Media and Culture

Media is one best way for promotion. Many companies use media to promote their products or services to public, both via printed and electronic media. Media is also best way to promote ideologies that will influence people’s way of life, one of them is ‘culture’. Therefore, media is also oftentimes considered as the scapegoat of the changing in lifestyle, habits, behaviour, etc.

Colonialism era—where many western countries, usually referred to ‘white’ people colonized eastern countries, usually referred to ‘coloured’ people—created gap between the white and the coloured. This gap engendered inferiority to the coloured—the colonized—toward the white—the colonizers. This phenomenon is easily understood if until now the inferior feeling still dominates the coloured. This resulted in view that everything from the west is more interesting, more appreciated, and more modern than the east.

The emergence of internet and television has bridged between the west and the east so that the spread of culture takes a shorter time more easily, and even more thorough. The absorption of one aspect of culture from the “superior” countries to the “inferior” countries happened ‘somewhat naturally’ and people seemed not to realize that. In television business, people behind the screen, such as the owner of production houses, the directors, the producers, and the owner of television stations, only think about their own profit, so that they air programs that refer to the superior countries, to attract more audience, to increase the rating, that means to attract more advertisers, without caring whether what they have done will decrease their own cultures.

Should we blame the next generation that probably feel more proud to be called, “MTV generations”? Should we blame them who don’t really know their own traditional dances, languages, performances, and some other aspects of Indonesian cultures? Should we blame them who prefer spending their free time hanging around shopping malls and enjoying meals in fast-food restaurant having foreign franchise? Aren’t they products of the egotism of capital owners, and older generations that bombard media with foreign products?

Gramsci with his famous hegemony theory proposed an idea to involve the ‘organic intellectuals’ (such as academicians) participation to get rid of foreign cultures. The academicians are encouraged to make the young generations realize the dangers of foreign cultures to abolish the local cultures; not the traditional intellectuals (people who have money) that even seem to legitimate the power of foreign cultures.

However, I believe it is not as easy as turning our palms down. The academicians do not have as much money as the capital owners—behind the screen of media. It is difficult for these organic intellectuals to produce programs to compete with the programs proposed by those who only think of profit for their own pocket. As far as I observe, the number of these organic intellectuals is not comparable to those traditional intellectuals. Therefore, it is not wise to give the burden to watch the bad impacts of globalisation on the next generations’ lives to the organic intellectuals only.

What can we do now?

As a mother of a teenage daughter, I just have one suggestion to all of us: to have open communication and harmonious relationship with our children. Good and open communication will enable us to guide our children without making them feel led forcibly. One generation gap between our children with us sometimes make them consider us old-fashioned if we do not follow their ‘world’. We always have to follow and accompany them when undergoing something new, discus it together, while look for solution together too. Not all values and ideology coming from the west are bad. This is our duty as parents to choose and select which is positive which is negative, based on our discussion together with our children.

Let us start from home.

PT56 13.47 110907

Media and Gender

In Indonesia, there are not many people who understand the difference between ‘sex’ (refers to male and female) and ‘gender’ (refers to man and woman). Just like what I wrote here some time ago, that there still many people who don’t know the difference between ‘feminist’ and ‘feminine’.

Claudette Baldacchino, a feminist journalist, opined that gender refers to social, cultural, and psychological factors when one wants to define someone as masculine or feminine. Furthermore, Baldacchino also sated that gender is not just an important aspect how “other people” see and perceive “us”, but it also influences “our” way to see and perceive “ourselves”.

Last Friday August 24, 2007, I discussed ‘anorexia’ and ‘bulimia’ in my Intermediate 4 class. The class consisted of 16 students, six boys, eight girls, most of them are senior high school students, and only two of them—girls—are college students. The class took place from 2pm until 4pm, the time where many people are sleepy and tired, due to the hot weather in Indonesia, especially my hometown. We discussed two quite long passages. The passages illustrated a bulimic patient named Melissa DeHart. Her suffering started from her wish to be as slim as Hollywood celebrities that looked so slim; very pretty and attractive due to their slim bodies. DeHart wanted to be as pretty and attractive as them so she started to be on a strict diet to slim down her body.

I asked my class a question, “Why do many people think that being slim is beautiful?” None gave me an interesting and critical answer, but one. One female senior high school student answered, “Because having slim body means healthy, Ma’am. Fat bodies usually refer to diseases, such as hypertension, easy to get heart attack, obesity, etc. The others just said, “I don’t have any idea Ma’am…”

To me, it showed that they didn’t realize that they had been bombarded by media on the idea of beauty. There are many advertisements promoting that beauty is slim, both in electronic media—such as television—or printed media—such as newspapers, tabloids, or magazines. If one advertisement didn’t directly promote slimming product, it would use slim models that would emphasize the idea “pretty is slim” or “slim is pretty”. Some parties that want to socialize an idea “Big is Beautiful” did not succeed yet to change the “old” paradigm.

