scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal Article•DOI•

The Reality of the Mass Media

Hanno Hardt
01 Jan 2002-Journal of Communication Inquiry (Sage PublicationsSage CA: Thousand Oaks, CA)-Vol. 26, Iss: 1, pp 96-97
About: This article is published in Journal of Communication Inquiry.The article was published on 2002-01-01. It has received 292 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Mass media.
Citations
More filters
Korzybski, Luhmann, and McLuhan

[...]

Lance Strate1•
Fordham University1
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: Strate as discussed by the authors revisited an earlier study of the common ground shared by Alfred Korzybski, founder of general semantics and Marshall McLuhan, the central figure in media ecology, and made explicit the use of systems theory to bridge the gap between the two.
Abstract: This paper revisits an earlier study of the common ground shared by Alfred Korzybski, founder of general semantics, and Marshall McLuhan, the central figure in media ecology, and makes explicit the use of systems theory to bridge the gap between the two. Following a brief summary of the systems approach and its relationship to the media ecology intellectual tradition, sociolo- gist Niklas Luhmann is identified as an appropriate mediator between Korzybski and McLuhan, for his application of the concept of autopoiesis to the study of society. Korzybski's key term of abstracting is compared to McLuhan's emphasis on medium, and suggests that McLuhan's true concern was with a process of mediating rather than a medium as a thing. Korzybski only dis- cussed abstracting in quantitative terms, i.e., levels or orders of abstracting, but McLuhan's ap- proach suggests the need to distinguish between qualitative differences as well, in the form of the mode of abstracting. his paper revisits an earlier study in which I discussed some of the common ground shared by Alfred Korzybski and Marshall McLuhan, and how each scholar's perspective could be used to enhance the approach of the other (Strate, 2010). In doing so, I relied upon systems theory to bridge the gap between the two scholars, but did not make that third ap- proach explicit, so that it instead served as a hidden ground while I highlighted the shared per- spective of Korzybski and McLuhan. In returning to that discussion, I want to begin with a brief review of the basics of systems theory, noting how it relates to media ecology and general se- mantics. The key concept of a system is a general one that can be applied to any phenomenon, be it physical, chemical, biological, social, psychological, or technological. A system is any entity that is composed of interdependent parts, so that the whole cannot be explained only by examining the different parts; rather, you have to look at how they work together. In this way, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, that extra something being the structure, relationship, or interac- tion among the parts, what Buckminster Fuller termed their synergy (see, for example, Fuller & Applewhite, 1975). This something extra that the parts produce when they form a system is said to emerge out of the system, and this quality of emergence is held in contrast to linear cause-and- effect because the interaction of the parts of a system, especially one that is complex and dy- namic, includes random, chaotic factors that make prediction impossible (although bifurcation points may generate an orderly pattern when repeated over time, just as flipping a coin once gen- erates a random result, but when repeated over and over reveals a statistical order). Changes in- troduced to a system therefore tend to be difficult to analyze in terms of causal relationships. For example, in some instances a system can take great damage and still go on functioning, as the interdependence of its parts makes for a robust system capable of a high degree of compensation; and in other instances a very small change can bring down the entire system, as interdependence results a series of indirect effects that may snowball, growing geometrically, especially if the ef-

14 citations

Cites background from "The Reality of the Mass Media"

  • ...It was in the third wave of systems theory, however, that the biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela (1980, 1992) introduced the concept of autopoiesis, which in turn was applied to social systems by Niklas Luhmann (1982, 1989, 1995, 2000)....

    [...]

  • ...Luhmann also draws upon media ecology scholars Eric Havelock (1963, 1986), Walter Ong (1967, 1977, 1982), and Elizabeth Eisenstein (1979) in noting that the introduction of writing and printing technology increased the volume of information circulating within social systems, in turn allowing social systems to increase in complexity....

    [...]

  • ...And we can say that the written word is more abstract than the spoken word because, as Walter Ong (1982) explains, writing is a secondary symbol system that represents speech, our primary symbol system, in a visual form....

    [...]

  • ...Walter Ong experimented with systems theory in his 1977 collection, Interfaces of the Word, and the evidence of a systems approach can also be discerned in the work on orality and literacy published by anthropologist Jack Goody (1977, 1986, 1987)....

    [...]

  • ...Following a brief summary of the systems approach and its relationship to the media ecology intellectual tradition, sociologist Niklas Luhmann is identified as an appropriate mediator between Korzybski and McLuhan, for his application of the concept of autopoiesis to the study of society....

