1 ABCT2103 TOPIC 8 THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO
UNDERSTANDING NEW MEDIA.
3. The process of media concentration not only affects the media
products, but also the whole media industry. Discuss.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Explain the theoretical framework in the
study of media convergence;
2. Understand the tendencies in media
concentration and its capacity towards influencing the cultural industries;
3. Identify diffusion of information; and
4. Analyse the forms of diffusion
INTRODUCTION
Almost every current new media and communication reference book or
primer would begin with the acknowledgement that the Internet has emerged as
the delivery mode of choice for all kinds of media products. These media
products are, to put it simply, broken into millions of bits of data, or what
is referred to as 1s and 0s, which are transmitted over the Internet, and are
then decoded back into their original forms. This process brought to the fore
the idea of the digital revolution or media convergence. Almost all discussions
on convergence would
relate mainly to its technological aspects and the changes that come
with it, again raising the idea of the digital revolution of the media.
Therefore, media convergence is perhaps one of the most powerful forces
to have brought an impact on the media industry, media organisations, media
business, and media audiences. Since the impact is substantial and felt
throughout the industry, there is a need to re-examine the effects of media
convergence on media economics, management of media organisations, effects on
the marketplace as well as impact on society. The convergence of media has
evoked new questions, new discourses and new challenges to media organisations,
practices and genre development. The ongoing technological changes and
innovations need to be considered and new theoretical conceptions of
convergence need to be examined, put to test and finally answered.
8.1 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF MEDIA CONVERGENCE
Media convergence is therefore, an important theory in communications
where all mass medium in the end merges to the point where they all become one
medium due to the advancing levels of new media technologies. A simple example
of a converging media is the element of convergence between the mobile phone
and the digital camera, the coming together of the phone’s processor and the
small lenses of a basic digital camera.
Since the 1980s, media scholars began to track and to anticipate crucial
changes in the computer and IT industries. One remarkable development was the
convergence of the cultural industries with telecommunications and information
technology. Hesmondhalgh (2002) referred to the observations by De Sola Pool
(1983), of an impending convergence between telecommunications and computers
and the media. The entertainment and information industries would merge with
the futuristic computer and will be transmitted by cable, satellite, and
telephone lines.
ACTIVITY 8.1
Computers have evolved since its first invention. It’s not just for
scientists or researchers anymore. Almost all of us use this technology in our
daily lives. Can you imagine what computers would look like in the future? And
what are the other things we can do with this technology?
These international policy agencies have increased the move towards the
business internationalisation of trade in cultural and media products,
especially in telecommunications and broadcasting. At national governmental
level, in Malaysia, prior to 1988, the Ministry of Information was in charge of
all matters pertaining to the broadcasting industry, but with the
implementation of digital broadcasting technology, and the repeal of the
Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunication Act of 1988, the Malaysian broadcast
and multimedia industries are now governed by the single Communication and
Multimedia Act, 1998.
Figure
8.1: Three Cs of Convergent Media.
Terry Flew (2004) also forwarded the same opinion and states that the
three Cs of convergent media are between communications network, content of the
media and the computing and information technology sector, leading to the other
C of convergence. This also brings forth the idea of new media as digital
media, which are digital media consisting of media content that combine data,
text, sound, and all sorts of images that are kept in digital formats and are
then distributed through networks such as broadband fibre-optic cables and
satellites. Therefore, new media technology especially the Internet, social
media, texting, chat rooms, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and others have created
new approaches to the types of new media communication by humankind.
Thus, the idea of converging media environments has raised new questions
about the theoretical frameworks in researching the current situation. Media
convergence as a theory specifically looks into the environment where every
mass medium eventually merges to become one medium due to technological
advances in communication. Media convergence is certainly one of the major forces
that triggered massive changes in media management, media economics and
audience. In most cases, this convergence increases the level of co-operation
between multiple industries and the ever changing taste and preferences of the
media audiences.
With all the new interplays brought upon by the new media technologies,
research has therefore become more complex due to the various media choices and
the changing roles of the active audience of new media. University students have
become more interested in pursuing studies on the Internet and researching
Internet-based issues. More and more postgraduates are looking into the
Internet phenomenon, especially research that look into how students use the
Internet or the Web or other online services.
For example, one major focus of a study is to see how the visual
communication aspects of technological convergence, that is the aesthetics of
digital media graphics and virtual reality would impact upon the television
industry, the major broadcast industry in the 1980s onwards. It would also be
interesting to see that the television broadcast industry is not the only
medium affected by the technological advances, but also the mainstream print
newspaper and magazines industries. This would entail a framework of study that
looks into aspects of visual communication, television graphics and magazine
graphic design.
Various scholars have conducted researches on the impact of
technological convergence in their area of specialisation. Lin (2001) studies
how advertisers use the Internet-based venues and the usage of online services
for advertisements.
Another area of research framework that may be applied by media
researchers is to look into matters pertaining to the evolution of different
media as they face up to or adjust to the emerging and merging technologies.
One major implication is the aspect of diffusion of innovation and how it
impacted upon the practices of media organisations. For example, research may
look into the impact on the training of new media journalists and the practice
of new media journalism, such as mainstream new media versus citizen
journalism.
Other theoretical implications may also be connected to studies on the
cultural, economic, political, and social implications of convergence. This
research framework had its early beginnings in the old Marxist school of the
political economy of the media, with an emphasis on the nature of the
converging structure of control and ownership pattern of the media and new
media conglomerates. Other variations in this school of thought is the hegemony
theory, in the sense that cross media ownership may lead to groups of
organisations in a particular society holding to power and control through the
media. The term hegemony was defined by Gramsci (Rosenberry and Vicker, 2009),
the Italian socialist journalist as a situation in which a large part of
society becomes compliant and agrees with the dominant ideology, in this case
the dominant ideology eschewed by the media conglomerates.
While we realise that the new convergence has new issues and new
research questions pertaining to the new environment, we must be reminded that
common theories that have been repeatedly applied in the traditional areas of
research in media and communication need to be expanded to incorporate the new
transformations brought by the changing technology of the Internet. For
instance the traditional media dependency theory needs to be brought in line
with media dependency in the Internet age. A quick look into the submission of
proposals to the various media schools would show that lately, more research
topics look at dependency on social-networking spaces such as Facebook and
MySpace as well as selling and shopping activities online. Students are keen to
study the influence of mobile phones amongst their peers and how this usage has
spread all over the global campus life.
8.2 GLOBAL MEDIA: MEDIA CONCENTRATION AND CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
We have previously mentioned that as a result of the converging media
economics, we have witnessed many mergers and acquisitions at both national and
international levels. We see increasing concentration of media ownership.
Previously, most media companies started out with a visionary individual
with a business plan and braving all odds and risks. In America we know of
Henry Luce who established the TIME magazine which is now part of the mega
conglomerate Time Life-CNN-AOL business. Another example is the media baron
Rupert Murdoch who started with a small newspaper business he had inherited
from his father. Today he is the man behind News Corporation, Fox studios,
movie studios, newspaper and book publishing businesses.
On a global scale, towards the 1970s into early 2000s, media companies,
as capitalist business ventures, began to draw enormous profits and were always
on a profit making mode. This quest for bigger profits initiated the rapid
expansion into media conglomeration. Through mergers and acquisitions,
transnational companies operated with the single purpose of multiplying
profits. For example, media conglomerate Time Warner generates a revenue of
over USD37 billion per annum.
Figure.8.2:
Media Conglomerates
The convergence of the media, communication, information and computer
technologies have also led towards a concentration of ownership of media
corporations at national and international levels.
ACTIVITY 8.2
Since there has been a deregulation in media laws in the early 1980s,
more companies have created conglomerates. The biggest issue is that media
conglomerates focus on profit and treat their viewers as consumers rather than
citizens.
1. What do you think of that statement?
2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages with the emergence of media
conglomerates in the media industry.
Scholars in the critical political economy school like Herman and
McChesney (1977) and Schiller’s commodification of culture theory (1983) are
some of the exponents on the idea that American media products have been
successful in influencing the global media ethos in terms of spreading American
cultural values and moral norms. Schiller’s book, Mass Communications and
American Empire (1969), drew attention from the world to his treatise that
American media products, especially American movies are flooding the global
market-places and spreading Americanisation of the world culture. ESPN and MTV
have turned into global brands. Rupert MurdochÊs SkyTV have entered the skies in
Asia and Latin America.
The converging nature of media resulted in moves towards mergers and
acquisitions on a global scale, for example the merger (and consequently the
separation) of AOL and Time 'Warner in 2001 and AT &T's purchase of TCI in
1999. Industry convergence may also be associated with the transmissions of
audio and video which may be accessed from a range of devices, from mobile
telephones to digital televisions or even refrigerators as in the Korean LG
range of products.
Since some of these mergers involved transnational organisations, the
era of convergence also witnessed the increasing importance of international
policy agencies such as NAFTA (North American Free Trade Association comprising
of the USA, Canada and Mexico), ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian nations),
EU (European Union), WTO (World Trade Organisation) and GATT (General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade).
In the debate about the commercialisation and growth of the Internet,
McChesney (1999: 124-5) as quoted in Flew mentioned that, when certain forces
thoroughly dominate a society’s political economy they will thoroughly dominate
its communications system 'and so it is' for the most part, with big business
interests in the United States. Similarly, the development of the global
Internet services would also mean a concentration of power in a few
international conglomerates controlling the integrated computing and
communications network of the world.
However, there are counter suggestions to Schiller's theory of imperialism.
The world systems theory speak of the core countries from the first world such
as United States and the Western European nations representing the Anglo-Saxon
sphere of influence exporting cultural products in a single one-way flow are
now receiving media and cultural products from the non-core third world
countries.
Media products from regional players such as India, China and East Asia
countries such as Japan and Korea are beginning to flood the markets in Europe
and America. The Latin American countries such as Brazil and Mexico have
exported cultural products into the global marketplace including Malaysia.
Figure
8.3: Timeline of Major Media Takeovers and Mergers.
Flew presented a list of major takeovers and mergers during the period
of 1989-2000 beginning with the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications
to form Time-Warner. Later Time-Warner merged with AOL which became the largest
merger in history worth about US350 billion. Another mega-transnational is
Comcast which offers telephone and internet services as well as television
programmes with world-wide appeal such as sports programmes.
8.3 USES AND GRATIFICATIONS OF MEDIA – MEDIA ACCESS
ACTIVITY 8.3
With the
convergence of media, you as the consumer of media products are still
confronted with a variety of products to choose from, including the old media.
So, what motivates you to use a certain media? What do you do with the media of
your choice? Do you prefer to rely on the media that you are familiar or you
prefer to try new media products?
In the early phases of media research, the focal point rests on the
assumption that media has the most powerful effect on the audience. The early
and simplistic theories show that the receivers of mass media accept media
messages as dutifully as they receive and believe the injection and the effects
of that dose of medicine from the hypodermic needles from their doctors.
Therefore, the hypodermic effect of the media reflected a sense of the powerful
media organisations during the early phases and that the audience are passive
receivers of media content and generally would accept media messages without
much scrutiny or further analysis.
Later, media scholars began theorising about the concept of an active
audience.
Blumler and Katz (1974) proposed that media audiences have specific
needs and use the media to fulfill their individual needs. Blumler and Katz
lists the four media purposes or Uses and Gratifications (U&G) of the media
as follows:
1. Diversion or Entertainment:
People use the media to divert attention from daily routine and
problems.
