Mass Media and Communication in Great Britain - Essay Example

?How Mass Media and Communication changed Great Britain over the Last Years Modernization, urbanization and industrialization as processes of social change have created the societal conditions that necessitate the development of mass media and communication, and produced societies that are greatly dependent on them. Mass communications comprise the techniques and institutions by which specialized social groups use technological devices like the films, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, internet among others, to disseminate symbolic content to widely dispersed and large heterogeneous audiences. Apart from transmitting the culture of a society from one generation to another, the mass media is very important in collecting information on the various aspects of human life like health, education, environment, economics, politics, culture and social changes. They then communicate any changes in these and help in correlating the many parts of the society in regard to changes in the environment. Because of this, mass media has been able to bring lot of transformations in many societies including Great Britain, especially in the last 10 years. Media-mediated/media-enabled changes in Great Britain There has been considerable experience in relation to the value and role played by the mass media and communication systems in Great Britain in health promotion and bringing about changes in health policies. One of the best examples of this is the public smoking ban. Under this ban, no one is allowed to smoke in places that people visit to obtain various goods and services, especially enclosed places (Bbc.co.uk. 2010 and Opsi.gov.uk. 2010). These include shopping malls, restaurants, bars, any government premise or office among others. Many people agreed with the ideas of Mrs. Hewitt “not only will we be able to protect non-smokers and the huge majority of pub workers from the harmful effects of smoke. It will also provide smokers with an environment where it's easier to give up" (BBC News 2005, par ). This bill was, therefore, used to encourage the quitting from smoking in Great Britain. Through the use of mass media approaches, organizations dealing with health matters have been able to conduct some social advocacy which has promoted personal education. According to Catford (1995), the mass media are powerful in promoting health and bringing about responsive organizational and personal changes through the promotion of health products and discouraging the use of destructive products, introducing personal health skills and, providing information and advice on healthy living. This, in turn, has led to significant changes in personal and group behaviors in regard to issues affecting health. They have also resulted to environmental and organizational changes. Media outlets that have been important in promoting health in Great Britain include newspapers, television, radio, leaflet, posters and books. Mass media reports about the environment have led to a number of changes in regard to the treatment of the environment. Mass communications have played an important role in communicating environmental issues. Among the hot issues in this respect include global warning and pollution. In regard to this, the mass media has provided an important link between politics and formal environmental science, and the realities of how people and their various social, economic and cultural processes experience and interact with their environment. Continually, they report of the ongoing public understanding and action or engagement on with environmental issues like international conferences on the environment and their resultant declarations or resolutions (Boykoff 2009). Although the mass media and communication do not determine engagement, they have greatly increased environmental awareness and valuation by the entire Great Britain society. In essence, mass media have enabled the people of Great Britain make sense of the various complexities relating to governance and environmental science that consciously and unconsciously shape their lives. The evidence of this impact is the increased consumer preference of goods that are environmental friendly, adoption of green technologies, and the formulation of corporate social responsibility policies by many organizations as a way of ensuring their products and production processes help reduce and mitigate environmental pollution. Barker (2005) states that mass media and communication have influenced the development of public environmental policies by the government including industrial policies. Barker (2007) states that mass media are an important resource for political actors and political factions. Through the media, political actors and factions are able to influence potential members into joining their groups. This makes the mass media important channels for bringing about political change through opinion polls. This has majorly been facilitated by the fact that the agenda setting process in Great Britain and other societies forms an almost unavoidable part of the mass media coverage and news gathering. Over the past decade, mass media has greatly helped to organize public understanding of various political issues and consequently, their responses. For example, there has been an increasing public concern over the economic competence of politicians and political parties and this has been important in directing voting patterns. An evidence of this is the 1992, 1997 and 2001 campaigns and elections where the Labour Party won because of its prudence and reassurance on taxing and spending while the Conservative Party lost because through the media reports, the party was perceived have lost its economic competence. Although the electronic media in Great Britain are constrained by law to portray political balance, they are more trusted by the general public making the mass media fierce participants in the existing political climate of Great Britain. As mentioned above, this is evidenced by change in public opinions and voting behaviors. The preponderantly anti-Labour press that dominated in 1992 may have contributed to the winning of John Major’s Conservative Party against expectations. However, a more generally favorable press that existed in 1997 and the shift in support by the Sun during the same period may have led to the landslide victory of the Labour party in 1997 and 2001 (www.palgrave.com 2004). There are incidents where the mass media and communication in Great Britain have facilitated social and political changes through protests. McCarthy et al (1996) and, McLeod and Detenber (1999) explain that the mass media pays a lot of attention to social actions like protests and the works of social movements. This has made the public believe that the marketplace for ideas is diverse and free, and provides potentialities for innovative social changes (McLeod 2000). Herbst (1993, p13) observes that “these activities have become accepted as mechanisms by which social problems are communicated in the public sphere, alongside public opinion polls and elections”. They act as important means by which people can express their discontent. At the same time, social movements that want to deliver their message and gain support from a mass audience must primarily depend on the mass media and communication to publicize their cause. Even when demonstrations are peaceful, the media will always focus on the violent side of it however small. Various actors, especially political actors have taken advantage of this whenever they want to push for political, social or economic reforms in the country. This has also encouraged the freedom of expression by the public regarding their take on various national issues. This has led to the formulation of various policies or actions in response to these concerns (Shaw 2004). Generally, the mass media has been efficient in advocating for social change in Great Britain. By promoting liberal social foundations, the mass media have actively brought about progressive social change. Mass media have led to the achievement of important cultural transformations in Great Britain. One of these is in respect of the attitude towards sex. By promoting a positive picture of the girl and woman, the mass media have helped to relax the grave attitudes that disadvantaged women and girls previously were subjected to. Although gender biases have not been as pronounced as in the period before 1950s, the communication of the role of women in society and economic development has generated and fostered liberal attitudes to sex in Great Britain. This has increased awareness on the need to respect their rights. Because of this, women and girls in Britain have come to enjoy more human rights compared to women and girls in other societies like India where women and girls are victims of gender biased cultures. Media as a hindrance to change Although the mass media have become powerful tools for advocating and attaining various changes and democracy, they have also hindered these transformations to some extent. They are able to unfairly prejudice their large audience against the ideas and issues raised by protestors. For example, their focus on social demographics has led to a dismissal of the views of protests advocating for various changes. This mainly happens when a huge percentage of the protests are comprised of students, women and/or young adults (Coen 2000 and Hollar 2004). Such a hindrance also happens when the protestors are not visibly representative of the norms of the society. The media labels them as “‘deviant outsiders' whose activities are directed towards disrupting the status quo for the compliant majority” (Barker 2007, par 6). In addition, the media has also hindered the required changes through its negative coverage of some issues and which have generated dismissal attitudes by policy makers. Lastly, the media have also tended to portray their view of things more than the public view and this has led to under coverage of some critical issues that could have been powerful in pushing for important social or political changes. Conclusion Mass media performs special and critical functions for a society that utilizes complex technology to gain control of its environment. Mass media have played important roles in facilitating social, environmental, social, health, cultural, economic and political changes in Great Britain. To achieve this, the media has been collecting and disseminating important information to the public regarding various issues touching on their social, environmental, social, health, cultural, economic and political state of the society. The media has also facilitated changes by helping to organize public understanding of these issues and thus influencing public view. They have also facilitated this by acting as channels through which various actors advocate for changes. However, there needs to be institutional rearrangement to remediate the massive political misrepresentation by the media as suggested by (Halloran et al 1970). 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