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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 movements frame
  (Ruzza and Schmidtke 1993). Subsequently some
  parts of the media espoused this frame.