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The effects of mass media on the society
Mass media and its effect on society
The effects of mass media on the society
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Ethnography plays a key role in doing qualitative audience research. Traditional audience research is using quantitative study of positivism paradigm, which aims to measure the media effects on the audience. These studies with may use statistics methods to calculate the rate of reading and ratings or design questionnaires to the audience in order to collect the statistical data of the audience reactions. Hall (1980) claims that there are three models for the audience to interpret the meaning towards medium. It meaning that audience research is based on the spontaneity of the audience. Thus, Hall’s encoding-decoding model opens a new page of audience research. Moreover, the audience is becoming increasingly fragmented, individualised, dispersed, no longer addressable as a mass (Ien Ang, 1996, p.67). Thus, an increasing number of scholars conduct research on the audience and the process of audience reception towards media messages. This approach applied to the media …show more content…
In the past, most of the researches may concentrate on the text and discourse which is transferred by the medium to understand the audience reactions. However, with the application of ethnography, exploring the rules of daily life with mass communication and the relationship between medium consumption and societal culture may be seen as the main topic towards audience research. It is important to understand the different contexts of the audience instead of the media discourse. As Clifford and Marcus (1986) indicates that cultures always help people construct a temporal focus on selection, simplification and rejection, while it is able for people to build relationships with themselves and others. Thus, ‘ethnographic turn’ within audience research can be considered as a new theory and method to understand mass communication and culture, which may pay more attention to the societal meaning of medium
In assessing the impact and effect of popular cultural forms like MTV, it is important to acknowledge the extent to which, rather than having them imposed upon us, we may instead appropriate or assimilate parts, whilst choosing to reject or ignore the rest. This, of course, has the consumer or viewer acting (or perhaps more accurately interacting) as opposed to simply passively receiving (Philo par 16).Even though critics of MTV stand strongly against the passive consumer, th...
The issue of the relationship between the mass media and the popular culture has always been a controversial issue in social sciences. The political economists insist on the role of the media industry in the creation of this phenomenon of the twentieth century. Though, advocates such as John Fiske, argue that popular culture is actually the creation of the populous itself, and is independent of the capitalist production process of the communication sector. Basing his argument on the immense interpretive power of the people, Fiske believes that the audience is able to break all the indented meanings within a media message. He also believes- by giving new meanings to that specific message they can oppose the power block that is trying to impose its ideology to the public. Consequently, this anarchistic activity of the audience creates the popular culture as a defence mechanism. Even when we accept Fiske’s ideas, we can not disregard the manipulative power of the media and its effects on cultural and social life.
The form of communication created by the television is not only a part of how our modern society communicates, but is has changed public discourse to the point that it has completely redefined it, argued Neil Postman in his convincing book Amusing Ourselves to Death. He viewed this as very harmful, and additionally so because our society is ignorant of it as they quickly becomes engulfed in its epistemology. When faced with the question about whether the television shapes or reflects culture, Postman pointed out that it is no longer applicable because "television has gradually become our culture" (79). What kind of culture is this? Postman warned that it is one in which we are instructed and informed through the form of entertainment, and that through such a medium, we are becoming dulled, ignorant of real issues, and amused right into a very possible culture death. Today, sixteen years after the book's publication, he would probably have a similar message (though possibly more passionate) to say about our present culture, especially in the areas of education and the nightly news, which have grown progressively worse.
The ‘media effects’ model has been classified as a rudimentary argument that isn’t taken seriously amongst modern day Media Scholars. The origins of the model can be found in Frederic Wertham’s ‘Seduction of the Innocent’ (1955) articulating that media texts produce cognitive dissonance, causing audiences to have a shift in their actions and thoughts. However, contemporary critics believe that the model is limited as the experience of media is much more complex and informed by a number of diverse factors. The Audience studies approach is far more applicable towards the complexity of media texts, as it portrays a consideration and analysis of reactions and behavioural activity of individuals.
In addition, while the media are owned and run by government, commercial, and community interests, commercial interests dominate. In this regard there is cause to argue that the media serve the interests of those who own them. Adorno and Horkheimer have argued that the mass media in particular operates as a ‘culture industry’ (Van Krieken et al, 2006: 441). It supplies ideological products for mass consumption that preserve and extend the dominating position of the ruling classes. There is also an argument that corporate monopolisation of media ownership and modes of production mean that the media have become the instrument of private capital and mediated colonisation. The essay will discuss the sociological aspects of the media and popular culture with reference to the social impact of the internet and related technologies and the role of media in globalisation.
