http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/download/we_media.pdf

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WeMedia and Democracy Exam questions

WeMedia and Democracy Exam questions

These are the previous questions set for this topic:



• How far can the media in 2010 be considered to be democratic?

• Assess the claim that the media is becoming more democratic.

• Discuss the meanings of the term ‘we media.’

• Explore the claim that the ‘new’ media are more democratic than the ‘old’ media.

• What is ‘we media’ and what difference does it make to citizens?

• ‘We get the media we deserve.’ Discuss, in relation to the role of media in a democracy.

So as you can see, several previous questions focus on old media v new media, some on what might be defined as wemedia and some very specifically on notions of democracy.

If we look at the bullet points in the Specification, which defines what should be studied, we should be able to relate them to the questions set so far:

• What are ‘We Media’?

• Where / how has ‘We Media’ emerged?

• In what way are the contemporary media more democratic than before?

• In what ways are the contemporary media less democratic than before?

The kinds of thing you might use as case studies include:

•  ‘homegrown’, local, organic and potentially counter- cultural media (eg blogging and digital film uploading and sharing)

• You could compare potentially alternative / progressive ‘we media’ examples with other examples of more orthodox production and ownership models
you should know a bit about the history of such media before the web (fanzines, pamphlets, radical documentaries, etc)

This part of the exam asks you to do three more specific things, whatever topic you answer on:
1. You MUST refer to at least TWO different media

2. You MUST refer to past, present and future (with the emphasis on the present- contemporary examples from the past five years)

3. refer to critical/theoretical positions

• For this topic, since a lot of what you look at is likely to be online, a comparison between online media and any form of traditional media (newspapers, broadcast news, film) would ensure you quickly meet the criteria for no.1

• For no.2, the main thing is to ensure you have a majority of material from the past five years. This really should not be a problem when using online media, and to be honest I think you could use material from the last few months to construct a really good answer!

• And for no.3 you should have a range of writers that you could use- for example Dan Gillmor who coined the term 'We Media'or sceptics of the power of social media such as Evgeny Morozov or some of the advocates of people power through social media such as Clay Shirky


In all cases, you should be looking for case studies which raise questions about how much the web and social media appear to offer more democratic options for the audience than what was there before. The work of Graeme Turner is quite useful for offering a critique of many assumptions about democracy and new media. You can preview his findings here. 

http://www.participations.org/Volume%208/Issue%202/5c%20Cross%20Review.pdf

For this topic, it is likely you will look at news and citizen journalism, but you could also look at media such as reality TV and shows where ordinary people get to be stars through public participation (the 'democracy of texting'). 

You could also look at the creative options open to ordinary people such as youtube and how far this really does represent a change. David Gauntlett's work on creativity would be useful here.

http://davidgauntlett.com/

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Well done to all who handed in their evaluations on time. Some very interesting methods used.

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For some who did not hand in you will need to email me please asap.

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Be prepared for the exam work to begin on Tuesday.

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GENRE THEORY

• Conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings) and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared and belong to them. 

• The attempt to define particular genres in terms of sufficient textual properties is sometimes seen as attractive but it poses many difficulties. 

For instance, in the case of films, some seem to be aligned with one genre in content and another genre in form. 

The film theorist Robert Stam argues that 'subject matter is the weakest criterion for generic grouping because it fails to take into account how the subject is treated (Stam 2000, 14).

• Film theorist, Robert Stam, refers to common ways of categorizing films:

• While some genres are based on story content (the war film), other are borrowed from literature (comedy, melodrama) or from other media (the musical). 

• Some are budget-based (blockbusters), while others are based on artistic status (the art film), racial identity (Black cinema), location (the Western) or sexual orientation (Queer cinema). (Stam 2000,14).

• Films can help to remind us of the social nature of the production and interpretation of texts. In relation to film, many modern commentators refer to the commercial and industrial significance of genres. 

• McQuail argues that: The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently relating its production to the expectations of its customers. 

