Question of whether and how media influence self concept self identity and self evaluation as well as their impact on beliefs; attitude and behaviors underlines much research. Who is represented in media and how, groups and situation are portrayed and how they are excluded needs serious attention of the academic community who professes, preach and practice media in different capacities. Why one prefers to analyze the dynamics of mainstream media [electronics print] is because it influences the most of our lives yet we are rarely find time and space to express our attention in they way as it deserve the attention. We talk a lot about the quality of school, college, courses in order to provide the best education to our children by asking and diagnosing a lot, we send our wards to hospitals once we are sure of the quality and creditability of it, similarly we apply much of our time in selecting quality food products but at the same analytical and careful about the products and message media transmits to us which has far reaching consequences on our ways of thinking, decision-making in each and every aspect of our life. With their power to frame define and select aspect of the social world the mass media are a principal social and cultural institution.
The central position of media in everyday life ensures that symbols disseminated through the media became points of focus and interaction in the population. Interpretive approaches to media research focus on the premise that meaning is created in interaction with other.
Researcher’s talking these approaches imply that effect’s are contingent on the meaning is created and that these meaning are located not in media messages.
Qualitative researchers analyzing media processes have emphasized at least two issues. One is the notion that cultural meaning are not fixed in product’s but vary according to cultural, historical and social group context [Bloomer 1969]. Fish [1980] argues that reader’s crated meaning but do so the basis of interpretative community to which they belong. A second important issue in interpretive approaches to media focuses on the understanding that individual’s are not passive recipients of media. Years ago mill’s [1963] observed that people do not simply internalize dominant ideological messages but sometime resist them. He argued that people can resist by comparing alternative message in different media, comparing media message with their own life, or theirs message with the beliefs and behaviors of people in their social networks. Through this process people may denounce or rejects media message they contradicts their own experience. In the recent past one decade there has been phenomenal growth of media industry world over.
But does this growth have percolated to every section of society and do they have been portrayed that it can play the role of eye opener for all. Do they have been successful to do the justice to have-not’s of this country. Either it is the problem of rural India which constitutes nearly 70% of our population, children, uneducated youth, senior citizen, problems of the women and other disadvantaged groups. This symbolic annihilation of the disadvantaged groups have to struggle to project a publics self definition that is positive. [COLLINS-1991, ZOOMEN-1994].
A unique quality of media is their public’s pervasiveness and people’s knowledge that the images or ideas they see are also seen by many others, often millions of others. I addition individual’s believe that others are more strongly affected by media portrayals then they themselves are [Davison 1983, Perl off – 1993].
This believes reflects either a misperception of how other’s views are influenced by media or as Davison points out, perhaps an underestimation of the media influence on the self evidence for this belief – Known as the “third person – Effects” includes studies that people belief that other people’s children are affected by commercial more strongly than their own. How does belief that media images are powerful for other’s matter for individual? The third person effects suggests that effects of media in which content directly influences the self attitudes or behaviors may not be the only kind of influence. A complex indirect effect may also occur as people account for the effects of the pervasive imagery in media on other in their social network and are themselves influenced by perception of the way others see the media distorted world.
Media images play a big role in altering ideas of what is normative or ideal or what one thinks other believe is normative or ideal while offering additional pervasive standard of comparison that goes beyond local cultures.
Does the social responsibility of media as fourth pillar of democracy is being fulfilled? Does common man know that media is an industry run mostly by the capitalist where their sole motive is profit. The new capitalist class owns media to serve its business interest as it surround the power system more closely than any other institution. Propaganda agency manufactures consent and attitude of people at large to serve their business motive. They are in a better position to over power the thoughts of disadvantaged by alienating their voice from the mainstream media hence the already deprived is getting marginalized. They don’t care for you if you are obedient and subordinate and they care for the people who are trouble makers. They don’t care for people for people who are very poor who are potential care for people but silently and creative lead their lives. There are all sort of Craziness that sales high on the agenda of media pundits either it is power corridor, sex scandal, advertisement rich sports like tennis, cricket and sensationalism of all kinds. Expression of hate gets major attention than love, hostility [lingual, Ethnic] and aggressiveness gets more attention than the works of integration. Intimate relation gets less attention in comparison to deviant relation. Fundamentalists occupy the centre stage of media more than the spiritualists as the whole of network of terror market thrives its business prospects. Intolerance, Stress, Aversion is more suitable than calm, creative and unity. This sounds byte journalism has reached to a stage where even families of dead person of their loved ones are not left hounded. A remark by the father of a kidnapped boy that I am more traumatize by the question from media than to the sad limitation that one repeatedly teaches in media that if a man bites a dog only then it’s a news in media not the vice- versa. Selective omission and creating breaking news or unnecessarily dragging a marriage , love – affair too long and finally leading to very less curiosity to that news by the common- mass. If accountability of any institution can be analyzed why can’t be a serious effort be made to understand the stated and masked objective of the practicing media which affect us the most. How long we can continue with gospel truth media connotation if so many aberrations have percolated in this institution. Is not better to introspected from sociological, political, psychological, spiritual and media person perspective to achieve better in this Profession as what we are getting from it today. Is it not better to diagnose some of the pressing dilemma’s the media faces for the society at large rather than glorifying our dichotomies or anomies? Can there be a spiritual face of the media which express more in terms of unifying potential than the disintegrating. Can media reach to the last man in the society instead of celebrity – centric reporting. If one has to find solutions such queries there is an urgent need to come out with a holistic approach comprising intellectual’s from different stream put forward theirs views on an unified canvas so that our understanding of media can be richer than what it is now, of course this will be a tip of iceberg of this whole issue and a humble effort and further more such sincere attempts are needed to get a wider perspective of this whole issue. For this we need to conduct a seminar on this subject exchanging views from the cross-section of intellectuals.
Few question like,
1. Advertisement market share.
2. Growth of media as an industry.
3. The reach of media rural urban.
4. Issue in media capitalistics, social, moral, spiritual myth.
5. Research in media sector and other issue need a bit of highlight on your part.
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