Economic Influences on the

Media
 Most media is privately owned operating within a
capitalist system
 Media as Economic entity
 Who owns them?
 How are they Financially supported?
 Who pays the bill?
 Sometimes they are provided special privileges
because they provide free information flow to the
public.
 Continuing Search for
Audiences
 Audiences are linked to  Economic trends in the
profits through advertising media can also have
 Shifting fortunes of media impact on the public.
organizations leads to
hiring and firing of

personal, softening of
advertising market and a
generalized worry about
some media trends.
 The New Media Giants

 Time – Warner 1989

 Cable & News Network
 NBC
 ABC
 BBC
 CBC
 Al-jazeera
 Media As Businesses

 Newspapers
 Magazines
 Books
 Movies
 TV
 Radio
Mass Communication

Instructor: Jawad Gilani

www.jawadgilani.com
Politics and Media

Media Must Do Two things to

survive in our system
• They must provide a
Communication System
for the Nation
• Media is an Advocate, and
a bridge to its citizens;
connecting social,
economic and political
institutions.
Social Responsibility of Media
Moral Values and Media

 Do parents have the

right to protect their
children from seeing
morally challenging
advertisements?
 Adult rated
Advertisements.
 Two Arguments

 Government should not

intervene and let the
society decide and regulate
its own moral values. (Free
Media)
 Conservative argue
government should be
responsible for the
regulation of Media to
keep checks.
National Crisis and Media

 During times of
national reporting
some kinds of
information can give
enemy and advantage.
 1940 US-Germany Spy
game.
 Direct Censorship during
Wartime
 Control of Information
through deny of access
to Media (TV, Print,
Radio etc…)
 Letting military
scanners scan copies to
protect information.
Protection of reporter’s sources

 Should the source be

revealed under special
circumstances?
 Agents of Control over media

 Courts and the freedom

of Press vs Citizen’s
Rights
Legislators

 Lawmakers
 PEMRA
 Executive Branch

 Includes host of
Government
departments and
agencies.
 Offices of Supreme
Control (President’s
House/ Prime
Minister’s Secretariat
Outside Pressure Groups
Mass Communication

Instructor: Jawad Gilani

www.jawadgilani.com
 Advertising and Media

 Advertising now  It has vast power in

compares with long shaping popular
standing institution like standards.
Schools and Church in  It is one of very few
the magnitude of its institutions which can
social influence. exercise social control.
 What is Content of
advertising? Advertisements
 The action of attracting  To accomplish their goals,
the advertisements must
public attention to a
make a persuasive appeal
product or business  Some advertisement
 Advertising is content makes direct
controlled; it is appeal mentioning
prepared in accordance characteristics of their
with desires of the firm products.
or group it represents.
 Advertising as an Advertising
Industry Agencies
 Advertising Agencies
Functions of Advertising
 Media Services
Organizations
Agencies
 Suppliers of Supporting
1. Planning
Services 2. Creation and Execution
 Advertising Departments 3. Coordination
in Retail Businesses
 Adver
Inside Advertising Studying the
Agencies effectiveness of
Advertising
 Account Management  Audience Research
 The creative  Media Research
Department  Copy Research
 Media Selection
 The research Age market
department segmentation
 Internal Control
 Children and
Advertising
 To what extent children
pay attention to
commercials?
 Can children
distinguish between
fact and fiction in an
ad?
 Do children buy as a
result of commercial?
 Public Relations & Media

 PR is a process and a communication activity

which connects public with information and
ideas.
 Public attention and understanding are often
vital to the success of any government
policy, business practice as well as individual
concerns.
 Individuals and Public
Relations
 Individuals who want to achieve a positive public
image through mass media face at least two types of
problems:
 1) Media and the organizations that service them are
independent identities with their own goals, which
might be far different from the publicity seekers.
 2) There is a great competition for time and space in
the news media, thus even some worthy individuals
may not get media attention.
 Public Relations In Practice

 A group of professional communicators, who

call themselves public relation practitioners,
who have a code of ethics and a professional
accrediting process.
 According to Cutlip and Center any Public
Relations Program must include four basic
steps.
 PR in Practice

 Fact Finding and Feedback

 Planning and Programming
 Action and Communication
 Evaluation
 What PR People DO?

