media massa & masyarakat pertemuan 6 matakuliah: sosiologi komunikasi massa tahun: 2009/2010
TRANSCRIPT
MEDIA MASSA & MASYARAKATPertemuan 6
Matakuliah : Sosiologi Komunikasi MassaTahun : 2009/2010
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Media theories deal with…
• the links between the media and other institutions of society
• effects of the media on society and institutions • the links between media organizations and
public/audience • audience composition and behaviour• how media organizations work • formation and transmission of media messages• etc.
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Mass media is seen as…
• a ‘window’• a ‘mirror’• a ‘filter’ or ‘gatekeeper’• a ‘guide’• a ‘forum’ or ‘marketplace of ideas and opinions’
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Approach-based groups of media theories
Denis McQuail. Mass Communication Theory. 1983, 1987, 1994, 2000.
1. Macro-approaches2. Message-centered theories3. Theories of audience and effect
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Macro-approaches• Mass society theory - focuses on society and the power-
holding institutions as the source and determinant of media institution
• Marxist approaches and critical theory - based on the concept of class society
• Political-economic media theory - focuses on economic structure of media ownership and market
• ‘Hegemony’ theory - focuses on dominance of ideology (Louis Althusser)
• The Frankfurt School (Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse) - mass media is a powerful mechanism for creating ‘mass society’
• The socio-cultural approach (Stuart Hall) - the role of the mass culture in society
Frankfurt School – 1923 School of Social Research
1. Full of leftwing Jewish intellectuals. To a backdrop of the rise of Nazi party in 1930s. Most fled Europe for America. Turned against America and returned to Germany.
2. Set terms of debate and analysis of mass culture theory. Heavily based on reaction to pre-war popular music in Germany and post-war American popular music.
3. Main members – Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcus, Benjamin.4. Were reacting against:
• Enlightenment – idea of scientific rational progress. Saw uses of science as a threat to human freedom. Against America with its use of the culture industry to control the minds and actions of people.
• Marxism – unlike Marx they put the spotlight on cultural institutions in society. filled in bits Marx missed out. Reason for no global revolution was that people were given the sop of mass culture – noT keep them pacified.
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Message-centered theories
• Focus on media content• How the media messages are produced, how they
are ‘coded’ and ‘decoded’ by the audiences• Build a bridge between sociology, political
science and humanities
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Theories of audience and effect• These theories are concerned with the levels
and kinds of media effects (intended and unintended, short-term and long-term), individual and collective reactions (persuasion theories), socialization, media campaignes, news diffusion etc.
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Interdependences between media and society 1
Society produces:
• the demands for information and entertainment to which media respond
• the resources of money and time needed for the growth of media industries
• the technological innovations and inventions on which media industries are based
• the socio-cultural climate in which the media operate
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Interdependences between media and society 2
Mass media:
• stimulates societal development and change• accelerates the demands for its own services
(information and entertainment)• contributes to the socio-cultural climate in which
it operates (esp. political freedom)• diffuses new ideas and innovations
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‘normative theories’ of mass media and society
• Authoritarian theory• Democratic participant media theory• Development media theory• Free press theory• Social responsibility theory• Soviet media theory
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Authoritarian theory• media should do nothing which could undermine
established authority• media should always (or ultimately) be subordinate
to established authority• media should avoid offence to majority, or
dominant, moral and political values (NB! What was said about the dominant values in a class society?)
• censorship can be justified to enforce these principles
• attacks on authority, deviations from official policy or offences against moral codes should be criminal offences.
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Democratic participant media theory• focuses on the needs, interests and aspirations
of a ‘receiver’ in a political society• the rights to relevant information, to answer
back, to use the means of communication for interaction in small scale settings
• favours multiplicity, smallness of scale, locality, deinstitutionalization, interchange of sender-receiver roles, interaction
• media institutions are in control of their audiences
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Development media theory• media should accept and carry out positive development tasks
in line with nationally established policy• freedom of the media should be open to restriction according
to (1) economic priorities and (2) development needs of society
• media should give priority in their content to the national culture and language
• media should give priority in news and information to links with other developing countries
• journalists and other media workers have both responsibilities and freedoms in their information gathering and dissemination tasks in the interests of development ends, the state has a right to restrict or intervene in media operations
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Social responsibility theory• media should accept and fulfil certain obligations to society• the media should set high standards of informativeness, truth,
accuracy, objectivity and balance = professional standards;• the media should be self-regulating within the framework of law
and established insitutions• the media should avoid whatever should lead to crime, violance
or civil disorder or give offence to ethnic or religious minorities• the media should be pluralist and reflect the diversity of society• society and the public have a right to expect high standards of
performance • intervention can be justified to secure public good
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Free press theory• publishing should be free from any prior censorship • publication and distribution should be open to anybody
without permit or licence• attack through the media on any government, official or
political party should not be punishable, even after the event
• there should be no compulsion to publish anything• in matters of opinion and belief publication of ‘error’ is
protected equally with that of truth• no legal restriction should be placed on the collection of
information for publication• there should be no restriction on export or import or
sending or receiving ‘messages’ across national frontiers
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Criticism of the Free press theory
• applicability to public broadcasting is not clear• applicability to other communication spheres
(education, culture, the arts) is not clear• the theory has not much to say on ‘information’• seems to protect first of all the interests of
press owners• no indication to how to handle market pressures