Medier og kommunikation 2

1
Medier og kommunikation 2

• Charlie Breindahl
• charlieb_at_itu.dk

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Plan

• I dag skal vi nå følgende
• Oplæg om personlige hjemmesider v. Pernille Yding
• Introduktion til Luvit
• Lektion 2, medieteori

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Øvelse

• Første gruppearbejde Statistik over gruppens
  medieforbrug på basis af jeres mediedagbøger.
  Afrapportering i form af regneark eller
  powerpoint på Luvit
• Diskussion af hvilke af de gennemgåede
  medieteorier der egner sig til at analysere nye
  medier

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Hvad skal vi med teori?
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Theory
The book very consciously pays attention to
theory. Theories reduce complexity by mapping an
explanatory framework onto seemingly random
phenomena. But, at the same time, theories can
also heighten complexity as they show that
phenomena are not as plain and simple as
generally assumed.
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Theory
Theories are, in the words of Förnas (1995 7),
instruments to look with, glasses to look
through, and maps to look at. Theories can help
us, first, to deconstruct the area of interest
into its main parts, and then to reconstruct and
interpret its mutual relationships and relevant
context (p. xii-xiii). (Bemærk, at den svenske
medieforsker naturligvis hedder Johan Fornäs,
ikke Förnas)
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Occams razor

• Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate (One
  should not increase, beyond what is necessary,
  the number of entities required to explain
  anything)

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Hjelmslevs empirical principle (a variation of
Occams razor)
The description shall be free of contradiction
(self-consistent), exhaustive, and as simple as
possible. The requirement of freedom from
contradiction takes precedence over the
requirement of exhaustive description. The
requirement of exhaustive description takes
precedence over the requirement of
simplicity. Hjelmslev, L. (1963). Prolegomena to
a Theory of Language (F. J. Whitfield, Trans.
Rev. ed.). Madison, WS The University of
Wisconsin Press
9
Karl Popper

• Every "good" scientific theory is a prohibition
  it forbids certain things to happen. The more a
  theory forbids, the better it is.
• A theory which is not refutable by any
  conceivable event is non-scientific.
  Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as
  people often think) but a vice.

Popper, K. R. (2002). Conjectures and refutations
the growth of scientific knowledge. London
Routledge, ISBN 0415285941
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The six forces considered to be at work in the
1990es

• Digitization
• Convergence
• Industrial concentration
• Privatization and deregulation
• Commercialization
• Globalization

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Niveauer i beskrivelsen

• Mikro
• Meso
• Makro

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Formål med beskrivelsen

• Administrativ
• Kritisk

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Medievidenskaben som resultat af en historisk
udvikling

• British Film Institute (BFI)
• Ni traditioner
• Cirkulære bevægelser
• De tre store
• Effektforskningen
• Cultural Studies
• Politisk økonomi

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BFI Key Aspects of media studies
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Nine approaches to media

• Mass society (Frankfurterskolen)
• Functionalism (cultural standardization)
• Pluralism (cultural diversity)
• Media effects
• Political economy (PE)
• The public sphere (ny Frankfurterskole)
• Media occupations and professionals
• Cultural hegemony (Cultural Studies reproduces
  social relations)
• Feminism
• Moving image
• New audience research

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Theoretical models of society, media power and
communications processes
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The effects trajectory

• Hypodermic needle
• Intervening variable
• Two-step flow (mediated and non-mediated)
• Diffusion of innovations
• Spiral of silence (depriving minorities of their
  voice)
• Agenda setting
• Cultivation analysis (heavy users fearful
  world-view)
• Uses and gratifications (how people use media)
• Active reader (model reader)
• Critical reader (roles of the reader)
• Ethnographic reader

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Cultural studies debates

• Great art and the rest
• Mimetic/realist
• Pragmatic/legislative
• Expressive/creative (auteur)
• Realism
• Semiotics
• Rhetorical devices
• The reader
• Readings

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Principal characteristics of political economy

• Analysis of media in historical, social and
  political contexts
• Addresses media relations to politics, economics
  and ideology
• Has a moral purpose
• Its end point is social action