MCS Notes Final

Media Culture and Society
Why study media? 1
There's a lot more to media literacy than simply knowing how to press the
buttons. These days people gain more of their
knowledge than ever before from the mass media,
especially television, but few really know how the
finished product is made.
Supermarket shoppers find packaged foods

carry a list of ingredients. No such thing is provided
with programmes we watch on TV, yet their images,
more so than many groceries, are a blend of highly
processes ingredients. the nutritional value of some
food products is well known - but what about the "nutritional" value of the news?
In fact Media Studies is one of their fastest growing subjects. Media

Education is also well established in Canada, most Australian states and elsewhere.
We believe that all students need to become media literate in the same way that
they also become print literate. They need to know how to "read" the information
they receive via the screen, or to be able to "read between the lines" in newspapers.
Media studies:
 Aids communication, developing an ability to express ideas in different

forms and different media.
 Increases personal confidence and practical skills in handling media
technology.
 Develops skills useful in a wide variety of non-media careers
 Enables students to see behind the screen and read between the lines
Key concepts of media education:

 WHO IS WATCHING? 2
MEDIA How audiences are identified, constructed, addressed and
AUDIENCES reached; how audiences find, choose, consume and
respond to media texts.
 HOW DO THEY DO THAT?
MEDIA What kind of technologies are available to whom, how to
TECHNOLOGIES use them, the differences they make to the production
process as well as the final product.
 WHO MADE / OWNS WHAT?
MEDIA AGENCIES/ Who produces the text; roles in production process, media
OWNERSHIP institutions, economics and ideologies, intentions and
results.
 HOW DO THEY CONVEY MEANING/
MEDIA
How the media produces meanings; codes and
LANGUAGES
conventions; narrative structure.
 WHAT IS IT?
MEDIA Different media (television, radio, cinema etc); forms

(documentary, advertising etc); genres, other ways of
CATEGORIES
categorising text; how categorisation relates to
understanding.
 HOW ARE THINGS, PLACES AND PEOPLE
PORTRAYED IN THE MEDIA?
MEDIA
REPRESENTATION The relation between media texts and the actual places,
people, events, ideas; stereotyping and its consequences.
What is Mass Media?
Mass media is simply a section of the media that spreads to a large audience 3
simultaneously, through the various types of media. The easiest way to understand
what mass media is, is to look at a newspaper. This is a uniform collection of
media related information, that is distributed to a large network of people at the
same time. Everyone who reads the newspaper gathers the same information, and
arrives at their own conclusion from it.
The term “Mass” is denoted as a great/large volume, range and extent (of
people and production) and reception of messages. “Communication” is defined by
Dental Dictionary as the technique of conveying thoughts or ideas between two
people or groups of people.
It refers to the giving and taking of meaning, the transmission and reception
of messages; whereas; “Mass Communication” is seen as institutionalised
production and generalized diffusion of symbolic goods via the fixation and
transmission of information or symbolic content, it is explained as a
communication which is directed to or reaches an appreciable fraction of the
population.
History of Mass Media:

Mass media includes print media like newspaper and magazines, electronic
media like radio, television and video and new age digital media like internet,
blogs and mobile phones. To know the origin and history of media, we should
know the growth and evolution of mass media.
History of mass media can be traced back to the early days of dramas that
were performed in various cultures. However, the term Mass Media originated
with the print media that was also its first example. The first newspaper was
printed in China 868 A.D, but due to the high cost of paper and illiteracy amongst
people, it didn’t prosper.
Regarding the origin of the Mass Media, Europe can boast to be the primary
source. It was Johannes Gutenberg, who for the first time printed a book in a
printing press in 1453.
Gradually, during the period post-Second World War, radio, television and
video were introduced. The audio-visual facilities became very popular as they
provided information and entertainment. Of late, it is the Internet which has

become the latest and most popular of the mass media. Here, information is been 4
generated through various websites and search engines. One can play games, listen
to radio while working and chat with friends and relatives, irrespective of location.
It also gives information on various topics such as literature, politics, science,
sports, fashion, movies, education, career, jobs etc. similar to other types of mass
media.
Thus, due to the progress of science and technology, history of media has
evolved and reached the present-day world of internet, cellular phones, blogs,
podcast and RSS feeds.
Types of Media:
The seven mass media in order of their introduction are:
1) Print (books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, etc) from the late 15th
century
2) Recordings (gramophone records, magnetic tapes, cassettes, cartridges, CDs,
DVDs) from the late 19th century
3) Cinemafrom about 1900
4) Radiofrom about 1910
5) Televisionfrom about 1950
6) Internetfrom about 1990
7) Mobile phonesfrom about 2000
Each mass media has its own content types, its own creative artists and
technicians, and its own business model. The sixth and seventh media, internet and
mobile, are often called collectively as digital media; and the fourth and fifth, radio
and TV, as broadcast media.
Eight unique benefits of mobile as a media channel:
Mobile offers eight benefits that cannot be replicated by the six legacy mass
media. They are:
Mobile is the first personal mass media

Mobile is permanently carried
Mobile is always on
Mobile has a built-in payment mechanism

Mobile is available at the point of creative inspiration
5
Mobile has the most accurate audience measurement
Mobile captures the social context of media consumption
Mobile allows augmented reality to be used in media
Different Types of Mass Media
Mass media are media, which can be used to communicate and interact with
a large number of audiences. Be it the pictorial messages of the early ages, or the
high-technology media that are available today, one thing that we all agree upon, is
that mass media are an inseparable part of our lives. Entertainment and media
always go hand in hand, but in addition to the entertainment, mass media also
remain to be an effective medium for communication, dissemination of
information, advertising, marketing and in general, for expressing and sharing
views, opinions and ideas. Mass media is a double-edged sword which means that
there are positive effects of media as well as negative influences of media. Here are
some of the different types of mass media:
Print Media: The print media includes newspapers, magazines, brochures,

newsletters, books and even leaflets and pamphlets. Visual media like photography
can also be mentioned under this sub-head, since photography is an important mass
media, which communicates via visual representations. Although, it is said that the
electronic or new media have replaced the print media, there exists a majority of
audiences who prefer the print media for various communication purposes. Public
speaking and event organizing can also be considered as a form of mass media.
Electronic Media: For many people, it is impossible to imagine a life without

their television sets, be it the daily news dose or even the soap operas.This mass
media includes television and radio. This category also includes electronic media
like movies, CDs and DVDs as well as the new hottest electronic gadgets.
New Media: With the advent of new technologies like Internet, we are now
enjoying the benefits of high technology mass media, which is not only faster than
the old-school mass media, but also has a widespread range. Mobile phones,
computers and Internet are often referred to as the newmedia. Internet has opened
up several new opportunities for mass communication which include email,
websites, blogging, Internet tv and many other mass media which are booming
today.
Understanding Mass Media:
Mass media is media which is intended for a large audience. It may take the 6
form of broadcast media, as in the case of television and radio, or print media, like
newspapers and magazines. Internet media can also attain mass media status, and
many mass media outlets maintain a web presence to take advantage of the ready
availability of Internet in many regions of the world. Some people also refer to the
mass media as the “mainstream media,” referencing the fact that it tends to stick to
prominent stories which will be of interest to a general audience, sometimes
ignoring controversial breaking news. Many people around the world rely on the
mass media for news and entertainment, and globally, mass media is a huge
industry.
Usually, mass media aims to reach a very large market, such as the entire
population of a country. By contrast, local media covers a much smaller population
and area, focusing on regional news of interest, while specialty media is provided
for particular demographic groups. Some local media outlets which cover state or
provincial news may rise to prominence thanks to their investigative journalism,
and to the clout that their particular regions have in national politics. The Guardian,
formerly known as the Manchester Guardian, for example, is a nationally-
respected paper in England which started as a regional daily.
One of the biggest criticisms of the mass media is that it is too topical. When
a media outlet is forced to cover national and international news, it cannot address
numerous interesting local stories because these stories are not of interest to very
many viewers. For example, the residents of a community might view their fight
against development as critical, but the story would only attract the attention of the
mass media if the fight became controversial or if precedents of some form were
set.
People often think of mass media as the news, but mass media also includes
entertainment like television shows, books, and films. It may also be educational in
nature, as in the instance of public broadcasting stations which provide educational
programming to a national audience. Political communications including
propaganda are also frequently distributed via mass media, as are public service
announcements and emergency alerts.
While elitists may be tempted to sneer at the mass media, referring to it as

the “opiate of the masses,” mass media is a critical part of human societies.
Understanding mass media is usually key to understanding a population and
culture, which is why the field of media studies is so huge. Watching, reading, and
interacting with a nation's mass media can provide clues into how people think,
7
especially if a diverse assortment of mass media sources are perused.
Characteristics of Mass Media:
 Communication is Mostly One Way

 Audience Has Great Deal of Choice
 Reach Large and Vast Audiences
 Aim Messages to Attract Largest Audience Possible
 Influence Society and Are, In Turn, Influenced by Society
Functions of mass media:
1) inform (a teacher function)
2) surveillance (a watcher function)
3) service the economic system
4) hold society together (act as sort of a cultural glue)
5) entertain
6) act as a community forum (media equivalent of town hall meeting or group

discussion)
7) set the agenda
8) service the political system
Mass Media Influence:
In the last 50 years the media influence has grown exponentially with the
advance of technology, first there was the telegraph, then the radio, the newspaper,
magazines, television and now the internet.
We live in a society that depends on information and communication to keep

moving in the right direction and do our daily activities like work, entertainment,
8
health care, education, personal relationships, traveling and anything else that we
have to do.
A common person in the city usually wakes up checks the tv news or

newspaper, goes to work, makes a few phone calls, eats with their family when
possible and makes his decisions based on the information that he has either from
their coworkers, news, tv, friends, family, financial reports, etc.
What we need to be aware is that most of our decisions, beliefs and values
are based on what we know for a fact, our assumptions and our own experience. In
our work we usually know what we have to do based on our experience and
studies, however on our daily lives we rely on the media to get the current news
and facts about what is important and what we should be aware of.
We have put our trust on the media as an authority to give us news,

entertainment and education. However, the influence of mass media on our kids,
teenagers and society is so big that we should know how it really works.
How mass Media Influence works
Of all the media distribution channels the most influential has been the
television, we are constantly exposed to thousands of images of violence,
advertising, sex, celebrities and much more, in fact a its known that a child is
exposed to about 40,000 ads a year.
But who owns the media, which are the companies or people that shape our
values, beliefs and decisions? The media is basically dominated by five major
companies they are:
 Time Warner
 VIACOM
 Vivendi Universal
 Walt Disney
 News Corp
Those 5 companies own 95% of all the media that we get every day. They
own the major entertainment theme parks, entertainment movie studios, television
and radio broadcast networks and programing, video news and sports
entertainment.
9
They also own integrated telecommunications, wireless phones, video games
softwares, electronic media, the music industry and more.
Years ago there was more diversity in companies, but they have merged so now
they are just a few and they have the power to shape the opinion and beliefs of us
and our kids. So its important to be aware of what your kids are exposed to every
day and you should also try to look at things from different perspectives and not
just from the one the media gives you.
Gods of Entertainment: The Power of Mass Media to Influence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9KpNcB_GCk&feature=player_embedded
How does mass media influence young people?
The media makes billions of dollars with the advertising they sell and that
we are exposed to. We buy what we are told to be good, after seeing thousands of
advertisings we make our buying decisions based on what we saw on Tv,
newspapers or magazines to be a product we can trust and also based on what
everyone else that we know is buying and their decision are also based on the
media.
These are the effects of mass media in teenagers, they buy what they see on
Tv, what their favorite celebrity advertise and what is acceptable by society based
on the fashion that the media has imposed them.
There are some positive and negative influences in young people.
Here is a positive influence example, if there is a sport that is getting a lot of

attention by the media and gains popularity among your friends and society, you
will more likely want to practice the sport and be cool with all your friends. The
result is that you will have fun with your friends and be more healthy because of
the exercise your are doing.
However a negative influence in teenagers is the use of cigars by celebrity

movie stars, the constant exposure of sex images, the excessive images of violence
and exposure to thousands of junk food ads.
Young people are in a stage of life where they want to be accepted by their
peers, they want to be loved and be successful. The media creates the ideal image
10
of a beautiful men and women and tells you what are the characteristics of a
successful person, you can see it in movies and tv. Its a subliminal way to tell you
that if you are not like them you are not cool yet so its time to buy the stuff they
buy and look like they look.
Another negative influence in teenagers that has grown over the last years
are anorexia and obesity. There are millions of adolescents fighting obesity, but at
the same time they are exposed to thousands of advertisements of junk food, while
the ideas image of a successful person is told to be thin and wealthy.
Also more women are obsessive with losing weight even when they are not
obese, there are many thin women that want to look like the super models and thin
celebrities so they engage in eating disorders which leads to severe health issues
and even death.
How Subliminal Advertising Tries To Make You Fat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vSoax7OX6U&feature=player_embedded
Effects of violence in the Media
When we watch Tv or a movie we usually see many images of violence and

people hurting others. The problem with this is that it can become traumatic
especially in our children as we see it more and more. Our kids that are starting to
grow and are shaping their personality values and beliefs can become aggressive or
they can lose a sense of reality and fiction of what they are seeing.
In the past years there have been some cases of kids carrying a gun at school
and even hurting others with it. Those kids have been linked to excessive use of
violent video games and war images.
Another problem is that real war is used as a form of entertainment by the

media, we should make our kids and teen aware that war is not a form of
entertainment and that there is no win or lose like in video games, in real war
everyone lose.
How media influence public opinion

