Assignment 52: Media & Culture: A Theoretical Perspective of the Inter-relationship (penned by Nayeem Showkat) For the Department of Media studies by Prof Dr Sohail Ansari

Abstract

Media, as a powerful social system, plays an important role in creating a person’s sense of reality (Gergen, 1999).  It proved to be influential on the belief that in its wider cultural sense, the media largely reinforced those values and norms which had already achieved a wide consensual foundation. The complimentary and independent media are the most substantial requirements for the utility of democracy (Bajohr, 2006).

Question:   How media creates a person’s sense of reality?

Do you think that media of Pakistan fulfill the requirements for the utility of democracy? 

 The mass media are less effective in this process if they use a hostile perception and more powerful when "persuasive press inferences" (Gunther & Christen 2002). The persuasive press inference depicts that individuals frequently presume public opinion from perceptions of the content of media coverage, and assumptions regarding the content that have  considerable  influence  on  people (Gunther,  Christen, Liebhart,  &  Chia 2001).

Question:

Can we presume public opinion from perceptions of the content of TV dramas or movies?

Culture  is  learned and  transmitted  from generation to generation. It “is an integrating  mechanism” (Geertz, 1973;  Schein,  1983),  the  social or normative glue that holds together a potentially diverse group of organisational members.

Establishing, relating to, or deriving from a standard or norm, especially of behaviour.

"Negative sanctions to enforce normative behaviour

Question:   What is normative glue?

                

Culture is manifested at different layers of depth and the culture of a  particular  group  or organisation  is  desirable  to distinguish  three  fundamental levels  at  which  culture  manifests itself:  (a) observable artifacts, (b) values, and (c) basic underlying assumptions (Schein, 1984). Culture is learned, not inherited. The source of new cultural elements in a society may also be another society. The cultural elements of one culture borrowed and incorporated in recipient culture are called diffusion. The processes of diffusion and acculturation bring some kind of cultural changes or shift in the culture. Sometimes diffusion is due to intermediate contact that occurs through the third party. Mass media has a political and a persuasive power over us. Radio, TV, the 'press' etc. can manipulate whole societies.

Assimilation to a different culture, typically the dominant one.

"The process of acculturation may impact both social and psychological well-being"

Question:

How do you see the processes of diffusion and acculturation occurring in Pakistan?

Mass Political propaganda, advertising and the so-called 'mind-bending' power of the media are long-standing causes of debate and concern. Media has a great effect on our social behaviour which is a part of our culture.

The study assessed various ways of effect of mass media on culture like cognitive, attitudinal, behavioural and psychological. The study aimed to elucidate the importance of media, culture and their relationship and influence over each other.

Keywords: media, culture, relationship, elements, psychological

Introduction

Media are diversified media forms intended to reach the large audience/masses. Mass media  refers to those  means of diffusion  that  are  designed  to  get  in  touch  with  a  wider audience.  The media is that authority of the society which scrutinizes all the three other powers of the state (executive, legislation &  judiciary), and  for that reason,  it is considered the fourth power (Gormus, 2012).

Question: Can we call Pakistani media the fourth power?

The  complimentary  and  independent  media  are  the  most substantial requirements for the utility of democracy (Bajohr, 2006) . It is largely a media technology which is diversified by  means  of objective  to  reach  a targeted  audience  with a memorandum. 

The mass media are less effective in this process if they use a hostile perception and more powerful when "persuasive press inferences" (Gunther & Christen 2002). The persuasive press

inference  depicts  that individuals  frequently presume  public

opinion from perceptions of  the content  of media  coverage, and assumptions regarding the content that have considerable influence  on  people  (Gunther,  Christen,  Liebhart,  &  Chia

2001)

Media have a tendency to produce  more ideological and not completely  true accounts  for  viewing  by the  general  public (Cotterrell 1999). With the media discourse, there are some

groups,  potentially  magnificently  influential  on  public opinions,  ideologies  and  models  (Altheide  1985;  Altschull 1984;  Paletz  & Entman  1981;  Lichter,  Rothman  & Lichter

1990).  

Media  endow  with  knowledge  and  news  related  to  basic events necessary  for coherent jurisdictions  of people. At the  same  time,  it  also  acts  as  a  forum  through  securing  the

admittance to various category of  information which  people swap over (O’Neill, 1998) .

  

The official power to make legal decisions and judgements.

"the English court had no jurisdiction over the defendants

Inoue’s (2011) explicates that  the uses  and the  gratifications approach of the media depend on the convenience and existing habits of the audience rather than probing for a precise media

channel. Media is not only confined to the four walls of news but, it also entertains, educates, informs and facilitates cultural transformation between generations (Smith, 2011)

Culture  is  learned  and  transmitted  from  generation  to generation.  It “is an  integrating  mechanism”  (Geertz,  1973; Schein,  1983) ,  the  social  or  normative  glue  that  holds

together  a  potentially  diverse  group  of  organizational members. Berger and Luckman (1966) were of the opinion that culture change depends on how one perceives and enacts culture.

Culture  is  manifested  at  different  layers  of  depth  and  the culture  of a  particular  group or  organization  is desirable  to distinguish  three  fundamental  levels  at  which  culture

manifests  itself: (a)  observable  artifacts, (b)  values,  and  (c)

National Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development

basic underlying assumptions (Schein, 1984) .  

Culture is  learned, not  inherited. The  source of new  cultural

elements in a society may also be another society.

The cultural elements  of  one  culture  borrowed  and  incorporated  in

recipient  culture  are  called  diffusion.  The  processes  of diffusion  and  acculturation  bring  some  kind  of  cultural changes or shift in the culture. Sometimes diffusion is due to

intermediate contact that occurs through the third party.

The media proved  to be  influential on  the belief  that, in its

wider cultural sense, the media largely reinforced those values

and  norms  which  had  already  achieved  a  wide  consensual

foundation.  Media,  as  a  powerful  social  system,  plays  an

important role in creating a person’s sense of reality (Gergen, 1999).  

Question: Does the media of Pakistan create the sense of reality of Pakistanis.

2. Relevance of the study

Media for most of us are entwined with almost every aspect of life and work.  Understanding media will not only help us to appreciate the role of media in  our day-to-day  life but  also helps us to be a more informed citizen, a savvy-consumer, and a more  successful worker.

Question: How appreciating the role of media can make us a savvy-consumer?

Mass  media has a  political and a  persuasive  power  over  us.  Radio,  TV,  the  'press'  etc.  can

manipulate whole societies.  Political propaganda, advertising  and the so-called 'mind-bending' power of the media are long- standing  causes  of  debate  and  concern.  Media  has  a  great

effect on our social behaviour which is a part of our culture.

The study assesses various ways  of effect  of mass  media on culture  like  cognitive,  attitudinal,  behavioral  and psychological. The study aims to elucidate the importance of  media, culture and their  relationship and influence over  each other. 

3. The idea of culture 

Human potential can only be realized within the structure  of  human culture and through growing up in close contact with other humans. Culture affects behaviour and interpretations of

behaviour as certain aspects of culture are physically visible, their meaning is invisible: their cultural meaning lies precisely and  only  in  the  way these  practices  are  interpreted by  the

insiders (Hofstede, 2001).

Question: Do you agree with Hofstede?

Culture can be differentiated from both  universal  human nature and unique individual personality. It derives from one’s social environment, not from one’s  genes.  Culture should  be distinguished  from human  nature  on one  side  and from  an individual’s  personality  on the  other  although  exactly where the  borders  lie  between  human  nature  and  culture,  and between  culture  and  personality,  is  a  matter  of  discussion  among social scientists (Hofstede, 1994)

Question: Can you contribute to discussion occurring among social scientists?

Culture  influences  biological  processes  as  the  effects  of culturally  produced  ideas  on  our  bodies  and  their  natural process take many different forms. For example, instances of voluntary control  of pain  reflexes are found in a number  of cultures throughout the world. The ethnographic examples are too numerous to cite, but whether we are looking at Cheyenne

men engaged in the Sun Dance ceremony, Fiji firewalkers, or U.S.  Women practicing  the  Lamaze  (psycho  prophylactic) method of  childbirth, the principle is the same:  People learn

ideas from  their cultures that when  internalized can actually later the experience of pain. In other words,  a component of culture (that  is, ideas)  can channel  or influence  biologically

based pain reflexes (Ferraro, 1998) .

Question: Do you agree with Ferraro?

Culture is associated with social groups because it is shared by at least two or more

people, and of course real, live societies are always larger than that. There is, in other words, no such thing as the culture of a hermit. If a solitary individual thinks and behaves in a certain

way, that thought or action is idiosyncratic, not  cultural. For an  idea, a  thing, or  a behavior  to be  considered  cultural, it must  be  shared  by  some  type  of  social  group  or  society

(Ferraro, 1998) .

Question: Many saints were hermits but people later adopted the way they lived. How Ferraro would react to this statement.

Culture is both an individual construct and a social construct. To  some extent,  culture exists  in each  and every  one of us individually as much as it exists as a global, social construct.

Individual  differences  in  culture  can  be  observed  among  people in  the degree to which  they adopt and  engage in the attitudes,  values,  beliefs,  and behaviors  that,  by  consensus,

constitute their culture (Matsumoto, 1996) 

Question: How Matsumoto may respond to a statement that mavericks and deviants help societies notice their fossilized errors and aberrant behaviors give explanation to society failure to follow what it should.   

Culture is always both socially and psychologically distributed in a group, and  so  the  delineation of a culture’s features  will always  be  fuzzy. Culture  is  a  ‘fuzzy’ concept,  in  that group members  are  unlikely  to  share  identical  sets  of  attitudes, beliefs and so on, but rather show ‘family resemblances’, with the  result  that there  is  no  absolute  set of  features  that can

distinguish definitively  one  cultural  group  from  another (Avruch, 1998) .

Question: Avruch may be right in his observation if things are variation on theme. Discuss.

It has both universal (etic) and distinctive (emic) elements as humans have largely overlapping biologies and live in  fairly similar  social  structures  and  physical  environments,  which create major similarities in  the way they form cultures. But within  the  framework  of  similarities 

there  are  differences (Triandis, 1994) .

Question: How Triandis may react to variation of theme.

Culture is learned from the people you interact with as you are

socialized. Watching how adults react and talk to new babies is an excellent way to see the actual symbolic transmission of culture among  people. Two babies born  at exactly  the same

time in two parts of the globe  may be  taught to  respond to physical  and  social  stimuli  in  very  different  ways.  For example, some babies are taught to smile at strangers, whereas

others are taught to smile only in very specific circumstances. In the United States, most children are asked from a very early age to make decisions about what they want to do  and what

they prefer; in many other cultures, a parent would never ask a child what she or he  wants to  do but  would simply  tell the child what to do (Lustig & Koester, 1999) 

It is homogeneous as it is free from internal paradoxes and contradictions. It is uniformly distributed among members of a group. Culture is a custom as it is structurally undifferentiated,

that what you see is what you get (Avrunch, 1998).

Question: Subjugated Nations develop internal paradoxes. Do you agree or you agree with Avrunch?

Culture is not static; it is dynamic and we often move between cultures. It is  broader than race  and ethnicity.  Gender, class,  physical and  mental  abilities,  religious  and  spiritual  beliefs,  sexual orientation,  age  and  other  factors  influence  our  cultural orientations.  Culture  is  subject  to  gradual  change  (Ferraro, 1998)

Question: If Culture is the sum of its parts that how it can be broader?

 Historical overview of culture 

Even though it is notoriously difficult term to define, culture is often defined as  that which  is shared  by and/or unique to a given  organization  or  group  (Clark,  1970;  Schein,  1985;

Smircich,  1983)  .  In  1952,  the  American anthropologists, Kroeber and Kluckhohn,  critically reviewed concepts and definitions of culture, and compiled a list of 164

different definitions. 

Apte  (1994)    writing  in  the  ten-volume  Encyclopedia  of Language  and  Linguistics,  summarized  the  problem  as follows:  “Despite  a  century  of  efforts  to  define  culture

adequately, there was in the early 1990s no agreement among anthropologists  regarding  its  nature.”  Culture  was  broadly used in three ways; First, as  exemplified  in  Matthew  Arnolds’  Culture  and Anarchy  (1867),  culture  referred  to  special  intellectual  or artistic endeavors or products, what today we might call “high culture” as opposed to “popular culture” (or “folkways” in an earlier usage). By this definition, only a portion – typically a

small one  – of  any  social group  “has” culture  (The  rest  are potential sources of anarchy!). This sense  of culture  is more closely related to aesthetics than to social science.

Question: Explain how this sense of culture is more closely related to aesthetics than to social science?

 The scientific study of human society and social relationships.

A subject within the field of social science, such as economics or politics

The  second,  as  pioneered  by  Edward  Tylor  in  Primitive Culture (1870), referred to a quality possessed by all people in all  social  groups,  who  nevertheless  could  be  arrayed  on  a

development  (evolutionary)  continuum  (in  Lewis  Henry Morgan’s  scheme)  from  “savagery”  through  “barbarism”  to “civilization”.  

The third and last usage of culture developed in anthropology in the twentieth-century work of Franz Boas and his students, though with roots in the eighteenth-century writings of Johann

von  Herder.  As  Tylor  reacted  to  Arnold  to  establish  a scientific  (rather  than  aesthetic)  basis  for  culture,  so  Boas reacted against Tylor and other social evolutionists.

Question: What are scientific basis for culture?

Whereas the evolutionists stressed  the universal  character of  a single culture,  with  different  societies  arrayed  from  savage  to civilized, Boas emphasized the  uniqueness of  the many  and

varied cultures of different peoples or societies. Moreover, he dismissed the value  judgments he found inherent in both the Arnoldian  and  Tylorean  views  of  culture. 

Question: What value judgment is inherent? Discuss

An assessment of something as good or bad in terms of one's standards or priorities.

"It is a value judgement which a government is entitled to make"

                 

For  Boas,  one should  never  differentiate  high  from  low  culture,  and  one ought  to  not  differentially  valorize  cultures  as  savage  or  civilized (Spencer-Oatey, 2012).

 give or ascribe value or validity to.

"the culture valorizes the individual"   

·         raise or fix the price or value of (a commodity or currency) by artificial means, especially by government action.

Question: Pick examples of valorization.

Cultural Shift: A theoretical analysis 

The change in culture on wider ground is  known as  cultural shift. Change in external environment can be attributed to the good deal of change in culture. In the modern world, changes in  the  social  environment  are  more  frequent  than  physical environment. Discoveries and inventions, which may originate inside  or outside  a  society, are  ultimately the  source of  all cultural  change.  Using  and  accepting  the  inventions  and

discoveries bring changes in prevailing cultures. 

Change of culture takes time and courage to reorganize power in society.

Question: How inventions and discoveries can bring change?

Clifford (1975)  defined culture as a historically transmitted  pattern  of  meanings  embodied  in  symbols,  a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by  means  of  which  men  communicate,  perpetuate,  and develop their knowledge about and their attitudes towards life. 

Question: Explain what Clifford says?

Handy (1991)   was of the  opinion "change is not  what it

used to be".

Before change was continuous and comfortable, when the past acted as a guide for the future, but now we have moved into a period where circumstances tend to combine to the  distress of  the advocates  of  the status  quo.  Indeed,  the changes  we  are  experiencing  are  no  longer  foreseeable  or comfortably  cast  into  predictable  patterns  but  rather discontinuous, uncomfortable and tensional. Undoubtedly, the change over  from a  preceding  social  order based  on  custom and tradition  to one originated from  rational calculation and

control,  seemed  secured  by  the  growth  of  bureaucratic organizations (Handy 1991) .  

Question: Why what we  are  experiencing  are  no  longer  foreseeable  or comfortably  cast  into  predictable  patterns? 

However, technological,  social  and  cultural  the  current  set  of  interrelated  economic changes  is  reflected,  and reflects  in  turn, an  underlying  fragmenting dynamic  in  our

organizations that has  transformed the hierarchical structures

and  disciplinary  practices  of  the  traditional  rational bureaucracies into more self-regulating, decentralized, diffuse and flexible arrangements (Reed, 1983) .  

Question: How social and  cultural  changes  is  reflected,  and reflects?

    The era in which we live characterizes culture by the state of discontinuous  change  and  consequently  by  deficiency  of  a stable world of meanings. Work motivation have widened the

scope of changes in  culture and these changes  have inspired the  development  of  new  and  softer  `means  of  controlling people'  (Rose,  1989) ,

Question

What is the deficiency of a stable world of meanings?

How work motivation can widen the scope of changes?

What are the softer means of controlling?

and  the culture  concept  seems  to offer  the  possibility  of  a  more  successful  approach  to  this development.  Social  scientists  are  still  far  from  agreeing  about  what  a cultural phenomenon is, what it means, what its characteristics are, what it is comprised of, what it does or how it should be studied.  The  definitions  of  culture  variously  include  as

components  ideas,  concepts,  values,  ideologies,  attitudes, goals,  norms,  learned  behaviours,  symbols,  rites,  rituals, customs,  myths,  habits  and/or  artifacts.  Underlying  this

diversity, we find various assumptions of what culture is and

what its main components are. 

There  was  no  difference  between  cultural  and  societal boundaries:  Culture  or  civilization,  taken  in  its  wide ethnographic  sense,  is  that  complex  whole  which  includes knowledge,  belief,  art,  morals,  law, custom,  and  any  other capabilities  and  habits  acquired  by  man  as  a  member  of society (Taylor, 1958) .  

Thus, the  cultural and  social realms appear  integrated into  a harmonic socio-cultural system where culture is manifested in  the  observable  human practices  and  their products.  Culture

came  to  be  seen  not  as  a  sequential  manifestation  of  an unfolding saga, extending from Paleolithic hunters to modern civilization,  but  rather  as  `what  people  do'  collectively  in

different ways, places and times (Jenkins, 1993) .

Question: What is a sequential manifestation of an unfolding saga?

As such, the interrelation of the different cultural components and the resultant social structure came to be seen as equal, or at least continuous (Malinowski, 1962) . When it comes to

the  analysis of  the different  but interrelated  components of culture and the role of  the individual in the cultural  process, two different perspectives emerge: the historical/adaptive and

the cultural idealism schools (Allaire & Firsirotu 1984) .  

The  historical/adaptive  school  considers  culture exclusively determined by technical  or/and environmental factors  (Khan, 2012)  ,  whereas  individuals  are  considered  merely  as

carriers  of  culture  not  participating  in  its  development (Kroeber,  1963)  . 

Question: Khan and Kroebar assume that human beings can not influence technical and environmental factors; and conlude individuals are merely carriers of culture. How far do you agree?

Culture  is  the  special  and  exclusive product  of mankind,  and  the quality  which  distinguishes  it.

The culture is at the same time the totality of the products of the social man and an enormous force which affects all human beings, socially and individually (Kroeber, 1963) .  

Subculture is defined as ‘a cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture’ how may Kroeber reacts to it?

Culture is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group has learned  as it  solved problems  of external  adaptation and internal  integration,  which  has  worked  well  enough  to  be

considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to  perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems (Schein, 1992) .

Question: Schein has used the word ‘correct’ as the relative term. Do not you think Schein is wrong.

Waters  (1995)    claims  cultural  exchanges  liberate relationships  from  spatial  and  geographical  referents,  and cultural symbols, which can be produced anywhere and at any

time, are transported  easily across geographical and physical boundaries. 

Question: How cultural exchanges  liberate relationships  from  spatial  and  geographical  referents,  and cultural symbols? And how cultural symbols can be produced anywhere and be transported?

relating to or occupying space.

"the spatial distribution of population

1.    the thing in the world that a word or phrase denotes or stands for.

"‘the Morning Star’ and ‘the Evening Star’ have the same referent (the planet Venus)"

We  need  to  be  aware  of  the  underlying understandings  created by  broader cultural  ideas  since  they will also  influence the  ways in which people  make sense  of  the problems they are facing and influence each other through direct  interaction  (Featherstone,  1990)  . 

Question: What is the underlying understanding?

The  historical dimension in cultural development and culture was addressed

as a phenomenon difficult to change (Schein, 1988; Gagliardi, 1986).

Cultural change has also been described as a learning process in which members act according to cognitive schemes, givingmeanings to the events occurring within the setting (Bartunek,

1988) . 

Question: How cognitive schemes can give meanings to things?

When  cultural  change  occurs,  it  is  described  in dramatic and painful terms: an established cultural unity has to cope with external factors, which oblige it to change and, so, it `collapses'. This process is seen as entailing an organization-wide cultural transformation, whereby an old cultural unity is replaced by a new one. 

Question: Why   cultural change  is  described  in

dramatic and painful terms?

Culture  as  the  fabric  of  meanings,  in  terms  of  which  we interpret our experiences and guide our actions (Geertz, 1973) then we need to look at cultural change in a different way.

It  follows  that  any  community  is  able at  every  moment  to reconstruct its past.

Question: What is the fabric of meanings and how it can help to reconstruct past?

However,  that  past  is  usually  `distorted'  in  the  process  of reconstruction because even without the intention to distort its recollection always rests upon interpretative re-constructions.

In  any case,  this  reconstruction implies  a certain  degree of agreement since  society can  live only if  there is a  sufficient unity  of  outlooks  among  the  individuals  and  groups

comprising it (Coser, 1992) .

Question: When society will collapse?  

One of the consequences is that a social group might `delete' from  memory  all that  distances  groups from  each  other or brings  about  painful  memories  that  are  better  forgotten

(Pennebaker, 1992; Paez et al., 1993s) .

 Mass Media: Uses and Gratification 

Kitchens,  Powell  and  Williams  (2003)  expound  that media usage and political affairs are identifying that media usage is both a reason and result for political behaviour.

Question: How media usage can be a reason as well as result?

They further explain that the cause of media usage is related to looking for information  from  various  sources.  Voter’s  community  seeks information on political affairs via media and treats media as the source of political information. They identified four major factors for  information seeking:  openness, education,  factual knowledge and political sophistication. 

Barton  (2009) quoting  Lasswell’s  identification  of  media uses  and  gratifications  explains  that  the  major  factors  for media  usage  for  gathering  information  are  building relationship  with  the  current  social  needs  and  events, environmental surveillance, and social heritage transmission.

Question: what is social heritage transmission?

On the other hand, Greenberg (1974) , Lometti, Reeves and Bybee (1977)  supported the contradictory thought that the  gratification sought are not usually the gratifications acquired.

Therefore,  the  above  mentioned  two perspectives  in  media usage  for gratifying  psychological  and social  needs explain the drive for media exposure in order to satisfy the  need for knowledge. 

Question: How two perspectives explain the drive?

The media  lend a  hand  to create  the consensus which  politicians  thankfully  construe  as  the  popular resentment  they  needed  to  democratically  legitimate  the gradually  harsher  immigration  restrictions  in  Europe  and North America or the social exclusion of minorities (Castles & Miller, 1993).

Question: How consensus can be construed as the resentment?

Researches also prove how most of  the Western media were and  are  still  engaged  in  the  replica  of  stereotypes  and prejudices against the others in or from the South (Hartmann

& Husband 1974; Jager & Link 1993; van Dijk 1991) . A socially oriented cognitive science endows us with insight into  the  structures  and  strategies  of  cognition,  and  hence

recommend  a  foundation  for  a  new  understanding  of  the influential power of the  media (Graber,  1984; Gunter, 1987; Harris, 1989; van Dijk 1988) .  

 Question: How cognitive science can help create foundation for a new understanding of the influential power of the media?

 Media & Culture: Influence & Relationship 

“Media  and  culture  are  interconnected;  levels  of understanding  various  cultures  influence  media  contents, meanwhile media platforms and contents impact cultural and day-to-day practices” (Dakroury, 2014) .

Question: Give examples how the culture of yours influence media contents and contents impact you culture?

Question: watch mornings shows and dramas and decide that the culture of yours influence or media contents influence your culture.

 The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggested that each culture had a different way of classifying the world. These schemes would be reflected, it argued, in the linguistic and semantic structures

of different societies.

Question: Give examples of linguistic and semantic structures of different societies for classifying the world.

The  media  plays  an  important  role  of  decision  making framework  which  is  a  behavioral  change  and  in  opinion  formation  which is  observable  behaviour.  A  person  closely

monitoring the  media consumption is  not immune  to media effects.  After  comparing  various  media  channels,  (Danaher and  Rossiter,  2011)    also  acknowledged  that  people

perceive  different  media  channels  differently. 

Question: Why people perceive different media channels differently?

When communicating messages among different cultures, media on the other side also faces severe challenges.

Question: What severe challenges?

According  to  Jenkins  (2006)    there  is  definite  paradigm shift  as  how  the  content  of  media  is  being  produced  and circulated.  Scholars  theorizing  the  current  trend  to participatory  culture  emphasized user’s  strong  preference  to share knowledge and culture in communities. 

Media  has  given  new  meaning  to  cultural  sharing  and  communication.  Louis  Writh  and  Talcott  Parsons  have  “emphasized the  importance of mass media as instruments of

social  control.” 

Question: If media is instruments of social control then it implies it has absorbed the role of mores. How far you agree?

Media  is  basically  a  powerful  presence  in people’s lives.  Afsaneh (2012)   concludes that TV channels  seek  for  a  change  in  lifestyle  among  Iranian  women,  as she finds a significant relationship between lifestyle portrayed  by TV channels and lifestyle of women in Tehran. 

Media  plays  a cardinal  role  in  disseminating our  daily  life cultural practices.  It is said to  reflect our culture norms and values and it has widened our choices and increased cultural

expression  with  flow  of  information  at  planetary  level.

Question: What choices media has widened and how? And how media has increased cultural expression?

Cultural  values  also  shape  mass  media  messages  when producers of media content have vested interests in particular social goals.

Question: Cultural values do nt work minus vested interests. Do you agree?  

People can produce and symbolise cultural identities through  the  media.  Verdugo  &  Fierro  (2014)    found  that “communication  competence  is  a  complex  process  of adaptation, understanding, and  acceptance of  media content, highlighting the ability of subjects to critically own the media through  cultural  contextualization  mechanisms  specific  to each individual.”

Question: Why owning is important and how owning is possible?

“Popular”  culture  is  the  media,  products,  and  attitudes  considered to be part of the mainstream of a given culture and the everyday life of common people. It is often distinct from more  formal  conceptions  of  culture  that  take  into  account  moral, social, religious beliefs and values such as our earlier definition of culture.

Question: what is the formal conceptions of culture?

It can  be asserted  that there  is a  close relationship  between mass  media  and  culture  of  people.  Different  mass  media channels are interlinked with the culture of the place. On the

basis  of  the  literature,  it  could  be  further  asserted,  as (Dakroury,  2014)  states  that  “media  narratives  and discourses  are  created  within  different  forms  of  texts  and images that are  complexly related to the cultural perceptions and practices of both those who produce and consume them.”  

 Question: What Dakroury says if absolutely true then how media can be the instrument of a change?