of learning. The limited effects model specifically looked at the education of the masses and the shift to cognitive effects. Scholars argued whether the audience is passive or active? Is the media good or evil? This paradigm shift showed a reversion to qualitative themes. The Limited Effects Model also utilized the quantitative approach. In Lang and Lang (1953) they use a content analysis method to show how certain filters portray an “event.” They discuss what many refer to as “pseudo events” and “the pictures in our heads.” Had they used a qualitative method, they may not have come to the same findings and may not have been rooted in the “social process” (Lasswell, 1949).
Though quantitative methods proved invaluable, many
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There was a continued discussion of the public vs. masses. Following propaganda research, this debate looked at the tension between communism and capitalism and broadened the discussion from politics and the economy to include education and socialization, among others. At this point, researchers viewed mass media as having a more nuanced role as a tool. There was more of a focus on how people and society influence and use the media, as opposed to the other way around. In Riesman, Denny & Glaser (1950), the researchers traced the changes in storytelling and asked “how should society function?” How should society behave and what does social control mean? For Macdonald (1957), the new mass culture was significantly different from high culture and folk culture (pg. 344), as it had a homogenizing and trivializing effect. In Powerdermaker (1950), the researcher employs the qualitative nature of critical theory in discussing how Hollywood’s body of ideas influence their process and product. This ethnography study discussed the dangers of commodification and just how ingrained it is. In Meyerson and Katz (1957), the “fad” is argued as a power tool, with the ability to facilitate social change. Not only does the piece offer insight into this behavior, it also provides a prototype for change via the fad. These examples explored resonance of the Frankfurt School that eventually …show more content…
There was an emphasis on the process and circumstance surrounding media production, as well as the problems with capitalism and the market system. Political Economy looked at the continued tension between high and mass culture. Briefly defined, it is the social institution in the total view of the operation of power. It is concerned with the production of values, commodification, and structuration. Influenced by Marxist thought, as was the Frankfurt School, it was introduced to the communication field for analysis of these concepts. Looking at the etymology of the word, one could very clearly see that it has components of the government (political) and the market (economy). The ideas of political economy are centrally related to the elements of power: who holds it, the unequal distribution of power, and the inability of those in the top strata to do anything about it. Given this, it is very clear why scholars would situate political economy historically in
The Hollywood Blacklisting that followed the Red Scare of the 1950’s forced the media to change in order to survive the scrutinizing committees of the HUAC and various congressional committees that pushed for the social “purging” of America in hopes of searching out the “Reds” which they believed were hiding among them. This change in media came at a time when the public had become extremely receptive to such influences due to the spread of the television and the growth of the middle class who had extra money to spend on luxuries such as going to the movie theatres. The constant barrage of conformity and conservatism as well as xenophobia seen in everyday shows and movies shaped the perception of the average American to believe that liberal or radical ideas were not what normal people supported and believed in.
The article Hop on Pop (2002) explains how culture is influenced especially by the tactics of mass media and popular culture. This aspect is one that Walt Disney and his company used and did so very well. This article opened me up to think about how the media is trying to influence
The use of media and popular culture is a sociological phenomenon wherein the structural changes to society, which accompany the emergence of new forms of communication and accessing information, can be examined. There are many differing views regarding whether media and popular culture are necessary to the functioning of a democratic and egalitarian society or whether they actually further social inequality and inhibit political discussion or involvement. Although both interpretations are arguably valid, it can be seen that it is not popular culture and the media in and of themselves but rather how they are consumed by the public that determine how these mediums influence individuals and by extension the wider society.
David. "Mass Media and the Loss of Individuality." Web log post. Gatlog. N.p., 11 Sept. 2007. Web. 10 May 2014.
The distinguished in the nineteenth century and it’s collapse in the twentieth century have led to similar, though much slower and less obvious, process in the course of modern science. Today’s frantic development in the field of technology has a quality reminiscent of the days preceding the economic crash of 1929. The clearest evidence of it may be seen in such comparatively young sciences such as psychology and political economy. In psychology, one may observe the attempt to study human behavior without reference to the fact that man is conscious. In political economy, one may observe the attempt to study and device social systems without reference to man. Political economy came into prominence in the 19th century, in the era of philosophies post kantian disintegration, and no one rose to check its premises or to challenge its base. Political economist-including the advocates of capitalism-defined their sciences as the study of management or direction or organization or manipulation of “community’s” or nations resources. The author goes on to say that the European culture regarded material productions as work that should be done by slaves or serfs but not first class citizens. It must be remembered that the institution of private property, in the full, legal meaning of the term, was brought into existence only by capitalism. In the pre-capitalist eras, private property existed de facto but not de jure, i.e. by custom and sufferance, not by right or by law. In law and in principle all land belonged to the head of the tribe, the king, and was held only by permission, which could be revoked at any time. CAPITALISM, a term used to donate the economic systems that has been dominate in the western world since the breakup of feudalism. Fundamental to any system called capitalist are the relations between private owners of non-personal means of production (land mines, industrial plants, etc.... collectively known as capital) and free but capitalizes workers, who sell their labor services to employers. The resulting wage bargains determines the proportion in which the total products of society will be shared between the class of laborers and the class of capitalist entrepreneurs. Productive use of the “social surplus” was special virtue that enabled capitalism to outstrip all prior economic systems. Instead of building pyramids and cathedrals, those in command of the social surplus chose to invest in ships, warehouses, raw materials, finished goods and other material forms of wealth.
O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. (2009)Media and Society: An introduction. Dominant Ideology and Hegemony. London: Oxford.
Campbell, Richard. Media & Culture: an introduction to mass communication. Bedford/St. Martin?s: Boston, N.Y. 2005.
How mass media is using both Ideology and Popular Culture to develop societal expectations and social identities. This essay will look at how Ideology, Hegemony, and Popular Cultural Theory shape common values and expectations of society and media’s influence and compare and contrast differing approaches to understanding the relationship between media and society. The discussion will be contextualized through the use of gender roles and expectations, and how these theories develop and affect the female social identity.
The concept of mass culture emerged as a philosophical exploration of the question of modernity in relation to individual identities and individuality. As the society progressed from its traditional existence to a modern state, numerous advancements were realized that drastically changed the outlook of the society and its influence on an individual and individual thinking. One of the most important factors that have been an influence in the advancement of modernity is the mass media phenomenon (Landgraf 25). In fact, very few would contend that the institutions within the mass media franchise are crucial aspects of contemporary politics and philosophy. However, philosophers like Nietzsche and Karl Marx had the contention that the mass media had to be considered in light of its effects to the values and institutions of modern societies. Nietzsche’s criticisms is based on the general idea that the values and institutions of modern day society oppress creativity and bodily energies and limit the ability if human beings to function as individuals. This in turn blocks a generation of stronger individuals from emerging in a society that is now characterized by vigor. Friedrich Nietzsche critically appraised the modern age and developed one of the foremost sustainable critiques of mass culture and society, bureaucratic discipline, the state and regimentation. This led to the production of fresh perspectives which later deeply influenced discourse about modernity.
The cultivation theory suggests that “the cultivation of attitudes is based on attitudes already present in our society and that the media take those attitudes which are already present and re-present them bundled in a different packaging to their audiences” (Griffin, p.366). The Truman Show is an excellent example of the cultivation theory as it gives us an interesting insight into the effects that the media has on society. It is no secret that the media has altered our way of living. From the fears they can instill from the news we watch, to the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the sports we watch and even our political opinions are all influenced in some way shape or form by the media.
As society becomes more engrossed in the capitalist side of the culture industry, the use value is taken over the exchange value of the particular item. People can become isolated within society and unable to make successful decisions for themselves. Through standardization of production, distribution and sales, people are treated as a commodity. People begin to lose the aesthetic appeal of cultural events and people become consumed by the fact their attendance to an event gives them status. Adorno and Horkheimer successfully show what will happen to society if the culture industry takeover of mass media continues.
Unquestionably the media being newspapers, internet, radio and television, influence society. They can affect, have affected and will continue to affect the progression of life in this nation and around the world, as electronic technology continues to be the chosen mode of communication for a whole generation, offering direct, often anonymous influential information.
The Mass Media has had a greater in influence on modern culture than either education or history.
Mass society theory have few assumptions that media directly influence the minds of average people and transform their views about the society in which they live. Media influence cause severe consequences individually or socially, and in mass society media controlled by elites and they use it for their own benefits. Mostly media promote high culture instead of giving representation to real society art or image.
The power of the mass media has once become so powerful that its undoubtedly significant role in the world today stays beyond any questions. It is so strong that even politics uses it as a means of governing in any country around the world. The mass media has not only political meaning but also it conveys wide knowledge concerning all possible aspects of human beings’ lives and, what is utterly true, influences on people’s points of view and their attitude to the surrounding environment. It is completely agreeable about what kind of virtues the mass media is supposed to accent. Nevertheless, it is not frequent at all that the media provides societies with such a content, which is doubtful in terms of the role consigned to it. Presenting violence and intolerance as well as shaping and manipulating public are only a few examples of how the role of mass media is misunderstood by those who define themselves as leading media makers.