Assignment on Media culture and cultural studies

Name : Hetal chauhan M.

Roll no.: 13

Paper no.8: cultural studies

Unit no: 4

Enrolment no: 2069108420180008

Class : Sem- 2/ 2018

Email Id: hetalchauhan137@gmail.com

Submitted to: M. K. U. B, Department of English.

 Word count :2100

Media Culture - as an effective tool in Cultural Studies.

Introduction:

The Media and Cultural Studies emphasizes on the study of media in their historical, economic, social and political context. And it highlights the cultural forms created and distributed by media industries and the way in industriesandthe ways in which they vibrate in everyday life, on theindividual, national, and global level. It focuses primarilyon Sound and screen media radio, television, film, popular music, and internet, but reaching out across boundaries. Media culture clearly reflects the multiple sides of contemporary debates and problems. It   is for this reason that any reading of the media must always be a political reading.  Moreover, Cultural Studies investigates culture as the ordinary and often unnoticed practices and relations through which social life is ordered and made meaningful. This includes research in top patterns of everyday life, Consumption and markets; changing distinctions between public andprivate; identity, race andcultural difference; cultural engagements with the environment; celebrity, gender and popular culture; and material Culture.

Before proceeding further, we have to know about the definition of cultural study as given below.

What is Cultural Studies?

A culturalstudy is an academic field grounded in critical theory. It generally concerns the political nature of popular contemporary culture, and is to this extent distinguished from cultural anthropology. Now, let’s have a glance on the on-going debate that is about media.

What is Media Studies?

A MediaA Media study is an academic field that deals with the content, form, history, effects, and political implications of various media and technologies.

Difference between culture and Media:

media and culture A sign system is representation through communication which in turn leads to a shared meaning or understanding. We hold mental representations that classify and organise the world (whether fact or fiction), people, objects and events into meaningful categories so that we can meaningfully comprehend the world. The media use sign systems through newspapers, magazines, television,internet, and the radio etc. The conceptual map of meaning and language are the basis of representation. The conceptual map of meaning, are concepts organised, arranged and classified into complex relations to one another..

Whereas the constructionist approach is where we the audience construct the meaning through our shared conceptual maps and language. The media use these sign symbols so that an association can be made to the object, person, event, or idea etc. With this information of representation and language the media can familiarise people with many things, such as cultural knowledge. As advertising surrounds consumers, concern is often expressed over the impact on society, particularly on values and lifestyle. While a number of factors influence the cultural values, lifestyles, and behaviour of a society, the overwhelming amount of advertising and its prevalence in the mass media suggests that advertising plays a major role in influencing and transmitting social values. In his book Advertising and Social Change, Ronald Berman says; The Institution of the family, religion and education have grown noticeably weaker over each of the past three generations. The world itself seems to have grown more complex. In the absence of traditional authority, advertising has become a kind of social guide. It depicts us in all the myriad situations possible to a life of free choice. It provides ideas about style, morality, and behaviour. While there is general agreement that advertising is an important social influence agent, opinions as to the value of its contribution are often negative. Advertising is criticised for encouraging materialism,

media and culture Essay examples:

media and culture A sign system is representation through communication which in turn leads to a shared meaning or understanding. We hold mental representations that classify and organise the world (whether fact or fiction), people, objects and events into meaningful categories so that we can meaningfully comprehend the world. The media use sign systems through newspapers, magazines, television,internet, and the radio etc.

Influence of Media and Popular Culture Essay:

people are treated equally in here through Mass Media. “Lies My Teacher Told Me” said that textbooks and society hide and manipulate the important but negative facts to make historical characters to be heroes. It makes young children to believe what they have learned are true. Not only textbooks, but also Media and popular cultures take roles to teach wrong directions and to have stereotypes between genders. When people think about Media and popular cultures, reality show is reminded naturally.

Media influence is the actual force exerted by a media message, resulting in either a change or reinforcement in audience or individual beliefs. Media effects are measurable effects that result from media influence or a media message. Whether that media message has an effect on any of its audience members is contingent on many factors, including audience demographics and psychological characteristics. These effects can be positive or negative, abrupt or gradual, short-term or long-lasting. Not all effects result in change: some media messages reinforce an existing belief. Researchers examine an audience after media exposure for changes in cognition, belief systems, and attitudes, as well as emotional, physiological and behavioral effects

There are several scholarly definitions of media. Bryant and Zillmann defined media effects as "the social, cultural, and psychological impact of communicating via the mass media"Perse stated that media effects researchers study "how to control, enhance, or mitigate the impact of the mass media on individuals and society".Lang stated media effects researchers study "what types of content, in what type of medium, affect which people, in what situations"

History :

Media effects studies have undergone several phases, often corresponding to the development of mass media technologies.

Powerful media effects phase      Edit

From the early 20th century to the 1930s, developing mass media technologies, such as radio and film, were credited with an almost irresistible power to mold an audience's beliefs, cognition and behaviors according to the communicators' will.[5][6] The basic assumption of strong media effects theory was that audiences were passive and homogeneous. This assumption was not based on empirical evidence but on assumptions of human nature. There were two main explanations for this perception of mass media effects. First, mass broadcasting technologies were acquiring a widespread audience, even among average households. People were astonished by the speed of information dissemination, which may have clouded audience perception of any media effects. Secondly, propaganda techniques were implemented during the war time by several governments as a powerful tool for uniting their people. This propaganda exemplified strong-effect communication. Early media effects research often focused on the power of this propaganda (e.g., Lasswell, 1927[7]). Combing through the technological and social environment, early media effects theories stated that the mass media were all-powerful.[8]

Representative theories:

Hypodermic needle model, or magic bullet theory: Considers the audience to be targets of an injection or bullet of information fired from the pistol of mass media. The audience are unable to avoid or resist the injection or bullets.

