The Evolution of Media Forms and Their Impact on Society

1. The Media

2. Media Forms • Digitization has revolutionized mass media of communications • The Internet and worldwide web create cyberspace, within which new virtual communities can be created – BUT, also new concerns over pornography, ID theft and unsupervised children online • Newspapers, TV and other media forms now have their own web presence and digital media content • Some empirical studies suggest TV may be losing out to PCs, games consoles and iPods amongst young people

3. Theoretical Perspectives on Media • Functionalism • Political Economy • Jürgen Habermas • Jean Baudrillard • John Thompson

4. Functionalism How does the media act to integrate society? • Information: lets us know what is happening in the world • Correlation: interprets information around established social norms and values • Continuity: expresses common culture whilst recognizing and incorporating new developments • Entertainment: amusement and diversion reducing social tensions • Mobilization: encourage action to meet social and economic goals

5. Political Economy Who owns the media and what influence does that give them in society? How does the media act to protect the interests of those with wealth and power and to silence critical voices and the voices of the powerless? Two approaches: Chomsky Frankfurt School

6. Concentration of media ownership globally • Globally, large media conglomerates include, National Amusements, Viacom, CBS Corporation, Time Warner, News Corp, Bertelsmann AG, Sony, General Electric,Vivendi SA, The Walt Disney Company, Hearst Corporation, Organizações Globo and Lagardère Group. • As of 2010, The Walt Disney Company  is the world's largest media conglomerate, with News Corporation,  Time Warner  and Viacom ranking second, third and fourth respectively

8. Political Economy I: Chomsky Large media corporations: • Control the information made available to the public • Create a climate of fear from external threats • Do not question the unaccountability of powerful corporations • Do not question the relationship between big business and the state

9. Political Economy II:The Frankfurt School • Cultural goods are mass produced in the same way as other goods • Film, pop music and so on become bland and empty and dull the recipient • Art and ‘high culture’ become debased and lose their power to transform and challenge

10. Jürgen Habermas • The public sphere first developed as part of enlightened philosophical and political transformations to enable informed, democratic, public debate • The media has the potential to extend and deepen the public sphere • The media actually promotes entertainment and spectacle • Politics becomes reduced to photo opportunities and sound bites – debasing the public sphere

11. Jean Baudrillard It used to be possible to think of a distinction between the social world and the media which represented and reported on it. Now: • Modern media are everywhere and increasingly define and constitute the social world: reality is what is on TV • Rolling news channels report on events before and while they happen and therefore shape them in real time • In this ‘hyperreality’ images are constructed with reference to other images – they are not grounded in any external social reality

12. John Thompson Three Types of Interaction: 1. face-to-face, 2. mediated, 3. quasi-mediated The Frankfurt School underestimate the extent to which the consumers of media messages (mediated quasi-interaction) actively make sense of them through other forms of interaction Baudrillard overemphasises the dominance of mediated quasi-interaction on social life

13. Guidelines for writing the report on • Evolution of an Identity • Choose your topic: Rajput, Watto, Afridi...... • Trace the origin in a person/s and subsequent branching. • Population (size, important personalities, past and present) • Role in economy (agricultural, mineral, Industrial, cultural). • Politics: (past and present; participation in democratic process; local, district, provincial, national parliamentary elections; main political parties) • Involvement in Conflicts(armed invasion, ethnic, sectarian, tribal, cultural). • History (Movement from original location and spreading out, evolution to present. • Transformation (economic/political from past to present.) • Contribution to culture, science, philosophy. • Notable personalities:leaders, artists, writers, thinkers from past and present)

14. Identity- Tribal/Ethnic

15. Many ethnic Afghan or Pashtun tribes continue to live in Pakistan's Punjab province such as the Khugyanis known as Khakwanis, Alizais, Tareens, Durranis, Mullazais, Niazis, Khattaks, Lodhis, Kakars, Kakazais, and Barakzaisto name a few. ---