Can’t Live Without It! Our relationship with the media by. Ichsan Rasyid

CONTENT

Prologue Learning from media theories

Media system dependencies theory Uses and gratification theory

Thoughts on ‘audience – media’ relationship

Prologue

Why ‘audience – media’ relationship?

Prologue

Today’s media development enrich people’s option of daily media consumption. Indeed,it’s pretty much cluttered and fragmented, and it’s because they’re having a private affair.

PEOPLE CHOOSE MEDIA FOR A REASON

Prologue

Conventional Media Online Media Social Media

Television, Radio, Magazine, Newspaper, Out of Home

Search Engine, Websites, Blogs

Social Networks, Microblog, vlog, podcast, etc

TV Channel (Cable, Terrestrial, Internet Protocol), Print Media

Group, Integrated Media Group, Radio Channel.

Search Engine Portal, Online News Portal, E-Commerce

Portal, etc

Social Networks Sites, Microblog sites, online forum

sites, etc

Advertising spot, advertorial spot, build in program, adlibs,

etc

Online Banner, Rich Media Banner, Microsite, Advertorial,

etc

Online Forum, social media application, viral video, etc

That is why it is very relevant to talk about ‘relationship’ as individual respectively develop ties with certain medium.

MANY OPTIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL

Learning from media theory Media system dependency theory

What the theory said?

#1 Media System Dependency

MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY (MSDT), developed by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur (1976), a ‘large scale, suprasystem’ theory that explain the relationship between media, society, individual, and its effect. Naturally, it should be studied in the context of a larger social system, however the the basic dependency hypothesis states that... THE MORE A PERSON DEPENDS ON MEDIA TO MEET NEEDS, THE MORE IMPORTANT MEDIA WILL BE IN A PERSON'S LIFE, AND THEREFORE THE MORE EFFECTS MEDIA WILL HAVE ON A PERSON.

SOCIETY (Degree of structural

stability varies)

MEDIA (Number and centrality of

info function varies)

AUDIENCE (Degree of dependency on media information varies)

EFFECT (Cognitive, Affective,

Behavioral) However, audience’s dependency depart from their needs and conditions.

#1 Media System Dependency

MEDIA (Number and centrality of

info function varies)

AUDIENCE (Degree of dependency on media information varies)

According to Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, three media needs determine how important media is to a person at any given moment: • The need to understand

one's social world (surveillance)

• The need to act meaningfully and effectively in that world (social utility)

• The need to escape from that world when tensions are high (fantasy-escape)

The theory also said two specific conditions where dependency for media are high: 1) media centrality, and 2) in case of social change/ conflict/ movement.

Learning from media theory Uses and gratification theory

What the theory said?

#2 Uses and Gratification

Uses and Gratification theory (UGT) is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs

Differ from other media effect theories, its basic assumption gives the consumer power to discern what media they consume, with the assumption that the consumer has a clear intent and use.

Different from the previous theory that said the audience depend to the media, UGT conceived the audience as active which deliberately choose their media consumption based on their needs. So, what are the needs?

#2 Uses and Gratification

Goals for media use can be grouped into five uses: • Be informed or educated • Identify with characters of the

situation in the media environment • Simple entertainment • Enhance Social Interaction • Escape from the stresses of daily life

McQuail, Denis (2010). Mass communication theory: an introduction. London: Sage Publications. pp. 420–430. ISBN 1849202923.

Thoughts on ‘audience – media’ relationship

What we can conclude from the theory?

Relationship with the Media

From the MSDT, at least I can learn that people develop these two relationship with the media. 1. The Lamb - Sheperd Relationship 2. The Therapist Relationship And from the UGT, at least I can also learn that people develop these four types of relationship with the media. 3. The Student – Teacher Relationship 4. The Observer Relationship 5. The Liaison Officer Relationship 6. The Therapist Relationship (same as MSDT)

Relationship with the Media

The Lamb - Sheperd Relationship The world is a strange place. Media provide information to the audience about this strange world on how to behave, how to interact, what to do, what is appreciated, why do and dont do this, and etc In the context of social life, media subtly tells audience what’s cool, what to wear, what to eat, where to go, and etc. In the context of social change/ conflict/ movement, frequently media tells the audiences who to hate, who to love, what to support, why we should do it, and etc. This relationship can be established not only because of social movement and media centrality like the MSDT said, community fanaticism, psycological condition, and mundane individual fantasy could take someone into this type of relationship. For instance, the consertives and Fox News, youth and MTV, moms and infotainment, and pornography.

Relationship with the Media

The Therapist Relationship As the degree of stress heighten,thus audiences use media to escape from their stressful world. Audience consume media for the sake of stress relief. For instance, watching How I Met Your Mother (Sitcom) in the weekend, listening to radio while driving back home, browsing youtube videos in between administrative works, or reading jokes column in the newspaper.

The Student – Teacher Relationship The UGT consider audience as an active party when interact when media. Audience use the media to equipped themselves with knowledge on current issue, science, and social situation. In this relationship, the audience “play” themselves as student who’s actively look for information, guidance, hints, and etc to their teacher (media).

Relationship with the Media

The Observer Relationship For some people, learning can be done by observation. Different from the diligent student, who’s very active seeking specific information from the media, an observer tend to turn on the TV, radio, online news portal, or newspaper and simply scan the headline of today’s news or information. They just need to get a glimps of what happen today.

The Liaison Officer Relationship Today’s people use media to be more social. It enable geek to be “cool” and even can give them “persona” to interact with the world. The most current example of media’s social facilitation is the avatar, where one can have an online identity (could be different from the real identity) and confidently make conversation with the others.

CONCLUSION

ACTIVE PASSIVE

SUBSTANTIAL

INSUBSTANTIAL

Lamb - Sheperd

Observer

Therapist

Liaison Officer

Student – Teacher

At least from the the two theories, I can drawn this degree of activeness. However, the quality of media consumptionv(in term of content and context) in each relationship can be vary.

What kind of relationship are you having right now? Whatever your type is, MAKE SURE ITS BENEFICIAL.

TH

E Q

UE

ST

ION

OF

CO

NT

EN

T Q

UA

LIT

Y

Thanks!

Image Links

▪ http://blog.creamglobal.com/.a/6a00e5506f08e888340176151ed716970c-500wi

▪ http://www.entrepreneur.com/dbimages/blog/h1/7_effective_marketing_methods_for_our_ad-cluttered_digital_age.jpg

▪ http://frankjkenny.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Twitter-Friends.jpg

▪ http://www.queeninheels.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Social-Networking.jpg

▪ http://www.marriagemax.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/how-to-tell-if-your-husband-is-having-an-affair.jpg

▪ http://ferswriteshoe.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/tag-cloud1.png

▪ http://ppl.ug/NbOJWCzxFi0/fv

▪ http://blog.wsidigitalmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/MediaConsumptionChart_CUSTOMER.jpg

▪ http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Y-4gHn1Ikg/UKbm7JV-OsI/AAAAAAAAAU0/uVD6O65qGO8/s1600/shepherd-sheep-10.jpg

▪ http://catchwork.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/spa-therapist-600x386.jpg

▪ http://www.dockhs.org/filerequest/3416

▪ http://alleecreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/hand-in-hand.jpg