1.
Media and Culture
“Culture links individuals to their society by providing
both shared and contested values, and the mass media help circulate those values.”
(Campbell, 6).
“Everything that defines our culture – our language, food,
clothing, architecture, mass media content, and the like – is a form of symbolic
communication that signifies shared (but often still contested) beliefs about
culture at a point in historical time.” (Campbell, 539).
Understanding media within its historical context can give
us a greater comprehension of media. Media is not solely a product of cultural
context however and neither is cultural experience solely based on mass media.
There is interplay between the two especially as media becomes more prevalent
and becomes less and less distinguishable from culture. We gravitate toward
media as a tool to identify with ourselves and in large part this means we
identify with our given culture. In 1950’s
America there was the popular idea of the middle class white nuclear family and
indeed this notion was expressed in TV shows because it was so culturally
relevant. Now television shows may have more diverse casts because we are more
progressive as a society and culture.
2.
Surveillance vs Privacy
“However, when you use the Internet, whether you are signing
up for an e-mail account, shopping online or just surfing the web, you give way
personal information – voluntary or not.” (Campbell, 68).
“Since the inception of the internet, government agencies
worldwide have obtained communication log, Web browser histories, and the
online records of individual users who thought their online activities were
private.” (Campbell, 68).
While technological advancement into the digital age granted
more convenience, it also allowed for greater ease of surveillance by institutions
and individuals. Online fraud is perpetuated through the internet by malicious
individuals but involuntary surveillance is perpetuated by institutions that
are supposed to be on our side. Using internet makes us consumers who should be
informed about the product we are using. The internet is still largely
unregulated however we should be aware of the possible pitfalls when we log on.
Indeed there are ways to circumvent governmental oversight in the internet
however sometimes it’s just as well to be aware that your privacy is not guaranteed.
3.
Democracy
“Journalism is central to democracy: Both citizens and the
media must have access to the information that we need to make important decisions.”
(Campbell, 512)
“Public journalism..aims to reinvigorate a deliberative
democracy in which citizen groups, local government, and the news media together
work more actively to shape social, economic, and political agendas.”
(Campbell, 513).
Democracy is as a political
structure does not inherently translate into social progress. Alexis de Tocqueville
wrote of the despotism of the majority when he referred to the effect that
democracy has on an uninformed an inactive populace. The trust of uniformed voters
goes to the majority and in the United States the majority is largely culled by
the mass media. Therefore media is crucial in directing the political action.
Political activism should be promoted by media but not in a partisan way. Media
should aim to inform with the only agenda being truth.
4.
Convergence
“This is the stage in
which older media are reconfigured in various forms on newer media.” (Campbell,
11).
“Today’s converged media world has broken down the old
definitions of distinct media forms like newspapers and television – both now available
online and across multiple platforms.” (Campbell, 13).
Technological convergence is such a interesting interaction
whereby the means and ends of technology are becoming more and more gray. Obsolescence
because of superior innovation is nothing new and but convergence is
happenening more and more. Iphones can
access television shows, take photos, even turn on your own car. Compatibility
itself has become a recent guideline that innovation tends to follow so that
cross-platform interaction has become a staple of media. Specialization from a
given innovation can be quickly consumed by the economic necessity for
convergence, thus more and more devices offer similar capabilities and watered
down specialization allows for greater flexibility among producers to make a
profit without truly being innovative. The amount of convergence has generated a
web of codependent mediums that while many could stand alone they are nowhere
near as prevalent without the synergy of different mediums.
5.
Media Power Structure (Ownership)
“In an economic climate in which fewer owners control the
circulation of communication, what happens to new ideas or controversial views
that may not always be profitable to circulate?” (Campbell, 231).
““On the one hand, critics express concern about the
increasing power and reach of large media conglomerates. On the other hand,
many free market advocates maintain that as long as these structures ensure
efficient operation and generous profits, they measure up as quality media
organizations.” (Campbell, 451).
“In the 1960’s, serious national media consolidation began,
escalating into the global media mergers that have continued since the 1980’s.”
(Campbell, 455).
Mass media directs the common consciousness of our minds. Directors
of mass media have a social obligation to the masses but economic incentives
are also valued. I think that there is an inherent problem with the amount of
media consolidation in this country. A certain conflict of interest could develop
and the possibility for a type of hive mind complex could mean devastating results
for a democratic nation like the USA.
