COMMUNICATION &

THE NEW MEDIA

SOCY102
Communication
• Macionis and Plummer (2012) CHP22
& The New pages 710-734

Media
• “ The Medium is the Message: it is the medium that
shapes and controls the scale and form of human
association and action”

-Marshall McLuhan

• 1. Essentially it is all about understanding

communication and what is used to communicate the
meanings we make as society
• 2. We find that media has become central in the
process of meaning making and communication
• 3. Media now determines our thoughts and behaviour
too
• Basically we exploring how important is media to
society
 Communications & Social change
(the evolution of the main forms of communication in society)

Social Change: What we

Communication:
can see is direct one-to-
Transferring information
one, face-to-face
from one place, person or
communication developing
group to another.
into the mass media.
Communications & Social Changes
(the evolution of the main forms of communication in society)

1 The Age of Signs No speech or writing, only

• sounds and bodily gestures.
• Maybe 70 million years ago?
2 The Age of Speech Oral cultures, pre-literate, start
• to appear at most 100,000 years ago.
• Cro-Magnon and other prehistoric cultures.
• Linguists can identify around 50 prehistoric vocabularies.
Communications 3 The Age of Writing starts to appear
& Social changes
(the evolution of the main forms of communication in
• around 5,000 years ago.
• Sumerians, Egyptian
society) • civilisation, Turkey, Iraq, Iran.
• Initially pictographs, hieroglyphics,
clay tablets.
• Later papyrus – a light and portable
medium.
• Alphabets slowly replace images and
songs, and this promotes linear, rational
and abstract thought.
• Problems of censorship start to appear.
• Chirography – or manuscripts become
main form in Middle Ages
Communications & Social Changes
(the evolution of the main forms of communication in society)

• 4 The Age of Print

• First printing press in West c.1445–56 (printing appeared in China nearly 800 years earlier).
• Gutenberg publishes Bible.
• Greatly amplifies reach and impact of alphabet.
• Media censorship by church.
• Typography dominates.
• Printing speeds up with Industrial Revolution.
Communications & Social Changes
(the evolution of the main forms of communication in society)

• 5 The Age of Electronics Electrical and electronic media,

• From late 19th century.
• Emergence of photography.
• Rise of recorded music.
• The Cinema Century.
6 The Information Age Digital, high-tech, computing:
• Games playing, mobile phones, and iPods.
 History
of Media
• Oral culture
• Writing culture & Print culture
• Electronic culture
History of Media
• The first is an oral culture, where the ear is the important
sense. Listening to the words is harmonious.
• The second is the writing and printing culture, where the ear
is exchanged for the eye.
• The third is the electronic culture. And here the media brings
radical shifts.
What is
Media?
• Mass media is any social or technological devices
used for the selection, transmission or reception of
information.
• Mass Media are forms of communication designed to
reach large audiences without face-to-face contact
between those conveying and those receiving the
messages
• Mass media is communication whether written, broadcast or
spoken—that reaches a large audience. This includes
television, radio, advertising, movies, the
Internet, newspapers and magazines. Mass media is a
significant force in modern culture
Function of mass media
• Provide news/information
The first and foremost function of the media in a society is to
provide news and information to the masses, that is why the
present era is sometimes termed as the information age as
well.
2. Entertainment
The masses mostly use mass media to amuse
people.
3. Education
Mass media can be used in getting knowledge and studying.
The impact of mass media

• The mass media helps people to remain informed and

updated about various news, events, social activities,
lifestyle,entertainment, and advertisements irrespective of the
geographical barriers.
• It ceases the boundaries of different societies among the
individuals and creates
• Globalization.’ The globalization is a decent
• case to delineate the friendship of media, since people can
witness what is happening in different nations or how they
dress up and what their way of life is.
• Subsequently, they typically mirror what others do.
• Media are a storehouse of
information. It educates individuals about day-to-day
occasions or new revelations
This data some of the time is utilized to change individuals’
sentiment. For instance, in race of president, the devotee of
candidates publicize in media such as, TV or the web for
them, and ingest consideration regarding choose any
individual that they need.
• Media can help to create awareness among the people faster than
any other thing.
• In fact, mass media can have a great impact on peoples’ lifestyles
and culture.
• For example, girls living in a conservative country or girls who are
growing up in a conservative culture can be prompted and
motivated to wear short dresses by watching TV shows or by
following another country’s culture.
• They might consider by wearing short dresses they can become
cool just like the TV personalities they admire.
• Through television, one can create social awareness about many
social and economical issues like AIDS, Child Abuse, and so on
which are For example, television channels organizes TV shows
which focuses on making people aware of the harsh realities of life.
• It mainly discusses and provides possible solutions relating to
the various social issues. It aims to empower citizens with
information.
• Hence, through this type of shows, many people hold campaigns,
demonstration, and protests in order to demand justice.
• Mass media plays a significant role in today’s world.
• It broadcasts information fast as possible as well provides
entertainment to massive audiences.
• Mass Media comprises of press, television, radio, books
and the Internet.
• Media is one of the most influential aspects of our lives. By
creating a certain type of message, media can manipulate
people’s attitude and opinions.
Media Age
• Media technology play an important role in many aspects of
our lives
• New Media= tv/radio/internet/phones/tablets/digital
• All social institutions in our society revolve around the media
(family/politics/economy)
Media in the Twentieth Century
• The 20th century has been called the century of film.

• Film Industry developed through a complex interaction of inventions and the first movie audience
was created in 1895.

• Today – dominant film-making countries are the USA, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and India

• Avatar, a 2009 American film grossed over 50 billion Rands worldwide a clear indication of how
much consumption of film has penetrated human culture
Popular Music Recordings
• Popular music is another industry which serves as an indication of human consumption of media, either in the form
of sales, downloads or views

• Until the late nineteenth century, most music was live

• Music popular for its time became ‘pop music’

• Move from gramophones in the 1920s to CDs in the 1980s

• We are in an age of the paradoxical mass culture

• Growth of digital music

Shifting Styles of Communications
• Major communication shifts at the start of the twenty-first century

• Introduction of mobile phones

• Extensive penetration of the internet globally

• New forms of entertainment have also emerged: YouTube, Gaming

• Difficult to maintain borders of media as was possible in twentieth century

Media in the 21 Centuryst

• Communication platforms based on the internet

• Personal, group, community, and mass communication
through the internet
• Social Media (blogs, photo-sharing, video sharing, social
networking, and microblogging)
• Mobile devices for mass communication
• Internet-based Media • News website Normally, a website run by a media organization, with or without
print/radio/TV, for news dissemination
• Blogs: Normally individually run opinion-based diary
• Social Media: Somewhat closed social networking (Facebook) / open microblogging (Twitter)
• Strengths of Internet Media
• Global reach •
• Easy publication
• Interactivity
• Multimedia possibility
• Permanancy
Timelessness
• Unlimited space
• Weaknesses of Internet Media • Information overload • Accuracy • Credibility • Opinion-based •
Individual • Manipulative
Media Theories
1. The classical ‘hypodermic’ model
Earliest theory of the media at the turn of
the 20th century
It assumes that people are passive, and the It suggests that that:
media has a direct impact upon them.
- Media messages are presented to members of a
mass society, who receive them more
or less uniformly;
- These messages are stimuli which influence the
individual strongly;
- The stimuli lead individuals to respond in a similar
uniform fashion;
- The effects of mass communication are powerful,
uniform and direct.
 • Functionalist theories of the media look at the
ways in which the media serves to integrate
society in different ways, and examine the role
of media effects in doing this

2.
• Five functions have been noted namely:

• The surveillance function

Functionalist • The status conferral function
• The ‘enforced application of social norms’
theories of function
• The transmission of culture and

the media • The narcotising function

• Criticised for not adding enough depth in

understanding
 3. Symbolic Interactionism
Symbolic interactionism
looks at how we assemble
our sense of self over time
based on social experiences
We create shared symbols in
our society, the media uses
persuasion techniques which
make us think certain ways
about said symbols, and we
react accordingly
Several sociologists began looking at how media
influences our sense of self over time based on social
experiences:
• Herbert Blummer 1920s-1930s (investigated the impact of cinema
going on young people)
• Norman Denzin used movies to understand social life in the 20 th
century (Cinamatic society)
4. The theory of moral panics
• Formulated by Stanley Cohen in 1960’s
• Defined as: ‘A condition. Episode, person or group of persons…become defined as a threat to societal values and interests;
its nature is presented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media…’
• For moral panics to exist, these responses have to out of all proportion to the actual threat or danger
• To understand the workings of a moral panic it is important to look at the way in which the media come to identify a
‘problem’ and present it in a particular and how this may ‘fit’ into a particular set of social anxieties or worries.
• Typically, a moral panic is perpetuated by the news media, most times engaged by politicians, and can result in increased
social control.
• moral panics arise when exaggerated and distorted mass media campaigns are used to create fear, reinforce stereotypes, and
add tension to preexisting divisions based on race/ethnicity and social class.
• The general public usually learns about novel health risks, such as COVID-19, through news media, which also play a key
role in the formation of moral panics by amplifying the feelings of threat and fear that some groups represent to others.
5. Conflict theories of the media
• Media are seen to be owned by the dominant class who use them as mechanism to
serve their own interest

• Conflict theories highlight two important matters:

• The first concerns the economic base of the media

• The second concerns the ideological structuring of the media

6. Political Economy of the Media
• This stresses how the major means of communication in society come to be owned by private economic interests

• A country’s media have been in the hands of a few powerful economic groups (What of South Africa?)

• These powerful economic interests work to consistently exclude the voices lacking economic power or resources

• Althusser saw a number of institutions including the media as being independent of the state but functioning to
reproduce the dominant ideologies through what he called ideological state apparatus

• Critique – Suffers from exaggeration

7. Postmodern media theory
• Post modernists highlight the centrality of media in our lives

• Modern societies are concerned with the consumption of signs

• Simulacra – ‘worlds of media-generated signs and images’

• All we know is the hyper-reality that media messages convey to us

• Critique – Accused of excess. News is a central media product in modern societies

 • Media Regulation= ICASA since July 2000
• ICASA Mandated to ensure that the country’s

SOUTH public broadcasting services:

“Promote the provision and development of a
diverse range of sound and television

AFRICA
broadcasting services on a national, regional,
and local level, that cater for all language and
cultural; groups, and provide entertainment,
education and information”- section 2,
Electronic Communications Act, No.36,2005)
 • 18 December 1923 first public broadcast
• Radio broadcast too in South Africa – used to
maintain social control
• All events in South Africa portrayed
positively

SOUTH • In 1940 SABC radio broadcasts to ‘natives’ in

townships or ‘locations’ – initially as an
emergency wartime measure:

AFRICA
• Promoted differences between black and
white South Africa
• Purpose to make black South Africans
concede to their place in the Bantustans
• Used as a medium to increase the sale of
commodities to growing number of black
consumers
 • The media of South Africa has a large mass
media sector and is one of Africa's major
media centers.
• Given South Africa’s political history, how
would you evaluate the role of television
during the apartheid years?

SOUTH • While the South African government claimed

the medium would be used for the ‘education
of the nation’ it was clear – the nation

AFRICA
represented a minority of South Africans
• Used by the NP government as a propaganda
tool
• At the TRC inquest into the media and its role
in supporting apartheid – it was found that SA
media had played a crucial part in moulding
public views
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