The Relation between Media and Culture - Essay Example

THE RELATION BETWEEN MEDIA AND CULTURE The Relation between Media and Culture Media is the wordthat signifies revolution, the word that leads to controversy and moulds one’s perception and points of view. In this era of rapid technological development, it is neither difficult to influence the young minds nor it is any troublesome to move people away from what they had initially believed to be ‘culturally’ right. Thereby, the concept of media and culture go hand in hand. Global boundaries have extinguished and the world has come to be one big global village with a lot in common. Ideas, entertainment, news and opinions are integrated through media and in turn influence the personalities of people. This very media makes people recognize the changes that have arisen in all these years and directs them towards understanding the world from a different eye. A question arises what really is the media and mass communication? Mass communication is a means by which you attempt to reach out to the wider world without any one particular person in mind. It is aimed at giving out one, consistent message across the board to everyone. As simple as it may sound, this very ‘consistent’ message is interpreted in a million different ways in accordance to the kind of audience that views it and in accordance to the kind of culture that prevails in the respective country. Moreover, the media can take a whole lot of different means through which to communicate with the people. This can be the internet, social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google, television, newspapers, radios, billboards and much more. Thus, the important point to note here is that these very mediums can easily influence the interaction with individuals in cultural, social as well as political contexts (Rampley, 2005). There are a number of factors that need to be considered when studying the relationship between media and culture. There is a vast array of relationships that have a strong impact on the final, media-cultural relationship. Firstly, there is a struggling relationship between media and the youth. The way things are represented in media can really have strong impacts on the minds of the youth. For example, in Kate Lyman’s article “Girls, Worms, and Body Image”, she refers to a group of children who are given an ad to interpret. One of the girls ended up interpreting the statements in the ad given to her to mean that in order to look pretty; she had to be skinny and cute! This is plain indication of how media distorts the way one thinks and the way one perceives things. In addition to this, the way history is projected in media is also a strong determinant of the relationship between media and culture. Things of the past are reiterated, mistakes of individuals are stressed upon again and again and parties are repeatedly made guilt conscious with the result that there develops a culture of strong hatred towards particular sects of the society. The book ‘Media, Culture & Society’ analyses the historical and political attributes of the media and how they bring about an everlasting influence on the people (Collins, 1986). Secondly, the media has come to influence the perceptions of people through movies and social networking sites. Cultural boundaries have long been forgotten and mingled. Meenakshi Gigi Durham in her book “Media and Cultural Studies” talks about the effect of new forms of media such as Facebook on the cultural perspectives of the population. She talks about how this diverse medium of information has led to significant shifts in the way people consider cultural aspects. Richard Campbell in his book, ‘Media & Culture’ talks about a 5 stage process which influences the relationship between media and culture; he encourages students to involve themselves actively into the media environment by emphasizing on the adverse relationship between media and culture nowadays. He expresses his concerns over getting the youth to know the deepest details of their cultures and to bring it up the media forum in order to create the well needed bonding between the two (Campbell et al 2002). Thirdly, the vast exposure to debates, arguments and talk shows enables an emerging relationship to develop between media and culture. Paul A.Herbig says that an American is exposed to nearly 61,556 words from the mass media out of which he retains 4000 words. These 4000 words are perhaps a good scale of measure of the cultural stance of a particular person. People will tend to remember those things which are either highly representative of their culture or are completely contradictory to the same. The facts that are in line with the culture of people will tend to reinforce their cultures whereas the facts opposing their cultures will tend to develop responses; henceforth, either way, media is really influencing the cultural dynamics within a country or region (Herbig, 1994). Fourthly, the culturally dominant values are internalized by the media. Traditionally, culture has been used as a strong weapon by the elite segments of the society. By merging the media and culture together and thrusting forth the cultural norms and values into the media forum, chances are that these values would be ‘internalized’. They will be widely