6.
Advertising/Consumerism
“A recent Kaiser
Family Foundation study found that today’s youth – doing two or more things at
once – packed ten hours and forty-five minutes worth of media content into the
seven and a half hours they spent daily consuming media.” (Campbell, 13).
“Ads take up more than half the space in most daily
newspapers and consumer magazines. They are inserted into trade books and
textbooks. They clutter Web sites on the internet. They fill our mailboxes and
wallpaper the buses we ride. Dotting the nation’s highways, billboards promote
fast-food and hotel chains, while neon signs announce the names of stores along
major streets and strip malls. Ads are even found in the restrooms of malls,
restaurants, and bars.” (Campbell, 383).
When Media becomes more prevalent, we experience more advertisements.
Consumerism takes on a hyper inflated and personal sense when it utilizes
digital technology. Using social media
advertisers can establish peer to peer promotion where legitimate advertisements
are promoted indirectly through online social interaction whether it is “liking”
or “retweeting”. Data mining too has become a controversial and lucrative tool
for advertisers. Digital information on aggregates allows for more effective
targeting of potential consumers.
7.
Technological Shift
“Ever-growing download speeds and the development of more
portable devices, from laptops to smartphones to tablets, have fundamentally
changed the ways in which we access and consume media.” (Campbell, 38).
“Aided by faster microprocessors, high-speed broadband
networks, and a proliferation of digital content, the Internet has become more
than just an information source in its second decade as a mass medium.” (Campbell,
52).
Convenience of interaction with one another was the most
obvious change when a technological shift from analog to digital came about.
Further innovation was predicated off of the internet with mobile devices.
Social media developed. As technology aloud for great prevalence of media in
our lives, capitalism profited from this digital shift with mega corporations
like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Yahoo. These corporations were able to freely
innovate from older analog ideas of encyclopedias, bookstores, and basic social
circles and translate them to digitally based giants.
8.
Implications of Social Media
“ The second generation of the Internet is a much more robust and social environment,
having moved toward being a fully interactive medium with user-created content
like blogs, Tumblrs, YouTube videos, Flickr photostreams, Photobucket albums, social
networking, and other collaborative sites.” (Campbell, 52).
“But social media have also proven to be an effective tool
for democracy, and for undermining repressive regimes that thrive on serving up
propaganda and hiding their atrocities from view.”(Campbell, 54).
Social media has brought forth a huge shift from mass media to
a now personal and participatory media. It is debatable what kind of impact positive
or negative social media is currently having on how we interact with one
another. However social media sites like Facebook and Twitter serve to
decentralize information which can bring about complicated issues. Facebook was
largely used in the Arab spring movement to circumvent oppressive regimes.
Twitter is used as a news source by some although it might not be fully
legitimate, it can produce quick information that is directly uploaded from the
source in seconds.
9.
Critical lens of media
“Developing media literacy – that is, attaining an understanding
of mass media and how they construct meaning – requires following a critical process
that takes us through the steps of description, analysis, interpretation,
evaluation, and engagement.”
“To become literate about media involves striking a balance
between taking a critical position and becoming tolerant of diverse forms of
expression.”
It is important to observe media as an entity. Technological
improvements have welcomed media into many of our more personal spaces and at a
quickening pace. This critical view does not need to be cynical but the growing
phenomena of media must be contextualized as a powerful phase of our social
nexus. Creating use of our understanding of media is key when dissecting it. If
we can analyze a given medium and locate how it can improve social welfare then
we are pursuing media through a critical lens.
10.
Politics
“To be fully media literate, we must actively work to create
a media world that helps serve democracy.”
“In fact, a 2011 survey related that forty-seven nations
allow virtually no freedom of the press, with those governments exercising
tight control over the news media and even intimidating, jailing and executing
journalists.” (Campbell, 548).
With the proliferation of global media and information
allows for a more egalitarian world in theory. Political action around the
world in response to a changing media landscape manifests itself differently. Particularly
in democratic societies the scale between regulation and deregulation can be
difficult. Digital technology and the internet makes political policies difficult
as the murky entanglements of blanket policies can be combined with free
information of an unregulated internet.
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