Research Topics: Mass Media

THEORIES OF MASS MEDIA

Theories of Mass Media Introduction             Mass media is any form of communication produced by a few people for the consumption of many.  It is the channels of communication through which messages flow.  Television, radio, internet, newspaper and magazine are the common examples of these mass media. It performs three key functions such as educating, shaping public relations and advocating for a particular policy or point of view. Furthermore, mass media are capable of facilitating short-term, intermediate-term and long-term effects and influence on audiences. (cited in  2006)              On one hand, studying and analyzing the theories of mass media can provide a framework for the understanding of the role and effects as well as the influence of mass media since theories are formulated according to its applied settings. Moreover, mass media theories also provide critical factors and perspectives underlying mass media. Agenda Setting, Priming, Framing, Cultivation Theory, Dependency Theory, Hypodermic Needle, Knowledge Gap, Media Richness, Medium Theory, Spiral of Silence, Two Step Flow and Uses and Gratifications Approach are the mass media theories ( 2006). Agenda Setting Theory             Agenda setting is the creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news media. It describes the very powerful influence of media in telling the audience of what issues are important. It depicts the power of media in presenting images to the public. In agenda setting, the press and media do not really reflect the reality since they filter and shape it. Public perceived certain issues as more important than the other issues because media concentrate only on a few subjects and leads. ( 1985)             Political communication systems and presidential campaigns are appropriate examples where agenda setting theory is applied. In the research done by McCombs and Shaw in presidential campaigns in 1968, they found out that the mass media exerted a significant influence on what voters considered to be the major issues of campaign by assessing the relationship between what voters in one community said were important issues and the actual content of media messages used during the campaign. (1972) Priming Theory             Priming is established by offering the audience a prior context that will be used to interpret subsequent communication. This enhances the effects of the media on its audiences. In priming, the media provide the audience with standards and frames of reference. It provides audience about what a news program looks like and what a credible person looks like. (, &  1998)             If agenda setting tells mainly the importance of an issue, priming refers whether something is good or bad or whether the issue is communicated effectively ( 2001).     Framing Theory             Framing as a quality of media communication leads other to accept meaning over another. This can be done by selecting the topics and drawing the public attention to that topics, then media decides where people think about. Consequently, framing is the way media and media gatekeepers organize and present events and issues they cover. In addition, the way in which the news is brought, the frame in which the news is presented, is also a choice made by journalists. Then, audiences interpret these events and issues in the way they are provided. Frames then are abstract notions that serve to organize or structure social meanings. ( &  1996)             Framing is related to agenda setting since both bring up certain topics when news items occur. However, framing expands its context by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand rather than on a particular topic. Similarly in framing, the media does not only tell what to think about but also how to think about. ( 1993) Cultivation theory             As  and  argues, the mass media particularly the television, cultivate attitudes and values which are already presents in a culture by maintaining and propagating these values amongst members of a culture, thus binding it together. This refers to the cultivation theory. Cultivation theory suggests that television is responsible for shaping and cultivating viewers’ conception of social reality. However, the degree of shaping and cultivation of such conception differs between the two groups of television viewers-the heavy viewers and the light viewers. ( &  1976)             Heavy viewers or people who watch a lot of television are likely to be more influenced by the ways in which the worlds is framed by television programs than the light viewers or the individuals who watch less. On one hand, light viewers may have more sources of information than heavy viewers. Similarly, there is an intensified effect on the audience in the situation wherein what they see on television is what they have experienced in life. This event leads to a double dose in televised messages which tends to amplify the cultivation effect. ( &  1976) Media System Dependency Theory             This theory which merged out of the communication discipline and was originally proposed by  and  in 1976 explains the integral relationship among audiences, media and the larger social system. This theory suggests that public depend on media information to meet certain needs and to achieve certain goals but they don’t depend on all media equally ( &  1976).             On the other hand, there are two factors that influence the audience’s degree of media dependence. Two factors influence the degree of media dependence. First, audience will become more dependent on media that meet a number of their needs than on media that provide just a few. The second source of dependency is social stability. When social change and conflict are high, established institutions, beliefs, and practices are challenged, forcing audience to reevaluate and make new choices. At such times audience reliance on the media for information will increase. At other, more stable times audience dependency on media may go way down. ( &  1976) Hypodermic Needle Theory             The hypodermic needle theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by shooting or injecting them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response. Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver. ( 1989)             Hypodermic needle theory expresses the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message since media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. This run parallels to the bullet theory which also suggests that the message is a bullet, fired from the “media gun” into the viewer’s “head”. ( 1989) Knowledge Gap Theory             The knowledge gap theory was first proposed by ,  and  at the University of Minnesota in 1970. They believe that the increase of information in society is not evenly acquired by every member of society where people with higher socioeconomic status tend to have better ability to acquire information contrary to the poor people. The knowledge gap can result in an increased gap between people of lower and higher socioeconomic status. The attempt to improve people’s life with information via the mass media might not always work the way this is planned since mass media have the effect of increasing the difference gap between members of social classes. ( 2002) Media Richness Theory             Media Richness theory is based on contingency theory and information processing theory of  in 1977. First proponents of the theory were made by  &  in 1984. This theory proposes that communication media have varying capacities for resolving ambiguity, negotiating varying interpretations, and facilitating understanding. Media Richness assume that people want to overcome equivocality and uncertainty in organizations and that variety of media commonly used in organizations work better for certain tasks than others. (,  &  1987) Medium Theory             Medium theory is similar to the media richness theory since it also focuses on the medium characteristics itself rather than on what it conveys or how information is received. In this theory, a medium is not simply a newspaper, the Internet, a digital camera and so forth but the symbolic environment of any communicative act. Media, apart from whatever content is transmitted, impact individuals and society. ’s thesis is that people adapt to their environment through a certain balance or ratio of the senses and the primary medium of the age brings out a particular sense ratio thereby affecting perception. (cited in  1989) Spiral of Silence Theory             As an attempt to explain in part how public opinion is formed, Neumann introduced the spiral of silence in 1974. The phrase “spiral of silence” actually refers to how people tend to remain silent when they feel that their views are in the minority. It is related to the mass media in such a way that mass media influences public opinion. Shifts in public opinion occur commonly and therefore this theory is used to search an explanation for behavior whether to speak up or stay silent. ( 1991) Two-Step Flow Theory             The two-step flow theory first introduced as a two-step flow of communication by  , , and   in , a 1944 study focused on the process of decision-making during a Presidential election campaign asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information. Then, opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content. (,  &  1944)             The two-step flow theory has improved our understanding of how the mass media influence decision making. The theory refined the ability to predict the influence of media messages on audience behavior and it helped explain why certain media campaigns may have failed to alter audience attitudes and behavior. ( 1994) Uses and Gratifications Approach Theory             Uses and gratifications theory attempts to explain the uses and functions of the media for individuals, groups and society in general. To explain how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs, to discover underlying motives for individuals’ media use and to identify the positive and the negative consequences of individual media use are the three objectives in developing uses and gratifications theory. On one hand, at the core of uses and gratifications theory is the assumption that audience members actively seek out the mass media to satisfy individual needs. ( 2001) Conclusion             We cannot deny the power of the mass media. Mass media can provide us with messages and information that may influenced our actions and decisions. Nevertheless, we can permit it to disrupt our lives seriously or we can use it to improve the quality of our lives. However, to make the choice, we need mass media theories-theories that explain the role and impact of mass media in our lives and in the humanity as a whole. Mass media theories are typically intended to address specific problems and issues brought about by the proliferation of mass media in the society. Similarly, it is easier to learn and understand the role and influence of mass media by examining mass media theories and the problems and issues they addressed concerning the mass media itself.   References: Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

