source: http://www.newi.ac.uk/medwyn/medwyn.html

Realism and the Contexts of Media

In approaching the study of the various forms of the Mass Media (television, films, newspapers) the first consideration is that of Realism, that is, the relationship between particular mass media forms/examples and the "reality" that is being represented. This consideration applies as much to the analysis of television or newspaper "News" ("how true is it"), as it does to the basic criticism of films or television drama ("how lifelike is it?"), or even to the analysis of advertisements ("what is the relationship between the proffered image and 'real life'?"). The word "media" itself should direct us towards this: a medium is that which carries, transmits or relays messages or processes. In the case of the "mass media" we are concerned with media which deliver a view of the world, represent reality, and inevitably we need to be aware of the ways in which those media transform, distort or reprocess the "reality" which they present to us. To become medialiterate is to become more conscious of the materiality of the medium, to be aware of the ways in which the medium itself is the "message". It also involves becoming aware of some of the aesthetic, cultural, technological, economic and social factors which are at work in media representations and which prevent them from being straightforward reflections of reality and "the world".

One starting point is to examine a number of media artefacts and to begin to examine them critically, becoming aware not only of the particular view of "reality" which is being presented, but also of the ways in which that view of the world presented, and the reasons why this is so. For example, we might do basic content analyses of particular programmes or films, looking at things like the exclusion of certain social or racial groups, professions or lifestyles. Alternatively, we might consider different versions of the same "reality", such as documentary versus soap opera accounts of social issues.

A third approach might involve looking at the potentials and weaknesses of particular forms what can films do that newspapers cannot do, and why?

From this starting point it will be clear that a number of factors technological, social, cultural do govern the ways in which a particular media text will present its particular view of the world, and the "message" which it delivers about that reality. If a film or television programme presents a particular view of the world it does so on its own terms, and within its own contexts and conventions. We can proceed further by isolating some of the factors which determine the text and affect the way in which it represents the world.

  1. Sociological and Economic Factors.
    bulletthe relationship between media texts or forms and the political order (questions of control, regulation and censorship)
    bulletthe ownership of means of production and distribution of film, television and newspapers within the wider economic system (questions of social control, profitability, marketing and targeting, "commercial" considerations)
    bulletthe relationship between the media and its audience, and the more general issue of the role and influence of the media (questions of marketing, audience research, targeting, distribution, and related questions of whether or not the media reflects, informs or directs "popular" taste, knowledge or values.
    bulletcultural considerations and the avowed or actual cultural role of the media in society (notions of "popular culture" and the place of the mass media within cultures/national culture?).
  2. The Media Text Itself.
    bulletThe aesthetic and technological nature of the form, including its language and codes (nature of the medium, of visual images, the interrelationship of sound, image and text).
    bullet"narrative" structure and the selection, editing and presentation of the "story" (sequence, plot, order).
    bullettime and duration.
    bulletcharacterisation.
    bulletfunction (e.g. educational, commercial, entertainment?)
    bulletimplied audience, and encoding of the reader or viewer.
    bulletgenre
    bulletpoint of view, including the inclusion/exclusion of certain points of view.
    bulletrelationship to other media texts and forms (intertextuality)
    bullet"message" and meaning: ideology and the "message" which the text asserts, implicitly or explicitly, about the view of the world which is being presented.
  3. Viewers and Readers.
    bulletthe psychological nature of the viewing/reading process (including visual processing, meaningmaking and illusion, and "reality formation")
    bulletthe conditions and contexts of viewing/reading (including duration, concentration, social setting)
    bulletviewer/reader familiarity with the conventions of the media form, and recognition of those conventions.
    bulletthe pleasures and expectations of viewing/reading.
    bullettargeted or encoded viewers/readers.
    bullet"message" processing, including processing of
    bulletdenotative/connotative messages, recognition and identification (psychological and social), and questions of ideology, value and belief. The transaction or negotiation of meanings?

All of the above factors come into play when considering the reasons why media texts present "reality" in particular ways, and are recognised and experienced by the reader or viewer. In this course we will be exploring some of these factors in greater detail, particularly those concerned with the analysis of individual media texts (films, advertisements or television programmes), their form, codes and languages, the ways that they work to present a picture of the world, (2 above). Also we will be concerned with viewing and reading, to emphasize the point that individual viewers and readers are not simply passive respondents, but rather actively involved in the processing and evaluation of media texts and images.

This page last updated 28/03/95 by Medwyn Jones