Abstract: Media Watch May 2014

Abstract: Media Watch May 2014

(Vol. 5, No. 2)

Impact Factor: SJIF 3.276 | IIFS 0.993 | ISRA 0.834

Facebook Culture: Millennial Formation of Social Identity

Hilary K. U’Ren

Portland State University, USA

               

Social Networking Sites have become a rising trend over the past decade as a source of interaction on the internet. Facebook.com, in particular, has become dangerously popular, with over 700 million active users to date. This study examines how Millennial’s use Facebook in order to regulate impression management and gain cultural capital through their virtual networks. Erving Goffman developed the concept of impression management as a method of censoring or altering the literal impression we are projecting to those around us in order to emanate a certain identity. Facebook aids this process by allowing us to actively edit exactly what we say about ourselves on a platform that is connected to everyone we know. Profiles were coded according to the nature of their About Me sections, profile photos, and count of online friends. Through simple random sampling amongst these categories of profiles, interviewees were selected. Each Millennial selected agreed to participate and was interviewed for a period of time ranging between thirty and sixty minutes. From this data, it was found that members of the Millennial generation use the site to manipulate the way they are perceived by various groups, like peers, coworkers, and parents, present on the site.

Offline Goes Online: Does the Internet Implement or Supplement our Communication and Relationships?

Kaja Tampere & Ave Tampere

Tallinn University, Estonia

This paper will be looking at the computer code-mediated communication and relationships between people. Questions, for which answers will be sought in the paper are—Does the Internet supplement or implement our communication and relationships? Supplement by filling in pieces of relationships that we would otherwise be missing out on; implement by creating or sustaining relationships that otherwise would not exist? How are relationships that were formed offline sustained online? How does the Internet change the concept of ‘long-distance’ in terms of communicating relationships? To study the topic of this paper, a literary analysis will be performed. The argument will be based on the example of Facebook. The study will focus on examples and theories covering the Western world where the research has been conducted and claims made.

Social Media and Documentary Cinema: the Arab Spring, the Wall Street Movement, Challenges and Implications for Documentary Filmmakers

Fritz Kohle
Edinburgh University, UK

Used by millions on a daily basis Web 2 and social media have become part of our lives; Facebook arguably developed into the largest online group worldwide with some 800 million users – or one seventh of the world’s population. (Facebook, 2011) This paper reviews social media and provides a general overview of the same from the perspective of an independent documentary filmmaker. The paper investigates use of social media during the Arab Spring and Wall Street Movement (Occupy, 2011) and compares social- with traditional media. Using the example of the documentary ‘God, Church, Pills & Condoms’ (F Kohle, A Cuevas, 2011) the tools social media offers are examined and their applications are discussed. Web 2 is the accumulative sum of print, radio, TV and film, offering an ever-increasing amount of content. What are the implications and challenges for Documentary filmmakers? How can documentary filmmakers explore the full potential of social media? Does social media really offer an alternative to traditional content commissioning, content development and distribution as well as fund raising? The paper concludes by examining future trends for social media and potential applications in documentary filmmaking.

Media Morality in a Postmodern Era: A Model for Ethics Restoration

in the Mass Media

Kingsley Okoro Harbor

Jacksonville State University, USA

This paper develops a chronology of milestones in mass media ethics from inception to contemporary times, demonstrating that media ethics has been on the decline throughout mass media’s history. As a response to the continual decline of ethics in the mass media, this paper proposes a model for restoring ethics to the mass media. The model has four corner stones: (i) journalism and mass communication curricular revision, (ii) student entry placement, (iii) revised training for future journalists, and (iv) journalistic de-collectivization, a term used by this author to describe the act of shielding a journalist from the impact of corporate culture in the newsroom. Essential theoretical frameworks guiding the model include Kohlberg’s moral development theory and Patterson and Wilkins’s ethical news values.

Bollywoodization of the War on Terror

Daya Thussu
University of Westminster, London, UK

In the decade since 9/11, the ‘war on terror’ has been framed in mainstream global media discourses predominantly as a conflict between medievalist Islamic terrorists and the modern West, led by the United States. In India, where the media market has grown exponentially along the lines of the US commercially led model, the media discourse has broadly followed this global trajectory. After providing an overview of terrorism in India, this article focuses on the coverage of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai on 26 November 2008, the most extensively covered terrorism story outside the Western world.  The article shows how during ‘India’s 9/11,’ media and communication technologies intersected to create a tele-visual spectacle, in a fiercely competitive media market, one increasingly shaped by an infotainment-driven news culture. Such ‘Bollywoodization’ of the ‘war on terror,’ the article suggests, contributes to presenting grim realities of political conflicts as a feast of visually arresting, emotionally-charged entertainment – genres skilfully borrowed from India’s bourgeoning film industry, to sustain ratings.