THEORIES OF MASS MEDIA

Theories of Mass Media Introduction Mass media is any form of communication produced by a few people for the consumption of ...

IS THE CONCEPT OF ” HEGEMONY ” USEFUL IN UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN SOCIETY? ANSWER CRITICALLY…..

Introduction There are three words which yield up again and again in the study of mass media. Sometimes they are used interchangeably. They are ‘hegemony’,’ mass’ and ‘media’. These terms are used so often they are like familiar objects that we take for granted. Yet in reality they point to a variety of processes and activities and part of our concern at the outset is to disentangle these. Humans communicate with each other. This is an essential part of what it is to be human since it makes us social individuals (, and , 1998, ). There is a physical dimension to this. Contact is possible through shared settlements. Contact between settlements (rural and urban, coastal and inland, international) becomes possible through means of communication: roads, rivers, canals, sea-routes, trains, and airways. They speak of these as means or systems of communication, but more often refer to them in terms of modes of transport. Without these physical developments, which have both promoted and responded to the process of urbanisation, what we now know as the modern communications industry would not have emerged.  “Mass media” is a deceptively simple term encompassing a countless array of institutions and individuals who differ in purpose, scope, method, and cultural context ( and , 1998, ). 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.   Representation refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Media representation is an active, creative process through which images signify different meanings rather than merely presenting themselves as objective reflections of reality (, 2000). The term refers to the processes involved as well as to its products. For instance, in relation to the key markers of identity representation involves not only how identities are represented (or rather constructed) within the text but also how they are constructed in the processes of production and reception by people whose identities are also differentially marked in relation to demographic factors .   These things has greatly affected how cultures now were shaped, and especially how nations and different people with different backgrounds are able to associate with each other because of the perceived information that they received from these devices used for communication (, 1997, ). The environment in which we as interactive beings move together in order to create a semblance of order in our minds. The Medium Theory has been one of the most popular discussions in the academic arena particularly in the discipline of communications as induced by the ever-emerging communication gadgets and technologies. The Medium Theory encompasses explanations, assumptions and claims regarding the interaction of the communication media and the audience utilising such technology on how information and messages are given meaning and interpretation. Mass Media and Society If society is impossible without communication and, through communication, socialisation takes place (for example in the settings of home, school, work, religious activity, leisure activity), it follows that through communication the possibility exists for influencing the attitudes and behavior of others and of being influenced ourselves (,  and , 1997, ). This leads us to ask about the communication process: who is communicating with whom, by what means, for what purposes, with what effects, and in whose interests? The answers to such questions tell us much about the kind of societies we live in and the ways in which power and control operate. It cannot be assumed that the process of communication is always benign. That is why, in the lexicon of communications research, we encounter such terms as ‘propaganda’, ‘indoctrination’, ‘manipulation’, ‘ideology’, ‘distortion’ and ‘deception’. Today society is saturated by media of different forms, shapes, and sizes and every day the average citizen spends a large amount of his or her time in the consumption of media products, whether as readers, listeners, or viewers (, 1999, ). The dominance of the mass media in our lives has led people to blame the media for a range of social ills. Whether it is increased violence in society, the growth of juvenile delinquency, football hooliganism, riots, terrorism, permissive behaviour, falling educational standards, political apathy, or any other social problem we are ready to attribute ‘fabulous powers’ to the mass media. As Connell says, it is very usual to blame the mass media for ‘the spread of this or that social problem by being carriers of all manner of distortion or misunderstanding (, 1997,). This is a view of media power as total and all-embracing. Such a view of the power of the media is often couched in the assumption that this is something new. It is associated with the conditions of modernity. However, the history of mass communications shows that the emergence of every new medium of mass communication or popular amusement has been accompanied with great claims about the power of the medium to change the behavior of men, women, and children as well as the values and mores of society.   The Concept of Hegemony in Understanding the Role of Mass Media in the Society   ’s hegemony is a structuralist especially when talking about the mass media because it has integrated dynamic contributions, including  linguistics, the structural anthropology of Lévi-Strauss, the semiotics of  and ‘s reworking of psychoanalysis. In order to have an in depth understanding to the role of mass media in the society, the social structure, struggles and culture must be discussed first; this is according to the concept of hegemony by (, 1997, ). The central and substantive concern has been with the systems and processes of signification and representation, the key to which has been seen to lie in the analysis of ‘texts’; films, photographs, television programs, literary texts and so forth. Structuralist studies in this area have been closely linked with some crucial reformulations of Marxist theories of ideology which, although bitterly attacked by those who have wished to remain on more traditional Marxist terrain, have played a positive part in by-passing and moving beyond certain impasses within Marxist accounts of the media associated with the idea of ideology as a reflection of the economic basis of media industries and society. ‘s reformulation of a theory of ideology, for example, clearly indicated an important shift in Marxist thinking. ‘s view of ideology as a representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals with the real conditions of their existence moved the notion of ideology away from ‘ideas’ which constituted a distorted reflection of reality (, 1999, ). ‘s work stressed that ideology expressed the themes and representations through which men relate to the real world. For  ideology always had a material existence. It is inscribed within an apparatus and its practices. Ideology operates here to interpellate individuals as subjects, ‘hailing’ individuals through the apparently obvious and normal rituals of everyday living. Ideology, rather than being imposed from above and being, therefore, implicitly dispensable, is the medium through which all people experience the world. Although  retains both the overall form of the base/superstructure metaphor and the notion of determination in the last instance by the economic he also emphasises the irreducibility and materiality of ideology. Determination in the last instance by the economic is a necessary but not sufficient explanation of the nature and existence of the ideological superstructures (, 1986, ). The media within an  framework operate predominantly through ideology: they are ideological state apparatuses as opposed to more classically repressive state apparatuses. Thus the effectivity of the media lies not in an imposed false consciousness, nor in changing attitudes, but in the unconscious categories through which conditions are represented and experienced. The combination of   and semiotics provided the initial impetus for sustained work on media texts (,  and , 1997, ). By largely suspending the traditional Marxist concern with the external social and economic determinants of ideology, in favor of a focus on the internal