Media Communications

Media Communications Richard Trombly Contact : Email : richard@trombly.com Wechat and phone: +86 13818837641

Introduction • Media Studies or Communications Studies as a discipline was stated in the 1970s so it is only a 40 year old field. • Scannel the author of our text was one of the first professors of this discipline

Introduction • Influenced heavily by McLuhan “the media is the message” [the essence of which is to not judge or critique new media on its technology basis. But to study how people use the technology and how it affects them] • For instance radio dropped its two-way and no one making mobile phones would have ever expected that we now almost never make a call on them.

Introduction • When I was a kid, I dreamed of a system where a PERSON had a phone number instead of a house having a phone number • It did not make sense that if you moved, so many connections would be severed.

Introduction • Arthur C. Clarke the guy that envisioned geo-stationary satellites, had also envisioned that people could have wearable jewelry that stored and played their favorite music. • Steve Jobs made that a reality. Ipod mini and now tiny mp3 players – in fashion shapes and colors.

The study of culture • Based on the ideas of common and ordinary [ethnomethodology] • It is easy to think common and ordinary in a negative way. Bland and boring everyday • The important addition by these founders of communications studies was their idea that the everyday included “human energy and creativity” as a part of the everyday • Not a bland, artless daily life

Ideology • In this framework, experience itself is of little value, because we interpret our experiences filtered through our ideologies and as a result put our own interpretation onto our experiences. • Self-validating

Ideology • Ideology hides from us REAL conditions in our daily life [material, economic] • An ideology – is the result of experiencing rather than thinking. • Many think Trump is great because he is rich.

Ideology • Social darwinism • It fails because being rich is not a superior trait. • What it takes to become rich is some very anti-social traits • Most of darwinism and post-darwin evolution is more about cooperation and pro-social behavior than “nature , red in tooth and claw” or “survival of the fittest”

Ideology • The “fittest” to survive is a species that lives in harmony • This is not the IDEOLOGY of the rich that want people to INTERNALIZE and EXPERIENCE that the rich are better people who DESERVE their status • If we analyze their rise to wealth, we see a different picture of greed and self interest.

Ideology • The REAL conditions are obscured and hidden • [therefore a need for journalism and social criticism] • Our common sense life is largely unconscious.

Ideology • One large question is how did the capitalist ideology plant itself so deeply as the reality of experience ? [think my question WHY DO BUSINESSES EXIST?] • Culture is now effectively propagating an unregulated freemarkets ideology that is not a “truth” but an instilled philosophy.

Ideology • Our EXPERIENCE tells us , “it has always been this way” • That is why we need to study history, question the dominant historical memes • We need to question and explore the messages and “truths” in our culture and in our media.

Ideology • Market forces of alienation of labor (minimum near-slave wages) and thing worship (reificiation/ iphone) combined with star power in culture [fetishization, taiwan singers, a-list movie stars, sports stars] combine to • “capture our false consciousness” in our consumer culture. • THIS IS TOO DETERMINSTIC for the emerging media studies field. Too marxist.

Ideology • RULING IDEAS • The ruling class has ruling ideas • Those in control of manufacturing also control ideas • Koch brothers talk of manufacturing public opinion. ['wu mao' in china] • In unregulated markets, these forces end up producing, regulating and distributing ideas and ideologies

Ideology • Dominant ideology thesis • Those with the means of production , manufacture mass culture, • Subordinate classes lack the means to disseminate competing ideas to challenge the hegemony

Ideology • How do these ruling class ideas get disseminated? • Not just passive viewers • The ENCODING/DECODING model

Ideology • Encoding/decoding in opposition to American media studies which were mostly quantitative mass media research • For E/D the communication process is not neutral • It is a process distorted by the interventions of the ruling ideology , which becomes a political issue

Ideology • Hall felt that sociologists were misreading political choices as technical ones. • Just as radio can encode and decode but is affected by noise , so is the message of communication

Ideology • Source - encoder – message – decoder – destination • Technical terms adopted and adapted to sociology. • Meaning structure 1 – the encoding is done by the dominant ideology • Meaning structure 2 – the decoding side

Ideology • Meaning structure 1 – Meaning structure 2 • Are not always symmetrical – • It challenges the semiotic idea that meanings are embedding the content

Ideology • E/D model focuses more on the participation of the decoder than the power of the signs or symbols and structure of the message. • The acceptance , accommodation or rejection is not seen as a CLASS system but rather a personal construction of meaning. • In other words , you can resist propaganda if your are critical and insightful of the media.

