Media and society

Journalism and Mass Communication · Media and society. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

The media do four things for society: they inform, educate, entertain and persuade. Lasswell described three functions of communication: surveillance of the environment (news and warnings), correlation of the parts of society (interpretation and comment) and transmission of the social heritage from one generation to the next. Charles Wright later added entertainment.

In a democracy citizens need information to choose their rulers and to judge them. The press is called the fourth estate because it watches the government and informs the people. This works only when the media are free and plural.

The media also shape public opinion, the combined views of people on public issues, though research shows they more often reinforce attitudes than change them.

Rules to remember

Lasswell's three functions: surveillance, correlation, transmission of social heritage. Entertainment was added by Charles Wright.
Walter Lippmann, 'Public Opinion' (1922): people act on the 'pictures in their heads', which the press largely supplies.
Joseph Klapper: the media usually reinforce existing attitudes; they rarely convert people.
Opinion polls measure public opinion by questioning a representative sample.
Propaganda by source: white (source openly stated), grey (source unclear), black (falsely credited to another source).
Development journalism: reports and critically examines development projects and their effect on ordinary people. Its risk is that it turns into government publicity.
Media pluralism: many independent outlets offering different viewpoints.

Common mistake

Students list entertainment among Lasswell's functions. Lasswell gave only three; entertainment is a later addition by Charles Wright.

Worked example

A television documentary shows young viewers the customs, crafts and folk stories of their grandparents' time. Which of Lasswell's functions is this?

It is not a report of current events or dangers, so it is not surveillance.
It does not interpret events or guide a response to them, so it is not correlation.
It passes values and culture from an older generation to a younger one.

Answer: Transmission of the social heritage.

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