• Since it is also a practical device for enabling individual media users to plan their choices, it can be considered to order the relations between the parties to mass communication. (McQuail 1987, 200)

• Steve Neale observes that 'genres... exist within the context of a set of economic relations and practices', though he adds that 'genres are not the product of economic factors as such. 

• The conditions provided by the capitalist economy account neither for the existence of the particular genres that have hitherto been produced, nor for the existence of the conventions that constitute them' (Neale 1980, 51-2). Economic factors may therefore account for the perpetuation of a profitable genre.

UNDERSTANDING MEDIA AUDIENCES• Researchers investigating the effect of media on audiences have considered the audience in two distinct ways.

Passive Audiences:

• The earliest idea was that a mass audience is passive and inactive.

• The members of the audience are seen as couch potatoes just sitting there consuming media texts – particularly commercial television programmes. 

• It was thought that this did not require the active use of the brain. 

• The audience accepts and believes all messages in any media text that they receive. This is the passive audience model.The Hypodermic Model:

• In this model the media is seen as powerful and able to inject ideas into an audience who are seen as weak and passive.

• It was thought that a mass audience could be influenced by the same message. This appeared to be the case in Nazi Germany in the 1930s leading up to WWII. Powerful German films such as Triumph of the Will seemed to use propaganda methods to ‘inject’ ideas promoting the Nazi cause into the German audience. 

• That is why this theory is known as the Hypodermic model.It suggests that a media text can ‘inject’ ideas, values and attitudes into a passive audience who might then act upon them. 

• This theory also suggests that a media text has only one message which the audience must pick up.

•In 1957 an American theorist called Vance Packard working in advertising wrote an influential book called The Hidden Persuaders. 

• This book suggested that advertisers were able to manipulate audiences, and persuade them to buy things they may not want to buy. 

• This suggested advertisers had power over audiences. In fact this has since proved to be an unreliable model, as modern audiences are too sophisticated.

• Basically this theory stems from a fear of the mass media, and gives the media much more power than it can ever have in a democracy. 

• Also it ignores the obvious fact that not everyone in an audience behaves in the same way. 

• How can an audience be passive – think of all the times you have disagreed with something on television or just not laughed at a new so called comedy, or thought a programme was awful, i.e The Voice, X factor, Jerry Springer.

Cultivation Theory:

• This theory also treats the audience as passive. It suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values. 

• A similar idea is known as densensitisation which suggests that long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence. 

• Being less shocked by violence the audience may then be more likely to behave violently.The criticism of this theory is that screen violence is not the same as real violence. 

• Many people have been exposed to screen murder and violence, but there is no evidence at all that this has lead audiences to be less shocked by real killings and violence. 

• Also this theory treats the audience as passive which is an outdated concept.

Two Step Flow Theory:

• Katz and Lazarsfeld assumes a slightly more active audience. 

• It suggests messages from the media move in two distinct ways. First, individuals who are opinion leaders, receive messages from the media and pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content.

• The information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience, but is filtered through the opinion leaders who then pass it on to a more passive audience. 

• The audience then mediate the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, thus being influenced not by a direct process, but by a two step flow.

• This theory appeared to reduce the power of the media, and some researchers concluded that social factors were also important in the way in which audiences interpret texts. This led to the idea of active audiences.

Active Audiences:

• This newer model sees the audience not as couch potatoes, but as individuals who are active and interact with the communication process and use media texts for their own purposes. 

• We behave differently because we are different people from different backgrounds with many different attitudes, values, experiences and ideas.

• This is the active audience model, and is now generally considered to be a better and more realistic way to talk about audiences.

Uses and Gratifications Model:

• This model stems from the idea that audiences are a complex mixture of individuals who select media texts that best suits their needs – this goes back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

• The users and gratifications model suggests that media audiences are active and make active decisions about what they consume in relation to their social and cultural setting and their needs.

• This was summed up by theorists Bulmer and Katz in 1974;
‘Media usage can be explained in that it provides gratifications (meaning it satisfies needs) related to the satisfaction of social and psychological needs’.

