Instructional Media

Media consumption is embedded in the routines, rituals, and

institutions, both public and domestic, of everyday life. Here the term
media includes printed material, broadcast media both audio and video,
and computers. Among the questions to be answered are whether media
interact with cognition and whether people are passive or active
receivers of the message. An historical overview of how media and the
audiovisual movements developed as powerful tools in education is
given. Mass media will be analyzed to with respect to what they are
and who controls them. We begin with a study of the interaction of
media and cognition.

a) Interaction of Media and Cognition

Romiszowski (1988, p. 8) defines media as: “the carriers of message, from some
transmitting source [which may be human being or an inanimate object] to receiver of
the message [which in our case is the learner] ”. Quite often the messages are
received by a combination of senses to provide the desired communication. They can
be quite complex and may involve carefully designed information with the purpose of
communicating the exact meaning intended by its author.

The study of media in education implicitly assumes that each medium entails some
particular attributes that affect learning, depending on the symbol system it involves
(Salomon, 1981). Media are our cultural device for selecting, gathering, storing, and
passing knowledge on in representational forms. Representation, as differentiated
from direct experience, is always coded within a symbol system. If one attempted to
remove picture from film, cartography from maps, or language from texts, what
would be left? Media without symbol systems are as unlikely as mathematics without
numbers. According to the cognitive theories of learning all cognition and learning
are based on internal symbolic representation. If symbol systems are central to media
of communication and to thinking, then the interactions and interdependence between
the two systems cannot be disregarded. For example, it is possible that symbolically
different presentations of information differ as to the mental skills of processing that
they require. It is also likely that the major symbol systems of the media develop
mental skills differentially and that one learns to use media’s symbolic forms for
purposes of internal representation (Salomon, 1981).

Bruner (1964, p.1) considers

“…that the development of human intellectual functioning from

infancy to such a perfection as it may reach is shaped by a series
of technological advances in the use of the mind. Growths
depend upon the mastery of techniques and cannot be understood
without reference to such mastery. These techniques are not, in
the main, invention of the individuals who are “growing up”;
they are rather skills transmitted with varying efficiency and
success by the culture language being a prime example.
Cognitive growth, then, is in a major way from the outside in as
well as from the inside out.”

The psychological effects of media and how people learn from media are of concern
to educationalists. The way one recodes a verbal description into an internal spatial
representation is likely to differ from the way one recodes a drawing or a picture into
internal propositions. Psychological and neuropsychological evidence tends to
support this contention (Salomon, 1981).

It is difficult to ignore the possible role symbol systems play in the cultivation of
mental skills not just as carriers of information about skills or as carriers of skill-
models, bur rather as the mental-skills-to-be. As Bruner argues internal representation
of the environment depends on learning (Bruner, 1964, p.2), “precisely the
techniques that serve to amplify our acts, perceptions, and our ratiocinative activities”.
Media, to which we all are heavily exposed, must certainly be included among these
techniques. Our era, the twenty-first century, can be characterized as the age of media
and technology. As channels for information and entertainment, mass media surround
us day and night. Vygotsky’s theories of social interactionism inform us that learning
takes place through engagement with contextualised and situationalised socio-cultural
environments and through contact with a culture of material and social resources that
everywhere supports cognitive activity (Crook, 1994).
Gavriel Salomon has summarized the symbol systems of media effects
and the acquisition of knowledge, in his book Interaction of Media
Cognition and Learning (1981) as follows:

1. Symbol systems highlight different aspects of content.

2. Symbol systems vary with respect to ease of recording.
3. Specific coding elements can save the learner from difficult
mental elaborations by overtly supplanting or short-circuiting
specific elaboration.
4. Symbol systems differ with respect to how much processing they
demand or allow.
5. Symbol systems differ with respect to the kinds of mental
processes they call on for recoding and elaboration.

Therefore, according to Salomon, the symbol system partly determines

who will acquire what knowledge from what kinds of message
(Salomon, 1981). The differential effects of media’s symbol systems
on the gaining of knowledge are connected to the effects on the mastery
of cognitive skills. The use of skills in the service of knowledge
achievement allows their gradual development leading to the gaining of
more and different kinds of knowledge. Three factors can be identified
as the focal points leading to these developments (Salomon, 1981, p.
238):

1. Environmental factors: Media’s symbol system, the information

they carry, and the learning task one is to perform.
2. Personological factors: The learner ’s capabilities, mental
schemata, and information preferences.
3. Behavioural factors: The specific actions or behaviours one
carries out while handling coded information.

