ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN SOCIAL ORDER & MARXIST THEORY:Positive View

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Theories of Communication MCM 511

LESSON 24

ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN SOCIAL ORDER & MARXIST THEORY

Pluralist Media

The pluralist model is, in nearly every respect, the opposite. It holds that there is no dominant elite, and

change and democratic control are both possible. Differentiated audiences are seen to initiate demand

and are able to resist persuasion and react to what media offer. The pluralist view is an idealized version

of what liberalism and the free market will lead to media in social order.

Role of Mass Media In Social Order

Another aspect that also needs to be looked into before we proceed is the role of media in social order.

Theorists of mass communication have often shared with sociologists an interest in how social order is

maintained and in the attachment of people to various kinds of social unit.

Negative view

The media were early on associated with the problems of rapid urbanization, social mobility and the

decline of traditional communities. Media have continued to be linked with social dislocation and a

supposed increased in individual immorality, crime and disorder. Mass communication as a process has

often been typified as predominantly individualistic, impersonal and anomic, conducive to lower levels

of social control and solidarity. The media have brought messages of what is new and fashionable in

terms of goods, ideas, techniques and values from city to country and from the social top to the base.

They have also portrayed alternative value systems, potentially weakening the hold of traditional values

positive view.

Positive View

An alternative view of the relation between mass media and social integration has also been in

circulation. It has a capacity to unite scattered individuals within the same large audience or integrate

newcomers into urban communities by providing a common set of values, ideas and information and

helping to form identities.

This process can help to bind together a large-scale, differentiated modern society more effectively than

would have been possible through older mechanisms of religious, family or group control.

In other words, as media seem in principle capable both of supporting and of subverting social cohesion.

The positions seem far apart, the one stressing centrifugal and the other centripetal tendencies, although

in fact in complex and changing society both forces are normally at work at the same time, the one

compensating to some extent for the other.

Centrifugal tendencies include the notions of change, freedom, diversity and fragmentation.

Centripetal tendencies include the notion of order, control, unity and cohesion four different

theoretical positions relating to social integration.

In order to make sense of this complicated situation, it helps to think of the two versions of media

theory- centrifugal tendencies and centripetal tendencies - each with its own dimension of evaluation, so

that there are, in effect, four different theoretical positions relating to social integration.

Four different theoretical positions relating to social integration

Centripetal tendencies

1. The positive version of the centripetal effect stresses the media as integrative and unifying

(essentially the functionalist view).

2. The negative version represents this effect as one of homogenization and manipulative control

(critical theory).

Theories of Communication MCM 511

Centrifugal tendencies

1. The positive version of centrifugalism stresses modernization, freedom and mobility as the effects to

be expected from media (individualism).

2. While the negative version centrifugalism points to isolation, Alienation loss of values and

vulnerability (dysfunctional view of change as social disorder).

Rise of cultural theories in Europe

Despite its long life in American social science the limited effects paradigm never enjoyed great

popularity in Europe. European social research has instead been characterized by what US observers

regard as grand social theories highly ambitious macroscopic and speculative theories that attempt to

understand and predict important trends in culture and society. Mass society theory gave way to a

succession of alternate idea some were limited to specific nations and others spread across many

countries. Some of the most widely accepted have been based on the writings of Karl Marx.

Marxist theory influenced even the theories that were created in reaction against it. Marxist ideas

formed a foundation or touchstone for much post-World War II European theory and research.

Ironically, In the 1970s and 1980s when Marxism was failing as a practical guide for politics economics

in Eastern Europe, grand social theories based on Marxist thought were gaining increasing acceptance in

Western Europe.

We will briefly summarize key arguments in Marxist perspective and pay particular attention to media.

Marxist Theory

Karl Marx developed his theory in the latter part of the 19th century. Marx was familiar with the grand

social theories of era. He drew on them or constructed his ideas in opposition to them. He identified

industrialization and urbanization as problems but argued that these changes were not inherently bad.

Instead, he had a more positive view of the role of the masses in changing society.

For Marx social change was explained by the struggle between competing and antagonistic forces in

society that he called-following the work of another German philosopher , George Hegel , on the

historical development of ideas- the dialectic process. This struggle was between the `haves' and `have

nots' who Marx differentiated in terms of their possession of economic power. The haves were the

bourgeoisie, the capitalist owning class, who exercised power through their control of the means of

production- that is land , factories and labour- which he referred to as the BASE of society, the `have

not' , were the proletariat or working classes , the masses.

He argued that the hierarchal class system was at the root of all social problems. The power of the

bourgeoisie is exercised according to the material exploitation of the working classes through extracting

their surplus value and making excess profit. He blamed ruthless, robber baron capitalists for

exacerbating social problems because they maximized personal profits by exploiting workers. Although

mass society theorists demanded restoration of the old order Marx was a utopian, calling for the creation

of an entirely new social order which all social classes would be abolished. The workers would rise

against capitalists and demand an end to exploitation. They would band together and end the

exploitation by a revolution of the workers or the proletariat. Marxism emphasizes the proposition that

class struggle is central to the historical development of society.

Key principles used in Marxism

When we talk of Marxism we should also be clear about some important principles used in Marxism

very frequently and which are the basis of understanding Marxism. These principles will also be most

useful for the media analyst and for the understanding of different mass communication theories related

to Marxism.

Materialism

Ideology

False consciousness

Theories of Communication MCM 511

Class Conflict

Alienation

The term alienation suggests separation and distance. It contains within it the word alien, a stranger in a

society who has no connections with other, no ties, on liens of any sort.

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