PDFsam Merge
PDFsam Merge
In essence, the mass media are the tools or technologies that facilitate
dissemination of information and entertainment to a vast number of
receivers. They are the tools of large-scale manufacture and distribution of
information and related messages. These tools ‘mediate’ the messages; they
are not the messages themselves. However, Marshall McLuhan, the media
prophet, liked to proclaim that ‘the medium is the message’, though the title
of one his books suggests rather that ‘the medium is the massage’.1 So,
while the media are technologies, they are also messages and massages.
They can also be looked at as industries, more specifically as cultural or
entertainment industries, as critical theorists tend to do. For Manuel
Castells, author of the trilogy on The Information Age and a number of
other scholarly works on ‘the network society’, it’s the ‘network’ that is the
message.2
While the press, cinema, radio, television and cable can easily be
recognized as ‘mass media’, it requires some stretching of the established
meaning of the term to include recent digital technologies (sometimes
termed the ‘new media’ or ‘social media’ or ‘new social media’) such as
pagers, iPods, cellular phones, satellites, computers, the internet and the
World Wide Web as ‘mass media’. More correctly, these new media may be
termed ‘interactive digital communication media’ for they are production
and transmission technologies disseminating messages far and wide to
many receivers, as much as interactive technologies (based on platforms
and applications) which involve feedback, exchange and extensive personal
participation on a global scale. These ‘new social media’ (such as social
network sites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok) appear
to have ‘de-massified’ the mass media.
‘A mass medium’ says Wilbur Schramm,3 ‘is essentially a working group
organized round some device for circulating the same message, at about the
same time, to large numbers of people’. Such a definition excludes the folk
media, group media and interpersonal communication such as word-of-
mouth publicity or education and preaching, where communication is not
‘mediated’ by a ‘device’. Further, the pejorative term ‘mass’ (a way of
looking down at people as ‘masses’) suggests that the modern media are
‘experienced’ not by individuals and groups in terms of their own cultures
but as part of the ‘mass’ and as ‘mass culture’. The term ‘mass’ also
suggests that people’s interaction with the media is homogeneous, inactive
and unquestioning. In Communication Studies today, however, the term
‘mass media’ has come to be a useful collective phrase, though it slurs over
the many distinctions among the various media.
As generally interpreted the ‘mass’ media are the press, cinema, radio and
television. But books, magazines, pamphlets and direct mail literature and
posters also need to be included in the label. They are so termed because
their reach extends to vast heterogeneous masses of the population living in
a wide and extensive area of a country. The means they employ to
communicate messages to the masses are technological: printing machines,
records, cameras, fax machines, cable, modems, computers and satellites.
Their communications are thus interposed and ‘mediated’; they are not as
direct or face-to-face as in interpersonal exchanges.
The organs of the mass media are thus technological means of
transmitting messages to large numbers of people. But they are much more
than that. As they require a very expensive infrastructure (particularly the
cinema, radio, television, video, cable, computers and satellites), they have
to be run by institutions like the government or well-financed private
commercial firms. Further, they require a group of people (‘media
professionals’) to organize and administer, to produce, distribute, transmit
and constantly maintain in working order the whole set up of, say, a studio,
a newsroom, a transmitting centre or a publishing house.
Yet another feature of the mass media is that they are founded on the idea
of mass production and mass distribution—the marks of an industrial
society. Copies of newspapers and magazines, for instance, are printed in
thousands (some national and regional dailies in India have a circulation of
over a million copies) and are reprinted and distributed in several cities
across the country. But to enjoy a mass audience, the media have to cater to
a taste that is not very ‘cultured’ or sophisticated. What the mass media
therefore reflect and propagate is a popular culture. The culture made
popular by mainstream films and film music in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and a
host of Indian languages is a case in point. With the rapid expansion of
television, video, the internet and mobile telephony in cities and towns,
popular culture is likely to take on new forms; the ‘myths’ of our culture
will find expression in ever new ways.
