How Has The Rise of Communications Media Affected Patterns of Social Interaction - Literature review Example

TO WHAT EXTENT HAS THE RISE OF COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA AFFECTED PATTERNS OF SOCIAL INTERACTION? Symbolic interactionism is be used to experiment how people behave and discern meanings, how meaning is developed via social interaction and finally interpreting meaning according to encounters. Andy Warhol in 1968 predicted that “In the near future, everybody will be famous for at least fifteen minutes.” The age of reality television shows and video-sharing portals, it can be argued that it has been already achieved (Schroeder, 2002). All people and things can become a viral phenomenon while ordinary personalities can turn to be celebrities overnight. The rise of media communications over the years has overcome inherent barriers and ‘made the boundaries of all social spaces more permeable’. With the help of social networks people identify with each other and interact on mass, sharing experiences and information (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). Moreover, these communications extend social interaction culture by enabling celebrities and public figures to be more accessible, thus developing an ‘illusion of intimacy’. The potential to connect and socialize with any person online has led to increased freedom, but this virtual ‘personality’ doe’s influence both online as well as real-life ‘performances’ (Lal & Fortune, 2000). People act differently; ideally confident and aggressive while online which seems to compensate the constraints they might be prone to l in real life. With time, these two different ‘personas’ become increasingly entangled and connected; there is a possibility for them to become inseparable. The theoretical advancement of Andy Warhol’s prediction could mean that in the future all people will finally become obscure for a quarter an hour (Weibler, 2004). Thus, for us to understand how improvements in communications media affect social interaction, it is prudent we analyse ‘the dynamic relations between producers, texts, technologies and interpretive audiences. Technology is transforming the world; telecommunications have advanced from the traditional use of visual signals and audio messages to a more sophisticated email, social networks and multimedia sharing portals (Lal & Fortune, 2000). The potential and need to exchange information in ‘real-time’, across long distances is significantly growing at an unbelievable rate. Real-time is when actions over communication media happen live as in people respond to prompts as they’re published, the very time an action becomes visible being equivalent to the time taken to manipulate the meaning. Huge volumes of this information being produced mean that there is an increased emphasis on validity, relevance and first impressions (Sarat, 2013). Therefore, Erving Goffman’s thesis can be utilized to experiment the mechanisms used by people and groups to conduct an expression of them to other people. Goffman’s theoretical advancements are focussed on face-to-face encounters, but can still be applied to varied forms of interaction. Goffman’s model for understanding social interaction is merely at its inception stage with individuals performing roles. The word person, in its initial meaning, is a mask (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). The mask is a metaphor in which everyone is playing a role; it’s in these roles that people get to understand each other more precisely. To some extent Pinocchio (1940), tries to introduce himself in a manner that is favourable to him when he is confronted on allegations school attendance (Schroeder, 2002). He exonerates the claim that he is indeed telling the truth, but the facial impression which he demonstrates doesn’t convince the people who are present. On the other hand, the performance in The Invention of Lying (2009) is quite cynical as it deceives others for ‘self-interest’ but the expression itself is believed to be an absolute truth and thus the ‘audience’ does not question the validity of its performance. Basically, the above are extreme examples; that tend to indicate that obtaining factual lies beyond the time and place constraints of factors such as knowledge that is possessed by people should be considered (Sarat, 2013). Society is normally designed in a manner that it is founded on the notion that that any person who has certain desirable social characteristics has a right to expect the rest of the society to value and treat him /her in a certain appropriate manner. In-line with this notion is a second one is that which requires people who explicitly or implicitly signify that they have desirable social characteristics to, in fact, demonstrate or validate their claims (Nagaki, 2007). Social networks have enabled people to maintain social relationships, share interests, experiences at the same time control expressions of themselves while online via self-presentation mechanisms. William Shakespeare’s quote “All the world’s a stage”, would have been in reference to today’s digital era (Schorr, Campbell & Schenk, 2003). Facebook and twitter have become the largest online platforms, where people perform a bevy of activities to their connections by providing status updates, sharing audio files, photos and even videos streams (Schroeder, 2002). Goffman divides this virtual entity of self-representation into two discrete parts: ’front’ and ‘back’. For instance in Facebook, people try accurately to represent their personality, the front region via pictures, status updates as well as through personal information (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). They deliberately omit their flaws and thus present themselves in a manner in which would like to be received (Nagaki, 2007). The ‘back’ region is evident through activities that have been performed online over time including tags in photos