 Writing
 Editing
 Media Relations and Placement
 Special Events
 Speaking
 Production
 Research
 Programming and Counseling
 Training and Management
 Public Relations Industry

 Independent PR counselor or Agency

 PR Department of Business or Industry
 PR departments of Non Profit institutions
 Public sector PR
 Political Consultants
 Communication Policy Consultants
 Communication specialists in technical areas.
 The Surveillance function of
the Press
 Inter-personal transmission of the news in early days.
 How news facts get distorted?
 Direct Observation
 Expert opinion
 News Release
 Published Documents
 Public Records
 Strategies for Packaging the
News
 Impact
 Timeliness
 Prominence
 Proximity
 The bizarre
 Conflict
 Currency
 Styles of Journalism

 Sensationalism Journalism
 Objective Journalism
Separating fact from opinion
Presenting an emotionally detached news
Striving for fairness and balance
 The New Journalism

 Scene setting
 Extended dialogue
 Point of view
 Interior Monologue ( thoughts of people who
were the news sources, might be included)
 Creation of composite characters
 Types of journalism continued

 Precision Journalism
 Advocacy Journalism
 Media Support Services

 Role of Auxiliaries
 AP , UPI
 The Wire Services
 Cost efficiency across the nation
 An impact on content and style
 Yet another competitor (INS) International News
Service
 Wire services in Perspective

 The importance of wire services exceeds the

monetary worth.
 About 95% of the newspapers subscribe to
wire services.
 Major newspapers and TV stations send their
reporters and still subscribe to wire services.
 The supplement services

 Competition between AP and UNI increased

in 1980’s.
 This lead to emergence of other services
providers e.g Dow Jones providing financial
services, women news services providing
women related news.
 New York Times wire services, providing
selected news stories.
 The Syndicates

 Usually provide entertainment and opinion

related content for the newspapers. E.g comic
scripts, editorial cartoons etc.
 Acquiring Content
 Managing and Marketing content
 Influences of Syndicates
 Measuring Services

 Measuring Circulation
 Measuring broadcast audience
 Types of Ratings
 Rating = Household tuned to station / total TV
households x 100
 Share = household tuned to station / households using
tv x100
 Households using Tv (HUT) = Sets turned on / total
tv households x 100
 Continued …

 Obtaining ratings
 People Meters Controversy
 The rating problems
 Rating and the news
 Measuring public opinion
 Role of media in our Society

 Essential part of our society

 Symbol of strength in Society
 Knowledge function of Media (Awareness
function)
 Media Watchdog
 Commercialization of Media
 Media and
Public opinion
 Sensational depiction of
News Stories
 Race for gaining
Television Rating Points
(TRP’s)
 Following up stories
 Media Stories: A point to
wonder
Media in our lives
 Weapons of Media
 Same Message different
ways
 At times money supersedes
news
 Influencing judgment
 Unessential activities
broadcasted again and
again.
 Music Industry

 History of Music
 Development of Instruments
 Development of Recording Machines
 Juke Box
 Recording technologies
 Music as an Industry
 Method of Mass
Communication Research
 Sources of trust worthy knowledge
 Religion
 Interpretations by authorities (priests,
philosophers, kings)
 Tradition
 Common sense
 Research!
 Reasons for Conducting
Research
 Public concern about media effects
 Developing theories to explain media
influences.
 Solving practical problems
 Effects of Mass Media

 Forces of Evil or saviors of democracy

 Early claims of great power
 The legacy of fear
 Postulates of Science and goals
of media research
 The assumption of order : Scientists always
assume that objects and events that they are
trying to study are regular in their behavior
and their activities will form some kind of
discoverable pattern.
 Who? Says what? In what channel? To
whom? With what effect?
 Continued …

 The assumption of cause and effect:

Scientist believe that it is possible to explain
when, how and when events occur..
The assumption of tentative truth:
Scientists do not believe that their conclusions
ever provide a final answer , but instead a
best possible answer.
 Basic Vs Applied Research

 Basic research is not undertaken to increase

anyone’s profits , but to simply advance
knowledge.
 Applied or Proprietary is conducted for
someone to benefit financially.
 Steps in scientific method

 Specifying the problem

 Reviewing previous results
 Making necessary observations
 Data processing and analysis
 Researching conclusions and interpreting
findings
 Reporting results
 Research designs

 Experiments
 Surveys
 Observational studies
 Content analysis
 Media Influences on
Individuals
 Early Researches: Large scale researches did
not begin till late 1920’s.
 A decade after world war I, researchers
started working on studying changes in the
society.
 THE MAGIC Bullet Theory

 Theory is based on some very basic scientific

assumptions which seemed very true at that
time; concerning the fundamentals of human
nature.
 This theory was very consistent with public’s
general view that the media had great power.
 Continued ..

 Before realizing the overwhelming power of

leaning, psychological and social scientists
were greatly influenced by the ideas of
Charles Darwin.
 Charles Darwin placed human beings in the
same continuum as other animals.
 Earlier , the religion was the most important
influence.
 Continued …

 Social scientists rejected religious beliefs and

believed that human beings were guided by
“instincts” over which people lacked rational
control. OR by other unconscious processes which
were NOT guided by intellect.
 This was a frightening view which saw human
beings as irrational creatures, who could be easily
controlled by cleverly designed media.
 THE PAYNE fund Studies

 By 1920’s , the general public was already

becoming uneasy about the influences of
movies on children.
 In 1929, an estimated 40 million minors,
including more than 17 million children
under 14 years, went to see movies at least
weekly.
 The Motion Picture Research Council
 Continued ..

 Influences on everyday behavior.

 Changes in Children attitudes.
Attitudes towards: WAR/ Gambling/ The
Chinese/ Punishment of Criminals.
Implications of Results
Findings of Payne Fund Studies seemed to give
the Bullet theory a considerable support.
 The Great Panic

 Radio Reports the invasion from Mars.

 On October 30th, 1938 people who were
listening to radio play on CBS, “Mercury
Theatre of the Air” believed that United
States was taken over by creatures from
Mars.
 Implication of Results: powerful effects , but
not for all.
 Changing Perspective on Media
Influences
 An increased importance of Social
Categories.
 Racial and Ethnic Groups
 Social institutions, family, Government …
 Media in Presidential
Campaigns
 How Media influences voters.
 Improved research Methods
 Children influenced by Media

 Patterns of Viewing
 Uses of Programs
 Implications of results
 Violent content
 Social Learning from role models
 Media Influences on Society
and Culture
 Two ways in which media can be instrumental in
bringing change in the society.
 A) Continuous presentation of information
related to a particular event or issue, over an
extended period of time ( Theory of
accumulation of minimal effects)
 Continued …

 A situation exists in which mass media begins to

focus attention
 Provide information consistently over a period of
time.
 People become increasingly aware
 Information provided by the media changes beliefs
 Those individual to individual changes accumulate
and become new form of shared orientation.
 Continued ..

 THE WATER GATE SCANDLE ( Exposing

a President)
 Extending democracy to all the citizens
 Redefining the WAR
 Theory of Adaptation

 We are constantly confronted with with

innovations.
 Innovation can be something adopted from
another society or it can be something
completely new.
 People do not adapt to an innovation
instantly even if the adaptation is logical and
beneficial.
 Continued..

 The key to understand the part played by the mass

media in this form of social change is to look closely
at the process of adaptation.
 Five stages of adaptation theory..
 Awareness stage
 Interest stage
 Evaluation stage
 Trial stage
 Adaptation stage
 Modeling theory

 Under certain circumstances , individuals who view

particular actions that are performed by another person,
may adopt that behavior as a part of their personal habits.
 Individual sees a form of action carried out by a model
 The individual identifies with the model
 The individual remembers and reproduces
 Performing the reproduced activity results in some
reward.
 Continued ..

 The positive reinforcement increases the

probability that the person will reproduce the
activity again.`
 Social Expectations Theory

 What are the sources from which we acquire

knowledge and social skills ?
 From whom do we learn social expectations
of others?
 Social Organization
 Ranking Position
 Meaning Theory

 Theory sees the meanings people hold as strongly

influenced by their exposure to Mass
Communication.
 1) Meaning is linked to a label
 2)A member of audience undergoes some changed.
 3) Individuals Communicate
 4)As a result, behavior changes.
 Stereotype Theory

 Clusters of negative meanings that are shared

by many, concerning minority groups.
 African-Americans
 Cold War /Russians
 Chinese/Immigrants