    [...]

Book•
Public Credibility: A study of the preferred personal qualities of cabinet ministers in the Netherlands

[...]

E.P. Wisse
09 Mar 2014
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a take down policy to remove access to the work immediately and investigate the claim. But they do not provide details of the claim and do not discuss the content of the work.
Abstract: Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright, please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.

14 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Transition in Complex Polycentric Contexts: Trusting and Multifunctional Semantics

[...]

Margit Neisig1•
Roskilde University1
01 Mar 2017-Systems Research and Behavioral Science
TL;DR: In this article, an abductive, qualitative, single-case study on a highly polycentric pilot project in a Danish public job centre was conducted, and the results suggest that the emergence of a multifunctional semantic reservoir is crucial for navigating function-systemic blind spots by stimulating higher-order observation and reflection and building trust in polycentric settings.
Abstract: This article shows how the interplay of different function systems creates distrust and paradoxes in complex polycentric transition processes. This issue is captured by an abductive, qualitative, single-case study on a highly polycentric pilot project in a Danish public job centre. The results suggest that the emergence of a multifunctional semantic reservoir is crucial for navigating function-systemic blind spots by stimulating higher-order observation and reflection and building trust in polycentric settings. This is a prerequisite for allowing paradoxes to drive transition and not become barriers. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

14 citations

Cites background from "The Reality of the Mass Media"

  • ...According to Luhmann, this is an example of semantics with a basal self-referentiality (Luhmann, 1995, Chapter 11) and a ‘fremdreferenz’ (Andersen and Born, 2000), as the reference is to the political system and to the legally established environment. The management of the municipality needed to control the contact cadences(2) to be observed, due to their dependence on reimbursement from the national state on the basis of timeliness and compliance with the procedural rules (observation: element-relation). The free municipality experiments were launched from 2011 to 2015 (Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health, 2011). This particular case study concerns an experiment under the heading Focus on impact rather than process. Impact objectives concern long-term ‘outcomes’, which are the effects that results produce in the rest of the system, or in other systems. As impact interventions do not intervene directly in work tasks, this form of intervention is characterized as managing the employees’ self-management (Neisig, 2014) (read: replacing coercion by power). In this sense, it also complies with what Andersen and Born (2000) describe as ‘Selbstreferenz’, as the system now refers to a field of problems....

    [...]

  • ...The following quote from the team leader at the job centre shows awareness of how the mass media speaks in codes of information˥no-information (Luhmann, 2000)....

    [...]

  • ...The following quote from the team leader at the job centre shows awareness of how the mass media speaks in codes of information˥no-information (Luhmann, 2000). If, for example, productivity decreased for a period due to the experiments, the media would find that it is ‘information’ and get interested. ‘We are much more exposed, in managerial terms. And it shows, because every time a story appears in the media, our local media and so on, well, then we have to go out and find data 5 Luhmann (1979) defines trust as a risky investment having positive expectations, whereas Möllering (2013) discusses whether ‘trust as testing’ actually is trust, as the positive expectations may be lacking —this has also been discussed in Neisig (2016)....

    [...]

  • ...subsystems of society’ (Luhmann and Fuchs 1994). This is also the methodological purpose of our case study and one of the reasons Yin (2014) gives for choosing a single case study: namely the role of the case as phenomenon-revealing (a revelatory case)....

    [...]

  • ...The following quote from the team leader at the job centre shows awareness of how the mass media speaks in codes of information˥no-information (Luhmann, 2000). If, for example, productivity decreased for a period due to the experiments, the media would find that it is ‘information’ and get interested. ‘We are much more exposed, in managerial terms. And it shows, because every time a story appears in the media, our local media and so on, well, then we have to go out and find data 5 Luhmann (1979) defines trust as a risky investment having positive expectations, whereas Möllering (2013) discusses whether ‘trust as testing’ actually is trust, as the positive expectations may be lacking —this has also been discussed in Neisig (2016). 6 Nine (out of 98) municipalities were given the right to apply for exemption from national legislation during the trial periods....

    [...]

Proceedings Article•DOI•
Self and Other in the Communicative Space of the Global World

[...]

