Discuss the role of media studies in making sense of the political, economic and cultural meaning of everyday life.

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Rachael Mein –1944 8635                 COM 1010 - Assignment # 1

COM1010 – Assignment # 1

Discuss the role of media studies in making sense of the political, economic and cultural meaning of everyday life

Media studies involves studying various forms of text including print, electronic and more recently the growing industry of information-based technology (Cunningham, 2003, p.3). Media studies includes both the “analysis and deconstruction of media and the production or construction of media messages” (Ferrington, G., 2001) As a society we are constantly surrounds by the media, in our homes, at the workplace and in public. Media in the 21st century is not only a form of entertainment, but it shapes the world in which we exist today by influencing behaviour and customs. References to the term ‘political’ and ‘economy’ call attention to the fact that the production and distribution of culture takes place within a specific economic system, constituted by relations between the state, the economy, social institutions and practices, culture, and organizations like the media (Ferguson, 1997, p.104). The study of media assists in comprehending the way in which we use and evaluate media messages, how it shapes our existence and how it assists us to make sense of the political, economic and cultural meaning of everyday life.

Culture can be understood as the totality of communication practices and systems of meaning (Schirato, 2000, p.3). The study of media assists in our interpretation and organisation of the cultural meaning of everyday life. Scannell (1996) comments, “the contents of newspapers and in radio and television schedule, are everyday matters”. An example of this can be seen in the daily television news programs, a powerful source of information, which “is part of the fabric of days for us” (Scannell, 1996, p.160). “The care structure of news is designed to routinise eventfulness, to produce it as an everyday phenomenon every day and thereby historicising” (Scannell, 1996, p.160). This routine method in which the news is presented detracts from its impact on the audience. Media studies assists in setting out how we can analyse this information and put it into context. The news changes everyday, therefore news programs “focuses on filtering and discarding the past, while orienting the present towards emerging events and processes” (Scannell, 1996, p.176). The study of cultural mediums, such as news broadcasting assists in acknowledging the news’ power to shape our everyday life, which is “accomplished daily and routinely” (Scannell, 1996, p.160).

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Politics refers to the science and art of government, political affairs or life (Oxford Dictionary, 1976, p.855). Media studies assists in making sense of the political world by allowing ways to interpret political events, media messages and the everyday political world. The media, especially television, is used in the modern political world to distorts “the way in which we see the world around us” (Ward, 1997, p.208). For example in 1990 the Australian Labor Party (ALP) ( T., 22 March 2004) reported spending $14.8 Million in a Federal government campaign, including $8.5 million on television advertising, which was aimed at ...

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