Importance of Media Studies in our Digital Culture
Who can be considered as a 'Truly Educated Person'?
So Let's begin...
1. Power in Cultural Studies
Power plays a vital role in shaping the culture. Therefore understanding power is very much necessary in studying the culture(Cultural Studies). So let's first understand power.
There are three important questions rises while talking about Power:
1. Where does power come from?
2. How is it exercised?
3. What can you do?
'Power is the ability to make others do what you would have them do'.
This idea remains at the core of any power structure existing in the society. It can be in family, at work, in relationships or in other areas. Power literally comes with the idea of dominance as well. But while talking about power in civic areas (which refers to the places in which a community performs or engages in some part of its political or social life), there are six sources of its structure:
1. Physical Force: It refers to the VIOLENCE, controlling force which includes police or militia and other forces
2. Wealth: Wealth means money provides the ability to the people to buy any kind of power and other things.
3. State Action: It refers to the government or any other ruling force, ruling over the state or the country. It uses law and bureaucracy to compel what to do and what not to do. In Democracy, the power is given to the government through elections.
4. Social Norms: This power area doesn't contain centralised power like the government but it operates the society in a smooth way. Like we, there are so many rituals, traditions or cultures prevailing which are sustained by these social norms. It certainly makes people change their behavior or even law as well.
5. Ideas: Ideas are very important which is a part of the individual thought process. These ideas motivate people to change their thinking and action. Like Raja Ram Mohan Roy came up with the Abolition of Sati Pratha.
6. Numbers: It refers to the people. In democracy the masses have the power to elect the leader. These numbers can collectively make changes and also hold a certain power.
Power is never static, it either accumulates or decays. There is the thing that if you are not taking action, you will be acted upon. It is like the flaw of water which needs harnessing. Policymaking is an example of this. This is how it is exercised.
The third and most important question is: What can we do? This question can be answered in a single word 'Literacy'. And this literacy is not just of reading and writing but rather it is about how to read and write power.
How to Read Power?
Reading power doesn't only mean to look at text based on power but also to see society as a set of texts. Like you think certain things are not right somewhere. Reading can't be stopped here. Further it is vital to map out who holds which kind of power and in which system, why it turned out this way, who is responsible for it, who wants to carry it out and then it is important to study the strategies. Reading is always essential to writing.
How to Write Power?
While writing, the foremost thing is that you should believe that you have the right to write. Writing power is always about the change in society. So one needs to express what he or she believes. Organising ideas, practising consensus building comes next to it. Writing about power is about going against the power thus one has to practise the conflict and start by small changes. This is citizenship- to raise the questions at the power.
Power + Character = Great Citizenship
There always remains the question whether you want to benefit everyone or only yourself, whether you are pro-social or anti-social.
Michel Foucault introduced the concept that power is not a singular force but rather a complex interplay of various forces, which are responsible for shaping events and outcomes. In his view, a tyrannical aristocrat doesn't simply exercise power independently; instead, they derive their authority from the prevailing "discourses" – accepted modes of thinking, writing, and speaking – and from the practices that manifest, enforce, and constitute power. Foucault's method of "genealogy" delves into a wide array of subjects often overlooked by conventional historians, encompassing everything from the architectural plans of prisons to the memoirs of individuals considered "deviants."
When we are associated with a certain power structure Our sense of self is defined not only by who we are as individuals, but also by the groups we belong to. Thus we are constantly motivated to defend our group whether it is wrong or right. But this becomes a problem when the group’s beliefs are at odds with reality.
Such Partisanship, associated with politics, extends beyond and contains strong preferences for various groups or ideas, such as political, ethnic, religious, and national identities. In the political realm, loyalty to a party can foster a sense of identity but may also result in rejecting evidence contrary to party views. This phenomenon has intensified with increased partisan polarization, possibly influenced by geographic clustering and reliance on like-minded media.
