mass media
Mass media is an inevitable part of today's culture and therefore its role in society needs to be examined. Technology is advancing by the day and consequently new media formats are also being developed. This essay will answer the question of whether disappearing boundary between the private and public sphere has increased the social significance of 'scandal' and 'infotainment' to the level of 'serious news discussion'. Firstly the private/public dichotomy will be examined using the work of John Thompson (1995) Secondly I will use the work of Jurgen Habermas (1989) as a background in explaining how the media has blurred the line between the private and public sphere and how this relates to the mass media today. Thirdly 'socially significant will be defined and why 'serious' news discussion is socially significant will be outlined. Finally using this definition 'scandal' and 'infotainment' will be compared to 'serious news'.The understanding of the private and public sphere depends on context. Historically when the private and public spheres have been discussed they have related to the state and politics. This understanding of private and public spheres revolves around control or jurisdiction. The public sphere is taken to mean
From this it can be seen that Mass media publications are both the result of incursions into the private sphere and the method of the incursion. It has become as significant as 'serious' news discussion, but for different reasons. In this sense the mass media has forced its way into significance. The mass media is a critical part of this dissolution and therefore is socially significant. Also the prosperity of the burgoise public sphere relied on there being a small circle of power. Pressure from advertisers limited the content of the newspapers and the debates are no longer free. Traditionally the media is said to have three roles: The watchdog, the public representative (fourth estate) and the public's source of information. Like Thompson, Habermas defines the public sphere as that under the control of the government (or state) and the private as everything that falls outside of this. It doesn't stand up against the 'serious discussion' of news as a source of information etc, but its entertainment value and the provision of forum to those who previously didn't have one, has made the mass media socially significant in today's society. Related to this is the other view of the private/public dichotomy. (Curran and Gurevitch 1996: 91) However this argument fails to recognise that our choices are limited. The press in Australia is called a free press and there are no politically controlled media publications. However what is undoubted, is the fact that the mass media is a slave of popularity. Traditionally the advancing of media technology is associated with the public being under constant surveillance, however it is a select powerful minority that is constantly visible, whether they wish to be or not.
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Acceptance Essays
