they will have absorbed thousands of hours of living in a highly compelling world. They see everything represented: all the social types, situations, art and science. Our children learn-and we ourselves learn and maintain-certain assumptions about life that bear the imprint of this most early and continued ritual. In our age, it is television mythology we grow up in and grow up with.... Those who tell stories hold power in society. Today television tells most of the stories to most of the people most of the time.
Many scientific studies have confirmed that for the news and information we need about ourselves, our communities, and our world, we now turn more often to mass media, especially television, than to our families, friends, neighbors, religious organizations, or social institutions.
CHANGING TIMES:
This book examines some of the current issues from several different perspectives. Some authors presented here vigorously support and defend the media. Others are opposed and critical. Still others try to take a balanced approach. The issues are changing, and so is the world. It is a much different place today than it was only a few years ago, in 1985 and 1988, when the first and second editions of this book were published, or since the third edition was published in 1995. Since then, the Soviet empire has collapsed, the Iron Curtain has come down, the Berlin Wall has been demolished, and communism (which prevailed throughout much of the world in 1988) has been discredited as a viable political and economic system.
Other issues have also changed. We're not so concerned about the rights of citizens to have access to the mass media for their own views as we once were-though we probably should be-nor are we as concerned about business and the media, or religion and the media, which were covered in earlier editions. Other issues, however, such as responsibility, ethics, violence, sex, politics, government, war, minorities, gender, age, culture, and technology, remain important.
CHANGING HABITS:
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the average American spent a few minutes each day reading a daily newspaper, a few minutes more reading magazines, maybe less than an hour reading a book-and no time at all watching movies or television, listening to radio or recordings, or surfing the World Wide Web, none of which existed as a public medium. By the end of the twentieth century, Americans are spending more than half their leisure time-activities other than eating, sleeping, or working-on mass media, and the majority of that time is spent watching television. Today, the numbers are 3,400 hours a year on media, or about 40% of our total time, more than we spent sleeping (2,900 hours, 33 %) or working (2000 hours, 23 V, or all the other things we do (only 460 hours, 5 %).
In America today, young people spend more time in front of the television than they do in class. By the time an average American graduates from high school, he or she will have spent about 12,000 hours in class and about 19,000 hours watching the tube’.
CHANGING MEDIA: The mass media themselves have changed, not just for former communists or citizens of the developing world but even for Americans. In fact, the media seem to be in a state of constant evolution, which sometimes is as baffling for us as if we had been dropped here like George Washington from the eighteenth century. Only fifty years ago, in the 1940s, most people in this world had never seen a television set. Only thirty years ago, in the 1960s, most had never seen color pictures on a TV screen. Only twenty years ago, in the 1980s, most could only receive a half-dozen different TV channels. Only ten years ago, in the late 1980s, most had never heard of the Internet, and only a few years ago, in the mid-1990s only a small percentage of people were communicating online. Since 1995, an entirely new mass medium-the internet-has emerged as a force in the world, and the changing media themselves have become a major issue.
About ten years ago our known media universe exploded with a big bang and everything flew into fragments that have since been coalescing into new galaxies: the old and new television networks, satellite and cable companies, movie and publishing empires, record companies and video rental chains, home shopping and telephone companies, are all still colliding and merging, or shattering and reconverging differently. We are probably still at too young a stage in the birth of this new media universe to know which will come to rest as fixed stars and which will burn out, but the heavens are still trembling at their nativity, shareholders and employees from shock, and more detached observers from anxiety about what the new constellations will mean.
THE DECLINE OF DEMOCRACY:
A discouraging fact about life in America has been the declining percentage of citizens who vote. By the end of the twentieth century, fewer than half of those eligible were voting in national elections. And with this reduction in the percentages of voters, it became easier for special interests to sway elections. All they had to do was spend a lot of money on television and other media advertising in a campaign to assure victory with a smaller number of votes. Thus, political success increasingly depended on fundraising, usually from well-financed special interest groups, to pay for media advertising.
Crucial issues were often fought at the state level between special- interest groups seeking legal status for their concerns, such as affirmative action, handgun control, or regulation of pornography on the Internet. In California, for example, more money was spent in 1996 on campaigns for special initiatives than on electing the president. In Washington state, in another example, citizens in the urban area of Seattle, concerned about accidental handgun deaths, supported an initiative in 1997 for trigger locks on handguns. Citizens in the rural eastern part of the state perceived this proposal as a threat to their constitutional right to bear arms, however, and the National Rifle Association joined their side, spent millions of dollars on media advertising, and defeated the trigger-lock initiative.
In the age of mass media, Americans have been made to think that democracy means having lots of consumer choices in the marketplace of products, rather than alternative choices in ideology, issues, or political leadership in the marketplace of ideas.
