By Prof. Debilal Mishra
A thoughtful piece on Media & Society, especially presented on National Press Day.
The shape of journalism is changing every moment. The media has forced into our lives in a big way and affe cted our intrinsic behaviour. Without the presence of the media the various dimensions of the human life are inconceivable. However, the media has to be responsible in this media-rich world. Since influence can cause anything, it has to be a positive influence at the end of the day.
It is often assumed that the media reflects the society and that it is an effective instrument of positive social change; but with the changing social conditions the nature of the media has too undergone some significant changes. Journalism today is mostly based on the concepts of the market and it is largely susceptible to the dominant market forces.
Observed minutely, the media and society share a reciprocal relationship. The massive paradigm shift in the patterns of the audience-need psychology and media behaviourism seems to have caused the most drastic changes in their reciprocity. The media version of the reality based on the media logic has been instrumental in the constitution of reality with media creating the selected frames of references as suitable to their agendas.
According to Westley and MacLean(1957), the media provide their audience with a supply of information, images, stories and impressions, sometimes according to anticipated needs, sometimes guided by their own purposes of gaining revenue or influence, and sometimes following the motives of other social institutions( eg, advertising, making propaganda, projecting favourable images).
Given this diversity of underlying motivation in the selection and flow of the images of reality, mediation can’t be seen to be a purely neutral process. The reality will always be to some extent selected and constructed and there will be certain consistent biases which will reflect especially the differential opportunities available for gaining media access and also the ‘media logic’ in constituting reality.
To quote Susan Faludi, a noted American journalist, ‘ the information the modern media provide leaves people feeling useless not because it is so bleak but because it is so trivial. It doesn’t inform at all; it only bombards with random data bits, faux trends and surveys that reinforce preconceptions.’ Herbert Altschull, in his book—Agents of Power: The role of News Media in Human Affairs –has dismissed the notion of social responsibility as ‘absurd’ arguing that every media system pursues the interests of those who control it.
The major symbol of twentieth-century investigative journalism, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s coverage of the Watergate Scandal for the Washington Post helped topple the Nixon White House. In All the President’s Men, the newsmen’s book about their investigation, Woodward and Bernstein portrayed reporters as tenacious individuals locked in a bitter battle with corrupt and heartless institutions.
Journalism today has entered the convergent era of information. As discussed, it has become increasingly market driven. The dominant market forces seem to be affecting the ways of the media. Initially journalism was more of a mission, a service. That’s why Mahatma Gandhi, a distinguished journalist of all times, once said, ‘I have taken up journalism not as a profession. It is a service to the society.’
According to a famous American journalist Joseph Pulitzer, ‘a journalist is a lookout on the bridge of the ship of the state. He peeps through the fog and the storm to give signals of the dangers ahead. He is there to look after the welfare of the people who trust him.’ Over the period of time the concept of journalism has kept changing. It has constantly been affected by the factors like politics, economics and technology. Now the question is: does the media ethics exist in the present era of competition and propaganda?
The whole concept of media ethics rests on the principles of social responsibility of the media which sounds absurd since every media content reflects some dominant interests which are not necessarily pro-people. The media is being used as a tool to gather power, profit and prominence. The technological innovations have also multiplied the scopes of the misuse of media. The nature of the use is always determined by the nature of the user.
Media literacy among people is of capital importance these days with the media changing its goals and roles from mission to profession, from profession to commission, and from commission to sensation. media is considered to be the fourth pillar of democracy. In this sense, the democracy draws sustenance from the media. Today the major problem is the lack of a positive democratic consciousness which consists in elements like education, participation, co-operation, freedom, tolerance, sensitivity, equality etc. This positive democratic consciousness can get created with the positive media behaviour.
Development in the new age is all about informing responsibly. There are always two survival strategies before the media: survival through education and survival through exploitation. When the media tries to influence the social life in a positive way and aims at increasing the level of the media literacy of its audience, it contributes to a positive media culture. And when it exploits the low media literacy of its audience as part of the agenda, it creates a negative media culture.
The positive media-society relationship essentially requires an environment where both media and society contribute to each other’s positive growth. There are so many social complications the media has to survive in the course of its performance since the society is a complex composition in itself. With the ever-changing social perceptions of the people the social dynamism is sustained; and the media at every step has to function as part of this social dynamism. In a sense, the psychology of the society always affects the philosophy of the media; and in the process, the nature of their relationship is determined.
According to Theodore Peterson, one of the exponents of the social responsibility perspective and one of the authors of the Four Theories of Press, ‘freedom carries concomitant obligations; and the press which enjoys a privileged position under our government, is obliged to be responsible to society for carrying out certain essential functions of mass communication in the contemporary society. To the extent that the press recognises its responsibilities and makes them the basis for operational policies, the libertarian system will satisfy the needs of society.
To the extent that the press doesn’t assume its responsibilities, some other agency must see that the essential functions of mass communication are carried out’. Peterson has further said that ‘the responsibilities include servicing the political system by providing information, discussion and debate on public affairs, enlightening the public so as to make it capable of self-government, safeguarding the rights of the individual by serving as a watchdog against government and so on’.
There are basically five vital facets of the media-society relationship: interest, involvement, awareness, participation and effect. More importantly, they all are inter-related. Interest leads to involvement; involvement leads to awareness; awareness leads to participation; and participation leads to effect. It can be inferred that the role of media lies in arousing the interest of the people in the positive things. That is to say, the media needs to give the people a positive social orientation- may it be media literacy, behavioural values, cultural knowledge or any other elements of socio-personal development.
It is up to the media to cause the public interest and involvement in something socially constructive. Media and society keep on affecting each other in specific contexts. In a broader social context, when we talk of the media we simply can’t ignore its audience. The nature of the people- in terms of their media literacy, exposure, involvement, awareness and participation- may vary.
The whole concept of media literacy rests on the various social conditions of the audience leading to their interest, involvement, awareness, participation and effect. That is to say, the levels of involvement, awareness and participation of the audience greatly facilitate their positive relationship with the media; and, at the same time, the media’s interest in, involvement with, awareness of and participation in the lives of the audience help form a positive relationship with the society.
This is how the reciprocal relationship results in reciprocal effects and, in turn, the reciprocal development. The level of the awareness affects the level of participation quite positively. And for awareness involvement plays a major role; and it is the interest that leads to involvement.
The media agendas should create the audience interest for a positive involvement. The audience involvement leads to audience awareness; the audience awareness leads to the audience participation; and the audience participation affects the media agendas in a positive way. It should be remembered that for the media to function in a positive social interest there has to be a positive audience; and for creating a positive audience the media has a greater role to play.
The positive media can activate the positive energy of the people in favour of the social progressiveness. The media is said to be the mirror image of the society. And that way it reflects the society. But the theory of reflection assumes that the quality of the reflection is largely dependent on the quality of the lens/reflector. And in the process of reflection there is some distortion of the real image. That is to say, reflection is just one image of the reality or one impression of the truth which may be misleading due to some natural distortions involved in the process.
The media, therefore, shouldn’t reflect the society since there are a lot of limitations in reflection; rather, it may strive to explore the social realities, expand the social knowledge and enrich the social conditions. Thus it can contribute in the making of a positive democratic society by being an instrument of positive social change.
