1. Understanding and Evaluating Mass Communication Theory

5/20/2018 1. Understanding and Evaluating Mass Communication Theory

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UNDERSTANDINGANDEVALUATING

MASSCOMMUNICATIONTHEORY


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Name the top ten television channels in Pakistan?


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Does Pakistans media consciously or

subconsciously support militant groups in their

coverage?

A USIP study found out that: the only parties to receiveany implicit endorsement of violence in the media were

the police, military, or paramilitary forces. In 204 cases

where security forces attacked one or more individuals,

26 percent of the stories demonstrated a positive slant

toward the security forces.

In 39 cases where banned organizations attacked

individuals, they received no positive news reports in the

analysis. About half were neutral and the other half were

negative.Nor did analysis reveal other signatures of militant

sympathies, such as the framing of stories to position

extremist groups in a positive way


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Preformed ideas or assumptions about the

relationship between people and their media use.

These ideas and assumptions can become the

bases for something more formal, more systematic

theories

When these theories involve relationships between

media and the people and societies that use them,

they are theories of mass communication.


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CHANGINGMEDIALANDSCAPE

What is mass communication?

When an organization employs a technology as a

medium to communicate with a large

heterogeneous and scattered audiences.

But the mass communication environment is

changing

Much has changed in how people use technologies

to communicate

You send an email to twenty thousand people who have

signed on to a Listserv

YouTubecitizen journalists

News Websites / Social Networking Sites


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One useful way to do this is to think of mediated

communication as existing on a continuum that

stretches from interpersonal communication at

one end to traditional forms of mass communicationat the other.

Where different media fall along the continuum

depends on the amount of control and involvement

people have in the communication process.

Telephone at one endtelevision at the other

New media technologies are filling in the middle of

the continuum between the telephone and

television.


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Physical scientist vs. Social scientist

Social scientists apply logic and observationthat

is scienceto the understanding of the socialrather than the physical world.

Why do we seem to have greater difficulty

accepting the theories and findings of socialscientists?

Logic of causality

If we can manipulate an independent variable(heat) and produce the same effect (boiling at 100degrees centigrade) under the same conditions(sea level) every time then a causal relationshiphas been established.


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The scientific method:

A means whereby insight into an undiscoveredtruth is sought by 1) identifying the problem that

defines the goal of the quest, 2) gathering data with

the hope of resolving the problem, 3) positing a

hypothesis both as a logical means of locating the

data and as an aid to resolving the problem, and 4)empirically testing the hypothesis by processing

and interpreting the data to see whether the

interpretation of them will resolve the question that

initiated the research.


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Throughout the last century and into this one, somesocial researchers have tried to apply the scientific

method to the study of human behavior and society.

Although the essential logic of the scientific method

is quite simple, its application in the social (rather

than physical), world can be complicated


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1. Most of the significant and interesting forms ofhuman behavior are quite difficult to measure.

2. Human behavior is exceedingly complex.

3. Humans have goals and are self reflexive

4. The simple notion of causality is sometimes

troubling when it is applied to ourselves


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DEFININGTHEORY

An organized set of concepts, explanations, and

principles of some aspect of human experience.

A theory is an idea that explains an event or

behavior. It brings clarity to an otherwise jumbled

situation; it draws order out of chaos.synthesizes

the data, focused our attention on whats crucial,

and helps us ignore that which makes little

difference.

Different schools of thought will define theory indifferent ways depending on the needs of the

theorist and on beliefs about the social world and

the nature of knowledge.


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Four major categories of communication theory:

1. Postpositivism

2. Hermeneutic Theory 3. Critical Theory

4. Normative Theory


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These differ in the following:

1. their goals

2. their view of the nature of reality, what isknowabletheir ontology

3. their view of how knowledge is created and

expandedtheir epistemology

4. their view of the proper role of values in researchand theory buildingtheir axiology.


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POSTPOSITIVISTTHEORY

First communication researchers turned to thephysical sciences for their model

Those in the physical sciences believed inpositivism, the idea that knowledge could be gained

only through empirical, observable, measurablephenomena examined through the scientificmethod.

Social scientists committed to the scientific methodpractice post positivist theory.

Theory based on empirical observation guided bythe scientific method, but recognizing that humansand human behavior are not as constant aselements of the physical world.


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The goals of postpositivist theory are explanation,

prediction and control.

Ontology: it accepts that the world exists apart from

our perceptions of it; human behavior is sufficiently

predictable to be studied systematically .

Epistemology: it argues that knowledge is

advanced through the systematic, logical search for

regularities and causal relationships employing thescientific method.

