Theories of Communication
Lecture# 23
• Microscopic Theories
• Macroscopic Theories
Critical Theories
• Some cultural theories and political
economy theories are also referred to as
critical theories.
• They openly espouse certain values and
use these values to evaluate and criticize
the status quo.
• Political economy theories are inherently
critical but some cultural studies theories
are not.
Critical Theories
• Those who develop critical theories seek
to initiate social change that will implement
their values.
• A critical theory raises questions and
provides alternate ways of interpreting the
social role of mass media.
Critical Theories
• Some critical theorists argue that media in
general sustain the status quo.
• Some critical theorists identify constraints on
media practitioners that limit their ability to
challenge established authority.
• They charge that few incentives exist to
encourage media professionals to overcome
those constraints and that media practitioners
consistently fail to even acknowledge them.
Critical Theories
• Critical theory often analyzes specific
social institutions which promote specific
objectives through certain means.
• Critical theorists are critical of the
promotion of mass media and mass
culture.
• Mass media and mass culture have been
linked to a variety of social problems.
Critical Theories
• Mass media are criticized for aggravating
or preventing problems from being
identified or addressed and solved.
• A common theme in critical of media is
that content production is so constrained
that it inevitably reinforces the status quo
and undermines useful efforts for
constructive social change.
• Communist Chinese government in
Tiananmen square heroes of democracy
and in the American anti-war movement
hippies or radicals.
• Stories about movements imply problems
with the status quo. Movements frequently
defy the authority of existing elites and
make demands for social change.
Role Of Mass Communication
In A Society – The Mediation Of
Social Relations
• A central presupposition, relating to
questions both of society and of culture is
that the media institution is essentially
concerned with the production and
distribution of knowledge in the widest
sense of the word.
• The main point to emphasize is the degree
to which the different media have come to
interpose themselves between us and any
experience of the world beyond our direct
sense observation.
• Since the media also provide the most
continuous line of contact with the main
institutions of the society in which we live.
• In a secular society in matters of values
and ideas; the mass media tend to take
over from the early influences of school,
parents, religion, siblings and companions.
Mediation Concept
• Mediation involves several different
processes.
1.Relying of second-hand or third party
version of events and conditions which we
cannot directly observe for ourselves.
Mediation Concept
2.The efforts of other actors and institutions
in society to contact us for their own
purposes.
• This applies to politicians and
governments, advertisers, educators,
experts and authorities of all kinds.
• It refers to the indirect way in which we
form our perceptions of groups and
cultures to which we do not belong.
Mediation Concept
3.Mediation also implies some form of
relationship.
• Relationships which are mediated through
mass media are likely to more distant,
more impersonal and weaker than direct
personal ties.
Mediation Concept
• The mass media do not monopolize the
flow of information we receive and
intervene in all our wider social relations,
but their presence is inevitably very
pervasive (all encompassing,
omnipresent).
• We an also say that mediation can mean
different things, ranging from neutrally
informing, through negotiation to attempts
at manipulation and control.
Mediation Concept
• The media have been variously
perceived as:
1. A window on events and experience,
which extends our vision, enabling us to
see for ourselves what is going on,
without interference from others.
Mediation Concept
2.A mirror of events in society and the world,
implying a faithful reflection, although the
angle and direction of the mirror are
decided by others, and we are less free to
see what we want.
3.A filter or gatekeeper, acting to select
parts of experience for special attention
and closing off other views voices,
whether deliberately or not.
Mediation Concept
4.A signpost, guide or interpreter, pointing
the way and making sense of what is
otherwise puzzling or fragmentary.
5.A forum or platform for the presentation of
information and ideas to an audience,
often with possibilities for response and
feedback.
Mediation Concept
6.A screen or barrier, indicating the
possibility that media might cut us off from
reality by providing a false view of the
world, thorough either escapist fantasy or
propaganda.
Intermediation
• Various images discussed do not refer to
the interactive possibilities of newer media
in which the receiver can become a
sender and make use of the media in
interaction with the environment.
• This indicates the degree to which new
technology may indeed lead to
revolutionary changes, with
‘intermediation’ replacing or
supplementing the mediation process.
Mediation Concept
• The audiences or people acquire
information and meaning about ‘reality’ in
four main ways:
1. Via direct observation and experience.
2. From the institutions of society directly.
3. From the institutions by way of the
media.
4. From the media autonomously (alone).
Mediation Concept
• None of the elements indicated –
institutions, media and people are
independent of each other.
• The influence of larger events and of
economic and political forces is partly
channeled through the mass media.
Media In A Society
Media In A Society
• Mass media operating in societies in
which power is unevenly distributed
between individuals, groups and classes,
and since media are invariably related in
some way to prevailing structure of
political and economic power, several
questions arise about this relationship.
Media In A Society
• Media have an economic cost and value
and are an object of competition for
control and access and are subject to
political, economic and legal regulation.
• Mass media are very commonly regarded
as effective instruments of power with the
potential capacity to exert influence in
various ways.
• These propositions give rise to following
sub-questions:
1. Who controls the media and in whose
interest?
2. Whose version of the world (social
reality) is presented?
3. How effective are the media in achieving
chosen ends?
4. Do mass media promote more or less
equality in society?
• In discussions of media power, two
models are usually opposed to each
other:
1. Dominant media
2. Pluralist media
Model Of Dominant Media
• This model sees media subservient to
other institutions, which are themselves
interrelated.
• Media organizations, in view are likely to
be owned or controlled by small powerful
interests and to be similar in type and
purpose.
• The dissemination is a limited and
undifferentiated view of the world shaped
by the perspectives of ruling interests.
• Audiences are constrained or conditioned
to accept the view of the world offered,
with little critical response.
• The result is to reinforce and legitimate the
prevailing structure of power and to head
off change by filtering out alternative
voices.