• Put simply this means that audiences choose to watch programmes that make them feel good (gratifications) e.g. soaps and sitcoms, or that give them information that they can use (uses) e.g. news or information about new products or the world about them.

• Bulmer and Katz (1975) went into greater detail and identified four main uses:

• Surveillance – 

our need to know what is going on in the world. This relates to Maslow’s need for security. By keeping up to date with news about local and international events we feel we have the knowledge to avoid or deal with dangers.

• Personal relationships – 

our need for to interact with other people. This is provided by forming virtual relationships with characters in soaps, films and all kinds of drama, and other programmes and other media texts.

• Personal identity – 

our need to define our identity and sense of self. 

• Part of our sense of self is informed by making judgments about all sorts of people and things. This is also true of judgments we make about TV and film characters, and celebrities. 

• Our choice of music, the shows we watch, the stars we like can be an expression of our identities. 

• One aspect of this type of gratification is known as value reinforcement. This is where we choose television programmes or newspapers that have similar beliefs to those we hold.

• Diversion – 

the need for escape, entertainment and relaxation. All types of television programmes can be ‘used’ to wind down and offer diversion, as well as satisfying some of the other needs at the same time.

Reception Analysis:

• Reception analysis is an active audience theory that looks at how audiences interact with a media text taking into account their ‘situated culture’ – this is their daily life. 

• The theory suggests that social and daily experiences can affect the way an audience reads a media text and reacts to it.

• This theory about how audiences read a text was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall in ‘The television discourse – encoding/decoding’ in 1974 with later research by David Morley in 1980 and Charlotte Brunsden.

• He suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:

1. The dominant or preferred reading. The audience shares the code of the text and fully accepts and understands its preferred meaning as intended by the producers (This can be seen as a hegemonic reading).

2. The negotiated reading. The audience partly shares the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred meaning, but will change the meaning in some way according to their own experiences, culture and values EG These audience members might argue that some representations – ethnic minorities perhaps – appear to them to be inaccurate.

3 The oppositional reading. The audience understands the preferred meaning but does not share the text’s code and rejects this intended meaning and constructs an alternative meaning. EG This could be a radical reading by a Marxist or feminist who rejects the values and ideology of the preferred reading.

Other Considerations:

• Audience theories are crucial for A2 as are Representation, Genre and Narrative.

• Interactive audiences. The interactive role of audiences in programmes where audience participation is asked is increasing.Audiences are asked to be a voter (X factor) or as an on screen member of an audience (Children in Need) or as a participant (Who wants to be a millionaire). This can be seen as audience power, but is it really? Sometimes the power of the audience seems to lie in being able to take part in a media text. Newspapers have always invited a reader response via letters, some of which are published.Audience as producers:

• Television has been a late starter in the participation stakes but is rapidly catching up. • News is asking for CJs – Citizen Journalists – to send in pictures and stories. More and more documentary style programmes are made about so called ‘real’ people.

• There are also the ‘make over’, (60 min makeover, grand designs,DIY SOS)  programmes where ordinary people are invited to radically change their life with new clothes, new hair styles or by losing weight etc. 

• The audience is even more active than ever before. It is becoming part of the production. Big Brother, 

• Audiences seem to like seeing themselves on any genre of programme except drama. (Geordie shore, Only Way is Essex).

• Twenty first century audiences are creating their own distribution systems without mediation from institutions or companies. 

• Websites such as My Space, YouTube, and blogs offer new possibilities for audiences. In fact it is what we do and what we spend our money on that gives an audience its value, and to some extent its power, not just what we watch.

• Things that influence audiences include new technologies. 

• For example the way broadband and the internet has reduced TV audiences. Digital transmission and production means there are many new channels and ways of viewing media texts not just on television but also via the internet.

MEDIA THEORY -

Representation

• This can seem complicated but it’s very simple once you get it and possibly the most important of all the key concepts.

• What we see and hear in the media is never real... It is a RE-presentation of reality. When we see young people in the media, they are being re-presented to us. 

• How a person or organisation is represented is really important. 

