Theories of Media, culture and Society

McLuhan He focused on popular electronic media. It was the time when limited media effect made a pick. Literary criticism was limited on serious classics but not popular cultural products. McLuhan argued that changes in communication technology inevitably produce profound changes in both culture and social order. This caused him to be called as technological determinist. The medium is the message: New forms of media are getting more important than message itself.

Agenda Setting Media organizations determine not what we think, but what we think about. They set the agenda for our decision making and thus influence our social and political lives.

Cultivation theory The theory that television dominates the symbolic environment of its audiences and gives people false views of what reality is like. That is, television cultivates or reinforces certain beliefs in its viewers, such as the notion that society is permeated by violence.

Stephen’s Play Theory Most significant function of mass communication is to facilitate subjective play get away from pressing matters of daily life. Two function of media: Providing play that is giving something to audience common to talk about, to provide mutual socialization. Providing change, replacing older beliefs to new values, without altering the system, happens willy-nilly. Stephen distinguishes social controls (deeply internalized beliefs which are difficult to change) and convergent selective conditions (relatively trivial matters). Mass media can play a role in shaping our convergent or momentary desires.

Gatekeeping Goes back to 1950s. Defined what’s important! Counts that “information always flows along certain channels, which contain ‘gate areas’, where decision are made”. Dealt with the whole process of the selection of events in the news media. Gatekeepers determine what the important news is on a given date. Our image of reality is originally someone’s decision or selection which guarantees certain degree of manipulation. Factors affect the decision making of gatekeepers: -The organization or the type of media in which they work for. -Their own socio- economic status (what’s ‘important for women may not be important for men) The information that gatekeepers let through their gates becomes the material that sets our agenda (agenda setting theory). Bass stated that most important gatekeeping happens in new agencies involving two stages such as ‘news gathering’ and ‘news processing’.

Gatekeeping in news organisation Stage 1 Raw news (writers. Reporters, local editors, translators) News Gathering News copy (editors and copyreader) Stage 2 News processing Completed product

Spiral of Silence theory Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann argues that people who think they represent a minority point of view tend to keep quite or to doubt their capacity to think correctly. As the person feels so s/he will be inclined to express his opinion. People are frightened to be isolated joined in the opposition. “Thus the tendency of the one to speak up and the other to be silent starts off a spiral of silence which sets one opinion as the prevailing one”. Spiral of silence theory is a social psychological one that suggest the mass media do not reflect opinion but create it. Question: Are people really keep silent? How can we explain the resistant movement of gay and lesbian or

Mass vs Publics Audiences are not masses but people who have little common. Audiences are not mere consumers of media but active individuals who consume media products according to their personal goals. Audience are variety of groups who consume media product variety of reasons.

Some Criticisms Fragmentation in the media leads to and reinforces fragmentation in our lives The mass media encourage escapism The mass media act as narcotics and lead to media addiction The mass media overwhelm individual tastes and lead to cultural homogenization The development of mass communication media lead to passivity and privatism in people and distract them form more serious matters. The mass media debase sexuality, they distort society’s view of women and use sexuality to sell products. The mass media present a false picture of reality. The mass media create stereotypes and give people false views of others and themselves. The mass media enhance ethnocentrism.

Comparison AdministrativeCritical Maintains the status quoaims major changes Empiricalideological Tied to data analysistied to Marxist theory Consensus basicconflict basic Improve efficiencysocio-political goals Private concernspublic concerns Senders of messagesreceivers of messages Hierarchical, elitists, individualistegalitarians