Metaphors for media roles

Theory of Media and Society

Summary

In the Abstract of the presented article the author look more closely at ideas about the relation between mass media and society. In fact most media theory relates to both ‘society’ and ‘culture’ together and has to be explained in relation to both. Most of the chapter is concerned with explaining the main theories or theoretical perspectives that have been developed for understanding the way media work and accounting for the typical cultural production that they engage in. Most of the theories do make the assumption that material and social circumstances are a primary determinant, but there is also scope for recognizing the independent influence that ideas and culture can have in their turn on material conditions.

Media, Society and Culture: Connections and Conflicts

It is offered a simple typology which crosstabulates two opposed propositions: ‘social structure influences culture’; and its reverse, ‘culture influences social structure’. This yields four main options that are available for describing the relation between mass media and society.

Mass Communication as a Society-wide Process: the Mediation of Social Relations and Experience

Metaphors for media roles

· As a window on events and experience, which extends our vision, enabling us to see for ourselves what is going on, without interference from others.

· As a mirror of events in society and the world, implying a faithful reflection (albeit with inversion and possible distortion of the image), although the angle and direction of the mirror are decided by others, and we are less free to see what we want.

· As a filter, gatekeeper or portal, acting to select parts of experience for special attention and closing off other views and voices, whether deliberately or not.

· As a signpost, guide or interpreter, pointing the way and making sense of what is otherwise puzzling or fragmentary. As a forum or platform for the presentation of information and ideas to an audience, often with possibilities for response and feedback.

· As a disseminator who passes on and makes information not available to all.

· As an interlocutor or informed partner in conversation who responds to questions in a quasi-interactive way

It is useful to look at the main themes that have shaped debate during the ‘first age of mass communication’, especially relating to power, integration, social change and space/time.

Theme I: Power and Inequality

The media are invariably related in some way to the prevailing structure of political and economic power. It is evident, first of all, that media have an economic cost and value, are an object of competition for control and access. Secondly, they are subject to political, economic and legal regulation. Thirdly, mass media are very commonly regarded as effective instruments of power, with the potential capacity to exert influence in various ways. Fourthly, the power of mass media is not equally available to all groups or interests.

In discussions of media power, two models are usually opposed to each other: one a model of dominant media, the other of pluralist media.

Theme II: Social Integration and Identity

· The perceived social functions of the early press 4.4 Binding society together

· Giving leadership to the public

· Helping to establish the ‘public sphere’

· Providing for the exchange of ideas between leaders and masses

· Satisfying needs for information

· Providing society with a mirror of itself

· Acting as the conscience of society

In order to make sense of this complicated situation, it helps to think of the two versions of media theory – centrifugal and centripetal – each with its own position on a dimension of evaluation, so that there are, in effect, four different theoretical positions relating to social integration (see Figure 4.4). These can be named as follows: 1. Freedom, diversity. This is the optimistic version of the tendency for media to have a fragmenting effect on society that can also be liberating. The media spread new ideas and information and encourage mobility, change and modernization. 2. Integration, solidarity. This optimistic version of the reverse effect of mass communication as a unifier of society stresses the needs for a sense of identity, belonging and citizenship, especially under conditions of social change. 3. Normlessness, loss of identity. The pessimistic alternative view of greater freedom points to detachment, loss of belief, rootlessness and a society lacking in social cohesion and social capital. 4. Dominance, uniformity. Society can be over-integrated and over-regulated, leading to central control and conformity, with the mass media as instruments of control.

Theme III: Social Change and Development

At issue are the alternative ways of relating three basic elements: (1) the technology of communication and the form and content of media; (2) changes in society (social structure and institutional arrangements); and (3) the distribution among a population of opinion, beliefs, values and practices. All consequences of mass media are potentially questions about social change, but most relevant for theory have been the issues of ‘technological determinism’ and the potential to apply mass media to the process of development.