The fact that my students were not aware of the bombarding media on the idea “slim is pretty” showed the failure of their understanding and perceiving themselves using their own belief, when we wanted to refer it to Baldacchino’s definition on ‘gender’. They did not need to always follow what media said about something, they were supposed to be confident to use their own parameter when valuing something. In Indonesia, parameter of being pretty, besides having slim body—one universal thing I suppose, being pretty also refers to having fair complexion, and having long straight hair.

What is the relationship between media and gender?

If the supporters of the status quo of patriarchal culture use media to eternalise their ‘faith’ in male chauvinism, I am of opinion that people who struggle to create a more equal society use media too; such as publishing newspapers, magazines, tabloids or journals focusing on gender equality. Unfortunately, until now, journalism field is still considered masculine sphere. Research done by the International Federation for Journalist (IFJ) published in Brussels in 2003—involving 39 countries in the whole world—stated that the number of female journalists was only 38%, 11% higher than the similar research done one decade earlier. The number 38% only referred to the number of journalists, not including the decision makers, such as editor, the chief of departments, or even the owner of media.

The National Commission of Women in Indonesia encouraged people to write in public as one way to reduce domestic violence, including to support the non gender-biased media. Write anything. And in my opinion, the easiest media to tell the world is via blog. In addition, don’t forget what Baldacchino said, when writing, use our own way of thinking to understand and perceive our own experience.

PT56 09.17 110907

Media

Before discussing the article entitled “Media Power and the Dangers of Mass Information” in my class, I gave my students the following questions to be discussed first.

1. How many kinds of media do you know? How many of them do you usually use in your daily life?
2. What are the powers of media?
3. Mention some programs on television that are influential in the viewers’ lives.
4. Mention some programs/facilities in the internet that are influential

For your information, it was a small class, with only five students, one girl, four boys. Two of them are in the third grade of senior high school while three others are graduates of senior high school. They will start going to college in the beginning of September 2007. They are about 16-18 years old.
For the first question, they mentioned two kinds of media, printed media—such as newspapers, magazines, tabloids, and electronic media—such as television. Internet can be categorized into both kinds, printed and electronic.

What are the powers of media?

The students mentioned two kinds: positive and negative. (In fact, everything in this world always have these two contradictory things, don’t they? There are usually positive and negative aspects of everything.)

For the positive side, the students mentioned through media, people could get up-to-date information—via news shows in television, news websites in the internet, news column in newspapers/tabloids; knowledge—via educative programs such as Discovery Channel, National Geography, Learning Foreign Language program in television; entertainment—via cartoons, movies, soap operas, sport shows, etc on television, special websites in the internet, such as www.youtobe.com, www.ganges.com; profits to market their products for producers, while for consumers, they will get information about more various products.

For the negative side, the students mentioned some “conventional” things, such as people are exposed to crimes in crime news, brutal shows (in Indonesia for example “smackdown“ program), and pornography through some “indecent” programs on television or porn sites in the internet.

Some television programs that are influential in the viewers’ lives mentioned:

 Commercials
The students admitted that their life somewhat changed due to these commercials. The attraction of many produces in promoting their products successfully changed their taste. Instead of feeling “cheated” or “abused” they thanked those commercials so that they knew more various products to be used in their daily life. They did not realize that those commercials also have made them become the consumers of some products that they did not really need in the past.

 Soap operas/movies
Some soap operas—especially produced by local production houses have changed their way of life, the way they socialize, the way they get dressed, etc. Why local? Because local soap operas seem so “real” with Indonesian actors/actresses so that they do not realize that those seemingly “real” lives oftentimes are just exaggerated by the producers. Many soap operas were just copies of foreign movies/soap operas.

Does it mean that foreign movies/soap operas don’t really influence the viewers’ lives? They do too. One very distinct event in my opinion is the tendency of teenagers now hold prom nights, while in my era, we didn’t know what it was.
Besides, addiction to watch soap operas of course has changed the rhythm of their daily lives.

 News
News do not really change a lot of the viewers’ lives like the two examples above, except crime news. Crime news that are so blatantly shown on television even can give examples how to do some crimes.

 Sport shows
Apparently the five students of mine do not really like doing sports. However, they said that sport shows influenced them to gamble, which club would win the game, for example.

 Reality shows
Many kinds of “being idols” show on television obviously have changed many teenagers’ way to choose dream profession for their future. During my time, two most prestigious professions were doctor and engineer. Nowadays, the easiness to earn money by being a celebrity after winning one reality show, such as Indonesian Idol, has made teenagers lazy to study. They would prefer to dream of being a celebrity rather than to study hard to be a doctor or an engineer.

Some internet programs that are influential in the users’ lives mentioned:
 Game online
Playing game has always become one favorite pastime. If in the past people felt enough to play games in the personal computer, nowadays game online are more attractive because people can play games while looking for friends from around the world—with whom they play together.

 Emails
Sending emails must be more convenient and faster, not to mention cheaper, than sending airmail letters.

 General websites
Students get more various assignments from school that make them look for more data from this huge library—internet. Unfortunately, I see the tendency of them to only collect data and submit them to their teachers in the printed form without trying to comprehend the data first. It is inevitable for me to suspect that the teachers just need the data for themselves but they don’t have time to look for the data by themselves. If the data is really beneficial for the students’ knowledge, the teachers are supposed to ask the students not only to submit the assignment without checking/assessing them whether they understand the data they submit.

