Transcript Snímek 1

The social function
of mass media
Ing. Jiří Šnajdar
2012
Four theories of the press
The American Commission for press liberty from the year 1947 initiated
the work of Siebert, Schramm a Peterson, who in the book Four theories
of press described 4 classes of media theory:
1.theory of social responsibility of press - role of watchdog of
democracy;
2. liberal theory – based on respecting of free will. It comes out from the
basic principle of classical liberalism, free market of ideas, where the
best would be acknowledged and the worst would be banished.
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3. authoritarian theory – can justify the censorship potentiation and
punishment dispensation for rules-breaking, which made political elite.
Dictatorships, military regimes, foreign occupations. Clear assignments
for press liberty and protection of established social order;
4. soviet theory – assigned to media the role of collective agitator,
propagandist and cultivator at communism increase. (Marx, Engels and
Lenin). The main principle is media subordination to one party.
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In practice was never the enforce of press liberty straightforward. For
libertarian theory is difficult to deal with extreme situations as are war
and revolution.
The press liberty was in many contexts Identified with proprietary rights.
Naturally arises conflict between negative and positive (confirming)
conception of press liberty. The first sees the press liberty as absence of
any reduction, the other adds some targets and utilities, that fall to
owners of the press. (Conflict owner - versus journalist)
Critics of 4 theories theories as a product of its time and idelogy, but
influenced education of whole generations of journalists and media
specialists.
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The newest theory of 3 models: of the first, second and third world. But
also this is empirically refuted, see events in Northern Africa.
Mass media
to mass media ascribed the main guilt for “massification “ of society
decay of old well-established merits
media influence inner (intimate) world of an individual
assumption, that mass media create society incompetent to resist the
manipulators.
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Toronto school and Herbert Marshall McLuhan
The Toronto “mediological” school, established by Canadian historian
Herold M. Innis, searches the connection between progress of human
civilisation and means of interpersonal communication. Innis comes out
from the conception, that each king of communication moves the
humanity to certain society organisation. (Communication progress
according to predominant media).
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The Canadian philosopher, literary scholar and the most important
representative on Toronto school Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) went in
for consideration how using of different media changes the human´s life
(as a media he considers everything what somehow intensifies, enlarges
the humans´ possibilities to grasp the world, and this by movement and
also sensual cognition).
The book is opened with the chapter called media is a message, where
the author presents the idea, that each media, each technology brings
into humans´ matters new criterion and this is the message that gives an
account of a person and of a society.
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McLuhan used for the first time the expression „global village“ as a
metaphor for the society, which using of different media brings closer
together. Marking „global village“ started to use most in the ninetieth
with using of computer networks and interactive interconnection of users
in the whole world. At present claim to this tradition some social
scientists.
The Toronto school is the example of interpretation of society
development on the base of medial determinism. Changes in society are
interpreted on the base of changes of communication methods.
McLuhan divides media in :
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Hot media: Low participation of recipient, bigger effects on audience –
radio, film, lecture, book. They are marked out for high data completing
and so they do not require an intensive participation from the side of
recipient. The hot media pull the person fast and suggestive into itself,
i.e. into its world of media activities.
Cold media: High participation of recipient, less effects on audience –
telephone, television, speech, seminar, discussion.
Media can be appointed as hot or cold only relatively, in comparison with
one media and other on the base of their data completing and rate of
recipient´s participation.
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Birmingham school
In the sixtieth years of the 20th century was at the University in British
Birmingham established postgraduate and research centre for current
cultural studies.
From the original interest in “live” culture of different society groups and
classes gradually came to – mainly in the time period 1968-1979, when
the in the head was Stuart Hall – that the big part of its interest is
concentrated on mass media and on the fields which are connected with
behaviour and influence of mass media.
The special attention give his protagonists to behaviour of young people,
formation of subcultures, education, racial and ethnic questions and
gender.
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Further progress in the eightieth years meant especially movement from
analysis of media announcement to cultivation of so called history of
everyday.
The Birmingham school in the mind of critical social science
characterised media especially as ideological and hegemony institutions
and dedicates to relations among media and “popular culture”, which
they understand as a space, where can be enforced demands of
marginalised and omitted groups in the society.