As i have said above, the media has a huge impact on society and also in
public opinion. They can shape the public opinion in different ways depending of
11
what is the objective.
For example, after the attacks of 911 the media gave a huge coverage of the
event and exposed Osama guilty for the attack as they were told by the authorities.
This shaped the public opinion to support the war on terrorism, the same happened
with the war on Iraq. The problem is that if media received un accurate information
then the public opinion supported a wrong cause, this is the power of public
opinion influence.
Other ways to influence are with polls and trends, especially in political
campaigns. The candidates that can pay for more tv and media exposure have more
influence on public opinion and thus can receive more votes.
Constructing Public Opinion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvodhsMc2QM&feature=player_embedded
Effects of Mass Media:
Today we live in a world, which has been closely knit with a wide network
of different types of mass media. Although many people blame the media for
invasion of privacy and even trivializing of news, we fail to realize that media is a
mere reflection of the society we live in, the society we created ourselves. Media
has several advantages as well as disadvantages in day-to-day life. Here are some
of the effects of the media:
Shaping the public opinion: The media is an important medium which informs
the people about the latest news and happening around the world. According to the
agenda-setting theory of mass communication, the media plays an important role in
shaping the public opinion.
Providing Entertainment: According to the uses and gratification theory of mass

media, it is believed that the audiences use the media according to their own needs
and requirements. Many media users make use of media as a form of entertainment
by means of television shows, movies, or even music.
Disseminating Information: Media is an extensive resource of information for

millions of people across the world. Be it the Internet, television or the humble 12
radio and newspapers, media is an extensive source of information on a wide range
of topics, which broadens the horizons of knowledge. Be it world news or general
useful information about any topic under the sky, it is the media which has it all!
Link between Government and the People: In addition to being a news provider,
the media is also considered as a link between the government and the people since
it informs the public about the general developments by the government and
simultaneously serves as a voice of the general population, expressing their
opinions and ideas.
Delivering Justice: There have been ample number of examples wherein the
media has been instrumental in creating public awareness about several criminal
cases, which has led to speedy justice delivered to the victims. Thus, media plays
an important role in publicizing cases, which require public attention.
Effects of Mass Media on individual:
It is hard to argue with the fact that mass media has a compelling effect on
the human mind. Especially on minds which are more impressionable. For
example, the mass media influence on children is understandably higher than it is
in adults. So how exactly does mass media influence us?
Mass Media effects on Youth:
There is a burgeoning need amongst the youth to be accepted as a part of a

group, to be popular, to have friends and relationships with people of the opposite
sex etc. Mass media experts understand this need of the people and hence they
come out with advertisements on TV, or in the newspapers, or on websites on how
people can be more popular using a certain product. Most advertisements you see
which are aimed at the youth generally talk about the 'cool quotient' of the product
and how it is going to be the next 'in-thing'. And if you want to stay ahead of the
game, it is absolutely vital that you procure it. The visual effect, seeing the things
happen in front of you and the slice-of-life effect makes them look a lot believable
than they should be.
So how should mass media be used with youth? Mass media, effective as it
is, can be used on the youth to drive home pressing concerns in the country. Child
obesity, the dangers of alcohol and preteen sexual relations, importance of exercise
and fitness etc. If these things can be done, the mass media will be able to
13
influence the youth for the better and send better messages for the development of
the youth than what it is sending today.
Mass Media effects on Adults:
Like children and youth, mass media influences adults too, although perhaps
not on the same scale. Most adults with a platonic view of things will resist the
temptation of being buoyed up by what the mass media has to offer. While men
usually find it difficult to hold themselves back in the face of the allure of
sexuality. Other subjects which also appeal to men are financial security and a
luxurious hassle-free lifestyle. Women on the other hand are more tempted towards
products which guarantee immunity from aging altogether and not just what the
previous generation called 'aging gracefully'.
Mass media can yet be used constructively to teach the adults about the
importance of insurance, financial education and how to maintain a healthy
lifestyle.
Effects of Mass Media on Society:
The best thing about the mass media is, that it immediately provides us with
the latest information about the things happening around us. Mass media reports
news from all the fields such as politics, sports, international relations, wars,
natural calamities, meetings, entertainment, etc. Because of the keen efforts and
dedication of the people working in the media and the entertainment sector, our
knowledge remains up to date and fresh. With the gained knowledge, we become
more smart and outgoing. Many a times, we understand what is good and bad for
us through the media programs. For example, the anti-tobacco and narcotic
programs launched by the media, have benefited many people to date. The
information conveyed about various diseases and their possible treatments has
saved the lives of many of us. The contribution of mass media in the fields of arts,
education, technology and health care is laudable. We also get the correct
information about he various crimes and illegal activities happening in our
surroundings quite easily. Media is a boon for youngsters in many ways.They get
useful information related to their career and higher education mostly through the
mass media. The mass media influence or the effects of mass media on the minds
of the youth is significant. More on positive effects of the media. 14
Media plays a very important role in shaping the personality of people. It has
been observed that citizens become more sensible and capable to shoulder their
responsibility towards the nation and the society because of the media. We get our
role models by hearing about the appreciation of their great deeds from the media
itself. Over the years, mass media has played an important role in making people
understand the meaning of democracy. We also come to know about the strengths
and weaknesses of the economy of our country, the population figures, the various
problems faced by the nation, achievements of the nation in different sectors,
through the prompt and precise reporting of different forms of media. Media plays
an important role in building the sense of unity and pride among the people of the
nation. In those countries where there are many castes, religions and languages
spoken, media has even more tough responsibility of conveying the true news to
the citizens. Media makes the citizens aware of their fundamental rights and their
duties towards their families, state and the nation. Utility of the mass media in the
areas of advertising and marketing is simply great. The effects of mass media are
truly everlasting.
Negative Influences of Media:
When you see some stunt in a movie, do you feel like doing it? Do you
always feel like being as fashionable as your favorite film actress? Do you often
feel like copying the hairstyle that your favorite television actor sports? I am sure
some of the girls among you have often made attempts to walk like some famous
ramp models. I am sure some of you guys have always wanted to wear what some
of the top actors of the industry do! And now, do you say the media does not
influence you? Sure it does! Mass media affects the ways in which the masses
think and act. It influences the behavior of its audiences both positively and
negatively. The positive effects are surely celebrated by one and all. But there is a
need to prevent the media from having a negative influence on society. Let us try
to explore some of the negative influences of media.
When you try to imitate your role models of the glamor industry, are you
thoughtful enough to distinguish between the right and the wrong? It is often seen
that young girls and boys imitate their role models blindly. The negative things the
celebrities do are often talked about. The controversies in the lives of the 15
celebrities are often highlighted by the media. This leads to a blind imitation of
what appears in the news.
Media often hypes the scintillating things about the celebrities. The
negatives in society are highlighted with an intent to awaken the people about the
society of the modern days. But this hype is actually having a negative effect on
society. Masses are seeing only the negatives around them. Controversies are
constantly being bombarded on them. All this is responsible for influencing the
society negatively.
Some say that it is media to be blamed for the eating disorders in the youths
of society as also for the unhealthy lifestyle that has recently emerged. Be it
television, magazines or the Internet, media is almost omnipresent, affecting
various aspects of our life. The products advertised by the media and the ways they
are advertised are bound to affect the practices of the youths.
The negative effects of media on children are manifested in terms of their

changing mental setup and the declining quality of their lifestyle. Children, who
should invest their time in reading good books, studying, playing outdoors,
exercising and engaging in social activities, today, spend their evenings glued to
the television. The Internet that is easily accessible to even small children, exposes
them to things they need not know and will not understand.
Media affects the physical well-being of individuals to a certain extent.

People spending hours in front of a television or surfing the Internet have to suffer
from eye problems and obesity. Long hours of media exposure add to the sedentary
nature of your lifestyle.
The negative psychological effects of media are seen in terms of media

changing the people's outlook of looking towards life. Media being one of the
prominent sources of looking at the outside world has changed the cultural and
moral values of society. A majority of the audiences believe in what is depicted by
the media. Many think all of it as true. Youngsters and children are bound to mix
the reel and the real world and get highly influence by the mass media.
While a certain amount of exposure to the ever-evolving media is essential

for introducing ourselves to the world outside, an excessive one is detrimental to 16
the overall well-being of society.
Impact of Media on Children:
The impact of media on children has a leviathan influence on how they

behave, think and analyze what's around them. Let's take a look at how the media
plays a major role not just for adults but for kids as well...
The media when it first made an

impact on the world, was a tool used for
two major causes - advertising and
broadcasting news. Entertainment slowly
followed in pursuit, because
entrepreneurs saw it as a way to pull in
the masses using the same technique
media had when it came to news and
advertising. Before it was solely the radio that was one's source of fun and
amusement, with talk shows and music making it first out into the world as the
primary source of what people depended on not just news, but for a way to while
away time doing something they loved - tuning in to the radio.
Today the media has grown into a mammoth business more than something
the people can use to their advantage, the exceptions being the educational
programs and news updates that we receive. Even everyday running news on
channels, isn't all that it is hyped up to be with a lot of it held back from the public
for fear of a reaction that they think they've foreseen. At the end of the day, people
have to be able to handle the truth, but the media has a way of masking this to
make it less impactful on them.
Children are glued to their television sets day in and day out, watching
mindless programs that aren't really helping them multiply gray matter, but rather
depleting it. Parents and adults should encourage kids to watch educational matter,
things that will help them build upon their knowledge about what is going on in the
world, about history that has packed itself into our pasts that is worth looking back
on and remembering. In this section we explore in detail the impact of media on 17
children, and how this century more than any other, has made quite an impression
on them.
Powerful Impact of Media on Children:
When advertisers sit around their round tables wondering how to promote
something their client insists has to sell in millions by week one, their main focus
is their target consumers. Is it kids? Adults?The old? Today the largest consumers
worldwide are kids more than adults. Gadgets and the works that have been
releasing everyday by the hundreds are not getting the adults worked up, but the
kids! Today 10 year olds may have laptops of his/her own, and 13 year olds will
already have nestled in their pockets the latest Blackberry or iPhone offering. How
many kids are willing to wait to come of age before they receive these things?
None. Today it's I want this, and I want that with really no control on their
demands because let's face it, you cannot confine your child in a room with no
television and Internet facilities. Even newspapers/magazines will have
advertisements slathered all over themselves, which let's face it, are quite tempting
like their visual counterparts. Ever wonder how media can play a role in our
cultures? Find out how does the media affect our culture.
Let's take fashion for example; how many kids are dressing up like their
favorite celebrities or following a trend that some magazine or fashion show
dictated? How many kids are stocking up on Vogue and Seventeen? When it
comes to the youth it is a monkey see monkey do situation, where what they
witness in the media is immediately in their wardrobe, eaten for breakfast, signed
up for at the nearest spa or gym, bought at the store and stocked up on in their
rooms. The media is a gargantuan and persistent beast, where everything it flashes
or presents to you, is the ultimate thing in the world that you must have.
There is no telling how this is a good or bad thing, since where there are
pros, there are cons. The good part is that the media is exposing children to a
world that may be without it, it would leave us handicapped and pretty much dumb
about what is happening worldwide. Some media influences can actually make
kids want to be better, dream bigger and make a difference. It keeps a balance that
we have to hope doesn't override the good parts that the media can do for the
youth. At the end of the day, media is the open window that leads us to different 18
arenas of the world, where it makes us fuel a passion, follow up on a life changing
endeavor and helps us learn that there is more to life than just entertainment and
showbiz.
Children today need to of course have some kind of control in their lives,
where adults need to restrain how much of the media is too much. Parents need to
understand that a limit tag has to be placed on the facets of media, where the
Internet is your biggest concern. It is more lethal and influential than the television
and print media, and that is a technology that is ruling the world when it comes to
widespread impact. Social networking as we know, is the new caffeine and the
youth is loving it, not to mention kids. How you handle the whole situation is
really your call, and how responsible kids end up being. Once they are aware of the
dangers and consequences, then only can you sit back and just hope that their
consciences are fine tuned.
Media in Indian society:

