Media and Society in Relation to Newspapers as a Form of News Media

STUDENT I. D 383155 NAME EFETURI EMAKPORE MODULE MEDIA AND SOCIETY subject bea MEDIA AND SOCIETY WITH RELATION TO NEWSPAPERS AS A FORM OF NEWS MEDIA DATE 10 DECEMBER 2009 adit In this investigate paper, I am going to talk broadly on my actualizeing, after doing entirely research, of media and its act in the society with relation to wordpapers as an important and integral form of discussion media in the society. I will make believe a brief but concise introduction of compositions in general. I will talk rough the importance of compositions to the society and how over the years, it has enforced itself on the society and how it has achieved that.I will see whether theories much(prenominal) as the Hypodermic acerate leaf Model and Public Sphere theories low life be applied when focusing on newspapers. In addition, I will talk ab out Bignell, J (1997) and his views on Media Semiotics concerning newspapers. In addition, to conclude this research paper, I will give a expatia te explanation on what I believe should be the role of newspapers as a form of news media to the society. Whether they fuck off achieved wholly that society expects from them, or, they ar yet to attain that maximum point of satisf exercise from the society.Lastly, I will talk about the depth in which newspapers are actu on the wholey influencing the society and how they can back up in changing the views of the masses in that locationby helping to shape up the society to becoming a more than absolute one. INTRODUCTION TO NEWSPAPERS A newspaper, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is said to be a printed overtation, promptly usually issued daily or every week, consisting of folded unstapled sheets and containing news, frequently with the addition of advertisements, photographs, articles, and correspondence the organization or office issue such a worldation. A wide variety of material has been print in newspapers, including editorial opinions, criticism, thinkin g and op-eds obituaries entertainment features such as crosswords, Sudoku and horoscopes weather news and forecasts advice, gossip, food and other columns critical reviews of movies, plays and restaurants classified ads reveal ads, editorial cartoons and comic strips. Newspapers are very essential to the society, over the former(prenominal) centuries hold in been relayed to the society in protestent ways, and have been evolving ever since.In the beginning, the first newspapers were more like authorities announcement bulletins and authorised by Julius Caesar. This heart and soul they were probably fully controlled by the government. This was in Ancient Rome and were called _Acta Diuma, they were carved in metal or stone and posted in unexclusive areas. Moveable type newspapers came during the modern era, at the beginning of the 17th century. However, the first officially recognised newspaper is that of Lohan Carolus Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien___, p ublished in 1605 in Strasbourg.By the early 19th century, many an(prenominal) cities in Europe, as swell up as northerly and South America, published newspaper type publications and the contents were vastly shaped by variant views such as regional and cultural preferences. In addition, advances in printing technology related to the Industrial Revolution, enabled newspapers to lead an even more widely circulated means of communication. For example, in 1814, The Times (London) acquired a printing press candid of making a thousand impressions per minute. In newspaper takings, in that respect are antithetical categories of newspaper printed and published for reading.We have daily newspapers, which are issued every day close totimes with the exceptions of cheerdays and interior(a) holidays. There are weekly newspapers and these tend to be smaller than daily papers and in some cases, there are some papers published twice or ternion times a week. Then we have national newspape rs, which circulate nationwide. There is also a group of newspapers, which can be categorised as global newspapers. Some, such as The International Herald Tribune, have always had that focus, while others are repackaged national newspapers or international editions of national-scale or huge metropolitan newspapers.Often these international editions are scaled d deliver to reach articles that capability non interest the wider range of lectors. Lastly, with the introduction of the Internet, Web-based newspapers have started to be produced as online-only publications. Virtually all printed newspapers have online editions, which depending on the country may be regulated by journalism organizations such as the Press Complaints Commission in the UK. THEORIES INVOLVED IN NEWSPAPERS AS A FORM OF NEWS MEDIA THE sodium thiosulphate NEEDLE MODELThis theory, also k instantlyn as the hypodermic-syringe model, is a model of communication also usually referred to as the magic bullet perspect ive or the transmission-belt model. The essence of this model hols the fact that an intended pass is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. However, this model is rooted in the 1930s _Behaviourism_ created by the Frankfurt School in German and is now considered by many to be obsolete. The Hypodermic Needle theory implied that mass media had a direct, immediate, and powerful effect on their audiences.The mass media in the 1940s and mid-fifties were perceived as a powerful persuade on behaviour change. Several factors contributed to this strong do theory of communication, including the fast rise and popularization of radio and television, the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as ad and propaganda, the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which foc employ on the impact of motion pictures on children, and Hitlers monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.This view of propaganda took root after World War I and was championed by theorists such as Harold Lasswell in his pioneering work Propaganda Technique in the World War (1927). He argued that the wad had been duped and degraded by propaganda during the war. Lasswell based his work on