Olga Chistyakova
01 Jun 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a philosophical analysis of Self-Other relationship in intercultural and interreligious communications in the globalizing world, where the Other is God from a philosophical-anthropological standpoint.
Abstract: The author presents the philosophical analysis of Self–Other relationship in intercultural and interreligious communications in the globalizing world. Special attention is paid to the semantic clarification of the processes of alienation and simultaneous mutual influence, strangification in a dichotomous interaction of Self and Other, Self and many Others in the postmodern era. The author offers in religious communications a consideration of relationship Self and the Other, where the Other is God from a philosophical-anthropological standpoint, intercultural dialogue and pluralistic approach to understanding religion. Keywords—Intercultural and interreligious communications; Self/Other relationship; Self and God dichotomy; God as the Other; alienation; postmodernity; secularity; post-secular society; Patristics; philosophical anthropology; phenomenology

13 citations

Additional excerpts

  • ...Luhmann) [2], perceived as objective and true....

    [...]

Journal Article•DOI•
The guardians of European football: UEFA Financial Fair Play and the career of social problems

[...]

Mathias Schubert1, Thomas Könecke1, Hermann Pitthan1•
University of Mainz1
10 Nov 2016-European Journal for Sport and Society
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on interpreted practice and context and argue that the rising indebtedness of clubs and their increasing reliance on benefactors were a necessary but not sufficient requirement for the successful policy development.
Abstract: UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) policy represents a severe regulatory intervention in European club football competitions. While potential outcomes of the concept have been thoroughly assessed, there is little research on the genesis and background behind its implementation. The present paper fills this gap by analyzing the discourse in the run-up to the passage of FFP. We focus on interpreted practice and context and argue that the rising indebtedness of clubs and their increasing reliance on benefactors were a necessary but not sufficient requirement. Further ingredients imperative for the successful policy development were claims-making activities by influential actors to secure support for their problem perception. Strong discourse coalitions were formed around powerful storylines, such as the interpretation of making debts as ‘cheating’ as well as the notion of traditional sporting values being undermined by financial forces. By detecting such mechanisms of interaction, the study helps to be...

13 citations

Cites background from "The Reality of the Mass Media"

  • ...The importance and influence of the mass media in what people know about the world seems broadly accepted (Luhmann, 2000)....

    [...]

  • ...Furthermore, it is acknowledged that media are bound to certain (economic and cultural) constraints (Best, 2013; Luhmann, 2000) and guided by news factors and that this necessarily affects the analysis....

    [...]

References
More filters
Book•
Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research

[...]

Norman Fairclough
18 Jul 2003
TL;DR: Part 1: Social Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Text Analysis 1. Introduction 2. Texts, Social Events, and Social Practices 3. Intertextuality and Assumptions Part 2: Genres and Action 4. Genres 5. Meaning Relations between Sentences and Clauses 6. Discourses 8. Representations of Social Events Part 4: Styles and Identities 9. Modality and Evaluation 11. Conclusion
Abstract: Part 1: Social Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Text Analysis 1. Introduction 2. Texts, Social Events, and Social Practices 3. Intertextuality and Assumptions Part 2: Genres and Action 4. Genres 5. Meaning Relations between Sentences and Clauses 6. Types of Exchange, Speech Functions, and Grammatical Mood Part 3: Discourses and Representations 7. Discourses 8. Representations of Social Events Part 4: Styles and Identities 9. Styles 10. Modality and Evaluation 11. Conclusion

6,407 citations

Book•
McQuail's mass communication theory

[...]

