Mass media and public opinion: Encyclopedia II - Mass media and public opinion - Mass media in the internet age

Mass media and public opinion - Mass media in the internet age

Mander’s theory is related to Jean Baudrillard’s concept of ‘hyperreality’. We can take the 1994 OJ Simpson trial as an example, where the reality reported on was merely the catalyst for the simulacra (images) created, which defined the trial as a global event and made the trial more than it was. Essentially, hyperreality is the concept that the media is not merely a window on to the world (as if a visiting alien were watching TV), but is itself part of the reality it describes. Hence (although additionally there is the question of navel-gazing) the media’s obsession with media-created events. It is this which lead Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s to say that "the medium is the message", and to suggest that mass media was increasingly creating a "global village". Thus, for example, there is evidence that Western media influences in Asia are the driving force behind rapid social change: “it is as if the 1960s and the 1990s were compressed together.” A notable example is the recent introduction of television to Bhutan, with dramatic effects in terms of very rapid Westernization. This raises questions of ‘cultural imperialism’ (Schiller) - the de facto imposition, through economic and political power and through the media, of Western (and in particular US) culture.

What is crucial is the control of knowledge and the flow of information. Whether controlled by lack of easy means of dissipation, by feudal absolutism, state control of mass media or big business, the media sets an agenda based on who controls it, rather than necessarily being a kind of forum for bourgeois discussion of public issues. In certain circumstances this may be the case, but it will be the exception rather than the rule, and it is difficult to identify this kind of a forum with a particular stage in the development of the media. However, this does not exclude individuals from continuous, active interpretation and evaluation within the private sphere, with some feedback to the public sphere, through such mechanisms as letters to newspapers, polls and informal contacts with people who act within the public sphere. Ultimately, such interpretation and evaluation can also lead to changes in behaviour, such as voting patterns or consumer behaviour, or in social attitudes, particularly in non-Western societies open to Western media, bringing Western ideas, values and culture. Individuals’ interpretation and evaluation is constrained by the context the media provides - and the more homogeneous the media, and the more the media’s agenda is uniform, the more individuals’ ability to understand the ‘big picture’ by playing off alternative sources of information and alternative viewpoints is undermined. For the future, the internet - through blogs, forums, wikis etc - may play a role in reclaiming the public sphere for liberal-democratic debate.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Mass media in the internet age", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki