For more information
Call 1-800-351-0222
Call 1-800-351-0222
MEDIA RESEARCH.
Term Paper ID:23428
Essay Subject:
Analyzes social theories (Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Chomsky) related to studies on impact of media forms & content on cultural consciousness.... More...
13 Pages / 2925 Words
21 sources, 20 Citations,
APA Format
$52.00
More Papers on This Topic
Paper Abstract:
Analyzes social theories (Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Chomsky) related to studies on impact of media forms & content on cultural consciousness.
Paper Introduction:
The purpose of this research is to examine the research methods and theoretical emphases of studies of media forms. The plan of the research will be to set forth theoretical tensions that appear to arise between competing paradigms of media-form research, noting the various assumptions that various theories impose on their practitioners, and then to discuss how the research methods and theoretical emphasis of ethnographers, which focus on social relations, social context, and social meaning, might contribute to a new understanding of cultural forms on one hand and to a reformulation of theoretical frameworks usually applied in the study of media forms and practices on the other.
To study media forms might seem like a relatively straightforward enterprise, with analysis and research varying most prominently with the medium under consideration. But this is simpl
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
Cultural studies and the prospects for amulticultural materialism. Theproblem with trying to consolidate multicultural awareness is that it tendsto reduce real understanding, with the result that the supposed knowledgegained by such awareness is standardized and universalized--a logicalcontradiction. Social-theory frameworks thatfocus on political economy, traditionally associated with Marxism, havebeen a feature of media research for decades, although since the collapseof the Soviet system in 1989, analyses using this model have shiftedsomewhat. Disciplinary background,political affinities, social groups, and so on of researchers engaged instudying media forms inevitably influence the emphasis, assumptions, orconclusions in a given study. G. Audience models have sought tomeasure the connection between presentational medium and its target invarious ways, with a view toward refining understanding of social groups ortypes. Luke's own emphasis is on feminist pedagogy anincludes advocacy of elevating subjective analysis and (feminist) culturalidentification in a way that would oblige the mainstream culture to takeappropriate account of a hitherto unacknowledged social experience andworld view. It appears that theorists of political economy persist in taking theircue from Marx. (1994, Summer). J. This is why Herman (1992)says that it is necessary to "decode" (for example) the nightly news, withsome understanding of the factors that determine presentation of facts, andso in some sense also determine the facts themselves. Thus for example a million-dollar sale of a mythical book titled (say)How to Be Your Own Best Friend could conceivably be attributed to acorporate media entity's commercial appeal to mass-market sensibilities--all of it perfectly consistent with political economy theory. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. (1987, Summer). One assumption about media forms that these studies share is that massmedia are extraordinarily powerful. In other words, mediaanalysis appears to be an attribute of social, psychological, economic, andpolitical theory, and there is abundant evidence in the literature thatmedia forms are understood with reference to these theories, singly or incombination. Guy, T. Viser, V. Media, Audience, andSocial Structure. Hanna, J. Necessary illusions: thought control in democraticsocieties. Through it all, argues Chomsky (writing prior to the Sovietcollapse), there persists a presumption of the superiority of Westerndemocracies and an anticommunist stance. New York: Pantheon Books. Of special importance to media-form study inrecent years has been the decline of the Soviet system and the implicationsfor Marxist political and social analysis. 47-59. A similar argument makes sense with regard to audience models ofsocial analysis. The anticommunist line of argument might appear to weaken the extentto which Chomsky's and Herman's analysis can be applied as a theoreticalprinciple to media studies--not because the media are not anticommunist butrather because the issue has in some sense been defused as an ideologicalflash point with the collapse of the Soviet system. Barlow and others (1995) look at the connection between mass-media reportage of crime and social conditions, concluding from an analysisof crime news in Time Magazine that such news is principally ideological innature. Nevertheless, mass media, whether textbooks or televisionor radio or newspapers or school curricula, will affect and be affected bythe process. Interaction with mass media: the importanceof rhythm and tempo. Thompson and Tyagi (1993) assert that conservativemedia have created a hostile environment to what they characterize asprogressive multiculturalist attitudes in education. It is a curious and complicating ambiguitythat what may conveniently be called multicultural theorists appear to beless concerned with sorting out the multiple nature of a multiculturalenvironment than with asserting a valid claim to mainstream-cultureacknowledgment, recognition, and granting of status to cultures orsubcultures that may have been marginalized. Thus if one enterprise of media-form study is to understand(say) the social or political (or both) implications of media or the usesto which media are put, another and no less significant enterprise is tosee how media forms influence the understanding of persons, groups, orinstitutions in society on one hand, or to see how persons, groups, orinstitutions influence media on the other. It must be added that the diverse conclusions of various studiessuggest the difficulty of coming up with one single theory that can accountfor the many media-related issues that amplified cultural consciousness hasraised in recent years. L. Boston: South End Press. This is analysisfiltered through the assumption that mass media are fundamentallypropagandistic and at some level engaged deliberately in limiting protestand dissent. P. (1993, July-August). Boston: Allyn and Bacon Inc., 1985. Citing Georg Simmel's concept of social structures,Snow says that rhythm and tempo of presentational media forms amplify or atany rate affect audience responses, perception of meaning, and socialinteraction more generally leading him to argue for the importance of whathe calls the study of "inflection in media formats" (1987, p. Media, Audience, andSocial Structure. J. He refers to the "culture" ofelectronic communication, noting the idiosyncratic internal logic andgrammar of computer-based telecommunications and telecommunicators, whichaffect and are affected by "cyberspace" media. Death Studies,17, 27-54. (1993, January-February). Viser agrees,asserting that consumerism itself is something of a culture and that self-perception is arrived at because of the "ever-increasing ubiquity ofmaterialist messages found in mass communication" (Viser, 1994, p. & Cantor, M. Public ownership of the means of production implies theconception of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Marxist socialideal. Feminist pedagogy and critical media literacy.Journal of Communication Inquiry, 18, 3 -47. Thus media have both democratizingand fragmentalizing potential. From inflection in media formats, it is but a short step toconsidering the form of media as such as a framework for or indeed mode ofsocial analysis. The plan of the researchwill be to set forth theoretical tensions that appear to arise betweencompeting paradigms of media-form research, noting the various assumptionsthat various theories impose on their practitioners, and then to discusshow the research methods and theoretical emphasis of ethnographers, whichfocus on social relations, social context, and social meaning, mightcontribute to a new understanding of cultural forms on one hand and to areformulation of theoretical frameworks usually applied in the study ofmedia forms and practices on the other. Sociological_theory:classical_statements. New York: Aldine de Gruyter. (1994, August). L., & Snow, R. New York: The Free Press. & Cantor, M.G. (1985). Ed. Thompson, B. (1986). Snow, R. Dialectical Anthropology, 19, 1 9-127. Ball-Rokeach, S. Shaw-Taylor, Y., & Benokraitis, N. (1988). G. The question of how the culture as a whole andsubcultures within the whole are going to be defined inevitably enters intothis rethinking and dismantling process, irrespective of ignorant talk-radio polemics. (1986). Advertising in the age ofhypersignification. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, Inc. In this regard, Altheide (1989) explores features of themass media as a kind of social culture. The power of a communications medium to affect social responses andattitudes has long been acknowledged. 38). Lynch, F. On the other hand, theMarxist conception of how society is structured appears to be useful inexplaining how strongly economics influences attitudes and modes of actioneither represented by or perceived in media forms. References Altheide, D. Manufacturing consent: thepolitical economy of the mass media. His conception of the division of labor departs from that of Marx.In a complex society, he argues, no single person or group can provide forall its wants and needs. Rethinking and dismantling of the academy is obviously a difficulttask, and it extends well beyond the educational environment. On one hand, mass media forms fostered social consensus, but onthe other they glossed over social problems associated with race, sex, orthe environment. 