Media History 2: Press and News Media

Media History

Session 2: Press and News Media

Topics

News and societyNews and technologyNews and economy

News and Society

What are news media?

What are news media?

Source of information and opinion

What are news media?

One-to-many form of communication

What is Society?

What is society?

A useful concept is Benedict Anderson's "imagined

communities"

Imagined communities

A nation “is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson, 6-7)

Imagined communities

Nation building takes place through language

Imagined communities

“Print-capitalism” - nations form around national print-language

Imagined communities

This language standard continues in radio and TV with enforcement

of a standardized spoken language

Imagined communities

Media texts articulate a nation’s cultural and social identity

Imagined communities

Unifying

Imagined Communities and the News Media

Imagined communities and the news media

Newspapers determine what issues are important

Imagined communities and the news media

Objectivity or fact over opinion

Imagined communities and the news media

Do news media reflect public opinion or do they lead and shape

public opinion?

Imagined communities and the news media

Propaganda and social order

Imagined communities and the news media

A ban on photos of dead American soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan

Imagined communities and the news media

The news media leads to the rise of the public sphere

Imagined communities and the news media

Critical self-reflection and reflection on the state

Imagined communities and the news media

Allows participation

The Public Sphere and Electronic Media

The public sphere and electronic media

Complex, critical and culturally demanding material is made widely

available

The public sphere and electronic media

Consumption becomes increasingly privatized

The public sphere and electronic media

Public sphere broken up, loss of unified participation

Public Sphere and Digital Media

The public sphere and digital media

User participation is increased and democratized

The public sphere and digital media

Overflow of information, pure opinion, uninformed and lack of

critical detail

Public Sphere and Imagined Communities

The public sphere and imagined communities

Fragmented media makes for a fragmented nation

The public sphere and imagined communities

No longer unified view of cultural and social identity

The public sphere and imagined communities

Loss of national unity and national identity

News Media and Technology

News media and technology

Telegraph 1844Transatlantic cable 1850sTelephone 1870sTelephone news channels 1880s

News media and technology

News moves fast

Media Types

Media types

Time-based

Durable, stable, immobile Clay, rock

Creates social reproduction over long periods of time

Media types

Space-based

Temporary, unstable, mobilePaper

Expansive over large territories

Media types

Electronic media

Proliferate, mutate, omnipresentAnnihilate space and timeInvasive, relocating, deterritorializing

Radio and TV News

Radio and TV News

Commercial vs public broadcasting

Radio and TV News

News becomes a group activity

Radio and TV News

Especially family-oriented

Radio and TV News

British newspapers hostile towards radio

Radio and TV News

The result is state regulation

Radio and TV News

In the US, the relationship is complimentary and competitive

Radio and TV News

1933: Attempt at limiting broadcasting to specific times of the

day

News Media and the Web

News media and the web

Official versus alternative channels

News media and the web

Replicates and remediates the format of the newspaper

News media and the web

Alternative news proliferate

News media and the web

Blogging

Different authority“Live”Part of the action, not detached

Supposed to be many-to-manyBut in fact, many-to-few and few-to-many

News as Institutions

News as institutions

Institutions are socially interpreted facts

News as institutions

Institutions help us think about society

News as institutions

Basic, stable structures of society

News as institutions

Institutions are carriers of ideology

Ideology

Ideology

“The ruling ideas of the ruling class”

Ideology

Our understanding and knowledge of the world is determined by

political interests

Ideology

Propagated by mass media

Ideological Slants of News Media

Ideological slants of news media

Party press

Communication tool for a political partyAgitation/propaganda

Ideological slants of news media

Public news

Communication channel between social institutions and citizensService for the public

Ideological slants of news media

Commercial news

Contact between organization and audienceService