Critical and Cultural Theories of Mass Communication

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Critical and Cultural Theoriesof Mass
Communication

• Challenges to
• Minimal Effects Theory

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• Cultural Studies and Political Economy Theory are
  alternative theories on media and society.
• Rooted in Marxist Theory
• Argues that mass media support the status quo and
  interfere with efforts of social movements to
  bring about useful social change (true with
  social networks?)

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• They also say media provides pluralistic public
  forum (like Twitter) where power by dominant
  elites can be challenged.
• Examples of this?

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• Many theories we have looked at were
  POSTPOSITIVIST this approach doesnt consider
  value judgments.
• Some CULTURAL theory though is CRITICAL theory
  which necessarily makes judgments.

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• Critical Theory is based on a set of specific
  social values.
• Critical theorists critique existing social
  institutions.
• They look specifically at institutions (like
  media) that undermine or marginalize important
  values.
• Lets think about how alternative movements are
  framed by the media.

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• Newspapers and television networks have been
  rebuked by media critics for treating the
  movement as if it were a political campaign or a
  sideshow by many liberals for treating the
  protesters dismissively, and by conservatives,
  conversely, for taking the protesters too
  seriously.
• The protesters themselves have also criticized
  the media first for ostensibly ignoring the
  movement and then for marginalizing it.
• In the initial coverage, I saw almost nothing
  that talked about our reasons for being there,
  and that trend has largely continued, said
  Patrick Bruner, an organizer for Occupy Wall
  Street in New York. He said the group welcomed
  investigations of our ideas, why were here,
  what were saying and talking about.

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• Days after the protest began in New York, the
  liberal filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on
  MSNBC, asserting that the mass media had a
  tendency to play down left-wing protests.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vvkE9rcUll9I

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• Conversely, L. Brent Bozell III, the president of
  the conservative Media Research Center,appeared
  on Sean Hannitys show on Fox telling other media
  outlets to put their pompoms down for a minute.
• http//newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2011/10/
  14/media-mash-occupy-wall-street-edition

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Erin Burnett on CNN

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?featureplayer_embedd
  edvlLWPj5hTkio
• Wall Street apologist?

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• Any time there are misstatements of fact on
  Thursday the Fox News affiliate in New
  York falsely reported that protesters planned to
  shut down the subways, and CBS Evening News
  reported that hundreds had turned out for an
  afternoon rally when in fact many thousands had
  questions about bias are raised.

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• Do social networks help provide an accurate
  portrayal free of internal and external bias?

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• Cultural Theory looks at how the media might
  produce changes in social life through subtle
  influences on social practices that are the
  foundation of everyday life.

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• Cultural theory argues the media can intrude in
  our lives and alter how we make sense of
  ourselves and our social world.
• Media could alter how we view ourselves and our
  relationships to others.

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• Early Marxist Theory focuses on the idea that
  elites control media.
• Neo Marxists think media is more of a pluralistic
  public forum- BUT they recognize that elites have
  an advantage because media content implicitly or
  explicitly supports the status quo.

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• Critical Theorists reject simple ideas of
  powerful negative effects on audiences.
• Even when media content supports the status quo-
  audiences can reinterpret or reject this content.

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• James Carey
• Sees media as central to the representation of
  shared beliefs.

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American Cultural Studies

• James Carey - Transmission versus Ritual
  Perspectives on media
• Reinterpretation of British and Canadian Theory
• Minimal effects research is too focused on
  transmission effects. Media do much more than
  transmit information from point A to point B
• Media are central agents in the rituals that make
  up daily life
• News reassures us about continuity of social
  order
• TV allows routine escape from daily problems

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• Ideas of Marshall McLuhan are based on the
  research of Harold Innis.
• Their ideas underlie much of cultural and
  critical theory.

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Canadian Cultural Studies

• Marshall McLuhan and Harold Innis
• Technological Determinists?
• Focus on media technology not on the content
  delivered by media
• Looked at the role of media over great time and
  distances
• Speculated about impact of media on culture and
  social organization

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Harold Innis

• Canadian Economist
• Key Concept Bias of Communication
• Traces media history oral, written, print,
  broadcast
• Time-Binding Media
• Space-Binding Media
• Center and periphery
• Communication dependency

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Marshall McLuhan

• Early Ideas
• Mechanical Bride Printing Press
• Reading is private, individual act not social and
  leads to the breakdown of orality based social
  orders - tribe
• Media is the Massage Media are the Message
• Media extend the senses
• Print media extend the eye literacy problematic
  - linear
• Oral media extend the ear tribal drum Nazism
• Electronic media extend central nervous system
  post-literacy ???
• But what type of social order will emerge when
  electronic media become dominant?
• McLuhan extoled the virtues of the Global Village

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• Each medium, independent of the content it
  mediates, has its own intrinsic effects which are
  its unique message.