Agreeing with the assimilation/accommodation model of Piaget,

Salomon agree to that psychologically, people seek out resemblances in
dense, nonnotational symbol systems, even when such perceived
resemblances are erroneous. Objects in one’s environment, whether
real or represented in some symbolic form, are recoded and elaborated
in terms of one’s schemata. New information yields a conception or
forms of internal representation, which change to some degree one’s
schemata, which is then expressed in other recoding and elaboration
activities, and results in an altered perception of the object. When a
later encounter with a symbolic representation of the object is easily
recoded and requires little change of schemata, the person judges the
representation as resembling the object, although in effect it resembles
the stored image in his schemata. Judgement of resemblance
determines, in turn, the application of, say, a pictorial standard of
recoding by the person (Salomon, 1981).

The symbolic system of media can be mentally demanding and the

effects of media’s content are determined by what the viewer brings
with him when encountering the media. Therefore it is relevant to look
at the viewer not as a passive audience but as an active participant in
comprehending the message of the medium.

The use of media as a tool to mediate messages to the masses for an

educational purpose does not have a long history. In the next section
an overview of that will be given.

b) Developments of the Tools of Instruction

The audiovisual movement developed early in the 20 t h century, focusing
on machines and materials rather than the learner. This thought was
concerned with the effects of devices and procedures, which were seen
as acting as a remedy to the extreme verbalism of traditional methods
(Spencer, 1991). The rapid development in this subject came during
and after World War II, in the 1940s. The military workforce had to be
trained for their own survival and the war effort. To meet this need,
thousands of training films and other mediated learning materials were
distributed, and 16mm projectors and filmstrip projectors were
purchased and circulated. Still photographs, audio recordings,
transparencies and slides were used for instructional purposes.
Many of the individuals hired by the military to work on the wartime
training were well-established researchers and the military training
became an example of what a well-funded research and development
effort, directed toward education, could accomplish (Romiszowski,
1997).

In the 1960s the field for instructional development grew very fast,
with a base in behavioural approaches. What characterized this period
was the articulation of the components of instructional systems or the
system approach. The leaders of the educational profession who had
thought of themselves primarily as media specialists began to lobby
actively to broaden the field of audio-visual (AV) instruction to
embrace the larger concept of instructional development and
technology. From this school of thought Skinner ’s linear teaching
machine was derived and Postlethwaite devised the Audio Tutorial
system (Romiszowski, 1997).

Developments in mass media were quite rapid at this time and the
development of television was to have a major effect on how western
households conducted their daily life. There were great expectations
for TV as an educational medium and after the emerge of video, in the
1970s, the potential was realized. The influence of cognitive
psychology on the refinement of instructional design was notable at
this time (Sharon, 1995).

The advent of microcomputers in the 1980s and developments in

computerized education in the 1990s, concern educationalists today.
Interactive video, CD-ROM, and other storage systems with
instructional programs are becoming more sophisticated with
adaptations to the idiosyncrasies of individual learners.

Seigel and Davis (1986) talk about the three waves of the technology
and related know-how. The first wave was associated with the new
technology itself in the design and programming of computers and
applications. Only a small proportion of the population was involved
and they required highly technical, job-specific training in the science
of computing and programming. The advent of the cheap
microcomputer and its use by a much greater section of the population
characterised the second wave. The development of a movement in
education towards computer literacy for everyone grew. Finally, the
third wave is characterised by the access of all sectors of social and
professional activity to computer systems. This wave brings with it the
need for a range of new skills and attitudes, which will enable us to use
these tools and systems efficiently, without necessarily being expert in
the skills of programming, or having any specialist knowledge of
computer science. In this third wave people are using computers as
they use cars or television sets or telephones

