TOPIC OF PRESENTATION: INFLUENCES ON MEDIA CONTENT ROCKERS GROUP

GROUP MEMBERS SANIA BADAR AQSA TEHREEM HAMMAD AWAN SAEEDA KHAN NAZNEEN SAEED IRAM SHAHZADI

MASS MEDIA:
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies, including the Internet, television, newspapers, film and radio, which are used for mass communications, and to the organizations which control these technologies. Since the 1950s, in the countries that have reached a high level of industrialization, the mass media of cinema, radio and TV have a key role in political power. Contemporary research demonstrates an increasing level of concentration of media ownership, with many media industries already highly concentrated and dominated by a very small number of firms.

PURPOSES:
Mass media can be used for various purposes:

Advocacy, both for business and social concerns.

This can include advertising, marketing, propaganda, public relations, and political communication.

Entertainment

Traditionally through performances of acting, music, and sports, along with light reading; since the late 20th century also through video and computer games.

Public service announcements

MEDIA CONTENT:
In media production and publishing, content is information and experiences that may provide value for an end-user/audience in specific contexts. Content may be delivered via any medium such as the internet, television, and audio CDs, as well as live events such as conferences and stage performances. The word is used to identify and quantify various formats and genres of information as manageable value-adding components of media.

Terminology

The word "content" is often used colloquially to refer to media. However, content is more accurately used as a specific term in that it means the content of the medium rather than the medium itself. Likewise, the single word "media" and some compound words that include "media" (e.g. multimedia, hypermedia) are instead referring to a type of content. An example of a type of content commonly referred to as a type of media is a "motion picture" referred to as "a film." The distinction between medium and content is less clear when referring to interactive elements that contain information and are then contained in interactive media, such as dice contained in board games or GUI widgets contained in software.

Content value
The author, producer or publisher of an original source of information or experiences may or may not be directly responsible for the entire value that they attain as content in a specific context. For example, part of an original article (such as a headline from a news story) may be rendered on another web page displaying the results of a user's search engine query grouped with headlines from other news publications and related advertisements. The value that the original headline has in this group of query results may be very different from the value that it had in its original article. It is possible for a person to derive their own value from content in ways that the author didn't plan or imagine. User innovation makes it possible for users to develop their own content from existing content. Not all information content requires creative authoring or editing. Through recent technological developments such as mobile phones and automated sensors that can record events anywhere for publishing and converting to potentially reach a global audience on channels such as YouTube, most recorded or transmitted information and experiences, can be deemed content.

Technological effects on content

Media production and delivery technology may potentially enhance the value of content by formatting, filtering and combining original sources of content for new audiences with new contexts. The greatest value for a given source of content for a specific audience is often found through such electronic reworking of content as dynamic and real-time as the trends that fuel its interest. Less emphasis on value from content stored for possible use in its original form, and more emphasis on rapid repurposing, reuse, and redeployment has led many publishers and media producers to view their primary function less as originators and more as transformers of content. Thus, one finds out that institutions, that used to focus on publishing printed materials, now publishing both databases and software to combine content from various sources for a wider-variety of audiences.

Mass media, An instrument for social control:

Social scientists have made efforts to integrate the study of the mass media as an instrument of control into the study of political and economic developments in the Afro-Asian countries. David Lerner (1958) has emphasized the general pattern of increase in standard of living, urbanization, literacy and exposure to mass media during the transition from traditional to modern society. According to Lerner, while there is a heavy emphasis on the expansion of mass media in developing societies, the penetration of a central authority into the daily consciousness of the mass has to overcome profound resistance.

Government and Mass Media

They include licensing in advance; censorship of offending material before publication; seizure of offending material; injunctions against publication of a newspaper or book or of specified content; requirement of surety bonds against libel or other offense; compulsory disclosure of ownership and authority; post publication criminal penalties for objectionable matter; post publication collection of damages in a civil action; post publication correction of libel and other misstatements; discrimination in granting access to news source and facilities; discrimination and denial in the use of communications facilities for distribution; taxes; discriminatory subsidies; and interference with buying, reading and listening.

