Media, audiences, and meaning(s)

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Media, audiences, and meaning(s)

• October 9, 2006

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What do we mean by media?

• And what do we mean by mediated communication?

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A major CS claim media do not work
monolithically!

• What do I mean by this?
• Hint recall Halls encoding/decoding model of
  communication

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encoding/decoding

programme as meaningful discourse
encoding
decoding
frameworks of knowledge relations of production
technical infrastructure
frameworks of knowledge relations of production
technical infrastructure
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Claims Hall makes

• Producers of cultural texts (TV shows, ads,
  movies, books, videos) operate within specific
  cultural contexts
• And produce out of their own frameworks of
  knowledge
• But we consumers consume the texts within our own
  contexts
• We dont find the same meanings as the producers
• Or each other!

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However, Hall claimed

• We dont necessarily have 6 billion reading
  positions
• Hall identified 3 reading positions, depending
  upon a readers class (and identification with
  producer)
• Dominant
• Negotiated
• Oppositional

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Still, Hall argued

• Media (esp. TV) are implicated in the
• Provision and
• Selective construction of social knowledge and
  social imagery
• Power of media to provideselectivelysocial
  knowledge is greater now than ever
• Why?
• Media as transnational industries
• Broadcasting around the globe

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Popular culture, then

• Is a site of struggle
• We have competing, even conflicting,
  interpretations of what a cultural text means
• And what values it represents
• And whether we like (approve of) it or not
• And if its offensive or agreeable
• We offer different decodings and struggle over
  them
• We negotiate the meanings of cultural texts

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How might we interpret

• U. of North Dakota Fighting Sioux
• Florida State U. Seminoles
• Washington Redskins
• Atlanta Braves
• Cleveland Indians
• Insult/racial slur?
• Compliment/honor?

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Popular culture and problems of representation

• The big question
• Do popular culture texts (especially those
  depicting cultures other than our own) truly,
  fairly, accurately represent the cultures they
  claim to be showing?

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For example

• Is Jackass a representation of America,
  quintessential Americans and quintessential
  American values?
• or only a selective portrait of a small group of
  Americans?
• How might Jackass (if viewed outside the US)
  create or reinforce stereotypes about Americans?

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Even if not.

• Media are tremendously powerful
• Universally accessible
• Use the universal power of narrativethe nature
  of storytellingto communicate
• Often offer little indication of veracity of
  their claims
• How do you know if what youre watching is a
  valid representation of the world?
• Especially when you want escape?

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Media communicate norms

• How members of a society are expected to behave
• The shoulds of our lives
• Thus, media (say CS scholars and others) are our
  lifes little instruction manuals
• How to act in relationships
• How to act at work
• What adulthood will be like
• What other people are likeespecially those weve
  not met in real life

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Not only behaviorsalso, values

• Media expressimplicitly or explicitlywhat is
  important and valued
• Fame, celebrity
• Wealth, materialism
• Religious or spiritual beliefs
• Preferred ways of dressing, talking, acting

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Whats true of these value norms?

• Inevitably culture-linked!
• We get messages about what OUR culture thinks is
  good, bad, preferred, natural, etc.
• Media reproducevia mirroring and shapingwhat
  our culture believes to be true, preferred, right

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Why (among other reasons) would US media texts
value materialism?

• Hint consider how our media are supported

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What are the economic functions of media?

• To make money (media are for-profit
  organizations)
• To deliver dividends to shareholders
• To sell copies, subscriptions, etc.
• To sell advertising space and time
• To sell YOU to advertisers
• Huh?
• What does this mean?

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In order to do all these things profitably

• Media have been (until very recently) more
  mass-oriented than class-oriented (or
  niche-oriented)
• What does this mean?

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Mass-oriented media

• Texts and products intended to reach the widest
  (largest) possible audience
• Reflect common interests
• Be accessible to everyone
• Which means be accessible to the lowest common
  denominator

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Why would this be desirable?

• So media could sell advertising space/time at
  highest possible rates
• Ad rates are determined mostly by audience size

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Why would mass (advertising) orientation be
culturally problematic?

• Most US audience membersespecially up until
  1950s or 60swere members of dominant culture
• So it really didnt matter (TV execs and
  advertisers said) if minority groups were
  invisible or presented negatively
• The majority of the audience was white
• So the advertisers were reaching a big enough
  audience!

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Most mass media ( their advertisers) dont
operate this way now

• Desire to appeal to variety of separate audiences
• Especially as media offeringsand audiencesare
  less mass
• Desire to appear (or actually be) culturally
  sensitiveand avoid the shorthand of
  stereotypes
• What does this mean?
• But more on this in a few weeks

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Why/how are the media powerful?

• Not because they act as magic bullets
• But because
• They cultivate our ways of perceiving the world
• They set our agenda

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Agenda-setting theory

• News media signal to us what is newsworthy or
  otherwise worth our attention
• They offer pervasive and persuasive images
• They reinforce existing attitudes and opinions
• Theyre not so good at changing our minds

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What is (TV) news?

• NOT
• Reflection of reality
• Mirror of the world
• RATHER
• Selected, constructed representation of reality

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Particular, not neutral

• News stories are selected
• While others are never covered
• News stories are constructed in particular ways
  (framing)
• Certain aspects emphasized over others
• Certain POVs privileged over others

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What counts as news?

• Politics
• War
• Economy
• Sport
• Law, law enforcement, crime
• _________________
• Particularly (according to CS) as they relate to
  elite nations and elite individuals

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How is news presented?

• Tension
• Need to inform/educate
• Viewers interpellated as citizens
• Need to entertain
• Viewers interpellated as audience

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How need to entertain (and maintain ratings)
affects content

• More popular formats
• Faster editing
• Flashier presentation styles
• Glamorous reporters
• Zippy graphics
• Sound effects
• Shorter segments
• Reliance on sound bites

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Claims of news production research

• Dramatized news
• Personalized news
• Fragmented news (nowthis!)
• Normalized newsAll of which work to reduce
  understanding by stripping events from their
  contexts

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Mixed ideological messages in the media

• What does TV news count as important?
• Politics, law, economy, crime
• In other words, public matters
• Often to exclusion of private sphere
• What do TV dramas (soaps) count as important?
• Family, relationships, love
• Often to exclusion of public sphere

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What power do we have as audiences?

• Claim audiences are active
• One major active-audience theory
• Uses and gratifications
• We choose which media/texts to engage with, to
  fulfill different needs

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More active audience theory

• Audiences are not an aggregated mass
• We are (isolated) individuals
• We each, individually, create our own meanings
  about what we watch
• But, as Hall said, we do so usually on basis of
  where were culturally and societally situated
• Dominant, negotiated, or oppositional readings
  relative to producer class

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Media texts are polysemic

• A TV show (or its message) doesnt contain only
  one meaning
• Rather, media texts carry multiple potential
  meanings
• We will find some but not others
• And the ones we find will often reflect who we
  arein terms of
• Culture, race, age, sex, class

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What (usually unconscious) power do we have?

• Selective processes
• Selective exposure
• Selective perception
• Selective retention
• Classic example readings of All in the Family

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Reminder new paper deadlines

• Foundations paper
• Original due date Mon 10/16
• New due date Mon 10/23
• Global media paper
• Original due date Wed 11/8
• New due date Wed 11/15