2. Personal Relationships :
People use media as a substitute for emotional and interpersonal
interaction.
3. Personal Identity:
People find themselves reflected in texts and television programmes.
4. Surveillance
People use media to gather information, just like people watching for
weather or currency exchange rates.
McQuail (2000) expanded the lists of uses to include the current
developments in the media environment such as the increasing usage of new media
and the internet as well as the active usage of video games in current
societies. Thus, according to McQuail, the priority of uses are:
1. Information;
2. Personal identity;
3. Integration and Social Interaction; and
4. Entertainment.
U&G has been again expanded by media researchers such as Sandra
Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur (1976) who proposed that members of urban
society depend on media on an ever increasing rate as discussed in the Media
Dependency Theory, which looked into the relationship among social systems,
media audience and how each of the these interacts and affects one another. A
simple example would be students texting one another on their mobile phones and
attending interactive Web courses. It is important to also that as the media
become more sophisticated and as more and more functions are offered, more
members of society became dependent on the media system.
Researchers would continue to ask the same research questions regarding
changes and transformations in their contemporary environment. What is further
required is to expand and include new conceptual frameworks related to the new
circumstances.
Therefore, the uses and gratifications theory must keep up with the
latest contexts and issues such as the computer-mediated social networks and
how online services help social interaction and fulfill the needs for
entertainment and play.
8.4 DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS AND INFORMATION
Diffusion of innovations is the process in which information, news,
ideas and values began to spread in society. The transmission of values by the
mass media into societies and communities may initiate changes and even
upheavals within societies. For example, the music and fashion industry may be
influenced by a series of popular programmes transmitted in the media.
Everett Rogers(1995) is associated with this theory which shows that the
process of diffusion goes through a number of stages including :
- Persuasion by generating an attitude;
- Decision to accept or reject the innovation; and
- Confirmation of the decision about innovation.
Diffusion of innovations is also a fitting theory to study the
technological innovations that occur in society, for example the explosion of
the use of mobile phones, instant messaging, e-mail and text messaging. Rogers
outlines factors that may be applied to the recent technological innovation of
the iPod music player such as the following:
1. Relative advantage: The level an innovation is accepted as better
than the earlier item. The iPod is better than the earlier technology of the CD
player.
2. Complexity: The iPod is perceived as easy to use especially by the
younger generation.
3. Trialability: The level in which experiments conducted with the iPod
especially between users is simple and achievable.
4. Observability: the results of the innovation are visible, in the
cities, in campuses worldwide.
ACTIVITY 8.4
The adoption of innovation of product differs among consumers. Generally
the consumers of new products can be categorised as follows:
1. Innovators;
2. Early adopters;
3. Early majority;
4. Late majority; and
5. Laggards.
Explain each of that type stated above.
- Since the 1980s, media scholars had begun to track and to anticipate
crucial changes in the computer and IT industries.
- The three Cs of convergent media are between communications network,
content of the media and the computing and information technology sector.
- Media convergence as a theory specifically looks into the environment
where every mass medium eventually merges to become one medium due to
technological advances in communication.
- The convergence of the media, communication, information and computer
technologies have also led towards a concentration of ownership of media
corporations at national and international levels.
- In the early phases of media research, the focal point rests on the
assumption that media has the most powerful effect on the audience.
Commercialisation
Diffusion of Innovation
Media convergence
1. List and explain the priority of usage of new media as suggested by
McQuails.
2. What is diffusion of innovation?
3. Discuss each of following in terms of Use and Gratification:
(a) Personal Identity;
(b) Surveillance;
(c) Diversion; and
(d) Personal relationship.
1. Based on Terry Flew, convergence of media involves the 3C’s. Explain
each C and how it creates the convergence of media or digital media.
2. Americanisation is spreading into the world culture because of the
converging media economic. Explain this phenomenon by using the diffusion of
innovation theory.
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