Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
Media is a form of communication that uses a diverse array of technologies to reach a large audience. The recent decades have witnessed a shift from the traditional to new forms of media that use digital technologies and social networks. It has created new challenges for analyzing and evaluating media content. A new evaluation model needs to be developed that covers the basic components as well as new aspects of media messages.
Traditional media research views the mass communication process as consisting of four elements: sender — message — channel — receiver. Developed by David Berlo in 1960, this model describes each act of communication as a sender delivering a message through a platform to a recipient (Mcquail & Windahl, 2016). A sender is a person who originates the message, a message is the content that is communicated, a channel is a medium used to transmit it, and a recipient is a person to whom the message is directed. It is a linear model that does not take into consideration the feedback and the effect that the message has on the recipient. It is mainly applicable to the analysis of traditional media (print and TV) and provides the basis for evaluating some types of internet communication.
To analyze the effect that media messages produce on the audience, Hall’s encoding/decoding model of communication can be applied. It asserts that media texts are encoded by the sender and decoded by the audience (Hall, 2012). Messages can have an effect, satisfy a need, be put to use, influence, entertain, instruct, or persuade if they are successfully decoded. Different members of the audience decode messages in different ways, which do not always agree with the way the sender originally intended. Hall states that audience members adopt one of the three positions when they decode the text: preferred, oppositional, or negotiated reading (Hall, 2012). Preferred reading is how the producer wants the audience to view the message; oppositional reading occurs when the audience creates their meaning for the text. Negotiated reading is a compromise when the audience accepts parts of the producer’s views but has their views as well (Hall, 2012). Media analysis based on Hall’s encoding/decoding theory is particularly applicable to digital media, which has an easily observable effect on the audience.
Another theory that can serve as a basis for the media examination and evaluation process is the chain of communication theory developed by Harold Lasswell in 1948. Lasswell focuses on five different types of analysis: control, content, media, audience, and effect. The control analysis answers the question “who,” the content analysis asks “what,” the media analysis says in which channel, the audience analysis says to whom, and the effect analysis asks “what effect” the message produces (Mcquail & Windehl, 2016). Lasswell’s model was initially developed to study media propaganda but is now used for interpersonal as well as media communication. It helps to identify the main characteristics of the message and the relations between the presentation of facts and the effects that it generates.
The recent transition from traditional media to digital web-based communications poses new challenges that need to be addressed when analyzing media messages. Objectivity and credibility are the most important factors to consider. In recent decades, the traditional media’s focus on the presentation of information has been replaced with a more partisan opinion-based model (McIntyre, 2018). To address the challenge, news channels and websites resolved to show that they can be fair and balanced in their coverage of events, so they started to report “both sides” of any controversial issue (McIntyre, 2018). It resulted in the decreased commitment to providing accurate news coverage and media outlets giving opinions even on topics that do not have two credible sides (McIntyre, 2018). In his book Post-truth, McIntyre (2018) claims that the goal of objectivity is not to give equal time between truth and falsehood but to facilitate the truth. Considering these developments, it is important to address the factor of objectivity when analyzing media messages. The questions that should be answered are whether the media outlet that produced the message is mainstream or partisan, whether it strives for objective coverage, or presents several opinions on a controversial topic.
The emergence of new digital media outlets and social media channels led to increasing competition for the audience’s attention. It resulted in the media often posting misinformation and using unreliable sources when covering the news. In his article “I fell for Facebook fake news. Here’s why millions of you did, too,” Fowler (2018) explores the subject of fake news on social media and the reasons why the audience tends to believe them. He claims that “misinformation is part of an online economy that weaponizes social media to profit from our clicks and attention” (Fowler, 2018). The audience often fails to check the credibility of sources and authenticity of images on social media, which leads to misleading and false information going viral. When analyzing media messages, it is important to check the sources of images and information for credibility.
To adequately analyze and evaluate modern media outlets, a new comprehensive model needs to be developed. It should be based on traditional communication models, such as Berlo’s model and Laawell’s chain of communication theory. Each modern media message has a sender, content, channel, and receiver, and the analysis should start with identifying these main components of a message. They provide answers to the questions “who,” “what,” “to whom,” and “in which channel” about each particular piece of news. The second step is identifying the source of information and establishing its credibility. The question that should be asked is “whether the source is reliable.” Then the factor of objectivity should be taken into consideration. The questions are whether the source is objective, does it provide facts or opinions, and what points of view are covered in the message. Then, the effect of the message on the audience should be explored. The message should be analyzed according to the encoding/decoding theory that helps to identify the purpose of the message and the way it is perceived by the audience.
Modern media analysis is a complicated task that requires a comprehensive approach. Traditional communication theories that define the basic components of media messages need to be supplemented with the analysis of specific factors that influence the modern media landscape. The evaluation of the credibility and objectivity of information and the effect it produces on the audience is equally important as the knowledge of its producer, receiver, message, and channel. Modern media shapes public thinking and defines what is important, and its quality determines people’s knowledge of society and the world in general.
References
Fowler, G. (2018). I fell for Facebook’s fake news. Here’s why millions of you did, too. The Washington Post. Web.
Hall, S. (2012). Encoding/decoding. In M. G. Durham & D. M. Kellner (Eds.), Media and cultural studies: KeyWorks (2nd ed., pp. 137–144). John Wiley & Sons.
McIntyre, L. (2018). Post-truth. The MIT Press.
Mcquail, D., & Windahl, S. (2016). Communication models for the study of mass communications. Routledge.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.