39). (1993, April). The purpose of this research is to examine the research methods andtheoretical emphases of studies of media forms. & Papson, S. S., & Chomsky, N. (1964). J. & Cantor, M. Beyond hypocrisy: decoding the news in an age ofpropaganda. The strategyfor studying media varies not only with the media in question but also withthe theories that inform the strategy, owing to the social and politicalcharacter of media forms in the modern period. Altheide, D. P. The point is that theneed for an understanding of the inside of a culture seems as crucial as aneed for understanding the socioeconomic external structure of society,where the connection between media and society is concerned. The division of labor, he says, "is no longerconsidered only a social institution that has its source in theintelligence and will of men [Marx's view], but is no more than aparticular form of this general process; and societies, in conforming tothat law, seem to be yielding to a movement that was born before them, andthat similarly governs the entire world" (Durkheim, 1964, p. But this is simply not the case. Many culture-specific studies are available in theliterature, and as a group they appear to seek an understanding of theimplications for a specific social group and for the understanding ofsociety as a whole of that group, relative to the form or content that acommunications medium may assume. Goldman and Papson call this a crisis of meaning because it ismeaning that has been manipulated in the advertisers' favor. Thus advertisers seek to reinforce theirsocial preferences, making their products symbols or "signs" of suchpreferences. The effect is to insulate themedia audience from the truth or to shape the truth in line with thedesires of those in control of media production. ix), which appears Durkheimian in its formulation, but rather as anunderstanding of the culture, including its media forms, that implies acritique of that culture. G.Simpson. Austin, TX: The University of Texas Press. (1984). Tangential to the sociology of culture is the question of culturalstudies as such. In otherwords, not all audience responses have to do with the medium ofpresentation but with factors that individual or group audience membersbring to such presentations. Durkheimgives the name mechanical solidarity to this dynamic, with societyachieving in common what amounts to an agreement about the proper characterof society. The confluence of social and political theory can be seen in certainanalyses of media forms. Beverly Hills,Calif.: SAGE Publications, Inc. L. Corporate media andadvertiser institutions alike are either subject to government control orengaged in cooperation with government institutions. J. Introduction. Culture and social structure--which involves everything from kinshipties, forms of external social organization, integration of social groups,and representation of alien cultures in the mainstream--would appear tohave a stake in how media forms are addressed and interpreted. Goldman and Papson (1994) explain the power ofmass-media advertising to achieve broad-based social influence and indeedto control sanctioned social behavior by, as it were, creating meanings inthe service of normative culture. Meanwhile, he says, the endorsement--and subsequentquestioning--on the part of mass media "elites" of multiculturalism, ethnicidentity, and self-censorship to avoid being labeled racist has confusedand divided the culture, even as such mass-media phenomena as talk radioand talk television have provided broad-based platforms to what mightotherwise be marginal constituencies. In this regard, the sociology (rather than the ideology) of culturehas emerged as an interpretive framework. A sense of the basis for the importance of these theories to mediaresearch can be derived from a brief look at their fundamental points vis-à-vis social theory. The division of labor in society. Meanwhile,through market research the media themselves are engaged in gauging publicresponses in various ways, always with a view toward minimizing negativeresponse. Ashley, D., & Orenstein, D. Rethinking Marxism, 5, 78-87. Beverly Hills,Calif.: Sage Publications, Inc. Chomsky (1989) elaborates on this with respect to democraticsocieties, using the term "thought control" to say that the way in whichthe media present information reflects a whole range of social and economicfacts that may not be apparent but that are nonetheless real, and that havethe effect of controlling perceptions and attitudes. (1994, May). Media worlds in thepostjournalism era. The tensionbetween the sociology of culture and political economy arises from the factthat neither approach to media by itself accounts for the unresolveddetails that surface when the other looks at the big picture. The dictionary ofcultural literacy: what every American needs to know. Exploratory study of elementary-agedchildren's conceptions of death through the use of story. V. Whose consensus?Society, 3 , 36-4 . The presentationof minorities in marriage and family textbooks. The menu of media research. But this apparently insoluble difficultymay really be just the obverse of the problem cited with respect to thelimitations of Marxist, Weberian, and Durkheimian economic theories.Therefore, it seems that economic as well as more ambiguous cultural forcesneed to be taken into account where analysis of media forms is concerned. & Cantor, M. Thus, too, can the media exacerbate thedifference between a civil and uncivil pluralistic society and widen gapbetween what Lynch refers to as public and private realms of thought. Further to this point, Schudson(1986) identifies what he terms