Technologies in communication and delivery systems have changed the

way education can be performed. Satellite television, developments in
communication and the Internet have transformed the means of how
education can be conducted. The evolution of the Internet started in
the late 70s with a research project in the U.S. Department of Defence
to find a way to make computer networks more reliable. Linking
government and university laboratories soon developed into an efficient
means of exchanging information, an unanticipated bonus (Hackbarth,
1996). The World Wide Web evolved from these developments of
computer networking to be the main source of information and
communication, at least in the industrialized world.
When the earlier technology (films, television, overhead projectors)
was seen to support the teaching and learning status quo computer
technology is associated with economics, employment prospects based
on skills needed for new era (Kerr, 1996).
c) Media and Instruction
As the term instruction is defined it requires a two-way communication
process. Most media are one-way transmitters and therefore are not
capable of receiving, store or interpreting any message that the learner
may transmit. These presentation media have been the main support
for teachers, until now with the developments in the computer
technology. In typical face-to-face teaching situations the teacher is
the receiver, storer and interpreter of anything the student may say or
do and the media are used to enhance or enrich the teacher ’s
presentation. With the developments in telecommunications and the
computer technology the role of the media can be both the transmitter
and receiver and storer of the instructions. The changes, from pure
chalkboard methods to the use of audiocassette, radio, television and
video, have taken place, but with the World Wide Wed the way
information can be enhanced make these changes even more
revolutionary. With a push of a button information can be sought for
and reached from around the world.

We have already learned from the theories stemming from the

behavioural, objective, stimulus-response models and the cognitive,
constructive, cultural reproduction models that interaction plays an
important role in learning and developing. Interaction implies a
dialogue between two parties. According to Steuer (1992, p. 84),
“interactivity is the extent to which a user can participate in modifying
the form and content of mediated environment in real time”.

Various elaborations of basic computer models introduce the potential

for more interactivity and adaptation in computer education. By
incorporating simulation, a computer package enables students to
examine how process change when parameters are varied: unlike
simulations on video, individual students can choose which parameters
to change and by how much (Koumi, 1994). Computer based
simulations create a powerful artificial environment with which the
learner can interact to discover principles and develop methods for
solving problems in a much more effective way than a tutor could ever
give through dialogue alone.

Romiszowski lists the benefits of simulations and games, in his book

The selection and use of Instructional Media (Romiszowski, 1997, p.
265-266):

1. They can provide the student with experiences and

practice, which are much closer to real-life situations he will
encounter than might otherwise be possible in training course.
In particular they can reproduce the pressures and stresses
under which students will have to work.
2. They can therefore be useful as methods of measuring how
well students are able to apply previously learnt facts,
concepts, or principles to real-life situation.
3. They allow one to simplify reality, controlling which
aspects of a real-life situation a student should attend and
respond to.
4. They are often economically justified as a substitute for
on-the-job practice when it would be difficult to arrange this,
e.g. expensive, easily broken equipment (medical simulation),
remote situations (space-travel simulators or school geography
games), equipment used for production day and night
(industrial process simulators), etc.
5. They are often justified on safety grounds, in that they
enable students to practice dangerous or threatening jobs
without any danger (pilot-training simulators, simulations of
highly-stressed personal situations such as dealing with
discipline problems in the classrooms, war games, etc.)
6. A well designed simulation or game is generally found to
involve students in the learning task more than other available
techniques, both intellectually and emotionally.
7. As a result of 6 (and also of 3) they have been found to be
an extremely effective way of measuring, changing and
reinforcing student attitudes.
8. Finally, simulation can of course be used as a research technique. The
model being used in the simulation should reflect reality. If we understand
the real- life phenomenon under study sufficiently, we should be able to
construct a valid model. If, however, we do not fully understand the real
problem, we construct a ‘tentative’ model- a model which reflects our
hypotheses about the problem. We then operate the model and observe the
effects, comparing them with the effects we obtain in reality. Any
discrepancies are analysed and the model is redesigned, and our hypotheses
changed, if necessary. The study of complex systems such as political
systems, nervous systems, sophisticated electronic systems (i.e. the science
of cybernetics) rely heavily on simulation as a research technique
One of the main attractions in using computers are, computer-based
simulation programs which introduce the learner to these real life
situations. Computer-based simulations are sometimes the only way of
developing certain types of learning experiences; in medical education,
trainee doctors learn how patients with diabetes react to the intake of
sugar in various quantities; in science, learners may explore the flow of
fluid through nozzles, interference and diffraction patterns of light
waves or motion of satellites on orbits; and in economics, students can
investigate how the effects of interacting market forces, tax laws or
inflation rate may combine with surprising effects under certain
conditions (Romiszowski, 1997).

The common ownership of PC computers has made it possible for

children to play in the simulation or artificial environment. Many of
the computer games that are available on the market put the user in
real-life situations. Here the user confronts an artificial environment
that operates under a set of rules. His role is to act within this
environment and then observe the results. For example in “Geography
Search” one relives the voyages of early explorers crossing the Atlantic,
plotting the course and making adjustments along the way, and
accounting for changes in winds and currents. “SimEarth” provides
opportunities to redesign our planet and its inhabitants and then witness
the consequences of one’s actions (Hackbarth, 1996).

