Joseph Mamja

P.1

Media Studies Theories & Approaches to Text Summary

Representation follows political economy in being about media power; however, representation
is less about the power of capitalist media production and more about the power of the media to make
meaning of what gets produced. Basically, representation is the process of depicting real things, people,
places, events and so on. Most of the world will only have meaning for us through media
representation. Britain cultural theorist Stuart Hall points out that real meanings are never fixed, but
they are always contested. Our own interpretations of the world draw so greatly from media, but reality
is always a matter of personal experience and interpretation. Because in our societies we are very
similar, our shared culture leads us towards shared understands of the meanings we interpret. Semiotics
which is the study of signs is a method for finding the meaning of representation. Semiotics assumes
there is no direct relationship between the real world and the language we use to represent it.
According to semiotics, meanings are always linguistically constructed. In particular, media
representations make a contribution to myth making. Representation is no longer just a distortion of the
real world in which people of different cultures, colors, shapes, and sizes live in; it is now ideological. All
ideologies contain a common set of values, beliefs, and ideas. Unacceptable meanings and
representations may challenge the roots of an ideology, though usually they are simply rejected. Judith
Williamson, a British critic claims that ideology of advertising is to empower us, so we buy into the
products. Italian political theorist Antonio Gramsci concept of hegemony captures the struggle between
powerful and subordinate groups in society. Hegemony assumes an uneasy working relationship
between the different classes, with certain concessions and freedoms given by the rulers of the world.
Gramscian theorists would believe that the media does provide some scope of alternative views and
voices, but they marginalize these alternative opinions by ultimately reinforcing the values and ideas of
media elites. Hall claims that there is a professional code that serves to maintain the political and
economic status quo. Although Hall believes the dominant code prevails most of the time, his model is
at flexible enough for the occasional moments of consumer power and resistance amid this outgoing
struggle. The hegemonic battle over media representation is also intensified by stereotyping. For
example, young women encounter conservative feminine representations in magazines that tell him to
not challenge accepted views or not to explore alternative lifestyles, identities, or sexualities. Hall also
claims that ethnic minorities are continually misrepresented by racial stereotypes. Historically
westerners have had the power to develop their own representations of the Orient and seen from their
perspectives, which have become sources of wider knowledge.

Postmodernism rejects the idea that there is any authentic reality or way of representing.
Postmodernism files in the face of the realist assumption that there is a real world out there that can be
represented by the media and other cultural forums. Postmodernism is marked by the loss of
representative reality in a cloud of media-saturated imagery, simulation, and nostalgia. Prior to
postmodernism, modernism was a period of experimental and “high culture” from about 1890 to 1940.
The modernist movement sought to protect individuality against capitalist inspired mass culture by
anointing an elite group of artists and intellectuals who championed the very best of art and culture.
Postmodernism embraces all things popular and refutes the modernist separation of high from mass
culture. Postmodernism culture is about the spectacle of images, style over substance, medium over
matter, anonymity over first person narrative, disposability over longevity, present and present day over
past traditions. Probably the most important feature of postmodern media culture is the omnipresence
of visual images. American historian Daniel J Boorstin argues that the image, which is easy to produce
and distribute, is the currency behind a “Graphic Revolution.” Boorstin suggests that image based news
media falsely represent people, places, and events. Boorstin suggests the preponderance of pseudo-
events has spawned false celebrities. Real heroes of our past such as Babe Ruth and Florence
Nightingale have been replaced by manufactured, image conscious stars without talent or ability.
According to American literacy critic Fredric Jameson, postmodernism media culture differs from
modernism in its celebration of intertextuality. In fact, pastiche is so typical in contemporary culture that
we have entered a postmodern age which finds it more difficult to trace its history and origins.
Postmodern culture has lost its sense of the past and has become romanticized by representations of
history clouded by nostalgia. The real authentic, past has therefore become lost in a sea of phony media
versions of history. “hyperreality” is the idea that today’s media-saturated culture has generated
simulations of the real world that replace authentic representations of reality. The real America is now a
hyperreal flood of media imagery disconnected from the authentically real, but now unattainable United
States of America. According to Jean Baurdrillard, the Gulf War did not take place, because it was won
by the mighty American military before it had even started. The lasting memory of this war for most
people were screened images showing US pilots pinpointing and then blowing up Iraqi targets from
miles above land. This is not a war in the sense of a prolonged combat and conflict; it is merely a virtual
war, like a video-game simulation. Baudrillard also argues that the 9/11 disaster was not a real event for
those who have witnessed it on TV because the fascination of the attack is the primarily the fascination
with the image. The image consumes the event, in the sense that it absorbs and offers it for
consumption. According to French literacy theorist Jean-Francois Lyotard, postmodern media culture
has led to the loss of credibility of grand theories and ideas, or what he calls “metanarratives.” Lyotard
claims that metanarratives are declined partly due to global communication technologies that have led
to the commodity production of knowledge.

