NOTES

Cultivation, Agenda Setting, are some theories that
talk about how media affect viewers. The reading you were set also
talks about how effects theory perspectives have changed with time
from the idea in the 1940s that media have massive effects to the idea
in the 60s or thereabouts that media have very limited effects to the
current idea that media have moderate effects. The idea basically is
that scholars react to the trends that are current in their day. This
is because they are reading each other’s published works and staying
abreast of the latest in the field. What usually happens is that a few
well-known and respected scholars set the trend and everyone takes a
cue from the most well known, best funded and best reviewed work to
design their own. So for example Entman has become a well know scholar
working with Framing theory and almost anyone who does any further
research about framing will definitely cite Entman. Similarly Gerbener
is best known for introducing cultivation theory so anyone who wants
to conduct surveys or carry out experiments dealing with cultivation
will read up on and cite Gerbner in his work.

What you should know about effects work is:

Causality is different from casualty. Only experiments prove causality.
 Agenda setting is a theory for which causality was demonstrated via an
experiment. Cultivation theory does not typically include experiments
but relies largely on surveys – this is because the theory posits that
it takes a long time for the effect to have an effect.

Remember that experiments lack external validity because they are
generally conducted in artificial environments unlike the real world
and because the sample size is generally too small for us to be able
to generalize the results.
Phew.

Now that we have spent some time thinking about how media impact
society- lets switch gears and look at what impacts media.

Here too you have a number of ideas to think about- that we have
discussed over the course of the semester.

The uses and gratifications model

The socialization of journalists

What else drives media? Ideology? Codes and conventions? Commerce? Regulation? How does regulation drive media?

First, the model –profit versus public service.

Should media be profit driven for efficiency or should they be driven
by a desire to serve the public good? Your reading does mention some
advantages of each type of media and you should think about these.

In this topic you should be clear on the following concepts:


Public sphere,
Public opinion,
Public good.

It bears repeating on my part that public opinion is not simply to go
around asking people what they think about issues. Public opinion is a
more dynamic PROCESS. Whereby democratic theory assumes that media
will do the following
1- educate the public about key issues
2- to make these often boring issues interesting for the public by
dealing with them creatively
3- then, inform the public and those in power about what the public
thinks about issues. Media are suppose to give space and time to a
variety of views and ideas including the issues that affect
minorities, unpopular ideas and other less heard of views.
4- Media are suppose to be a space where various groups of people can
debate. This is why media seems full of shows where different parties
fight on air. However fighting is not what is required by the public
sphere model. What we need is informed debate.

Lippman of course thinks this is impossible and that democratic theory
is asking media for too much especially as the media is run on a
profit model and as people are not as smart as democratic theory
imagines them to be.
What do you think?

Also as part of this topic we discussed corporations.

The Business model of media says that in capitalist systems there is a
lot of competition and so a lot of voices including the minority
voices will automatically get heard because business owners will try
to give the audiences what they want. So, for example in the USA if
you consider African Americans as a minority group then, that group is
served by media as there are a number of movies, shows and books that
feature African American experience. However you might argue that such
shows are niche shows and are watched by niche audiences (in this case
black Americans) and that it is the mainstream media (think Friends)
that needs to include minority voices. Think about mainstream American
media- how inclusive of minority voices and opinions are these?
America includes significant Pakistani, Chinese, Spanish/Mexican and
non Christian origin citizens. Do you feel like these are accurately
and sufficiently represented on mainstream media?

The other issue with the business model is vertical and horizontal
integration. On the face of it the US has a number of media outlets :
websites , TV Channels, movies, newspapers etc. But if about 5
companies own a 1000 outlets then can we term that as competition?

And what can we do to escape the big bad corporations? Well here’s
where regulation comes in. For a long time PEMRA did not allow TV
channels to also own newspapers. That is why GEO which was launched by
Jang group- was forced to air all of their broadcasts out of Dubai-
this rule of PEMRA was known as “conflict of interest,” and was later
changed so that now Aaj TV, Express and Geo all of which have sister
newspapers, Business Recorder, Express and Jang – can operate both
types of media. Similarly the change in regulation allowed Hum Tv to
launch a radio channel.
So you can see that the trend of horizontal integration is also true
for Pakistan. Although so far vertical integration has not taken
place. If Geo buys a cinema and also starts selling you cable instead
of worldcall then we will have vertical integration as well.