Political Economy of Corporate Power and Free Speech

in the United States

Jeffrey Layne Blevins

University of Cincinnati, USA

This political economic analysis of U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence broadly examines corporate speech rights in campaigns and elections, in commercial speech, and in conflicts between speech and privacy.  From this examination, it appears that corporate wealth has expressed its dominance within communication space, which was once the primary domain of human liberty.  Moreover, the analysis demonstrates the ‘historical amnesia’ expressed within the Supreme Court about the revolutionary potential of electronic media, as corporate encroachment of communication space is diminishing the value of human speech under the law.

Journalism Ethics: The Uneven Tempo between

International Principles and Local Practice

Kiranjit Kaur & Halimahton Shaari

Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Media codes of ethics comprise principles of ethics and good practice.  Though media codes may vary from country to country, the global media and communication profession is guided by principles that share many common values for the simple reason that many social and individual values are universal.  In the journalism profession, as an example, ethical practice would almost always revolve around universal values like accuracy, honesty, truth, objectivity and freedom. Though the Malaysian media adopt and practise many international principles, media practitioners have also to take cognizance of the socio-political sensitivities and sensibilities that shape and influence the workings and contents of the media. Qualitative interviews with media practitioners provide insights into how values and principles, both local and international, either go in tandem or clash and impact on media practices. This paper also studies the practicality and applicability of media codes in the face of rapidly-changing media values, contents and technology.  The media occasionally violate ethical boundaries; however these are sometimes not perceived as digressions by media practitioners as media values and roles undergo a facelift.

Press Coverage of Post Tamil Eelam War in Dinamani

C. J. Ravi Krishnan, C. Pichandy & Francis Barclay
PSG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, India

The war for Tamil Eelam and the last battle at northern region of Sri Lanka between the government and LTTE has been seriously viewed and reported by media around the world. However ‘Eelam’ is an issue close to the heart of the Tamils in the world. The present study has chosen the post-war period for two years  from January 2009 to January 2011 to find out how the Tamil print media in Tamil Nadu reacted to the end of the LTTE regime in Sri Lankan northern province and the sentiments of the Tamil population. Editorials and columns of Tamil daily, Dinamani considered for the study. The study revealed that editorials and columns published during that time exposed violations of human rights by Sri Lankan government. The study also found the role played by the Indian and Tamil Nadu government during and after the war period were not satisfactory in the context of dealing the Sri Lankan Tamilian issues. 

Media Effects of Assam State Assembly Elections 2011

Kh. Kabi
Rajiv Gandhi University, India.
Anupa Lahkar
Assam Don Bosco University, India

Election is one of the most significant exercises particularly in a democracy, wherein citizens participate to elect their representative. For the first time in the history of Assam (Northeast India) State Assembly Election, campaign was carried out in the presence of wide media coverage. This study focuses on the impact of media’s coverage of the election campaigns during the last Assam state assembly election held in 2011.  It examined the role of media in setting the agenda of important election issues and its impact on the opinion of the people. Attempts have been made to find out the effects of political campaign on the potential voters in view of their political opinion formation and their decision to participate and vote for a particular party or candidate. The study revealed that majority of them has been impacted by the media coverage to some extent and it has aroused them to participate and vote. However when it came to their voting behavior, it is their personal choice and reasons that matter and not necessarily due to media’s campaign. 

Cross-Media Ownership: Would It be Really Curbed?

Shivaji Sarkar

India has been debating the issue of cross-media ownership for the last over 60 years. It is not that it is being raised by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) at the behest of the ministry of information and broadcasting for the first time. In fact, TRAI in its paper expresses limitation on checkmating cross-media ownership. Rather softly it has given it up. TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar said the regulator would, with the help of the Competition Commission of India, attempt to ensure that there are a minimum number of mergers and acquisitions. A consultation paper will spell out restrictions, make mandatory disclosure requirements, spell out levels of market share which will ensure plurality and diversity, list general disqualifications, recommend how cross media ownership can be dealt with, set rules for disaggregated markets, and ensure minimum mergers and acquisitions.

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