The Media and Nationalism

1. The Media and Nationalism • In recent times, the parallel processes of nation-building and state-building continue in different ways and come to rely on the media. The media is a powerful channel of myths and rituals related to the nation. In order to understand the way the media work we will focus on recent debates in media theory and then consider issues of national identity. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

2. The media as an arena • The media are a source of power, an arena where public affairs are debated, a source of images of political and social reality, a means for acquiring personal visibility, a normative standard for opinions and behaviours (McQuail 1998) Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

3. Social Control of the Media • There are attempts to control the media for several reasons and they operate differently in different types of media. Control is exercised for political, economic, moral/religious reasons. • Control can be examined by studying the media industry, the media production process and the reception process. Previously control occurred primarily within national settings. Processes of internationalisation are changing the dynamics of control. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

4. Media and National Societies • Much mass communication theory assumed that the media caused mass society. Bauman (1972) argues that the media was in fact mainly a tool to shape something that was happening independently as a result of increasing cultural homogeneity. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

5. Early mass communication theory • In the thirties North American social science conceptualised mass communication as a linear process with a source which selects a message which is the transmitted although imperfectly to a receiver. In this context, research attempted to measure the effects of the media. However, it became clear that this model does not work well. • There is a lot of distorted communication; there is little unmediated communication, as personal contacts have a strong mediating role. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

6. A Critique from the Left • Over the years, both from the North American left and later from the British tradition of cultural studies, the early mass communication model was criticised as ideologically biased, implicitly pluralist and functionalist. Important contributions to this debate came from C. Wright Mills and Stuart Hall • It was pointed out that messages often have no fixed meaning as they are differentially interpreted. The reception process comes to be seen as an active process, a source of resistance, and a fragmented process. No one-directional model is appropriate. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

7. The New Media • The early model came also to be criticised because the homogeneity of the audience is increasingly fragmented by processes of product differentiation and by the emergence of new individualizing media technologies. These range from the Internet to interactive television. • However, early empirical methods are still widely used, particularly in media political research. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

8. Transnationalization • Changes in the ownership and diffusion patterns of the media have focused attention on issues of transnationalisation. In terms of diffusion, this is sometimes seen as a process of cultural imperialism. Materials from rich Anglo-Saxon countries tend to be more diffused. Also, local cultural content is removed to make programs available to a transnational audience. This tends to reinforce dominant neo-liberal values. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

9. Nationalism, social movements and media strategies for brand-loyalty • If transnationalisation of the media decreases cultural specificity, there are brand-differentiation processes that use nationalism. Myths of cultural specificity are formed and diffused. • All regionalist and nationalist movements dwell on the theme of belonging to communities, and thus often articulate issues of citizenship and nationalism in their communications. The media often accept these frames. • Movements re-elaborate media positions and produce autonomous frames which are related both to aspects of the experience of their members and to current media discussion. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

10. Why is there nationalism in the media? • Several reasons have been used to explain the revival of nationalist frames in the media. They range from economic interest of owners to broader sociological reasons. • The sense of belonging to a regional/national community is increasingly becoming a reflexive process, that is, a matter of choice, rather than result of birth into a specific community. At the same time, the choice of a culturally-based belonging has grown increasingly attractive to people feeling alienated by the atomistic lifestyle predominant in Western Europe. The media then addresses a generalised need for identity. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

11. Example from British Tabloids • In British tabloids, nationalist frames are prominent. In recent years, the rate of support for further European integration has sharply declined in the European Union. This decline was due to the misfiring of a project of symbolic politics that pro-EU advocates attempted to pursue in various member states in the run-up to the Maastricht treaty ratification. However, the British media were also instrumental in fueling nationalist sentiments, reacting and amplifying them for marketing reasons. So substantial was the perceived threat that the EU Commission reacted with its own publication entitled Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento

12. Example from the Italian Northern League • At the time of the emergence of the Northern league, the Italian media refused to accept the ethno-nationalist frames of the new movement. • But by accepting its agenda-setting strategy, they came to reinforce ethno-nationalism. Frames espoused by the media included Political Corruption; Inefficient Political System; Large Regional Differences between North and South; Inadequate State Services; Waste of Public Resources; Immigration is a problem. • The best explanation of these frames came to appear the ethno-nationalist movement’s frame (Ruzza and Schmidtke 1993). Subsequently some parts of the media espoused this frame. Carlo Ruzza - Università di Trento