Key Concepts in Politics and International Relations by Andrew Heywood

Author:Andrew Heywood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.

MASS MEDIA

The media comprises those societal institutions that are concerned with the production and distribution of all forms of knowledge, information and entertainment. The ‘mass’ character of the mass media is derived from the fact that the media channel communication towards a large and undifferentiated audience using relatively advanced technology. Grammatically and politically, the mass media are plural. The broadcast media, including television, radio and, increasingly, ‘new’ media (electronic communications made possible through digital or computer technology, such as mobile phones and the internet), can be distinguished from the print media, which encompass newspapers, magazines and publishing generally. Similarly, different messages may be put out by, for example, public and private television channels, and by tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. The growth of ‘new’ media, particularly since the 1990s, has subverted the notion of mass media by dramatically increasing audience fragmentation.

Significance

Interest in the political impact of the mass media burgeoned during the twentieth century, initially through the growth of the popular press, but subsequently because of the growing penetration of television in particular throughout modern society. There can be no doubt that most political information is now disseminated by the mass media. When communication systems are subject to formal political control – as in state socialist, fascist or authoritarian regimes – the media become little more than a propaganda machine. However, there is considerable debate about its impact in liberal-democratic regimes. Some view the media’s influence as being broadly positive. Pluralist theorists, for example, tend to argue that, so long as the media are independent from the state, they serve to promote democracy and protect freedom by providing a forum that allows a variety of political views to be debated and discussed. Moreover, as most forms of media are privately owned and so are sensitive to market demand, the media do not impose their own views but merely reflect those of their audience, listeners or readers.

Nevertheless, both left-wing and right-wing critics have complained about media bias, stemming from the fact that all forms of communication involve the selection, prioritization and interpretation of information. The most common version of this view, advanced especially by Marxists, regards the mass media as perhaps the key means of propagating bourgeois ideas and maintaining capitalist hegemony. Such ideas generally highlight the political power that flows from media ownership. An alternative version of the media bias argument holds that the mass media articulate the values of groups that are disproportionally represented among its senior professionals, be they left-leaning intellectuals, middle-class conservatives, or men. A more subtle, but nevertheless important form of media influence is summed up in Marshall McLuhan’s famous aphorism – ‘the medium is the message’. For example, the political impact of television may be less related to its content and more to its tendency to privatize leisure time and reduce achievement levels in children, thereby creating a ‘post-civic’ generation.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.