ILLUSIONS OF REALITY:
When we realize that the illusions we receive from mass media are exactly that-illusions, not real or accurate or perfectly matched to our perceptions we become disillusioned. The first time we read a newspaper story that describes an event about which we have personal knowledge, we are likely to say, "Hey, that's not the way it was; I saw it myself and it didn't happen that way at all." The first time we visit a television studio and see the painted sets for the local news show, we say, "Gee, I thought that was the real city skyline behind the anchorperson." The first time we go to Washington, D.C., and see the White House, we exclaim, "It's so small! It seemed so much bigger on television! "
This book is about the illusions we get from mass media-and our disillusionment when we find out that everything isn't the way we thought it was. Dispelling these illusions may be one of the most important responsibilities of modern education. The illusions and disillusionments of young people in our society are probably greater than they have ever been in any society before. This book is not a scientific examination of the specifics of the impact of mass media. Instead, it presents current arguments about that impact by some leading thinkers, experienced observers, and thoughtful critics. Questions about the impact of mass media usually engender heated debate. The arguments raised here may be among the most important of our age, because in one way or another we are all affected by mass media. And we have all debated these questions ourselves, ever since we emerged from behind the dark glass of childhood to realize that TV, the silver screen, and the printed word may not, after all, represent reality.
What can we believe? What is true, and what is not? Education must provide a way to answer these questions. We need to be educated about mass media if we want to steer a clear course between illusions on the one hand and disillusionment on the other.
REAL INFORMATION IS POWER:
One thing seems certain: The power and reach of mass media at the beginning of the new millennium is greater than ever. The age of mass communication has made it possible for us to gain access to far more information than ever before, Information is indispensable to a complex and advanced civilization. We are in information -hungry Society: we need an ever-increasing amount of facts to maintain and increase our standard of living Information today is a commodity that we are willing to pay for. We also have more leisure time, and we depend on mass media to provide much of our information and entertainment. We have often been told that information is power. The question is, are we getting the information we really need? And what must we do to ensure that the information we receive from mass media will meet our needs and not the purposes of someone else?
This book is designed to help readers reach their own conclusions about the role of mass media in their lives. Conflicting arguments are often presented here deliberately These arguments should be discussed, and new facts and perspectives should be considered so that each person can arrive at an informed point of view. Only in this manner will truth-truth for each individual-emerge from this vast marketplace of facts and ideas.
Today, mass media are too essential to be ignored. The issues raised by them will no doubt continue to grow in importance throughout the twenty-first century. And even if George Washington were dropped from a time machine into our midst from the 1790s, it wouldn't take him long to understand and agree with those conclusions.
The mass media are diversified media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication. Broadcast media (also known as electronic media) transmit their information electronically and comprise television, radio, film, movies, CDs, DVDs, and other devices such as cameras and video consoles. Alternatively, print media use a physical object as a means of sending their information, such as a newspaper, magazines, comics, books, brochures, newsletters, leaflets, and pamphlets. The organizations that control these technologies, such as television stations or publishing companies, are also known as the mass media. Internet media is able to achieve mass media status in its own right, due to the many mass media services it provides, such as email, websites, blogging, Internet and television. For this reason, many mass media outlets have a presence on the web, by such things as having TV ads that link to a website, or having games in their sites to entice gamers to visit their website. In this way, they can utilise the easy accessibility that the Internet has, and the outreach that Internet affords, as information can easily be broadcast to many different regions of the world simultaneously and cost-efficiently. Outdoor media is a form of mass media that comprises billboards, signs, placards placed inside and outside of commercial buildings and objects like shops and buses, flying billboards (signs in tow of airplanes), blimps, and skywriting. Public speaking and event organising can also be considered as forms of mass media.
Media has served as a boon to mankind. It has provided us with an exposure to the world outside our cozy homes. It has resulted in an exchange of views on a variety of subjects of a wide variety of people from all around the world, thereby leading to a global exchange of information and knowledge. Mass media has given each of us a platform to voice our opinions on all sorts of social and political issues and share information with one another. It has brought out easy ways of communication and provided us with easily accessible means to reach out to people in various parts of the world. Thanks to technological development, we have been able to obtain a platform that enables us to present ourselves to the rest of the world. The negative influences of media that are a result of an overexposure to it, are most often talked about. It is true to a certain extent that media has affected the society in a negative manner. But, undoubtedly, media has proved being a bliss. In order of introduction, they are: 1. Print (books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, etc.) from the late 15th century 2. Recordings (gramophone records, magnetic tapes, cassettes, cartridges, CDs, DVDs) from the late 19th century 3. Cinema from about 1900 4. Radio from about 1910 5. Television from about 1950 6. Internet from about 1990 7. Mobile phones from about 2000
Each mass media has its own content types, its own creative artists and technicians, and its own business models. For example, the Internet includes web sites, blogs, podcasts, and various other technologies built on top of the general distribution network. The sixth and seventh media, internet and mobile, are often called collectively as digital media; and the fourth and fifth, radio and TV, as broadcast media. Some argue that video games have developed into a distinct mass form of media
While a telephone is a two way communication device, mass media refers to medium which can communicate a message to a large group, often simultaneously. However, modern cell phones are no longer a single use device. Most cell phones are equipped with internet access and capable of connecting to the web which itself a mass medium. A question arises of whether this makes cell phones a mass medium or simply a device used to access a mass medium (the internet). There is currently a system where marketers and advertisers are able to tap into satellites, and broadcast commercials and advertisements directly to cell phones, unsolicited by the phone's user. This transmission of mass advertising to millions of people is a form of mass communication..