19
Circulation per 1,000: 50

Number of Nondaily Newspapers: 98
Total Circulation: 7,774,000
Circulation per 1,000: 13
Total Newspaper Ad Receipts: 35,624 (Rupees millions)
As % of All Ad Expenditures: 50.40
Number of Television Stations: 562
Number of Television Sets: 63,000,000
Television Sets per 1,000: 61.2
Number of Cable Subscribers: 39,112,150
Cable Subscribers per 1,000: 38.5
Number of Radio Stations: 312
Number of Radio Receivers: 116,000,000
Radio Receivers per 1,000: 112.6
Number of Individuals with Computers: 4,600,000
Computers per 1,000: 4.5
Number of Individuals with Internet 5,000,000
Access:
Internet Access per 1,000: 4.9
Background & General Characteristics:

India is the world's largest democracy. Its mass media culture, a system that
has evolved over centuries, is comprised of a complex framework. Modernization
has transformed this into a communications network that sustains the pulse of a
democracy of about 1.1 billion people. India's newspaper evolution is nearly
unmatched in world press history. India's newspaper industry and its
Westernization—or mondialisationas French would call it—go hand in hand.
India's press is a metaphor for its advancement in the globalized world.
The printing press preceded the advent of printed news in India by about 100
years. It was in 1674 that the first printing apparatus was established in Bombay
followed by Madras in 1772. India's first newspaper, Calcutta General Advertise,
also known as the Hicky's Bengal Gazette was established in January 1780, and the
first Hindi daily, SamacharSudhaVarshan, began in 1854. The evolution of the
Indian media since has been fraught with developmental difficulties; illiteracy,
colonial constraints and repression, poverty, and apathy thwart interest in news and
media. Within this framework, it is instructive to examine India's press in two
20
broad analytical sections: pre-colonial times and the colonial, independent press
(which may, again be classified into two: preceding and following the Emergency
rule imposed by Indira Gandhi's government in 1975). The post-Emergency phase,
which continues at the present, may be the third independent phase of India's
newspaper revolution (Jeffrey).
The Nature of the Audience
While a majority of the poor working people in rural and urban areas still
remain oppressed and even illiterate, a significant proportion of people—roughly
about 52 percent of the population over 15 years of age were recorded as being
able to read and write. That breaks down to 65.5 percent of males and an estimate
of 37.7 percent of females. After the liberalization of the economy, the growth of
industry, and a rise in literacy, the post-Emergency boom rekindled the world's
largest middle class in news, politics, and consumerism. Since private enterprise
began to sustain and pay off, mass communications picked up as a growth industry.
In 1976, the Registrar of Newspapers for India had recorded 875 papers; in
1995 there were 4,453. Robin Jeffrey comments:
"Newspapers did not expand simply because the technology was available to
make Indian scripts live as they had not been able to live before. Nor did
newspaper grow simply because more people knew how to read and write. They
grew because entrepreneurs detected a growing hunger for information among
ever-widening sections of India's people, who were potential consumers as well as
newspaper readers. A race began to reach this audience advertising avenues were
the prizes and these would come largely to newspapers that could convince
advertisers that they had more readers than their rivals. Readers, meanwhile, were
saying implicitly: 'We will read newspapers that tell us about ourselves and reflect
our concerns." (48)
Common contenders for readership and advertising are: the National Herald,
the Hindustan Times, Time, Illustrated Weekly, e Pioneer, and Filmfare.
Historical Traditions
"Newspaper history in India is inextricably tangled with political history,"

wrote A. E. Charlton (Wolseley 3). James Augustus Hicky was the founder of
India's first newspaper, the Calcutta General Advertiser also known as Hicky's
Bengal Gazette, in 1780. Soon other newspapers came into existence in Calcutta
21
and Madras: the Calcutta Gazette, the Bengal Journal, the Oriental Magazine, the
Madras Courier and the Indian Gazette. While the India Gazette enjoyed
governmental patronage including free postal circulation and advertisements,
Hicky's Bengal Gazette earned the rulers' wrath due to its criticism of the
government. In November 1780 its circulation was halted by government decree.
Hicky protested against this arbitrary harassment without avail, and was
imprisoned. The Bengal Gazette and the India Gazette were followed by the
Calcutta Gazette which subsequently became the government's "medium for
making its general orders" (Sankhdher 24-32).
The Bombay Herald,The Statesmen in Calcutta and the Madras Mail and
The Hindu, along with many other rivals in Madras represented the metropolitan
voice of India and its people. While Statesman voiced the English rulers' voice,
The Hindu became the beacon of patriotism in the South. The Hindu was founded
in Madras as a counter to the Madras Mail.
Patriotic movements grew in proportion with the colonial ruthlessness, and a

vehicle of information dissemination became a tool for freedom struggle. In the
struggle for freedom, journalists in the twentieth century performed a dual role as
professionals and nationalists. Indeed many national leaders, from Gandhi to
Vajpayee, were journalists as well. Calcutta, Madras, Bombay and Delhi were four
main centers of urban renaissance which nourished news in India. It was only
during and after the seventies, especially after Indira Gandhi's defeat in 1977, that
regional language newspapers became prevalent.
There were nationalist echoes from other linguistic regional provinces.

Bengal, Gujarat, Tamil, Karalla, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh produced dailies in
regional languages. Hindi and Urdu were largely instrumental in voicing the
viewpoints and aspirations of both Hindus and Muslims of the Northern provinces.
As communalism and religious intolerance increased before and after partition,
Urdu remained primarily the language of Muslims, as Pakistan chose this language
as its lingua franca. After partition, the cause of Urdu and its newspapers, suffered
a setback as Hindu reactionaries began to recognize the association of Urdu with
Islam and Pakistan.
Diversity and the Language Press

NareshKhanna summarizes the trends in circulatory growth and decline
varied in regional language papers during 1998-2000: In the three-year period from
1998-2000, circulation of dailies in the country increased marginally from 58.37 to

59.13 million copies. This represents a growth of 1.3 percent on the basis of data 22
published by the Registrar of Newspapers for India in its annual reports. In this
time, two distinct groups of newspapers emerge —
the first including five languages that have
collectively grown in circulation by a healthy 5.65
percent and representing a combined circulation of
43.35 million copies. Amongst these newspapers,
those in Malayalam and Bengali grew fastest at
12.9 percent and 12.8 percent respectively, while
Hindi dailies grew by 5 percent and English dailies
by 4.7 percent over the three-year period. Although Marathi newspapers increased
circulation by 2.75 percent over the three years it would seem that they are in
danger of falling out of this group and perhaps entering the phase of stagnation and
circulation decline (Khanna 2002).
The second group of stagnating and declining circulations includes

newspapers in seven languages with a combined circulation of 14.8 million copies
in 2000. These dailies lost almost 1.8 million copies (10.62 percent) of their
combined circulation in the last three years. Daily newspaper circulation
plummeted most dramatically in Telugu, which fell from 2.28 million to 1.68
million copies, a fall of more than 26 percent. Urdu newspaper circulation fell by
more than 12 percent and Tamil dailies' circulation declined by 10.8 percent with
circulation of Gujarati dailies falling by 10.5 percent. Over the same period
circulations of Oriya dailies declined by 2.8 percent and that of Punjabi dailies by
3.2 percent. Although over the three years Kannada newspapers show an
insignificant fall in circulation they seem to have entered a period of stagnation and
decline of their own. It would seem that in spite of new editions being added by
Hindi, English, Malayalam and Bengali dailies, the print media is losing its
dominance of advertising market share to television, radio and outdoor media
(Khanna 2002).
Economic Framework
India's language newspapers enjoy a relatively new entrepreneurial prowess.

A mutually convenient relationship between the owners and capitalists keeps a
financial balance between local/regional and national spheres in both private and
public sectors. "Like coral in a reef, newspapers grew and died in a process
inseparable from the creation of a 'public sphere' in the classical liberal sense.
23
Individual proprietors sometimes brought to their newspapers a crusader's zeal for
a particular cause or a diehard's loathing for a rival" (Jeffrey 105). The Second
Press Commission in 1982 tried to liberate the press from the monopoly houses. In
1995 the Audit Bureau of circulations had 165 newspapers as members, with a
combined circulation of about 16 million copies a day. The top ten newspapers
control roughly 50 percent of daily circulations in all languages. Bennett Coleman
and the Indian Express own roughly 20 percent of daily circulations (Jeffrey 108).
While capitalists sustained national newspapers, the big houses, Dalmias,

Jains, Goenka et al., monopolized and corrupted free journalism. The family and
caste controlled small newspapers regionally maintain their freedom from big
monopolies, thriving on their loyal supporters in north and south India. Diversity
of ownership is reflective of cultural variation in India's multilingual landscape.
Twenty-one newspapers control two-thirds of all circulations.
Press Laws
Much of India's legal framework is built upon its colonial legacy. Legal
statutes and regulations have been undergoing certain changes as India's
democracy grows. India's freedom came at a high cost. The country was divided.
India's border conflicts with two hostile neighbors, which forced at least three large
scale wars, eclipsed other political issues. The democratic process, corrupted by
criminals, unscrupulous bureaucrats and politicians, created a social climate that
widened social and economic inequality.
Freedom of
speech and
expression is a
constitutionally
guaranteed
fundamental right of the Indian people. Article 19 (1; a) ensures the implicit
freedom but Article 19 (2) qualifies this in explicit terms. The Parliamentary
Proceedings (protection of Publication) Act of 1977 and the Prevention of
Publication of Objectionable Matter (Repeal Act) of 1977 further reinforce and
restrict these freedoms. While constitutional guarantees ensure freedom of the
press and expression, press and media are obligated by a self-regulatory system of
ethics that protect individuals and organizations from libelous behavior. "Freedom
of the press is an institutional freedom," wrote SachinSen (19). The Press Council 24
Bill of 1956, introduced in the Indian parliament, stipulated the establishment of
the Press Council of India representing working journalists, the newspaper
management, literary bodies and the Parliament. The Indian Press commission
accepted the following postulate: "Democratic society lives and grows by
accepting ideas, by experimenting with them, and where necessary, rejecting
them…The Press is a responsible part of a democratic society" (quoted by Sen 42).
While The Central Press Accreditation Committee seeks to ensure quality

and self-renewal, The Press Council of India was established in 1966 to uphold
editorial autonomy. Restrictions on free speech were imposed after Indira Gandhi's
infamous Emergency rule. The Press Council of India was abolished after editor
George Verghese's criticisms of the Indira government. The Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting carefully regulates the press and its liberties. The
Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) was enforced to intimidate reputedly
autonomous newspapers in the seventies. The Press Council, resurrected in 1979,
has no legal standing to impose penalties. The Indian press, generally believed as
"managed," is a self-restrained institution generally reluctant to take on the
governmental policies. All India Radio (AIR) and its management exemplify this
"man-aged" system.
The Registrar of Newspapers
The Registrar of Indian newspapers, among these official and professional

agencies, regulates and records the status of newspapers. Electronic news, Web
sites, magazines and house publications, and a number of professional
organizations (like Editors Guild of India, Indian Language Newspapers'
Association, and All India Newspapers Editors' Conference etc.) enrich the self-
renewal process of the news enterprise. Educational and training programs are
gaining importance as professionalization of specialized fields is a prioritized
activity under the privatization process.
The Office of the Registrar
The Office of the Registrar of Newspapers for India, popularly known as

