1. News media are a source of information and opinion that use a one-to-many form of communication to help build imagined communities and shape national identity. 2. Benedict Anderson's concept of "imagined communities" explains how nations form around shared print languages disseminated by news media. This helps articulate a nation's cultural and social identity. 3. The introduction of new communication technologies like the telegraph, telephone, radio, and internet have accelerated the spread of news and challenged existing models of the public sphere.

1. Media History
Session 2: Press and News Media

2. Topics
News and society
News and technology
News and economy

3. News and Society

4. What are news media?

5. What are news media?
Source of information and opinion

6. What are news media?
One-to-many form of
communication

7. What is Society?

8. What is society?
A useful concept is Benedict
Anderson's "imagined
communities"

9. Imagined communities
A nation “is imagined because the
members of even the smallest
nation will never know most of their
fellow-members, meet them, or
even hear of them, yet in the minds
of each lives the image of their
communion” (Anderson, 6-7)

10. Imagined communities
Nation building takes place through
language

11. Imagined communities
“Print-capitalism” - nations form
around national print-language

12. Imagined communities
This language standard continues
in radio and TV with enforcement
of a standardized spoken language

13. Imagined communities
Media texts articulate a nation’s
cultural and social identity

14. Imagined communities
Unifying

15. Imagined Communities and
the News Media

16. Imagined communities and the news media
Newspapers determine what
issues are important

17. Imagined communities and the news media
Objectivity or fact over opinion

18. Imagined communities and the news media
Do news media reflect public
opinion or do they lead and shape
public opinion?

19. Imagined communities and the news media
Propaganda and social order

20. Imagined communities and the news media
A ban on photos of dead American
soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan

21. Imagined communities and the news media
The news media leads to the rise
of the public sphere

22. Imagined communities and the news media
Critical self-reflection and reflection
on the state

23. Imagined communities and the news media
Allows participation

24. The Public Sphere and
Electronic Media

25. The public sphere and electronic media
Complex, critical and culturally
demanding material is made widely
available

26. The public sphere and electronic media
Consumption becomes
increasingly privatized

27. The public sphere and electronic media
Public sphere broken up, loss of
unified participation

28. Public Sphere and Digital
Media

29. The public sphere and digital media
User participation is increased and
democratized

30. The public sphere and digital media
Overflow of information, pure
opinion, uninformed and lack of
critical detail

31. Public Sphere and Imagined
Communities

32. The public sphere and imagined communities
Fragmented media makes for a
fragmented nation

33. The public sphere and imagined communities
No longer unified view of cultural
and social identity

34. The public sphere and imagined communities
Loss of national unity and national
identity

35. News Media and Technology

36. News media and technology
Telegraph 1844
Transatlantic cable 1850s
Telephone 1870s
Telephone news channels 1880s

37. News media and technology
News moves fast

38. Media Types

39. Media types
Time-based
Durable, stable, immobile
Clay, rock
Creates social reproduction over
long periods of time

40. Media types
Space-based
Temporary, unstable, mobile
Paper
Expansive over large territories

41. Media types
Electronic media
Proliferate, mutate, omnipresent
Annihilate space and time
Invasive, relocating,
deterritorializing

42. Radio and TV News

43. Radio and TV News
Commercial vs public broadcasting

44. Radio and TV News
News becomes a group activity

45. Radio and TV News
Especially family-oriented

46. Radio and TV News
British newspapers hostile towards
radio

47. Radio and TV News
The result is state regulation

48. Radio and TV News
In the US, the relationship is
complimentary and competitive

49. Radio and TV News
1933: Attempt at limiting
broadcasting to specific times of the
day

50. News Media and the Web

51. News media and the web
Official versus alternative channels

52. News media and the web
Replicates and remediates the
format of the newspaper

53. News media and the web
Alternative news proliferate

54. News media and the web
Blogging
Different authority
“Live”
Part of the action, not detached
Supposed to be many-to-many
But in fact, many-to-few and few-to-
many

55. News as Institutions

56. News as institutions
Institutions are socially interpreted
facts

57. News as institutions
Institutions help us think about
society

58. News as institutions
Basic, stable structures of society

59. News as institutions
Institutions are carriers of ideology

60. Ideology

61. Ideology
“The ruling ideas of the ruling
class”

62. Ideology
Our understanding and knowledge
of the world is determined by
political interests

63. Ideology
Propagated by mass media

64. Ideological Slants of News
Media

65. Ideological slants of news media
Party press
Communication tool for a political
party
Agitation/propaganda

66. Ideological slants of news media
Public news
Communication channel between
social institutions and citizens
Service for the public

67. Ideological slants of news media
Commercial news
Contact between organization
and audience
Service