MEDIA MASSA & MASYARAKAT Pertemuan 6 Matakuliah: Sosiologi Komunikasi Massa Tahun: 2009/2010.

MEDIA MASSA & MASYARAKATPertemuan 6

Matakuliah : Sosiologi Komunikasi MassaTahun : 2009/2010

Bina Nusantara University 3

Media theories deal with…

• the links between the media and other institutions of society

• effects of the media on society and institutions • the links between media organizations and

public/audience • audience composition and behaviour• how media organizations work • formation and transmission of media messages• etc.

Bina Nusantara University 4

Mass media is seen as…

• a ‘window’• a ‘mirror’• a ‘filter’ or ‘gatekeeper’• a ‘guide’• a ‘forum’ or ‘marketplace of ideas and opinions’

Bina Nusantara University 5

Approach-based groups of media theories

Denis McQuail. Mass Communication Theory. 1983, 1987, 1994, 2000.

1. Macro-approaches2. Message-centered theories3. Theories of audience and effect

Bina Nusantara University 6

Macro-approaches• Mass society theory - focuses on society and the power-

holding institutions as the source and determinant of media institution

• Marxist approaches and critical theory - based on the concept of class society

• Political-economic media theory - focuses on economic structure of media ownership and market

• ‘Hegemony’ theory - focuses on dominance of ideology (Louis Althusser)

• The Frankfurt School (Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse) - mass media is a powerful mechanism for creating ‘mass society’

• The socio-cultural approach (Stuart Hall) - the role of the mass culture in society

Frankfurt School – 1923 School of Social Research

1. Full of leftwing Jewish intellectuals. To a backdrop of the rise of Nazi party in 1930s. Most fled Europe for America. Turned against America and returned to Germany.

2. Set terms of debate and analysis of mass culture theory. Heavily based on reaction to pre-war popular music in Germany and post-war American popular music.

3. Main members – Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcus, Benjamin.4. Were reacting against:

• Enlightenment – idea of scientific rational progress. Saw uses of science as a threat to human freedom. Against America with its use of the culture industry to control the minds and actions of people.

• Marxism – unlike Marx they put the spotlight on cultural institutions in society. filled in bits Marx missed out. Reason for no global revolution was that people were given the sop of mass culture – noT keep them pacified.

Bina Nusantara University 7

Bina Nusantara University 8

Message-centered theories

• Focus on media content• How the media messages are produced, how they

are ‘coded’ and ‘decoded’ by the audiences• Build a bridge between sociology, political

science and humanities

Bina Nusantara University 9

Theories of audience and effect• These theories are concerned with the levels

and kinds of media effects (intended and unintended, short-term and long-term), individual and collective reactions (persuasion theories), socialization, media campaignes, news diffusion etc.

Bina Nusantara University 10

Interdependences between media and society 1

Society produces:

• the demands for information and entertainment to which media respond

• the resources of money and time needed for the growth of media industries

• the technological innovations and inventions on which media industries are based

• the socio-cultural climate in which the media operate

Bina Nusantara University 11

Interdependences between media and society 2

Mass media:

• stimulates societal development and change• accelerates the demands for its own services

(information and entertainment)• contributes to the socio-cultural climate in which

it operates (esp. political freedom)• diffuses new ideas and innovations

Bina Nusantara University 12

‘normative theories’ of mass media and society

• Authoritarian theory• Democratic participant media theory• Development media theory• Free press theory• Social responsibility theory• Soviet media theory

Bina Nusantara University 13

Authoritarian theory• media should do nothing which could undermine

established authority• media should always (or ultimately) be subordinate

to established authority• media should avoid offence to majority, or

dominant, moral and political values (NB! What was said about the dominant values in a class society?)

• censorship can be justified to enforce these principles

• attacks on authority, deviations from official policy or offences against moral codes should be criminal offences.

Bina Nusantara University 14

Democratic participant media theory• focuses on the needs, interests and aspirations

of a ‘receiver’ in a political society• the rights to relevant information, to answer

back, to use the means of communication for interaction in small scale settings

• favours multiplicity, smallness of scale, locality, deinstitutionalization, interchange of sender-receiver roles, interaction

• media institutions are in control of their audiences

Bina Nusantara University 15

Development media theory• media should accept and carry out positive development tasks

in line with nationally established policy• freedom of the media should be open to restriction according

to (1) economic priorities and (2) development needs of society

• media should give priority in their content to the national culture and language

• media should give priority in news and information to links with other developing countries

• journalists and other media workers have both responsibilities and freedoms in their information gathering and dissemination tasks in the interests of development ends, the state has a right to restrict or intervene in media operations

Bina Nusantara University 16

Social responsibility theory• media should accept and fulfil certain obligations to society• the media should set high standards of informativeness, truth,

accuracy, objectivity and balance = professional standards;• the media should be self-regulating within the framework of law

and established insitutions• the media should avoid whatever should lead to crime, violance

or civil disorder or give offence to ethnic or religious minorities• the media should be pluralist and reflect the diversity of society• society and the public have a right to expect high standards of

performance • intervention can be justified to secure public good

Bina Nusantara University 17

Free press theory• publishing should be free from any prior censorship • publication and distribution should be open to anybody

without permit or licence• attack through the media on any government, official or

political party should not be punishable, even after the event

• there should be no compulsion to publish anything• in matters of opinion and belief publication of ‘error’ is

protected equally with that of truth• no legal restriction should be placed on the collection of

information for publication• there should be no restriction on export or import or

sending or receiving ‘messages’ across national frontiers

Bina Nusantara University 18

Criticism of the Free press theory

• applicability to public broadcasting is not clear• applicability to other communication spheres

(education, culture, the arts) is not clear• the theory has not much to say on ‘information’• seems to protect first of all the interests of

press owners• no indication to how to handle market pressures