Lectures 1 - 4

I re-edited the lectures. In this post, you can find lectures 1 til 4.

Hope this time you will find it useful.


Lecture 1

The “Media World”

“The world we live and the ways we live are now so heavily influenced and dominated by the media”

MediaFor indirect communication.

“Media” is the plural of “medium”.

“Media” refers to television, cinema, radio, video, photography, advertising, newspapers and magazines, music, computer games and the internet

Media texts: programmes, films, images, websites, etc., that are carried by these different forms of communication.
- Media have a wide-ranging influence over our experience and over public opinion.- It doesn’t just affect our attitudes but are a means of access to the knowledge on which many social activities depend.
- The media is a huge source of pleasure – studying the media will allow us to understand and appreciate the media through understanding how they work
- Media has a positive social power – are capable of sharing ideas across physical distances. In this capacity it is a truly democratic medium

How do the media work?
A) They make sense of the world for us
Representation: The media have become the place through which we receive most of our information about the world
Interpretation:Media gives us information and then explanations, ways of understanding the world we live in
Evaluation:Some issues and identities are devalued while others are praised. That gives a framework to judge the information that we receive

B) Media products construct and re-present reality
Media products are not the real world itself, they are re-presentations or constructions of the world

C) The media is just one of the ways by which we society makes sense of the world
The media combine with other forces of socialisation
Family, religious and education systems teach children how to understand and act in the world
The media generally act to reinforce values that are part of the whole society

D) The media are owned, controlled and created by certain groups who make sense of society on behalf of others


What “media” do to us?
Social Role
C – class
R – race
A – age
S – sex and sexual orientation
H – handicap

•MEDIA ARE TECHNOLOGICALLY DEVELOPED AND ECONOMICALLY PROFITABLE FORMS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION, HELD EITHER IN PUBLIC OR PRIVATE OWNERSHIP, WHICH CAN TRANSMIT INFORMATION AND ENTERTAINMENT ACROSS TIME AND SPACE TO LARGE GROUPS. (O’Shaugnessy & Stadler, 2002)

•CULTURE GERERALLY REFERS TO PATTERNS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY AND THE SYMBOLIC STRUCTURES THAT GIVE SUCH ACTIVITIES SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPORTANCE. (Wikipedia, 2008)

•“THE WAY OF LIFE FOR AN ENTIRE SOCIETY“ (Raymond Williams)

•IT IS THE STRUCTURES AND PRACTICES, THROUGH WHICH A CULTURE PRODUCES AND REPRODUCES A PARTICULAR SOCIAL ORDER BY LEGITIMIZING CERTAIN VALUES, EXPECTATIONS, MEANINGS, AND PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR. - J. WOOD

•SOCIETY IS A GROUPING OF INDIVIDUALS CHARACTERIZED BY PATTERNS OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THESE INDIVIDUALS THAT MAY HAVE DISTINCTIVE CULTURE AND INSTITUTIONS, OR, MORE BROADLY, AN ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN WHICH A VARIED MULTITUDE OF PEOPLE OR PEOPLES ARE A PART. (WIKIPEDIA)

•SOCIETY IS THE ACTUAL ARRANGEMENT OF SOCIAL RELATIONS WHILE CULTURE IS MADE OF BELIEFS AND SYMBOLIC FORMS. (Clifford Geertz)Important existential Issues ON sOCIETY (Richard Jenkins)

•How humans think and exchange information
•Many phenomena cannot be reduced to individual behavior
•Collectives often endure beyond the lifespan of individual members.
•The human condition has always meant going beyond the evidence of our senses; every aspect of our lives is tied to the collective.

FEARS (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)
•POLITICAL USE OF THE MEDIA
•MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON MORALS
•MEDIA’S INFLUENCE ON CULTURE


Lecture 2
CULTURAL STUDIESANDMEDIA CULTURE

CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY(O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)
1.CHANGE AND CRISIS
2.INEQUALITY AND DIFFERENCE
3.MAINTAINING CONSENT IN WESTERN DEMOCRACIES

HOW THE MEDIA WORK(O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)

THE MEDIA SHOW US WHAT THE WORLD IS LIKE; THEY MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD FOR US

.•MEDIA PRODUCTS DO NOT SHOW OR PRESENT THE REAL WORLD; THEY CONSTRUCT AND REPRESENT REALITY

•THE MEDIA ARE JUST ONE OF THE WAYS BY WHICH WE AND SOCIETY MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD, OR CONSTRUCT THE WORLD.THE MEDIA ARE OWNED, CONTROLLED, AND CREATED BY CERTAIN GROUPS WHO MAKE SENSE OF SOCIETY ON BEHALF OF OTHERS

THE NEED FOR POPULARITY


Lecture 3

Ideology and RaceIdeology and Race (Reference Book: O'Shaughnessy and Stadler)

Discourse
- In its simplest form ; the articulation, voicing or putting forward of a point of view
- Usually part of an exchange of ideas
- It is therefore a social process of constructing meaning
- Definition; collective discussion or interplay of meanings and ideas surrounding a particular subject

Foucault’s theory of discourse:
- Societies tend to bring together a range of voices, ideas and beliefs into overall discourses that offer ways of understanding the world (Fiske, 1987)
- Uses to examine how societies understand and make sense of sexuality, madness and criminality
- For Foucault, discourses are always linked to disciplinary power, they are a means of organising social control



What is Ideology? (O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)

COMMON SENSE DEFINITION - IDEOLOGY - IS A SET OF DELIBERATELY FORMULATED, COHERENT, RATIONAL, USUALLY POLITICL IDEAS THAT IS USED AS A WAY OF DEFINING AND UNDERSTANDING HOW SOCIETY CAN BE ORGANIZED.