Characteristics
Five characteristics of mass communication have been identified by Cambridge University's John Thompson: * "comprises both technical and institutional methods of production and distribution" This is evident throughout the history of the media, from print to the Internet, each suitable for commercial utility. * Involves the "commodification of symbolic forms", as the production of materials relies on its ability to manufacture and sell large quantities of the work. Just as radio stations rely on its time sold to advertisements, newspapers rely for the same reasons on its space. * "separate contexts between the production and reception of information" * Its "reach to those 'far removed' in time and space, in comparison to the producers". * "information distribution" - a "one to many" form of communication, whereby products are mass produced and disseminated to a great quantity of audiences.
"Mass media" is sometimes used as a synonym for "mainstream media", which is distinguished from alternative media by the content and point of view. Alternative media are also "mass media" outlets in the sense of using technology capable of reaching many people, even if the audience is often smaller than the mainstream.
In common usage, the term "mass" denotes not that a given number of individuals receives the products, but rather that the products are available in principle to a plurality of recipients.
Mass media is distinguished from local media by the notion that whilst the former aims to reach a very large market such as the entire population of a country, the latter broadcasts to a much smaller population and area, and generally focuses on regional news rather than global events. A third type of media, speciality media, provides for specific demographics, such as specialty channels on TV (sports channels, porn channels, etc.). These definitions are not set in stone, and it is possible for a media outlet to be promoted in status from a local media outlet to a global media outlet. Some lcoal media, which takes an interest in state or provincial news can rise to prominence due to their investigative journalism, and to the local region's preference of updates in national politics rather than regional news. The Guardian, formerly known as the Manchester Guardian is an example of one such media outlet. Once a regional daily newspaper, The Guardian is currently a nationally respected paper.
The media like television, radio and the Internet increase an overall awareness of the masses. They enhance the general knowledge by providing us with information from all over the world. News broadcast through different media helps us know about the day-to-day events in the world. News, tele-films and documentaries revolving around social issues increase a social awareness in children and develop their concern towards society.
Newspapers, apart from updating us with the latest news and new information, also contribute to the enhancement of our vocabulary. Newspapers are the best beginners in developing reading habits in children. Through the print media, they provide the general public with a platform to give updates about their parts of the city, exchange their views over different issues that the society faces and share their thoughts on a larger scale.
Media serve as the best means for a speedy spread of news about important incidents or events taking place. What has happened in the remotest corner of the world can reach us within minutes, thanks to media. The speed that technology has achieved is helpful in times of crisis when media is to be used for reporting news needing immediate attention.
Research has revealed that media is responsible for influencing a major part of our daily life. Media contribute to a transformation in the cultural and social values of the masses. Media can bring about a change in the attitudes and beliefs of the common man. The persuasive nature of the content presented over media influences the thoughts and behavior of the general public. Media has a direct impact over the lifestyle of society.
The recent advent of blogging in the media world and practices like public polls and citizen journalism, have led to the achievement of a social control. These concepts have strengthened the relationship between the media and the common man. They have brought the general masses closer to their society.
Media has brought about a major transformation in the way people think. Media has given them an excellent platform to present themselves before the world and contribute in their own way to the changing world scenario. Media has been responsible for making the world a smaller place to live.
Media is known to be the most powerful means of communication. The print media, electronic media and the Internet are all the subsets of mass media. The newspapers, newsletters, magazines and brochure are included in the print media, while the electronic media consists of the television, radio and other modes of communication. Internet is without doubt the fastest known way of communicating with millions of people across the globe. However, the effects of mass media on society can be positive as well as negative.
Effects on the Society :
The best thing about the mass media is, that it immediately provides us with the latest information about the things happening around us. Mass media reports news from all the fields such as politics, sports, international relations, wars, natural calamities, meetings, entertainment, etc. Because of the keen efforts and dedication of the people working in the media and the entertainment sector, our knowledge remains fresh. With the gained knowledge, we become more smart and outgoing. Many times, we understand what is good and bad for us through the media programs. For example, the anti-tobacco and narcotic programs launched by the media, have benefited many people to date. The information conveyed about various diseases and their possible treatments has saved the lives of many of us. The contribution of mass media in the fields of arts, education, technology and health care is laudable. We also get the correct information about the various crimes and illegal activities happening in our surroundings quite easily. Media is a boon for youngsters in many ways. They get useful information related to their career and higher education mostly through the mass media. The mass media influence or the effects of mass media on the minds of the youth is significant.
Media plays a very important role in shaping the personality of people. It has been observed that citizens become more sensible and capable to shoulder their responsibility towards the nation and the society because of the media. We get our role models by hearing about the appreciation of their great deeds from the media itself. Over the years, mass media has played an important role in making people understand the meaning of democracy. We also come to know about the strengths and weaknesses of the economy of our country, the population figures, the various problems faced by the nation, achievements of the nation in different sectors, through the prompt and precise reporting of different forms of media. Media plays an important role in building the sense of unity and pride among the people of the nation. In those countries where there are many castes, religions and languages spoken, media has even more tough responsibility of conveying the true news to the citizens. Media makes the citizens aware of their fundamental rights and their duties towards their families, state and the nation. Utility of the mass media in the areas of advertising and marketing is simply great. The effects of mass media are truly everlasting.
Though the positive mass media effects are many, there are some cons associated with the mass media as well. The news which is published without having bothered to check whether it is a fact or not, can create unnecessary confusion and extreme feelings among the common masses. There have been many instances of huge fights and controversies emerging, because of improper reporting. It becomes the duty of media to provide only relevant and precise information to the masses.