2. Importance of Media Studies in our Digital Culture:
In this 21st century of digitalization, studying media becomes necessary. Now it is not limited to the traditional mode of but rather gaining the huge influence over the digital media. The role of the media is to bring about the hidden truths of political or other ruling powers. But rather focusing on this, media culture mostly supports the hegemony of specific power groups or structures. Cultural Studies focuses on media culture because it assumes that the media are very essential contributors to the ideologies and political culture. Thus Noam Chomsky talks about the five filters of Mass Media:
Well, these five filters are necessary to be understood while studying media in terms of cultural studies. All these filters are interlinked with each other as well for the ultimate motif that is profit.
Behind each and every structure or the group, there always lies a dominant power that determines the way society functions. The same is applicable to the political and elite groups. Thus it becomes crucial to look at who is in the position to determine the way society functions. There are 20% of the population who are educated and play a crucial role in the decision making process, whereas the other 80% of the population need not to even think of those who follow orders. So these 20% are holding that power.
Propaganda is central in media studies. Elite media are agenda setting media who set the general framework which is being followed by the local media including the selection of topics, distribution of concerns, emphasis, framing issues, filtering information and many other aspects. These aspects determine, select, control, shape, control, restrict which serves the interest of the dominant elite group. You all may have a question why it is so. You might have seen full page advertisements or various corporate companies in the newspaper. right? So the source of larger income of these media comes from advertisement. The first two filters are the same- Media ownership and Advertising. The Ultimate motif of all mass media orgs is profit. Media costs more than consumers will pay: Advertisers fill the gap. What do advertisers pay for? Access to audiences. “It isn’t just that the media is selling you a product. They’re also selling advertisers a product: you.”
The Third Filter Media elite comes here. In simple terms, journalism struggles to keep those in power in check because the system encourages cooperation. Big entities like governments and corporations know how to influence the media by giving them exclusive stories and expert interviews. They make themselves important to the whole journalistic process. If you try to challenge those in power, you might end up on the sidelines, losing your access to valuable information.
Post Truth and Media:
In this Post-truth era, we are constantly getting manipulated information from media in huge amount. Media entities are taking away people from the reality to the fakeness of the corporate and political world that can't be avoided. Noam Chomsky while talking about the truly educated person emphatically asserts that a truly educated person is the one who constantly keeps asking the questions whether it can be higher authorities, government, elite group or even within their educational concerns. Due to the Digital media platforms the spread of fake news or manipulated information are being spread widely over the world. While opening the mobile phone we come across so many news and information. What to believe is our hand and for that questioning and personal research over that remains necessary. Thus in the Post-Truth era which is full of misinformation, it remains essential to keep questioning.
Media masks the oppressive condition of people and thus to study media culture remains a significant aspect in the cultural studies.
3. Who can be considered as a 'Truly Educated Person'?
Noam Chomsky, as we have referred in the post-truth as well talks about 'Who can be Called a Truly Educated Person' . Is it about getting degrees? No. It isn't. Initially, Chomsky refers to classic views on education, particularly those of Wilhelm von Humboldt, a leading humanist figure of the Enlightenment and founder of the modern higher education system. Humboldt argued that the ability to inquire and create independently, without external controls, is a core principle for a fulfilled human being.
He emphasises the importance of questioning and creativity in education. He shares an anecdote from a physics class, where the focus was not on what was covered in the class but on what students discovered. Being truly educated, according to Chomsky, is the ability to inquire and create based on the understanding of available resources.
He outlines the skills of a truly educated person, including knowing where to look, how to formulate serious questions, questioning standard doctrines, and developing the ability to shape meaningful questions. That is why Bard sir often gives us a task to raise a few questions based on the understanding of the particular topic. True education involves not just memorization but also the capacity to independently navigate challenges, question assumptions, and collaborate with others.
He further says that for an educational system, from primary to graduate school, cultivating the ability to inquire, create, and collaborate independently remains crucial. He acknowledges that, in the best cases, some educational systems succeed in flourishing these qualities, leading to individuals who, by his standards, are truly educated.
I hope you have gained the explanation of these three questions.
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