RNI came into being on July 1, 1956, on the recommendation of the First Press
Commission in 1953 and by amending the Press and Registration of Books Act
(PRB Act) 1867. The functions of RNI involve both statutory and non-statutory
functions.
25
Statutory Functions The RNI compiles and maintains a register of
newspapers containing particulars about all the newspapers published in the
country; it issues certificates of registration to the newspapers published under
valid declaration. It scrutinizes and analyzes annual statements sent by the
publishers of newspapers every year under Section 19-D of the Press and
Registration of Books Act containing information on circulation, ownership, etc.
The RNI informs the District Magistrates about availability of titles to intending
publishers for filing declaration and ensures that newspapers are published in
accordance with the provisions of the Press and Registration of Books Acts. It
verifies under Section 19-F of the PRB Act of circulation claims, furnished by the
publishers in their Annual Statements and Preparation and submission to the
Government on or before September 30 each year, a report containing all available
information and statistics about the press in India with particular reference to the
emerging trends in circulation and in the direction of common ownership units.
Non-Statutory Functions Non-statutory functions of the RNI include the

formulation of a Newsprint Allocation Policy—guidelines and the ability to issue
Eligibility Certificates to the newspapers to enable them to import newsprint and to
procure indigenous newsprint. The RNI assesses and certifies the essential needs
and requirements of newspaper establishments to import printing and composing
machinery and allied materials.
From April 1998 to February 1999, RNI scrutinized 18,459 applications for
availability of titles, of which 7,738 titles were found available for verification,
while in the remaining applications, titles were not found available. During the
same period, 2,693 newspapers/periodicals were issued Certificates of Registration
(2,145 fresh CRs and 548 revised CRs) and circulation claims of 1536 newspapers/
periodicals were assessed.
Newsprint
Until 1994-95, newsprint allocation was regulated by the Newsprint Control

Order (1962) and the Newsprint Import Policy
announced by the government every year.
Newspapers were issued Entitlement Certificates for
importation and purchase from the scheduled
indigenous newsprint mills. However, Newsprint
Policy is modified every year depending upon the import policy of the government.
Newsprint has been placed under 'Open General License' with effect from May 1,
26
1995, and all types of newsprint became importable by all persons without any
restriction. Under the latest newsprint policy/guidelines for the import of newsprint
issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, authentication of
certificate of registration is done by the Registrar of Newspapers for India for
import of newsprint, on submission of a formal application and necessary
documentary evidence.
De-Blocking of Titles
For the first time in the history of RNI, a massive work of de-blocking
200,000 titles was undertaken. As per the decision, all such titles of newspapers
were certified till December 31, 1995, and those publications which had not
registered with RNI have been de-blocked.
The work of entering registered titles has been completed and the lists have
been dispatched to state governments. Nearly 150,000 of unused titles have
become available for allocation to other newspapers from January 1, 1999.
Printing Machinery
The RNI is the sponsoring authority for the import of printing machinery
and allied materials at the concessional rate of custom duty available to the
newspapers. During April 1998-February 1999, applications of four newspaper
establishments were recommended for import of printing machinery and allied
equipment.
Censorship
Even though India is committed to the freedom of the press, censorship is

not unknown to the media. With increased privatization and entrepreneurial
advancements, colonial and bureaucratic censorship no longer exists. However, the
nexus of criminal politics and unethical monopolies continue to threaten the
freedom of press.
Nehru famously said: "I would rather have a completely free press with all
the dangers involved in the wrong use of that freedom than a suppressed or
regulated press" (quoted by Kamath 272). After 1977 people's interest and
involvement in regional and national affairs increased dramatically. This
development helped promote the dualism of India's patriotic passions marked by

linguistic chauvinism and national unity.
27
State-Press Relations:
Public Grievances
A Public Grievances Cell is functioning in the Main Secretariat of the

Ministry headed by the Joint Secretary (Policy). In order to tone up the Grievance
Redressal System of the Ministry, its time limits have been fixed for completion of
various activities coming under the purview of the grievance redressal mechanism.
Grievance Officers have been appointed in all the subordinate organizations of the
Ministry who have been made responsible for timely redress of grievances.
Keeping in view the need for effective monitoring of the progress in the grievance
redressal, the Ministry has developed a computerized Grievance Monitoring
System. The grievances received in the Ministry are sent to the concerned
Grievance Officer in the attached subordinate offices of the Ministry. Periodical
review meetings are held in the Ministry to ensure that the grievances are
processed within a stipulated time limit.
Attitude toward Foreign Media
India is a founding member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific,

and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). UNESCO's main goal is to promote
international cooperation in the field of education, science and technology, social
sciences, culture and mass communication. In order to promote the communication
capabilities of developing countries. The 21st Session of the General Conference
of UNESCO in 1981 approved the establishment of an International Program for
the Development of Communication (IPDC). India played a significant role in its
inception and has been a member of the Inter-governmental Council (IGC) and
also of the IPDC Bureau. India has played a leading role in its activities over the
years. Being one of the founding members of IPDC, this Ministry has been a
representative at the meetings of the General Conference of UNESCO and Bureau
Session of IPDC.
India participated in the First South Asian Association for Regional

Cooperation (SAARC) Information Ministers Meeting held in Dhaka (Bangladesh)
in 1998. The Meeting discussed the need for greater cooperation among media
personnel, cooperation among news agencies, improving the programs under
SAARC Audio Visual Exchange, and taking steps to project SAARC outside the
region.
28
More indications of India's support of international cooperation is its
participation in the meeting of Asia-Pacific Regional Experts on the Legal
Framework for Cyberspace from 8 to 10 September 1998 and the Third Regulatory
Round Table for the Asia and the Pacific at Seoul from 14 to 16 September 1998
for finalizing the report on Trans-border Satellite Broadcasting.
News Agencies
News agencies provide regularity and authenticity to news. K.C. Roy is

credited with establishing the first Indian news agency, which became The
Associated Press of India (API). However, it soon became a British-controlled
agency unwilling to report about the national freedom movement. The Free Press
of India News Agency came into existence under the management of S. Sadanad
who had served Reuters. The United Press of India, The Orient Press, The Globe
News Agency, The NAFEN News Agency, The United News of India and a
number of syndicates later came to serve the news business.
The Non-aligned News Agencies Pool (NANAP), formally constituted in

1976 for the purpose of correcting imbalances in the global flow of information, is
an arrangement for exchange of news and information among the national news
agencies of non-aligned countries, including Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin
America. Its affairs are managed by a coordinating committee elected for a term of
three years. India is at present a member of the coordinating committee. The cost
of running the pool is met by the participating members. The Press Trust (PTI)
continued to operate the India News Pool Desk (INDP) of the NANAP on behalf
of the government of India. India continued to contribute substantially to the daily
news file of the Pool Network. The reception of news into the Pool Desk during
the year 1998-99 has been in the range of 20,000 words per day. INDP's own
contribution to the Pool partners during the year has averaged 7,000 words per day.
The organization and structure of Indian news agencies has been undergoing
a controversial transformation for quite some time. This represents a mutual 29
mistrust between privately owned news agencies and governmental structures.
Their autonomy, believed to be crucial for
objectivity and fairness, is based on their role as
cooperatives and non-profit groups. News agencies
in general are discouraged from taking any
governmental favors. There is nothing in the Indian
constitution, however, that can prevent government
to nationalize its news agencies. There are four
dominant news agencies in India: The Press Trust of
India (PTI); the United News of India (UNI); the
Hindustan Samachar (HS); and Samachar Bhatia (SB).
Broadcast Media
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, through the mass communication

media of radio, television, films, the press, publications, advertising and traditional
modes of dance and drama, plays a significant part in helping the people to have
access to information. It fosters the dissemination of knowledge and entertainment
in all sectors of society, striking a careful balance between public interest and
commercial needs in its delivery of services. The Ministry of Information &
Broadcasting is the highest body for formulation and administration of the rules,
regulations and laws relating to information, broadcasting, the press and films. The
ministry is responsible for international cooperation in the field of mass media,
films and broadcasting, and interacts with its foreign counterparts on behalf of
Government of India. The mandate of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
is to provide:
 News Services through All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD) for the
people
 Development of broadcasting and television
 Import and export of films
 Development and promotion of film industry
 Organization of film festivals and cultural
exchanges
30

Advertisement and visual publicity on behalf of the Government of India
 Handling of press relations to present the policies of Government of India
and to seek feedback on government policies
 Administration of the Press and Registration of Books Act of 1867 in respect
of newspapers
 Dissemination of information about India within and outside the country
through publications on matters of national importance
 Research, reference, and training to assist the media units of the Ministry to
meet their responsibilities
 Use of interpersonal communication and traditional folk art forms for
information/publicity campaigns on public interest issues
 International co-operation in the field of information and mass media
The main Secretariat of the Ministry is divided into three wings: the
information wing, the broadcasting wing, and the film wing. The media units
engaged in press and publicity activities include:
 Press: 1) Press Information Bureau; 2) Photo Division; 3) Research

Reference & Training Division; 4) Publications Division
 Publicity: 5) Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity; 6) Directorate
of Field Publicity; 7) Song and Drama Division
 Regulation of the Press: 8) Registrar of Newspapers for India; 9) Press
Council of India
 Training: 10) Indian Institute of Mass Communication (Government of
India, 2002)
Electronic News Media
Most Indian newspapers, magazines, and media outlets are easily accessible
through the Internet. Internet Public Library (IPL) is a concise Internet source for
information on Indian newspapers. The Onlinenewspapers.com Web site lists
about 120 online newspapers for India with access to each of those papers for
reading.
The official Web site for the Library of Congress in New Delhi is also
accessible on the Internet, where e-mail contact information is provided. This
directory is published biennially. The directory includes newspapers published in

India, the name and language of the newspapers, circulation, frequency of
31
publication, and names and addresses for the publishers of each paper. Paper status
is also included.
Internet Public Library's list of India's contemporary newspapers exists to

enable instant access to existing information resources. Among them in 2002 were
62 Indian newspapers that were available online.
Education & TRAINING
The first diploma in Journalism was offered at Aligarh Muslim University in