Denis McQuail
15 May 2000
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the issues in mass communication, and propose a framework for connecting media with society through a social theory of media and society, as well as four models of communication: power and inequality, social integration and identity, social change and development, space and time, and accountability.
Abstract: PART ONE: PRELIMINARIES 1. Introduction to the Book Our object of study The structure of the book Themes and issues in mass communication Manner of treatment How to use the book Limitations of coverage and perspective Different kinds of theory Communication science and the study of mass communication Alternative traditions of analysis: structural, behavioural and cultural Conclusion 2. The Rise of Mass Media From the beginning to mass media Print media: the book Print media: the newspaper Other print media Film as a mass medium Broadcasting Recorded music The communications revolution: new media versus old Differences between media Conclusion PART TWO: THEORIES 3. Concepts and Models for Mass Communication Early perspectives on media and society The 'mass' concept The mass communication process The mass audience The mass media as an institution of society Mass culture and popular culture The rise of a dominant paradigm for theory and research An alternative, critical paradigm Four models of communication Conclusion 4. Theory of Media and Society Media, society and culture: connections and conflicts Mass communication as a society-wide process: the mediation of social relations and experience A frame of reference for connecting media with society Theme I: power and inequality Theme II: social integration and identity Theme III: social change and development Theme IV: space and time Media-society theory I: the mass society Media-society theory II: Marxism and political economy Media-society theory III: functionalism Media-society theory IV: social constructionism Media-society theory V: communication technology determinism Media-society theory VI: the information society Conclusion 5. Mass Communication and Culture Communication and culture The beginnings: the Frankfurt School and critical cultural theory The redemption of the popular Gender and the mass media Commercialization Communication technology and culture Mass media and postmodern culture Conclusion 6. New Media - New Theory? New media and mass communication What is new about the new media? The main themes of new media theory Applying medium theory to the new media New patterns of information traffic Computer-mediated community formation Political participation, new media and democracy Technologies of freedom? New equalizer or divider? Conclusion 7. Normative Theory of Media and Society Sources of normative obligation The media and the public interest Main issues for social theory of the media Early approaches to theory: the press as 'fourth estate' The 1947 Commission on Freedom of the Press and the social theory of responsibility Professionalism and media ethics Four Theories of the Press and beyond The public service broadcasting alternative Mass media, civil society and the public sphere Response to the discontents of the public sphere Alternative visions Normative media theory: four models Conclusion PART THREE: STRUCTURES 8. Media Structure and Performance: Principles and Accountability Media freedom as a principle Media equality as a principle Media diversity as a principle Truth and information quality Social order and solidarity Cultural order The meaning of accountability Two alternative models of accountability Lines and relations of accountability Frames of accountability Conclusion 9. Media Economics and Governance Media 'not just any other business' The basics of media structure and levels of analysis Some economic principles of media structure Ownership and control Competition and concentration Mass media governance The regulation of mass media: alternative models Media policy paradigm shifts Media systems and political systems Conclusion 10. Global Mass Communication Origins of globalization Driving forces: technology and money Global media structure Multinational media ownership and control Varieties of global mass media International media dependency Cultural imperialism and beyond The media transnationalization process International news flow The global trade in media culture Towards a global media culture? Global media governance Conclusion PART FOUR: ORGANIZATIONS 11. The Media Organization: Pressures and Demands Research methods and perspectives The main issues Levels of analysis The media organization in a field of social forces Relations with society Relations with pressure and interest groups Relations with owners and clients Relations with the audience Aspects of internal structure and dynamics The influence of personal characteristics of mass communicators Role conflicts and dilemmas Conclusion 12. The Production of Media Culture Media-organizational activities: gatekeeping and selection Influences on news selection The struggle over access between media and society The influence of sources on news Media-organizational activity: processing and presentation The logic of media culture Alternative models of decision-making The coming of convergence culture: consumers as producers Conclusion PART FIVE: CONTENT 13. Media Content: Issues, Concepts and Methods of Analysis Why study media content? Critical perspectives on content Structuralism and semiology Media content as information Media performance discourse Objectivity and its measurement Questions of research method Traditional content analysis Quantitative and qualitative analysis compared Conclusion 14. Media Genres and Texts Questions of genre Genre and the internet The news genre The structure of news: bias and framing News as narrative Television violence The cultural text and its meanings Conclusion PART SIX: AUDIENCES 15. Audience Theory and Research Traditions The audience concept The original audience From mass to market Goals of audience research Alternative traditions of research Audience issues of public concern Types of audience The audience as a group or public The gratifi cation set as audience The medium audience Audience as defi ned by channel or content Questions of audience reach Activity and selectivity Conclusion 16. Audience Formation and Experience The 'why' of media use A structural approach to audience formation The uses and gratifi cations approach An integrated model of audience choice Public and private spheres of media use Subculture and audience Lifestyle Gendered audiences Sociability and uses of the media Normative framing of media use Audience norms for content The view from the audience Media fandom The end of the audience? The 'escape' of the audience The future of the audience The audience concept again Conclusion PART SEVEN: EFFECTS 17. Processes and Models of Media Effects The premise of media effect The natural history of media effect research and theory: four phases Types of communicative power Levels and kinds of effects Processes of media effect: a typology Individual response and reaction: the stimulus-response model Mediating conditions of effect Source-receiver relations and effect The campaign Conclusion 18. Social-Cultural Effects A model of behavioural effect The media, violence and crime Media, children and young people Collective reaction effects Diffusion of innovation and development The social distribution of knowledge Social learning theory Socialization Social control and consciousness formation Cultivation Media and long-term social and cultural change Entertainment effects Conclusion 19. News, Public Opinion and Political Communication Learning from news News diffusion Framing effects Agenda-setting Effects on public opinion and attitudes The elaboration-likelihood model of infl uence The spiral of silence: the formation of climates of opinion Structuring reality and unwitting bias The communication of risk Political communication effects in democracies Effects on the political institution and process Media influence on event outcomes Propaganda and war Internet news effects Conclusion EPILOGUE 20. The Future of Mass Communication Origins of the mass communication idea The end of mass communication? The survival of mass communication The consequences of new media for mass communication Conclusion