MORE USEFUL DEFINITION - IDEOLOGY IS A SET OF SOCIAL VALUES, BELIEFS, FEELINGS, REPRESENTATIONS, AND INSTITUTIONS BY WHICH PEOPLE COLLECTIVELY MAKE SENSE OF THE WORLD THEY LIVE IN.

- Mass media play a vital role in communicating and reinforcing

DOMINANT ideologies
- Ideologies are often not consciously thought out
- It becomes part of our “common sense”
- It is reinforcing power relations and social structures

DOMINANT IDEOLOGY(O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)
- EACH SOCIETY HAS A DOMINANT IDEOLOGY SHARED BY MAJORITY OF PEOPLE. (Althuser )
- DOMINANT IN NUMERICAL TERMS
- DOMINANT IN THE SENSE THAT IT TENDS TO SUPPORT THE INTERESTS OF THE DOMINANT, RULING GROUPS.


MECHANISMS OF IDEOLOGY(Althusser, 1977 in O’Shaughnessy and Stadler)

- REPRESSIVE STATE APPARATUSES (RSAs)
- FORCE PEOPLE TO CONFORM TO THE DOMINANT IDEOLOGY.
- USED DELIBERATELY, TO CONTROL, PUNISH, AND COERCE PEOPLE WHO ATTEMPT TO CHALLENGE THE SYSTEM.

- IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUSES (ISAs)
- WORK MORE LIKE HYNOPSIS, CONVINCING PEOPLE OR WINNING THEIR CONSENT TO THE DOMINANT IDEOLOGY
- THE CHURCH, THE FAMILY, THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, THE MEDIA


Where do we find ideologies?
1) In language, texts and representations
2) Ideologies in material institutions and in our methodologies and practices.
3) In our heads and hearts



Race
- The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of dividing humans into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of characteristics(American Association of Physical Anthropologists).
- The most widely used human racial categories are based on visible traits, and self-identification. (Michael Bamshad and Steve Olson)
- "Pure races do not exist in the human species today, nor is there any evidence that they have ever existed in the past." (AAPA)



Racialization
- A form of exclusionary practice
- It is dialectical process of signification to make sense of two meanings: Self and Others.



Racism
- Presumes the existence of decisions and processes which discriminate among people and also the existence of scarcity
- Racism functions as an ideology of inclusion and exclusionThe significance of colour both includes and excludes in the process of sorting people into resulting categories
- But at the same time it also appears as a less logical assembly of stereotypes, images, attributions and explanations which are constructed and employed to negotiate everyday life




Lecture 4


ETHNICITY AND MULTICULTURALISM


What is ETHNICITY? (britannica online)
• Ethnicity refers to the identification of a group based on a perceived cultural distinctiveness that makes the group into a “people.”
• A descriptive label for a group, implicitly defined in terms of racial or national characteristics, where the main emphasis falls on cultural practices and beliefs
• Can be usefully applied to minorities which either have been set apart or have desired separation according to distinct cultural attitudes and traditions
• The concept can only be applied to nation groups when located abroad and do not constitute a part of the ruling elite
• Do not refer to ethnic majorities


• Language
• Music
• Values
• Art
• Styles
• Literature
• Family Life
• Religion
• Ritual
• Food
• Naming
• Public Life
• Material Culture

What is RACE? (britannica online)
• Race refers to the perceived unique common physical and biogenetic characteristics of a population.

What is MINORITY GROUP? (britannica online)
• Minority Group is a group whose unique cultural characteristics are perceived to be different from those characterizing the dominant groups in society.

CATEGORIES OF M.G (britannica online)
• Ethnicity
• Race
• Gender
• Sexual Orientation

Note:
Ethnicity, Race, and Minority Groups are social and cultural constructs
What is MULTICULTURALISM? (wikipedia)

- Multiculturalism generally refers to a defacto state of racial, cultural, and ethnic diversity within the demographics of a specified place.

- Advocates a society that extends equitable status to groups.

- Cultural Pluralism or Plural Society

- Is best understood as a perspective or a way of viewing human life
• 3 central insights of multiculturalism
1) Human beings are culturally embedded in the sense that they grow up and live within a culturally structured world
• Deeply shaped by the culture and belief systems surrounding us
2) Different cultures represent different systems of meanings and visions of the good life
• Need other cultures to help you understand your culture even better
• No cultures are worthless
3) Every culture is internally plural and reflects a continuing conversation between its different traditions and strands of thought
• Every culture’s identity is fluid and open

- From a multiculturalist perspective:
• Nothing can represent the full truth of human life
• Any political doctrine or ideology represent a particular vision of the good life, and is necessarily narrow and practical
• Political doctrines are ways of structuring political life, not offering a comprehensive philosophy of life
• The good society cherishes the diversity and encourages a creative dialogue between its different cultures and their moral visions
• Society must respect its members rights so long as they meet the consensually derived conditions of the good life
• A multicultural society cannot be stable and long lasting without developing a common sense belonging among its citizens
• The sense of belonging cannot be ethnic – must be based on shared values


Societal Trends and Individual Effects (Portrayal of Culture in Films)

- Distortions of Reality – mislead audiences about historic facts.
• It is extended even to non-fictional movies
• D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915)- it glorified Ku Klux Klan
- Violence – viewers imitate what they see in movies
• Scorsese’s Taxi Driver accordingly inspired the attack on Pres. Reagan.
• Disney’s The Program recalled all prints to delete scenes.
- Stereotyping – has treated a large number of female characters as bubble-headed. However, these films accorded their heroines more respect than films made in the supposedly liberated 1960s and 1970s.