a stimulus-response model rooted in reading theory. Focusing on mass effects, this approach viewed human responses to the media as uniform and immediate. E. D. Martin expressed this approach then Propaganda offers ready-made opinions for the unthinking herd (cited in Choukas, 1965, p. 5). The Magic Bullet or Hypodermic Needle possibleness of direct influence effects was not as widely accepted by scholars as many books on mass communication indicate. The magic bullet theory was not based on semiempirical findings from research but rather on assumptions of the time about human nature. People were assumed to be uniformly controlled by their biologically based instincts and that they react more or less uniformly to any(prenominal) stimuli came along (Lower y & DefFleur, 1995, p. 00). The phrasing hypodermic questle is meant to give a mental watch of the direct, strategic, and planned excerpt of a message into an individual. However, as research methodology became more highly developed, it became apparent that the media had selective influences on people. The most famous incident often cited as an example for the hypodermic needle model was the 1938 transport of The War of the Worlds and the subsequent reaction of widespread panic among its American mass audience.However, this incident actually sparked the research movement, led by Paul Lazarsfeld and Herta Herzog, which would disprove the magic bullet or hypodermic needle theory, as Hadley Cantril managed to show that reactions to the broadcast were, in fact, diverse, and were largely determined by situational and attitudinal attributes of the listeners. PUBLIC SPHERE THEORY The whim of the public field of study evolved during the Renaissance in Western Europe and the United Sta tes.This was brought on partially by merchants need for accurate study about distant markets as well as by the growth of state and individual liberty and popular sovereignty. The public vault of heaven was a place amongst private individuals and government authorities in which people could meet and have rational-critical debates about public matters. Discussions attendd as a equipoise to governmental authority and happened physically in face-to-face meetings in coffee houses and cafes and public squares as well as in the media in letters, books, drama, and art.Habermas saw a vibrant public firmament as a positive force keeping authorities inwardly bounds lest their rulings be ridiculed. In Habermasian theory, the bourgeois public sphere was preceded by a literary public sphere whose favoured genres revealed the interiority of the self and emphasized an audience-oriented subjectivity. Today, in contrast, there is scant public debate, few public forums, and political discussi on has degenerated from a fact-based rational-critical examination of public matters into a consumer commodity. There is the illusion of a public sphere, according to Habermas.Citizens have become consumers, investors, workers. Real news (information that helps unornamented people stay free) is being elbowed out by advice, soft porn, catchy garbage, celebrity antics, and has become infotainment, that is, a commodity competing in a mass entertainment market. It matters less whether news is right or wrong, and matters more whether it is gripping. Habermas sociological and philosophical work tries to explain how this transformation happened by examining a wide range of disciplines, including political theory, cultural criticism, ethics, gender studies, philosophy, sociology, istory, and media studies. The basic belief in public sphere theory is that political action is steered by the public sphere, and that the only legitimate governments are those that listen to the public sphere. De mocratic governance rests on the capacity of and opportunity for citizens to engage in enlightened debate. Much of the debate over the public sphere involves what is the basic theoretical structure of the public sphere, how information is deliberated in the public sphere, and what influence the public sphere has over society. abridgment OF THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL AND PUBLIC SPHERE THEORIES IN RELATION TO NEWSPAPERS Firstly, I would like to speak about the Hypodermic Needle Model before I go on to talk about the Public Sphere theory. This theory can be linked with newspapers in concerning how it focuses on how news media influences the public in certain ways or directions and how it also has a direct, immediate, and powerful effect on the society. From what I have researched on the theory, it is clear to me that in earlier years, (the 1940s to the 1950s), newspapers were a grand influence on the society.This is emphasised in many distinct ways, which have been cited above. What was printed by newspapers in those times, whether positive or negative, was greatly accepted by the society. In fact, some theorists even claimed that people were being duped by the information being given in newspapers. in a flashadays however, the societys (though not everyone) views on information in newspapers are not wholly believed and in recent times, people have begun to question whether all written in the papers is a concentrated or a diluted version of the truth.Newspapers now have selective influences on people in the society as individuals have developed minds of their deliver especially since nowadays, newspapers are not so much controlled by the government as they utilise to be and some in subordinate newspapers give their own opinions of certain events while others are still a little(a) vague about passing judgment on equivalent events. Now, I will move on to the public sphere theory. This theory can also be directly applied to newspapers.From my research, I hav e been able to see that once again, public sphere was taken more seriously in past decades than it is nowadays. In those periods, the public sphere was seen as an integral part of news media and controlled the excesses of the government as a good government was seen to be one that paid attention to what the public sphere had to contribute to society. Then, the public sphere had a great influence on the society. Articles were printed regularly in newspapers concerning public matters and were written with a rational and critical fashion.Nowadays however, the society has lost touch with what the public sphere was truly about and now give in to whatever latest rumour is given out to them. The public sphere has been disregarded and has become a sort of illusion. (Habermas). There are hardly any honest public debates now, public forums have declined over the years, and sadly, political discussions have degenerated from a fact-based rational-critical examination of public matters into a co nsumer commodity.Now newspapers are competing against each other and now print only what they believe will sell and affix their customer range, rather than the important and crucial things that are going on in the society. THE SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF NEWSPAPERS In his book, _ Media Semiotics An Introduction,_ Bignell (1997), discusses the ways in which semiotic summary approaches newspaper as a medium. He considered the lingual signs used in newspapers, the ionic and other visual signs in newspapers, and the relationship between linguistic signs and visual signs in newspapers.The medium of the newspaper is particularly interesting as signifiers are presented simultaneously thusly offering a concrete display of signs which the reader can consume at his/her own pace and can also be re-read, as opposed to television or radio news which can only be watched or listened to at particular. A newspaper is not something that is middling change with facts, but it portrays news as commissio ns produced in language and other signs like photographs. A semiotic analysis will whence include discussions of the connotations of linguistic and visual signs used in news stories. Bignell (199779) The process of infusion is central to the production of all newspapers. This involves selecting events which are considered to be worthy of being printed as news, and excluding news which is considered to be irrelevant, insignificant or unworthy of news coverage. Thus news is a social construct dependent on what is deemed important by those who work in the news industry__ based on certain codes of behaviour, which have been learned by news workers in order to do their job. The codes of behaviour undoubtedly depend on the particular newspaper for which they are working.The reader comes to the newspaper with a set of codes with which to decode the text, and these codes may differ from individual to individual. This leads to the point that the text is open to a variety of interpretation s depending on the ideological standpoint of the reader, and whether the reader is familiar with the newspaper and the codes which it wages to communicate the news__ which it has selected. Connotations of the linguistic and visual signs that are presented by newspapers are central to the signification of the news item to the reader.The connotations of the news item are perceived within a coded framework and there are recognisable codes within different newspapers. It is clear that different newspapers use particular narrative codes when representing the same item of news. The headlines are linguistic syntagms, which aim to attract the attention of the reader to the event of the news story, and the linguistic signs that are diligent in the headline suggest to the reader the appropriate codes that are needed to understand or decode the news item. It is clear that the newspapers use different linguistic codes as a means of representing the news item.For example, and in further disc ussion and differentiation, we are going to be focusing on three major newspapers in the UK- _The Times, The Telegraph, _and The Sun. _The Times___ and _The Telegraph__ are similar in their use of language. However, twain differ dramatically with The Sun___. It is clear that The Sun uses orally based vocabulary, and dramatic and sensational language. Another drastic oddment between the newspapers representations of news items are the typographic devices used to break up the text.Again, _The Sun___ differs dramatically to _The Telegraph___ and _The Times___ using bold face text to start the article, serving to extend the role of the headline in attracting the attention of the reader to the topic of the news story. The use of bold and one word sub-headings which are employed throughout the text serve to direct the reader in making meaning of the text and make blatantly obvious the points which the newspaper deem to be of particular significance to the understanding of the news item . _The Telegraph___ and _The Times_ do not employ the same typographic codes as _The Sun___, apart from bold type which is used for the headline, and the bold type used to name the journalist/s of the article. The narrative of the news story uses the same type and size of vitrine throughout the item. Arguably, this connotes authority and formality to the reader, which is also demonstrated by the fairly long sentences, the plant spellings, and the neediness of colloquial language that is used in _The Sun___.This perhaps implies that the quality__ press such as _The Times__ and The Telegraph___ provide check news than tabloids such as _The Sun___. However, this kind of value judgement is inappropriate as both types of newspaper are constructions of the news with the quality newspapers aiming to connote authority and formality and the popular__ tabloids aiming to connote an attitude of telling it how it is. __ Thus, both types of representation of the news items present mythic meani ngs.Linguistic and typographic codes are not the only codes employed in newspapers. Graphic codes must also be considered. The photographs used in the newspapers have also undergone a process of selection. One image will be chosen over another as it connotes a message that the selectors of the photograph want to communicate. Barthes (cited in Bignell, 197798) suggests that the newspaper photograph is an object that has been worked on, chosen, composed, constructed, treat according to professional, esthetic or ideological norms which are so many factors of connotation. _ The treatment__ of photographs, which is referred to by Barthes can be seen in the different newspapers that I have chosen. Interestingly, each version of the news item has used the same photographs, but treated them differently according to the required connotation. Again, The Times and The Telegraph use similar codes and The Sun employs a drastically different strategy despite using the same original photographs. The most drastic difference is that The Sun presents the photographs in colour, connoting realism and the dangerousness of the offender.This is also connoted by the size of the photographs, with the graphic representation dominating a large proportion of the overall available space on the page, which is another drastic difference between The Suns representation of the news item and the other two newspapers. Despite these major differences, it is significant that the newspapers have all used the same photographs, and it is interesting to look at why these particular photographs might have been chosen.Paradigmatically, photographs involve connotations, and thus the significance of the particular photographs, which have been chosen, can be seen more clearly when considering what other paradigmatic connotations might have appeared in their place. As Bignell (199799) suggests, the caption underneath the picture enables the reader to load down the image with particular cultural meanings a nd the photograph functions as the proof that the texts message is true. __ The pictures are also shown in different contexts in the three newspapers with _The Sun__ using a different strategy to The Telegraph___ and _The Times___. _The Telegraph___ and _The Times___ use similar sized pictures of the individuals involved. In _The Sun__,_ the size of the photographs of the individuals differs considerably. This discussion of several newspapers representations of the same news item show how semiotic analysis can determine the meanings of such news items, as a result of the linguistic and visual signs used within the texts. However, semiotic analysis cannot determine how an individual reader might interpret the representations of the news items in a real social context.Semiotic analysis does offer an insight into the factors at work in the production of a news item and distinguishes the various codes, which are employed by different types of newspaper when representing a particular new s item. CONCLUSION To conclude this essay, from all that I have researched, I now crawl in that newspapers have indeed come a long way I am going to give my opinion of what I believe should be the role of newspapers as an integral form of news media to the society. Newspapers are expected to keep the people informed about the political activities of their government.They should give in detail, the statements of speeches made by the rulers at public meetings or on the radio or television. They should also report the activities of political parties and leaders. regular newspapers should be able to criticize the policies and statements of the government or of the political parties in a fair and just method. Newspapers should also describe the economic policies of the government. For example, they should describe its import and export policies, its plans for future economic development, and the prices of different things unconquerable by it, and so on.In addition, newspapers should a lways report in detail, the economic policies of the government in the palm of agriculture, industry, and commerce, should be more detailed about matters concerning the problems of labors, farmers and other working people, and suggested their solutions. Newspapers should give a true and correct picture of society. They should describe the activities of the people in different fields like education business industry, law, medicine, science, and so on and also tell us about the activities of students and teachers, businessmen, industrialists, lawyers, doctors, scientists and all categories of working people.They should convey information regarding the different crimes taking place every day. Newspapers ought to tell about the political, economic, and social changes in different countries and give descriptions of changes in government and revolutions in different parts of the world. Lastly, they should give descriptions of changes taking place in other societies in education, science, and medicine industry agriculture and defence preparation. These are a few suggestions I believe that are suitable ideas and courses that newspapers should begin to focus on instead of the media frenzy seeking status they seem to be attaining nowadays.I do not believe that newspapers have reached the point of maximum satisfaction in the views of the society. Centuries ago, it was comprehendible that newspaper agencies could only print certain facts as some of them or most of them were government own and operated. However, with freedom of journalism, one would expect that they would become more transparent in the way they convey out news to the society. However, news relaying has been turned into infotainment. It matters less whether news is right or wrong, and matters more whether it is gripping and this is not the ways newspapers should be going nowadays.Newspapers are probably the main source of handy information that provides up-to-date information on a daily basis that everyo ne can afford to buy. It gives the sophisticated approach towards life in social, political, economical and entertainment framework. Provide knowledgeable information available to all ages and societal status. Newspapers influence the society greatly because it is not necessary that everyone have TV, or internet resources, radio, as these are the proficient resources, but everyone gets to read the newspaper every now and then.Newspapers are the global need of every culture, and should therefore promote freedom of journalism to project the truth in the society. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bignell, J (1997). Media Semiotics An Introduction. Manchester Manchester University Press. 79-98. Carlos Hurworth. (2009). How the News Media Controls Society. open http//www. helium. com/items/1534166-how-the-news-media-controls-society. Last accessed 13 Dec 2009. Farlex. (2006). Role of News Media.