Influence and sociology:
There are 3 theories to describe the influence of mass media. The website CliffNotes explains in detail the theories with examine the role that mass media plays in modern society. The limited-effects theory, which was originally tested in the 1940s and 1950s, states that "because people usually choose what media to interact with based on what they already believe, media exerts a negligible influence". The class-dominant theory states that "the media reflects and projects the view of a minority elite, which controls it". It continues by explaining that the people who own and control the corporations that produce media comprise this elite. The culturalist theory, which was developed in the 1980s and 1990s, combines the other two theories and claims that "people interact with media to create their own meanings out of the images and messages they receive". This theory states that audience members play an active, rather than passive role in relation to mass media.
In 1997, J. R. Finnegan Jr. and K. Viswanath identified 3 main effects or functions of mass media. The Knowledge Gap: The mass media influences knowledge gaps due to factors including "the extent to which the content is appealing, the degree to which information channels are accessible and desirable, and the amount of social conflict and diversity there is in a community". Agenda Setting: People are influence in how they think about issues due to the selective nature of what media choose for public consumption. Cultivation of Perceptions: The extent to which media exposure shapes audience perceptions over time is known as cultivation. Television is a common experience, especially in places like the United States, to the point where it can be described as a "homogenising agent" (S. W. Littlejohn). However, instead of being merely a result of the TV, the effect is often based on socioeconomic factors. Having a prolonged exposure to TV or movie violence might affect a viewer to the extent where they actively think community violence is a problem, or alternatively find it justifiable. The resulting belief is likely to be different depending of where people live however.
Since the 50s, when cinema, radio and TV began to be the primary or the only source of information for a larger and larger percentage of the population, these media began to be considered as central instruments of mass control. Up to the point that it emerged the idea that when a country has reached a high level of industrialization, the country itself "belongs to the person who controls communications."
Mass media play a significant role in shaping public perceptions on a variety of important issues, both through the information that is dispensed through them, and through the interpretations they place upon this information. They also play a large role in shaping modern culture, by selecting and portraying a particular set of beliefs, values, and traditions (an entire way of life), as reality. That is, by portraying a certain interpretation of reality, they shape reality to be more in line with that interpretation
Ethical issues and criticism:
Lack of local or specific topical focus is a common criticism of mass media. A mass news media outlet is often forced to cover national and international news due to it having to cater for and be relevant for a wide demographic. As such, it has to skip over many interesting or important local stories because they simply do not interest the large majority of their viewers. An example given by the website WiseGeek is that "the residents of a community might view their fight against development as critical, but the story would only attract the attention of the mass media if the fight became controversial or if precedents of some form were set".
The term "mass" suggests that the recipients of media products constitute a vast sea of passive, undifferentiated individuals. This is an image associated with some earlier critiques of "mass culture" and mass society which generally assumed that the development of mass communication has had a largely negative impact on modern social life, creating a kind of bland and homogeneous culture which entertains individuals without challenging them. However, interactive digital media have also been seen to challenge the read-only paradigm of earlier broadcast media.
The role of mass media today :
A basic issue in the discussion of the role of the mass media in today’s society is whether they do reflect social reality in a broad sense, or whether, instead, the elites which control them filter out the view of reality which they see fit to be made public. To my mind, the answer to this question is that the media do both, depending on the way we define reality.
To take, first, political reality, mass media, in one sense, do not provide a faked view of it. Taking into account what is considered as politics today, i.e. the activity of professional politicians ‘representing’ the people, one may argue that it is politics itself, which is faked, and mass media simply reproduce this reality. In this sense, the issue is not whether the mass media manipulate democracy, since it is democracy itself, which is faked, and not its mass media picture, which simply reflects the reality of present ‘democracy’. But, at the same time, if we give a different definition to political reality, mass media do provide, in general, a distorted picture of it. In other words, if we define as real politics the political activity of people themselves (for instance, the collective struggles of various sectors of the population around political, economic or social issues) rather than that of professional politicians, then, the mass media do distort the picture they present about political reality. They do so, by minimising the significance of this type of activity, by distorting its meaning, by marginalising it, or by simply ignoring it completely.
As regards economic reality, mass media, in one sense again, do provide a relatively accurate picture of what counts as economic reality today. This is when the media, taking for granted the system of the market economy, end up with a partial picture of economic reality where what matters is not whether the basic needs of the population are covered adequately but whether prices (in commodity and stock markets), interest rates, exchange rates and consequently profit rates are going up or down. Still, in another sense, the very fact that mass media take for granted the system of the market economy means that they cannot ‘see’ the ‘systemic’ nature of most of the real economic problems (unemployment, poverty and so on) and therefore inevitably end up with a faked image of economic reality. This way of seeing economic reality is not imposed on the media by their owners, important as their influence may otherwise be, or by their internal hierarchical structure etc. The media simply reflect the views of orthodox economists, bankers, businessmen and professional politicians, i.e. of all those who express the dominant social paradigm.