and other unfortunate actions which might create an unfavourable opinion. Facebook through its administration provides elusive privacy controls that seek to protect individuals and provide options to delete any undesirable items or activities from the timeline (Lal & Fortune, 2000). Facebook has positioned itself as a fundamental form of interaction for the 21st century, recently the LA Times reported statics indicating that ‘Facebook had passed 800 million subscribers’, if indeed it was a nation it would be virtually the most densely populated country in the entire world (Mayadas & Hultin, 2013). Facebook has managed to intergrate people from across the world that come from varied socisl background into one social platform where they interact and share experiences in real-time (Schorr, Campbell & Schenk, 2003). Joshua Meyrowitz (1985) concurs with Goffman’s notion concerning front and back personalities when analysing media and ‘how electronic media can influence social situations and the social connections with which people identify them with.’ Media environments enable participants to interact regardless of their literacy skills it eventually leads to development interpersonal relationships amongst them (Huber & Glick, 2003). The relationships are often maintained even without those people physically meeting each other since information is exchanged virtually without a face-to-face encounter (Schroeder, 2002). Television and other electronic media especially social networking sites as well as video-sharing portals like YouTube, have enabled public figures to become more accessible hence their backstage behaviours being evident to millions of people. For instance, Kanye West has often got himself into a number of showbiz controversies (Lal & Fortune, 2000). The Washington Post wrote concerning the benefits concert for Hurricane Katrina victims where Kanye West criticised President George W. Bush for not showing any humanitarian concern for the Black Americans” (Sarat, 2013). The visual concept is more appealing than the opinion itself because those people that are involved do not appear to be comfortable in displaying uncharacteristic behaviours (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). Over time there have been numerous incidents where music celebrities have drawn criticism from their performances from the crowds (Nagaki, 2007). Politicians have not been left behind since they too have often got themselves in controversies. For instance, George W. Bush had a staunch leadership while Gordon Brown was once recorded indecently describing a woman voter as being bigoted. Britney Spears who is being regarded as the most controversial musician had her breakdown video being played severally via electronic media. Meyrowitz suggests an emergence of a new type of behaviour which he refers to as ‘middle-region’. This kind of behaviour induces media personalities and other renowned celebrities to exhibit accountability in their actions (Schroeder, 2002). Video-sharing portals however provide an alternative means of creating Internet celebrities who are just ordinary people whose backstage region has gained them widespread fame. These people emerge from varied backgrounds to achieve Internet fame and receive eventually obtain significant publicity (Lal & Fortune, 2000). Social interaction within these video-sharing portals produces fascinating results since they provide random people with a mechanism to gain exposure respond to various issues and eventually reach their target audience (Shani, Pasmore & Woodman, 2012). YouTube video streaming website has become the one stop portal for streaming all kinds of videos with viewers indicating great traffic for this particular website. Viewers and academicians have strongly emerged to claim the site is an informal archive of television texts (Huber & Glick, 2003). John B. Thompson claims that media ‘helps to restore and renew people’s sense of identity, culture and belonging’. YouTube rather than coming in place of corporate media, its video-sharing portal recycles footage that had been already in circulation thus rekindling old memories and nostalgia among the people (Nagaki, 2007). Another example on this notion is the challenges facing print media since advertising revenue, and digital distribution mechanisms have greatly transformed how media is being consumed. The main threat for the print media will be its capability to comprehend, implement and embrace advanced interactive tools (Sarat, 2013). The web still has the traditional ‘pages’ thus constant renewal of existing news articles and implementing an online distribution strategy has the potential of reaching a greater number of consumers thus leading to increased revenue and also conservation of the environment (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). Notwithstanding Thompson considers the ‘everyday encounters with media, especially audio-visual,’ as being ‘mediated quasi-interactions’, which have the impact of centralizing global news and events close to our proximity (Schroeder, 2002). Thompson was interested with the overall interaction process between media producers and their audiences, similarly ‘the degree of reciprocity and interpersonal specificity’ which is available via other methods of interaction (Nagaki, 2007). The Internet has revolutionized this concept because of instantaneous exchanges, through which opinions can be relayed back from the audiences, have become a common phenomenon. Topics that are trending on Twitter and hashtags are typical examples of conversations that are grouped by syntax thus contributing to the interaction between media producers and their audiences (Lal & Fortune, 2000). The media are involved actively in coming up with the social world. By ensuring information, both audio and visual is made available to peoples located in distant places the media shapes at the same time influences the course of events. Media