Why Studying Media Is Important: Understanding The Role Of Media In Society

In this unit teaching staff aim to provide you with a range of readings and practical exercises that help you acquire conceptual frameworks for analysing media texts and media industries. Through close reading, oral discussion, writing exercises, and a group project you should acquire various practical and conceptual tools for understanding not only the form and content of media texts but also the structure and operation of the various industries and institutions that make up what we call “mass media”.
On successful completion of this unit students should be able to:
1.Identify and discuss the various economic, political and cultural forces which shape the practical work of media production;
2.Explain the historical development of media industries;
3.Recognise and use available frameworks for making sense of media texts;
4.Analyse and evaluate the contributions of these frameworks to the production of dominant or common sense understandings of the world;
5.Produce a digital artefact informed by the theories and concepts learnt in this unit.

Forms of media and the development of media studies

Media refers to communication outlet or the tool that is used for the purpose of the delivering of information in the society. It refers to a channel of the general communication that serves the purpose of providing entertainment in the society. This essay discusses why the studying of media is more important and why it should not be consumed. This essay talks about the importance of studying media and the approaches that can be used for the studying of the media in the present age.

There are various forms of the media like the verbal or the written media and the visual media. The study of the media came about owing to the development in relation to mass communication. Media studies refers to an academic discipline that helps in binding the various hybrid disciplines like the semiotics, structuralism along with the sociolinguists. It has been argued by McKee (2001) that the media can be said to be a crucial aspect in relation to study as this area of study is contemporary and always evolving. The media studies has an effect on the everyday life of the individuals as the audiences interacts with the media in the modern age. Studying media can help in understanding the link that exists between the texts, audiences along with the producers. News can play an important role in influencing the audience (McKee, 2001).  Internet plays an important part in the present age in transmitting the information in the present age. It helps in crossing boundaries of the texts along with the producers that helps the user in getting access to multiple sources of the information. The messages that are portrayed on the media can have various meanings for different people and it can help in changing the interpretation of the audience. The media studies can play a crucial role in forming the opinions of the people. The media has a great influence on the people and it has an effect on the real life of the people.

It is important to study the media in the deeper level as it can help in making the people conscious about certain events. It has been argued by Sinclair (2006) that the media can act as a tool of the analysis that can prevent the people from following hegemonic idea like the masses. Media in the form of a subject can help in understanding the world in various ways that can help in the understanding of the society and the mechanisms of the world. It is important to study media in the present age instead of consuming the media as it is influenced greatly by the political realm that can distort the real facts in the present age. The media plays a crucial role in forming the perspective of an individual in relation to the political and the socio-cultural issues. According to Sinclair (2006), media should be studied in a manner that can help in opening the understanding regarding how the things work and how ideologies can help in governing the lives of the individual. The audiences are manipulated in the present age by the using of media and hence media should not be consumed blindly by the people in the present age. The media makes people consider various kinds of examples and it helps in opening the minds of the individuals in the society. The media studies helps in reviewing the theories that helps people in understanding useful of the theories.

The impact of media on everyday life and understanding of the world

According to O’shaughnessy, Stadler and Casey (2016), media should be studied in a careful manner as it helps people in understanding the society in the social along with the political context. Media helps in perceiving the self in the form of a product of symbolic system in the world. The media studies can help an individual in making sense of the world that acts as an outcome in relation to a symbolic project. It has been stated by O’shaughnessy, Stadler and Casey (2016), that the messages of the media are not fixated with one particular meaning that is imposed by the authoritarian figures. There are multiple angles for the analysis of media and the public becomes more knowledgeable in the modern age with the help of closer scrutiny of the media. The close introspection of the inner meanings of the media texts helps an individual in becoming more independent in the society.

Textual analysis can be used for the gathering along with the analysing of information in relation to the media texts that can help in understanding the pattern of the meanings. The approach of content analysis can help in breaking components of the program that can help in understanding the inner meaning of the content .The semiotic analysis approach can also be used that can help in breaking various elements of text. In the realm of media studies, there is not a correct way that can help in the interpretation of any text. Text can be interpreted by taking recourse to genre along with the various codes procedures (Sinclair 2006).  There is no correct manner of interpretation of text and it is of crucial importance to understand the media text within world of the reality. Media studies can help in understanding elements of the language along with the culture that can help in shaping the meanings in the society.

Media is indicative of tool that is used for the transmission of information within the society. It is instrumental in communication that provides entertainment within the society. It is indicative of academic discipline that helps in bringing together the different disciplines like structuralism and the sociolinguists. Media is evolving in the present age. It affects the daily life of the people in the event of the audience interacting with the media. The manipulation of the audience takes place in the present age and media should not be consumed in a blind manner in the current age. The people considers various alternatives with the help of the media that opens minds of the people. Textual analysis is used for the analysis of information pertaining to the media texts that helps in discovering the hidden meanings of the text. Semiotic analysis helps in breaking down the different elements of a text. There does not exist correct manner for interpretation of text.

References

McKee, A. (2001). A beginner's guide to textual analysis. Metro Magazine, (127), 138-149.

O’shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J., & Casey, S. (2016). Media and society.

Sinclair, J. (2006). Media and Communications; Theoretical Traditions. The media and communications in Australia, 13-27.