A. General thoughts
on media theory:
1. Some theories are descriptive, some are predictive. Some are both.
Some offer prescriptions
2. Some
theories deal with the process, some with the
effects. Some deal with both.
3. For
any media theory, we can ask, "how does this
theory view humanity?"
4. The
media environment is ever changing
(cyclical nature)
Functional
development - when the functions of
an existing medium are replaced by a newer
technology, the older medium finds new functions
(or
dies)
Ex. Radio
Joseph Schumpeter:
the process of creative destruction
Product/industry lifecycles:
introduction, growth, maturity, decline
Forces at work - technological change, content
innovation, and consumer demand.
5. Media
theory is ever changing in response to changes in the media environment
B. Mass Society Theory - Idea
that media are corrupting influences that undermine the social order through
their influence over defenseless "average" people.
(The critique - such theories fail to
account for the findings of media effects research)
The Media is powerful, influential,
and has a negative effect.
Media "manipulates," "controls,"
"brainwashes" etc. in the cultural war to shape thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. Media affects other social
institutions. Mass media are
symbolic of all that is wrong with society.
(see
the 6 assumptions)
ex.
George Orwell's "1984"
C. Propaganda - no-holds-barred
use of communication to propagate specific beliefs and expectations.
Goal: to change the way people act and
to leave them believing that those actions are voluntary, that the newly adopted
behaviors - and the opinions underlying them - are their own.
The first media theories arose from
theorists analyzing media content and speculating about its influence.
Media is the focus (unlike mass
society theory in which media is only one of the potentially socially
disruptive forces)
Government and military uses?
Dropping
leaflets
Leni
Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" (1934)
Shows troops
of Hitler youth at play, ranks of laborers,
parades of
storm troopers, close-ups of Hitler, etc.,
creating a mystical,
primitive union between the dictator and
his
followers and exalting Nazi unity in Germany.
One
key is who controls the media -
the government or private sources?
In response to the effectiveness of
some of these propaganda campaigns researchers began to seek to understand and
explain the ability of messages to persuade and convert thousands or even
millions of individuals to extreme viewpoints.
1. Behavioralism - The notion that all
human action is a conditioned response to external, environmental stimuli.
Stimulus
- response models
Ex.
Pavlov's dog
Ex.
B. F. Skinner - "Walden Two"
2. Magic bullet theory - Media penetrate
people's minds and instantly create effects.
Media effect is:
Powerful
Direct
Immediate
Uniform
Don't think about:
PINK ELEPHANTS!!!!
Ex. "The War of the Worlds"
broadcast.
3. Lasswell's Propaganda theory - the
existing environment can make people susceptible to propaganda.
People need to be slowly prepared to
accept radically different ideas and actions.
Sort
of a long term magic bullet approach!
Long term campaigns can be
implemented to gradually teach people to associate specific emotions with
master (or collective symbols).
Then, subsequent uses of the master
symbol trigger ideas and actions (a conditioned response).
Book:
the American flag
Many examples of "bad"
propaganda, could social scientists develop "good" propaganda?
Ex.
Voice of America
Walter Lippmann - popularizer of Lasswell's views
Proposed
that an elite agency control information
John Dewey - public education can
teach the "average"
person to resist
propaganda.
Propaganda theory today - chapter 9
D. Normative Theories
What should the role of the media be
in a society?
Questions
on page 97.
Theories developed that describe an
ideal way for media systems to be structured and operated.
Prescriptive in nature.
Theories run the gamut from First
Amendment absolutists (libertarian) to technocratic control (authoritarian).
Highlighting a few of these normative
theories:
1. Milton's Areopagitica (1644)
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/areopagitica
self-righting
principle - in a fair debate truth will
always win out
thus, free speech (a fair environment) is in the public interest
suppressing
the truth is not in the public interest
though,
there are some types of content that the King
should censor (speech that is treasonous,
slanderous,
blasphemous)
2. The First Amendment
Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom
What
does this mean?
"No
law" - Balancing theory
"Speech"
- not all speech is equal
"The
Press" - not all mediums are equal
3. Marketplace of Ideas
Let
the market regulate itself (laissez-faire approach).
Let
ideas be traded vigorously.
Good
ideas will flourish, bad ideas will wither and die.
Caveat
emptor or consumer protection laws?
A
contrast - the Chicago school.
The
marketplace of ideas leads to domination by
elite groups (the socially dominant).
A
groups have a voice.
Ex.
PBS
4. Social responsibility theory
a
compromise between press freedom (libertarianism)
and government control (authoritarianism)
media should police itself (codes of conduct)
media as fourth estate - a watchdog on other
institutions
media
should be pluralistic and present a diversity
of voices
do
new communication technologies
foster diversity or Balkanization?