Studying the Media Rather Than Simply Consuming It
Everyday we encounter the media in some form. It could be waking up to the sound of the radio, or passing billboards in the streets or simply just watching television. They are a lot of different forms of media, for example, verbal or written media, visual media and aural media. Examples of media would include newspapers, magazines, film, radio, television, billboard advertisements as well as the internet. Media studies came about because of the developments in mass communication and it provokes the generation of exigent questions about what we think we know as well how we came about knowing it. There are always changes in the media and the term “media” refers to the many ways of physically forming meanings as well and carrying them. The term “media studies” on the other hand, means different courses priorities different media; different theories and different learning outcomes (Bazalgette, 2000).
Even though media studies is still new, it is important, as it has a high potential of being at the centre of essential changes in our thoughts about what we should learn and if they are worthwhile (Bazalgette, 2000). Since this subject is still new there are a lot of disagreements on how media should be interpreted and it is also a hybrid subject as the idea that it came about comes from a variety of sources (Bazalgette, 2000). Media studies is also considered an academic discipline as it binds the different types of hybrid disciplines such as semiotics, structuralism, sociolinguistics and a lot more and there are no limits to an individual as how to analyze the media. The analysis of media is very important for this particular subject. Educators today realized that students need to be involved in practical work to understand the subject better. Media studies are normally associated with the English subject. However the difference is rather apparent and media studies courses uses economic and political perspectives are their main ways to understand the media as well as it requires a person to consider texts from different contrasting perspectives. The English subject on the other hand, deals with reading and writing skills as well as analyzing critically. It also involves individual students’ responses (Bazalgette, 2000).
There are five reasoning to why studying the media is important. T...
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...e importance of media studies will not decline, in fact, it will be more dominated in the future, and therefore we need to study the media to understand how it influences ourselves and the society. Not only that, people who study the media rather than consuming it would know how to act rather than being acted about. In saying this, media literate people are and will be better citizens and they can pose questions on the different benefits of the media as well as understand how the media is constructed.
Works Cited
Bazalgette, Cary (2000) “Why Media Studies is Worthwhile”, in Dan Fleming (ed.), Formation : A 21st Century Media Studies Textbook, Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp.5-14.
Sinclair, John (2002) “Media and Communications : Theoretical Traditions”, in Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner (eds), The Media & Communications in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp.23-34.
Thompson, B. John (1995) “Self and Experience in a Mediated World”, The Media and Modernity : A Social Theory of the Media, Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp.209-219.
McKee, Alan (2001) “A Beginner’s Guide to Textual Analysis” in Metro Magazine, No.127/128, 2001, pp.138-149.
- Taylor, L., & Willis, A., 1999, Media Studies – Texts, Institutions and Audiences, Blackwell Publishers Ltd., Oxford
The media play an indispensable role in modern life, and are considered amongst the most powerful and inaccurate sources of social information, education and entertainment. Our mass media is an electronic (TV, film, video, videogames, internet) visually dominated media with print (newspaper, magazine)...
Hartley, John (2002), Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: The Key Concepts, London, Routledge, pp. 19-21.
Joseph STRAUBHAAR and Robert LaROSE (2002). Media Now. Communication Media in the Information Age. 3rd Edition. Belmont, Wadworth/Tompson Learning.
Campbell, Richard, Christopher R. Martin, Bettina Fabos, and Richard Campbell. Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002. Print.
Dominick, J. (2009). The Dynamics of Mass Communication: Media in the Digital Age. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Firstly, I would like to add some critical point of view toward the study of mass media. I had an impression that their articles tend to focus rather on data or numbers than on thought or ideas, maybe because my major is not mass media in sociology, but in cultural studies or anthropology. As is often said,technology including new media had achieved rapidly‐advancing development for decades, but it is difficult to use technology properly. It is essential to study of mass media to intermediate between arts and sciences. Secondly, after studying mass media, I noticed how much media makes my world or viewpoints. What is particularly interesting for me is how media contribute to making one’s identity. Experiences of studying abroad as an exchange students are precious, but sometimes make questions about identity such as race or ethnicity. These familiar issues are worth studying. Finally, I recognized some common points between some theories of media effect and other studies such as cultural studies, but it was not clear at that time. I thought that making those points clear could end in connecting and deepening the discussions in many
· James Curran & Michael Gurevitch: (2000): Arnold Publishers “Mass Media And Society: Third Edition”
From James Carey, Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1985; repr. London/New York, Routledge, 1992
Joseph STRAUBHAAR and Robert LaROSE (2002). Media Now. Communications Media in the Information Age. 3rd Edition. Belmont, Wadsworth/Thompson Learning.
How media literacy is defined is important for it exerts influence on the framing of the debate, the research agenda and policy initiatives (Livingstone, 2004). However, its concept has always been controversial (Luke, 1989). The definition of media literacy first appear in the 1992 National Leadership Conference on Media Literacy, which described it as: “The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages” (Rubin, 1998, p.3). Based on this definition, many researchers are putting efforts to redefine it from different aspects. Some definitions of the last decade involved the understanding of how media functioned in society (Messaris, 1998). Others pointed out that media literacy instead depended on the understanding of the technological, political, economic constraints affecting the transmission of mediated messages (Lewis and Jhally, 1998). According to Tyner (1998, p17), definitions range from the tautological (computer literacy is the ability to use computers) to the hugely idealistic: “The term literacy is shorthand for cultural ideals as eclectic as economic development, personal fulfillment, and individual moral fortitude”. One of the definition that is more related to daily practice puts emphasis on critical thinking and the ability to distinguish media content form social reality, as Potter (2001, pp4-5) put it: “Media literacy is a perspective that we actively use when exposing ourselves to the media in order to interpret the meaning of the messages we encounter.” While popular US textbooks on media literacy have an interesting description, which says, “we build our perspectives from knowledge structures; to build our knowledge structures, we need tools and raw materials-the...
Campbell, Richard. Media & Culture: an introduction to mass communication. Bedford/St. Martin?s: Boston, N.Y. 2005.
Media literacy requires the skill to realize that the messages taken from media are reconstructed in the media. An individual needs a different skill, background knowledge and educational organization in order to be media competent. In order to be media literate, we should be in touch with media. The individual who is in touch with media can begin to access information about mass media. (Sur)
Media can present content that seems and is more or less real, however, it is our duty as the viewers to be able to distinguish, and differentiate between “reflections of reality, and constructions of reality”. The prime targets of the media are young people because they so unwittingly believe everything the media tells them, from “how to talk, how to dress, and how to relate to others”. This newspaper article, seeing is not believing by Leslie Fruman is essentially explaining that now “for the first time students will take a mandatory course to help separate fantasy from reality in the media.” The mandatory course is referred to as media literacy, and will teach young people the classifications of reality and fantasy.
Hence, the power of media has touched its apex in today’s age. Its societal, political and economic functions reflect its unparallel capacity to affect the human life in all spheres.