neo-Weberian, neo-Marxist, neo-Durkheimiantheories that have been employed to study media, noting that eachtheoretical approach reaches limits beyond which it cannot account forempirical anomalies; he advocates theoretical collaboration, which canstrengthening future analytical and interpretative efforts in this area. (1992, Spring). Further, onewonders whether the theoretical or practitioner difficulties encountered bymulticultural curriculum development can be entirely attributed to hostileconservative media. This is difficult to resolvefrom a cultural standpoint alone, for one suspects that when competingtheories of culture run up against one another in analyzing media, theirassertions present an insurmountable obstacle of partiality. Stakes are higher whenpolitics and culture combine to form subcultures of (say) ethnicminorities, white supremacists, or AIDS patients. M. For example, Robinson and Fink (1986) found culturalexplanations for different subgroup responses to a survey of participationin and appreciation of different kinds of music, with blacks and whites forexample tending to prefer different musical performance styles. For a culturallypluralistic and inclusive educational philosophy to persist, they say, theentire hierarchical conception of curriculum, as well as of the educationalexperience itself, has to be rethought and indeed dismantled; an entirelynew sociology of education must be built. The performer-audience connection: emotion tometaphor in dance and society. Marx holds that there is a constant struggle oralienation between the individual and the society in which he findshimself, in particular between the laboring and capital classes: "Accordingto Marx, in all types of societies the social regulation of labor is thefoundation and basis of the organization of human experience" (Ashley &Orenstein, 1985, p. Further, there may be interdisciplinary orindeed intertheoretical overlap and convergence of approach, as evidencedin the wide array of premises that has conditioned academic media-formstudies in recent years. Ed. Communication Quarterly, 35, 225-237. But politicaleconomy theory cannot by itself be used to explain a million-dollar sale ofa mythical book titled (say) How to Skin a Deer; some understanding of asubculture of deer hunters must come into play here. There seems to be a built-in tension to cultural-studies theorizing,between the claims of culture-specific partiality and the claims of astructured culture as a whole. Teaching Sociology, 21, 192-196. What could be calledthe "econocentrism" of Marxist theory does not account for social andcultural perceptions that are either outside or marginal to money and classmatters. Theory, Culture & Society, 11, 23-53. G. Thus the individual derives significance by his or herassociation with social groups or subgroups. In other words, byfailing to address capitalist control of economic opportunity, the crimereportage is incomplete. This leads to the complex division of labor:"Occupations are infinitely separated and specialized, not only inside thefactories, but each product is itself a specialty dependent upon others"(Durkheim, 1964, p. Goldman, R. 287-99. Herman, E. Anunderstanding of the culture in which or from which media-oriented behavioroccurs, and what factors about the medium in question condition thatbehavior seems as essential to understanding the behavior as the fact ofthe behavior itself. A host of culture-specific constituencies appear to have their own advocates where study ofmedia forms is concerned. Chomsky, N. population theyaccount for a little more than 2 per cent of coverage in these books.Further, though certain of these books are marketed as a feature ofmulticultural education, minority families are presented as culturallymarginal or even deviant vis-à-vis the mainstream. Hirsch, E.D., Jr., Keett, J.F., & Trefil, J. Durkheim, E. Hitchcock (1992) says thatcultural studies should not pretend to be a part of a balanced curriculumbut instead should frankly adopt a partial, even polemical attitude. Aresponse measured entirely in terms of multimillion-dollar sales mightindicate broad mainstream-culture acceptance when what is really indicatedis an enthusiastic subculture acceptance of a representative media type.The issue of who can afford to (say) buy a book is different from why abook is bought, which is yet different from the demographic characteristicsof who buys--all of which are different from the responses to the bookafter it is bought, and indeed from the form that the book takes (book ontape, videotape presentation, paperback, on-line computer disk, etc.). Trans. Social inequality is implicitly the fundamentalfact of existence in the capitalist system, for capital owns the means ofproduction while labor facilitates production--when capital provides accessto the means. In this regard, Ball-Rokeach and Cantor (1986) point out that therecognition by a variety of social scientists in recent years of theinfluence of mass communications media on social processes has transformedor indeed created entirely new methods and theories to account for thediscernment of apparent patterns in the connection between mass media,their audience(s), and