Ideology • E/D used to study television was a good tool to see if broadcast encoded messages were accepted and adopted or rejected which fuels resistance

Ideology • E/D and Dominant ideology • This concept was more useful that straight marxist ideals which only concentrate on the wealthy elite. • This opened the scrutiny to all forms of power and their influence • Ruling ideas was no longer only about capitalism

Ideology • ideology and feminism / race identity • Interestingly when trying to apply this model of criticism on dominant ideology, there was resistance from those studying feminism and racial studies. • Their own ideology might be the reason for resistance

Ideology • This model allowed discussion of social movements and power, domination and ideology that marxism rejected with its ideology of class struggle

Ideology • This leads us to introduce semiotics • [As we studied in the research methods book already]

Ideology • How power acts on individuals • Domination • Exploitation • Subjection

Ideology • How power acts on individuals • Domination - political • Exploitation – means of production • Subjection – repression of the individual • This is what the feminists and minorities question

Ideology • The STATE holds the monopoly on legitimate use of violence [police , army] to quell violence • To which we tacitly consent • But in times more stable it is through ideological apparatus

Ideology • The question is why do we consent? On an INDIVIDUAL LEVEL

Ideology • Classes rule not by force and oppression but by general consensus to their version of reality • [ie the (now currently dominant) IDEOLOGY that business ONLY exists to make a profit]

Ideology • So to ACCEPT the dominant ideology one must have the opportunity to reject it. • Then the individual might feel they reject it by resisting a part of it , but accepting the general principle • [I am mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore] inarticulate rage is not rejection of the ideology but it FEELS like it. It is opium.

Ideology • Focus on Audience study instead of focusing on the messaging of the encoder. • The media is the message , but the audience chooses how to accept that message • That does not mean they choose wisely – or are aware how they do so

Participant Observer • It takes qualitative research directly by coming into direct contact with those observed. • Not gorilla study [ethnomethodology] this is joining the gorilla tribe. • Dual roles – participant and observer must be balanced. • Danger of “going native” - really becoming one of them and losing objective observing

Participant Observer • Do you conceal your observation status? - investigative reporters • That brings ethical issues • Revealing it may alter behavior.

Participant Observer • Do you participate in the group's interations • To what degree • Going native clouds judgment and perception

Participant Observer • Participant AS observer – someone joining in a group can have privilege to observe . Can be a privileged vantage • Observer as participant – someone there to observe can join in and participate on a certain level

Participant Observer • As observer or participant • The observation is structured and detailed • It is designed to probe and answer certain “w-questions” who where why etc

Participant Observer • The setting • Participants • Purpose of the group • Behavior • Frequency/duration of these behaviors • Recording observations – tape recordings • Video and photo records

Participant Observer • Tally key behaviors or events REMEMBER • Key reason to observe is to obtain information and form a hypothesis.

Participant Observer • The study of romance novel reading women – the understanding of why women read them can not be determined from within the texts – but was clear to the participant observer.

Participant Observer • Problems • Focus – you might easily be distracted by other issues within the group.. [could be a benefit – information not expected might be great value

Participant Observer • Problems • Reactivity- the subject react to being observed • Researcher selectivity – researcher influenced by the participants

Participant Observer • Problems • Mind reading – interpreting why a group does something... ASK THEM • Validity – was what you observed representative of what you hoped to study?

Participant Observer • Values • You start to see things not apparent at first in a setting • You discover what questions to ask • Good way to gain information on a group and its behavior

Participant Observer • Making sense facts are meaningless, they must be interpreted • Who DID the actions ? • Observed behavior not what people THINK

Participant Observer • Theory – psychoanalytic theory • Concept – obsessive compulsive behavior • Behavior – washing hands 200 times

Media Communications