Opinion about the primary role of media in learning remains divided.

One view, long ago introduced by Marshall McLuhan is that the
medium is the message. When looking at the effects of media as such
it can be agreed upon that specific content (comedy, news, weather,
games, drama and terror) is less significant than changes in human
relations brought about by reading, viewing and playing. Yet the
pervasive exploitation of sex and violence across media also must have
harmful effects on society.
The opinion of Richard Clark at the University of Southern California
that the media are the mere vehicle for delivering goods is a different
point of view. Therefore, learning is affected by such variables as
organization of content, match with student characteristics and
appropriate instructional strategies (Hackbarth, 1996).

The new cognitive paradigm assumes that instructional powers do not

reside solely in the media, for the way media are perceived influences
what we learn from them. The perception is founded on the kinds of
information and instructional methods delivered by different media
(Clark and Sugrue, 1995).

As said before technological developments in media have had a

significant impact on the way teaching and learning can be conducted.
Systematically designed programs transmitted by printed material,
radio, TV and computers provide challenging learning experience.
Along with technology these learning programs enrich instruction and
make it more individualized and accessible

Instructions enrich through added dimensions, special effects and

unique programming. Time-lapse motion microphotography portrays
actual chemical reactions and the life cycles of minute organisms.
Video technology allows the student to observe the ongoing behaviour
of the universe. Television provides documentaries, plays and
musicals. Computer simulations permit manipulating variables and
observing consequences within manageable space and time frames.
Virtual reality affords the sensation of acting within novel
environments (Hackbarth, 1996).

Instruction is individualized when teachers interact with the students in

the selection of objectives, content and methods that match their
abilities and interests. The computer can help the student to diagnose
their difficulties in understanding a given problem, it can provide
remedial instruction or recommendation in viewing a film, read a
section of text or consult with the teacher. Interactive multimedia and
tutoring systems and access to the Internet permit student-initiated
explorations grounded in their lived worlds and guided by their felt
needs to make sense of their experiences.
With the latest technology instructions are made accessible to all. By
analyzing the learning needs of diverse students, and creating programs
to meet them, technology can help. Radio and TV transmit information
via satellite to remote villages throughout the world and by way of
cable, to hospitals and homes (Hackbarth, 1996).
Special equipment helps to compensate for obstacles encountered by
people with motor and sensory disabilities. Programs are sent via
distance education systems to schools lacking enough teachers and
from schools to learners in remote settings. Computers searches
speedily locate material on the Web, in databases or in libraries
worldwide (Hackbarth, 1996).

d) Distance learning

The instant exchange of information between people allows instant

access to databases and online information services, and provides
multimedia technical resources such as interactive audio and video. As
indicated before the developments in telecommunication have made it
possible for learning to take place in and out of school environment –
the global classroom. Although distance learning has been known for
many years the arrival of the Internet has changed the way distance
learning can be conducted. Schools in rural areas can collaborate in
other ways than before. Many educational institutions are attempting
to use technology to solve the problems of growing numbers of both
home-based and distance students and limited resources of teachers and
funds. When education is undertaken at a distance it is necessary to
consider how best to attain the essential elements of the process –
providing information and facilitating the negotiation of meaning
through dialogue. The large-scale open and distance institutions make
use of a range of media to convey course content to learners. Many
distance-learning programmes have been developed to achieve the
potential of the communication technology to enhance distance learning
and teaching. Although written texts are usually the core teaching
material of courses they have been supplemented with broadcast
television and radio programmes, audio and videocassettes, experiment
kits and computer software. Recently there is a greater emphasis on
using computer and communication technology to convey the dialogue
between the participants in the educational process. Network-based
education introduces new approaches to teaching and learning and
opens up the possibilities of computer conferencing, which enables
information, ideas, problems and strategies to be discussed and
explored by course participants. On-line working can be used for task-
focussed collaboration, where this is appropriate for the pedagogic
approach adopted.

A project in Northeast Scotland recently explored how an electronic

network could be used to help able children develop their thinking
skills. This project STARS (Superhighways Team Across Rural
Schools) was aimed at small rural primaries, where able children are
often not stretched to their full potential. They are alone at the top of
the class and their ideas are unquestioned and unchallenged by other
children. Because schools were so small, separating out only the able
pupils, one or two children at most taking part, would have caused
social problem, so others were included in the school groups of four or
five. The objective was to teach thinking skills through problem
solving, promoting critical thinking, creative thinking and
collaborative learning. Computer-based assignments, all with a space
theme, were published on Web sites called launch pads, and some
projects involved doing research on the Internet. On some problem
solving exercises the children had to come up with a single solution on
behalf of their school, working together in their own group and
reaching some agreement. To get to the best solution the children had
to argue their case and accept others’ point of view. In other cases they
had to cooperate with the other schools (Walker, 1998).
According to Jim Ewing who ran the project the main findings were
(Walker, 1998. p. 41):

“One idea was that children should listen to others and respect their
contribution. That was definitely an outcome. At first they were disappointed
when other people shot down their ideas and it took them some time before
they understood that other people’s ideas might be worth considering. They
were learning, as they might not do in a small rural school, that there were
other people around who were just as bright as, or brighter than, they were
themselves”

Other findings showed that the able children took responsibility as

group leaders and co-ordinators with other schools. Their problem
solving became more systematic, and there were distinct gains in their
use of critical thinking skills. The teacher ’s role in this project was to
provide the children with setting the project in motion, helping with
concepts and vocabulary, and in the end to register what they had
learned.

This STARS project is taken here as an example of how the interactive-

technology can improve the quality of teaching and learning. Teachers
in the schools involved reported that the project had (Walker, 1998. p.
42). “…awakened their professional interest in distance learning, in
differentiation in teaching for different pupils, and in teaching
thinking”

Many online programs have been developed to improve the quality of

distance teaching and learning. First Class, LearningSpace, WebCT are
only a few course tools which could be mentioned. WebCT and
LearningSpace learning programmes create a virtual meeting place on
the Web where the course members are able to get the learning material
in the form of text, audio or video files and the communication tools
allow them to be in contact both in real-time or asynchronized.
Members of the course have the opportunity to put some personal
information and a photo in a database (profiles) of the course, which
enables them to get to know each other and have the notion of being in
a “real class” with classmates which they can relate to because they
may not have the opportunity to meet face to face.

What matters is not whether the quality of open and distance learning
is enhanced by the application of technologies as such, but how it is
used (Kirkwood, 1998). The concern should be how technology could
contribute to the educational process of both teaching and learning.
The production and use of high quality material does not by itself
ensure an improvement in the educational process if there is a lack of
support for the learners. The learning programmes described earlier
(WebCT, LearningSpace) give instructors and course members
improved opportunities to facilitate two-way communication and
dialogue in the educational process. But whether or not the process of
teaching and learning are improved by the use of computer and
communication technology or the latest online learning programs will
depend on the pedagogic design devised by the educators rather than on
the technologies themselves. Therefore whether distant learning is
passive or active is based on the instructional program delivered.

Mass media have become a very influential factor in shaping the

culture of our era. The task of the next section is to give an account of
what mass media stands for.
 4. Mass Media
a) Features of media

With the media being such an influential factor on our lives, it

important to understand key aspects of the term media such as the
ideology of media; how they are organized; how they construct and
communicate their message; and how the audience react to the message.
When talking about mass media the media referred to are:

 Newspapers
 Films
 Broadcasting (television and radio)
 Recorded music
 The Internet.
Print media, films, broadcasting and recorded music can be identified
as passive in the sense that the recipient passively receives the message
without any influence on the incoming message whatsoever, whereas
with the Internet the receiver has the opportunity to interact with the
incoming message and construct a new one.
In the history of mass media four main elements can be recognized: a
technology; the political, social, economic and cultural situation of a
society; a set of activities, functions or needs; and people especially as
formed into groups, classes or interests. These four elements have
interacted in different ways and with different orders of primacy,
sometimes one seeming to be the driving force or precipitating factor,
sometimes another (McQuail, 1997). What kinds of relationships exist
between the media and their ideologies? To answer this question it is
necessary to draw together several features of mass media.
 The media communicate ideas.
 The media represent an outside reality to audiences.
 All texts are produced by people.
 All individual producers of texts and media institutions have
viewpoints.
 No text can exist without offering its consumers a position, or
“point of view” to adopt.
 Audiences make meanings and sense from texts in accordance
with their existing knowledge.
 Somebody owns all media institutions.

Many media texts appear to be seamless. Sometimes it is hard to see

accurately how and where the component parts are joined together, as
the development of the narrative diverts the audience’s interest away
from the ideological structure. Yet it is the structure of the text that
can give the researcher of the media the best insight into the
ideologies, which run through the text. For example, the way
technologies are used to represent race, gender or age, the way
characters are lit or shot and the actions that we see them carrying out
can all reveal something about the ideology encoded in images. The
kind of story, what is included or omitted, and whether the text fits into
a particular genre are all the results of a choice and these choices
contribute to the ideological viewpoints expressed (Downes and Miller,
1998).

Narratives offered to audiences in media do much of the hard work of

connecting and organizing events and thoughts for the audience.
Audiences participate in the narrative by interpreting it, based on
previous knowledge and experience as well as on information given in
the text. The audiences of media can choose to consume the mass
media in a broad range of settings, at home or publicly, and can control
the condition in which they are received. This makes the media easy
to adapt according to the need of each individual. Media talk is
notably related to the management of social relationships, both as a
means of maintaining social connections as much as it is motivated by
interest in the media per se.

The makers of media text, unlike the common audience, are able to
decide on and control most elements that make up the final version of
their narrative, given that the narrative is a fiction. They can create
characters, places and events, predict the future of these elements, and
make things happen. Audiences are presented with a finished product,
which consist only of what the makers have decided to incorporate and
is sometimes dissimilar to the real live events (Downes and Miller,
1998).

Mass media can be characterised as follows (Downes and Miller, 1998,

p. 5):

1. They normally require complex formal organizations.

2. They are directed towards large audiences.
3. They are public – the content is open to all and the
distribution is relatively unstructured and informal.
 4. Audiences are heterogeneous – of many different
conditions and widely separated from one another.
5. The mass media can establish simultaneous contact with
a large number of people at a distance from the source
and widely separated from one another
6. The relationship between communications is
‘collectively unique to modern society’. It is an
‘aggregate of individuals united by a common focus of
interest, engaging in an identical form of behaviour, and
open to adversion towards common ends’, yet the
individuals involved, ‘all unknown’ to each other, have
only a restricted amount of interaction, do not orient
their action to each other and are only loosely organized
or lacking organization.

The history of modern media begins with the printed book that was in a
sense only a technical device for reproducing the same or rather similar
ranges of text that had previously been handwritten. With the
technology of printing, text could be distributed to a much larger
population than before. Almost two hundred years later the newspapers
could be distinguished from the handbills, pamphlets and newsletters of
the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries (Curran and
Gurevitch, 1997).

b) Newspapers
Improved technology, rising literacy, commerce, democracy and
popular demand all played a part in the extension of newspaper
reaching masses beyond the educated elite or business class (MacQuail,
1997). In a sense the newspaper was more of an innovation than the
printed book. Its distinctiveness, compared to other forms of cultural
communication, lies in its individualism, reality orientation, utility,
secularity and suitability for the needs of a new class: town-based
business and professional people. Its novelty consists not in its
technology or manner of distribution, but in its functions for a distinct
class in a changing and more liberal social-political climate, the middle
class had arrived. What distinguishes the newspaper as a medium is
(MacQuail, 1997, p. 14):

 Regular and frequent apperance

  Commodity form
 Informal content
 Public sphere functions
 Urban, secular audience
 Relative freedom

The late-nineteenth-century bourgeois newspaper was a high point in

press history and contributed much to the modern understanding of
what a newspaper is. It was the product of several events and
circumstances: the triumph of liberalism and the absence or ending of
direct censorship or economic constraint; the emergence of a
progressive capitalist class and several new professions, thus forging a
business–professional establishment; and many social and
technological changes favouring the rise of national or regional press
of high information quality.

The main features of the new prestige or elite press which was
established in this period were: formal independence from stable and
vested interests; recognition as a major institution of political and
social life; a highly developed sense of social and ethical responsibility
and the rise of a journalistic profession dedicated to the objective
reporting of events. Many current expectations about what a quality
newspaper is still reflect several of these ideas and provide the basis of
criticisms of newspapers which deviate from the ideal, by being either
too partisan or too sensational (MacQuail, 1997).