relations of signifying practices, such as film or television, structuralist media research formed the theoretical space within which to carry out detailed textual analysis. The early projects of Screen, for example, which examined the classic narrative cinema of Hollywood, avant-garde films and televisual forms, were, whatever their limitations, a very positive advance over approaches to media content which stressed ‘reflection’ whether in Marxist or pluralist terms (, 1997, ). At the very least, such work showed a continuing concern to establish the autonomy and effectiveness of particular film and television forms, taking as a basis the idea that the ideology embodied in film and television is an important and necessary area of ideological struggle. Structuralist studies have, however, moved beyond an  problematic in a number of ways. First, through attempting to combine the analysis of media-signifying practices with psychoanalysis, there has been an attempt to theorise the relationship of texts to subjects (, 2000, ). The subject, constituted in language, in  terminology, is not the unified subject of the  formulation and traditional Marxist view, but a contradictory, de-centred subject displaced across the range of discourses in which he or she participates. Although this is a relatively undeveloped area in Marxist studies of the media and in Marxism generally, this line of development indicates some crucial absences both in Marxism and in earlier structuralist studies. A second movement within structuralism has involved a rejection of the base/superstructure model for a focus on the articulation of autonomous discourses. First, for example, suggests that the idea of the ‘relative autonomy’ of ideology and the linked notion of representation is inherently unstable in its juxtaposition of ideas (the relative autonomy of the ideological and the determination of ideology by the economic base) which are logically opposed to one another. In this view there can be no middle ground between the autonomy of ideological practices such as the mass media and straightforward economic determinism.   Of course, ‘idealism’ and ‘economism’ are terms which are readily exchanged in arguments between Marxists, each protagonist invoking the name of the master and the spirit of historical materialism. The location of media power in the economic processes and structures of media production. In a return to the base/superstructure metaphor, ‘political economists’ conceive of ideology both as less important than, and determined by the economic base. Ideology is returned to the confines of ‘false consciousness’ and denied autonomous effectiveness ( and , 1998, ). Also, since the fundamental nature of class struggle is grounded in economic antagonisms, the role of the media is that of concealing and misrepresenting these fundamental antagonisms. Ideology becomes the route through which struggle is obliterated rather than the site of struggle.  and  (2004, ) contend that the pressure to maximize audiences and revenues produces a consistent tendency to avoid the ‘unpopular and tendentious and draw instead on the values and assumptions which are most familiar and most widely legitimated’. The role of the media here is that of legitimating through the production of false consciousness, in the interests of a class which owns and controls the media. The main concern of this form of media research is, therefore, the increasing monopolization of the culture industry, through concentration and diversification. Valuable though such research may be in summarizing the evidence on the ownership of the media, there are problems with this return to the classic model of base and superstructure ( and , 1998, . ). The advocates of ‘political economy’ ‘conceive the economic level as not only a “necessary” but a “sufficient” explanation of cultural and ideological effects. Yet the focus on general economic forms of capitalism dissipates distinctions between different media practices and allows little in the way of specific historical analysis beyond the bare bones of ownership. There is obviously some justification in the arguments by political economists that ideology has been given priority at the expense of serious consideration of the economic determinants of the mass media. Yet political economy, in its present state of development, would return us to the view of the media as a distorting mirror, a window on reality, which misrepresents reality ( and , 1998, ). This view of the media, combined with a predilection for empirical analysis in the area of ownership and media organisations, frequently seems to give political economy more in common with pluralist accounts of the media than with other Marxist accounts. On the other hand, cultural studies incorporate a stress on experience as the ‘authenticating’ position and a humanist emphasis on the creative, which is very much at odds with the structuralist position outlined earlier (, 2000, ). Where structuralism had focused on the autonomy and articulation of media discourses, culturalist studies seek to place the media and other practices within a society conceived of as a complex expressive totality. Conclusion This view of media power is present in recent work which attempts a combining of culturalist and structuralist views. Although theoretically eclectic in its bold, if not entirely successful, compound of a theory of hegemony derived from , sociology of ‘moral panics’, and an account of the social production of news, retains a view of society as an expressive totality. The crisis in hegemony which the authors identify has its basis in the decline of the British economy after the post-war boom but is resonated in the production of popular consent through the signification of a crisis in law and order in which the mass media play the key role. The media play their part in combination with other primary institutional definers (politicians, the police, the courts) in ‘representing’ this crisis. In the area of news, however, media definitions are ‘secondary’ (, 1999, ). The media are not the primary definers of news events but their structured relationship to powerful primary definers has the effect of giving them a crucial role in reproducing the definitions of those who have privileged access to the media as ‘accredited sources’. They are partners in the signification spiral through which distinct and local problems, such as youth cultures, student protests and industrial action, are pulled together as part of a crisis in law and order. The framework again emphasises the expressive interconnections of the culturalist position. There are, of course, some unresolved problems in this approach, not least of which is the unevenness of the theoretical synthesis achieved. Hence, while the media are represented as a ‘key terrain where consent is won or lost’, they are also in other formulations conceived of as signifying a crisis which has already occurred, both in economic and political terms. The theoretical perspectives on the mass media contained within Marxism share a general agreement that the power of the media is ideological but there are distinct differences in the conceptualisation of ideology, ranging from the focus on the internal articulation of the signifying systems of the media within structuralist analysis, through to the focus on the determination of ideology in ‘political economy’ perspectives and to a culturalist view of the media as a powerful shaper of public consciousness and popular consent (,  and , 1997, ). Although disagreements about the role of the media as an ideological force within these approaches may be similar in their intensity to earlier debates on the nature of the power of the media, these are in no sense simple repetitions of earlier debates. The theoretical ground has shifted. Increasingly, work on the media has focused on a related series of issues: the establishment of the autonomy, or relative autonomy of the media and its specific effectiveness; tracing the articulation between the media and other ideological practices; and attempting to rethink the complex unity which such practices constitute together (, 1997, ). The way in which questions in these areas have been posed does vary in relation to different Marxist and other perspectives, but it is in relation to these issues within Marxism that intellectual work on the nature of media power proceeds at present.     References Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

