Media, Society, Culture and You

Media, Society, Culture and You

“Society not only continues to exist by transmission, by communication, but it

may fairly be said to exist in transmission, in communication.” — John Dewey in

Democracy and Education, 1916

More than one hundred years ago, John Dewey wrote in Democracy and

Education that society is not only supported by various forms of communication but

also enveloped in communication. Dewey reiterated what philosophers and scholars

had noted for centuries: small groups, larger communities and vast institutions — all

common is the use of abstract symbols to convey meaning. Whether you say “thank

you” in face-to-face communication, send someone a card with the words “thank you”

written on it, or use nonverbal cues to express thanks, the meaning is the same.

Interpersonal communication generally refers to the exchange of meaning

between two or more people on a personal, often one-on-one, level. Interpersonal

communication can be verbal or nonverbal. Most often, it happens in face-to-face

settings. It differs from mass communication, which involves sharing meaning through

symbolic messages to a wide audience from one source to many receivers.

Sometimes, particularly in computer-mediated communication, messages conveyed

using computers, it can be difficult to tell the difference between interpersonal

communication. It is the way the message is distributed and the relationships between

sender and receiver(s). This text will continue to grapple with the overlap of

interpersonal communication and mass communication structures on networked

communication platforms, but first, another form of communication commonly studied

in academic settings should be introduced. Organizational communication is the

symbolic exchange of messages carrying specific meaning for members belonging to

formal organizations. In practical terms, it is the internal communication that helps

governments, businesses, schools and hospitals to run. People working together in

organizations get usually things done by communicating directly with one another or

in small groups. Organizations cannot function without communication. Organizational

get things done. If good organizational communication is necessary for groups to

function with a formal purpose, mass communication is essential for societies to

function. Societies are made up of formal organizations of various sizes. Usually, the

larger the group, the more complex its communication structures.

Communication structure refers to a combination of information and

communication technologies (ICTs), guidelines for using those technologies, and

professional workers dedicated to managing information and messages. In the mass

communication field, communication structures are more than computers and

transmission networks. The guidelines for using networks to create and distribute

messages for mass consumption are a matter of corporate policy as well as law. It has

necessarily formalized. Culture is necessary for enjoying and making sense of the

human experience, but there are few formalized rules governing culture. Mass

communication influences both society and culture. Different societies have different

media systems, and the way they are set up by law influences how the society works.

Different forms of communication, including messages in the mass media, give shape

and structure to society. Additionally, mass media outlets can spread cultural

knowledge and artistic works around the globe. People exercise cultural preferences

when it comes to consuming media, but mass media corporations often decide which

stories to tell and which to promote, particularly when it comes to forms of mass media

that are costly to produce such as major motion pictures, major video game releases

More than any other, the field of mass communication transmits culture. At the

same time, it helps institutional society try to understand itself and whether its

structures are working.

The mass media system is an institution itself. What sets it apart is its potential

to influence the thinking of massive numbers of individuals. In fact, the ideas

exchanged in organizational communication and interpersonal communication are

often established, reinforced or negated by messages in the mass media. This is what

it means for societies “to exist in transmission, in communication.” Different types of

communication influence each other. But the mass media are also shaped and

influenced by social groups and institutions. This is the nature of the mass media

influence multiple societies, and even in societies that heavily censor their mass media

the news of scandals and corruption can get out. The mass media and society are

bound together and shape each other.

however, mere familiarity is no guarantee of success. Products in the mass media that

fail to resonate with audiences do not last long, even if they seem in tune with current

tastes and trends.

The Mass Communication Origin Story

John notes how, in the early 20th century, the mass media were beginning to

connect large institutions in new ways. The production of mass media messages

accelerated with the development of the telegraph and the popular newspaper. The

spread of telegraph technology that began in the mid-1800s continued through the

early 1900s to network the globe with a nearly instantaneous information transmission

system. Much of the growth of newspapers occurred as a result of improvements in

delivery systems. The dynamic between society and mass media that is so prevalent

today developed throughout the 20th century. Starting near the end of the 1800s,

communication flows began to move at electronic speeds. More people knew about

more things than ever before, but scholars are quick to point out that communication

is not synonymous with understanding.

was the meaning of life and the global information and communication system needed

to be molded into an educational tool. Many of us still hold out hope for Dewey’s

educational goals, but as ICTs have advanced over the past century or two, it has

become clear that the mere existence of global mass communication networks does

not ensure that societies will learn to coexist and thrive. This can be difficult for people

to acknowledge. Shortly after the widespread dissemination of the telegraph, the radio,

broadcast television and public internet access, some form of communication utopia

was imagined or even expected. The telegraph collapsed space. Radio enabled

instantaneous mass communication. Television brought live images from one side of

the globe to the other for even larger mass audiences, and internet access gave

and imagination flourished, but social and cultural clashes persisted. Communication

systems can be used as weapons. The evolution of mass communication tools is the

story of increased capacity to do the same good and evil things people have always

done in societies and between them. Looking beyond technological utopianism — the

idea that new technologies (particularly ICTs) will lead to greater social understanding

and better conditions for the global population — we are left with a tedious but

massively meaningful project. We must find ways to coexist with other societies even

as we are constantly aware of our differences and of possible threats that may have

existed before but now are much easier to see. Perhaps if we are to make the best of

our digital global communication network, it would help to track the evolution of

The First Mass Medium

The first global medium, besides the spoken word, was neither the internet nor

the telegraph. In fact, it was not a mass medium at all. It was paper. Via trade routes,

messages in the form of letters moved around the world in a matter of weeks or

months. It was global communication, but it was slow. The development of a global

telegraph network made it possible for messages to spread in minutes. When the

telegraph was wed to mass-consumed newspapers, the world saw the rise of fast,

global, mass communication that had the power to potentially influence large groups

the Protestant Reformation. Still, it was an outlier. Most other books, even those that

were mass produced from around the 1500s to the 1800s were not disseminated as

widely as the Gutenberg Bible. They were simply too expensive. Nevertheless, mass

the globe with mass audiences. The newspaper, specifically the penny press, was the

first mass medium.

published in tabloid format, which used small-sized pages and was cheaper to

that suited their agendas and to promote the cultural values that they held dear.

