Five Eras of Media Theories

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Five Eras of Media Theories

• Baran Davis
• Chapter 2

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• At the end of this lesson you should be able to
  learn the following topics
• Five eras of media theories.
• The Mass Society Theory
• Mass Culture Theory
• Scientific Perspectives on Mass Communication
• Limited Effects Paradigm
• Cultural Criticism
• Moderate Effects Perspective

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• Society ------------ Media
• Mass Society ----- Rise of Media
• Theory Industries

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A. Mass Society Mass Culture

• That the new industrial technology disrupt
  peaceful rural communities forcing people to live
  in urban areas merely to serve the workforce in
  large factories / bureaucracies etc.
• Mass media symbolized everything that was wrong
  with 19th century urban life.
• Mass media is responsible for changing the
  cultural norms the old social order based on
  landed aristocracy was crumbling so as its
  cultures politics.

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• The dominant perspective during this period is
  the Mass Society Theory.
• Mass society theory deals with ideas that held
  strong appeal for any social elites whose power
  was threatened by change. E.g. the Penny Press
  were a convenient target for elites criticism.
  

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• The essential argument of mass society theory is
  that media undermining the traditional social
  order.
• They favored all forms of technological
  development including that of mass media.
  Technology was good. It facilitate control over
  the physical environment, expand human
  productivity generate new form of material
  wealth.
• While on one hand this is encouraging but
  industrialization brought about other

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• other problems such as exploitation of workers,
  pollution social unrest (These arguments is
  captured in chpt. 3,4,5).

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B. Scientific Perspective of mass Communication

• This is the view that the media is not as
  powerful as previously imagined. But rather
  audience had numerous ways resisting media
  influence.
• This perspective view that media is reinforcing
  existing social trends strengthening rather
  than threatening the status quo.
• Lazarsfeld, Berelson, Gaudet (1940s)

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C. Limited Effects Paradigm

• The mass society theories was again under attack
  as unscientific or irrational.
• Mass communication scholars stopped at looking at
  the powerful media effects but rather look into
  the limited effects theories. Such as the
  elite pluralism theories that the theory
  asserting that the media use by sophisticated
  audiences enriches the process of democracy.

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D. Cultural Criticism

• This is the notion that the media enable the
  dominant social elites to secure their power.
  Media provide the ruling elite with a convenient,
  subtle, yet highly effective means of promoting
  worldviews favorable to their interest.

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• e.g. The British cultural studies focus heavily
  on mass media in their role promoting a hegemonic
  (dominant ideas that is imposed on society)
  worldview and dominant culture among various
  subgroups in the society.

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E. Moderate Effects Perspective

• The moderate media effects perspectives support
  the idea of communication science, social
  semiotics media literacy.
• That is research that integrates all research
  approaches grounded in qualitative, empirical
  behavioral research methods.

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• Social Semiotics theory attempted to integrate
  communication science, critical cultural
  studies focusing on audience activity to
  understand how audience members make sense of
  media messages.
• Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze
  evaluate communicate media messages.

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PART I
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The Mass Society Theory

• Background
• That the new industrial technology disrupt
  peaceful rural communities forcing people to live
  in urban areas merely to serve the workforce in
  large factories / bureaucracies etc.
• Mass society theory deals with a review about
  the media in particular the roles of newspapers.
• For many social thinkers at that time (19th
  century- 1840s-1850s) mass media symbolized
  everything that was wrong in the 19th century
  urban life.
• Media was singled out for providing severe
  criticism and was charged with supporting the
  lower class taste, instigating political unrest,
  or violating important cultural norms of that
  time.

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• The social order at that time were controlled by
  landed aristocracy (land owners) who were
  experiencing decay crumbling including their
  culture and their politics.
• That dominant thinking emerged during this period
  is referred to as the
• Mass Society Theory

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• The social order present at that time was that
  the aristocracy is crumbling including their
  culture politics.
• The monarchy at that time wanted to maintain the
  old political order by which the monarch controls
  the society. But the revolutionaries wanted to
  impose radical changes reject the control by
  monarchy.

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• The mass society ideas held strong appeal for any
  social elites whose power was threatened by new
  change of the social order in the society.
• Media industries like the Penny Press (1840s
  1850s) were the target for elite's criticism. The
  press were supporting the revolutionary's
  movement and not the elite.

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• Note
• 1. Elite referred to people occupying or in the
  privileged positions in a social system whose
  power was based on the industrial revolution.
• 2. Penny Press (1840 1850) is the newspaper
  that sold for one penny (cent) earned sale
  through the sale increased numbers of readers to
  advertisers.

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• yellow journalism (the use of sensationalism
  1880s 1890s).
• This is the era where newspapers were
  monopolistic and employed unethical practices
  like sensationalism to instigate mass audience
  (readers) to sell newspapers.

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The Theory

• The argument of Mass Society Theory is based on
  the idea that the media undermine the traditional
  social order (aristocracy) of the time.
• Proponents of this theory supports the drastic
  social order of change must takes place. The
  debate - who should do these changes was an
  interesting one? The aristocrats or the urban
  elites?

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• The media were viewed as having the power to
  shape peoples perceptions of the social world
  and to manipulate our actions in subtle but
  effective ways. This theory assumed that media
  influence must be controlled.
• This theory appear in the late 19th century as
  various social elites are struggling to make
  sense of the whole idea on modernization. The
  monarchy, the clergy and the upper class
  politicians lost power to the revolutionaries.

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• For the monarchy, clergy upper class
  politicians, considered the media as symbolic
  of what was wrong with modern society. Mass
  newspapers of yellow journalism (the use of
  sensationalism 1880s 1890s) era was gigantic,
  monopolistic, that employed unethical practices
  to instigate mass audience. E.g. leaders in
  education and religion resented medias power
  using contents they considered objectionable
  sinful.
• The rise of the mass press posed a direct threat
  to the political business establishment.

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The perceptions of the Media

• 1. That the media is malignant for criticizing
  the aristocracy supporting the revolutionary
  therefore it must be structured (Marcuse 1969,
  1978)
• 2. Media have the power to reach out directly
  influence the minds of average people (Davis
  1978). This was debated since 1940s. Average
  citizen is helpless can be manipulated by
  media.
• 3. Once peoples mind were corrupted by the media
  it creates social problems (Marcuse 1941) Social
  problems often were link with the media.

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• 4. Average people are vulnerable to media because
  they have been cut off from traditional social
  institutions that previously protect them from
  manipulation. The theory idealized the past
  romantic visions of what life must be like in the
  medieval Europe.
• 5. The social chaos initiated by the media will
  inevitably resolved by establishing a
  totalitarian order.
• 6. That mass media brings higher forms of
  culture, bringing about general decline in
  civilization.

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Mass Society Theory in Early Times

• Among the early originators of the Mass Society
  Theory was Ferdinand Tonnies (German sociologist)
• He attempted to explain the critical differences
  between social organization European society
  existed in the late 19th century.
• He proposed a simple dichotomy between folk
  community modern or industrial society.

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• In a folk community people were bound together by
  institutions / traditional folk cultures such as
  strong family ties, traditions, marriage and
  social roles.

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• Norms are largely unwritten and individuals were
  bound to one another as mutual interdependence
  (Fukyyama,1999).
• N the case of marriage were defined as lifelong
  commitments that ended with the death of spouses.
• Marriage partners were chosen by heads of the
  families using criteria determined by tradition
  family needs. If you violated the marriage vows
  the couple will be ostracized by the community.
  
• They often find life in modern society to
  troublesome and without meaning.

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• Durkheim (French sociologist) offered the same
  dichotomy like Tonnies with a different
  interpretation of modern social order.
• According to Durkheim folk community are like
  machines forced by collective consensus to
  perform traditional social roles. People are
  bounded by this consensus known as mechanical
  solidarity.

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• Durkheim compared modern society to animals
  rather than machines. As they grow, animals
  undergo profound changes in their physical form.
  They begin life as babies and progress through
  several developmental stages of adulthood old
  age.
• In modern life people perform specialized tasks
  for their personal survival and are capable of
  using mental processes to anticipate threats
  cope with them known as organic solidarity
  referring to culturally negotiated social ties
  that bound modern social order together.

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• Social orders in organic solidarity are
  characterized by specialization, division of
  labor and interdependence.
• With this Durkheims also introduce the concept
  of Information Superhighway referring to to the
  idea that worldwide are connected with digital
  data network where to certain extend people can
  directly able to decide what they want
  government to do for them.

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Mass Social Theory in Contemporary Times

• In our modern life the basic assumptions that the
  corrupting media helpless audience have never
  completely disappeared.
• Attacks on pervasive, dysfunctional power of the
  media have persisted as long as the dominant
  elites find their power being challenged by the
  media we see this every day in news.

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• The ongoing concern of the erosion of
  traditional values of the average people comes
  from new communication technologies.
• First, rapid diffusion of Internet World Wide
  Web. New form of media means new form of
  communication which means the development of new
  relationship and the creation of new centers of
  power influence.

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• Second, the media industries when facing
  challenges from new technologies the media
  undergo rapid restructuring. E.g merger
  acquisition of media industries to ensure their
  survival in competition like telephones, cellular
  communication, cable TV internet markets. That
  the concentration of ownerships are in the as
  hands of the few as what happens in US today.

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Summary

• The dominant perspective during this period (late
  19th century) is the period of Mass Society
  Theory. Mass society ideas held strong appeal for
  any social elites whose power was threatened by
  change. E.g. the Penny Press were a convenient
  target for elites criticism.

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• And that the media are corrupting the influences
  that undermine the social order through their
  influence over defenseless average people.

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• The essential argument of mass society theory is
  that media undermining the traditional social
  order.
• They favored all forms of technological
  development including that of mass media.
  Technology was good. It facilitate control over
  the physical environment, expand human
  productivity generate new form of material
  wealth.

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• While on one hand this is encouraging but
  industrialization brought about other problems
  such as exploitation of workers, pollution
  social unrest (These arguments is captured in
  chpt. 3,4,5).