Greg Philio argues that textual analysis is not enough when researching media, on its own textual analysis fails to tell us how the text was produced as well as how it was consumed and interpreted. Philio examines this idea by stating that we fail to know the origins of the media such as where they came from and how they relate to different social interests. It also lacks the possible accounts chosen and the diversity within them as well as the impacts of external factors such as the journalists understanding and what the text actually means to different audiences (Philo, 2007). Philio continues further to state that there are more issues with a text only analysis, the accuracy of representations, the significance the text has on the audience and how it changes in diverse social interests. Philio argues that analysis should explore the accuracy of the text, is it right or wrong? Is it politically significant? A discourse analysis for instance fails to address this point which Philio uses as an example. In order to
What is ideology? And how can it help our understanding of media? There are many different theories as to what ideology is, from being about people’s beliefs and how people see themselves in the world. In this essay I shall be looking at different theorists and how each of their theories helps us to understand what ideology is, and how ideology can help us to understand media.
The sociology of media is the study of how mass media communication impacts people's views of each other as well as their daily interactions. In order to understand sociology we must take a broader view in order to comprehend why we act in the ways we do. It teaches us that much of what we regard as natural, inevitable, good and true may not be so, and that things we take for granted are shaped by historical events and social processes. Scholars who have studied the sociology of media have previously outlined how digital communication differs from face-to-face interaction (Ritzer 2012). They also document how different forms of media are designed to affect people's behaviour, especially in advertising and entertainment. (Farrah, A 2015)
In the book, Thompson makes it easy for the reader to understand mass communication in depth. He focuses on the application of mass communication in the contemporary times. He begins by defining the word ‘mass’ in which he argues that the media today does not target the mass but niche markets. I agree with him on the fact that the term ‘mass’ is misleading. It appeals to a vast audience composed of millions of individuals. He uses the most popular day newspaper as an example to illustrate this argument. I see it in films and television programs too. The society that I live in has several categories of audiences. In all social gatherings such as church meetings and cases where the target group of distinct information consists of specific character traits, I normally observe what Thomson refers to as ‘undifferentiated individuals’ (Thomson13).
The rise of the media and mass communication in the early twentieth century, focuses on the power of the media to impact individuals and society, which is by what became known as ‘mass society theory’, which implies that the mass media is any medium that is used to convey and transmit mass communication. The media is considered as the general condition of modernity that is undermining and weakening the traditional bonds, keeping society together and making ind...
It cannot be said that the era of mass communication has simply come to an end. Rather, this essay will argue that instead, the traditional ideologies of the term, mass communication, have been modified, transformed and revolutionised. The content surrounding mass communication has not changed substantially, however the way audiences are consuming it, has.
These articles discuss the future of cultivation research (research on the roles of the message conveyed by television to viewers' perceptions and attitudes) in the context of "changing media environment." Based on the cultivation research since the 1960s, although there are many criticisms, it is argued that current cultivation theory has reached the certain quality of paradigmatic performance. According to Morgan and Sanahan, researchers have generally accepted the fundamental premises of the theory that television, in exposing the messages, possesses incremental effect, although generally it achieves or “cultivates” on the level of mental entity of the viewers. However, because it is accumulated, it may open possibilities to influence viewers’ overt behaviors in the long term. In principle, as Sanahan’s argument, media serves to create meaningful perception of people’s mental environment (symbolic environment) and cause a collective consciousness in seeing the reality of the worlds (perceived reality), in ”variety of contexts and situations" (Morgan & Sanahan, p.349). For these reasons, these two researchers highlight that the main issue is that researchers should answer questions about how to stabilizing the audience beliefs and conceptions (and also the media related power structures) rather than research on attitude or behavior changes.
Cultural Alienation: The mass media reflect inequalities. In many countries, like Nigeria, the large number of languages used makes it difficult to produce programmes for all linguistic groups hence depriving some people from sharing in information source and entertainment. In most places, particularly in developing countries, possession of a television set is a privilege of urban dwellers. But even if programmes reach outside the main production centers, the audience is often culturally disadvantaged as the media content may be completely alien to the spectator’s background. Furthermore, even though communication media have proliferated in recent decades and brought the external world to millions of people previously living in isolated communities,
Media is one of the important pillars of human living in the contemporary world. Different significances have been attached to media depending on the impact experienced by different individuals. In explaining this social phenomenon about media relating to societies and culture, various theories have been put forward to increase understanding and relevance. In context is the understanding of uses and gratification, cultural imperialism and convergence theories towards understanding a personal connection to media.
Under the surface of colorful, exciting, and the captivating exterior of mass media content lies deep, hidden machinery that works hard to overwhelm its audiences with equally deeply concealed messages, popularized and exhibited by the media owners. These messages influence their consumers personally and socially, eventually producing a culture which is highly impacted by the media. The purpose of this paper is to probe beneath the mass media surface and see how the theories of mass communication be applied to an analysis of media and its products, and examine the deeper meanings in the messages conveyed by the contents that the media produce.