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• When you dont have a physical body you have a
  very different relation to the world around you-
  a big effect of the digital age.
• Everything happens at once.
• The medium isnt neutral
• The form is more imp than the content.
• Roughing up by a new medium

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• Listening Post - Of mediums and messages, Al
  Jazeera
• https//www.youtube.com/watch?vkKPJjh4939M

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McLuhan Pros and Cons

• Called attention to broad range of interesting
  communication issues
• Offered intriguing but highly ambiguous analyses
  of issues
• Sought publicity and played to audiences
• Wrote essentially non-linear texts - illogical,
  irrational
• Borrowed freely from Neomarxist theory but was
  widely acclaimed by Capitalists

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Applying Cultural Studies Theory Today

• The Internet even more potential to create a
  Global Village than satellite TV
• On the Internet messages can be tailored to
  audiences cognitive abilities and skills
• Will centrally controlled new media emerge or
  will control over media be widely held as it is
  on the Internet?
• Is the Internet a model for future media or is it
  just a transitional medium?

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Do Social Networking Websites Influence Everyday
Culture?

• Simulate and/or displace other forms of everyday
  communication
• Foster many different communication rituals with
  varying consequences
• Foster new social roles and identities
• Reinforce some social changes
• Do we experience ourselves and others differently
  because of SNWs?

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• Culture-centered communication theory has
  developed as an alternative to limited-effects
  perspectives.  What do these two perspectives
  have to say about the role of media in politics
  generally or in transmitting propaganda?  Which
  perspective raises larger questions and concerns
  about the role of media?

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• What are the differences and similarities between
  cultural theory and critical cultural theory?
• List some of the strong points and some of the
  limitations of McLuhan's ideas.  Indicate if you
  find any of his ideas especially useful or
  misleading.

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• Do you ever make judgments about people based
  solely on how they look? What kinds of
  evaluations do you make? Why do you do this? What
  are the advantages and disadvantages of this very
  human ability?

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• To what extent do you think media content fosters
  support for the status quo? Do you agree or
  disagree with critical cultural studies arguments
  that this tendency limits the growth of richer,
  more pluralistic cultures?

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• Many U.S. journalists found themselves in
  difficult positions in the aftermath of the
  September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York
  and Washington, D.C. Were they Americans or
  journalists first? Many opted for nation over
  profession. For example, CBS anchor Dan Rather
  told an interviewer, George Bush is President,
  he makes the decisions and, you know, as just one
  American, he wants me to line up, just tell me
  where. The issue is not whether you supported
  Americas action in the Middle East. The issue is
  that there was a variety of opinion on the best,
  most effective, most just, most humane response
  to the attacks, and media should have provided
  the forum for its debate. They did in mainstream
  media around the world, even that of our closest
  allies. Did U.S. media fail the American people
  by so obviously supporting the official
  government position, the status quo? Might you
  answer differently if reporters
  pro-establishment biases, on any topic, were in
  opposition to your own?

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• Discuss Frankfurt School assertions about mass
  culture and high culture. Can or should mass
  media be used to promote high culture? What about
  the notion of high culture itself? Is this
  concept inherently elitist? Why, for example,
  should a city fund symphonies, opera, and ballet
  companies and not jazz, rock n roll, and rap
  music?

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• Popular culture researchers assert the value of
  popular culture texts like television shows,
  movies, and popular music. Their argument seems
  valid when we talk about examples such as
  television series Modern Family, movies like Hurt
  Locker, and certain music
• What about other texts, things like televisions
  Gossip Girl,J ersey Shore, and Sabrina the
  Teenage Witch, or movies like the Die Hard series
  or The Nutty Professor, or Barry Manilow music?
  Can you still make the popular culture argument
  using these texts?

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Crisis of the Cultural Environment

• http//www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd
  actionkey107
• The critical view of media is well articulated by
  George Gerbner in the Media Education
  Foundations (www.igc.org/mef) The Crisis of the
  Cultural Environment.

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Last Week
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• In cultural theory- CULTURE is central. Media
  affect society because they affect how culture is
  created and learned and shared.
• Cultural theories look at the long term
  consequences of cultural change created by media.

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Microscopic and Macroscopic

• Microscopic theory deemphasizes larger issues
  about social issues in favor of looking at how
  media affect our individual lives and
  experiences.
• Macroscopic theory look at how individuals are
  affected because they want to understand how the
  whole society is impacted.

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• Microscopic theorists want to understand how
  regular life is transformed by media. Are we
  changing because of media? Are we becoming
  smarter, stupider, more social, more stressed,
  gentler, kinder, more aggressive?
• What happens when media are incorporated into
  daily life and how do they shape our social
  world?
• Do media enhance or disrupt everyday life?

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• Macroscopic researchers dont really care whether
  everyday life is enhanced by media. They think
  media turns culture into a commodity to sell- and
  they want to understand what happens when media
  culture becomes a part of the national economy.
• They look at things like Have media disrupted
  the conduct of national politics and the impact
  on society?

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Critical Theory

• Some cultural theories are referred to as
  CRITICAL theory because these theorists are
  critical of media and use their research
  specifically to create change and criticize the
  status quo.

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Critical Theory

• A critical theory raises questions about the way
  things are and provides alternate ways of for the
  media to behave.

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The Emergence of an Alternative to Minimal
Effects Theory

• Minimal Effects Theory suggests that media power
  is quite limited
• Only some people are affected under certain
  conditions
• Important effects can fade away quickly
• Media mostly reinforce social changes that are
  already underway
• But is media power really that limited?
• Why do advertisers pay so much for ads?
• Why do politicians bother to campaign?

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Assessing the Role of Media

• The Media Effects (Postpositivist) Research
  Strategy
• Identify independent dependent variables
• Assess linear causal relationships
• Find empirical evidence of causal power of media
• The Critical Cultural Research Strategy
• Focus on audience uses and experiences
• Look for changes in quality of experience that
  take place over time
• Develop theories about changes in experience and
  consequences of these changes

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Differences in Doing Research

• iPod Effects Research
• Variables iPod use and social isolation
• Does iPod use cause social isolation
• Do research to see if heavy iPod users have fewer
  friends than nonusers
• iPod Culture-based Research
• Focus on use and experience of music via iPod
• Talk to heavy iPod users and nonusers about music
• Draw conclusions based on differences in
  experiences of music

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Critical Theory versus Cultural Theory

• Critical Theory is more likely to combine
  normative theory with empirical observation
• Media should be used to achieve valued goals
• We should assess current media use to see if
  goals are being achieved
• We should criticize problematic uses and actively
  work to improve media use so that valued goals
  are achieved

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Examples of Valued Goals

• Western civilization involves key values and
  social practices that need to be fostered. These
  include
• Democracy in which all citizens are equally
  informed and politically active
• A culturally diverse society in which there is
  understanding and respect for all
• Consumption of products based on real needs
  rather than media induced desires

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Cultural Theory versus Critical Theory

• Cultural Theory usually focuses on media content
  and experience of content
• It can be based on simple curiosity about why
  certain content is popular
• It often is concerned about why different social
  groups experience content differently- Examples?
• It isnt concerned about the value of different
  uses and experiences
• Critical theory is about CHANGE.

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Classic Critical Theory

• Marxist Theory
• Grounded in ideal values egalitarianism, mass
  democracy
• Elites use media to indoctrinate masses with
  ideologies that are inconsistent with their
  interests
• Change is only possible with a revolution that
  takes media away from elites and gives them to
  the masses

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Classic Critical Theory

• NeoMarxist Theory
• It is possible to challenge and overcome elite
  efforts to indoctrinate masses
• Elite ideology can be countered with populist
  (communist) ideology
• Elite misuse of media can be exposed and
  criticized
• Media literacy can teach masses to criticize
  elite misuse of media

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Classic Critical Theory

• Frankfurt School Theory of Media
• Earliest version of NeoMarxist theory
• Challenged by the rise of Nazism in Germany and
  seeks to explain why
• Media technology itself is problematic since it
  badly misrepresents the social world
• Symphony music versus records
• Masses accept poor quality simulations
• Media disrupt daily routines central to civilized
  social action - going to movies replaces opera
• Nazis use media to replace civilized high culture
  with pseudo-folk culture

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Classic Cultural Studies Theory

• Textual Analysis and Literary Criticism
• Good literature (High Culture) is central to
  development of civilization
• Textual analysis and literary criticism can
  identify a canon of ideal literary works that
  everyone should read
• Universal appreciation of High Culture would
  advance civilization

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1980s Critical Cultural Studies Theories

• British Cultural Studies
• Pioneered by Raymond Williams who reassessed
  cultural development in England
• Birmingham School
• Stuart Hall - Media Reception Research Theory of
  Encoding and Decoding
• Media are a pluralistic public forum in which
  ideas are contested
• Elites have important advantages in this
  competition
• Elite advantages can be overcome by studying how
  audiences decode ideological content and
  developing new strategies for using media
• Focus on how nonelite groups resist elite
  ideologies embedded in media content

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1980s Critical Theory

• Political Economy Theory
• Capitalist elites are more interested in earning
  profits than advancing ideology so sometimes
  media content seems to contradict elite interests
• The rise of centralized, privately owned media is
  problematic - bad consequences are likely
• Culture becomes a commodity and is packaged in
  problematic ways
• Mass entertainment dominates at the expense of
  better forms of media content
• News is written from elite perspectives and is
  status quo oriented
• Alternate ways to structure and fund media are
  needed