IS THE CONCEPT OF ” HEGEMONY ” USEFUL IN UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN SOCIETY? ANSWER CRITICALLY…..

Introduction There are three words which yield up again and again in the study of mass media. Sometimes they are used interchangeably. Th...

Introduction to Essentialism in Mass Media

Introduction to Essentialism in Mass Media   There has been oppression of rights and freedom among others and learned that certain discourse has been redefined by those who have eloquently voiced their rights and has been able to resist injustices in popularity and have to emancipate and always stand in a row, at a straight angle to the gum and instead wobble left and right because of overuse and prolonged misuse so long taken for granted, cannot be so taken any longer and has to be defended in fundamental ways than was the case a generation years past and that these views can be so pragmatic and so given to the Enlightenment assumption  that language is a clear plate of glass through which the subject matter is clearly visible that to try to dislodge this assumption has to be the work of some writers over a long period of time that  have to become much more common if any progress is to be made and the areas of discourse so far monopolized by the postmodernists have to attract the attention of those in opposition to postmodernist assumptions. (Moreover, one of the fundamentals of philosophical thinking has been the notion that structures have a center and that centerless structures have a center and that centerless structures are unthinkable and that governing element of a structure, while itself escaping structurality.     The assumption that such views in speaking of its language is self referential or that any kind of identity is “constructed” and has no core and is routinely in ways with repeated usages of the views interpretations in the educated person’s subconscious and slowly language and communication abandon the assumption that the idea of origin lies at the basis of truth within their meaning. Thus, postmodernism has ushered in a new way of using words and the formula has such but deprived concepts of that presence that is so clearly visible in the works of Shakespeare and by the intellectuals and the leaking these views into popular discourse made by a tremendous difference of humanistic matters appropriated and invoked the idea of its ability to crack the armor of politics as well as the basis for the views of other postmodernists between thinking and the senses. The identity of the subject has been tossed away in the general campaign against “essentialism’’ as shared the Enlightenment based fundamentals to which service is paid and on occasions of “constrained disagreement” where incompatibility of stances is acknowledged, proclaimed and respected where opportunities are provided for representatives of the diverse ways of using such communication to debate these kind of philosophical views as it was purged from humanistic pursuits having an attempt to submit to a mainstream humanistic ways in which one of the epistemological premises would be the existence of a telos that may end in a rejection o marginality in the lives of mankind and being able to restore such kind of essentialism to a respectful place that will take more than an honest person’s views that will be treated justly. Thus it seems that the battle for the restoration of meaning cannot be fought of the Enlightenment and limiting the range of views to those untouched by postmodernist handling. The emptying of values of its former foundations has to be discussed vividly against which needs to be approached from the point of these views rather than religion that it depends on concepts ostensibly rejected and declared unfit for contemporary usage. Thus, without those concepts the postmodernism these views will fail and will be of negative relevance as the idea of postmodernism has hit like a tidal wave and the consequences were predictable. The postmodern movement engendered intense excitement in such scholars inspired by its provocations and met with active hostility from persons who perceived their intellectual authority to be threatened with incomprehension on the part of persons who failed to negotiate its arcane jargon and with indifference from the majority, willfully ignored on the ideological left then, postmodernism encountered friends because of progress with these views within the rhetorical affinity between feminist postmodern theory and an Enlightenment narrative of development consisting the valorization of mobility and the repudiation of locatedness as the feminists deploy this rhetoric in order to accommodate differences and to accustom readers to the instability that results from such accommodation in order to justify colonial development and to efface women’s very different experiences of mobility respectively.   The women’s liberation views has imbibed liberal individual goals of equality, rights and choice often translated into thinking of equality as sameness to men, of rights as self-preference and of free choice as a negative freedom from interference by others. The views of oppression and emancipation often extend to equal rights, opportunities, respect and impartial treatment. (1990) It has an implicit ethic of justice, that to treat people fairly means to treat people as equals. The idea that women as equals have rights, presupposes they are equal heirs to the ways of political liberty that grants rights of choice to persons of moral independence, which are considered to be capable of being held responsible to that choice. Then, the needs for justice emerge from these views in relevant contexts within thy laws and practices often masquerade as gender neutral but imply the male body, and the specific differences of needs will be ignored and will involve discrimination. Hence, there is a simple assertion that women should decide tells people nothing about the moral and social values women ought to bring to this decision, how they should decide. General rights do not address specific social relations and divisions. People need rights, but rights emerge from particular needs; they take into account specific, concrete social requirements. It has individualistic connotations, rights that need not take into account other relationships and social