However, one may point out here that although it is true that social reality and mass media are interacting, i.e. that our conception of TV news is a constituent element of reality and at the same time our conception of reality is conditioned by TV functioning, this does not imply that the diversified functioning of mass media creates the conditions for a social dynamic which acts for the institution of society, although it does play this role as far as its reproduction is concerned. Goals and Control mechanisms
The goals of the mass media are determined by those owning and controlling them, who, usually, are members of the economic elites that control the market economy itself. Given the crucial role that the media could play in the internalisation of the dominant social paradigm and therefore the reproduction of the institutional framework which secures the concentration of power in the hands of the elites, it is obvious that those owning and controlling the mass media have broader ideological goals than the usual goals pursued by those owning and controlling other economic institutions, i.e. profit maximising. Therefore, an analysis that would attempt to draw conclusions on the nature and significance of media institutions on the basis of the profit dimension alone, (i.e. that they share a common goal and consequently a similar internal hierarchical structure with all other economic institutions and that they just sell a product, the only difference with other economic institutions being that the product is the audience,) is bound to be one-dimensional. Profit maximising is only one parameter, often not even the crucial one, which conditions the role of mass media in a market economy. In fact, one could mention several instances where capitalist owners chose even to incur significant losses (which they usually cover from other profitable activities) in order to maintain the social influence (and prestige), which ownership of an influential daily offers to them (Murdoch and The Times of London is an obvious recent example).
Given the ultimate ideological goal of mass media, the main ways in which they try to achieve it are: * first, by assisting in the internalisation of the dominant social paradigm and, * second, by marginalising, if not excluding altogether, conceptions of reality which do not conform with the dominant social paradigm.
But, what are the mechanisms through which the media can achieve their goals? To give an answer to this question we have to examine a series of mechanisms, most of them ‘automatic’ built-in mechanisms, which ensure effective achievement of these goals. It will be useful here to distinguish between ‘internal’ and ‘external’ control mechanisms, which function respectively as internal and external constraints on the freedom of media workers to reproduce reality. Both internal and external mechanisms work mainly through competition which secures homogenisation with respect to the media’s main goals
Starting with ownership, it matters little, as regards the media’s overall goals defined above, whether they are owned and controlled by the state and/or the state-controlled institutions or whether, instead, they are owned and controlled by private capital. However, there are certain secondary differences arising from the different ownership structures which may be mentioned. These secondary differences have significant implications, particularly with respect to the structure of the elites controlling the media, their own organisational structure and their ‘image’ with respect to their supposedly ‘objective’ role in the presentation of information. As regards the elite structure, whereas under a system of state ownership and control the mass media are under the direct control of the political elite and the indirect control of the economic elites, under a system of private ownership and control, the media are just under the direct control of the economic elites. This fact, in turn, has some implications on whether filtering out of information takes place directly through state control, or indirectly through various economic mechanisms (e.g. ratings) .As regards the media organisational structure, whereas state-owned media are characterised by bureaucratic rigidity and inefficiency, privately owned media are usually characterised by more flexibility and economic efficiency. Finally, the ‘objective’ image of mass media suffers less in case of private ownership compared to the case of state ownership. This is because in the latter case control of information is more direct and therefore more obvious than in the former.
An illustrative application of the above analytical framework is the crucial contribution of the mass media in the creation of the subjective conditions for the neoliberal consensus. Thus, the mass media have played a double ideological role with respect to the neoliberal consensus. On the one hand, they have promoted directly the neoliberal agenda : * by degrading the economic role of the state, * by attacking the ‘dependence’ on the state which the welfare state supposedly creates, * by identifying freedom with the freedom of choice, which is supposedly achieved through the liberation of markets etc. * and similar TV shows play a particularly significant role in this respect). On the other hand, the media have also attempted to divert attention from the consequences of the neoliberal consensus (in terms of growing inequality and poverty, the explosion of crime and drug abuse and so on) : * by promoting irrational beliefs of all sorts (religion, mystical beliefs, astrology etc). The film and video explosion on the themes of exorcism, supernatural powers etc (induced mainly by Hollywood) has played a significant role in diverting attention from the evils of neoliberalism. * by manufacturing irrelevant and/or insignificant ‘news stories’ (e.g. Monica Lewinsky affair), which are then taken over by opposition politicians who are eager to find fictitious ways (because of the lack of real political differences within the neoliberal consensus) to differentiate themselves from those in power * by creating a pseudo ‘general interest’ (for instance around a nationalist or chauvinist cause) in order to unite the population around a ‘cause’ and make it forget the utterly dividing aspects of neoliberalism.
Media and culture in a democratic society: Culture and a democratic conception of citizenship The starting point is that the conditions for democracy imply a new conception of citizenship: economic, political, social and cultural. Thus, political citizenship involves new political structures and the return to the classical conception of politics (direct democracy). Economic citizenship involves new economic structures of community ownership and control of economic resources (economic democracy). Social citizenship involves self-management structures at the workplace, democracy in the household and new welfare structures where all basic needs (to be democratically determined) are covered by community resources, whether they are to be satisfied in the household or at the community level. Finally, cultural citizenship involves new democratic structures of dissemination and control of information and culture (mass media, art, etc.), which allow every member of the community to take part in the process and at the same time develop his/her intellectual and cultural potential. The conception of citizenship adopted here, which could be called a democratic conception, is based on our definition of inclusive democracy and presupposes a ‘participatory’ conception of active citizenship, like the one implied by the work of Hannah .In this conception, “political activity is not a means to an end, but an end in itself; one does not engage in political action simply to promote one’s welfare but to realise the principles intrinsic to political life, such as freedom, equality, justice, solidarity, courage and excellence”. It is therefore obvious that this conception of citizenship is qualitatively different from the liberal and social-democratic conceptions, which adopt an ‘instrumentalist’ view of citizenship, i.e. a view which implies that citizenship entitles citizens with certain rights that they can exercise as means to the end of individual welfare.
This code of democratic ethics may be derived out of the two fundamental principles of organisation of a confederal inclusive Democracy, i.e. the principle of autonomy and the principle of community. Thus, out of the fundamental principle of autonomy one may derive a set of cultural values about equality and respect for the personality of every citizen, irrespective of gender, race, ethnic identity etc. Out of the same fundamental principle one could derive the principle of protecting the quality of life of each individual citizen -- something that would imply a relationship of harmony with nature. Similarly, out of the fundamental principle of community life one may derive a set of values involving solidarity and mutual aid, caring and sharing. These values should constitute an integral part of the dominant social paradigm so that democracy can reproduce itself. This of course does not exclude the possibility, or rather the probability, of the existence of alternative cultural values, or perhaps even of a conflict between personal and collective values ---particularly with respect to those citizens who cannot reconcile themselves with the tragic truth that it is we who determine our own truth and might still adhere to moral codes derived from irrational belief systems (religions, mystical beliefs etc). However, as long as these people are in a minority, (hopefully, a dwindling one, through the Paedeia of a democratic society), the conflict in their personal values with the collectively defined values should not be a problem for the community as a whole.
A NEW WORLD OF COMMUNICATION:
Certainly, the first president of the United States would be awed by the power of these new media to change ideas about the world, perceptions, and even life itself. At the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of a new millennium, there can be little doubt about mass media's impact on the way the world works. Consider a few examples: The communist world collapsed, and mass media played a key role. In the Persian Gulf War of 1991, the American government seemed to be as much concerned with influencing the media as with fighting the enemy. Our politicians have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on television advertising; they are no longer judged by their ideas or leadership but by their ability to project a telegenic image. Athletes no longer seem as engaged in sportsman-like competition as they are in competing for huge salaries as mass entertainers.
Most of us have had some direct experience with the impact of media on our lives, and we have witnessed their power in molding institutions and shaping events. What is still debatable, however, is whether that power is being used for good or for ill. In this discussion there are many sides-and that is what this book is all about.
Without question, the mass media in America are unique. Americans have the most mass media, spend the most time on them, and fulfill most of the mass media appetites of the world. Yet we have not necessarily become the best-informed citizens of the world, nor the most literate. In many ways, we are no longer even the most successful.
Television in America has become the most powerful of all mass media, which is why it gets more emphasis in this book. Simply put, we spend more time on television and are more concerned about its impact than all the other media together.
DEFINING MASS MEDIA
We should begin by defining our terms. Basically, we divide mass media into two categories: print or newspapers, magazines, and books; and electronic or radio, television, sound recordings, motion pictures, and the Internet. These instruments must be able to carry messages quickly to audiences so large that they cannot be gathered together in any one place at any one time. Thus, mass audiences are apt to be diverse, heterogeneous, and multicultural. Mass communicators themselves are not people with whom these audiences have personal contact; they are remote and anonymous. The messages of mass communication are usually transient and impermanent as well. For radio and television, they are here one moment, gone the next, The messages of newspapers last only a day, and magazines only a week or a month. Books and films last a bit longer, but in an age of mass media, even they are displaced quickly.'.
THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT:
Government plays a unique role in American mass media. Unlike that in most other countries, the U.S. government does not own or operate any mass media that are readily available for public consumption within the country. (One exception is Voice of America, the federal government's international radio station, which is broadcast only in shortwave and aimed at foreign countries. Another exception is Stars and Stripes, a daily newspaper published with government funds for personnel on military bases who theoretically might not have access to privately published newspapers.) Also unlike that in many other countries, the American government rarely provides financial subsidy to mass media. (One exception has been government support for public broadcasting, to ensure that some educational programming will get on the air-waves.)
The American philosophy about government's relationship to mass media comes primarily from the tradition that government should not compete with private industry, and that citizens should get their information from private sources, to help ensure that government cannot manipulate information to suit its own purposes or to increase its own power. The philosophy about government control of mass media comes from the First Amendment to the Constitution, which says that "Congress shall make no laws abridging freedom of speech or of the press." (The primary exception are regulations governing broadcasting, but even these restrictions say relatively little about broadcast content.)Thus, American government plays a minor role in legal control of the media. There are few laws and few institutional supports.
THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS:
In any discussion of mass media, we must include advertising, which isn't a medium itself but is so inextricably woven into the fabric of most mass media that it cannot be ignored. By advertising we mean the purchase of time or space in print and electronic media to present a specific message. Advertisers are not employed by any medium, but since they provide critical financial support, they play a key role in the mass communication process.
Increasingly, public relations has become an essential part of mass media as well. Public relations people also are not employees of any medium; rather, they serve the special interests of those outside the mass media. They seek to influence the content of mass media by packaging news and information, by shaping personalities to fit media formats, and by creating or staging events to capture the attention of the media. Their goal is to achieve a particular mass message and (the public relations people would hope) a particular audience response. It is no longer possible to understand mass media without understanding public relations.