But access to the mass media in India is still restricted because of poverty,
low literacy levels and little familiarity with Hindi and English, the major
languages used in the various media; moreover, reach is limited to
populations living in metros and large cities and the better-off sections in
rural India.4 The folk medi, in contrast, have a wider audience; they are
media close to the hearts and minds of the people and suited to a poor
country and help facilitate identification and participation. It is no wonder
then that the mass media incorporate various popular elements of the folk
media. And that folk media, in their turn, incorporate elements (such as
music and dance) of the mass media.
Functions of the Mass Media
Modern mass media serve functions very similar to those fulfilled by
traditional media in some ancient societies and in some developing
countries today. Western media theorists5 generally identify three major
functions; surveillance of the environment, interpretation of the information
and prescription for conduct and the transmission of heritage. The
developmental and liberation or empowerment functions or even the
ritualistic or celebratory functions of the media rarely find mention in Euro-
American media theory. South American media theorists have contributed
to our understanding of media for ‘liberation’ while African and Asian
scholars have explored the relevance of media to ‘national development’.
Information
Surveillance of the environment relates to information or ‘news’ about
happenings in society. The mass media carry out this function by keeping us
posted about the latest news in our own region and around the world. In
rural societies, however, the word-of-mouth method is still the most
credible means of spreading news. But the mass media cannot or should not
stop at watching the horizon for us, through news bulletins or through
advertisements of opportunities. They need and often do help us ‘to
correlate our response to the challenges and opportunities which appear on
the horizon and to reach consensus on social actions’.6 In rural India, the
panchayat meetings help village elders to decide on the challenges and the
opportunities. The mass media help us to keep the culture and heritage of
our society alive, to transmit it to others and even perhaps create new or
hybrid cultures. This is what the media should ideally do, but often don’t.
Folk media serve a similar purpose in developing countries.
Entertainment
Another is the vital function of entertainment. Entertainment has been a
legitimate function of the traditional folk media, but the mass media
provide it on a prolific scale. They help to pass the time and to relax with
family and friends.
Anthropologists of culture and communication discern a symbolic
function of the media: the media provide a ‘shared symbolic environment’.
Victor Turner, for instance, believed that the media provide a ‘liminal’
ritualistic experience. George Gerbner7 saw television as the central symbol
of American culture today. Horace Newcomb8 and other ‘culturalists’ (such
as James Carey9 and Robert White10) perceive the media as providing a
ritualistic and ‘communal’ experience. Besides, the mass media often lead
us to re-work and re-define our ‘self-identities’ as well as our ‘collective
identities’.11
Advertising
An equally vital function is that of the mass media helping to sell goods and
services through sponsorships and commercials. The commercial function
has indeed been served well, perhaps too well, especially in the United
States, where the networks would have to close down if the support from
commercials were to dry up. At the same time, it would be suicidal to let
this function dominate the mass media at the expense of the other four
functions. India too promotes the commercial function and though it has
restricted its representatives from taking over the programming of radio and
television, the influence is still strong; Indian cinema thrives on ‘media
partners’ and various types of sponsors. This is equally true of the press and
its dependence on advertising for much of its revenue.
Development
In the developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the mass
media, which include traditional media, have a different function to
perform. In a word, development communication i.e., communication that
focuses on local knowledge, the information needs of the poor and the
oppressed and their socio-economic and cultural interests, in the attempt to
bring about sustainable development and social change.
Media Literacy
Television influences our culture in innumerable ways. One of its effects, according to many
people, is that it has encouraged violence in our society. For example, American television
viewers overwhelmingly say there is too much violence on television. Yet, almost without
exception, the local television news program that has the largest proportion of violence in its
nightly newscast is the ratings leader. “If it bleeds, it leads” has become the motto for much of
local television news. It leads because people watch.
So, although many of us are quick to condemn improper media performance or to identify and
lament its harmful effects, we rarely question our own role in the mass communication process.
We overlook it because we participate in mass communication naturally, almost without
conscious effort. We possess high-level interpretive and comprehension skills that make even the
most sophisticated television show, movie, or magazine story understandable and enjoyable. We
are able, through a lifetime of interaction with the media, to read media texts.
Media literacy is a skill we take for granted, but like all skills, it can be improved. And if we
consider how important the mass media are in creating and maintaining the culture that helps
define us and our lives, it is a skill that must be improved.
