THEORY BUILDING AND COMMUNICATION
What is the importance of media?
• It is a fundamental part of our lives
• It shapes and defines us and our culture
• It shapes and defines realities of our world
• It reflects us and our culture
• It influences us
• It educates us
• It entertains us
Why is it important to study mass media?
• Mass media is the central cultural force in contemporary societies
• Informed and involved citizenry is possible only through mass media
• Mass media effects all walks of life
• We learn almost everything beyond our immediate environment through mass media
• We need mass media to express our ideas
• Mass media not only shapes our lives but it does this with us
• We have to be aware of the presence and influence of mass media in our lives
• Political and economic forces (actors) use mass media to influence public opinions (ideological,
commercial purposes)
• We must understand our cultural environment if we want control over our lives
• Perhaps the best way to understand a society is to understand it’s media
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On average, we spend over 15 years of our waking lives just watching television. Films, videos
and the time spent reading newspapers and magazines, listening to music and surfing the Net,
means that we spend one-third of our lives immersed in the media
Our abilities to speak, think, form relationships with others, even our dreams and our own sense of
identity are very much influenced by the media
So, studying the media is studying ourselves as social creatures
How do we study media?
• E = mc² (Einstein’s special relativity theory)
– Energy equals, mass times the square of speed of light
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Are there formulas for studying the media and culture?
Short answer: NO
Why can’t we come up with a set formulas to study media?
• Because media and culture are interrelated.
• Because culture both influences and is influenced by the media
• Because media is not static. It’s functionality requires human participation
• We can’t apply formulas to the study of human traits
• So, we have to first think about what culture is and what sorts of characteristics it has!
Defining culture
• “Culture is the learned, socially acquired traditions and lifestyles of the members of a society,
including their patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling and acting” (Harris, 1983: 5)
• “Culture refers broadly to the forms through which people make sense of their lives, rather than
more narrowly to the opera or art of museums” (Rosaldo, 1989: 26)
• “Culture is an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbolic forms by means
of which (people) communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and attitudes
toward life” (Geertz, 1991: 91)
“Culture is the learned, socially acquired traditions and lifestyles of the members of a society,
including their patterned, repetitive ways of thinking, feeling and acting”
• Culture is learned not pre-given
• Culture is socially constructed. It is not free of political, social, economic bias
• Culture is socially acquired we learn culture through socialization AND MEDIA
• Culture includes ways of thinking
• Culture includes ways of feeling
• Culture includes ways of acting
• Culture is not static! Culture changes!
“Culture refers broadly to the forms through which people make sense of their lives, rather than
more narrowly to the opera or art of museums” (Rosaldo, 1989: 26)
• There is no such thing as being a “cultured” person
• There is no high culture/low culture
• Culture is not opera or art in museums
• Culture is the forms through which individuals make sense of their lives
“Culture is an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbolic forms by means
of which (people) communicate, perpetuate and develop their knowledge about and attitudes
toward life” (Geertz, 1991: 91)
• Culture is historically transmitted
• Culture consists of meanings embodied in symbolic forms
• We communicate through culture
• We learn about attitudes toward life through culture
Redefining culture
• “Culture is the world made meaningful; it is socially constructed and maintained through
communication. It defines our realities and thereby shapes the ways we think, feel and act”
(Baran, 2006: 16).
Recasting the question: How do we study media?
• We theorize
• In order to produce our own ideas that make meaningful points we have to first know what people
before us have said and discussed
• We have to study already existing theories
Studying theories means
– Learning them
– Understanding rather than memorizing them
– Being efficient in applying them to our social surroundings
– Criticizing them
Defining theory
• Theory: A systematic and logical attempt, expressed in language, to explain and predict
phenomena
• Theories differ from concepts, which define phenomena that are being studied, and from models,
which are abstract, usually graphic in nature, and explicit about what is being studied
The role of theory
• Theory is the ultimate goal of science
• Theories are general statements that summarize our understandings of the way the world works
• In developing theory, we are often trying to explain something that is difficult to understand
• Basically, the goal of theory is to formulate statements or propositions that will have some
explanatory power
Communication theory
Communication theory is aimed at improving our understanding of the process of mass communication.
With better understanding, we are in a better position to predict and control the outcomes of mass
communication efforts.
The goals of mass communication theory
• To explain the effects of mass communication
• To explain the uses to which people put mass communication
• To explain learning from the mass media
• To explain the role of the mass media in shaping people’s values and views
• Ultimately, to understand mass media and our social existence
Different models of communication theory
• Social scientific theory
– Studies the nature, working and effects of mass communication
– In general it derives from different disciplines such as sociology, psychology, and political
science
– It may be aimed at understanding
– It may be aimed at critiquing
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Cultural theory
– It may aim to evaluate
– It may aim to challenge the status quo
– In general it derives from disciplines such as sociology, political science, cultural studies
– It does not demand testing or validation
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Normative theory
– It looks at how media ought to operate
– In general, it derives from disciplines such as political science, psychology, philosophy
– It scrutinizes ideological issues such as ownership, politics of media, economics of media,
media policy
– This is usually a highly critical one
Operational theory
– Aims to study the internal dynamics of media organizations and how they operate
– It attempts to understand and explain how media should work (how should news be
collected?, how should it be edited?, what may be ways to improve the effects of public
relations etc.)
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Common-sense theory
– It stems from the idea that context and the content of mass media can better be (perhaps
can can only be) understood through the experiences of the audiences
– It also argues that audiences have an strong influence over the content of mass media