are indeed responsible of creating these events since they would not have existed in their absence (Nagaki, 2007). The dynamic relationships seem to be complex, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1990) is concerned with facial interactions and how information is disseminated through conduct and gestures. An attempt to reconstruct a representation of one’s self online is not an easy task; Facebook encourages interactions between friends while trying to produce real-life relationships (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). The relationship status is a crucial element since it is the only true way of validating the relationship, and it confirms that a particular person is indeed engaged with their partner. Often relationship status is emphasized in the ideal culture a relationship is considered official only when displayed on the profile (Sarat, 2013). Goffman considers this practice to be hyper-ritualised mediated self-representation that is entirely produced by the media artificially. As much as online portals can open up opportunities for people they can in turn be avenues of misleading people or misrepresenting their personalities. Hence, the self-representation theory can thus be interpreted as being essentially ideological (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). In addition, Meyrowitz’s theory of placelessness argues that media technologies have enhanced information and knowledge to be accessed readily since they provide a common domain, but language and signification are often presumes rather than being asserted. The exclusion of technological and educational from Meyrowitz’s claims would be likened to The Matrix (1999) where it was argued that knowledge is readily uploaded into the mind. This concept is ideal in a simulated environment but fails to bring out realism and authenticity. Thompson’s theory of mediated quasi-interaction insists on renewing and adoption of the material and cultural conditions that are inherent. Audiences contribute to the dissemination of information, but then they also play a crucial role in the distribution (Sarat, 2013). The Internet has enlarged communities, founded subcultures and provided organizations with enhanced power to penetrate and retain clients. That notwithstanding, technology has also generated the need of focusing on fame, numbers and individualism. Search engines provide indexed results in the order of their popularity; individual’s followers counts and status comments that are layered in these websites create this individualistic way of life (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). They thus act as the parameters of judging the social media adequacy of individuals and that of others. Some of the advantages that communications media has for children include the following; access to educational and communication tools, despite being offered the opportunity to expand their knowledge education wise their minds are at the same time being corrupted with explicit materials (Johnson, 2005). The convenience of connecting and interacting with people online has led to more freedom of expression but at the same time technological advancement has led to increased cases of misrepresentation, increased backlash and also provided an avenue for protest groups to reorganize themselves more structurally. For instance, During the riots that hit UK in 2011 the rioters had coordinated themselves through BBM this is a BlackBerry messaging system that is preinstalled in the phones whereby people can network openly (The Guardian, 2011) the riots resulted into widespread disruption (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). The Occupy Movement is an international acclaimed protest group which has over time have used the social media platform to raise awareness of its activities and bypass authorities. Howard S. Becker argues that for a social construction to materialize it must be a consequence of the application by other people’s rules and sanctions to an offender. This can be interpreted that in the digital world there is no right or wrong situation but popular opinion is the one that prevails (Schroeder, 2002). Becker’s theory provides a deep understanding of the interaction that exists between mainstream and deviant cultures (Sarat, 2013). However, the concerned groups often find it hard to be properly represented whenever they are labelled as renegades. Protests are part of the life of civilized societies especially when individuals come together to agitate for a greater purpose. The Internet provides the perfect platform for one to be heard however striving to be relevant is not easy especially when is there are various opinions that are competing for public attention (Gelfand & Brett, 2004). Therefore, it is evident that the advancement in communications is multi-facet; it does not only affect social interaction but also shaped the society in general. Technology has enhanced certain possibilities by ensuring the ability of individuals to create and maintain online relationships. Goffman’s model is used to comprehend the daily life social interactions is the theatrical stage via communications media; people attempt to represent themselves accurately while inhabiting similar social spaces (Schroeder, 2002). Social creations can be utilized as avenues of stereotyping via the mass media however popular opinion has sought to challenge media institutions that are in place. The trend in which of social media interaction are taking place is constantly changing, and it has always been as a result of communications media. However, it is prudent to note that technology and the internet have led to the emergence of greater opportunities to the as the potential that exist cannot be exhaustively exploited (Schroeder, 2002). Bibliography GELFAND, M. J., & BRETT, J. M., 2004. The handbook of negotiation and culture. 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