The mass newspaper has been called commercial for two main reasons:
it operates for profit by monopolistic concerns, and it is heavily
dependent on product advertising revenue. The commercial aims and
underpinnings of the mass newspaper have exerted considerable
influence on the content, in the direction of political populism as well
as support for business, consumerism and the free enterprise.
Usually newspapers are publicized on a daily basis carrying the latest
news and other material which can be entertainment, reviews, cartoons,
editorials, features or advertisements for. Traditionally a newspaper
organization is characterised by the concentration of a number of
different functions in the same place. Management, editorial and
production are usually located in the same building to facilitate the
goal of working under pressure to fulfil deadlines. However, the
distribution can be in the hands of a separate organization. Newspaper
workers are organized as hierarchies, with strong demarcated lines of
authority and control (Price, 1997).

c) Films
At the end of the nineteenth century film began as a technological
novelty. It introduced a new means of presentation and distribution of
an older tradition of entertainment, offering stories, spectacles, music,
drama, humour and technical tricks for popular consumption. As a
mass medium, film was partly a response to the invention of leisure –
time out of work and an answer to the demand for economical and
usually respectable ways of enjoying free time for the whole family.
Thus it provided for the working class some of the cultural benefits
already enjoyed by the social betters.
The film as a medium can be identified by (MacQuail, 1997, p.18):
 Audiovisual technology
 Public performance
 Extensive (universal) appeal
 Predominantly narrative fiction
 International character
 Public regulation
 Ideological character

Film for the use of propaganda is important, based on its great reach,
supposed realism, emotional impact and popularity when applied to
national and societal purposes. The news films from the Second World
War are good examples.

Noteworthy turning points in the film history were the coming of television and the
Americanisation of the film industry and film culture in the years after the First World
War (Tunstall, 1977). The relative decline of the potential European film industry
reinforced by World War II contributed to a homogenisation of film culture and a
convergence of ideas about the definition of film as a medium. Television took away
a large part of the film viewing public and diverted the social documentary stream of
film development and gave it a more congenial home in television. A notable turning
point is also the reduced need for respectability; the film became more free to cater to
the demand for violent, horrific, or pornographic content leading to a ever increasing
level of immunity (MacQuail, 1997).

d) Radio and Television – The broadcast media

Radio and television grew out of pre-existing technologies such as
telephone, telegraph, moving and still photography, and some sound
recording. Radio has a history of seventy plus years and television
about forty years. Although there are obvious differences regarding
content and use, both seem to have been a technology looking for a use,
rather than a response to a demand for a new kind of service and
content (MacQuail, 1997). As stated by Williams (1975, p. 25),
“Unlike all previous communications technologies, radio and
television were systems primarily designed for transmission and
reception as abstract processes, with little or no definition of
predicting content”.
The content of radio and television borrowed from already existing
media –film, music, stories, news and sport.

The main innovations common to both radio and television have been
based on the direct observation, transmission and reception of events as
they happen. Another distinctive feature of radio and television has
been a high degree of regulation, control or licensing by public
authority – initially out of technical necessity, later from a mixture of
democratic choice, state self-interest, economic convenience and sheer
institutional custom. A third and related historical feature of radio and
television media has been their centre–periphery distribution and the
association of national television with political life and the power
centres of society, as both radio and television have become established
as both popular and politically important. Radio and television have
hardly anywhere acquired, as a right, the same freedom that the press
enjoys, to express views and act with political independence
(MacQuail, 1997). The broadcast media radio and television can be
characterized by (MacQuail, 1997, p. 19):

 Very large output, range and reach

 Audiovisual content
 Complex technology and organization
 Public character and extensive regulation
 National and international character
 Very diverse content forms

e) Recorded Music
The recording and replaying of music began around 1880 and was fairly
rapidly diffused, on the basis of the wide appeal of popular songs and
melodies. This popularity related to the already established place of
the piano (and other instruments) in the home. Much radio content
since the early days has consisted of music, even more so since the rise
of television. The music television station MTV is an example.
Although there has been a tendency for the phonogram to replace the
private making of music, there has never been a large gap between
mass mediated music and personal and direct audience enjoyment of
musical performance (concerts, choirs, bands, dances, etc.). The
phonogram makes music of all kinds more accessible at all times in
more places to more people, but it is hard to distinguish a fundamental
discontinuity in the general character of popular musical experience,
despite changes of type and fashion (MacQuail, 1997).
Changes in the broader character of the phonogram have been noticed
and the first one can be related to the radio broadcasting. The radio
broadcast of music increased the range and amount of music available
and extended it to many more people than had access to gramophones.
The change of radio from a family to an individual medium in the post-
war transistor revolution was a second main change. This opened up a
new market of young people for what became a growing record
industry. Since then, portable tape players, Sony Walkman, the
compact disc and music video have all developed and given the spiral
another twist, based mainly on young audiences (MacQuail, 1997).
This has resulted in a mass media industry that is very interrelated,
concentrated in ownership and internationalized (Negus, 1993). In
spite of this, music media have significant radical and creative stands
that have developed regardless of increased commercialization (Frith,
1981).

