Audience Capacity to Resist Media Power - Report Example

Audience Capa to Resist Media Power Jinji ZHAO Number: M00506721 Essay Question: 4 Middlesex London Course: MED1000 Media Analysis Word Account: 2450 Date: 10/04/2015 Audience Capacity to Resist Media Power Introduction Mass media is an important aspect of the democratic societies for their role in providing information to the citizens and providing a forum that citizens can express their views. The extent of its performance, however, varies from one democratic society to another. Many democratic societies highly value the role of mass media in offering information to the citizens, using various forms of communicating such as newspapers, televisions, internet, and radio. From a political perspective, mass medias role in maintaining political structures is highly doubted. It has also been indicated that mass media functions to democratize a society. There is a theoretical argument in contrast to this perception that attributes the establishment of mass media on market principles as a way of disregarding the democratic role. However, there is a minority group termed as mobilization theorists who argue that the information provided by the media is sufficient to enable the citizens to recognize instances that subject their interests to danger. They have also attributed the providence information by the media to increase in civic engagement. Mobilization theorists, therefore, have held the existence of a great role of media in democratic societies. Mass media is expected to fulfil two normative functions in democracy, which are disseminating the political information that is relevant to the people and providing a platform through which citizens can express their opinions. More than that, it also has its effects on the political environment and democratic processes in democratic societies. This paper aimed to reflect how mass media in these states does not only contribute to reflecting but also to shaping knowledge and opinions in democratic countries (Klages, 2006). Chaudhuri, 2014), in his article in mid day newspaper emphasises on how the media has the ability of creating an impact on its audience and how the audience lack the power to resist the influence of media. This arises from the role that media plays in democratic societies, which include having a role in delivering a service of responsibly providing information to the citizens of a democratic society. It also functions to challenge the individuals and parties in power and to communicate and ensure that social groups maintain social relations. Mass media has a principle of accurately reflecting the realities in the society and avoiding misleading the audience using false information. It is considered as having an important role in shaping democracy and is usually referred to as a backbone of democracy. Mass media is a provider of political information that voters of the democratic states in making more informed voting decisions. Hence, the citizens are able to vote more wisely for the benefit of the entire society. The mass media also has a watchdog function in that it assesses and exposes the wrong deeds of the political leaders and other parties in power to the citizens. Exposure of wrongdoings of the persons in power covers the economic, legal and political perspectives that if the corrective measures were taken would otherwise function to benefit a majority of the society. The performance of the media in this function, however, is subject to operation under certain standards. The functions of mass media that relates to democracy are the development of relationships that are socio-political, identification of the relevant issues and providence of a debate platform. Mass media also has a function ensuring that citizens learn through the providence of incentives, and equipping them with the relevant knowledge to ensure that they can participate in the political processes. The political and democratic role of media qualifies it to acting as an agent of democracy. (Chaudhuri, 2014). Chaudhuri continues to explain this by ranging the meaning of democratization from a picture of free competitive elections to constituting several forms of participation and continues to show how the audience is unable to resist the role media to involve them in political activities. The explanation of this as McNair, (1994) brings out is based on freedom of media. Freedom of media has in many cases been termed as an indicating factor of democratic reforms. Media is termed as the largest democratic institution that has a great role in the improvement of political parties, electoral systems, judiciary, parliament and other state bodies (Malikova, 2008). It also functions to ensure that the performance of these institutions is maintained. The normative theory of media has an assumption that the political structures that are democratic precede the media market. As stated by Lichtenberg (1990), media is characterized by independence, and this enables media to be able to offer a platform on which citizens can debate on important aspects of public affairs. The media is also able to inform the public of the existing instances of power abuse by the persons in power. It is also able to mobilize and encourage the public to learn and participate. The media thus gives the citizens ability to oversee the actions of political leaders and other parties in power and act as means of delivering information concerning actions of the government to voters thus enabling them to make decisions. This way, they work not only to provide but also to shape knowledge as well (Herman and McChesney, 2001). Gelman (2014) in his article in Washington Monthly addresses this question in a similar perspective, recognising the lack of capacity of the audience to resist media power. He continues to imply how media shapes knowledge and opinions of the audience in democratic societies by emphasizing on accountability as a way of ensuring that the economic, legal and political retrogressions of the leaders are addressed and that the citizens are informed of these instances. This is aimed at benefiting the entire democratic society and is covered by the historical materialism. The media presents a situation that gives every individual an opportunity of pursuing wealth for everyones benefit. Media can address social issues caused by the persons in power such as their contribution to the growth of slums and poor pay for minority workers. Exposure of these vices leads to finding of their solution, which according to capitalism is giving the power to new elite groups. Gelman continues to show how media has a role in political transformation. It is capable of performing functions of witnessing and legitimizing in the pre-transformation stage in order to facilitate the changes to take place. It can also incite transformation to take place by directly exerting pressure. It might also present a platform for political debate during the process of transformation whereby they offer interpretations of the involved concepts and encourage the citizens to participate. The role of media in transformation is critical since it affects and influences the decisions made by the citizens. Media is also capable of informing the citizens of their lack of political freedom and also the economic power that existing political systems have in their lives. This is usually facilitated by the global media which are also capable of directing foreign audiences who include political elites to problems that a particular country faces (McCauley, and Conference Public Broadcasting and the Public Interest, 2003). Media achieves full democratization in a society only if the citizens are willing to accept socialization to acquiring new attitudes, values, norms and political and democratic cultures. According to Lichtenberg (1990), media is mainly attributed to the political