contexts. It leaves the individual as the sole moral arbiter, providing no assistance with how individuals should choose or how law should incorporate such rights. Thus, the law is concerned with the pursuit of dignified living. The need of societies to deploy critical moral standards in order to evaluate such views and avoid it to happen within the social norms of a country, “such standards of critical morality must themselves be defined within the context of the moral practices of specific historical communities”. The ethos of democracy embodies “constitutional morality” institutionalized in the judiciary, but the basis of this moral discourse must be frequently evaluated. It cannot simplistically be identified with majority sentiment. Kaplan argues that the respect for individual autonomy requires both a “moral pluralism and a political neutrality” The enforcement of morality by coercive political authorities violates the individual sovereignty. Women in Mass Media (Print and Film) Despite of development regarding Mass media making, the role of women in the film is the same until the new aged films. Mostly, in some previous films in western countries and even in the orients, the roles of women could be a typical mother, an old maid, a battered wife or a sex symbol, while men usually get the pleasant roles like good father, a leader, and a hero or warrior saving his countrymen and hi country, though also some of the films depict weak male characters. The reason is that, in nature, women are weak. That is the perception of some of us regarding the characteristics and capabilities of women. That is why before, this perception was also applied in the cinema especially in Mass medias. The roles of the women became limited compared to men. And even in the previous time, filmmaking for some major studios have been almost exclusively the realm of men. This is the reason why feminists groups disagreeing in this kind of treatment to the women especially in the film industry.  In Mass media, the ideological pressures between the Eastern and Western feminism have often been trumped by visual splendor and interpretation of melodramatic female suffering. General images of female suffering are common through classical Cinema. It is not a simple thing to relinquish suffering as the entire cultures are established upon aestheticizing it, and other established upon ignoring it, it lingers forever the lowest common denominator of entire human experience. It is now apparently impossible to remark on the image of women in rural Mass media without placing that commentary within a frame of transitional consumerism and essentialism. Frequently, these are rural narratives that idealize a magnificent aesthetic of rural female suffering as an exportable vision of a film, framing its history in pre-modern rural as an international cinematic commodity.  Mass Media often reflects situation by means of both narrative and authors. Movies that featured women, told from a feminine point of view and directed by women are becoming numerous in society. Few well-known female filmmakers joined by some new voices. Although from the beginning, women have participated in the development of mass media, it was only in the 80s that the feminist theme started to emerge. And after that, many female authors have pursued the forerunners of women particularly in cinema. Films dealing with women from a feminine point of view are scrupulously devoid of sentimentalism. They are usually stories that are dramatic about the difficulties of women have the asserting their personal individuality and collective dignity.  Films are often the reflection of a certain individual and even a particular society. These may have sense since most of the films tackle love, relationships, frienships, and even serious problems such as poverty, government problems and even the relationship between countries. It also means that some of the films featured women reflects their current situation in the society. But as the time change, and another era comes, the role of the women in the cinema may change, as the new breed of filmmakers create a new impression towards the role of women not just in film but also in the society. Conclusions Even with the advancement in  mass media, the more virile sex (men), are still ahead of the weaker ones (women) due to the fact that they had gained momentum in the past. This argument about feminism is not merely calling for justice. It is the drive and the core animal instinct for unlimited power, the desire to kill men at will, and hurt them at will, just like what they were doing to women countless times in the past.                 On the surface, one might see feminism as equalize women’s rights. However, in truth, it is the inevitability and the vengeance of the weaker, frailer sex. And this vengeance is being escorted by the advancement of technology.               When tackling the subject of feminism there is a question that rises stating whether women should abandon their traditional roles to pursue their self-fulfillment. Traditionally, women should devote her time, energy, and attention, in other words, herself to her family. She should be obedient, respect her husband, protect her children, and take care of the chores. Men should be considered the head of the family and have the authority to demand other family members. He should be the master of the household and everybody in the household should obey his rules. However, the role of women has moved to a higher level. Women are able to gain an education and work like men. There are some women who not only perform their duties in the house very well but they also perform excellently at work.             However, there is still inequality for women because men always prioritize their careers while women cannot do that. Their family should come first before their careers. Because of this, it is quite hard to totally abandon the traditional roles of women and pursue their self-fulfillment. The fight for equality is really dependent on whether a woman is aware of her own capabilities. Women should be able to built their confidence and be more independent. This way, the relationship between men and women will be more equal.     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Introduction to Essentialism in Mass Media