accepted by people and will turn to be a norm of the society as a whole. This will mean that the society will be in harmony with consistent measures and consistent means to achieve consistent ends. Moreover, the very medium of media can be used to preserve the positives of the culture that has been followed since years. For example, Maire Messenger Davies says in her book ‘Children, Media and Culture’ that the very form of media can be used to conserve the fairytales, stories and long lasting relationships that had existed since the beginning of time. These are things that children can actually relate to and will definitely not want to lose (Davies, 2010). There have been positives as well as negatives related to media and the culture followed by the youth. In the book ‘Youth, Citizenship and Empowerment’ it is talked about how the impact of media can be divided into the under developing and developed nations. In countries like Asia, South America and parts of Latin America or even in Europe, the less privileged children are seen to be exploited to the most. This is seen as one negative effect in the media-culture war whereby these lesser privileged children are targeted and their mind sets are distorted according to their own will. On the other side, the more privileged segment of the society gives some positive hope to this media-culture relationship. It describes this part of the society as the ‘influencers’ who are ‘bright and shiny’ and are part of the ‘technologically sophisticated’ world. These ‘cool’ children are that part of the society who are viewed as ideals, as people who can really bring about some change and change the world altogether. Yes, this is what the media-cultural theme is all about; strengthening ties that were established long ago, giving way to people who want to dominate and making sure the powerless are turned towards the powerful in every possible manner (Helve and Wallace, 2001). Lastly, media can be seen as one of the reasons for the identity crisis- people no more know what they actually stand for! The rapid switch from one form of identity and culture to another through the media influences is definitely a grave problem. Douglas Kellner in his book, Media Culture, probes into the fact that the Hollywood actors and actresses (the media at that time) were influential enough to bring the world from the 80’s to the 90’s; a shift in thoughts, a shift in dressing, a shift in the entire understanding of matters. The channels such as CNN, MTV, US TV and many more are not just channels confined to the boundaries of the USA. They have much greater repercussions and influences- countries all across the globe are affected by what is said on these channels, how cultures are depicted and how people are treated (Kellner, 1995). The world of media cannot be isolated from people’s lives. Today, a humongous proportion of people’s lives are devoted to media- whether it is the television, the internet or the social media. The growth in the use of cell phones and the easy accessibility of social networking sites has made it difficult to keep one unaware of what is happening in the rest of the world. Cultures are raised up, cultures are looked down upon, cultures are humiliated and cultures are praised- all on one forum: Media (Lule, 2012). It is now in the hands of the youth today to ensure that the true representation is made in media, that real issues are discussed upon rather than vague and silly arguments, that everyone is kept on board and is treated the same way, that there is no classification between how the cultures of the under privileged are viewed as and those of the upper class. The relationship between media and culture has to be redefined- from a blunt one to a more systematic, mature and professional one; children should be made aware of what they should be expecting and their minds should be developed in the same manner. Care should be taken to bring the topics to media which positively add to cultures and not those that result in diminishing the cultures themselves. Bibliography CAMPBELL, R., MARTIN, C. R., FABOS, B., & CAMPBELL, R. (2002). Media & culture: an introduction to mass communication. Boston, Bedford/St. Martins. COLLINS, R. (1986). Media, culture, and society: a critical reader. London, Sage Publications. DAVIES, M. M. (2010). Children, media and culture. Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, Open University Press. GROSSBERG, L., WARTELLA, E., & WHITNEY, D. C. (1998). Mediamaking: mass media in a popular culture. Thousand Oaks, Calif, Sage Publications. HELVE, H., & WALLACE, C. (2001). Youth, citizenship and empowerment.Aldershot, Ashgate. HERBIG, P. A. (1994). The innovation matrix: culture and structure prerequisites to innovation. Westport, Conn, Quorum Books. KELLNER, D. (1995). Media culture: cultural studies, identity, and politics between the modern and the postmodern. London, Routledge. LULE, J. (2012). Globalization and media: global village of Babel. Lanham, Md, Rowman& Littlefield Publishers. MORGAN, D. (2008). Keywords in religion, media and culture. New York, Routledge. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=232628. RAMPLEY, M. (2005). Exploring visual culture: definitions, concepts, contexts. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. Read More