Music and its relationship to social events has always been recognized
and occasionally celebrated or feared. From the rise of the youth-based
industry in the 1960s, mass-mediated popular music has been connected
to youthful idealism and political concern, to supposed degeneration
and pleasure-seeking, to drug-taking, violence and an antisocial way of
thinking. Music has also played a part in various nationalist
independence movements (e.g. Ireland or Estonia). It has never been
easy to regulate the content of music although the distribution has been
in the hands of established institutions. Most popular music has
continued to express and respond to enduring conventional values and
personal needs. The recorded music (phonogram) media can be
distinguished by (MacQuail, 1997, p. 20):
 Multiple technologies of recording and dissemination
 Low degree of regulation
 High degree of internationalization
 Younger audience
 Subversive potential
  Organizational fragmentation
 Diversity of reception possibilities

e) The Internet
The Internet refers to what is sometimes called telematic media,
telematic because they combine telecommunications and informatics.
The telematic media have been heralded as the key component in the
latest communication revolution that will replace broadcast television,
as we know it. The Internet is a multifaceted mass medium, that is, it
contains many different configurations of communication. Its varied
forms show the connection between the interpersonal and mass
communication (Morris and Organ, 1996). Since the 1970s these new
media have been widely taken up as a mass media (MacQuail, 1997).
Several kinds of technology are involved: of transmission (by cable or
satellite); of miniaturization; of storage and retrieval; of display (using
flexible combinations of text and graphics); and of control (by
computer). The main features by contrast with the old media, are:
decentralization – supply and choice are no longer predominantly in the
hands of the supplier of communication; high capacity – cable or
satellite delivery overcomes the former restrictions of cost, distance
and capacity; interactivity – the receiver can select, answer back,
exchange and be linked to other receivers directly; and flexibility of
form, content and use.

Not only does this new media facilitate the distribution of existing
radio and television it also offers computer video games, virtual reality
and video recordings of all kinds. CD-ROMS (standing for compact
disc, read only memory) offer flexible and easy access to very large
stores of information, by way of computer-readable discs (MacQuail,
1997). In general, the new media have bridged differences both
between media and also between public and private definitions of
communication activities. The Internet communication takes many
forms, from World Wide Web pages operated by major news
organizations to Usenet groups to E-mail messages among colleagues
and friends. The Internet’s communication forms can be understood as
a continuum. Production, for example, need no longer be concentrated
in large centrally located organizations (typical of film and television),
nor so centrally controlled. The sources of the message can range from
one person in E-mail communication, to a social group in a Listserv or
Usenet group, to a group of professional journalists in a World Wide
Web page. The messages themselves can be traditional journalistic
news stories created by a reporter and editor, stories created over a
long period of time by many people, or simply conversations, such as
in an Internet Relay Chat group. The receivers, or the audiences, of the
messages can also number from one to a potential millions, who may or
may not move fluidly from their role as audience members to producers
of message (Morris and Organ, 1996).
What distinguishes the telematic media is (MacQuail, 1997, p. 22):

 Computer-based technologies
 Hybrid, flexible character
 Interactive potential
 Private and public functions
 Low degree of regulation
 Interconnectedness

The expansion of channels of media communication has increased the

means through which government can communicate with society and
social groups. The media have become essential in the process of
elections and government publicity. In the same way the broadcast
media rely on government for their licenses to operate, and all news
operators depend on government as a major source of stories (Burton,
1999).
Levinson (1999) has considered the circumstances surrounding any
medium. Radio, for example, magnifies the human voice right away
across vast distances to a mass audience. It makes print obsolescent as
a mass medium, we prefer to hear the first news on the radio instead of
waiting for an extra addition of a newspaper. Radio retrieves the town
crier who had been extinct by the print. Acoustic radio, when pushed
to its limits, transforms into audio-visual television. This process is
repeated when we look at the television the medium that radio reversed
into. TV amplifies the visual, but in an “acoustic” all-at-once sense,
not in the one-on-one sense of individuals reading separate newspapers,
most likely not all on the same page. TV made radio obsolescent; it
retrieves the visual but not in the way the visuality of print had been
made obsolescent by radio. The retrieval of the visual in TV is
something new, a hybrid of previous visuality with current electronic
attributes that is genuinely different. When limned to its full extent,
the screen of television flips into the screen of the personal computer
(Levinson, 1999).