Putting the Mass into Media

Anthropology of Media ANTH 2301 Putting the Mass into Media Technophilia is the term used to describe the current period in which individuals love technology and integrate it into every aspect of their life, especially their social lives. The modern "smart" devices communicate with their users, gather information from them, offer recommendations, and connect with their friends and family, in contrast to the passive features of outdated cameras, watches, radios, and televisions. These smart technologies become a part of their users inasmuch as they enable them to communicate with others and the outside world, much like an additional organ for feeling and speaking. They interact with people by pushing and nudging them, so much so that they start to feel like friends or relatives. These smart devices serve as a means of communication, sending messages and data to other people and organisations, which is part of what makes them so alluring (and addicting). All of these technologies are media since they are means of communication. Media are essentially instruments for information distribution and archiving. In this fundamental aspect, media have always been vital to the growth and survival of human civilization. Early examples of symbolic communication, such cave paintings and prehistoric writing systems, can be categorised as media since they gave humans a means of imbuing tangible items with meaning that could be communicated to others in different locations and eras. Nevertheless, the uniqueness of these early media types constrained their reach. It was forbidden for anyone to send copies of the paintings they saw in the cave to their acquaintances. A scholar might transcribe a tale onto a cuneiform tablet, but without the laborious process of transcribing copies one by one, the tablet could not be replicated for a larger audience. Scholars from all over the world had a speciality up to the year 1000 CE in hand duplicating books and pamphlets, occasionally with the use of manually carved wooden block prints. Only the extremely affluent could afford to purchase textual forms of media due to the high cost of these technologies. When the printing press was developed, first in China and later in Germany, all of this was altered (Frost 2021). Chinese craftsman Bi Sheng made a series of baked clay blocks in the year 1000 CE, and he individually engraved each one with a Chinese character. He put the character blocks on an iron frame that could be pushed up against an iron plate to make a print in order to publish a page of text. A comparable moveable-type printing technology was independently developed by the German businessman Johannes Gutenberg in 1440. Like him, Gutenberg produced a set of blocks with a letter on each, but his were made of metal. He printed 180 now-famous copies of the Bible as well as calendars and leaflets using his technique. The printing press left Germany and quickly extended over France, Italy, Spain, England, and the rest of western Europe. Mass media are mechanically replicated forms of communication, if manual writing systems are the fundamental forms of media. Forms of mass media function through a sender, a machine, and a potentially very large number of receivers, in contrast to forms of basic media, which work between one sender and a limited number of receivers. With the advent of new technologies such as photography, radio, television, and the Internet, the category of mass media has grown over time, having its roots in books and pamphlets printed on moveable type printing presses. Technology has made it possible for mass media to be widely distributed and viewed by a huge number of people. From this perspective, it may appear that the most distinctive feature of mass media is technology. Communication technologies may appear to operate similarly in every setting since they are machines. Newspapers that resembled European ones were published in Africa throughout the 19th century when European printing presses were introduced to the continent. When on vacation, if a person can make their phone work in a different nation, they can use it just like they would at home, making calls to their hotel or ordering an Uber. Because communication technologies appear to operate consistently in many circumstances, individuals frequently believe that mass media are universally applicable. A few offer news on current affairs. Some offer fun and distraction. Some enable users to speak with both people and groups. In this instance, the cultural variations in mass media forms might be attributed to variations in technical sophistication or penetration—a term used by media researchers to characterise the extent to which a communication technology is used in a given setting. Do you have any experience with Ghanaian videos? These are low-budget, video-camera Ghanaian films that are intended for local viewers. They are typically finished in a few weeks. They address societal issues including corruption and witchcraft, sometimes in conjunction with Christian salvation. These homegrown and international video films are often criticised for their subpar production qualities and crude editing. In contrast to Hollywood blockbusters, which have elaborate technological production procedures and multimillion-dollar budgets, African video films could appear to be a subpar imitation of American cinema. However, West Africans do not see locally produced video films in that way. The themes and situations covered in foreign films do not resonate with the experiences and worries of many Ghanaians, despite the fact that many of them enjoy viewing American films sometimes. Local video films, on the other hand, speak to Ghanaians' anxieties and wants, reaffirming established norms and values and strengthening social identity forms. Local video films continue to be hugely popular among viewers in West Africa, despite criticism from many Ghanaians over the shabby editing and inconsistent sound levels. Tejaswini Ganti (2012), an anthropologist, studied the Indian cinema business through ethnographic study. She explains the evolution of Indian cinema from adobe, regional forms of amusement to high-tech productions that became the worldwide standard for Bollywood. Ganti places this change in the context of the more significant economic changes of the 1990s and the neoliberal emphasis on international commerce and middleclass consumption that followed in India. Later films are more likely to dramatise the lives of the professional, highly educated, and wealthy classes than previous films, which tended to focus on topics concerning working-class and marginalised peoples. Ganti therefore establishes a connection between the films' themes, technology, and economic situations. Although technology could appear to be the key component of mass media, the whole mass media experience is really created by the integration of communication technologies with local cultures. Mass media are fundamentally communication tools—technological means by which senders and recipients may transmit cultural meaning in many forms. Culture is reflected in the words, pictures, symbols, and sounds that are utilised to express meaning. The local production and reception environments have a substantial cultural influence on the topic substance of mass media. Local social norms have a significant influence on how people consume and engage with the media.