Media and Communication Theories

McLuhan

The medium is the message

Global village

Functionalism

The media supports social integration.

McQuail - functionalism

Functions of the media:

• information

• correlation

• continuity

• entertainment

• mobilization

McQuail Crit

1. Only looks at positive things about the media

2. Assumes audience is passive

3. talks about what the media does and not why

Marxists

Focus on the media as a form of social control. The media as an industry, owned by a few wealthy men.

Golding and Murdock

The voices heard on such media are those who do not criticise the lack of wealth and distribution of power.

Chomsky - Marxist

Highly critical of the dominance of large media corporations as they control the information being passed onto the public (fear in the west of soviet union/ global terrorism). The role of mass media is to pass on propaganda that supports the groups that have power in society. These media monopolies threaten the idea of democracy

De tracy

Neutral ideology - Ideology is not biased in favor of a a specific social group eg. class.

Calls Ideology the science of ideas of ideas.

Marx

Believed that mass media spread the ideology of those in power. He saw ideology responsible fot the reproduction of class relations and its how the powerful groups justify their advantaged position (Religion)

Thompson - Marxist

Agrees with marx. Views a negative interpretation of ideology with a sense of condemnation. Argues that this negative view is better at exposing the links between ideology and power.

Glasgow media group

TV new reporting and how it is systematically biased.

Fairclough

Text analysis is an essential part of discourse analysis, but discourse analysis is not merely the linguistic analysis of texts. Said that media scripts must be studied through discourse analysis.

The frankfurt School

Included theorists inspired by Marx but where however critical of him as he ignored the influence of culture in modern capitalist societies. They studied how leisure time became industrialised.

Adorno - Frankfurt School

Critical of the effects of mass media on society and culture

Adorno and Horkheimer - Frankfurt school

The production of culture has been standardised and dominated by profit making industries. Leisure is used to transmit values, therefore, it is not a break from daily routine but, very much a part of it.

Frankfurt school on culture industry

Believe that is spread produces undemanding and standardised products which limit the possibility for individuals to criticise or develop individual thought.

Conflict theory Crit

1. They assume that the audiences are unable to resist media propaganda

Habermas

noted that the public sphere was an area for discussion - society was in danger

Sennett

fall of the public man - talks about the private and public sphere and how they’ve been separated physically and philosophically.

Feminists Crit on Habermas and Sennett

Ignoring the way the public sphere is gendered. The way the public and domestic spheres were separated automatically excludes women. This leads to a distorted view of social relations: it leads the bourgeoisie concept of the public sphere - which is male dominated and helped legitimise systemic social differences.

Blumer - Symbolic interactionism

was the first at studying the media influence. The effects of the cinema on the audience.

Lemert and Becker - symbolic interactionism

The moral panic theory - Studied the clash between the mods and the rockers in the UK. Notices how sensationalist media contributes to moral panics in society. Moral panics turn social groups such as youth subculture and ethnic minorities into scapegoats. The panic also diverts attention from structural problems such as unemployment and economic recession.

John Thompson

He agreed with haberas to some extend but mosty disagreed with him because he was part of the frankfurt school. He criticised them about being too negative about the culture industry and habermas for treating people as passive.

John thompson’s theory of interaction

1. face to face

2. mediated

3. quasi-interaction

all combined in our lives. The media is changing the balance between the private and the public sphere however it is learning more towards a public domain

Livingstone and Lunt - interactionism

Audience Discussion programmes -

• SURVEYS

• QUESTIONAIRRES

• TEXT ANANLYSIS

• FOCUS GROUPS

these programmes talk about new issues that affect people in everyday life but they do not see viewers as individuals but as members of a community. They do not fit easily into specific Tv genres. Some involve ordinary people some involve experts. They believe that this is more a practice of democracy, especially the one with the ordinary person

Hutch - crit of livingstone and lunt

They fail to analyse these discussions (who, when, etc.)

Tolson

These programmes are not as open as they seem to be as they are led by the host.

Lyotard - Post modernism

Argues that the great metanarratives such as science, progression and historical development are in doubt and in decline.

He also identifies the playfulness nature of postmodernism as the end of previous genres.

Bauman - postmodernist

Notes that this decline is good as it allows people to face the challenges of modernity without illusions. This bring a time of self conscious modernity aka post modenism.

Baudrillard - post modernist

Hyperreality - people’s behaviours is fused with media images

Audiences and media representations

1. hypodermic - Audience accepts extremely passively

2. gratification

3. reception

4. interpretive

Marcuse (Audience and media representation theories)

Media drugging the audience, making them incapable of thinking critically

Katz and lazarsfeld

2 steps in audience response

1. message recaches audience

2. audience interprets the message through interaction and influential opinion.

Lull (audiences and representation)

Gratification model - How different audiences apply to meet the media to their own needs.

Reception theory

How audiences actively interpret the media .

Hall (audiences and representation)

Looks at the way culture and class context affects the way they understand different media texts. Some audience memebers prefer one text over the other (usually the reflection of mainstream ideologies GUMG).

Fiske

How audiences filter the information through their own experiences.

Kendall

Representations of the working class are always present on UK TV.

Tuchman

The symbolic annihilation of women on TV - how women are represented so stereotypically on tv.

Gerbner

Things are slowly changing gender representation.

Shaheen

How arabs are portrayed on TV and american films.

• Either extremely wealthy

• barbaric and uneducated

• sex maniacs

• terrorists

also dressed differently, emphasises their difference from americans.

Soloms and Back

Ethnic minorities were distinguished from indigenous white and British people in the media.

Oliver

Personal tragedy

Karpf

The media presents disabled as dependents than those having independent lives.

Cumberbatch and Negrine

Found that only 0.5 of fictional characters are disabled and they’re all wheelchair users

Barnes

notices that now-a-days in american drama series, disabilities tend to be played down and act normal, ignoring isnt a solution.

Held et al

5 shifts of global media order

1. increased concentration of ownership

2. from public to private ownership

3. transnational corporate structure - no longer operate between national boundaries only

4. diversification over a variety of media products - produce mixed media contents.

5. more media mergers

Vertical forms of media

national boundaries, traditional media forms

Horizontal

international, globalised media, integration between countries.

Herman and McChesney

Cultural empire is now established

Tomlinson

Approved consent - since theyre buying TV, phones, access to media, do they find pleasure in using them?

Robertson

uses glocalisation to study the influence of american/western media.

Media companies must know local cultures to market their products successfully.

Tunstall

studied the american infiltration of the media in the 70s. however, he said that the USA has lost its global influence in 2007 due to consumer and production in china and india and stronger national cultural and media systems

Hackett and Zhao

Capitalist views more than american values characterise media products - anything can be said as long as it is said profitably

Ritzer

the popularity of individual blogs undermined the originality of indymedia - anyone can create a blog.

Ali Muhammed

how islamic countries respond to media globalisation - resisting and banning western satellites.

Sharkey

thinks that Al Jazeera is highly sensationalised and gives exposure to extremist views.

Lynch, Zayani

Al jazeera challenges openly state controlled media in the middle east and promotes debates on serious issues such as the iraqi invasion. this helps produce a more balanced media.