Mass Media Growth and Consolidation

As mass production of all sorts of manufactured goods grew during the 20th

century, so did advertising budgets and the concept of brands. Brand advertising

became fuel for the mass media, and as profitability rose, newspapers were bought

up and organized into chains throughout the 20th century. Many newspapers grew

their audience as they merged. Partisan papers gave way to a brand of news that

strived for objectivity. The profit motive mostly drove the change. To attract a mass

audience, newspapers had to represent various points of view. This pushed some of

the most opinionated citizens, particularly strong advocates for workers, to the fringes

of mass discourse. Some advocates developed alternative media offerings. Others

on by people in a given field, evolved. Many full-time, paid professional journalists

stressed and continue to stress the need to remain detached from the people they

cover so that journalists can maintain the practice and appearance of objectivity.

Journalists emphasized objectivity in order to remain autonomous and to be perceived

as truthful. The norm of objective reporting still strongly influences news coverage in

newspapers as well as on most mainstream radio and television news networks.

greater detail. At the heart of the ethical discussion for professional journalists is a sort

of battle between the need to be autonomous to cover news accurately with minimal

bias and the need to be socially responsible.

Social responsibility in the study of journalism ethics is a specific concept

paper newspapers (including the development of color offset printing), technological

Photography evolved throughout the 20th century as did motion picture film, radio and

television technology. Other mass media presented challenges and competition for

newspapers. Still, newspapers were quite a profitable business. They grew to their

greatest readership levels in the middle-to-late 20th century, and their value was at its

high point around the turn of the 21st century. Then came the internet.

Stewing in our Own Juices

With the rise of global computer networks, particularly high-speed broadband

and mobile communication technologies, individuals gained the ability to publish their

own work and to comment on mass media messages more easily than ever before. If

a many-to-many format. For example, YouTube has millions of producers who

themselves are also consumers. None of the social media giants such as Facebook,

YouTube, Instagram, Qzone and Weibo (in China), Twitter, Reddit or Pinterest is

primarily known for producing content. Instead, they provide platforms for users to

submit their own content and to share what mass media news and entertainment

companies produce. The result is that the process of deciding what people should be

interested in is much more decentralized in the digital network mass media

environment than it was in the days of an analog oneto-many mass media system.

The process of making meaning in society — that is, the process of telling many

smaller stories that add up to a narrative shared by mass audiences — is now much

news in networked platforms than through the channels managed by gatekeepers. A

mass media gatekeeper is someone, professional or not, who decides what

information to share with mass audiences and what information to leave out. Fiction

or non-fiction, every story leaves something out, and the same is true for shows made

up of several stories, such as news broadcasts and heavily edited reality television.

Gatekeepers select what mass audiences see, and then edit or disregard the rest. The

power of gatekeepers may be diminished in networks where people can decide for

themselves what topics they care most about, but there is still an important

gatekeeping function in the mass media since much of what is ultimately shared on

social media platforms originates in the offices and studios of major media

On social media platforms, media consumers have the ability to add their input

and criticism, and this is an important function for users. Not only do we have a say as

audience members in the content we would like to see, read and hear, but we also

have an important role to play in society as voting citizens holding their elected officials

accountable. If social media platforms were only filled with mass media content,

individual user comments, and their own homegrown content, digitally networked

communication would be complex enough, but there are other forces at work. Rogue

individuals, hacker networks and botnets — computers programmed to create false

social media accounts, websites and other digital properties — can contribute content

alongside messages produced by professionals and legitimate online community

members. False presences on social media channels can amplify hate and

misinformation and can stoke animosity between groups in a hyper-partisan media

age. Around the world, societies have democratized mass communication, but in many

ways, agreeing on a shared narrative or even a shared list of facts is more difficult

than ever. Users create filter bubbles for themselves where they mostly hear the voices

working in good faith to produce accurate and entertaining content and to make

meaning in the mass media. De-massification is another. Professionals working on

mass-market media products now must fight to hold onto mass audiences. De-

massification signifies the breakdown of mass media audiences. As the amount of

information being produced and the number of channels on which news and other

content can be disseminated grows exponentially, ready-made audiences are in

decline. In the future, it is anticipated that audiences, or fan bases, must be built rather

than tapped into. One path to growing audiences in digital networks is to take an

extreme point of view. Producers of news and entertainment information on the right

and left of the political spectrum often rail against mainstream media as they promote

advertising revenue and employment numbers have been declining for about 25 years,

but as of 2018, there are still more than 30 million newspaper subscribers. Mass

audiences are shrinking and shifting, but they can still be developed.

Convergence

As mass audiences are breaking up and voices from the fringe are garnering

society dominated by digital communication networks, people gather around the

information they recognize and want to believe because making sense of the vast

amount of information now available is impossible. This text covers several mass