The public sphere

It is an objectionable matter that the Government always tries to harass the Printers, Editors as well as making many media laws, but sometimes it is needed. Now a question might arise, when?..... Nowadays, most of the Journalist are involved with politics and there report also made under there politic related. It is not finished every kinds of newspapers and others media is running under a political control. So where there is a political control there must be some of false and fabricated news will be publish. For a developing country there are five sectors must be neat and clean means they must work not for the politics but for the peoples of the country, which are;

(1) Media:Media included all kinds of media namely; newspapers, TV, Radio,
Internet, Books etc.

(2) Education: It included all kinds of School, College and Universities students and also teachers. (3) Judicial: It included all the person related with judiciary namely; Judges,
Lawyers etc.

(4) Medical: It included all kinds of doctors Government or private. (5) Defence: It included all kinds of members appointed for the protection of a
country internally or externally namely ; Police, Army, Navy, Air etc.

Mass Media in a free enterprise society

Although a sizable portion of mass media offerings - particularly news, commentaries, documentaries, and other informational programmes - deal with highly controversial subjects, the major portion of mass media offerings are designed to serve an entertainment function. These programmes tend to avoid controversial issues and reflect beliefs and values sanctified by mass audience. This course is followed by Television networks, whose investment and production costs are high. Jerry Manders work has highlighted this particular outlook. According to him, the atomized individuals of mass society lose their souls to the phantom delights of the film, the soap opera, and the variety show. They fall into a stupor, or apathetic hypnosis, that Lazarsfeld called the narcotizing dysfunction of exposure to mass media. Individuals become irrational victims of false wants - the wants which corporations have thrust upon them, and continue to thrust upon them, through both the advertising in the media (with its continual exhortation to consume) and through the individualist consumption culture it promulgates. Thus, according to the Frankfurt School, leisure has been industrialized. The production of culture had become standardized and dominated by the profit motive as in other industries. In a mass society leisure is constantly used to induce the appropriate values and motives in the public. The modern media train the young for consumption. Leisure had ceased to be the opposite of work, and had become a preparation for it.

Mass media, mass culture and elite

The relation of the mass media to contemporary popular culture is commonly conceived in terms of dissemination from the elite to the mass. The long-term consequences of this are significant in conjunction with the continuing concentration of ownership and control of the media, leading to accusations of a 'media elite' having a form of 'cultural dictatorship'. Thus the continuing debate about the influence of 'media barons' such as Conrad Black and Rupert Murdoch. For example, the UKObserver (March 1, 1998) reported the Murdoch-owned HarperCollins' refusal to publish Chris Patten's East and West, because of the former Hong Kong Governor's description of the Chinese leadership as "faceless Stalinists"

possibly being damaging to Murdoch's Chinese broadcasting interests. In this case, the author was able to have the book accepted by another publisher, but this type of censorship may point the way to the future. A related, but more insidious, form is that of self-censorship by members of the media in the interests of the owner, in the interests of their careers.

THEORIES OF INFLUENCE ON MEDIA CONTENT:

Influences on Content from Individual Media Workers
A lot of people are unhappy with the mass media: Conservatives accuse the media of concentrating on negative news and expressing a liberal bias. Liberals accuse the media of kowtowing to conservative presidents. Films and television shows are accused of including too much sex or violence or not enough socially significant storylines. And a lot of people put the blame for media content squarely in the hands of communication workers such as journalists, filmmakers, photographers, and advertising and public relations practitioners. The number of journalism jobs increased by more than 60 percent between 1971 and 1982, when the total news work force in daily and weekly newspapers, newsmagazines, television, radio, and news services was calculated to be 112,072 by Weaver and Wilhoit . A substantial slow-down in the growth of journalism jobs occurred in the 1980s, with the growth rate between 1982 and 1992 being only 9 percent .A nationwide survey of journalism schools and graduates by Lee Becker and Gerald Kosicki (1993) shows that the unemployment rate for new graduates of journalism and mass communication schools was 16 percent in 1992, about twice that of the 1988 rate. News-editorial students were more likely to get jobs at newspapers than were other majors (e.g., public relations, advertising) to get jobs in their chosen careers. Graduates who had majored in broadcasting had the highest rate of unemployment . Using somewhat different categories than Weaver and Wilhoit,' the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1992-1993 estimated the number of people engaged in communication jobs, whether full-time, part-time, or on a freelance basis: In the 21st century that we live in, media is the power of communication. It influences our perception of the world and it mediates our construction of the reality. People fear about the distortion of reality that the mass media would make because once something is out in the air, it spreads through billions of people

around the globe in the blink of an eye through the internet. Therefore people are sensitive and become unhappy about the mass media easily. In the United States, charges that mass communications are politically liberal, unlike most Americans have been common in recent years Republicans complain about liberal bias made by the media against them. Is it true? If so, what contributes to the influence of individual journalists on news content? In order to validate the accurateness of the existence of liberal bias, we first investigate the effect of personal background towards influence in news content.

BACKGROUND OF MEDIA WORKERS.

First of all, lets talk about diversity in the newsroom. Although the proportion of women in journalism jobs increases from 0% in 1971 to 4% in 2001, there are still differences across media outlets. There are still newsrooms where there are no women. Moreover, more female communication majors would want to be in public relations field than in news editorial study than male students. Therefore, a male majority newsroom is still prevalent. Furthermore, the increase in minorities in journalism is not as promising as in the increase of female journalists. Minorities representation is still low hence it could differ in different media outlets, which might constitute to even a lower representation. In general, there are more young people who would like to pursue a career in journalism. The median age of the journalists is slightly lower than the median age of all US civilian workers(Shoemaker & Reese). The young journalists are not only younger but also more educated. In 2001, 8% of the journalists were equipped with college degrees and 40% majored in communication in college. Therefore, most of the communication workers are educated under similar programs which gear towards either to socialize students to be critical of every social institution except the mass media or to look critically at all social institutions. Journalists are better educated than average American. Therefore they should have a more analytical mind instead to provide a biased perspective to the public. However, there is a tendency for us to be influenced by our backgrounds. The effect of journalists demographics on news values and content might be minor given the importance of organizational routines and constraints. Therefore it is still possible that professionals background and upbringing can affect news content. It is shown that female magazine publishers gave more favorable coverage to the Equal Right Amendment than did their male counterparts. Therefore, with the slow increase in

minorities in the newsroom that hinders the diversity in newsroom, an unbalanced perspective could be easily demonstrated. Furthermore, people volunteer to be journalists but not being drafted. Therefore there might be strong tendency that they have the same perspective on issues that constitute group bias. Our family,our schooling, our life experiences shape our priorities,expectations and dreams. The same is also true for the media professionals.Education,socialization and organizational background of the media workers matter a lot in shaping the media content.The journalist's demographic background particularly when demography is related to expertise may have greater influence on the content.Local journalist can do a better job because they know more about the local environment.They can depict local reality more accurately than the "parachuting" foreign correspondence.

The Education of Media Workers.

Another aspect of communicators' backgrounds is the amount and type of education they have. Although college-level journalism education was begun in the United States, it now appears in nearly every developed country in some form . Communication departments have flourished in universities under a number of different names journalism, mass communication, radio-television-film, speech communication, advertising, communication arts, and communication sciences. The formal origins of journalism education were in 1869 at a short course of journalism at Washington University; and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, several land grant colleges established journalism programs . Today more than 304 universities grant bachelor's degrees in journalism and mass communication.Today the vast majority of media professionals have communication degrees, , whereas earlier they came primarily, from English, creative writing, political' science, American studies, or other discipline.But now the editors of the famous media are demanding for communication graduates.The education of communicators has greatly changed the media and made it more influential and watchful.

PERSONAL ATTITUDES, VALUES, AND BELIEFS

There is a general assumption that mass communicators' attitudes andvalues influence news stories or media content.

Ethnocentrism:
It is a thinking that one nation or culture is good than the other.Journalist 'sethnocentrism also influences the media content.

Individualism:
The media workers work for the good of society, but in their own way.

Social order:
It is valued highly by journalists, leading them to include many stories on unrest and threats to the establishment. By pointing out instances in which people disrupt the social order or act contrary to established social values, journalists help define what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

Leadership:
is also prized by journalists, because leadership is required to deal with social order. This leads to stories about politicians who are lacking in honesty or morality and explains why journalists are suspicious of powerful people who may influence elected officials. The journalist's outrage is often aimed at the "incompetence, indifference, or illegal behavior of public officials and agencies Critics are of the view that journalists are consciously biased in their news report in line with their personal attitude."News is what a journalist perceives and understands the event".Racial prejudices of the media workers can influence the media content.The researchers found that reporter's stories were influenced more by their personal attitudes and opinions than their editors and owners.

THE INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISERS ON THE MEDIA CONTENT:

Income from advertising is crucial to the survival of the mass media,so the bigger the advertiser the bigger the muscle it has.The multinational manufacturers and the advertising agencies have considerable power to control the media content and they can suppress the public message which they do not like.The tobacco companies have long history to suppress the media content.The billboard industry had even been more dependent to tobacco advertising.

Some time media own content that is specifically designed for the advertiser's objective.e.g (NeelamGhar.It is nothing but the advertiser's show).These financial patterns vary from country to country and over time within the country. The above discussion and a frame of political economy reminds us that whether the press is called free or state controlled,it reflects the ideology of the paymasters. Noam Chomsky and Herman,the radical media theorists assume that media serve the dominant elite.Their propaganda model combining elements of political economy include five news filters that influence the media content. 1.The size,the concentrated ownership, owner's wealth and profit orientation of the mass media. 2.Advertising which is the primary source of the mass media. 3.The reliance of information provided by the government and other institutions are considered as agents of power. 4.Flake(shell,snow cover,law)as media.e.g.PEMRA,PPO,RPPO etc. means of disciplining the

5.National religion or control mechanism.It serves as political control mechanism.Chomsky views this as instrumental value to elites who use it to justify military action to suppress and support the fascist actions of the government and to keep political movement imbalance and fragmented. He argues that the operation of these filters allows propaganda to be mounted with double standard against the enemies and for its friends.

THE INFLUENCE OF IDEOLOGY:

By ideology,we mean asymbolic mechanism that serves as an adhesive and integrated force in society. The ideology is an integrated set of frames of reference through which each of us sees the world and to which all of us adjust our actions.It can also be defined as a symbolic mechanism through-which diverse social strata may be integrated.By ideological influence ,we see how religious,political,ethnic,etc.affiliations of media workers effect the content of the media.

Media and Boundries

Media scholar David Hallin(1986) introduces a useful model to help understand the ways the news media maintain ideological boundries.He devides the journalistic world into three spheres.

1.Legitimate Controversy

In this sphere,objectivity and balance are sought.

2.Consensus
Here the role of the journalist is to serve as an advocate of consensus values.Here the journalists do not feel compelled either to presents opposing views or to maintain disintegrated observer,rather to see what the dominant opinion is to be reported.

3.Deviance
It is the sphere where journalists are not neutral in reporting the issues.They take the side of those views which are not of the mainstream.

POLITICAL ECONOMY AND THE MEDIA

Political economy is derived from the Marxist approach which refers to the ruling of state means of production and operation of the mass media.According to Marxists, ideology is part of the superstructure(overall structure of the society), determined by the economic base(means of production). All sort of ownership is owned by the ruling class, thus they considered that controlling the media content is their prerogative and legitimate technique.So the role of media in the Marxist ideology is legitimate in producing false consciousness in the interest of the ruling class which run and control the media.The political economic approach has also been observed in the capitalist world as media decisions and content favor those with economic power.The critics are of the view that the media content is a cultural commodity of a capitalist system. Altschull has proposed a framework for studying variations within owner control of the media. Like the political economists, Altschull explains that media reflect the ideology of those twho finance the media or "pay the piper." Heoutlined four sources of media support:

(1)Officail pattern:
under the "official" pattern, media are controlled by the state (such as in many communist countries),

(2)Commercial pattern:
In the "commercial" pattern, media reflect the ideology of advertisers and their media-owning allies.

3) Interest pattern:
under the "interest" pattern, mediacontent reflects the ideology of the financing group, such as a political party or religious group.

(4) Informal pattern:

In the "informal" pattern, content reflects the goals of individual contributors who want to promote their views. The mix of these financing patterns varies from country to country and over time within countries.

FACTORS INFLUENCING MEDIA CONTENT

MEDIA CONGLOMERATES AND MERGERS INFLUENCE:
Some nations can influence and control their media greatly. In addition, powerful corporations also have enormous influence on mainstream media. In some places major multinational corporations own media stations and outlets. Often, many media institutions survive on advertising fees, which can lead to the media outlet being influenced by various corporate interests. Other times, the ownership interests may affect what is and is not covered. Stories can end up being biased or omitted so as not to offend advertisers or owners. The ability for citizens to make informed decisions is crucial for a free and functioning democracy but now becomes threatened by such concentration in ownership. The idea of corporate media itself may not be a bad thing, for it can foster healthy competition and provide a check against governments. However, the concern is when there is a concentration of ownership due to the risk of increased economic and political influence that can itself be unaccountable. At first thought, one might ask, what is wrong with a few companies becoming so big? Isnt that how business works? Even from a business perspective, the oligopolies or monopolies is not desirable. Considering the important role that a free and diverse media takes on in a functioning democracy, these questions become even more important. One of the major concerns that arise from such concentration is that there are very few media owners in the mainstream that reach out to the masses. As a result, there is the risk of reduced diversity of issues and perspectives as well as undue political influence and interests from a few affecting the many. Most citizens get their views and understandings of the world around them from the mainstream media. It is therefore critical to understand some of these underlying issues.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION:
Many of the large media company owners are entertainment companies and have vertical integration (i.e. own operations and businesses) across various industries and verticals, such as distribution networks, toys and clothing manufacture and/or retailing etc. That means that while this is good for their business, the diversity of opinions and issues we can see being discussed by them will be less well covered. (One cannot expect Disney, for example, to talk too much about sweatshop labor when it is accused of being involved in such things itself.) Vertical integration is also

a part of a business strategy that serves to enhance market power, by allowing cross-promotion and cross-selling.

INTERLOCKING DIRECTORATES:
Interlocking directorates is also another issue. Interlocking is where a director of one company may sit on a board of another company for example, Media corporations share members of the board of directors with a variety of other large corporations, including banks, investment companies, oil companies, health care and pharmaceutical companies and technology companies. In this respect, as the mainstream media is more corporate owned, the same market pressures that affect those companies, affect the media as well and hence, the media itself is largely driven by the forces of the market. Many stations report news on the very same stories at the exact same time and have commercial breaks at the same time! The sensationalism they compete for is what they hope will drive audiences to their channel. This type of competition affects the ability to provide quality news and affects the depth and even reputation of professional journalism.