MASS MEDIA AS PRIVATE ENTERPRISES:
We must understand that mass media in the United States are market-driven. They are private businesses, usually established to make a profit; to do so, they must provide a commodity that people want. To sell advertising time or space, any medium must have an audience that advertisers want to reach. If the medium does not attract a large enough audience to bring in enough money from subscriptions or advertising sales to cover its costs and make a profit, it will most likely go out of business unless its owners can cover its losses with profits from other businesses.
TWENTIETH-CENTURY PHENOMENA:
Instruments of mass communication are relatively new to human history. Some, like electronic media, were inventions of the twentieth century. Print media, though invented earlier, were essentially reinvented in the last 100 years to reach a mass audience. Advertising developed much earlier, but in the twentieth century, it has became a massive and, to some extent, scientific industry. Public relations is the quintessential twentieth-century profession, perhaps the very symbol of our age; in fact, much of today's news has it origins in, or is somehow affected by, public relations efforts.
The impact of mass media is a fitting subject as we start a new century. For much of the 1900s, scholars argued about the real power of mass media. Now, most concede that mass media have powerful effects, even though questions remain about the precise nature of their impact or the actual cause- and-effect relationship.
LIMITED AFFECTS THEORIES:
Do the media make things happen, or do they merely report what has happened? Do they make us act? Do they influence our opinions? Do they merely reflect our actions, thoughts, and feelings? Obviously, there are many variables for scientists to consider when trying to answer these questions. In the mid 1950s, many social scientists believed that mass media had limited effects, that they affected each individual differently. Two leading social scientists, Bernard Berelson and Morris Janowitz, concluded their examination of these questions with the following statement:
The effects of communication are many and diverse. They may be shortrange or long-run. They may be manifest or latent. They may be strong or weak. They may derive from any number of aspects of the communication content. They may be considered as psychological or political or economic or sociological. They may operate upon opinions, values, information levels, skills, taste, or overt behavior
Berelson and Janowitz didn't mean that it was useless to be concerned about the impact of mass media. They meant that every conclusion had to be qualified. They meant that one must be exceedingly careful in making generalizations and assigning blame. They believed that the effects of mass media must be measured and predicted on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration all the variables in each situation.
POWERFUL EFFECTS THEORIES:
The carefully guarded conclusions of Berelson and Janowitz, however, were stated at the middle of the twentieth century, before television had become such a powerful force. In the mid-1950s television was still primarily a limited adult activity. Most people's values had already been shaped by other forces namely, family, religion, teachers, and print media. By the end of the twentieth century, social scientists were ready to assign a more direct and powerful impact to television.
Most important, perhaps, has been the work of George Gerbner, whose "cultivation analysis" is based on the theory that television, as the dominant medium, has a cumulative effect, ultimately creating the culture in which we live. Today, according to Gerbner, it is television-not parents, teachers, or religious leaders-that establishes the values of young children, the ethics they will hold for their lifetime. Television tells the stories on which our society is based. Gerbner writes:
Television is the overall socializing process superimposed on all the other processes. By the time children can speak (let alone go to school and perhaps learn to read) they will have absorbed thousands of hours of living in a highly compelling world. They see everything represented: all the social types, situations, art and science. Our children learn-and we ourselves learn and maintain-certain assumptions about life that bear the imprint of this most early and continued ritual. In our age, it is television mythology we grow up in and grow up with.... Those who tell stories hold power in society. Today television tells most of the stories to most of the people most of the time.
Many scientific studies have confirmed that for the news and information we need about ourselves, our communities, and our world, we now turn more often to mass media, especially television, than to our families, friends, neighbors, religious organizations, or social institutions.
CHANGING TIMES:
This book examines some of the current issues from several different perspectives. Some authors presented here vigorously support and defend the media. Others are opposed and critical. Still others try to take a balanced approach. The issues are changing, and so is the world. It is a much different place today than it was only a few years ago, in 1985 and 1988, when the first and second editions of this book were published, or since the third edition was published in 1995. Since then, the Soviet empire has collapsed, the Iron Curtain has come down, the Berlin Wall has been demolished, and communism (which prevailed throughout much of the world in 1988) has been discredited as a viable political and economic system.
Other issues have also changed. We're not so concerned about the rights of citizens to have access to the mass media for their own views as we once were-though we probably should be-nor are we as concerned about business and the media, or religion and the media, which were covered in earlier editions. Other issues, however, such as responsibility, ethics, violence, sex, politics, government, war, minorities, gender, age, culture, and technology, remain important.
CHANGING HABITS:
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the average American spent a few minutes each day reading a daily newspaper, a few minutes more reading magazines, maybe less than an hour reading a book-and no time at all watching movies or television, listening to radio or recordings, or surfing the World Wide Web, none of which existed as a public medium. By the end of the twentieth century, Americans are spending more than half their leisure time-activities other than eating, sleeping, or working-on mass media, and the majority of that time is spent watching television. Today, the numbers are 3,400 hours a year on media, or about 40% of our total time, more than we spent sleeping (2,900 hours, 33 %) or working (2000 hours, 23 V, or all the other things we do (only 460 hours, 5 %).