Concepts you should know in this topic include:
Objectivity.
Integration
Regulation versus censorship
Freedom of speech

Objectivity in journalism is a very tricky concept. By now you have
seen in various films like Control Room that journalists are not
robots and that they have feelings, emotions, ideas and opinions.
Should journalists try to suppress their own subjectivities when
covering a story that may be as important as war? Or should they
perhaps tell us how they feel so that we are not fooled into thinking
we are reading impartial news? How should journalists achieve
objectivity?
One way journalists try to do this is by giving all the sides of a
story. So they would tell us that the President wants to go to war
however the opposition thinks this is a bad idea.
In reality, sometimes, news comes out biased.

Again market theory would say that if we de-regulate the business
environment to allow any and everyone to have a media platform then
all the voices would get heard. This too does not happen in practice
because media costs money and advertisers follow the majority.

Now think about freedom of speech. It’s a big issue today especially
as the freedom of speech of some countries allows them to publish
cartoons that upset large segments of the world population. This in
fact is a problem of globalization. Freedom of speech is rarely in
practice infinite. Even in the US and Europe pro Nazi voices for
instance would not be allowed to spread hatred and violence. It is for
individual societies to decide what will be included and won’t be
included in freedom of speech. However globalization has complicated
this issue- because although the Danish people might think that
certain cartoons are acceptable- those cartoons had an impact
thousands of miles away in our country. Think about this issue. How
would we react if the Danish told us that it was no longer okay for us
to print a certain topic? We would probably argue that Pakistan is a
sovereign state with a right to make its own laws about what we can
and cannot talk about. And in a previous era before Internet perhaps
we wouldn’t even have heard about the cartoons. Now we have heard and
have opinions about the issue.

Finally I want you to think about ethics. Where do ethics come from?
Should ethics be law? What kind of ethics should journalists and other media professionals i.e the press agent have?

What is two step flow?

What is Cultivation theory?

What was the Frankfurt School?

What are the methods used to research audiences?

What is the uses and gratifications model?

Three models: Direct effects, reinforcement, uses and gratifications.

How can democracy be replaced by publicity?

What is Yellow journalism?

What’s the church state wall?

What is publicity?

exam sample question

Sample questions and study points:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of public sphere/ free market model of media?

What are the disadvantages of global media giants/conglomerates ?

What are the ethical issues in the strategies global giants use to increase profits?

What are the ethical issues with the captive audience strategies?

If you were given an option to design some research for IBA Media studies- what research methods would you use to test media effects theories?

Choose a prominent local/international news story and write about it from different ethical perspectives.

What proposals would you make for parliament- how should they improve the media landscape in Pakistan?

What did you learn about global giants from your research assignment- what impact does your company have on audiences?

sample quiz essays

sample quiz essays

FAIR AND LOVELY ADVERTISEMENT

This advertisement represents the view of a somewhat superficial Pakistani society. By

portraying the fact that you must be fair to obtain success, (and not just any type of success, but

instant high grade success) they are passing the message along to the female youth of Pakistan

that they must lighten their skin and appear fairer than their competition. They are linking

fairness to beauty, which the commercial shows would ultimately result in inevitable success.

The profession chosen to show this triumph is that of show business, which further adds to the

superficiality of the society being represented. They could have chosen a more ‘worthwhile’

occupation to focus their advertisement on, such as a doctor or a businesswoman, but instead

they chose that line of work where women are expected to look good and attract attention to

themselves. This exemplifies the role of women as objects, to be looked upon and stared at by

the men in the society. Although the advertisement is pretty much absent of the opposite sex, it

still manages to portray the power that men have over the females in society, and shows the role

that women play in providing satisfaction to those very men in society.

