Surveillance is a function that is associated with journalism, which provides information about ongoing local or global issues and events. The viewpoint of the media outlet delivering the news can have a major impact on the audience's understanding and interpretation of the news. The media outlet's view will affect the way in which they deliver news,which in turn affects the way the audience interprets the news.
This ABC news story about the hunger crisis in West Africa fits the description of a surveillance function of mass communication. It is presented by journalists who are informing the audience about the widespread hunger crisis in western Africa, especially in the country of Niger. Surveillance can also skew the audience's views of certain issues. Most western media reports on Africa depict it as a hopeless, corrupt, and disease ridden continent. While Africa does have its problems, it is also a beautiful continent with a plethora of resources, but that side never gets portrayed by the media. News reports like this ABC one only fuel the afro-pessimitic view that westerners have.
The next function of mass communication is correlation. Correlation deals with how how the media interprets and assigns meaning to issues, to help people see how their views align with public opinion.
Powerful advertisements can be great examples of correlation. In the ad shown above, the gun is loaded with cigarettes instead of bullets, which is supposed to be a metaphor highlighting the dangers of smoking cigarettes. This ad is an example of the correlative function of media, because the media has expressed a negative view of smoking, and it is up to the audience to determine whether their views are aligned with the media's. Guns are seen as dangerous weapons that many people fear. So drawing a comparison between guns and cigarettes can be very influential in discouraging people from smoking.
The entertainment function of media consists of a combination of the other functions, along with the sole purpose of entertaining the audience.
Today, audiences have many sources of entertainment media. Ranging from comic books to reality television shows. One criticism of the entertainment function of mass communication, is that it tends to perpetuate existing stereotypes of certain groups. This can be seen in the popular reality TV show Love and Hip Hop Atlanta, which has been criticized for portraying black people negatively. The show, which is made up of an all black cast, depicts blacks as people who are uneducated, unable to compose themselves in public, violent, and irrational. This show does not help in changing the image of black people, rather it reinforces existing stereotypes.
The functions of mass communication can either consciously or subconsciously have significant affects on how people view matters portrayed by the media. Which is why they play an important role in the media today.
The structure of the post is great. I like how you describe each main function of mass communication and then also have a paragraph that explains how each is used. It helps me, the reader, learn what exactly the function is and also use the connection to today’s world as a learning tool to better my understanding. The headline tells me that the functions I will be reading about affect how the target audience interprets the story. The headline could have used a little bit more of a description, but it gives a good summary. You mixed your writing and supporting evidence well by using a news story, advertisement, and television show. It helps me comprehend by being able to label the functions to their examples.
ReplyDeleteThe main points of the reading were surveillance, entertainment, cultural transmission, and correlation. You were able to describe to me what each meant and also gave me a good example for each subtopic. However, you did leave out the discussion of cultural transmission and how that plays a role in mass communication. I would add a little bit about how immigration in the United States has increased in the past decade and that some of the immigrants are having trouble adapting to the American ways. It shows how adjusting to American culture can be difficult for immigrants in the link below:
http://www.nacsw.org/Publications/Proceedings2011/DiakanwaDIntegratingNewImmigrantsE.pdf
This post is structured very well with many separate paragraphs to split up all of the points Ya is trying to make. Listing and explaining the functions of mass communication outlined in the text is very helpful because it lets the reader know the direction the blog post will be going in. The headline is very helpful in that the post will talk about how functions of media affect how the viewer interprets a certain message. The examples she talked about in the post perfectly mirror what the headline is talking about; it’s simple and tells me that certain media offer different interpretations of a message. After each example she discusses how it relates to that certain function of mass communication in great detail. Using articles, photos, and television examples, she identifies how many different types of media affect interpretations of different messages; it isn’t just one specific medium. It may be worth talking about how social media can affect how readers/viewers think of certain messages. This blog post at the bottom details how one person used Facebook to have a more personal connection with others. Connections between individuals seem to have more meaning than the content of a specific message. It would be interesting to see if social media can cause different interpretations of media.
ReplyDeletehttp://danblank.com/blog/2009/02/06/shared-experience-community-and-meaning-how-social-networks-affect-our-lives/
Hi!
ReplyDelete1. Your title was very effective and described all the aspects we discussed in class! After reading the story, I was able to get a better idea on how functions of mass communication affect our interpretation of media. I really liked how you set up the paragraphs to be very specific and effective, it even helped me understand the reading in the textbook better! I think you could elaborate more upon the 6th paragraph, I felt it has potential to be another example for this post! The mix of media Ya used, such as the advertisement and the TV show link, in the post added more depth to the post.
2. After reading the post, I took away a better understanding of the text as well as how mass communications have affected our interpretations of media. The examples of advertisements and news stories added specific examples, which made me question if I had fallen into these traps at one point as well.
3. To add to this post, stereotyping within TV shows seems to be the new norm. For example, the channel Bravo has received much backlash for their show Princesses of Long Island which portrays the stereotypical Jewish life, and yet has been renewed for a second season. It seems that in today's society we encourage and fall into these stereotypes.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/22/princesses-long-island-stereotype-leaves-jews-uncomfortable_n_3480004.html