MEDIA AND ADVERTISING INFLUENCE:

"Advertising is the art of arresting the human intelligence just long enough to get money from it." Ever since mass media became mass media, companies have naturally used this means of communications to let a large number of people know about their products. There is nothing wrong with that, as it allows innovative ideas and concepts to be shared with others. However, as the years have progressed, the sophistication of advertising methods and techniques has advanced, enticing and shaping and even creating consumerism and needs where there has been none before, or turning luxuries into necessities. Some of the issues and concerns this raises are:

FREE MEDIA CHANNELS HAVE A COST:

Various free media such as the numerous channels available in America and other nations are naturally subsidized with advertising to help pay the costs. As corporate competition has increased, so too has the need for returns on massive expenditures on advertising. Industries spend millions, even billions of dollars to win our hearts and minds, and to influence our choices towards their products and ideas. This often means such media outlets attract greater funds than those outlets funded through public funding or TV licenses. It can mean that such outlets can also then afford better programming of key events and programs. The sheer amounts of money this brings to media companies is significant and in many cases forms then main

form of support for the media company. Hence if something is reported that the advertiser doesnt like, the media company risks losing much needed revenue to stay alive.

THE AUDIENCE AS THE PRODUCT:

Additionally, as Noam Chomsky points out in his article, What Makes Mainstream Media Mainstream, for a company such as the New York Times, it too has to sell products to its customers. For the New York Times and other such companies, Chomsky points out that the product is the audience, and the customers are the corporate advertisers. This at first thought doesnt seem to make sense. However, although readers buy the paper, he argues that readers fit a demography and it is this that is valuable information that can be used by advertisers. Hence, to the advertisers, the product that the New York Times and such companies bring to them is the audience itself and it is the advertisers that bring the money to the media companies, not the audience.

THE AUDIENCE AS A CONSUMER:

Ben Bagdikian, a prominent media critic, and author of the well-acclaimed book The Media Monopoly, provides more detail and examples. In Chapter 6 of his book, for example, Bagdikian describes in detail the pressure on media companies to change content (to dumb down) and to shape content based on the demographics of the audiences. Slowly then, the content of media isnt as important as the type of person being targeted by the ads.He also shows that the notion of giving the audience what they want is also a bit misleading because, if anything, it is more about targeting those readers that can afford the products that are advertised and so it is almost like giving the advertisers what they way . The dumbing down of the content also acts to promote a buying mood. Hence, as Bagdikian summarizes, programming is carefully no controversial, light, and nonpolitical

ADVERTAINMENT:
We are also seeing more sophisticated techniques, such as short films where the aim is to sell a product but to cleverly do the advertising in a subtle way. These mini films can be very entertaining and exciting, but also promote a product behind the main theme.

Does Liberal Bias Exist?

Since 171, there has been an increase in the percentage of journalists who describe themselves as Democrats 5.5% in 1971 to 44.1% in 2001. When compared to the overall US population, journalists are 5-10% more likely to say they are Democrats and 10-15% less likely to say they are Republicans. Furthermore, according to Lichter & Rothman in 1980s in the survey of journalists at major news outlet, most of them were from upper-middle class background and had an ideology of left leaning. Their past voting tended to favor the democratic candidates. However, is being a Democrat, or voting for a Democratic candidate means that they are incapable to provide a balance representation of facts during the elections? Would we be exerting our own bias on the journalists who in fact have been doing a decent job? There is no formal conclusion on the existence of liberal bias. In 8 of the possible comparisons between Democratic Presidential Candidates and Republican Presidential Candidates in 1 and 16 election, only 4 pairs constitute liberal bias in 1, the net sound bites of Clinton is greater than Bush; In 16, Clintons length of sound bites is longer than Dole, and positive and net sound bites of Clinton are both longer than Dole. However in consideration of conservative bias, there are also pairs out of 8 possible comparisons in 1, the length of sound bites and the length of offensive sound bites of Bush are both longer than Clintons; in 16, Doles offensive sound bites are greater than Clintons. Therefore to conclude, we can only say there is a progressive trend of liberal slanting, however, we could not define it as liberal bias as the difference is not significantly great.

CONCLUSION: