Chapter Reflections: Understanding The Role Of Communication And Media In Society

BCST1350 Broadcast Communications

Questions

Chapter 1

This chapter helps me to understand that Media and communication plays the important role in the society and culture and there has been the ever-shifting nature of the communication media. This can be understood by following the two different models of the communication. This chapter provides the updated information regarding the definition of the mass communication and describes the three different forms of the mass communication. The mass media in the Canadian society was woven with the professions, technology, available leisure time, the types of the ownership and the legal framework. The framing and extending of new media was based on the relationships with the social media and the other media. The other media also offers various opportunities for the people to   among themselves and with the traditional media, creating with the media products and altering the traditional notions of the audience. This chapter helped me to understand the various factors of mass communication by exploring that mass communication is considered as the different set of the activities that involves the particular technological configurations and it is structured by the particular ownership. It is carried out by the persons of the organization, who occupied certain roles and all these together conveys  informations, entertainments, images and the words among the society.

Chapter 2

This chapter explains the complex relationship between the communication, society and the culture. I got a clear idea of the term society, media and the culture from this chapter. This chapter also reflected that the communication and the communication media are the basic elements of the social and the cultural fabrics. This chapter mainly describes about the first two Canadians, Harold Innis and the Marshall McLuhan, they brought the most initiative idea, through which the people can communicate and could actually derive the shape of the society and its cultures. The oral, literate and the different modes of the electronic communication, may affect the social developments, process and the structures. The central focus of this chapter was to make us understand that the relation among the social and the communication media are the significant factors of the communication studies. The human affairs cannot be separated from the communication system for representing and discussing about the mass media communication. The ICTs have played the effective role in the society so there should be consciousness regarding the transformative effects as this can lead to the obedient acceptance of the technological determinism. This chapter also analyzes the role of the ICTs in the society and its assistance in developing the information regarding the effect of the media and communications on the social media and the social action.

Chapter 3

This chapter describes about the evaluation of the mass media in the mid of the fifteenth century by the Gutenberg’s development of the printing by the means of the movable type. The chapter entails to explain history of mass media which saw its beginning since the development of the movable printing means by Gutenberg hence contributing immensely in the history of Canada. The printing press played in pivotal role in enlightenment of the public, as they were now well-informed. It also aided in the reformation of the society, minimized the prevailing feudalism and Renaissance movements. The printing press was considered as a revolution in the as it helped in rapid mobilization of information and awakening of the masses. This was an instant boost to the industrialized society, increase in the level of literacy and development of the medium of communication as well as urbanization grew manifold. The Canadian society was heavily influenced by its neighbor United States which had highly developed means of media hence it had to consume many foreign media products. It is understood that the government of Canada and its media shared an inextricable relationship and the public policy was heavily influenced by the media.  This was due to the active role played by the advertising of the government, politicians who constantly influenced the public opinion through media for negotiations. Thus it can be concluded that mass media played an in Canada had a social responsibility as it contributed in the making of the public policies. Further, it is also recognized that the media in Canada developed under the market principles.

Chapter 1

Chapter 4

I was able to understand the different theories and the perspectives regarding the media content. The signification of the media content is represented by the study of the creation and the interpretation of the media content. This study reflects how the symbols like the words and the ideas are constructed and are used to understand the representation of the events, persons and other. This study examines the nature of the intertextuality and the grounded indeterminate systems. I was able to understand the basic concept of the encoding and the decoding processes, which incorporates the varieties of the social institutions and provides the ways by which the people can create and could make meaning of the media messages. In other words, this provides the understandings of how the messages are related to the open variety of the interpretations and how this depends upon the representations and how they can be finite by the unpredictable interpretations of the object and event that is being represented. There has been several approaches made in this chapter regarding the post-structuralism, discourse analysis, content analysis, media analysis and the advertising analysis.  Every perspectives provides the insight of the social forces that are based on the production process. The media are the basic element of the society that bounds through the interpretation of the media content and the reality. The media is also not free to create the non-existent of the value of the society but they may affect the social ideas and the values. On the same time, the simplification, dramatization and the mitigation of the issues may be problematic.

Chapter 5

I have understood that mass media is considered as the primary area of interest of the scholars and the media institutions like the relationship between the audience and the media producers. This chapter examines the various perspectives on the framing of the relationship as the interactions between the active meanings of the seeking entities. This framework also explains in this chapter how the media, audiences and the cultures interact between themselves in the orderly but in the non-deterministic fashion. This chapter involves the reviews of the different theoretical approaches and mainly focuses on the various elements of the interactions among the social, media and culture. While focusing on the relations between the individual and the media content this research work consider on the direct effect of the media on the audience’s behaviors. The cultural studies accents the individual’s agency and the variety of the social factors which shows the reaction of the audience members on the media for making meaning. The industry research generates information as per the quantitative measures regarding the nature of the audience, their size, location, age, family products and the other demographic measures. This chapter also shows the rapid adaptation of the digital media and the understanding of the internet users are growing. This model is the online context of the areas of both the investigations and the concerns as advertising is one of the primary model among all the media sources. The World Wide Web is having the dramatic effect on the audiences and the role of media in the identity formation.  

Chapter 2

Chapter 6

This chapter explains the important role played by the information and communication technology (ICT) has greatly influenced the society, politics and economy. The advent of digital technologies and convergence have opened the windows of past issues and problems. The technological development has enabled the society to grow and emerge rapidly, further, the internet has created favorable environment for copyright laws and questions related to policy making. The public policy have a significant impact on the social and technologies. ICT has also fastened the way we connect to each other due to which the physical distance between the communicating people has become just a number. The location has become irrelevant in the era of fast computing technology. Despite rapid connectivity, it has not favored in making the world as a global village rather it has helped in creating a global marketplace where producers are outsourcing their production from the cheaper available labor pools. The excessive usage of internet has also invited frequent events of spams and virus which disrupt the smooth functioning of the business operations. Sometimes these cost heavy to the global operations when many crucial and vital financial information is infringed upon. This has made many countries vulnerable to cyber-attack. Further, easier means of copying through online media has made difficult to control and enforce copyrights, also now the corporation are becoming vulnerable to sabotage and piracy. The individual’s piracy has also become vulnerable and prone to be stolen by foreign intruders, further, the rapid growth of digital and electronic transactions has enabled many issues where the data can be tracked and accessed.  McLuhan also says that the technology though has brought many reformations and development in many sectors yet its contribution towards the development of information sector has not been up to mark. This sector needs to be explored in order to attain the benefits of the ICT manifold. It is also necessary to protect the information which has become now extremely vulnerable to cyber-attack further it is also important to protect the privacy of the individuals which has new become a major issue of contention. However, with required mechanisms, laws and regulation such incidents can not only be minimized but also can be prevented to a great extent.

Chapter 7

This chapter demonstrates that the communication is the structured activity, which takes place within the environment that is constructed by the laws, economic imperatives, public pressures, guiding ideals and the conventions. The communication policies establishes the rules through which the mediated communication occurs. The policy is developed by the both the local and the global levels and the government and the government should respect the international convenient that deals with the circulation of the cultural products during addressing of their own experiences. This chapter also explains the communication policy in Canada and frames up the media, culture and the society that in the nation-state and consider the communication policy as the national policy. There can be shift of the priorities through the time and this chapter mainly focuses on the policy development of the through the four significant moments of the twentieth century. Initially the policy could be driven by the needs of the development with the Canadians as the strong sense of the national culture that created with the commercialization and the Americanization. To the great extent, the commercial popular culture was less foreign to the Canadians than the products based on the indigenous cultures. The American dominions of the communication of the Canadian place continued to be defined as the problems of the policy analysts and it no longer resonates in the same way with the Canadian people and the Canadian governments. The greater influence of the Americans has been posing an immense problems for the people and government.

Chapter 3

Chapter 9

This chapter help us to determine the right way as we generally fall in the trap of considering that our way of imagining about the culture in general and the social media as particular is the correct way of imagination. This chapter described media as the social institutions that is structured in the various ways according the technological characteristics. All the media have one feature in common that is they participating in the economy by generating the revenues of the media owners, also by providing the communication services for the audiences, providing employment and advertising the goods and the services. This chapter reflected that the mass media of Canada are operated in the mixed economy though owned both publicly and privately. The free market economics does not governed any of the media industry in Canada. The newspaper publishing that comes close to the exclusively private industries, it is subjected to the federal government regulations regarding the ownership for protecting the newspaper from the foreign takeovers and the foreign competitions. There are no media organizations that is resistant to the demands of the market place and the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation should pay attentions to the ratings and the advertising of the revenues. The differences between the public and the private forms of the media ownerships that pertains to the bottom lines and the public ownership is also devoted to providing the communications as one of the public services for addressing the social and the national goals. These private ownership also provides the communication of the profit of the media owners and this differentiations are fundamentals as the speaking about the role communication is assigned in the Canadian society. The economist opinion sees the communication as means to meet the commercial objectives in an enterprise by tapping the huge potential across the borders and meet the demands through a wide spectrum of cultural production which will help meet the dynamics of demand and supply.

Chapter 10

This chapter discusses about how the journalists act as a content producers and are considered pivotal to the media enterprise. It unravels the complex process of their occupation which we simply receive as feeds. The construction and portrayal of whole story involves a minute detailing in writing a content. This is a creative work on their part to tell a story behind every issue, rather than just presenting the facts and figures. It describes the work of journalism which is quite distinct from the other forms of content production. It involves the tactics of storytelling which adequately meets the needs of the readers and the target audience. Due to tis many relevant and important news go unnoticed due to this kind of practice. Many of the news production is conducted by the media organization who intends to sell to the audiences as well as to the advertisers. The emergence of the media aims to democratize the ways of communication so as to reinforce the freedom of press and expression. The advent of online communication has allowed traditional media to revamp its strategies to beat against the newer forms of media in order to expand the base of consumers of information. This has called for heavy investments on their part to tap the potential of the emerging demand of information and the newer means to present the stories as such through audio visuals and other ways of presentation to the audience. This has caught both the mediums of communication in huge tussle to compete and produce stories to their audiences. Therefore, journalist should strike a right balance between the real and the reality.

From the above analysis it can be understood that there are some biases that communication has created unintentionally. Though it has brought the ease in meeting the financial objectives as well as creating a wide pool of expertise. It has also enabled the organization to outsource labor from different countries which are cheaper than the natives. This has increased the mobilization of information all across the globe fostered better acceptability of the diverse forms of culture. This has enabled corporates to expand manifold and tap the huge potential brimming in other nations. Thus, communication has helped people to increase their influence, supply and demand simultaneously. Thus, communication has become a boon for the corporate world both financially and culturally. Journalism is considered as an important pillar of democracy, as it has huge avenue to influence the public opinion. Hence, it should intend to tell the right and newsworthy story which has an impact in the daily lives of the people. It is also essential for the people to ensure that the information in not over emphasized neither any particular part of the reality should be hyped. Further, adhering to the freedom of expression and speech, it should strengthen the weapons of democracy and showcase the real truth behind every story.

From the above discussion it can my perception and common sense has been changed completely as this course has helped me to understand that providing a factual information and data, it also intends to tell the story behind any incident by simultaneously addressing the minute questions such as who, why, when, what and how. Journalism is a unique form of storytelling where the events are real based on true events. It is also said than journalism often takes into consideration of the newsworthy elements rather than just telling the reality, in fact, reality is framed and emphasized upon by selection of newsworthy content and events in which audience can have or intend to have immense interest. This journey has been helped me a lot to understand various aspects of communication due which my thought process has been more refined.