socialization of citizens in the societies that are democratic. This perception results from the theory of media dependency that states that citizens are more likely to depend on media providence of information during times of political transitions. During transition periods, the citizens require information that they use to make their political decisions, and the most reliable source is usually the media. The information provided by media is thereby crucial to the attainment of political stability. Another reason associated with the role of media in achieving political socialization is that certain attitudes and values are a requirement for democracy to take place. Media has freedom to operate free from political and economic regulation, thus, has more ability to change the perceptions held by the citizens of a certain democratic economy. It is capable of causing a change in these attitudes and values that are required for democratization to take place. It can play a role in modernization and resocialization and teaching the citizens new way of participating in politics. Political socialization requires the change in individual values, attitudes and beliefs, which the media is efficient in making possible. Media is depicted as having the power to change beliefs and attitudes of individuals concerning their views on political systems. They become more informed to see the realities that take place in the political systems and they attain the ability of being able to clearly see the political wrongdoings of the persons in power and also to discover the acts that are not undertaken for public benefit. The citizens end up attaining different opinions concerning the political realities and can make wise decisions in the voting process (Curran, and Seaton, 2003). Mass media is also playing its democratizing role in the social media whereby it is using the social networking sites to arrange civic activism. It is achieving this by using certain strategies such as organizing and coordinating and conducting social place and ensuring their effectiveness. In this case, media is able to reach a number of audiences and is able to influence their attitudes and values concerning the political operations of the rulers by engaging them in dialogues whereby they can express their views and the media can offer elaborations concerning issues that will enable the citizens to aim at political transformation. Through the social networks, the media can connect with many individuals and to involve them in political participation and engagement. Individuals have access to more political information and disclosures. The users of the social media can also gain access from the social networks, to links that that provides more political information thus enabling them to obtain more information and subsequently more knowledge of political happenings. It has also subjected individuals to accessing information that they would have otherwise avoided. It also enables them to get involved in political, social exchanges and allowing them to share this information with other social participants. Because of that social media has been a successful way through which media has attained control over the peoples perceptions of political issues and subsequently enhancing its democratizing ability. This increases the effectiveness of mass media in reflecting as well as shaping the opinions of the participants in the societies that are democratic (McNair, 1994). The mass media is capable of influencing its audience in believing the reality concerning the political information that they present. It may reflect a distorted picture of the real political meaning and at the same time be able to win the influence of the audience. The reality of the information depends largely on the definition given to political reality. Mass media may for instance in reporting the cause of conflicts in the political systems, and concerning various elite groups, it may present the political reality using a distorted picture. When reporting on economic conditions, media may assume the market economy systems and may end up having an unclear picture of real economic conditions. The media might as well fail to understand the real effects and reflections of prevalent economic problems such as unemployment thus might end up presenting the untrue reflection of the real economic state. This facilitated by the fact that the media is by itself a democratic institution, which acts independently and has a right and freedom of presenting its information to the public. Instances it presents what is not right to the audience. However, media is the primary source of information for the citizens and in such it still has the power of influencing the audience who are the citizens and in this case is capable of changing them with false information, which is in contradiction with the actual reality. The two articles show how Mass media is integrated with existing political and economic elites, and it reflects the interests of these elites according Marxism. In this case, media is viewed as a facilitator to social agreements from its role in disseminating information. It regards the ideas of the ruling class as the prevalent ideas in any society and insists that mass media operates in a capitalist context whereby they are based on an aim of making profits and materialism and imperialism of the media. Consequently, there is an aspect that comes out from this that the operation of media is dominated by class and power. The individuals in power have the ability to obtain the majoritys consent from the media thus adding up to the fact that media has a significant influence on the members of the public. The individuals in power can use the influence of media in order to gain the consent of the members of the public or a target group. Conclusion The media may be used in ways that it contributes to addressing political and economic issues facing a democratic economy since it exposes the wrongdoings of those in power to the public. Media also has a role in ensuring the effectiveness the process of elections in a democratic state since it serves an informative function and elaborates the issues the issues of interest to the public thereby serves efficiently at increasing political knowledge to the society. Mass media increases the political socialization and participation of citizens of a given state. Providence of a forum for conducting political debate is another role of mass media in a democratic state, and this increases the participation of the members of the democratic state. The freedom of media enables it to be in a position of attaining influence from its audience. The audiences beliefs values and attitudes can be influenced by what is reflected by the media, and these lead to derivation of a conclusion that media does not only reflect but actively shapes knowledge and opinion and that the audience lacks the capacity of resisting media power. (Lichtenberg, 1990). Reference list: Chaudhuri, A. (2014). Media and democracy. Mid day newspaper. Curran, J. & Seaton J. (2003). Power without Responsibility: The Press and Broadcasting in Britain. London: Routledge. Herman, E. S., &McChesney, R. W. (2001). The global media: The new missionaries of corporate capitalism. London: Continuum. Klages, M. (2006). Literary theory: A guide for the perplexed. London: Continuum. Lichtenberg, J. (1990). Democracy and the mass media: A collection of essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Malikova, S. (2008). The role of mass media in the survival or failure of democracies. McCauley, M. P., & Conference Public Broadcasting and the Public Interest. (2003). Public broadcasting and the public interest. Armonk, NY. McNair, B. (1994). News and Journalism in the UK. London: Routledge. Gelman, A. (2014). Media bias on journalism and public relations. Washington Monthly. Read More