In America today, young people spend more time in front of the television than they do in class. By the time an average American graduates from high school, he or she will have spent about 12,000 hours in class and about 19,000 hours watching the tube’.
CHANGING MEDIA: The mass media themselves have changed, not just for former communists or citizens of the developing world but even for Americans. In fact, the media seem to be in a state of constant evolution, which sometimes is as baffling for us as if we had been dropped here like George Washington from the eighteenth century. Only fifty years ago, in the 1940s, most people in this world had never seen a television set. Only thirty years ago, in the 1960s, most had never seen color pictures on a TV screen. Only twenty years ago, in the 1980s, most could only receive a half-dozen different TV channels. Only ten years ago, in the late 1980s, most had never heard of the Internet, and only a few years ago, in the mid-1990s only a small percentage of people were communicating online. Since 1995, an entirely new mass medium-the internet-has emerged as a force in the world, and the changing media themselves have become a major issue.
About ten years ago our known media universe exploded with a big bang and everything flew into fragments that have since been coalescing into new galaxies: the old and new television networks, satellite and cable companies, movie and publishing empires, record companies and video rental chains, home shopping and telephone companies, are all still colliding and merging, or shattering and reconverging differently. We are probably still at too young a stage in the birth of this new media universe to know which will come to rest as fixed stars and which will burn out, but the heavens are still trembling at their nativity, shareholders and employees from shock, and more detached observers from anxiety about what the new constellations will mean.
THE DECLINE OF DEMOCRACY:
A discouraging fact about life in America has been the declining percentage of citizens who vote. By the end of the twentieth century, fewer than half of those eligible were voting in national elections. And with this reduction in the percentages of voters, it became easier for special interests to sway elections. All they had to do was spend a lot of money on television and other media advertising in a campaign to assure victory with a smaller number of votes. Thus, political success increasingly depended on fundraising, usually from well-financed special interest groups, to pay for media advertising.
Crucial issues were often fought at the state level between special- interest groups seeking legal status for their concerns, such as affirmative action, handgun control, or regulation of pornography on the Internet. In California, for example, more money was spent in 1996 on campaigns for special initiatives than on electing the president. In Washington state, in another example, citizens in the urban area of Seattle, concerned about accidental handgun deaths, supported an initiative in 1997 for trigger locks on handguns. Citizens in the rural eastern part of the state perceived this proposal as a threat to their constitutional right to bear arms, however, and the National Rifle Association joined their side, spent millions of dollars on media advertising, and defeated the trigger-lock initiative.
In the age of mass media, Americans have been made to think that democracy means having lots of consumer choices in the marketplace of products, rather than alternative choices in ideology, issues, or political leadership in the marketplace of ideas.
ILLUSIONS OF REALITY:
When we realize that the illusions we receive from mass media are exactly that-illusions, not real or accurate or perfectly matched to our perceptions we become disillusioned. The first time we read a newspaper story that describes an event about which we have personal knowledge, we are likely to say, "Hey, that's not the way it was; I saw it myself and it didn't happen that way at all." The first time we visit a television studio and see the painted sets for the local news show, we say, "Gee, I thought that was the real city skyline behind the anchorperson." The first time we go to Washington, D.C., and see the White House, we exclaim, "It's so small! It seemed so much bigger on television! "
This book is about the illusions we get from mass media-and our disillusionment when we find out that everything isn't the way we thought it was. Dispelling these illusions may be one of the most important responsibilities of modern education. The illusions and disillusionments of young people in our society are probably greater than they have ever been in any society before. This book is not a scientific examination of the specifics of the impact of mass media. Instead, it presents current arguments about that impact by some leading thinkers, experienced observers, and thoughtful critics. Questions about the impact of mass media usually engender heated debate. The arguments raised here may be among the most important of our age, because in one way or another we are all affected by mass media. And we have all debated these questions ourselves, ever since we emerged from behind the dark glass of childhood to realize that TV, the silver screen, and the printed word may not, after all, represent reality.
What can we believe? What is true, and what is not? Education must provide a way to answer these questions. We need to be educated about mass media if we want to steer a clear course between illusions on the one hand and disillusionment on the other.
REAL INFORMATION IS POWER:
One thing seems certain: The power and reach of mass media at the beginning of the new millennium is greater than ever. The age of mass communication has made it possible for us to gain access to far more information than ever before, Information is indispensable to a complex and advanced civilization. We are in information -hungry Society: we need an ever-increasing amount of facts to maintain and increase our standard of living Information today is a commodity that we are willing to pay for. We also have more leisure time, and we depend on mass media to provide much of our information and entertainment. We have often been told that information is power. The question is, are we getting the information we really need? And what must we do to ensure that the information we receive from mass media will meet our needs and not the purposes of someone else?
This book is designed to help readers reach their own conclusions about the role of mass media in their lives. Conflicting arguments are often presented here deliberately These arguments should be discussed, and new facts and perspectives should be considered so that each person can arrive at an informed point of view. Only in this manner will truth-truth for each individual-emerge from this vast marketplace of facts and ideas.
Today, mass media are too essential to be ignored. The issues raised by them will no doubt continue to grow in importance throughout the twenty-first century. And even if George Washington were dropped from a time machine into our midst from the 1790s, it wouldn't take him long to understand and agree with those conclusions.
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