Reading The Media- The Sociology Of Mass Communications
Reading The Media- The Sociology Of Mass Communications
Introduction & Overview.
If one of the primary objectives of this module is to subject the mass media to a "rigorous critical analysis" perhaps the best starting point is a definitional one. What is meant by "mass communications" or "mass media". In other words what is the object of our inquiry?
McQuail in "Towards a Sociology of Mass Communications" defines the terminology thus:
Both Expressions (Mass Communications & Mass Media) are abbreviations for 'mass media of communications' and refer to public television and radio, the large circulation press, the cinema and under some circumstances to gramophone records. Normally the term mass media indicates the entire system within which messages are produced, selected, transmitted, received and responded to.(D McQuail p2, 1969)
In short all that we understand as "popular culture" comes within the remit of the analysis, but further we can, and must, also include the ways in which the individual artifacts of such culture is brought to us as well as its wider social effects, how it is received.
Although McQuail's definition is not new by any means (hence the use of the arcane terminology for "gramophone records", in itself an obsolescent technology) it is of considerable value in setting the boundaries for our examination of mass media.
Another early definition of the Sociology of mass communications is provided by Janowitz:
Mass communications comprise the institutions and techniques by which specialized groups employ technological devices (press, radio, films etc..) to disseminate symbolic content to large, heterogeneous, and widely dispersed audiences. (Janowitz, p41 1968)
More contentiously he goes on to define the sociology of Mass Communications as seeking an "objective understanding of the institutions.. and consequences of communication and persuasion for human society"(Janowitz, p41 1968).
Regardless of the antiquated terminology used both definitions lead unescapably to the conclusion that mass communications are dependent for their existence of certain forms of technology. The development of mass media systems are only a possible within the context of the historical development of industrial technology- that in short mass culture is an industrial product just as much as the printing presses, radio and television sets, CD players DBS and cable systems that contribute to it's delivery to it's audience.
The history of mass media then is intrinsically tied to and is a part of the history of industrial society. Mass Communication begins in the same location and within the same time scale as early industrialisation- in Britain during the Eighteenth Century. Early "mass" newspapers such as the Times in London or the Glasgow Herald (the two longest established newspapers in Britain and, therefore we can assume, the world) began largely as information sheets for the rising mercantile and industrial elites- in Glasgow specifically to cater for a relatively small group of International Merchants involved in the triangular trade between Britain, Africa (for Slaves) and the American Colonies (for Tobacco). The Herald started as a news sheet for the "Tobacco Barons", just as the Times started its life as a news sheet for Central London's Coffee House Maritime Insurance speculators.
Such early news media was however so restricted in circulation that it is debatable whether they qualify as "mass" media whatever their power or influence. Mass circulation news papers began to establish themselves broadly at the same time as the growth in the factory system and the wide dissemination of basic literacy skills through growing education. It is during the period of startling economic growth of the mid and late nineteenth century that mass media really reaches a mass audience - a pattern which was to be replicated in all of the advanced industrial nations:
In the United States for example the total circulation of daily newspapers rose steadily from one in every five household in 1850, through two out of three in 1890, to well over one for every household in 1919, since when it has levelled off and even fallen slightly. (McQuail p3 1968)
If mass circulation newspapers are a modern phenomena, then the other forms of mass media are also, but more so. The Cinema as mass entertainer and informer is less than a century old- a thoroughly twentieth century wonder. Radio began to be exploited commercially in the US and as a public information service in the UK again during the years immediately following the Great War. Television although operating on a trial basis to small numbers of viewers before the Second World War grows in reach exponentially in the US during, and in the UK after the war. In the UK in 1939 The nascent BBC Television service broadcast to a tiny proportion of the population of the London area, in the USA a handful of stations were transmitting to no more than a few thousand viewers. Although its development was to be arrested during the war itself "radio with pictures" had shown its potential as a medium. The spectacular growth of television in the immediate decade following the end of the war was first experienced in the USA:
In a decade (after the war) more than 400 stations went on the air, all but filling the available channels in the metropolitan area. Moreover by 1955 four fifths of the households in urbanized areas has television sets, and that figure soon rose beyond 90 per cent. By 1955, more than 30 million sets had been sol, and they were moving out of stores at the rate of 7 million a year (W Phillips Davison et al 1976 p 29)
The take up of television in the UK may have started a little later but the post war growth in audience reach is just as if not more spectacular than in the USA. By the time that commercial stations begin to make an impact on broadcasting in the UK in the late 1950s and early 1960s the market for televisions sets in already saturated (with the exception of replacement sets), and remained so until colour transmission became commonplace.
Although he time scale may be similar the development of television in the UK and Most of Europe was to be much more directly guided by the State than in North America. In most of Europe and certainly in the UK, the main original television broadcast company was state owned or controlled and publicly funded rather than dependent on advertising revenue for its existence. Again in most of Europe these state system were to be eventually supplemented by (and in some cases overwhelmed by) commercial stations drawing revenue from advertising. Whilst some public funded television is available in the US, PBS still only represents a tiny proportion of the total of US TV output.
There can be little contemporary contention that Television is the dominant mass communication medium in the advanced industrial world. Television provides for most of the population of the west the only information about the world outside our own immediate social and working environments- it informs, entertains and is made extensive use of in education for both children and adults. In the farthest outposts English speaking world TV programming from the US, Britain and Australia can be seen daily, using technologies such as DBS and Cable. The US based CNN is acknowledged as a global news provider of the stature held by UPI or Reuters during the inter war period, and even the venerable BBC World Service is to venture into the Global TV news industry using satellites to footprint the pacific rim and south Asia. MTV is already the most regularly viewed TV Channel in the world.
The scale of mass communications is undeniable- but with what effect? Individual and collective responses to the content of the mass media is the next question to be examined.
Brian Mulrine 2003 Bradford College
References:
Janowitz, M (1968) "The study of Mass Communication" In International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences McMillan.
McQuail, D (1969): "Towards a Sociology of Mass Communications" Collier McMillan.
Phillips Davison, W et al (1976) "Mass Media Systems & Effects" Praeger.
|
|