A significant media studies corollary to postmodernism is known as the information society

thesis, which recently has mutated into a rather more scar theory of a surveillance society. According to
American futurist Alvin Toffler in the Third Wave, most Western countries have passed through two
waves (agricultural) and (industrial) and since the 1950s and have entered a third wave of information
society. The third wave is resulting in the de-massified media according to Tuffler. The mass media that
has prevailed in the the second wave is all about a small batch in the third wave. Toffler suggests that
the refined narrowcast model of the third wave society explains why opinions of everything ranging
from pop culture to politics are becoming less uniform and more different. Our thirst for information
grows because we need more of it to forecast how others will behave and how we will respond to their
behavior. American sociologist Daniel Bell argues that technology has transformed our social
relationships and ways of looking at the world; in which increasing human control over nature and
transforming economic productivity. Five positive outcomes of this theory are: living standards
throughout the world have been raised, a new class of skilled engineers and technicians have been
created, a definition of rationality in the sense of efficiency and optimization, new social networks have
been formed, and perception of time and space have been altered as information becomes fast-moving
and highly compressed. Post-industrial society is also characterized by an expansion in scientific and
technological advancements. Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells takes issue with optimistic outlooks on
the information society. Castells considers the informational economy as overlapping and penetrating
agricultural and industrial economics rather than replacing them. Castells also argues that information
that flows through a global economy are uneven and don’t reach all pars of the world. So it only works
for the wealthier nations who benefit one another through their technological systems of
interconnected global financial markets. Instead of creating new types of work, information led societies
create new types of employment that are less secure and more fragile. Globalization of information
through media and communications of technologies is still a distant ideal for Castell’s network society.
According to American sociologist George Ritzer, globalization means “McDonaldisation.” Or rather
global media and information industries try the same structures and practices of production as
McDonalds. For Ritzer, globalization means homogenous production, tasteless consumption, and an
empty stomach. The surveillance-society approach treats information and knowledge as root causes of
social control and inequalities. Michael Foucault suggests language is used in divisive ways by powerful
groups so that their preferred representations of the world are internalized by the rest of society, who
in turn accept their governance. Panopticons can be embedded in the media as well as prisons and
other powerful institutions. Exponents of surveillance society argue that good people with nothing to
hide having nothing to worry about; it is only the criminals.

Moral panics are closely tied to the problems of surveillance societies. Moral panics are not
present-day phenomena, but they are embedded in the history of humankind itself. These panics are
generally not widespread or accurately reported by the media. According to American sociologist moral
panics are premised on the idea that people’s actions are judged and labelled by the reactions of others.
Labelling is a process that we all part take, even though labels were not invented by the media, they
certainly influence them. According to the theory known as “manufacture-of-news”, news is always
artificially constructed out of bits of reality, even when it claims to present events through the lens of
objectivity. Because news is a commodity to be bought and sold, news needs its sales appeal. According
to the manufacture of news theory, the media works against the public interest in which they claim to
represent. South African sociologist Stan Cohen adapted the labelling theory and the deviance
amplification model to the study of what he called “moral panics.” Cohen showed how the moral panic
provoked by the skirmishes between mods and rockers on the beaches of southern England labelled he
perpetrators of this violence as “folk devils.” Censorship is the restriction and suppression of free
speech. Regulation are attempts to set up control over what is said or shown without engaging in actual
suppression. Censorship most often occurs in politics and religion. However, censorship of the media is a
way of life in China. Burma, Iran, and North Korea. All Chinese websites require a government license
and all web content is carefully filtered by the government officials. The government even convinced
major companies like Google and Yahoo to censor the results of on search engines. Censorship and
regulation are typical responses to moral panics about media effects.

“Celebrity Culture” has become a cliché to describe today’s obsession with fame and the
famous. However, celebrity is nothing new. Alexander the Great and William Shakespeare were both
celebrities. There is also a huge history of celebrity fandom. One of the most important changes that has
brought celebrities in the forefront of media culture is the decline of religion. In old times the highest
celebrities were biblical figures, but then monarchs began replacing them with themselves. Celebrities
were needed in the 20th century to promote products and become “ambassadors.” Individuals who
achieve fame thanks to some special talent or gift are said to possess charisma. Charisma is a form of
political leadership that achieves consensus without the need for bureaucratic structures according to
Max Weber. Freud claims the mind works on three drives: the id, ego, and superego. According to
British sociologist Chris Rojek there are three times of celebrities: ascribed celebrity, achieved celebrity,
and attributed celebrity. Stars may also become adorned with charisma. Stars take on meanings both in
who they are and the characters they perform. Dyer suggests three ways in which a star’s image is
constructed for the sake of authenticity and versatility; selective use, perfect fit, and problematic fit.
However, stars and celebrities are manufactured illusions. When people come face to face with a
famous media personality, people are often shocked to see the differences from the televised
personality and their momentary personality. An important media studies approach to audiences
focuses on the role of fans. Fans are vital commodities for media industries and for the careers of
celebrities. American literacy theorist Henry Jenkins strongly defends fan practices as meaningful,
creative, and productive. Jenkins argues that “fans actively assert their mastery over the mass-produced
texts which provide the raw materials for their own cultural productions and the basis for their social
interactions.”

Narrative and genre are highly constructed and manufactured even though they appear not to
be. Narrative styles and generic categories are drawn to encourage audiences to identify with the type
of film or music being pitched at them. English poet Rudyard Kipling created a news formula in 1902 that
what, where, when, how, why and who. Journalists have followed this narrative model since its
inception. These 6 questions construct the framework for everyday conversations with our friends and
acquaintances. The term “classic realism” is associated primarily with nineteenth-century novel. English
novelists Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy are generally regarded as classic novelists. Classic realism
represents reality with the guidance of a unified, continuous and ever present narrative voice. There are
two main types of media narrative: “open” and “closed.” Open narratives are continuous and have no
certain ending. Closed narratives have a clear beginning, middle, and end, like most films and pop songs.
Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp identifies eight character roles serving narrative functions: the villain,
the hero, the donor, the helper, the princess, the father, the dispatcher, and the false hero. A genre is a
body of individual products that share certain things in common. Genre theory assumes that media and
cultural productions work in groups or categories to generate collective meanings. Genres that clearly
emerge out of common interests among producers and consumers are called “genre communities.”

As 21st century digital media have come to replace the old, opportunities for interactivity
between producers and consumers have multiplied. Digital media like mobile phones, digital cameras,
internet applications, mp3 music players, DAB radios and digital TV are what the term “new media”
refer to. Convergence has several meanings in media studies, but in terms of media economics and
ownership it means large scale vertical integration in which different industries work together under a
major company such as Timer Warner. Ownership of the most popular websites has increasingly fallen
into the hands of major corporations on top of that. Convergence has occurred in media production,
distribution, and consumption. According to Jay David Bolter, an American media theorist, new media
“remediates” old media. Media only becomes new when they can provide something genuinely
different from what has already existed. The web has also changed direction in the early 21st century.
The web has altered the view of cinema for good. By 2004, the web 2.0 revolution kicked into gear. This
allowed ordinary people to write and publish content. The web 2.0 opened the door to a new choice led
by consumers that set the model for the 21st century media and entertainment industries. However, not
everyone has liked this. Andrew Keen, an American internet critic, argues that today’s media is
shattering the truth, blogs are propaganda, YouTube is a site of anarchy, Wikipedia reflects the wisdom
of the mob, and so on. A citizen journalist does not work for a news organization or have any training
media production, but they were made possible through web 2.0. Through citizen journalism new
information and insight has been made possible especially during the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 7/7
London attacks. With the expansion of the internet, many mediums have been opened and it has
allowed us to access many things from journalism to even pirating music.

Book Critique

Throughout reading this book I was introduced to new insights and ways of thinking of
things. Prior to reading this book, I pretty much took everything at face value when it came to the
media. Many things that I did not understand about the media where explained in this book. Also, a lot
of questions have risen especially over the credibility and legitimacy over the media. Further, I did not
know that they were so many theories related to media. I was surprised to find out that people had
actually made theories and basing them off other things and criticized other things. Some of the theories
in this book seemed optimistic but a good amount of them seemed pessimistic as well. Lots of things
were explained in this book that I didn’t even know a single thing about like Web 2.0, the medium is the
message, political economy, and so on. This book has definitely got me thinking and I probably won’t
view media the same again. Instead of just taking it at face value, I will definitely be thinking when I
consume media.