the makeup of social, political, cultural, andeconomic systems in the West, the Third World, and what in 1986 at any ratewas the Soviet-dominated Eastern bloc. 3-25. Writing in 1988, 1989, and 1992, Herman and Chomsky,together and separately, make the case that in democratic societies, massmedia is a function--not to say creature--of dominant-class control by wayof propaganda. But research suggests that one must be careful to analyzeresponses with reference to the cultural identification of respondents. Herman, E.S. Boston: South End Press, 1992. But can political economy explain everything? The diverse character of responses tomedia forms and the content of those forms on the part of both subculturesand what one could call the culture as a whole seems a fruitful line offuture inquiry. (1991). Beyond mass culture and classculture: subcultural differences in the structure of music preferences.Media, Audience, and Social Structure. Indeed, leaving the content of a media presentationaside, it seems legitimate to explore to what extent cultural experienceaffects the experience of a specific media form. (1989). Commodification as a system of signs in thecontemporary historical bloc. Ball-Rokeach, S. (1989). The profit motive is the foundation of such analysis: On onehand ownership of media outlets is concentrated with wealthy corporateinterests, and on the other these same outlets depend for their profits onadvertising funded by corporate institutions. Along the same lines,Altheide and Snow (1991) note that (for example) media coverage of sportsevents has had an influence on audience perceptions of sports themselves,as well as on the conduct and activity associated with sports. In effect, it fails to adequately portray the influence of grosseconomic interclass inequalities on incidence of criminal behavior,treating instead the behavior itself as its own cause. And all media-involvedinstitutions must rely on the special training or expertise of educated ortechnocratic individuals, which amounts to a media elite. & Tyagi, S. 122). Whereas Marx sees the individual (worker) alienated from an existing(capitalist) society seeking unity with a better (socialistic) society,Weber sees the individual by and large as a product of whatever societyhappens to be in existence. (1988). Schudson, M. Whose diversity? To study media forms might seem like a relatively straightforwardenterprise, with analysis and research varying most prominently with themedium under consideration. Ed. Representation or acknowledgment of minority cultures is one issue inthis regard, and it surfaces in a variety of ways. In a Western educational environment that is itself bound tobe partial to Western ideology, multiculturalism would be absorbed andfiltered, on this view. Teaching Sociology, 23, 122-135. Luke, C. The culture of electronic communication.Cultural Dynamics, 2, 62-78. Hitchcock, P. This is an area that is fraughtwith tension, for it involves such currently controversial buzzwords asdiversity, multiculturalism, ethnic consciousness or pride, and the like.Lynch (1993) seeks to explore the tensions in this area, nothing that massmedia forms have been a mixed blessing with regard to social and culturalcohesion. 1 9)--controlled, of course, by capital. An analysis of family-living textbooks by Shaw-Taylor and Benokraitis (1995) says that eventhough ethnic minorities constitute 25 per cent of the U.S. There is evidence thatforces other than economics and class consciousness as Marx conceived themare at work where media-forms analysis is concerned. For example Hanna's description (1984) of the manner in which theemotional content of dance theatre appears to have a generally salutaryeffect on audience response to or appreciation of divergent cultures asreflected in dance. (1995, April). Ball-Rokeach, S. That is,athletes may perform as much with reference to a camera as to a givensports competition. Robinson, J.P., & Fink, E.L. Durkheim sought to apply the scientific method to the task ofexamining the form, function, and substance of contemporary society, toexplain the source, evolution, framework, and content of a morally orderedsociety. Ball-Rokeach, S. J. Luke (1994) redefines "cultural literacy," not as"the common knowledge or collective memory [that] allows people tocommunicate, to work together, and to live together" (Hirsch, et al., 1988,p. Multicultural education and thesociological imagination. For the choiceappears to be "between" cultural pluralism and cultural oneness, and theeither-or character of the issue implies divisions along all manner of self-identification lines--sex, race, ethnicity, education, class, etc.--withthe power of the media serving as the point of departure for thedistribution of social justice. 225) as alegitimate aspect of media-oriented social interpretation. His orientation is primarily social, witheconomic factors but one aspect of a complex environment "responsible forthe occurrence of specific events in a given society" (Ashley & Orenstein,1985, p. R. 41). Such interpretations are consistent with political-economy analysismore generally.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
Browse Essays by Subject