The role of Public Sphere

Discuss about the Mainstream Media Evolution.

The public discourse is dominated by the open exchanges of political, cultural, social opinions and philosophies. These are similar to the ones happening in ancient Greece and the town halls in the colonial period. This thus translates into the American fabric of citizen participation and can be linked to democracy where the denizens participate in all public affairs.

The American citizenry is dedicated to the American ideal to building opinions for public affairs for a sustainable and healthy democracy (Tocqueville 1990). This will lead to an added self-interest and significant increase of self-respect in the community (Tocqueville 1990).

There has been insistence by researchers to delve into the matters of inquiry and communication as a basis for a civilized society, this has highlighted a number of debates over all these years (Dewey 2000). In this case public relates to everything that is out in the public domain that includes nationality, unity, and information that is not private, yet it is accessible and observable by all.

In the first couple of months of 2009, the shift of the US consumer base moved towards digital television. The US government has already brought about such legislations since the early 90s. The government mandated changes in the manufacturing process, thus the manufacturers introduced tuners with the new TV sets. The manufacturers have thus been phasing out the analog systems and bringing in the digital systems.

There have been several changes apart from the ones mentioned above that have led to the transition from normal color television to digital television. The manufacturers used proactive advertisement campaigns to create a change in consumer mindset. When we look at the numbers as of 2008 there are more than 20 million U.S households that used non-digital sets.

However watchdogs, announcers and producers have made a large number of crucial judgments regarding the future of digital TV and high-tech solutions for numerous consumers.

As far as early adopters in this market is concerned these consumers are rightly addressed as “conformist users”. Owning technology gives them a satisfaction that makes them purchase the new television set or a digital tuner card. Such consumers also buy satellite television for the same reason. The government supported this transition at a number of levels, they have subsidized this through the NTIA which is the National Telecommunication and Information Administration. These subsidies led to an addition of $2 billion on the exchequer (Ramasubramanian 2015)

America goes Digital

Then came the Act of Telecommunications in the year 1996, specifically authorized the changeover as discussed above. Electronics companies were in a complete stronghold to upturn revenue through digital TV receiver deals.

This change made the market highly competitive and there were intensive price wars amongst the cable operators to attract a wider consumer base. Consumers have been wooed by showcasing that digital television will bring clearer and better picture.

In this era of WikiLeaks and Snowden, Media and journalism has become largely revolutionary. There is a greater information access, the social media has made secrecy a thing of the past. There have been several researchers on the influence of internet and particularly World Wide Web has made a pathway for consumer orientation to change from information to community building and networking. This has been a major change that Web 2.0 has brought up.

Mainstream media is actually the fourth arm of the federal government. The transformation brought about by Web 2.0 has brought up new platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. These platforms has led to several forms of political and social expressions (Bowen 1996). This has helped a more informed voter base for healthy democracy. The internet users can now easily find voting records of representatives with a single click. They can also track the Supreme Court verdicts (Bowen 1996).

Source: statista

This socialization has led to development of special interests groups and campaigns run for common causes to co-ordinate in a better manner (Guerrero and Márquez-Ramírez 2014).

In the year 1996, ‘Decision Maker’, a software program developed by Marcel Bullinga has led to the transformation of the debates in presidential elections. This program launched the first online debates in Netherlands’ and gradually this platform moved in the world’s oldest democracy. This platform involved political representatives, action groups and other non-governmental representatives.

The researchers noticed a traction in the forum when political parties from various clouts were involved (Lisa 2005). Thus political discourse can also be made online and can impact the entire political course of development before the elections. Though the span of internet in those days was restricted to the elites hence discussions did not include the common class of people which is essential for the sustenance of democracy. However the speared on internet in the early 2000s has led to a widespread discourse of political and social issues that have reached every nook and corner of the United States.

The new Information Age and Beyond

The creative side of media is reflected in film and documentary making. In the US Netflix has revolutionized the way films are viewed across the globe. In the United States there has been a recent upsurge in creating documentary films based on real time events. The reason they have gained traction is due to their depiction of reality rather than the rosy picture a movie presents. This is the reason why documentaries like Inside Job received worldwide acclaim (Streitmatter 2015). This even ended up highly accredited movies like The Big Short which changed the way Wall Street was viewed across the globe. Hence digital coverage and platforms like Netflix have made movie creators and distributors make movies that arouse public interest.

Social Media has become a powerful platform for ideation and expression. The way any idea spreads across the globe has led to the formation of a viral marketing channel for a number of companies. This spread cannot be blocked by any company or organization (Haboush, Warren and Benuto 2012).

When a person logs into a social media platform and expresses an opinion or an idea, this expression is bound to reach the world in a number of ways. These days news has been interwoven. The example in this context is online new portals of various channels having a page on Facebook or Twitter to stay connected and deliver information (Christakis 2014)

                                                 The proliferation of Social Media Platforms Source: NYTimes.com

Let us look at the real life examples to explain this phenomenon, the recent hurricanes in the west coast like Katrina, Andrew etc. generated a lot of interest even in the east coast and as far wide as Alaska. This resulted in civil authorities and common people reaching out to help people in need. The coverage of the Iraq War or the capture of Osama led to far greater impact to lead to a public outcry of the situation. The Bush Administration was penalized for the same. The government cannot control the proliferation of information and images which the world was watching is “real time”.

Other global examples are the coverage of lost Malaysian Airlines flight 370 generated public interest from as far as California is the far west. When the earthquake in Haiti created media attention across the globe. Social Media sites were abuzz with the news of the calamity.

Media has changed the way society has thought over issues in the past and will continue shaping future perspectives. Society is thus on the threshold of a new gradient altogether, there will be immense changes in the way society will operate.

Reel to Real: Documentaries and Films

Even if there are radical ideas and opinions people will be able to share them. Also people from across geographies will be able to communicate and express in ways unknown to mankind right now. Officials and politicians will find it extremely difficult to keep secrets and silence any opinion against them (Havens 2013).

The digital revolution has thus reshaped the way media and news reporting function. These changes have thus become radical to shape the society. Since this digital revolution there has been a change in media industry due to fall in advertising revenue. There has been a rise on competition among broadcasters (Gentile 2016)

There is a trend of shift from traditional advertising to mobile advertising and these advertising platforms are giving the traditional media outlets a run for their money. With improvement in the economy the overall share of revenue in advertising and media is set to grow and companies especially in the digital space are benefitting from it.

Researchers feel that the news and media business is set to enter an innovative stage of its development. There will be increased cash flows from certain portions that will drive growth. This change will be driven by an exponential user base growth and the change in platform from traditional to digital. Also the usage of mobility as a platform has further revolutionized the advertising industry (Pickard 2013).

Jacob Jones a leading advertising consultant noted quite a few years ago that there is a need to look at the dynamics of the movement generated by Facebook (FB) due to change from desktop based website to app based mobile service but that question has been emphatically answered by the increase of user base for FB.

Conclusion

Even if there are radical ideas and opinions people will be able to share them. Also people from across geographies will be able to communicate and express in ways unknown to mankind right now. Officials and politicians will find it extremely difficult to keep secrets and silence any opinion against them.

Media in America has been the fourth rung of governance, hence this essay has tried to highlight the influence media gained and lost over the past century. There are thus salient changes in the industry and have had tremendous significances for the public domain (Leavitt, Covarrubias, Perez and Fryberg 2015).

Also, this report has tried to look at the historical perspective based on comparative analysis of studies. It has tried to highlight the changes in American democratic system with the advances in media (Kottak 2016)

This report also talks about how reporting has changed all these years with the inclusion of digital reporting. This report will now like to conclude on how the fragmentation of media has led to more protection of general public rather than causing trouble. There are examples that talk about the corporate control over media and that leads to bias and unfair coverage of news items, which are the pitfalls of this fragmentation.

Even though all these issues exist media will always continue to become a pillar of strength for democracy to function smoothly. It ensures one of the basic freedom i.e. the Freedom of Speech and Expression which is guaranteed by the constitution.

References

Bowen, J.A., 1996. Foreign news in American media. Journal of Communication, 27(1), pp.46-51.

Lisa, M., 2005. ‘I’m straight, but I kissed a girl’: The trouble with American media representations of female-female sexuality. Feminism & Psychology,15(1)), pp.104-110.

Tocqueville, E., 1990. Split vision: The portrayal of Arabs in the American media. Middle East Policy Council.

Gentile, D.A., 2016. The Evolution of Scientific Skepticism in the Media Violence “Debate”. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy.

Dewey, D.C., 2000. Commercialism and professionalism in the American news media. Mass media and society, 3, pp.243-262.

Leavitt, P.A., Covarrubias, R., Perez, Y.A. and Fryberg, S.A., 2015. “Frozen in Time”: The Impact of Native American Media Representations on Identity and Selfâ€ÂUnderstanding. Journal of Social Issues, 71(1), pp.39-53.

Streitmatter, R., 2015. Mightier than the sword: How the news media have shaped American history. Westview Press.

Ramasubramanian, S., 2015. Using celebrity news stories to effectively reduce racial/ethnic prejudice. Journal of Social Issues, 71(1), pp.123-138.

Sage, G.H. and Eitzen, D.S., 2013. Sociology of North American sport. Paradigm Publishers.

Havens, T., 2013. Black television travels: African American media around the globe. NYU Press.

Guerrero, M.A. and Márquez-Ramírez, M. 2014. Media systems and communication policies in Latin America. Springer.

Pickard, V., 2013. Social democracy or corporate libertarianism? Conflicting media policy narratives in the wake of market failure. Communication Theory, 23(4), pp.336-355.

Haboush, A., Warren, C.S. and Benuto, L., 2012. Beauty, ethnicity, and age: Does internalization of mainstream media ideals influence attitudes towards older adults?. Sex roles, 66(9-10), pp.668-676.

Christakis, D.A., 2014. Interactive media use at younger than the age of 2 years: time to rethink the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline?. JAMA pediatrics, 168(5), pp.399-400.

Kottak, C.P., 2016. Prime-time society: An anthropological analysis of television and culture. Routledge.