vj
Def: Fixed arrangement that organizes relations between social roles. Guided by rules and norms of its own. Key concept of the structural- functional theory that sees society as composed of various institutions that play different roles
Def: is a fixed arrangement that organizes the relations between social roles.
Importance: Informs us of relevant info and keeps us up to date
Factors that shape it: Other institutions, geographical features, technological, cultural, econ, political
Metaphors:
- Media as a Mirror: society can see itself through the media content. It is a reflection of our world. Disadv: the mirror doesn’t always show a full story or an accurate story
- Media as the Watchdog of democracy: Media analyses the decisions of government and exposes undemocratic actions. Disadv: The creation of fake news and people not trusting news anymore because it’s political
- Media as the nervous system of the administr.: Refers to society as a human body. We can’t live without it. Media should encourage the living of the society. It is an integral part of society
- Media as Mediators: media mediates between governm. and citizens. Enables dialogue. Disadv: a mediator should stay neutral but media takes a side. A biased mediator is often harmful to dialogue.
- Media as an Arena for confrontations: Media covers confrontations and allows people to argue and debate and have public discussions. Disadv: not all the issues that happen in society, get ti the Arena so we don’t know about them. Agenda Setting Theory: If an issue is not on the media’s agenda it doesn’t exist.
Development of printed media in Israel:
Two phases:
Up to 1980s: One public channel, two public radio stations and newspapers. All under gov control
From 1990s: independent, rich and vibrant media
Reasons for change:
- Econ: econ growth, consumerism (private money)
- Political: shift from socialist to capitalist society
- Tech: improvm. of exisiting media, new media, digitaliz.
- Development of printed media in Israel:
Media in Israel
- Newspapers: Played a key role in building the feeling of jewish nationality (they showed achievements of what a state reached). Went from being loyal to the government to independent (Rich can be associated to politicians like Netanyahu and Sheldon Andelson)
- Radio: Went from Voice of Jerusalem (govern. control )to voice of Israel (voice of peace: private, unfiltered by gov.). IDF stations
- TV: Ben Gurion was opposed to TV (corrupts the youth), econ. couldn’t afford commercial TV. Israel is the only country to have an educational channel before a general tv one. 1967: the 6 day war: for the first time, arab countries broadcasted pictures from their side and we only had educational tv so we couldn’t show our side. 1968: First broadcast in Israel. 1993: channel 2. 2002: channel 10
- New Media: Israel is very addicted to online platforms, especially teens. We are a news nation, and media is connected to news (it’s dangerous because we want to be the firsts to inform and we don’t check the facts properly). Israeli media is heavily filtered due to security. High status of news (a lot of news for the size of the country). Saturated media society
Media in Israel expresses local and global phenomena.
- Local: memorial day ceremonies, independence day… broadcasted directly. Programs in hebrew, printed newspapers in hebrew…
- Global: broadcasting channels from other countries, international advertising.
Is this the end of national solidarity in the media: We live in a hybrid culture with glocal elements, the process doesn’t necessarily lead to the weakening of nationalism.
NATIONALISM: Loyalty and devotion to a nation (sense of national consciousness, value my norms and cultures over others), media developm. is related to the construction of nationalism (relation between people and their nation). Benedict Anderson: imagined community that exists in consciousness (sense of belonging without knowing each other, sparked by printing). If it’s something that everyone feels and believes then it’s real.
Newspaper and Nationalism: They structure a narrative of the group, by telling the story for them and others
- News began in Europe 17th century
- Play a central role in nationalism (with the narrative you can control a nation’s feeling/ position of nationalism, written language as a tool for defining a collective)
- Newspapers cultivate national narrative using symbols and myths (who is us and who is them can build national feeling)
- Simultaneous: many people read the same story at the same time (share the same agenda=nationalism)
- Create joint public and closeness between people that don’t know each other
- Newspapers contributed to the assimilation of the Hebrew Language
- Newspapers remains a medium with more national characteristics than any other media because it’s primarily location based, most important in agenda setting, global influence penetrates national press (glocal trends)
Radio and Nationalism: Most paradoxical medium, because despite it being present and heard everywhere it has low public visibility and receives little attention in academic forums.
- It is a secondary medium
- Marginal Medium
- It uses only one sense
- Contributes to the imagination of nation because it distributes the message to a larger geographical area
- Simultaneous listening
- Enables a lot of people to listen to their leaders’ voices
- Creates imaginary Israeliness (central in establishing the Israeli nationality, educational tool for teaching Hebrew language and national symbols during broadcasts)
TV and Nationalism: structured nationalism by, simultaneous exposure to the same tv contents that came from the same source, cable tv bridged over areas and assisted to the national imagination of the nation, media events (live broadcasts of major historical evens that cause people to come together and experience a sense of unity)
- Israeli TV: Influenced by global content and formats but also emphasize Israeli characteristics (The 3 main Israeli networks see themselves as the Israeli Campfire), unitil 1994 Israel had only 1 channel (contributed greatly to social solidarity in Israel), we are witnessing the expansion of internet tv broadcasts, digital broadcasting and interactive tv. (Content and time depends on the viewer, reinforces individuality and can lead to damage in the national imagination)
- Netflix: influenced the way we watch TV, creates imagined communities but emphasizes individualism, there is still family viewing programs, during wartime TV is still a central platform for receiving info, glocal programming.
Internet and Nationalism: Is it the end of the era of national media?
-Yes: It’s a global medium: Has potential to create a global community not a national one. It is a non-territorial medium: open to everyone in each country. Individuals can decide when, how to use it.
-No: It is a powerful tool to distribute info and connect the nation. Language: many people don’t speak two languages and they can translate websites and use it to connect with people that speak their language (very important in creating nationalism). Studies indicates that internet doesn’t weaken nationalism, it changes it.