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Strength weaknesses of Mass Society Theory

• STRENGTH
• 1. Speculates about important effects of mass
  media
• 2. Newspapers were to highlights important
  structural changes conflicts in modern
  cultures.
• 3.Draws attention to issues of media ownership
  ethics

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• WEAKNESSES
• 1. Is unscientific
• 2.Is unsystematic
• 3. Concentrate on elites interest in preserving
  power over society
• 4. Underestimate intelligence competence of the
  average people (readers).

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• 5. Underestimate personal, social cultural
  barriers to direct media influence.

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PART 11
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The Rise of Media Industries

• For more than a century now, the role of the
  media has been continuously debated.
• Both conservatives liberals fear the power of
  the media system into our society of all sorts
  (e.g. freedom of expression, advertising,
  ownerships, new technology, protecting software,
  impact, etc.)

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• Controversy over media influence can have far
  reaching consequences.
• Mass Society Theory propagate the idea that media
  are corrupting influences that undermine the
  social order through their influences over
  defenseless average people.
• Media are viewed as having the power to shape our
  perceptions of social world to manipulate our
  actions in subtle but highly effective ways.
• This the theory assumes that the media influence
  must be controlled.

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• Media entrepreneurs embraced the press freedom as
  stated in the First Amendment to the constitution
  of America as the road to democracy.
• First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech,
  press, assembly religion. This amendment led an
  aggressive catalyst for the development of mass
  media.

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• This constitutional freedom they argued is
  fundamental to democracy.

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• BACKGROUND
• Media was among many technologies that shaped the
  modern era.
• An industrial social order needed fast
  efficient distribution for information.
• During the 1860s telegraph (wire services) was
  badly needed for sending information.

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• In the middle late 19th century popular demand
  for cheap media content drove the development
  of new media such as the Penny Press ( 1 cent),
  the Nickel Magazine (5 cents) the Dime novel
  (book sold at 10 cents).
• High speed printing press Linotype machines
  made it practical to mass produce printing word
  at low cost.

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• Urban newspapers boomed.
• When war broke out Yellow Journalism
  (sensationalism often related to irresponsible
  journalism) was created. This was the
  irresponsible side of the penny press.
• By increasing accessibility through lower
  prices, new mass newspapers were able to serve
  the people who had never before had easy access
  to print media.

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• The rise of the Yellow Journalism causes
  credibility problem for the media such as
  reporting inaccuracy, over-dramatized, stories
  were over coverage etc. Sensationalism journalism
  (irresponsible) widely used.
• These papers were successful because they
  attracted large numbers of readers in urban
  areas it is cheap.
• Intense competition resulted in the growth of
  many small-circulation newspapers and more
  specialized print media were created.

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• The rise of media industries also led to the rise
  of capitalism which entrepreneurs had the right
  to earn profits by producing distributing media
  content.
• The most notable entrepreneur of them all is
  Hearst the press lord. He demonstrated that
  news business could be as profitable as
  railroads, steel or oil. Like most yellow
  journalism Hearst had little respect for
  reporting accuracy.

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• The rise of mass media in 1900s followed by the
  industrial development in media technology. Old
  technology is replacing by new technology which
  is known as functional displacement (e.g.
  analogue replacing by digital) etc.
• Functional displacement means that when the
  functions of the existing medium are replaced by
  a newer technology, the older medium finds new
  functions.

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• The success of new media technology often brings
  along strong criticism (like expansive)
  especially when new technology adopted uses
  questionable competitive strategies to produce
  media content , such as better quality
  reproduction (2G,3G) out-class the old
  reproduction methods of production.

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• New media industries often do specialize in
  giving people what they want even if the long
  term consequences might be negative. For example
  new technology will in the long run replace the
  old established set up. Or reading habits were
  replace by watching habits.

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• As new technologies developed other related
  industries grew around them ensuring the stable
  supplies or support system made available. E.g
  the existence of cellular phones encourages
  growth to the related industries displacing
  earlier industries other forms of
  communication.

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• Social roles and relationships were seriously
  disrupted as people adjusted to the new media and
  their content. E.g. the existence of TV reduces
  discussion as a means of social interactions. TV
  sometimes known as an anti-social box.

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• As media industries grew -competition gives away
  to oligopoly that is the concentration of
  increasing numbers of media business in the
  hands of the few large companies.
• As the industries expand issues on morality
  ethical also grew. Censorship were debated.
  Government control frequently advocated.
  Industry code of ethics practices like
  self-censorship were proposed

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• Computers, internet World Wide Web posed a
  threat to the survival of news papers and
  broadcast media.
• Old media habits break down new media habits
  emerge. People have more choices of different
  media.

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• Media ownership are concentrated in few hands.

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PART 111Social Scientific Theory

• These theories are based on and guided by
  empirical (based on observations or experiments)
  research. They permit statements (hypotheses)
  about nature, working, and effects of mass
  communications.
• These statements are tested and their results are
  confirmed.
• Social Scientific Theory seek prediction and
  control.

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Limited Effects - Theories / Perspectives

• This is a view of media as reinforcing existing
  social trends and strengthening rather than
  threatening the status quo

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Cultural Criticism -Theories

• These theories are concerned with the conflict
  of interests in society and the ways
  communication perspectives domination of one
  group over another.