• A representation could be either positive or negative depending upon the way it is constructed. 

• Costume, the language they use, the location are all part of how meaning is created. Another example might be with race. 

• As Media analysts, we need to look at the representation of characters and organisations critically to uncover whether there is an unfair dominance of negative stereotypes.

• Try watching an episode of The Wire or Skins and think about the representation of young people. Is it good or bad, fair or unfair, is it stereotypical or more balanced? 

• Try watching an episode of Britain’s Next Top Model and thinking about the representation of women, is it positive or negative and why?

• As you watch TV, read magazines, go to see films or listen to the radio, or read the paper or surf the net, try thinking about the key concepts. 

• Why not stop and think – who is the audience and how are they responding? What are the stereotypes being used here and are the representations positive or negative? 

• Which institution made this media text and how are they funded; what is their vision?

• Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective. 

• Rather than examining media representations as simply reflecting or mirroring "reality," we examine how media representations serve to "re-present" or to actually create a new reality.

• For example, alcohol and beer ads portray drinking beer as a primary component for having a party i.e, Bacardi, Fosters, Guinness. • Land Rover/ Jaguar jeeps create the impression that driving a jeep/ 4WD as an exciting, outdoor adventure. • And, perfume/ aftershave adverts imply the using perfume/aftershave makes one sexually appealing ie - 007, gaultier, beckham, lynx. • These ads all create idealized experiences associated with the uses of these products, experiences that may not jive with alternative perspectives on these experiences:

• Similarly, the Disney Corporation, one of the major producers of film and television, represents stories and fairy tales for children primarily in terms of White, Western, middle-class values.  And,

Mickey Mouse Monopoly - A video examination of Disney and race, gender, and class.

• DisneyWorld/Disneyland creates artificial realities that represent different “worlds” — other “lands” in ways that sanitized and idealize any political, cultural, and ideological differences constituting the unique cultures of those worlds.  For example, “Safari” boat trips represent Africa as a primitive jungle experience.

Narrative

• The study of narrative explores the different ways that media texts can tell a story. Narrative is strongly linked to the audience and purpose of the text.

• Conventions used to tell the story are dependant on the medium. In film, for example, the condensing of time is important and may be shown through production techniques such as camera fades. 

• Whereas in a magazine article narrative conventions include production techniques such as layout and writing, and style is very important.

• A study of narrative is dependant on an understanding of close reading techniques. Understanding of narrative is helpful across a range of achievement standards.

Ideology

Ideology is an important concept for media studies students to understand as it underpins many of the other aspects of media studies (such as representation).

What is an ideology?

An ideology is a world view, a system of values, attitudes and beliefs which an individual, group or society holds to be true or important; these are shared by a culture or society about how that society should function.

Dominant ideologies

• Ideologies that are told to us repeatedly by important social institutions such as the church, the law, education, government, and the media are called dominant ideologies.

• Dominant ideologies are ideologies or beliefs that we live by in our day-to-day lives and often do not question – they have become 'natural, common sense' things to do. This effectively dissuades people from rebelling against these beliefs, and keeps a sense of stability in society.

• Dominant ideologies include beliefs about gender roles, about the economy, about social institutions.

• Consumerism has been a dominant ideology in the western world since the industrial revolution. Consumerism is a world view that a person has more worth if she or he has more material possessions and that we are made happier by consuming more goods.

How ideology relates to media studies

• Media texts always reflect certain values or ideologies though sometimes we may not be aware of this. An example might be that in some texts, such as action films like the Die Hard or the Lethal Weapon series, solving problems with force is seen as an acceptable value and reflects a certain ideology.

• The media is a successful carrier of ideology because it reaches such a huge audience. The study of the media allows us to consider and question dominant ideologies and look for the implications of different ideology and value systems.

• When studying a media text you may look for the dominant ideology present and question whose world view is represented and which group(s) and their associated world view(s) have not been represented.

• Some studies of the media concentrate on viewing texts from particular ideological perspectives, for example a feminist perspective.