Page 21 - Culture Society and the Media

THEORETICAL APPROACHES 11
ideological categories and frames of reference through which people understand
the world. Evolving from the relatively limited conception of media ‘agenda-
setting’ (the ranking of issues, in terms of their perceived importance) in election
studies, a new interest has developed in the wider ‘cognitive effects’ of the media
that reflects a nearly universal dissatisfaction amongst researchers with the
narrow conceptualization of media influence afforded by the classic effects
studies.

MEDIA INSTITUTIONS
Shifting paradigms of the power of the media have had important implications for
enquiry into media organizations. Clearly, recognition of the power of the media
raises questions as to how and by whom this power is wielded. Answers to these
questions have been sought through the investigation and analysis of the
structures and practices of media organizations.
Concern with the study of media institutions, their work practices and their
relationship with their socio-political environment, emerged as a mainstream
feature of mass communication research only in the last two decades. Inasmuch
as the early history of this field of research has been characterized by a
preoccupation with the study of the effects of the media on their audiences, this
new concern constituted a major shift of interest in the field. The reasons for this
shift have been varied: in part it was prompted by some disillusionment with the
capacity of ‘effects research’ to fully explain the power of the media. At the
same time it also reflected an awareness of the relative neglect of media
institutions as objects of study. But the more important stimuli came from
theoretical developments outside the narrow confines of media research. At least
three different sources of influence should be identified here: first, developments
in the sociological study of large scale, formal organizations yielded theories of
organizational structure and behaviour, as well as analytic tools, which were seen
to be applicable to the study of media organizations and of their work practices
and production processes. Secondly, the increasing influence of Marxist
theorizing, with its challenge to pluralist models of power in society, prompted a
reappraisal of the role of the media in society, and focused attention on the
structure and the organization of the media. The media came to be seen, in this
perspective, not as an autonomous organizational system, but as a set of
institutions closely linked to the dominant power structure through ownership,
legal regulation, the values implicit in the professional ideologies in the media,
and the structures and ideological consequences of prevailing modes of
newsgathering. Thirdly, increasing attention to the study of the role of the mass
media in politics indicated the importance of examining the relationship between
media institutions and the political institutions of society, and the ways in which
political communication emerges as a subtly composite product of the interaction
between these two sets of institutions.