Hunter College media professor Stuart Ewen (2000) emphasized this point in comparing media
literacy with traditional literacy. “Historically,” he wrote, “links between literacy and democracy
are inseparable from the notion of an informed populace, conversant with the issues that touch
upon their lives, enabled with tools that allow them to participate actively in public deliberation
and social change” (p. 448). To Ewen, and others committed to media literacy, media literacy
represents no less than the means to full participation in the culture.
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Elements of Media Literacy
Media scholar Art Silverblatt (2008) identifies seven fundamental elements of media literacy. To
these, we will add an eighth. Media literacy includes these characteristics:
1. A critical thinking skill enabling audience members to develop independent judgments about
media content. Thinking critically about the content we consume is the very essence of
media literacy. Why do we watch what we watch, read what we read, listen to what we listen
to? Is that story you saw on Twitter real? If we cannot answer these questions, we have taken
no responsibility for ourselves or our choices. As such, we have taken no responsibility for
the outcome of those choices.
2. An understanding of the process of mass communication. If we know the components of the
mass communication process and how they relate to one another, we can form expectations
of how they can serve us. How do the various media industries operate? What are their
obligations to us? What are the obligations of the audience? How do different media limit or
enhance messages? Which forms of feedback are most effective, and why?
3. An awareness of the impact of media on the individual and society. Writing and the printing
press helped change the world and the people in it. Mass media do the same. If we ignore the
impact of media on our lives, we run the risk of being caught up and carried along by that
change rather than controlling or leading it.
4. Strategies for analyzing and discussing media messages. To consume media messages
thoughtfully, we need a foundation on which to base thought and reflection. If we make
meaning, we must possess the tools with which to make it (for example, understanding the
intent and impact of film and video conventions, such as camera angles and lighting, or the
strategy behind the placement of images on a newspaper’s website). Otherwise, meaning is
made for us; the interpretation of media content will then rest with its creator, not with us.
5. An understanding of media content as a text that provides insight into our culture and our
lives. How do we know a culture and its people, attitudes, values, concerns, and myths? We
know them through communication. For modern cultures like ours, media messages
increasingly dominate that communication, shaping our understanding of and insight into
our culture.
6. The ability to enjoy, understand, and appreciate media content. Media literacy does not
mean living the life of a grump, liking nothing in the media, or always being suspicious of
harmful effects and cultural degradation. We take high school and college classes to enhance
our understanding and appreciation of novels; we can do the same for media texts. Learning
to enjoy, understand, and appreciate media content includes the ability to use multiple
points of access—to approach media content from a variety of directions and derive from it
many levels of meaning. Thus, we control meaning making for our own enjoyment or
appreciation. For example, we can enjoy the hit show The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu as an
action-laden adventure full of intrigue, danger, and romance, perfect for binge watching. But
as TV buffs we might see it as a feminist manifesto, a story of an oppressed woman taking
on a powerful man. Or we might read it as a cautionary tale for what might happen in
America if women lose the right to control their bodies. Maybe it’s a history lesson
disguised as dystopian fiction, reminding us that women have always had to fight for their
rightful place in society. Or maybe it’s just a fun way to spend a cozy night, entertained by
the same streaming video industry that so delights us with other prestige programming, such
as The Mandalorian, 13 Reasons Why, and Fleabag.
7. Development of effective and responsible production skills. Traditional literacy assumes that
people who can read can also write. Media literacy also makes this assumption. Our
definition of literacy (of either type) calls not only for effective and efficient comprehension
of content but also for its effective and efficient use. Therefore, media-literate individuals
should develop production skills that enable them to create useful media messages. If you
have ever tried to make a narrative home video—one that tells a story—you know that
producing content is much more difficult than consuming it. If you have ever posted to
Snapchat or Instagram or uploaded a video to TikTok, you are indeed a media content
producer; why not be a good media content producer?
