dominance and pluralistic perspective of media

1. Perspectives on Mass
communication

2. Presented by
Saba Ijaz
Usman Raza

3. Perspective
Perspective is a Latin word meaning "look
through" or" perceive". We can define the
perspective as the way we see things. For
example if i think that cartoons are creating
damaging effects on children thinking then from
my perspective cartoon channels are evil and
should be banned in Pakistan.

5. Perspectives on mass
communication
Functional perspective
Functional perspective emphasizes the way that
audiences use mass communication and the benefits
that people receive from media consumption.
Empirical perspective
Empirical Perspective uses the techniques of the social
sciences, such as experiments and surveys, to
investigate the cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral
effects of mass communication.

6. Cont…….
Critical/cultural Perspective
Critical/ cultural perspective
examines the underlying power
relationships in media exposure and
stresses the many meanings and
interpretations that the audience
members find in media content.

7. Two main perspective of
critical
oDominance
oLiberal Pluralist

8. Dominance perspective
Dominance can be explained as a
state that exists when one person or
group has power over another.
Dominance perspective centre on the
belief that the mass media are a tool
used by ruling bodies to maintain
control over the masses.
This concept began in 1930s-1940s,
from the Frankfurt School

9. Concepts of Dominance
Ideology
Culture
Hegemony

10. Important features
Media serve the interest of powerful few.
Media give the limited view of life to the
audience and filter out alternative voices.
Audience constrains/ condition to one kind of
opinion.
Media prevent change reinforce the existing
power of structure.

11. Cont……
Based on linear model.
Promote top to bottom communication
that is known as vertical communication.
The controllers of mass media use
programming and advertising to influence
certain social classes.

12. Examples

14. Liberal Pluralist Perspective
Liberal meaning willing to respect or
accept behavior different from one’s
own while pluralist is an advocate of
a system in which two or more
states, groups, principles, sources of
authority, etc exist.

15. Cont…..
Pluralists unlike dominance
perspective consider as a more
flexible view arguing that the media
is merely responding to the demands
of the audience and questionable to
them as well. They consider mass
media as fourth estate

17. Important features
Political power is fragmented and dispersed.
 Media owners do not have direct control
over media content
There’s no dominant class but competing
social groups
Media content isn’t ideological neither does
it reflect the interests of owners
Media content is driven by media managers
who give journalists the freedom to seek out
any type of newsworthy story

18. Cont…
Media content is there to meet the needs of its
audience as the audience choose the content
they wish to read or watch
Any bias merely reflects audience interests as
the audience ultimately has the final say they
wishes to view
uses and gratification model best explains this
process
the mass media can help ensure that people
have a good understanding of the issues when
they vote

19. Examples

21. Relation with dominance
perspective
 Concentration Of media ownership
 Media regulated by government and press
organizations
 Influenced by larger groups

22. Final words……..