Theme IV: Space and Time

· Media have abolished distance

· Virtual space becomes an extension of real space

· Media serve as collective memory

· The gap between technical transmission and human reception capacity widens exponentially

· Media lead to delocalization and detemporalization

Media–Society Theory I: the Mass Society

· Society is organized centrally and on a large scale

· The public becomes atomized

· Media are centralized, with one-way transmission

· People come to depend on media for their identity

· Media are used for manipulation and control

Media–Society Theory II: Marxism and Political Economy

Revisionist versions of Marxist media theory in the twentieth century concentrated more on ideas than on material structures. They emphasized the ideological effects of media in the interests of a ruling class, in ‘reproducing’ the essentially exploitative relationships and manipulation, and in legitimating the dominance of capitalism and the subordination of the working class.

eory is to be found in political economy theory. Political-economic theory is a socially critical approach that focuses primarily on the relation between the economic structure and dynamics of media industries and the ideological content of media. From this point of view, the media institution has to be considered as part of the economic system, with close links to the political system.

· Economic control and logic are determinant

· Media structure always tends towards monopoly

· Global integration of media ownership develops

· Contents and audiences are commodified

· Real diversity decreases

· Opposition and alternative voices are marginalized

· Public interest in communication is subordinated to private interests

· Access to the benefits of communication are unequally distributed

Media–Society Theory III: Functionalism

The theory depicts media as essentially self-directing and self-correcting. While apolitical in formulation, it suits pluralist and voluntarist conceptions of the fundamental mechanisms of social life and has a conservative bias to the extent that the media are more likely to be seen as a means of maintaining society as it is rather than as a source of major change.

Media are an institution of society

They perform the necessary tasks of order, control and cohesion

They are also necessary for adaptation and change

Functions are recognizable in the effects of the media Management of tension There are also unintended harmful effects which can be classified as dysfunctions

Media–Society Theory IV: Social Constructionism

· Society is a construct rather than a fixed reality

· Media provide the materials for reality construction

· Meanings are offered by media, but can be negotiated or rejected

· Media selectively reproduce certain meanings

· Media cannot give an objective account of social reality (all facts are interpretations)

Media–Society Theory V: Communication Technology Determinism

· Communication technology is fundamental to society

· Each technology has a bias to particular communication forms, contents and uses

· The sequence of invention and application of communication technology influences the direction and pace of social change

· Communication revolutions lead to social revolutions

Media–Society Theory VI: the Information Society

The term ‘communications revolution’, along with the term ‘information society’, has now almost come to be accepted as an objective description of our time and of the type of society that is emerging.

The main characteristics of the post-industrial society were found in the rise in the service sector of the economy relative to manufacture or agriculture and thus the predominance of ‘information-based’ work. Theoretical knowledge (scientific, expert, data-based) was becoming the key factor in the economy, out stripping physical plant and land as bases of wealth. Correlatively, a ‘new class’ was emerging based on the possession of knowledge and personal relations skills. Most of the observed post-industrial trends were seen to accelerate in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The production and distribution of information of all kinds, especially using computer-based technology, have themselves become a major sector of the economy.

· Information work replaces industrial work

· Production and flow of information accelerates

· Society is characterized by increasing interconnectivity

· Disparate activities converge and integrate

· There is increasing dependency on complex systems

· Trends to globalization accelerate

· Constraints on time and space are much reduced

· Consequences are open to alternative interpretations, both positive and negative

There are increased risks of loss of control Information society theory is an ideology more than a theory

Conclusion

These theoretical perspectives on the relation between media and society are diverse in several respects, emphasizing different causes and types of change and pointing to different paths into the future. There is a contrast between a critical and a more or less positive view of the developments at issue. Although scientific inquiry seeks a degree of objectivity and neutrality, this does not prevent one either approving or disapproving of a tendency indicated by a theory. Secondly, there is a difference between a more socio-centric and a more media-centric view. We can view media either as dependent on society and mirroring its contours or as primary movers and moulders.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 2207