an article: The Medium is the massage

Tittle: The Medium is the massage

 (this article is a  project of my study at social structure and social theory at 2009 , looking backward, which is a naive in mixing up the theories simply)

 

Sometime, we enjoy but don’t know what behind our back…

 

Sometime, different consumers need different “service”…

Content  

1. Introduction——————————————–3
2. Mass V.S. Public—————————————-5
3. Newspaper———————————————-7
4. Television———————————————–11
5. Advertisement—————————————–18
6. The Internet——————————————–26
7. Conclusion———————————————-29 
8. Reference———————————————–30

1. Introduction

In daily life, we are easier to gain any information through media, especially mass media. Through analyzing the transmission of information through mass media, we can find out the path of construction of our society which involves forming social values, norms, beliefs, and lifestyles, so on. Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. It is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment across media such as newspapers, television, radio, and broadcasting. It aims to produce a collective sense to connect people to people, and then solidifies masses from groups to a society.

To some extent, the messages through mass media are not raw, but naturalize and realize filtered information by journals, especially popular newspapers, and by broadcasting. Some will be diluted, some inevitably misinterpreted. By Marshall McLuhan pointed out that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. McLuhan also proposed that mediathemselves, not the content they carry, should be the focus of study; he said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself.As a result, people received those messages as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda.By Frankfurt School’s definition of mass society, mass society is linked to a society of alienated individuals held together by a culture industry that served the interests of capitalism.

In this journal, I selected three types of mass media, including Newspaper, Television and Advertisement, to examine the social construction (ideologies) through them. And I would like to apply some cultural theories to analyze audiences and messages, even the medium.

In the last part, I have mentioned an alternative media—The Internet, which maybe totally subvert the ownership/authority of production of culture. And it is a public media for people to discuses.

To begin with this journal, you are asked to think about why I see the medium as a“massage”. In the end of this journal, I will answer why the journal’s name was called“The Medium is the massage”

2. Mass V.S. Public 

-This area in front of Time Square is a public area-

First of all, since I will mention “mass” frequently, I will define what is mass, and the distinction between mass and public.

According to a sociologist C. Wright Mills, he made a distinction between a society of “masses” and “public”. As he tells:

In term of public

1. Virtually as many people express opinions as receive them,
2. Public communications are so organized that there is a chance immediately and effectively to answer back any opinion expressed in public. Opinion formed by such discussion
3. Readily finds an outlet in effective action, even against – if necessary – the prevailing system of authority.
4. Authoritative institutions do not penetrate the public, which is thus more or less autonomous in its operations.

In term of mass,

1. Far fewer people express opinions than receive them; for the community of publics becomes an abstract collection of individuals who receive impressions from the mass media.
2. The communications that prevail are so organized that it is difficult or impossible for the individual to answer back immediately or with any effect.
3. The realization of opinion in action is controlled by authorities who organize and control the channels of such action. The mass has no autonomy from institutions; on the contrary, agents of authorized institutions penetrate this mass, reducing any autonomy it may have in the formation of opinion by discussion”

(to be continued...)