8. An understanding of the ethical and moral obligations of media practitioners. To Page 22
make informed judgments about the performance of the media, we also must be
aware of the competing pressures on practitioners as they do their jobs. We must understand
the media’s official and unofficial rules of operation. In other words, we must know,
respectively, their legal and ethical obligations. Return, for a moment, to the question of
televised violence. It is legal for a station to air graphic violence. But is it ethical? If it is
unethical, what power, if any, do we have to demand its removal from our screens?
Dilemmas such as this are discussed at length in Chapter 14.
▶ Family Guy has all the things you would expect from a television situation comedy—an inept dad, a precocious
daughter, a slacker son, a loving wife, and zany situations. Yet it also offers an intellectual, philosopher dog and an
evil-genius, scheming baby. Why do you think the producers have gone to the trouble to populate this show with the
usual trappings of a sitcom but then add other, bizarre elements? And what’s going on in The Handmaid’s Tale? Is it
an action-laden adventure full of intrigue, danger, and romance? A feminist manifesto? A history lesson disguised as
dystopian fiction. Or maybe it’s just a fun way to spend a cozy night binge watching.
(top) FOX Image Collection/Getty Images; (bottom) Calla Kessler for The Washington Post/Getty Images
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Media Literacy Skills
Consuming media content is simple. Push a button and you have images on a television or music
on your car radio. Come up with enough cash and you can see a movie or buy an e-book. Media-
literate consumption, however, requires a number of specific skills.
1. The ability and willingness to make an effort to understand content, to pay attention, and to
filter out noise. As we saw earlier, anything that interferes with successful communication is
called noise, and much of the noise in the mass communication process results from our own
consumption behavior. When we watch television, often we are also doing other things, such
as eating, reading, or checking Instagram. We drive while we listen to the radio. We text
while we read. Obviously, the quality of our meaning making is related to the effort we give
it.
2. An understanding of and respect for the power of media messages. We are surrounded by
mass media from the moment we are born. Just about every one of us can enjoy them. Their
content is either free or relatively inexpensive. Much of the content is banal and a bit silly, so
it is easy to dismiss media content as beneath serious consideration or too simple to have any
influence. We also disregard media’s power through the third-person effect—the common
attitude that others are influenced by media messages but that we are not. That is, we are
media literate enough to understand the influence of mass communication on the attitudes,
behaviors, and values of others but not self-aware or honest enough to see its influence on
our lives.
3. The ability to distinguish emotional from reasoned reactions when responding to content and
to act accordingly. Media content is often designed to touch us at the emotional level. We
enjoy losing ourselves in a good song or in a well-crafted movie or television show; this is
among our great pleasures. But because we react emotionally to these messages does not
mean they don’t have serious meanings and implications for our lives. Television images, for
example, are intentionally shot and broadcast for their emotional impact. Reacting
emotionally is appropriate and proper. But then what? What do these images tell us about the
larger issue at hand? We can use our feelings as a point of departure for meaning making.
We can ask, “Why does this content make me feel this way?”
4. The development of heightened expectations of media content. We all use media to tune out,
waste a little time, and provide background noise. When we decide to watch television, we
are more likely to turn on the set and flip channels until we find something passable than we
are to read the listings to find a specific program to view. When we search for online video,
we often settle for the “10 most shared today,” or we let Netflix’s algorithm choose for us.
When we expect little from the content before us, we tend to give meaning making little
effort and attention.
5. A knowledge of genre conventions and the ability to recognize when they are being mixed.
The term genre refers to the categories of expression within the different media, such as
“evening news,” “documentary,” “horror movie,” or “entertainment magazine.” Each genre
is characterized by certain distinctive, standardized style elements—the conventions of that
genre. The conventions of the evening news, for example, include a short, upbeat
introductory theme and one or two good-looking people sitting at a large, modern desk.
When we hear and see these style elements, we expect the evening news. We can tell a
documentary film from an entertainment movie by its more serious tone and a number of
talking heads. We know by their appearance—the use of color, the types of images, and the
amount of text on the cover—which magazines offer serious reading and which provide
entertainment. Knowledge of these conventions is important because they cue or direct our
meaning making.