Introduction to Essentialism in Mass Media There has been oppression of rights and freedom among others and learned that certain dis...

What led to the common notion that the mass media have immediate powerful effects? And what happened to the notion?

THE POWER OF THE MASS MEDIA         All over the world the power of the mass media including television, internet, radio and newspaper has played a vital role in a country’s political and current issues. Even in the development of cultural and economic upbringing. People all over the world rely heavily on these means. People can be easily persuade to believe about what they see and heard on media. This has become their socio cultural way of life. Mass media is so strong that it can reach even the farthest corner of the world. This is the reason why the audiences can’t help but to believe almost everything what they see and heard as realistic even without evidence. This has become naturally accepted. The information whatever it maybe, can spread instantly in a matter of hours.       Taking back to history the power of mass media and its notion all started in the early 50’s when industrialization takes place after the world war II the launching of Newspapers and radios are widespread where people all over the world has been suppress and discourage about information. The right timing is on its way when people are looking for ways and means to gather collectively what has been happening around them and so up to now people all over the world has accepted that the power of mass media as their source of current information.            Almost instantly a person who is involved in the news of criminal activity is taken and obliges to comply by force to take action or be regarded as guilty upon avoidance of controversy. A person can gain instant popularity using their talent in the latest craze of information and it can happen overnight. There are numerous talents that have been discovered on the internet especially from social networking sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook etc. This sites has become tremendously easy to access and the transfer of information is almost unlimited. In fact even children can simply open this media in just a click of a button. Charice Pempengco instantly becomes an International sensation that she has gain instant success in the music industry using one single video. There are numerous people who have become so popular because of this technology.       A person involved in political arena may have a better use of mass media for personal gain; they can use these media to enhance their personality and performance to make the people perceive that they have served well. Mass media can cover up the quality of an individual or organization immediately or instantly upon release of information. This has become a simplified technique especially in political and business arena. Collectively one may use the media to destroy or salvage the personality of a person through the use of black propaganda and other negative issues using any forms of media. A highly respected individual can in return become a villain if the media dictated to do so. The media personality should have a control of release so as not to ruin the lives of people involved. The social responsibility of the media is highly encouraged upon release of the news or misinformation may take place.       Showbiz has largely used the all forms of media to promote their talents, movies and TV shows in developing a good relationship to audience and sponsors. Critically there are people who can pay the media to advertise and inform the people to their advantage. The information included in the mass media is highly motivated in commercialized manner. Somehow the Television, Newspapers and Internet are constantly revolving because of business and profit expected returns. Even the job hunters can be easily misled by the media in looking for their prospective companies. They can easily believe in such advertisement due to lack of opportunities and frustrations.       The information therefore in mass media is so powerful and easily believed by people from all walk of lives. The substantial influence it can bring encouragement and discouragement is almost automatic. All of them should value and respect not just the freedom of expression but the quality it may bring that is easily adopted by the people who have come to know their objectives in bringing the power of information using the media.       To visualize such tremendous power of the media consider the Edsa Revolution in the Philippines that’s has brought the attention of millions of people all over the world in a dramatic political changes. This event has become the first ever peaceful revolution that ever happened in the entire world because of media.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

What led to the common notion that the mass media have immediate powerful effects? And what happened to the notion?

THE POWER OF THE MASS MEDIA All over the world the power of the mass media including television, internet, radio and newspaper has...

HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE MEDIA IN CONTEMPORARY FASHION?

