Media and Culture

Introduction to Media and Culture

            Perhaps, one of the unmistakable characteristics of the world today, is the pervading influence of media in all aspects of human life. From, what clothes to wear to who gets to win in the recent presidential race, people has learned to rely heavily on the use of media. Time may have changed tremendously but man’s thirst for knowledge and information has remained the same. This is the reason why newspaper, magazines, and to other information materials sell at an incredible rate, and perhaps this is what brought the dominance of the new media technology nowadays.  “Mass media” is a deceptively simple term encompassing a countless array of institutions and individuals who differ in purpose, scope, method, and cultural context. Mass media include all forms of information communicated to large groups of people, from a handmade sign to an international news network. There is no standard for how large the audience needs to be before communication becomes “mass” communication. There are also no constraints on the type of information being presented. Accurate media representation of world issues is crucial. Whenever media reports are censored or biased, the people’s basic rights are systematically undermined. In these situations, violations and unaccountability often go unnoticed and suppressed viewpoints become commonplace. Most people get their view of the world from the media. It is, therefore, important that mass media be objective and present accurate and diverse representations of what go on around the world.

 

           

Accordingly, in the studies that demonstrates how some of the most popular cultural texts of the day are involved in current political and cultural struggles. The study of popular and mass-mediated culture has widely been labelled “cultural studies” this paper will provide some models of a media cultural studies that is critical, and multicultural (1991). A critical cultural study conceptualizes society as a terrain of domination and resistance and engages in a critique of domination and of the ways that media culture engages in reproducing relationships of domination and oppression. A critical cultural studies is concerned with advancing the democratic project, conceptualizing both how media culture can be a tremendous impediment for democratizing society, but can also be an ally, advancing the cause of freedom and democracy

The politics of culture and will develop a specific model of media cultural studies and engage in the debates concerning how best to study culture and society in order to fully grasp the production, nature, and effects of media culture. My approach also employs social theory to properly contextualize, interpret, and analyze the nature and effects of media culture. It is my conviction that cultural studies cannot be done without social theory that needs to understand the structures and dynamics of a given society to understand and interpret its culture. Assuming that media cultural texts are neither merely vehicles of a dominant ideology, nor pure and innocent entertainment. Rather they are complex artifacts that embody social and political discourses whose analysis and interpretation require methods of reading and critique that articulate their embeddedness in the political economy, social relations, and the political environment within which they are produced, circulated, and received.

Society and culture are contested terrains and that cultural artifacts are produced and have their effects within determinate contexts (1992). It is my conviction that the analysis of media culture within its matrix of production and reception helps illuminate its artifacts and their possible effects and uses, as well as the contours and trends within the broader socio-political context. Since the forms of culture produced by giant media and entertainment conglomerates are an immediate and pervasive aspect of contemporary life, and since media culture is both constituted by and constitutive of larger social and political dynamics, it is an excellent optic to illuminate the nature of contemporary society, politics, and everyday life. Indeed, The understanding popular Hollywood films, Madonna and MTV (Music Television), rap music and contemporary black films, and television news and entertainment can help us to understand our contemporary society. That is, understanding why certain artifacts are popular can illuminate the social environment in which they arise and are circulated, and can thus provide insight into what is going on in contemporary societies and cultures.

Media and Ideology

 

Ideology refers to the systems of beliefs about human conduct. These are the different ideas and principles that concern behavior. Accordingly this body of beliefs unites a group of people and more importantly facilitates social interaction. Ideology could be composed of beliefs, values and ideals. People’s beliefs usually dictate the way of life (1971). Through beliefs, individuals have a better understanding of how the world works. Values on the other hand, can be equated to the morals of the society, the concept of good and bad, right and wrong. Ideals serve as models for what people hope to achieve in life. These could also be referred to as the vision of the people. And as a result, this system of beliefs stimulates and precedes action. Ideology represents the distinguishing features, more specifically the characteristics, of the people of a community.

Many changes have taken place in the country’s economy, technology, politics, and ideology. These changes have had consequences for the media, and for television in particular. Media and culture are based primarily on Marxist/Maoist cultural theories that proclaim that culture is part of the society’s superstructure, which consists mainly of politics and ideology (1983). Therefore, to study changes in cultural importation is virtually to study the country’s political, ideological, and social transition.

The contemporary theories of post modernity and hypermodernity for their relative neglect of the “growing gap between the rich and the poor” in modern society, reflecting changing social, political, and intellectual contexts and of particular concern is the manner in which social theorists tend to legitimize “the present trend toward growing inequalities.” She concludes that “forceful and widespread critique” of these theories is vital to maximize their “egalitarian potential (1980).”

 

Today’s Western societies can be characterized as being complex, dynamic, and reflexive. While the role of the state has decreased, the importance of the markets has increased (1957). Traditions are changing into fragmented narratives; traditional state authorities have been replaced with singular, often market-based, experts. We suggest that the current state of the social sciences can also be characterized by such attributes as complexity and reflexivity. Traditions are changing in the social sciences: The fragmented niche expert has replaced the academic intellectual. Earlier restrictions are in the process of vanishing because of international data communications networks, global mass media, and the increased mobility of researchers. As the dynamics of social change have become violent, social scientists also face continuous uncertainty; the individual social scientist is supposed to be flexible and reflexive. As a result, a new kind of design and ideology is emerging in the field of the social sciences.

It would be naïve to suggest that those who are active in shaping the sociopolitical arena, or the field of class relations, take out the time to peruse the writings of social theorists before they set out to devise social policies or to engage in political action (1977). It would be equally naïve, however, to deny that the ideas contained in prominent social theories while influenced by the intellectual climate of their societies also seep through into the same intellectual climate. And this, in turn, exerts an influence, even if watered down, on the beliefs of policymakers, on those of the leaders and activists of social movements, and on the media, as well as on public opinion in general (1981). In this manner, these theories also exert an indirect influence on struggles or the lack thereof–over policies, over programs, or, more broadly, over the forces that shape the construction of social and political reality.

This being the case, it is time that social theorists develop a fuller awareness of the close three-way connection between social theory, ideology, and social reality, particularly with respect to inequality, a connection that, like recent inequalities themselves, has been swept under the carpet. Perhaps such increased awareness would also lead theorists toward greater awareness of their social responsibility and would result in their paying greater attention to the issues in question (1992).

Many individuals practicing cultural studies celebrate this culture and way of life and thus contribute to the perpetuation of an unjust and oppressive social order ( 1980). The attempt to develop critical perspectives on contemporary society and culture in this book and believe that surrender of criticism and oppositional resistance is nothing more than capitulation to a way of life that produces incredible misery and suffering for people throughout the world.

Conclusion

People in the future may look back at this era of political and media culture with disbelief (1992). Perhaps denizens of an age of interactive technologies will look back at the passive couch potatoes of this era in wonder. Perhaps those able to access information from a wealth of sources from computer data-bases will be astonished that in this era the vast majority of people depended on television for their prime source of information. Perhaps later generations who have accessible a vast array of significantly different and better cultural texts at their fingertips will be amazed that people actually watched the programs of commercial television, radio, and film during the present era. Perhaps individuals in a future age will be astonished that people watched so much television, saw so many poor films, listened to so much mediocre music, and read such trashy magazines and books, hour after hour, day after day, year after year.

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