1938 by the late Sir shah Muhammad Sulaiman, a Judge in India (Wolseley 224).
Later on, after partition, universities in Punjab, Madras, Delhi, Calcutta, Mysore,
Nagpur, and Osmania offered courses at undergraduate levels. Professional
education in India is largely a need-based enterprise. Journalists and other mass
communicators can perform without specialized training and skills, and can
succeed without advanced degrees.
Summary
The media in India represents a confluence of paradoxes: tradition and

modernity; anarchy and order; diversity and unity; conflict and cooperation; news
and views; feudalism and democracy; the free market and monopoly.
Economic realities and relationships between press, television and those who
own these engines of control and change will eventually determine the future of
India's communication culture. India's complex cultural mosaic, especially
linguistic and communal, strengthens its diversity. The media and press continue to
play a dominant role in deconstructing the diversity discourse that sometimes flares
up in explosive situations.
Capitalism, the press, and public hunger for news promote a culture of
media that is fast replacing the legacy of a feudal/colonial system. While
corporatization and state regulations can muffle free expression, the force of public
interest and the market economy strive for greater freedom and openness. Both
politics and capitalism thrive on the liberties of a democratic system that continues
to evolve into a functional hybrid of chaos and order.
Significant Dates
32
 1990: Nikhil Wagle publishes a Mumbai evening tabloid
HamaraMahanagar, 'Our great city' (January)
 1991: Mahanagaris vandalized by a Shiva Sena gang
 1995: The politician-proprietor of a Telugu daily embroiled in controversy
was murdered, allegedly by the People's War Group (December)
 1997: DainikBhaskar, the Bhopal-based Hindi daily opened a Jaipur edition,
self-acclaimed its status as "India's Fastest Growing Newspaper"
Media impact in Indian society:
Social impact
1. Generating awareness on various social evils like dowry, female foeticide
and infanticide etc. this has led to the decline in the incidence of them
2. Bringing into focus any atrocities faced by weaker sections of the society.
This has brought in a sense of security to the weaker sections. Majority
groups fear to do any harm to them. In the long run this will bring peace and
tranquility among communities.
3. Generating awareness on good practices like health, hygiene, nutrition
etcthereby improving the living standards.
4. Media is responsible for the success of green revolution in India during 60's
by popularising the usage of high yielding varieties, fertilizers, pesticides
and other farm management techniques. Green revolution has improved the
living standard of poor by enhancing their incomes. Many new entrepreneurs
from weaker sections of the society emerged. This has enabled them to rise
in the social ladder and stay on par with the so called upper castes.
5. Media is responsible for generating pan India identity and enabling people to
loosen their parochial and narrower identities.
6. Media has been showing in new employment opportunities that are
availablein the market. This has enabled a common man with request skills
to grab them.
7. Media is responsible for sensitising our administrators on various issues.
8. Media is responsible for spreading in latest fashion vis-a-vis dressing style,
cosmetics, hair styles etc
Economic impact
1) Media is responsible directly for providing employmentopportunities and

thereby increasing the living standards of the people. 33
2) Media spreads awareness of a new product launched by a company through
advertisements and product reviews. This will increase the demand of industrial
goods thereby promoting industrialisation and increase in GDP.
Political impact
1) Media has been bringing out corrupt practices practised by our political
leaders. This has enabled people to make more rational choices when electing
their representatives.
2) Media has been a major force in mobilising people during elections.
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a

work of art, literature (in which they are called the "reader"), theatre, music or
academics in any medium. Audience members participate in different ways in
different kinds of art; some events invite overt audience participation and others
allowing only modest clapping and criticism and reception.
Media Audience
Media audience is a group of people who participate in an experience

orencounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium.
Audiencemembers participate in different ways in different kinds of art; some
events invite overtaudience participation and others allowing only modest clapping
and criticism andreception. Media audiences are studied by academics in media
audience studies.Audience theory also offers scholarly insight into audiences in
general. Early researchinto media audiences was dominated by the debate about
'media effects', in particular thelink between screen violence and real-life
aggression. Several moral panics fuelled theclaims, such as the incorrect
presumptions thatRambo had influenced Michael RobertRyan to commit the
Hungerford massacre, and that Child's Play 3 had motivated the killers of James
BulgerIn the 1990s, David Gauntlett published critiques on media 34
Types of Media Audience:
There are four different types of audience you may have to persuade, who have
quite different attitudes towards you and who hence are persuaded by different
methods.
Hostile
Sometimes an audience is openly hostile or generally tends to disagree with you.

Perhaps they do not want to be there. Perhaps they do not like your or what you
represent.
 Work harder than usual on developing trust.

 Carefully construct your presentation, either form an area of agreement or
from a point of disagreement.
 Establish basic principles before moving on to specific proposals.
 Challenge them. Show that they may be wrong or have incomplete evidence.
Create tension.
 Use reference sources and evidence that they find acceptable and cannot
deny.
 Use humor to disarm them.
 Show what does not work, leaving an inescapable conclusion.
Critical
Critical audiences consider themselves intelligent and probably more intelligent

than you. They will thus pick holes in what you say and disbelieve your assertions.
 Use copious evidence with strong references.

 Do not exaggerate anything. If anything, play on the safe side.
 Use rational argument, revealing premises and avoiding fallacies.
 Argue both sides of the case with pros-vs-cons reasoning.
 Be fair and reasonable.
 Respond to criticisms evenly and with rational argument.
Uninformed
35
People who do not have all the facts before them may well be open to argument,
particularly if it makes sense.
 Question them to find out what they know and do not know.
 Give basic facts to fill in the detail.
 Use rational argument to explain the logic.
 Use references and respected people to lend weight.
Sympathetic
People who are sympathetic have an emotional attachment to you and are easiest to
persuade.
 Build a bond with them by showing how you are they are similar in some
way.
 Make personal appeals, asking for their help.
 Trigger their emotions (positive ones!).
 Just ask nicely (which may be all that is needed).
 In a group argument, get them on your side (which they may do anyway just
to balance things up).
Audience Analysis:
Audience Analysis is a task all technical writers need to perform early in a

project. The audience is often referred to as the end-user, and all communications
need to be targeted towards the defined audience. When defining an audience,
factors that must be considered include:
 Age
 Skills
 Language
 Culture
 Background knowledge
 Needs and interests
 Where the document will be read
 How the document will be delivered (print, online, projection, PDA)
 Why the document will be accessed (reference, training)
 When the document will be accessed (work, home, travel)
After considering all the known factors, a profile of the intended audience can
be created, allowing writers to write in a manner that is understood by the intended
36
audience.
Analyzing your audience is essential. You need to investigate exactly who will
read what you are going to write. For example, you might investigate who reads
the journal articles or trade magazines in your field of study. Check out some of
those magazines or journals and browse through several issues. In addition, you
might interview people who will be your readers.
Remember: Analyze your audience BEFORE you start writing, so you'll know
what format, style, vocabulary, or level or information is expected.
Writers in the advertising business spend a great deal of time researching their
targeted audiences. Once they know who their audience is, they can mold their
advertising--their words, format, graphics, images--to appeal to that specific
audience.
You can determine the characteristics about your target audience through a
demographic profile, or by investigating information or assumptions about your
particular audience.
Types of mass audiences:
Illiterates - visuals only; 60% of general audience; sex fiction and adventure
comics
Pragmatists - 30% general audience; social beings, interested in status, thing

oriented, advertising targets; Readers Digest, Time
Intellectuals - less than 10%; concerned with issues and ideas; thinkers;
Harpers, Atlantic Monthly
Active audience:
More recent developments still, suggest that there is a decoding process

going on among the active audience who are not simply using the media for
gratification purposes. Morley's view of dominant, negotiated and oppositional
readings of texts is a semiological approach because it recognises the importance
of the analysis of signs, particularly visual signs, that shape so much of modern
media output. In this model, at its simplest level, the audience accept or agree with
the encoded meanings, they accept and refine parts of the text's meanings or they
37
are aware of the dominant meaning of the text but reject it for cultural, political or
ideological reasons.
Passive audience:
An audience that does not interacted to media and it's injected with the
messages it can be. It has no control of the media influence on them and that the
passive except for preferred meaning of the text. An example of the passive
audience is children.
CONCEPT OF ACTIVE AUDIENCE
Lot of theory that has been discussed earlier in this class focuses on
passiveaudience that suggests that people are easily influenced by the media.
While activeaudience concept can be viewed as a theory that focuses on assessing
what people dowith media. This concept suggests that people make more active
decisions about how touse the media (Littlejohn, 1999). For that reason, this
concept can be referred to asaudience-centered rather than source dominated.
Baran and Davis (2006) suggested thatthis concept should be looked under micro
level perspective rather than macro levelperspective. These ideas of audience are
associated with various theories of mediaeffects. The powerful effects theories tend
to be based on passive audience, whereas theminimal effect theories are based
more on an active audience.
Characteristic of active audience:
Frank Biocca (as cited in Littlejohn, 1999) discussed five characteristic of

theactive audience implied by the theorist in this genre. They are:
1) Selectivity (active audiences are considered to be selective in the media they
choose to use)
2) Utilitarianism (active audience are said to use media to meet particular need
38
and goals)
3) Intentionality (which implies the purposeful use of media content)
4) Involvement or effort (here audiences are actively attending, thinking
about, and using the media)
5) Impervious to influence (or not very easily persuaded by the media alone).
Audience Research:
 Primary research is the direct investigation of the needs, desires and media
habits of an audience. It involves contacting and talking directly to members
of the target audience individually, on the phone, by email or questionnaire
or in groups.
 Secondary research looks at data and other research that has already been
undertaken about the audience ﾐ today secondary research is very largely
carried out on the internet, and by consulting books, magazines and journals.
By consulting a wide range of opinions and sources a sound critical analysis
can be constructed.
 Quantitative research is about collecting facts and figures and other data to
do with the size of the audience. This can be a breakdown of the number of
people, including their gender, age and location, who make up an audience.
TV audiences are measured in a quantitative way by BARB
(BroadcastersAudience Research Board)
 Qualitative research is about investigating the reasons why audiences
consume a particular text. Qualitative research is done through discussion
and by setting up focus groups. Questionnaires can be constructed to
establish audience preferences, opinions, tastes and desires, or to measure
the success of a media text or product.
39
The Hypodermic Needle Model:
(or)Magic Bullet Theory

History
The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, 40

immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and
1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change.
Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication,

including:
 the fast rise and popularization of radio and television
 the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and

propaganda
 the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion
pictures on children, and
 Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the

German public behind the Nazi party
Core Assumptions and Statements
The Hypodermic Needle Model theory suggests that the media ‘injects’
ideas into a passive audience, like giving a patient a drug.
The term Hypodermic Model has been used to describe the process. The
suggestion is that the media work very much like a hypodermic needle – the
information they pump into the audience goes one way and has an effect.
Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a
powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver. The bullet
theory graphically suggests that the message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun"
into the viewer's "head". With similarly emotive imagery the hypodermic needle
model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience
which is immediately influenced by the message. They express the view that the
media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or
audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message. There is no escape from
the effect of the message in these models. The population is seen as a sitting duck.
People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot media material "shot" at
them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of
information.
41
Conceptual Model
Scope and Application
Mass media.
Two Step Flow Theory:
History
The two-step flow of communication hypothesis was first introduced by

Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet in The People's Choice, a
1944 study focused on the process of decision-making during a Presidential
election campaign. These researchers expected to find empirical support for the
direct influence of media messages on voting intentions.
Core Assumptions and Statements
This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct
stages. First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass
media and its messages receive the information. Opinion leaders pass on their own
interpretations in addition to the actual media content. The term ‘personal
influence’ was coined to refer to the process intervening between the media’s
direct message and the audience’s ultimate reaction to that message. Opinion
leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their attitudes and
behaviors and are quite similar to those they influence. The two-step flow theory
has improved our understanding of how the mass media influence decision
making. The theory refined the ability to predict the influence of media messages
on audience behavior, and it helped explain why certain media campaigns may
42
have failed to alter audience attitudes an behavior. The two-step flow theory gave
way to the multi-step flow theory of mass communication or diffusion of
innovation theory.
Conceptual Model
Scope and Application
All kinds of mass media can be researched with this theory (TV, radio, internet).
Uses and Gratifications Theory :
Uses and Gratifications Theory is a popular approach to understanding mass

communication. The theory places more focus on the consumer, or audience,
instead of the actual message itself by asking “what people do with media” rather
than “what media does to people” (Katz, 1959) . It assumes that members of the
audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating
media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for
choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the
media to fulfill specific gratifications.
During the 1960s, as the first generation to grow up with television became
grown ups, it became increasingly apparent to media theorists that audiences made
choices about what they did when consuming texts. Far from being a passive mass,
audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different
reasons and in different ways. In 1948 Lasswell suggested that media texts had the
following functions for individuals and society:
43
 surveillance
 correlation
 entertainment
 cultural transmission
Researchers Blulmer and Katz expanded this theory and published their own in
1974, stating that individuals might choose and use a text for the following
purposes (ie uses and gratifications):
 Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine.

 Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction,
eg) substituting soap operas for family life
 Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and
values from texts
 Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living eg) weather
reports, financial news, holiday bargains
Since then, the list of Uses and Gratifications has been extended, particularly as
new media forms have come along (eg video games, the internet)
Criticism of Uses and gratification theory
 The uses and gratification theory does not consider the power of media
 More audience-centered
 Positive point of the uses and gratification theory is it focuses attention on

individuals in the mass communication process.
Reception theory:
Reception theory is a version of reader responseliterary theory that

emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary text. It is more generally called
audience reception in the analysis of communications models. In literary studies,
reception theory originated from the work of Hans-Robert Jauss in the late 1960s.
It was most influential during the 1970s and early 1980s in Germany and USA
(Fortier 132), amongst some notable work in Western Europe. A form of reception
theory has also been applied to the study of historiography.
44
This work was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the
relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and
decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different
readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions,
and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and
use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain
amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred
reading.
Ethnographic model
The latest research into audience has resulted in an ethnographic model,

which means that the researcher enters into the culture of the group and uses
questions and interviews to try to understand media engagement from the
perspective of the group. What seems to be emerging from this work is
a) the focus on the domestic context of reception of media texts
b) the element of cultural competence, and finally
c) technologies.
The first of these stresses the fact that engagement with the media is often
structured by the domestic environment because of the domestication of
entertainment and leisure. It appears that the home is not a free space and there are
issues about finance for purchase of media goods, control of the remote, the
gendered nature of watching TV and the 'flow' of TV that fits alongside or within a
set of domestic relationships. So TV viewing may not be the concentrated,
analytical business that some theorists suggest.
The second area is best understood in terms of texts that can be identified as
belonging to a genre that has gender appeal. For example, soaps are usually seen to
have a strong female bias in viewing audience. There is a selection of
competencies that are brought to such texts so knowing about cliffhangers, the role
of the matriarch or the fluid nature of character relationships simply adds to the
pleasures associated with the text. Think about the texts that you enjoy and even
though you know how a text will be shaped or how it will end these are not barriers
to your enjoyment of that text.
45
Competencies even include the very expectations that you have for the text.
The male preference for news and more factual forms can be seen as a feature of
cultural competence because men occupy more public space than domestic space
and therefore feel the need to be aware of the public worlds reflected in such texts.
The third area identified relates to the way we engage with the hardware in
order to enjoy the output of the media. There seems to be a strong gender divide
here with computers and complex technology fitting into the category of 'boys’
toys'. If present trends in technology continue then there is a real danger that just as
our society is dividing along lines of information-rich and information-poor then
there will be a further demarcation along gender lines. This explains why schools
and TV programmes need to present positive gender representations and good
practice that supports females and technological expertise. You will note that many
of the lifestyle programmes that are on TV use females in less traditional roles as a
way of redressing the balance.
Overall the shift in the models for audience has gone from mass audience to
individual viewer with stress on the active audience rather than the passive model.
The level of activity in the implied audience is related to the uses, pleasures,
cultural competence, situation and available technology for the particular audience.
Teaching Media Text with the Key Concpts:
The media text is any media product we wish to examine. Every description
or representation of the world, fictional or otherwise, is an attempt to describe or
define reality, and is in some way a construct of reality, a text.
A text is any media product we wish to examine, whether it is a television

program, a book, a poster, a popular song, the latest fashion, etc. We can discuss
with students what the type of text is—cartoon, rock video, fairy tale, police
drama, etc.—and how it differs from other types of text. We can identify its
denotative meaning and discuss such features as narrative structure, how meanings
are communicated, values implicit in the text, and connections with other texts.
The central concept of the model is the idea that all communication, all discourse,
is a construct of reality. Every description or representation of the world, fictional
or otherwise, is an attempt to describe or define reality, and is in some way a

construction—a selection and ordering of details to communicate aspects of the
46
creator's view of reality. There are no neutral, value-free descriptions of reality—in
print, in word, in visual form. An understanding of this concept is the starting point
for a critical relationship to the media.
This concept leads to three broad areas within which we can raise questions that
will help students to "deconstruct" the media: text, audience and production. more
in Representation
Anyone who receives a media text, whether it is a book read alone or a film viewed
in a theatre, is a member of an audience. It is important for children to be able to
identify the audience(s) of a text. Texts are frequently designed to produce
audiences, which are then sold to advertisers.
Modern communication theory teaches that audiences "negotiate" meaning. That is

to say, each individual reader of a text will draw from its range of possible
meanings a particular reading that reflects that individual's gender, race or cultural
background, skill in reading, age, etc. Thus the "meaning" of a text is not
something determined by critics, teachers or even authors, but is determined in a
dynamic and changeable relationship between the reader and the text. The role of
the teacher is to assist students in developing skills which will allow them to
negotiate active readings—readings which recognize the range of possible
meanings in a text, the values and biases implicit in those meanings, and which
involve conscious choices rather than the unconscious acceptance of "preferred"
readings. Children who can choose meaning are empowered. more in
AudienceInstitution and Production refer to everything that goes into the making of
a media text—the technology, the ownership and economics, the institutions
involved, the legal issues, the use of common codes and practices, the roles in the
production process. Students are often fascinated by the details and "tricks" of
production. It is important that the teacher keep in focus the relationship between
the various aspects of production, and the other two broad areas of text and
audience. What is the relationship between story content and commercial
priorities? How are values related to ownership and control? How does technology
determine what we will see? How does the cost of technology determine who can
make media productions? Often, understanding in these areas is best developed
through the students’ involvement in their own production work. more in
Institution and Technology. So we have a rationale for media literacy: we can
show that it is an integrator, and we have a conceptual framework. How can we put
this into the hands of teachers? This is new material for them,involving new
concepts, skills and strategies. MedienABC offers an example of how this may be
achieved.
47
Media Texts
Media texts are a sub-category of non-fiction. They include texts such as

newspaper and magazine articles and advertising. An important aspect of these
texts (and, in fact, many other non-media texts) concerns the audience for which
they are written which, because it is always a mass audience, is always composed
of individuals completely unknown to the writer. This can be important when you
analyse these texts because many address their reader as if he or she were a
personal friend - a highly persuasive technique that is, in the circumstances, rather
suspect and always worthy of comment.
 TIP! Media texts often include images such as photographs and

illustrations. Remember that this exam is testing your abilities to analyse
and discuss the use and effects of languageso it is best to avoid any
prolonged discussion of images.
Media Analysis:
Marxism is an economic and socio-political worldview and method of

socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a
dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development
of capitalism.
The Marxist Approach to Literature
Origins of Marxist Approach:
The Marxist Approach is based on the theories of the philosopher Karl

Marx. These theories were developed specifically to analyze how society
functions where there is constant change.
Marx’s Beliefs:
 Philosophy was meant to be used as a tool to bring about change
 The capitalist system caused the alienation of the workers, therefore causing
them not to be able to live to the fullest
 Capitalist system would eventually cause the proletarians to rise up against

the upper classes in a bloody revolt and replace the system with a 48
communist one. Marx mainly focused on economics, particularly the
material forces of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption
History of the Marxist Approach:

 19th century experiments in communal living
 Publication of Marx’s works laid the groundwork for literary critics
 20th Century saw interest in analyzing class conflict and the capitalist system
 The Marxist Approach evolve and gained interest when people felt that the
formalistic approach was inadequate
The Marxist Approach focuses on:

 Concentrates most on the relationship between the test and reality
 Those using the methods tend to look at tensions and contradictions within a
literary work. Marxism originally developed to analyze just such tensions
and contradictions within society
 See literature as intimately linked to social power, and thus their analysis of
literature is linked to larger social questions
 Ultimately past of a much larger effort to uncover the inner workings of
society
 Formalists generally look at a piece of literature as a self-contained entity
while those analyzing using the Marxist Method those generally look at the
unresolved tensions or conflicts
Base-Superstructure Model: Main interest for Marx analysis

Superstructure: Art, politics, religion, culture, the law, ideology
Base: Real economic relations, labor, capital, factories
Marxist analysts feel that there is a direct connection between the base and the
superstructure in literature
The Psychological Approach: Freud
Aim of Psychological Approach:

 Provide many profound clues toward solving a work’s thematic and
symbolic mysteries
Abuses and Misunderstandings of the Psychological Approach:

 In the general sense of the word, nothing new about psychological approach.
Used as early as the 4th century by Aristotle. 49
 During the twentieth century, psychological criticism has come to be
associated with the psychoanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud and his
followers. This association has resulted in most of the abuses and
misunderstandings of this approach.
 Abuses results from an excess of enthusiasm, which has manifested several
ways:
o Advocates push their critical theses to hard, forcing the
psychoanalytical theory at expense of other considerations
o The literary criticism of the psychoanalytical extremists degenerated
into a special occultism with its own mystique and jargon used
specifically for the in-group.
o Results in widespread mistrust of the psychological approach in
analyzing literature
Freud’s Theories:
 Freud emphasized the unconscious aspects of the human psyche
 Most of the individual’s mental processes are unconscious
 All human behavior is motivated ultimately by sexuality (However, some of
Freud’s own disciples have rejected this, including Jung and Adler)
Freud assigned mental processes to three psychic zones:

 The id:
o Reservoir of libido, the primary source of all physic energy.
o The id functions to fulfill the pleasure principle.
o The id has no consciousness or semblance of rational order;
characterized by a tremendous and amorphous vitality.
o Only has an impulse to obtain satisfaction for the instinctual needs in
accordance with pleasure
o In short, the id is the source of all aggression and desires
 Two agencies to regulate the id:
o The ego:
 Protects the individual
 Rational governing agent of the psyche
 Lacks the strong vitality of the id, regulates the instinctual
drives of the id so that they may be in released in
nondestructive behavioral patterns
 Ego comprises what we think of as the conscious mind
o The superego:
 Primarily functions to protect society 50
 Largely unconscious, superego is the moral censoring agency,
the repository of conscience and pride
 Serves to inhibit or repress the id, to block off and thrust back
into the unconscious those impulses toward pleasure that
society regards as unacceptable (like overt aggression, sexual
passion, and the Oedipal Instinct)
Examples of the Psychological Approach in practice:

 The Oedipus Complex in Hamlet (Oedipus Complex is when a boy is
sexually attracted to his mother)
 Rebellion against the father in Huckleberry Finn
 Id versus Superego in the short story “Young Goodman Brown”
 The consequences of sexual repression in The Turn of the Screw
 Love and Death in the short story “Sick Rose”
 Sexual Imagery in the poem “To His Coy Mistress” (Most often use of
sexual imagery is finding phallic and yonic symbols)
 Morality over the pleasure principle in the short story “Everyday Use”
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or (in the Saussurean tradition)

semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication,
designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and
communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for
its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically. Semiotics
is often divided into three branches:
 Semantics: Relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their
denotata, or meaning
 Syntactics: Relations among signs in formal structures
 Pragmatics: Relation between signs and the effects they have on the people
who use them
Semiotics is frequently seen as having important anthropological

dimensions; for example, Umberto Eco proposes that every cultural phenomenon
can be studied as communication.[citation needed] However, some semioticians
focus on the logical dimensions of the science. They examine areas belonging also
to the natural sciences – such as how organisms make predictions about, and adapt
to, their semiotic niche in the world (see semiosis). In general, semiotic theories
take signs or sign systems as their object of study: the communication of

information in living organisms is covered in biosemiotics or zoosemiosis.
51
Syntactics is the branch of semiotics that deals with the formal properties of
signs and symbols.[1] More precisely, syntactics deals with the "rules that govern
how words are combined to form phrases and sentences."[2]Charles Morris adds
that semantics deals with the relation of signs to their designata and the objects
which they may or do denote; and, pragmatics deals with the biotic aspects of
semiosis, that is, with all the psychological, biological, and sociological
phenomena which occur in the functioning of signs.
Lesson 6
Stereotype:
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of

individuals. The concepts of “stereotype” and “prejudice” are often confused with
many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified
conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions.
Popular culture:
Popular culture (commonly known as pop culture) is the totality of ideas,

perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed
preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture,
especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging
global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by
mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society.
Popular culture is often viewed as being trivial and dumbed-down in order to find
consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it comes under
heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious
groups and countercultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist,
sensationalist, and corrupted.
The term “popular culture” was coined in the 19th century or earlier to refer to the
education and general “culturedness” of the lower classes, as was delivered in an
address at the Birmingham Town Hall, England. The term began to assume the
meaning of a culture of the lower classes separate from (and sometimes opposed)
to “true education” towards the end of the century, a usage that became established
by the interbellum period. The current meaning of the term, culture for mass
52
consumption, especially originating in the United States, is established by the end
of World War II. The abbreviated form “pop culture” dates to the 1960s.
MASS CULTURE
A set of cultural values and ideas that arise from common exposure of a population
to the same cultural activities, communications media, music and art, etc. Mass
culture becomes possible only with modern communications and electronic media.
A mass culture is transmitted to individuals, rather than arising from people’s daily
interactions, and therefore lacks the distinctive content of cultures rooted in
community and region. Mass culture tends to reproduce the liberal value of
individualism and to foster a view of the citizen as consumer.
Culture and Subculture:

Culture is part of the external influences that impact the consumer. That is, culture
represents influences that are imposed on the consumer by other individuals.
The definition of culture offered in one textbook is “That complex whole which
includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by man person as a member of society.” From this definition, we
make the following observations:
 Culture, as a “complex whole,” is a system of interdependent components.