MODULE TITLE: Fashion and Postmodernism Project       HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE MEDIA IN CONTEMPORARY FASHION?     How important are the media in contemporary fashion? _____________________________________________________________                            To be conscious is not to be in time                          But only in time can the moment in the rose –garden,                         The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,                         Be remembered; involved with past and future.                         Only trough time is conquered.                                                  T. S. Elliot 1920 1   The idea is that popular culture signs and media images increasingly dominate our sense of reality, and the way we define ourselves and the world around us. The mass media, for example, were once thought of as holding up a mirror to, and thereby reflecting, a wider social reality. Now reality can only be defined by the surface reflections of this mirror. Society has become subsumed within the mass media. Moreover, image becomes all-important in competition, not only trough name-brand recognition, but also because of various associations of quality and prestige. Competition in the image – building trade especially fashion becomes a vital aspect of inter –firm competition. Nowadays success is so plainly profitable that investment in image –building (celebrities, fashion shows, store openings, television productions, internet as well as direct marketing) Pict 1 becomes as important as investment in new designers. The image serves to establish an identity in the market place. The acquisition of an image (by the purchase of a sign system such as designers clothes) becomes integral to the quest for individual identity, self –realization, and meaning. Pict3 High culture and popular culture used to be regarded as two separate cultural forms. In today media induced world these two form are increasingly being mixed, both when it comes to production and to consumption. One of the key predictions of the postmodern condition is the proliferation of signs and their endless circulation, generated by the technological developments associated with the information explosion.pict2 Since cave dwellers began drawing pictures on walls, human beings have been interested in self – representation and have inferred meaning from the pictures that they create and view. In today society not much changed, promulgators of motivation research cheer their ability to shape the consumers unconscious desires trough media images. The visual aspect of fashion, especially the use of photographs and colored could arouse interest, spur associations and instill desire. In this yearning for self-expressions we reach for product, for brands, for fashion, which will be compatible with our schemes of what we think we are or want media wants us to be. Andy Warhol’s notorious prediction that in the future everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes was something more then an off hand remark that made for good copy. The prognostication was based on two themes: mass media and celebrity. The world we are living now. This is what fashion senses really is-the ability to register and appreciate and remember the details of the way those around you look and dress and then reinterpret those details and memories itself.                                                 Malcolm Gladwell, ‘listening to khakis’The New Yorker, July 28,1997 The realm of consumption – what we buy and what determines what we buy-is increasingly influenced by media. Consumption is increasingly bound up with fashion as well because fashion increasingly determines consumption. For example, we watch more films because of the extended ownership of VCRs, while fashion advertising, which makes increasing use of popular cultural references, plays a more important role in deciding what we will buy. Implication of this point is that in a postmodern world, surfaces and style become more important, and evoke in their turn a kind of ‘designer ideology’. Or as Harvey puts it: images dominate narrative. 2The argument is that we increasingly consume media images and signs for their own sake rather than for their ‘usefulness’ or for the deeper values they may symbolize, we consume images and signs precisely because they are images and signs, and disregard question of utility and value. This is evident in fashion culture itself where surface and style, what things look like, and playfulness and irony, are said to predominate at the expense of content, substance and meaning. Pict 4 From the postmodern point of view, contemporary fashion is seen to be indulging in nostalgia, living off its past, ransacking it for ideas recycling its images and plots and cleverly citing it in self-conscious postmodern parodies.pict 5 The repeat and the prologue have been part of the way fashion has worked from its earliest stages. Initially it made use of other forms of popular culture like the magazines, billboards and movies, and very soon these media fed off each other for ideas and stories. French postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard claims that we have reached a stage in social and economic development in which ‘it is it no longer possible to separate the economic or productive realm of ideology or culture, since cultural artifacts, images, representations, even feelings and psychic structures have become part of the world of economics’.3 This is partly explained, Baudrillard claims, by the fact that there has been historical shift in the west, from a society based on the production of things to one based on the production of information trough media. As Best and Kellner write:’ We are now, Baudrillard claims, in a new era of simulation in which computerization, information processing, media, cybernetic control systems, and the organization of society according to simulating codes and models replace production as the organizing principle of society.4 What happens is to according to Baudrillard, the connection between images and simulations and reality’ implodes’ (explodes inward) and as this happens, our sense of the real disappears.5 Models replace real. We see the phenomena, in lifestyle magazines, and fashion shows, where the imitation of models become more important than the reality they imitate.  Baudrillard suggest that the mass media symbolize a new era in which the old forms of production and consumption have given way to a new universe of communication.6 Consider any fashion campaign.  It is simply a succession of surface images for the viewers to experience. It is a collage of fragmented images and each image spawns more, each image is a simulacrum- a perfect copy that has no original. Initially, fashion campaign attempts to reach the greatest audience possible trough the use of the Internet, on-line services, magazines and billboards. Media allows us to watch fashion shows across the world, and have access to more information than ever before. Media has also transformed the fashion essence. The world, it is argued increasingly consist of media screens and popular cultural images-TVs, Videos, adverts and shopping malls, -which are part and parcel of the trends towards postmodern popular culture. During this period, media culture became a particularly potent source of cultural fashions, providing models for appearance, behavior and style. Fashion world have always held fascinating thirst for celebrity and models, as result of television and magazines they have now become dominant theme and accessory as such. Followers, once attracted spend millions on fashion items and imaginary life style. Pict 6 Film, TV and Hollywood itself also acted and still