Two classes of Pakistani society are represented here, that of the heroine and her mother who

belong to a middle/lower class, and that of the villainess who is from the higher/elite class. This

is clearly evident through the attire of the two women; the heroine is shown wearing simple,

worn out clothes, whereas the villainess is glimpsed sporting a more ‘glamorous’ ensemble.

Also, the heroine’s mother is shunned during the advertisement, where the villainess insults her

and tells her to go home and put makeup on her own daughter and daughter-in-laws. This is a

sign of her being shown her place-- behavior typical of that found in most upper middle class

homes where the maid/servant is subjected to similar verbal abuse. The commercial also shows a

modernist versus conservative comparison between the two women, where the heroine is the one

from an orthodox close knit family (shown again through the daughter-in-law comment) whereas

the villainess is portrayed as a more liberal, modern Pakistani woman.

The creators of the advertisement have employed the use of various techniques that help them

get their point of view across. For instance, when we first meet the villainess and the heroine’s

mother, and we see the latter being humiliated by the former, there is sad music playing in the

background. This is done purposefully and acts as a useful tool for generating sympathy from

the audience so that the viewer at once realizes who the ‘bad/good guy’ is in the story. Similarly,

when the heroine achieves success and her life is turning around, the melancholy music is

replaced by lively, upbeat music, done so as to create a feeling of happiness for the heroine in the

Specific camera angles are chosen so that the story is appreciated to the fullest. There is a close

up of the villainess’s face, which, according to John Fiske’s analysis in The Codes of Television,

is done so as to represent her ‘evilness’ as being ‘up in someone’s face’ is considered an invasion

of personal space as it portrays a threatening/hostile stance. Also, the heroine is given more

screen time, and plays more of a part in the overall story. We don’t get to hear the villainess’

side of the story at all, (perhaps she was having a bad day and that’s why she let out her anger on

the heroine’s mother?) and thus there is a biased point of view being presented. Also, since the

advertisement is for fairness creams, majority of the shots are those of the face.

The lighting in the heroine’s shots is dark initially. This, as well as the pounding rain, adds to

the gloomy, morose atmosphere being created. It also makes the villainess’s complexion appear

lighter than the heroine. But as the heroine emerges from her cocoon as a beautiful butterfly, she

seems to glow far brighter than the villainess. The lighting thus helps the audience focus all its

attention on this more ‘beautiful creature’.

The dialogues spoken by the heroine are chosen carefully so that the viewer feels sympathy

and affection towards her (seen through her emotional outburst in the beginning, and then by

her touching speech towards the end). The villainess on the other hand gets the dialogues that

generate negative feelings by the audience (seen when she shuns the old woman).

It is also interesting to note that when the heroine was a nobody, she was shown wearing a

simple shalwar qameez with a dupatta. But when she achieved success, her Pakistani dress

disappeared, and she was shown wearing a western gown, whereas the villainess is shown

wearing shalwar qameez both times. In my opinion this shows the more modern Pakistani

woman, with the freedom to wear whatever she does and does not want (hence the discarded

dupatta). However, it also shows how heavily influenced the Pakistani people are by the West,

and the fact that being successful is now being associated with being more western.

The overall view being presented through this advertisement is that a fair complexion equals

beauty, and beauty equal success. However it also brings out the positive aspects of Pakistani

society, that they are modest, humble and don’t forget their roots, as well as the importance of

mothers in Pakistani culture. (The heroine’s acceptance speech illustrates all this.) Also, the

commercial makes an attempt to reduce the superficiality by trying to focus on inner beauty;

although they do say that using their fairness cream will help bring this out. (They must sell their

product too!) This is a rather feeble attempt though, and it does nothing to remove the stereotype

that in Pakistan, fair women are considered beautiful, successful and worth paying attention to.

The Hart to Hart Episode

The Hart to Hart episode Fiske talks about can be viewed here:

Hart to Hart episode

The Edward Said Video

watch the Edward Said video again

Lippman

Lippman Reading 1

Lippman Reading 2