Reading Response: Culture, Society, and the Media

Reading: Curran, J., Gurevitch, M., & Woollacott, J. (1995. The study of the media: theoretical approaches.

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Media Monster!!!

Media Pandemonium!!!

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Questions Posed:

• Does the media posses power? If, so how much?
• Moreover, could this power be a shared responsibility between the media and the viewer?

For me, this particular reading was insightful, but the question posed, redundant; which is not too surprising when you consider the fact that it was written in the ’80s (1982 copyright). Conversations where the question posed is: “do media influence the public or does the public influence media” are nothing new.

My concerns rest more with digital media and its influential relationship with society/the audience.

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“The creation of mass audiences on a scale that was unprecedented through the application of new technology…to the mass production of communications.” (p 11)

Yes, digital technologies enable larger audiences and broader forms of communication. But, these technologies have also created a larger group of media producers. Thus, transitioning audience member to media creator, who delivers messages of popular interest just as we see with the major network media. These days I can not tell the difference between the media of “then” (big wig networks) and the media of “now” (any person that self-publishes content via a widely accessed mode of communication, i.e. the Internet).

The popularity of the Internet and other communication technologies puts the power in the hands of the audience. The “new media” promotes the same frivolous content, we criticize the “old media” for producing: violence, varying levels of sexuality, content that ignores socially relevant subjects, biasness, etc. Just do a search for the most popular things on the web…

• 90% nonsense
• 5% 2008 U.S. Presidential Election (arguably, this content belongs in the 90% category)
• 5% worth the hype!

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“Audience members are active rather than passive and bring to the media a variety of different needs and uses that influence their response to the media.” (p 12)

It is fair to say that audience members have more control today in regards to entertainment and informational programming. We live in a time where everything is made accessible via the Internet so as an audience we have a plethora of choices. Here is where I see the audience and media having a very co-responsible influence on the type of content made available and popular.

At some point the media producer will say to herself, “this type of genre draws the crowd, therefore I will produce more of it.” So, if violent or humorous video is what goes viral and receives the most downloads, then we can not blame the media producer for encouraging or constructing an aggressive or frolicsome culture.

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“Whilst I accept that the media have responsibility, I believe what media we choose to expose ourselves to, is the responsibility of every one of us. There is so much “media” out there, that I know I can find a channel that will support my own political beliefs, no matter how extreme. My own responsibility, I feel, is to take in a broad selection of media sources. “

Thank you Kenyan academic. It is about time we stop creating this image of the (big, bad) media monster versus the (impressionable, naive) audience.

~ by De Fench on October 2, 2008.