Axiology: the objectivity inherent in the application

of the scientific method keeps researchers and

theorists values out of the search for knowledge.


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Postpositivist communication theory developed

through a system of inquiry that resembles as much

as possible the rules and practices of what we

traditionally understand as science.

E.g. explain the operation of political advertising,

predict which commercials will be most effective,

and control the voting behavior of targeted citizens.


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CLASSEXERCISE

Think of a topic you would like to do research on

and explain how your topic conforms to the

postpositivist theory?


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HERMENEUTICTHEORY

HT is the study of understanding, especially through the

systematic interpretation of actions or texts.

Modern applications are focused on understanding the

culture of the users of a specific text.

Hermenuetics look for hidden or deep meaning inpeoples interpretation of different symbol systems for

e.g. in media texts.

It is sometimes referred to as interpretive theory.

E.g. a researcher interested in understand teensinterpretations of social networking websites like

Facebook OR the meaning making that occurs in the

exchange of information among teen fans of an online

simulation game.


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Goal: to understand how and why a particular

behavior occurs in the social world.

Ontology: there is no truly real, measurable social

reality. Instead reality cannot be understood except

through a consideration of the mental and social

processes that are continually constructing that

reality

What is knowable is based on peoples

interpretation of that which they know.

Epistemology: (how knowledge is advanced) relies

on the subjective interaction between the observer

and his or her community.


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Knowledge is local; it is specific to the interaction of

the knower and the known.

Axiology: influence of researcher and theorist

values play a very important role.


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CRITICALTHEORY

Some researchers start with the assumption that

some aspects of the social world are deeply flawed

and in need of transformation.

Their aim is to gain knowledge of that social world

so they can change it.

This goals is inherently political because it

challenges existing ways of organizing the social

world and the people and institutions that exercise

power in it.

Axiology is aggressively value laden.


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Critical theory assumes that by reorganizing

society, we can give priority to the most important

human values.

It studies inequality and oppression.

These theories do more than observe, describe or

interpret; they criticize.

Critical theories are concerned with how power,

oppression and privilege are the products of certainforms of communication throughout society and

how those forms of communication perpetuate

domination of one group over another.

Critical theorys epistemology argues thatknowledge is advanced only when it serves to free

people and communities from the influence of those

more powerful than themselves.


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CLASSEXERCISE

Looking at the other two theories try to come up

with Critical Theorys ontology keeping its goals,

epistemology and axiology in mind.


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Ontology: what is real, what is knowable in the

social world is the product of the interaction

between structure (the social worlds rules, norms

and beliefs) and agency (how humans behave and

interact in that world).

Reality then is shaped by the ongoing struggle or

debate between the two.


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E.g. researchers interested in the decline and

restoration of power of the labor movement in

industrialized nations

Or those interested in limiting the contribution of

childrens advertising to the nations growing

consumerism.

Critical theorists are troubled by what they view as

the uncontrolled exercise of capitalist corporate

power around the world.

They see media as an essential tool employed by

corporate elites to constrain how people view their

social world and to limit their agency in it.

POSTPOSITIVIST HERMENEUTIC CRITICAL


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POSTPOSITIVIST HERMENEUTIC CRITICAL

GOAL

ONTOLOG

Y

EPISTEMO

LOGY

AXIOLOGY


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NORMATIVETHEORY

Postpositivist and hermeneutic theory are

representational.

They are articulations of some other realities.

Critical theory is non representational.

Its goal is to change existing realities.

Normative theory is neither representational nor

does it seek to reform reality.

Its goal is to set an ideal standard against which theoperation of a given media system can be judged.


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A normative media theory explains how a media

system should operate in order to conform to or

realize a set of ideal social values.

Ontology: what is real or knowable about a media

system is real or knowable only for the specific

social system in which that system exists.

Epistemology: how knowledge is developed and

advanced is based in comparative analysiswe

can only judge (and therefore understand) theworth of a given media system in comparison to the

ideal espoused by the particular social system in

which it operates.


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Axiology is value laden. Its subjective

Study of a media system or parts of a media

system is undertaken in explicit belief that there is

an ideal mode of operation


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Put 2 groups of children, some of whom had seen aviolent cartoon and some who had not, in a roomand count the number of times each engaged insome form of violent play.

Examine the disciplinary record of two schools, onewhere children had ready access to TV at homeand one where there was no TV allowed.

The question is about moneyits obvious thatviolent content improves television ratings and

violent videogames attract teenage boys. Thiseconomic incentive motivates broadcasters andgame designers to continue to make this materialavailable.

Documents

1. Understanding and Evaluating Mass Communication Theory