2,040 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Convergence: News Production in a Digital Age:

[...]

Eric Klinenberg1•
New York University1
01 Jan 2005-Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science
TL;DR: The authors examines the point of journalistic production in one major news organization and shows how reporters and editors manage constraints of time, space, and market pressure under regimes of convergence news making, drawing connections between the political economy of the journalistic field, the organizational structure of multimedia firms, new communications technologies, and the qualities of content created by med...
Abstract: A paradox of contemporary sociology is that the discipline has largely abandoned the empirical study of journalistic organizations and news institutions at the moment when the media has gained visibility in political, economic, and cultural spheres; when other academic fields have embraced the study of media and society; and when leading sociological theorists have broken from the disciplinary cannon to argue that the media are key actors in modern life. This article examines the point of journalistic production in one major news organization and shows how reportersand editors manage constraints of time, space, and market pressure under regimes of convergence news making. It considers the implications of these conditions for the particular forms of intellectual and cultural labor that journalists produce, drawing connections between the political economy of the journalistic field, the organizational structure of multimedia firms, new communications technologies, and the qualities of content created by med...

273 citations

Место и роль инновационных технологий на уроках математики

[...]

Ирина Вячеславовна Пискунова, Наталья Владимировна Седова, Ксения Григорьевна Черепова
01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a method to compute the probability of a given node having a negative value for a given value of 0, i.e., a node having no negative value is 0.
Abstract: Для числа ε > 0 и вещественной функции f на отрезке [a, b] обозначим через N(ε, f, [a, b]) супремум множества тех номеров n, для которых в [a, b] существует набор неналегающих отрезков [ai, bi], i = 1, . . . , n, таких, что |f(ai)− f(bi)| > ε для всех i = 1, . . . , n (sup ∅ = 0). Доказана следующая теорема: если {fj} – поточечно ограниченная последовательность вещественных функций на отрезке [a, b] такая, что n(ε) ≡ lim supj→∞N(ε, fj , [a, b]) < ∞ для любого ε > 0, то {fj} содержит подпоследовательность, которая всюду на [a, b] сходится к некоторой функции f такой, что N(ε, f, [a, b]) 6 n(ε) при любом ε > 0. Показано, что основное условие в этой теореме, связанное с верхним пределом, необходимо для равномерно сходящейся последовательности {fj} и “почти” необходимо для всюду сходящейся последовательности измеримых функций и что многие поточечные принципы выбора, обобщающие классическую теорему Хелли, вытекают из этой теоремы, а также приводятся примеры, иллюстрирующие ее точность. Библиография: 16 названий.

188 citations

Journal Article•DOI•
Ethnic media, community media and participatory culture

[...]

Mark Deuze1•
Indiana University1
01 Aug 2006-Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism
TL;DR: Several recent studies document the rapid growth and success of ethnic or minority media in, for example, North America and Western Europe as mentioned in this paper, and scholars in the field tend to attribute this trend as an...
Abstract: Several recent studies document the rapid growth and success of ethnic or minority media in, for example, North America and Western Europe. Scholars in the field tend to attribute this trend as an ...

185 citations

Related Papers (5)
Media and Culture: The “Reality” of Media Effects

[...]

01 Jan 2013
Mark P. Orbe
Media Edge: Media Logic and Social Reality

[...]

01 Sep 2014
David L. Altheide
Mass Media: From 1945 to the Present

[...]

20 Nov 2007
Susan J. Douglas
Rise of new media and the changes in the perceptions of reality

[...]

01 Jan 2018
Md. Firoz Khan
United States media portrayals of the developing world: A semiotic analysis of the One campaign's internet web site

[...]

01 Jan 2008
Lindsey Marie Haussamen