plays important role as a showcases for chic and fashionable clothes. Fashion became fasten between the cinema and big business, and it has been suggested that Hollywood movies contributed in a mayor way to the ‘consumerism that developed in America, ‘A virulent form of movie mania’ 7 was exploited to sell clothes such as Joan Crawford suits, or more recent movie Prêt a Porter (1994) which emphasize style, spectacle and images at the expense of content, character, substance and social comment. Pict 7  TV episodes of Sex ad the City, where Sarah Jessica Parker worn flower brooch on jacket has style influenced many fashion followers as well as street retailers for a whole year. Repetition of Victorian jacket and flower ornament, refers to another cultural reference, and is taken for granted that consumers have the knowledge to recognize this. Intertextuality and visual appeal of series was as crucial to the series as the designer clothes worn by its stars, and the imaginative day and night images of New York. The visual pleasures derived from the style and ‘look’-locations, settings, people, shoes, were a crucial motivation in the making and appreciation of the series and as such blurring of distinctions of High and popular culture (Hermes Kelly bag, designer Manolo Blahnik shoes but a small apartment in Down-town New York.) pict 8 Television has been particularly influential in popularizing retro-chic’ period clothes from the recent past.pict 9 Dramatization of novels, documentaries and plays popularized every recent mode from the twenties to the hippies fashions of a couple decade earlier as a ‘period’ style. This obsession with pastiche, this ‘nostalgia mode is related to the way in which the dictatorship of Haute couture broke down in the 1960’ and 1970’s. A single style can no longer dominate in the post-modern period. Instead there is constant attempt to recreate atmospheres. Pastiche is the re-imaging of the signifier; it may be thought of as parody without the periodic dimension. If nothing can be completely original, then it becomes natural to make new versions of old styles. 8 The traditional way of creating fashion is often described as a trickle down process. Fashion houses create haute couture, expensive, unique creations, a new way for what a fashion should look like; these creations are then subsequently imitated and mass-produced. Pict 10,and it continue to exist trough   fashion magazines, magazine have also influenced trickle up process, process in which fashion originate from people ‘ everyday lives’ and from there is picked up by fashion industry, in this instance using media as a tool Moschino destroys the myth that fashion must be original and serialized, it is up front and in your face.pict 11   After three thousand years of explosion, by means of fragmentary and mechanical technologies, the Western world is imploding. During the mechanical ages we had extended our bodies in space. Today, after more than a century of electronic technology, we have extended our central nervous system itself in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned.  Marshal Mcluhan “Understanding media” 1966 9   Mass media is a powerful factor, which influences our beliefs, attitudes, and the values we have of ourselves and others as well as the word surrounding us. Media does not merely communicate and reflect reality in a more or less truthful way. Instead, media production entails a complex process of negotiation, processing, and reconstruction similar process to this in fashion. It not only offers us something to see, but also shapes the way in which we see by creating shared perceptual modes. Media messages are used and interpreted by audiences according to their own cultural, social, and individual circumstances, which as such affect contemporary fashion today. Post modernism, whatever form its intellectualizing might take, has been fundamentally anticipated in the metropolitan cultures of the last twenty years; among the electronic signifiers of cinema, radio, television and video, in fashion and youth styles, in all those sounds, images and diverse histories that are daily mixed, recycled and’scratched’together on that giant screen which is contemporary city.10 That the cascade of mass media communications technologies introduced over the course of the 20th century has had far-reaching effects in shaping our social worlds and personal identities is an indisputable fact, but Postmodern media it is more concerned with the cultural representations of the fashion than any qualities or impact fashion may have in the outside world, a trend in keeping with supposed collapse of ‘reality into popular culture. The stylish look of media images, their clever quotations from popular culture and art, their concerned with the surfaces of things, their self-conscious revelation of the nature as media constructions, and their blatant recycling of the past, are all said to be indicative of the emergence of postmodernism today. All styles are now self-caricatures. It is no longer possible unreflectively to be the perfectly dressed person whose dress never calls attention to itself; we have all become so sophisticated about performance that recognize the attempted sleight of hand that aimed to suggest the absence of effort or impression-creation. No longer do any fashion seem normal or ‘natural’ In postmodern worldview, there is no such thing as an essential “me”, no centering identity no inborn character. There are only roles, images we take up in imitation of other images, nevertheless contemporary fashion today. Baudrillard speaks once more: “caution: Object in this mirror may be closer than they appear.11   Notes 1.     Elliot, T.S. Whispers of Immortality-Poem (New York: A.A Knopf 1920) 2.     Harvey, D. The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988) pp234-348 3.     Baudrillard, J.  Simmulations(New York:semiotix (e) 1983) p 2 4.     Best, S. and Kellner D. Postmodern theory: Critical Interrogation (New York 1991- Guilford Press) page 118 5.     Baudrillard, J. The Mirror of Production (St. Louis: Telos Press 1975) page 33 6.     Ibid. page 27 7.     Eckert, C.The Carole Lombard in Macy’s Window’ (Quarterly Review of Film studies 1978) 8.     Berger, A.A.The Postmodern Presence, Readings by Kratz C and Reimer, B. (Sage Publication, London 1998) page 201 9.     McLuhan, M. Understanding Media: The Extension of man (New York 1966) p 62 10.                        Harvey D.The Condition of Postmodernity (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988) 60-61 11.                        Baudrillard, J. America (New York, Verso 1989)   Bibliography Curran, J. and Gurevitch, M: theoretical the Study of the media approaches (Culture, society and the media London, Methuen 1982) Denzin, N. Images of Postmodern Society: Social Theory and Contemporary cinema(London, Sage 1991) Featherstone, M. In pursuit of postmodern (London, Sage 1988) Fiske, J. Television Culture, (London and New York, Methuen 1987) Lyotard, J-F. The postmodern Condition, (Manchester, Manchester University Press 1984) Collins, J Uncommon Cultures: Popular Culture and Postmodernism (New York and London, Routledge 1989)    Photographic credits Moschino(London -Thames and Hudson Ltd 1997) Vivienne Westwood (London, Carlton Books LIMITED 1999) POP magazine September 2001 ID magazine October 2001 Various popular culture, celebrity magazines   Web pages researched www.hollywood.viritualave.net www.pathfinder.com/planethollywood http://www.interscience.com         Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE MEDIA IN CONTEMPORARY FASHION?

MODULE TITLE: Fashion and Postmodernism Project HOW IMPORTANT ARE THE MEDIA IN CONTEMPORARY FASHION? How important are the ...