6. The ability to think critically about media messages, no matter how credible their sources. It
is crucial that media be credible in a democracy in which the people govern because the
media are central to the governing process. This is why the news media are sometimes
referred to as the fourth branch of government, complementing the executive, judicial, and
legislative branches. This does not mean, however, that we should accept uncritically
everything they report. But media-literate people know not to discount all news media; they
must be careful to avoid the hostile media effect, the idea that people see media coverage of
important topics of interest as less sympathetic to their position, more sympathetic to the
opposing position, and generally hostile to their point of view regardless of the quality of the
coverage (Tsfati & Cohen, 2013). There are indeed very good media sources, just as there
are those not deserving of our consideration. Media literacy, as you’ll read throughout this
text, helps us make that distinction. For example, the Internet has made possible the
widespread of fake news, intentionally and verifiably false news stories designed to be
spread and to deceive. Disguised to appear authentic, its real intention is to sow confusion
and damage political discourse. Fake news is successful because its arresting headlines
easily catch our attention and because confirmation bias, our tendency to accept
information that confirms our beliefs and dismiss information that does not, encourages us to
pass it on with little evaluation. How do we combat fake news?
• First, vet the publisher’s credibility. Does the report meet traditional journalistic Page 24
standards of evidence and corroboration? Has the author published anything else?
What’s the domain name? Check out the “About Us” page for indicators of bias.
• Second, pay attention to quality and timeliness. Is the story current, or is it recycled? Are
there a lot of spelling errors, ALL CAPS, or dramatic punctuation???!!!
• Third, check sources and citations. How did you come upon the article? Who is or is not
quoted? Is there supporting information on other sites? Can you perform reverse searches
for sources and images?
• Finally, ask a pro. There are several good fact-checking sites such as FactCheck.org,
International Fact-Checking Network, PolitiFact, and Snopes (Nagler, 2018).
7. A knowledge of the internal language of various media and the ability to understand its
effects, no matter how complex. Just as each media genre has its own distinctive style and
conventions, each medium also has its own specific internal language. This language is
expressed in production values—the choice of lighting, editing, special effects, music,
camera angle, location on the page, and size and placement of headlines. To be able to read a
media text, you must understand its language. We learn the grammar of this language as
early as childhood—for example, we know that when the television image goes “all woozy,”
the character is dreaming. Let’s consider two versions of the same movie scene. In the first,
a man is driving a car. Cut to a woman lying tied up on a railroad track. What is the
relationship between the man and the woman? Where is he going? With no more
information than these two shots, you know automatically that he cares for her and is on his
way to save her. Now, here is the second version. The man is driving the car. Fade to black.
Fade back up to the woman on the tracks. Now, what is the relationship between the man
and the woman? Where is he going? It is less clear that these two people even have anything
to do with each other. We construct completely different meanings from exactly the same
two scenes because the punctuation (the quick cut/fade) differs. Media texts tend to be more
complicated than these two scenes. The better we can handle their grammar, the more we
can understand and appreciate texts. The more we understand texts, the more we can be
equal partners with media professionals in meaning making.
▼ The Daily Show with Trevor Noah offers all the conventions we’d expect from the news—background digital
graphics, an anchor behind his desk, and a well-known interviewee. But it also contains conventions we’d expect
from a comedy program—a satirist as host and an unruly, loud audience. Why does this television show mix the
conventions of these two very different genres? Does your knowledge of those conventions add to your enjoyment of
this hit program?
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Media-literate people develop an understanding of media content as a text that provides insight
into our culture and our lives, and they have an awareness of the impact of media on the
individual and society. So, challenge your own media literacy skills. You can do this exercise
with a parent or another person older than you, or you can speculate after using the Internet to
view movies and television shows from 20 years ago. Compare your childhood heroes and
heroines with those of someone older. What differences are there between the generations in what
you consider heroic qualities? What are some similarities and differences between the heroic
qualities you and people from an earlier generation identify? Are the good qualities of your
personal heroes something you can find in today’s movies or TV? If so, where on TV or in film
can you find the qualities you consider heroic? Which cultural values, attitudes, and beliefs, if
any, do you think have influenced how heroes and heroines have changed throughout the last few
decades? How have the media helped establish the values you identify as important qualities in
people?