Limited media effects phase  Edit

Starting in the 1930s, the second phase of media effects studies instituted the importance of empirical research, while introducing the complex nature of media effects due to the idiosyncratic nature of audience individuals.[5] The Payne Fund studies, conducted in the United States during this period, focused on the effect of media upon young people. Many other separate studies focused on persuasion effects studies, or the possibilities and usage of planned persuasion in film and other media. Hovland et al. (1949) conducted a series of experimental studies to evaluate the effects of using films to indoctrinate American military recruits.[9] Lazarsfeld (1944) and his colleagues' effectiveness studies of democratic election campaigns launched political campaign effect studies.[10]

Researchers uncovered mounting empirical evidence of the idiosyncratic nature of media effects on individuals and audiences, identifying numerous intervening variables, such as demographic attributes, social psychological factors, and different media use behaviors. With these new variables added to research, it was difficult to isolate media influence that resulted in any media effects to an audience's cognition, attitude and behavior. As Berelson (1959) summed up in a widely quoted conclusion: "Some kinds of communication on some kinds of issues have brought to the attention of some kinds of people under some kinds of conditions have some kinds of effect."[11] Though the concept of an all-powerful mass media was diluted, this did not determine that the media lacked influence or effect. Instead, the pre-existing structure of social relationships and cultural contexts were believed to primarily shape or change people's opinions, attitudes and behaviors, and media merely function within these established processes. This complexity had a dampening effect upon media effects studies.[8]

Representative theories:

Two-step flow of communication: Discusses the indirect effects of media, stating that people are affected by media through the interpersonal influence of opinion leaders.

Klapper's selective exposure theory: Joseph T. Klapper asserts in his book, The Effects Of Mass Communication, that audiences are not passive targets of any communication contents. Instead, audiences selectively choose content that is aligned with previously held convictions.

Rediscovered powerful media effects phase Edit

Limited media effect theory was challenged by new evidence supporting that mass media messages could indeed lead to measurable social effects.[5] Lang and Lang (1981) argued that the widespread acceptance of limited media effect theory was unwarranted, and that "the evidence available by the end of the 1950s, even when balanced against some of the negative findings, gives no justification for an overall verdict of 'media importance.'"[12]

In the 1950s and 1960s, widespread use of television indicated its unprecedented power on social lives. Meanwhile, researchers also realized that early investigations, relying heavily on psychological models, were narrowly focused on only short-term and immediate effects. The "stimuli-reaction" model introduced the possibility of profound long-term media effects. The shift from short-term to long-term effect studies marked the renewal of media effects research. More attention was paid to collective cultural patterns, definitions of social reality, ideology and institutional behavior. Though audiences were still considered in control of the selection of media messages they consumed, "the way media select, process and shape content for their own purposes can have a strong influence on how it is received and interpreted and thus on longer-term consequences" (Mcquail, 2010).[8]

platforms, research results are even more conducive to CMC studies. For instance, Valkenburg & Peter (2009) developed the internet-enhanced self-disclosure hypothesis among adolescents, stating that social media platforms are primarily used to maintain real-life friendships among young people. Therefore, this media use may enhance the friendships.[21] New CMC technologies are evolving at a rapid pace, calling for new media effects theories.

Typology    Edit

The broad scope of media effects studies creates an organizational challenge. Organizing media effects by their targeted audience type, either on an individual (micro-level) or an audience aggregate (macro-level), is one effective method. Denis McQuail, a prominent communication theorist, organized effects into a graph.

Micro- versus macro-level media effects Edit

Media effects studies target either an individual (micro-level) or an audience aggregate (macro-level).

Micro-level       Edit

Theories that base their observations and conclusions on individual media users rather than on groups, institutions, systems, or society at large.[22]

Representative theories: Elaboration likelihood model, Social cognitive theory of mass communication, Framing theory, Priming theory, etc.

On a micro-level, individuals can be affected six different ways.

Cognitive This is the most apparent and measurable effect: includes any new information, meaning or message acquired through media consumption. Cognitive effects extend past knowledge acquisition: individuals can identify patterns, combine information sources and infer information into new behaviors.

Beliefs We cannot validate every single media message, yet we might choose to believe many of the messages, even about events, people, places and ideas that we have never encountered first-hand.

Attitudes Media messages, regardless of intention, often trigger judgments or attitudes about the presented topics.

Affect Refers to any emotional effect, positive or negative, on an individual from media exposure.

Physiological Media content may trigger an automatic physical reaction, often manifested in fight-or-flight response or dilated pupils.

Behaviors Researchers measure an individual's obvious response and engagement with media content, measuring any change or reinforcement in behaviors.[1]

Macro-level

Theories that base their observations and conclusions on large social groups, institutions, systems or ideologies.

Representative theories: Knowledge gap theory, Risk communication, Public sphere theory in Communication, etc.

McQuail's typology      Edit

Figure 1: McQuail's typology of media effects

Denis McQuail, a prominent communication theorist, organized effects into a graph according to the media effect's intentionality (planned or unplanned) and time duration (short-term or long-term).

Citation:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_of_mass_media

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/media-and-culture-F36ETEYVJ

http://hiteshparmar1234.blogspot.in/2014/03/media-culture-as-effective-tool-in.html?m=1