 Friendster/multiply/hi5
This “new way to look for new friends” has become more and more popular in Indonesia. However, not only new friends they get, sometimes they also can find their old friends who have moved to other cities/countries. Or, via friendster/multiply/hit they can also keep in touch with their friends, not only via emails or phones.

 www.youtobe.com
This special website has changed people’s lives because they can watch some foreign programs that are not aired on televisions in Indonesia. Indonesian people living abroad also can watch some television programs—such as “Empat Mata” show—that are promoted in this website.

 Chat online
Chatting facilities provided by the internet really make people easy to communicate with one another although they live poles apart. They can keep in touch with not only their old friends who have moved abroad, let’s say, but also make new friends.

The result of this discussion told me that the students did not realize the more subtle power of media but very influential in shaping their way of thinking in reading and interpreting texts in a form of hegemonic culture infiltrating the one they have got from the elders—such as parents and teachers.
To be continued.

PT56 11.00 020807

Media Power

MEDIA POWER AND THE DANGERS OF MASS INFORMATION

By Michael J. O’Neill

Television nowadays is not just another page in media history. It is an utterly unique phenomenon that is profoundly influencing everything we do: how we act, how we think, how we see the world, how we govern. Television alters and distorts our perceptions of reality, not only expanding knowledge overwhelmingly but also changing its very nature, resulting in enormous consequences. But how does television change our knowledge? How are our perceptions and our thinking processes being affected?

First, television alters the way we see the world. Distant events are brought into our personal horizon, influencing our feelings beyond what we might have experienced before, from football World Cup to great human disasters in India or Ethiopia. Real-time experiences are delivered into our living rooms, in a sensational manner, so that we can share the daily triumphs and tragedies of the human race. The result is a new kind of knowledge.

Second, television influences the very process of thinking and deciding in written communication, the worlds stand passive and still on the page, never moving. Our imagination must work to convert them into our versions of reality, and then our mind has to take over and reason its way toward conclusions and action. The progression is from words to reason, to conviction, to action. In the case of television, on the other hand, movement, sound and color rush actual experiences directly to the senses, forcing us to produce instant emotional reactions. The process moves from image to impression, to emotional reactions, and then to action. The reflection and reasoning, which is a part of verbal communication, are bypassed.

A third point about television’s effect is that it sometimes needs to distort knowledge because it always focuses on visual events or actions that can be photographed and issues that can be dramatized or simplified. It cannot deal with subtle, complex and abstract subjects that lie beyond the camera’s beady eye. An event can only become interesting when it comes with pictures that provoke emotions. Oftentimes, an important event is neglected because it cannot produce a moving picture while a ridiculous one becomes important since it comes complete with pictures.

The fourth note about television’s effect on our thinking is that it depends our knowledge. Its sheer volume of information overwhelms our brain’s capacity for absorption, selection and interpretation. There are always news shows, headlines, and dialogs or talks. But at the same time they create problems. Everything is chopped into tiny pieces of information and presented repeatedly, making it difficult to digest, analyze, and judge.

These changes in the nature and uses of knowledge have enormous consequences, not only for public wisdom but also for the way democracy works. Television and mass media have altered the basic relationship between the people and their government. For instance, voters can get instant access to the same information received by their elected representatives. And because television produces instant mass emotions, instant mass opinions, and then mass pressures, policymakers are forced to at without prior thought and against their best judgment. The national media are no longer just observers and messengers but lead actors in government by creating, shaping, and often distorting information. television and mass media do it by magnifying as well as reporting the conflicts of power, supporting, nagging and harassing but at the same time also explaining. This power also makes the mass media the targets of manipulation by every party and the victims of conflicting pressures, knowing and unknowing participants in the management of crisis and in the formation of policy. The mass media have become both the collaborators and adversaries of government.

The ability of the press to mold public opinion is now so great that issues and events are often shaped to serve their needs. Newsmakers modify their behavior, creating controversy, looking for more effect by refusing to have a rational debate and petition in favor of staging loud protest and demonstration. False issues and facts are created in abundance. They do not reflect reality, often displacing truth, just so it can achieve the greatest media impact and public favor.

What can be done about all this? One solution is to come up with a new kind of journalism, “preventive journalism”. It should present news in a very different way from what it is now. Instead of only describing the sensation of an event, preventive journalism should search in advance to try to identify the underlying causes of crises before they happen, rather than after they explode. This kind of journalism might give an alerted society time to protect itself from the sudden exposure to the event. It is not enough for the media to provide the videotapes of war; they should also beware of causes that might lead to war in order to prevent it. This would require a different mindset and new techniques. It would mean looking deeply into societal trends on a sustained, long-term basis, so that the public can see and hear the process that might lead into a crisis.

Michael J. O’Neill, former President of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, gave the above annual Carlos McClatchy Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Stanford University’s Department of Communication. Mr. O’Neill was Editor of the New York Daily News from 1975 to 1982; he has been a journalist for 30 years.

Adapted from: http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reporsts/99-4_00-1NR/O’Neill_Media_Power.html