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Frankfurt school
A group of theoreticians connected with Institut für Sozialforschung
from Frankfurt am Main, which worked out from neo-Marxist positions
number of accesses to mass media, re-defined the meaning of the term
culture (culture in the Frankfurter meaning is understood as an integral
part of capitalist system (status quo), which helps to maintain and
reproduce by continual multiplying of its pictures, creating and
consequential satisfying of false needs, technological rationality and
homogeneity on one side, displacing so called value rationality and
possibility of opinioned choice and weakening of critical distance on the
other side) and its spiritual bequest belongs to critical theory of society
and media.
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At the beginning there was an effort to analyse reasons of failure of
expectations for revolution social changeover, which affects first the
developed industrial societies and which the Marx preached as
unavoidable.
Members of the group associated most the critical approach to current
society and operating of its institutions, alike as merciless criticism of
reproduction conditions of prevailing society.
Founders of Frankfurter school were Max Horkheimer and Theodor W.
Adorno, presented are also Walter Benjamin and from after war
generation J. Habermas.
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Formation and progress of mass culture connected the representatives
of this school with the phenomenon of cultural industry – mass
industrial production of goods appointed to consumption in the free time,
using for enforcing in the market and profit cumulation also displays
originally issuing from the artistic sphere.
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Denis McQuail
McQuail sorted the typology of interpersonal communication into so
called pyramid of communication and showed two facts :
from view of complexity of communication processes is the wholesociety (and then also medial) communication the most complex.
from view of frequency of communication processes has the human the
most experiences with intra personnel communication, while the cases of
whole-society communication is less.
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McQuail Pyramid of communication :
Whole-society (medial)
Institutional/organisation
Between groups (communication between organised groups/sport
teams)
Group communication (cell/family)
Inter personnel communication (inner-2 to 3 persons/dyadic or triadic)
Intra personnel communication (with myself)
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McQuail formulated also seven basic attributes of mass communication:
a) it is an activity, which usually requires existence of complex
organisation with formalised inner connections of competencies and
responsibilities and legally supported existence;
b) activity of these organisations is aimed to very large groups of
recipients;
c) results of this activity are openly accessible – i.e. products are openly
accessible to everybody and distribution is (except original offer)
altogether non-structured and informal;
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d) set-up of audience is heterogeneous;
e) mass media can concurrently enter into contact with large number of
people, being in large distance from the source and mutually divided;
f) relationship between communicator and audience secures a
professional, who is known to the audience only in his public role of
communicator;
g) audience is an aggregate of individuals connected together with
mutual interest.
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Umberto Eco and levels of mass culture :
•
•
•
•
Eco divides together with other theoreticians (Arendt, Macdonald)
the culture in :
High cult: high culture (elite)
Mid cult: middle (mass, according to Eco the worst) – Uses means of
low culture, but makes look like high culture. (Eco considers Mid cult
for anti-culture).
Low cult: low culture. (Comics, tabloids – do not play anything, are
ingenuous and represent itself as they are – they stand up for its
“lowly” what mid cult does not do).
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He comes from assumption that the mass culture is a product of media
and asserts, that the cultural industry started to develop already from
Gutenberg. Eco idealistically believes in the change, in an active
interference of cultural solidarity, in mass media reform via cultural
workers. A part of such reform should be also regulation of contents.
Arguments are among others publishers, that in addition to mass
production propagate a quality literary culture.
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Neil Postman: To entertain to death; public communication in the
age of entertainment .
Postman differentiates the epoch of press and television. He considers
“The age of television” for an absurd age of entertainment, in which all
culture changed in trivial entertainment.
“This book deals with the possibility, that Orwell was not right, but
Huxley”, writes in the introduction of his book Neil Postman. “Our politics,
religion, reporting, sport, education and business” writes the author,
“changed into homogenous supplement of entertainment, without any
public protests or any reactions.
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Consequently we slowly fall into a danger that we will entertain to
death. What entertains us so much and together “gets down” is
television. In television communication namely predominates visual
imagery, which means that the television accosts us through pictures,
not words.
Put stress on quickness and briefness, the own content of information is
deformed. To keep the viewers must the television present the
information in such way that the viewer would be amused. The result is
the most amused person who spends a lot time watching TV but gets the
less knowledge.
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This trend was in America obvious already from the time, when Kennedy
won the vote thank to television discussion, where he knocked the rival
candidate Richard Nixon with his own image and charm, also not with
arguments. Globalisation of culture is then mainly invasion of American
iconography, doing through new media.
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