Studying the Media Rather Than Simply Consuming It
Everyday we encounter the media in some form. It could be waking up to the sound of the radio, or passing billboards in the streets or simply just watching television. They are a lot of different forms of media, for example, verbal or written media, visual media and aural media. Examples of media would include newspapers, magazines, film, radio, television, billboard advertisements as well as the internet. Media studies came about because of the developments in mass communication and it provokes the generation of exigent questions about what we think we know as well how we came about knowing it. There are always changes in the media and the term “media” refers to the many ways of physically forming meanings as well and carrying them. The term “media studies” on the other hand, means different courses priorities different media; different theories and different learning outcomes (Bazalgette, 2000).
Even though media studies is still new, it is important, as it has a high potential of being at the centre of essential changes in our thoughts about what we should learn and if they are worthwhile (Bazalgette, 2000). Since this subject is still new there are a lot of disagreements on how media should be interpreted and it is also a hybrid subject as the idea that it came about comes from a variety of sources (Bazalgette, 2000). Media studies is also considered an academic discipline as it binds the different types of hybrid disciplines such as semiotics, structuralism, sociolinguistics and a lot more and there are no limits to an individual as how to analyze the media. The analysis of media is very important for this particular subject. Educators today realized that students need to be involved in practical work to understand the subject better. Media studies are normally associated with the English subject. However the difference is rather apparent and media studies courses uses economic and political perspectives are their main ways to understand the media as well as it requires a person to consider texts from different contrasting perspectives. The English subject on the other hand, deals with reading and writing skills as well as analyzing critically. It also involves individual students’ responses (Bazalgette, 2000).
There are five reasoning to why studying the media is important. T...
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...e importance of media studies will not decline, in fact, it will be more dominated in the future, and therefore we need to study the media to understand how it influences ourselves and the society. Not only that, people who study the media rather than consuming it would know how to act rather than being acted about. In saying this, media literate people are and will be better citizens and they can pose questions on the different benefits of the media as well as understand how the media is constructed.
Works Cited
Bazalgette, Cary (2000) “Why Media Studies is Worthwhile”, in Dan Fleming (ed.), Formation : A 21st Century Media Studies Textbook, Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp.5-14.
Sinclair, John (2002) “Media and Communications : Theoretical Traditions”, in Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner (eds), The Media & Communications in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp.23-34.
Thompson, B. John (1995) “Self and Experience in a Mediated World”, The Media and Modernity : A Social Theory of the Media, Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp.209-219.
McKee, Alan (2001) “A Beginner’s Guide to Textual Analysis” in Metro Magazine, No.127/128, 2001, pp.138-149.
Dizard, Wilson, Jr. Old Media New Media: Mass Communications in The Information Age. New York: Longman, 2000.
Joseph STRAUBHAAR and Robert LaROSE (2002). Media Now. Communication Media in the Information Age. 3rd Edition. Belmont, Wadworth/Tompson Learning.
Habermas, J. (2000). The public sphere. In P. Marris & S. Thornham (Eds.), Media Studies : A reader(2nd.) (pp. 92–97). New York: New York University Press.
Croteau, D., Hoynes, W., & Milan, S. (2012). Media/society (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
In this essay, I’ll argue which point are similar between media history and contemporary media by using examples which are mainly focus on consumption culture and how technology has changed the way of media environment, then I’ll conclude that why studying media history helps understanding for contemporary
According to Ministry of Education’s Resource Book “Media literacy is one of the few instruments that enables teachers and students to challenge the great inequalities in knowledge and power that exist between those who manufacture information in their own interests and those who consume it innocently as news or entertainment.” Media literacy is a course to help students separate fantasy from reality in the media. Media literacy is a set of skills that enables people to critically analyze messages in the media. By using an inquiry-based instructional model, media literacy encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, see, and read.
Media or medium of communication has been conceptualized to effect and drive information to the greater masses because it’s the venue where information can be linear form of communication. This essay will discuss what it is meant by media according to online Business Dictionary defines as the communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated.” This may include broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet, the Business Dictionary further includes in this definition.
Hartley, John (2002), Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts, London, Routledge, pp. 19-21.
Mass Media. Ed. William Dudley. Farmington Hills, MI: Thompson Gale, 2005. 121-130.
Joseph STRAUBHAAR and Robert LaROSE (2002). Media Now. Communications Media in the Information Age. 3rd Edition. Belmont, Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
...y helps to understand that how a person’s conceptuality shapes or sometimes it is distorted by media. Cultivation theory inform that with the passage of time the usages of media will cultivate inside users a decide view of the world. In this researcher is actually tries to explain that how media can be a source to change perceptions behaviors, language and attitudes.
How media literacy is defined is important for it exerts influence on the framing of the debate, the research agenda and policy initiatives (Livingstone, 2004). However, its concept has always been controversial (Luke, 1989). The definition of media literacy first appear in the 1992 National Leadership Conference on Media Literacy, which described it as: “The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages” (Rubin, 1998, p.3). Based on this definition, many researchers are putting efforts to redefine it from different aspects. Some definitions of the last decade involved the understanding of how media functioned in society (Messaris, 1998). Others pointed out that media literacy instead depended on the understanding of the technological, political, economic constraints affecting the transmission of mediated messages (Lewis and Jhally, 1998). According to Tyner (1998, p17), definitions range from the tautological (computer literacy is the ability to use computers) to the hugely idealistic: “The term literacy is shorthand for cultural ideals as eclectic as economic development, personal fulfillment, and individual moral fortitude”. One of the definition that is more related to daily practice puts emphasis on critical thinking and the ability to distinguish media content form social reality, as Potter (2001, pp4-5) put it: “Media literacy is a perspective that we actively use when exposing ourselves to the media in order to interpret the meaning of the messages we encounter.” While popular US textbooks on media literacy have an interesting description, which says, “we build our perspectives from knowledge structures; to build our knowledge structures, we need tools and raw materials-the...
Perhaps the strongest foundation for media education rests in the fact that increased awareness of media transforms students from passive to active participants in society. Learners must be offered hands-on application opportunities to increase their own knowledge and enjoyment of the media. The integration of formal media analysis with media production is an essential constituent of media literacy. Creative ventures, such as television or radio production, the development of a rock video or song, photography classes, script-writing, web-page development, or hypertext projects should be made available for students' participation and perusal. Students must be exposed to various forms of communication before they can recognize logical disparities, determine the strength of an argument, evaluate mass media, and actively join our democratic society as partners.
Hence, the power of media has touched its apex in today’s age. Its societal, political and economic functions reflect its unparallel capacity to affect the human life in all spheres.
The evolution of media, from old media to new media, has transformed the way we understand the world around us. New media is interactive and is user-generated while old media is a more traditional way of communicating through television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, etc (Lecture Notes. January 12, 2011). New media gives us a new perspective by allowing us to interact with one another through the Internet. Media has become much more personal and diverse as user-generated content becomes more prominent in our lives (Lecture Notes. January 24, 2011). We are exposed to various viewpoints shape our understanding and knowledge of the social world, but does the form of media actually affect the way we understand the content which is presented to us? For my paper, I will determine whether or not the medium is the message by analyzing two different types of media sources and how they affect our understanding of the content. For my old media source I have chosen a news clip from the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric that deals with the ongoing Egyptian uprising. For my new media source I have chosen a video blog, or ‘vlog’, by an Egyptian man named Omar who discusses the crisis in Egypt from a personal point of view. Both media sources deal with the same topic, but result in different understandings of the crisis.