 Knowledge and beliefs are important parts. In the U.S., we know and
believe that a person who is skilled and works hard will get ahead. In other
countries, it may be believed that differences in outcome result more from luck.
“Chunking,” the name for China in Chinese, literally means “The Middle
Kingdom.” The belief among ancient Chinese that they were in the center of the
universe greatly influenced their thinking.
 Other issues are relevant. Art, for example, may be reflected in the rather
arbitrary practice of wearing ties in some countries and wearing turbans in
others. Morality may be exhibited in the view in the United States that one
should not be naked in public. In Japan, on the other hand, groups of men and
women may take steam baths together without perceived as improper. On the
other extreme, women in some Arab countries are not even allowed to reveal
their faces. Notice, by the way, that what at least some countries view as moral
may in fact be highly immoral by the standards of another country. For
53
example, the law that once banned interracial marriages in South Africa was
named the “Immorality Act,” even though in most civilized countries this law,
and any degree of explicit racial prejudice, would itself be considered highly
immoral.
Culture has several important characteristics: (1) Culture is comprehensive. This

means that all parts must fit together in some logical fashion. For example,
bowing and a strong desire to avoid the loss of face are unified in their
manifestation of the importance of respect. (2) Culture is learned rather than
being something we are born with. We will consider the mechanics of learning
later in the course. (3) Culture is manifested withinboundaries of acceptable
behavior. For example, in American society, one cannot show up to class naked,
but wearing anything from a suit and tie to shorts and a T-shirt would usually be
acceptable. Failure to behave within the prescribed norms may lead to sanctions,
ranging from being hauled off by the police for indecent exposure to being laughed
at by others for wearing a suit at the beach. (4) Conscious awareness of cultural
standards is limited. One American spy was intercepted by the Germans during
World War II simply because of the way he held his knife and fork while eating.
(5) Cultures fall somewhere on a continuum between static and dynamic
depending on how quickly they accept change. For example, American culture has
changed a great deal since the 1950s, while the culture of Saudi Arabia has
changed much less.
Dealing with culture. Culture is a problematic issue for many marketers since it
is inherently nebulous and often difficult to understand. One may violate the
cultural norms of another country without being informed of this, and people from
different cultures may feel uncomfortable in each other’s presence without
knowing exactly why (for example, two speakers may unconsciously continue to
attempt to adjust to reach an incompatible preferred interpersonal distance).
Warning about stereotyping. When observing a culture, one must be careful not
to over-generalize about traits that one sees. Research in social psychology has
suggested a strong tendency for people to perceive an “outgroup” as more
homogenous than an “ingroup,” even when they knew what members had been
assigned to each group purely by chance. When there is often a “grain of truth” to
some of the perceived differences, the temptation to over-generalize is often

strong. Note that there are often significant individual differences withincultures.
54
Cultural lessons. We considered several cultural lessons in class; the important
thing here is the big picture. For example, within the Muslim tradition, the dog is
considered a “dirty” animal, so portraying it as “man’s best friend” in an
advertisement is counter-productive. Packaging, seen as a reflection of the quality
of the “real” product, is considerably more important in Asia than in the U.S.,
where there is a tendency to focus on the contents which “really count.” Many
cultures observe significantly greater levels of formality than that typical in the
U.S., and Japanese negotiator tend to observe long silent pauses as a speaker’s
point is considered.
Cultural characteristics as a continuum. There is a tendency to stereotype

cultures as being one way or another (e.g., individualistic rather than
collectivistic). Note, however, countries fall on a continuum of cultural traits.
Hofstede’s research demonstrates a wide range between the most individualistic
and collectivistic countries, for example—some fall in the middle.
Hofstede’s Dimensions. Gert Hofstede, a Dutch researcher, was able to interview

a large number of IBM executives in various countries, and found that cultural
differences tended to center around four key dimensions:
 Individualism vs. collectivism: To what extent do people believe in

individual responsibility and reward rather than having these measures aimed at
the larger group? Contrary to the stereotype, Japan actually ranks in the middle
of this dimension, while Indonesia and West Africa rank toward the
collectivistic side. The U.S., Britain, and the Netherlands rate toward
individualism.
 Power distance: To what extent is there a strong separation of individuals
based on rank? Power distance tends to be particularly high in Arab countries
and some Latin American ones, while it is more modest in Northern Europe and
the U.S.
 Masculinity vs. femininity involves a somewhat more nebulous concept.
“Masculine” values involve competition and “conquering” nature by means
such as large construction projects, while “feminine” values involve harmony
and environmental protection. Japan is one of the more masculine countries,
while the Netherlands rank relatively low. The U.S. is close to the middle,
slightly toward the masculine side. ( The fact that these values are thought of as
“masculine” or “feminine” does not mean that they are consistently held by
members of each respective gender—there are very large “within-group”

differences. There is, however, often a large correlation of these cultural values
55
with the status of women.)
 Uncertainty avoidance involves the extent to which a “structured” situation
with clear rules is preferred to a more ambiguous one; in general, countries with
lower uncertainty avoidance tend to be more tolerant of risk. Japan ranks very
high. Few countries are very low in any absolute sense, but relatively speaking,
Britain and Hong Kong are lower, and the U.S. is in the lower range of the
distribution.
Although Hofstede’s original work did not address this, a fifth dimension of long
term vs. short term orientationhas been proposed. In the U.S., managers like to see
quick results, while Japanese managers are known for take a long term view, often
accepting long periods before profitability is obtained.
High vs. low context cultures: In some cultures, “what you see is what you
get”—the speaker is expected to make his or her points clear and limit ambiguity.
This is the case in the U.S.—if you have something on your mind, you are
expected to say it directly, subject to some reasonable standards of diplomacy. In
Japan, in contrast, facial expressions and what is not said may be an important clue
to understanding a speaker’s meaning. Thus, it may be very difficult for Japanese
speakers to understand another’s written communication. The nature of languages
may exacerbate this phenomenon—while the German language is very precise,
Chinese lacks many grammatical features, and the meaning of words may be
somewhat less precise. English ranks somewhere in the middle of this continuum.
Ethnocentrism and the self-reference criterion. The self-reference

criterion refers to the tendency of individuals, often unconsciously, to use the
standards of one’s own culture to evaluate others. For example, Americans may
perceive more traditional societies to be “backward” and “unmotivated” because
they fail to adopt new technologies or social customs, seeking instead to preserve
traditional values. In the 1960s, a supposedly well read American psychology
professor referred to India’s culture of “sick” because, despite severe food
shortages, the Hindu religion did not allow the eating of cows. The psychologist
expressed disgust that the cows were allowed to roam free in villages, although it
turns out that they provided valuable functions by offering milk and fertilizing
fields. Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view one’s culture to be superior to
others. The important thing here is to consider how these biases may come in the
way in dealing with members of other cultures.
56
It should be noted that there is a tendency of outsiders to a culture to overstate the

similarity of members of that culture to each other. In the United States, we are
well aware that there is a great deal of heterogeneity within our culture; however,
we often underestimate the diversity within other cultures. For example, in Latin
America, there are great differences between people who live in coastal and
mountainous areas; there are also great differences between social classes.
Language issues. Language is an important element of culture. It should be

realized that regional differences may be subtle. For example, one word may mean
one thing in one Latin American country, but something off-color in another. It
should also be kept in mind that much information is carried in non-verbal
communication. In some cultures, we nod to signify “yes” and shake our heads to
signify “no;” in other cultures, the practice is reversed. Within the context of
language:
 There are often large variations in regional dialects of a given language. The
differences between U.S., Australian, and British English are actually modest
compared to differences between dialects of Spanish and German.
 Idioms involve “figures of speech” that may not be used, literally translated,
in other languages. For example, baseball is a predominantly North and South
American sport, so the notion of “in the ball park” makes sense here, but the
term does not carry the same meaning in cultures where the sport is less popular.
 Neologisms involve terms that have come into language relatively recently
as technology or society involved. With the proliferation of computer
technology, for example, the idea of an “add-on” became widely known. It may
take longer for such terms to “diffuse” into other regions of the world. In parts
of the World where English is heavily studied in schools, the emphasis is often
on grammar and traditional language rather than on current terminology, so
neologisms have a wide potential not to be understood.
 Slang exists within most languages. Again, regional variations are common
and not all people in a region where slang is used will necessarily understand
this. There are often significant generation gaps in the use of slang.
Writing patterns, or the socially accepted ways of writing, will differs significantly
between cultures.
57
In English and Northern European languages, there is an emphasis on organization
and conciseness. Here, a point is made by building up to it through background.
An introduction will often foreshadow what is to be said. In Romance languages
such as Spanish, French, and Portuguese, this style is often considered “boring”
and “inelegant.” Detours are expected and are considered a sign of class, not of
poor organization. In Asian languages, there is often a great deal of circularity.
Because of concerns about potential loss of face, opinions may not be expressed
directly. Instead, speakers may hint at ideas or indicate what others have said,
waiting for feedback from the other speaker before committing to a point of view.
Because of differences in values, assumptions, and language structure, it is not

possible to meaningfully translate “word-for-word” from one language to another.
A translator must keep “unspoken understandings” and assumptions in mind in
translating. The intended meaning of a word may also differ from its literal
translation. For example, the Japanese word hai is literally translated as “yes.”
To Americans, that would imply “Yes, I agree.” To the Japanese speaker,
however, the word may mean “Yes, I hear what you are saying” (without any
agreement expressed) or even “Yes, I hear you are saying something even though I
am not sure exactly whatyou are saying.”
Differences in cultural values result in different preferred methods of speech. In

American English, where the individual is assumed to be more in control of his or
her destiny than is the case in many other cultures, there is a preference for the
“active” tense (e.g., “I wrote the marketing plan”) as opposed to the passive (e.g.,
“The marketing plan was written by me.”)
Because of the potential for misunderstandings in translations, it is dangerous to

rely on a translation from one language to another made by one person. In the
“decentering” method, multiple translators are used.
The text is first translated by one translator—say, from German to Mandarin

Chinese. A second translator, who does not know what the original German text
said, will then translate back to German from Mandarin Chinese translation. The
text is then compared. If the meaning is not similar, a third translator, keeping in
mind this feedback, will then translate from German to Mandarin. The process is
continued until the translated meaning appears to be satisfactory.
Different perspectives exist in different cultures on several issues; e.g.:

58
 Monochronic cultures tend to value precise scheduling and doing one thing
at a time; in polychroniccultures, in contrast, promptness is valued less, and
multiple tasks may be performed simultaneously. (See text for more detail).
 Space is perceived differently. Americans will feel crowded where people
from more densely populated countries will be comfortable.
 Symbols differ in meaning. For example, while white symbols purity in the
U.S., it is a symbol of death in China. Colors that are considered masculine and
feminine also differ by culture.
 Americans have a lot of quite shallow friends toward whom little obligation
is felt; people in European and some Asian cultures have fewer, but more
significant friends. For example, one Ph.D. student from India, with limited
income, felt obligated to try buy an airline ticket for a friend to go back to India
when a relative had died.
 In the U.S. and much of Europe, agreements are typically rather precise and
contractual in nature; in Asia, there is a greater tendency to settle issues as they
come up. As a result, building a relationship of trust is more important in Asia,
since you must be able to count on your partner being reasonable.
 In terms of etiquette, some cultures have more rigid procedures than others.
In some countries, for example, there are explicit standards as to how a gift
should be presented. In some cultures, gifts should be presented in private to
avoid embarrassing the recipient; in others, the gift should be made publicly to
ensure that no perception of secret bribery could be made.
Brand Personality:
• It is a comprehensive concept, which includes all the tangible and intangible
traits of a brand, say beliefs, values, prejudices, features, interests, and heritage. A
brand personality makes it unique.
• Brand Personality describes brands in terms of human characteristics.
• Brand personality is seen as a valuable factor in increasing brand engagement and

brand attachment, in much the same way as people relate and bind to other people.
Brand personality is the specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a
particular brand.
59
5 traits are mentioned. these are
1. Sincerity
2. Excitement
3. competence
4. Sophistication
5. Ruggedness
Brand image is Perception and believe of customer(consumers) about a particular
brand.
In my opinion both the term are heavily interrelated, brand image is the initial
stage, it comes from the consistent good performance of the brand. While a brand,
performing very good over a long period of time gains not only a good brand
image but a brand personality also.
Like philips. people prefer philips bulbs over surya and they are ready to pay
premium to consume it. why? i guess because of the brand image philips have.
now if anybody can correlate the performance of the brand with human traits then
the brand has a personality…i think its always a matter of discussion.
Hero worship:
Hero worship has existed “forever”… it seems that humans have a need to
worship someone or something “greater than” themselves. Whether we choose to
worship an external God figure (like a saint), or a hero figure from a comic strip or
movie, or the movie stars themselves, the concept is the same. We look up to
someone else, someone other than ourselves, as “better than us” or “higher” than
we are in our esteem and opinion.
Accepting That We Are Super-Heroes
In the same way, in our own lives, we must first accept the possibility that we too
are a super hero or a super-person before being able to make it come true. Just like
Cinderella who had first to be willing to go to the ball to discover her Prince
Charming, so we too need to first be willing to step out of the dungeon of our
negative thoughts and expectations to meet our “dream life”… the life we have
dreamed of, but which cannot become reality until we accept that it is indeed
possible and real.
Who is the hero in your own life? If your hero is someone outside of yourself, then
you have given your power away to someone else. If you are waiting for someone
60
else to make a difference in your life (to rescue you, to save you, to make your life
better, to make you whole), then you are wasting your time. No one but you can
make your dreams come true.
The question that comes up after seeing Unbreakable is how anyone could know
they were a hero or had superhuman powers if they didn’t try… How will you
know you can fly if you don’t take a leap? (I’m not suggesting you try this now…
this is figurative.) But, the question remains, how will you know you can succeed
at something is you don’t give it a try? How will you know you can drag yourself
out of the depths of your despair if you don’t try? How do you know you won’t get
that new job if you don’t apply? How do you know…
Taking the First Step or Leap
Before becoming a success at anything, you must take that first step. Yet many of
us, convinced of our failure, don’t even take that first step… we don’t take the leap
into the abyss of the unknown. One of my favorite images from a movie is when
Harrison Ford steps into the abyss in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He
doesn’t see the bridge, but “knows” and trusts that it is there.
It is only when he has taken the first step — the step that will put him on the
bridge, or falling into the abyss if the bridge is not there — that he sees the proof
that the bridge is indeed a reality. Only when is he willing to take the risk does he
become a hero. If he had not been willing to believe his intuition or his “inner
knowledge” he would have stayed on the edge of the abyss cowering at the
“impossibility” of the feat in front of him.
Heroes Step Into the Unknown
How many times do we stay at the edge of the abysses in our life, cowering with
fear because we don’t see the solution? Rather than take a deep breath and step into
the unknown, we stay attached to our security blanket, to our present reality, to our
comfort zone. Rather than trust that the future would bring us something, anything,
better than what we have now, we perhaps have chosen instead to hang on to what
we have, even if what we have “ain’t so hot”.
In “Field of Dreams” (I’m in a movie state of mind right now, as you can tell),
Kevin Costner plays a hero’s role — one in which he must take his existence in his
61
own hands, and even in the face of ridicule and doubts, forge ahead after his own
dream. His challenge is trusting that his “inner vision” is indeed the one he must
believe in. “Build it and they will come.”
Build your dream, follow your wildest hopes and aspirations, trust in yourself, and
the vision will manifest. Be willing to step off the cliff of your fears, of your
upbringing, or your limitations. Jump into your future with your dreams in one
hand and your faith in life in the other. Know that the Universe will always bring
you something better if you are willing to trust it and “forge ahead”. So often, we
choose to stay behind because it is safe — or at least it seems safer.
Yet, as the hero in our own life, we can’t stay behind, we can’t wait for someone
else to rescue the “underling”, we can’t close the door and hope it all takes care of
itself. If there is something in our life we are not happy with, then we have to take
a step forward toward creating the life we desire for ourselves.
Heroes Take Action and Make a Difference
Complaining without taking action will not change anything. You never hear a
hero complain about a situation and then sit back and hope it changes
miraculously. No! A hero (which you are) may complain at the “bad hand of
cards” they’ve been dealt, but then goes out to play the best he can with those
cards, and if that doesn’t work, to see if there is another way around the situation.
A hero never gives up. A hero keeps on, past adversity, past losses, past apparent
defeat, and keeps on until the situation is resolved.
We are the heroes in our own lives. We have to pull ourselves up and do what it
takes to make a difference in our own lives, and in the lives of the people around
us, and in the life of this planet. The time is over when we waited around for some
other hero to rescue us… All heroes are busy in their own lives. We must come to
our own rescue. As the Lone Ranger (another famous hero) would say, hi-ho
Silver! And away we go!
CLASSICAL THEORIES
The earliest theories were those propounded by Western theorists Siebert, Paterson
and Schramm in their book Four Theories Of the Press (1956). These were termed
“normative theories” by McQuail in the sense that they “mainly express ideas of
how the media ought to or can be expected to operate under a prevailing set of
62
conditions and values.” Each of the four original or classical theories is based on a
particular political theory or economic scenario.
1.Authoritarian Theory
According to this theory, mass media, though not under the direct control of the
State, had to follow its bidding. Under an Authoritarian approach in Western
Europe, freedom of thought was jealously guarded by a few people (ruling
classes), who were concerned with the emergence of a new middle class and were
worried about the effects of printed matter on their thought process. Steps were
taken to control the freedom of expression. The result was advocacy of complete
dictatorship. The theory promoted zealous obedience to a hierarchical superior and
reliance on threat and punishment to those who did not follow the censorship rules
or did not respect authority. Censorship of the press was justified on the ground
that the State always took precedence over the individual’s right to freedom of
expression.
This theory stemmed from the authoritarian philosophy of Plato (407 – 327 B.C),
who thought that the State was safe only in the hands of a few wise men. Thomas
Hobbes (1588 – 1679), a British academician, argued that the power to maintain
order was sovereign and individual objections were to be ignored. Engel, a German
thinker further reinforced the theory by stating that freedom came into its supreme
right only under Authoritarianism.
The world has been witness to authoritarian means of control over media by both
dictatorial and democratic governments.
2.Libertarianism or Free Press Theory

This movement is based on the right of an individual, and advocates absence of
restraint. The basis of this theory dates back to 17th century England when the
printing press made it possible to print several copies of a book or pamphlet at
cheap rates. The State was thought of as a major source of interference on the
rights of an individual and his property. Libertarians regarded taxation as
institutional theft. Popular will (vox populi) was granted precedence over the
power of State.
Advocates of this theory were Lao Tzu, an early 16th century philosopher, John
Locke of Great Britain in the17th century, John Milton, the epic poet
63
(“Aeropagitica”) and John Stuart Mill, an essayist (“On Liberty”). Milton in
Aeropagitica in 1644, referred to a self righting process if free expression is
permitted “let truth and falsehood grapple.” In 1789, the French, in their
Declaration Of The Rights Of Man, wrote “Every citizen may speak, write and
publish freely.” Out of such doctrines came the idea of a “free marketplace of
ideas.” George Orwell defined libertarianism as “allowing people to say things you
do not want to hear”. Libertarians argued that the press should be seen as the
Fourth Estate reflecting public opinion.
What the theory offers, in sum, is power without social responsibility.
3.Social Responsibility Theory
Virulent critics of the Free Press Theory were Wilbur Schramm, Siebert and
Theodore Paterson. In their book Four Theories Of Press, they stated “pure
libertarianism is antiquated, outdated and obsolete.” They advocated the need for
its replacement by the Social Responsibility theory. This theory can be said to have
been initiated in the United States by the Commission of The Freedom Of Press,
1949. The commission found that the free market approach to press freedom had
only increased the power of a single class and has not served the interests of the
less well-off classes. The emergence of radio, TV and film suggested the need for
some means of accountability. Thus the theory advocated some obligation on the
part of the media to society. A judicial mix of self regulation and state regulation
and high professional standards were imperative.
Social Responsibility theory thus became the modern variation in which the duty
to one”s conscience was the primary basis of the right of free expression.
4.Soviet Media/Communist Theory
This theory is derived from the ideologies of Marx and Engel that “the ideas of the
ruling classes are the ruling ideas”. It was thought that the entire mass media was
saturated with bourgeois ideology. Lenin thought of private ownership as being
incompatible with freedom of press and that modern technological means of
information must be controlled for enjoying effective freedom of press.
The theory advocated that the sole purpose of mass media was to educate the great
masses of workers and not to give out information. The public was encouraged to
64
give feedback as it was the only way the media would be able to cater to its
interests.
Two more theories were later added as the “four theories of the press” were not
fully applicable to the non-aligned countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America,
who were committed to social and economic development on their own terms. The
two theories were:
5.Development Communication Theory

The underlying fact behind the genesis of this theory was that there can be no
development without communication. Under the four classical theories, capitalism
was legitimized, but under the Development communication theory, or
Development Support Communication as it is otherwise called, the media
undertook the role of carrying out positive developmental programmes, accepting
restrictions and instructions from the State. The media subordinated themselves to
political, economic, social and cultural needs. Hence the stress on “development
communication” and “development journalism”. There was tacit support from the
UNESCO for this theory. The weakness of this theory is that “development” is
often equated with government propaganda.
6.Democratization/Democratic Participant Media Theory
This theory vehemently opposes the commercialization of modern media and its
top-down non-participant character. The need for access and right to communicate
is stressed. Bureaucratic control of media is decried.
65
Glossary Terms A to Z

MCS Notes Final

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

MCS Notes Final

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

MCS Notes Final

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Media Culture and Society

Media Culture and Society

Why study media? 1

Supermarket shoppers find packaged foods

In fact Media Studies is one of their fastest growing subjects. Media

 Aids communication, developing an ability to express ideas in different

Key concepts of media education:

MEDIA Different media (television, radio, cinema etc); forms

What is Mass Media?

History of Mass Media:

provided information and entertainment. Of late, it is the Internet which has

The seven mass media in order of their introduction are:

Eight unique benefits of mobile as a media channel:

Mobile is the first personal mass media

Mobile has a built-in payment mechanism

Different Types of Mass Media

Print Media: The print media includes newspapers, magazines, brochures,

Electronic Media: For many people, it is impossible to imagine a life without

Understanding Mass Media:

While elitists may be tempted to sneer at the mass media, referring to it as

Characteristics of Mass Media:

 Communication is Mostly One Way

Functions of mass media:

1) inform (a teacher function)

2) surveillance (a watcher function)

3) service the economic system

4) hold society together (act as sort of a cultural glue)

6) act as a community forum (media equivalent of town hall meeting or group

7) set the agenda

8) service the political system

Mass Media Influence:

We live in a society that depends on information and communication to keep

A common person in the city usually wakes up checks the tv news or

We have put our trust on the media as an authority to give us news,

How mass Media Influence works

Gods of Entertainment: The Power of Mass Media to Influence

How does mass media influence young people?

There are some positive and negative influences in young people.

Here is a positive influence example, if there is a sport that is getting a lot of

However a negative influence in teenagers is the use of cigars by celebrity

How Subliminal Advertising Tries To Make You Fat

Effects of violence in the Media

When we watch Tv or a movie we usually see many images of violence and

Another problem is that real war is used as a form of entertainment by the

How media influence public opinion

Constructing Public Opinion

Effects of Mass Media:

Providing Entertainment: According to the uses and gratification theory of mass

Disseminating Information: Media is an extensive resource of information for

Effects of Mass Media on individual:

Mass Media effects on Youth:

There is a burgeoning need amongst the youth to be accepted as a part of a

Mass Media effects on Adults:

Effects of Mass Media on Society:

Negative Influences of Media:

The negative effects of media on children are manifested in terms of their

Media affects the physical well-being of individuals to a certain extent.