Media and Values

Sarah Ventress, Michael Svennevig, Matthew Kieran, David E. Morrison

Description

David E. Morrison is professor of communications research,
Matthew Kieran is a senior lecturer,
Michael Svennevig is a senior research fellow,
Sarah Ventress is a research officer, all at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom.

Sujets

• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Sociology
• General officer
• Cultural studies
• Television
• Media studies
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 janvier 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781841502175
• Langue: English

Extrait

Media Values
Intimate Transgressions in a Changing Moral and Cultural Landscape
For Sarah Shrive-Morrison
Media Values
Intimate Transgressions in a Changing Moral and Cultural Landscape
David E. Morrison, Matthew Kieran, Michael Svennevig, Sarah Ventress
First Published in the UK in 2007 by Intellect Books, PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK
First published in the USA in 2008 by Intellect Books, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2007 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Cover Design: Gabriel Solomons Copy Editor: Holly Spradling Typesetting: Mac Style, Nafferton, E. Yorkshire
ISBN 978-1-84150-183-3/EISBN 978-1-84150-217-5
Printed and bound by The Gutenburg Press, Malta
Contents
Acknowledgements
Prologue
Introduction
The Philosophical Underpinnings
1 The Need for a Moral Language
PART ONE
The Historical Context: The Moral Void
2 The Question of Regulation: The Absence of a Moral Language
Cultural Contestation
3 Culture in Practice
Moral Decline and the Rights of the Individual
4a What Constitutes Social and Anti-Social Behaviour? Views of Authority - Voices from Focus Groups
4b What Constitutes Social and Anti-Social Behaviour? Views of Authority - Voices from Surveys
PART TWO
The Transgression of Privacy
5 Privacy and the Construction of Self
Interviewing the Industry
6 The Problem of Privacy
The Public and the Private: The Self-Monitoring of Behaviour
7 Clarifying the Conceptual Problems
The Idea of Privacy
8a What are the Limits of the Private? Voices from Focus Groups
8b What are the Limits of the Private? Voices from Surveys
Epilogue
Appendix
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
The recent death of James Dermot Halloran ought not to go unremarked when giving acknowledgment to those who have contributed to this book. His contribution was not direct, but nevertheless powerful. It is to James that British mass communications owes an enormous debt. He more than anyone, through the establishment and development of the renowned Centre for Mass Communications Research, at the University of Leicester, was responsible for the institutionalisation of the field in Britain. He gave due respect to theory, but also valued the benefits to be had, both intellectually and socially, to the pursuit of applied social research. In that this book offers theoretical development, and at the same time addresses applied questions, then hopefully the book will stand as a tribute to him.
At a very direct level we would wish to acknowledge the support given by the BBC, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services, the Independent Television Commission, the Institute for Public Policy Research, the Radio Authority, and most especially, the Broadcasting Standards Commission. Indeed, the BSC, in the personages of Andrea Millwood Hargrave and Colin Shaw CBE, have over the years been more than commissioners of research, they have helped to guide empirical communications research in Britain. Others beyond the Institute of Communications Studies at the University of Leeds have had reason to be glad of their presence, but we at Leeds would like to offer public thanks for their support, both intellectually and personally. It was the sheer value and appreciation for the pursuit of rigorously conducted empirical research that was so obvious in all our associations with them. Above all one could draw inspiration and belief in the value of communications research. They so clearly valued broadcasting as a force for enlightenment, and held to the conviction that neither broadcasting, nor research on broadcasting, should ever be trivialised.
In terms of helping to see the book come to public light we would like to thank Professor David Cooper, Dean of the Faculty, for his encouragement, and Dr Graham Roberts, the current Director of the Institute of Communications Studies, for his total commitment not just to the work, but for his energy and drive in making the Institute an appropriate base within which to commit to and produce such a book. In the same light we would like to thank Professor Stephen Coleman for his enthusiasm for ideas, and unflagging optimism when engaging in often difficult research areas - in short we would like to thank Stephen for being Stephen.
This is a large book, and thus we would wish to say thanks and offer respect to the Chairman of Intellect, Masoud Yazdani, for demonstrating in practice his company s stated commitment to serving the academic community by publishing original works. Manuel Alvarado, as the editor, has demonstrated not just superb professional knowledge and skill in producing the book, but has acted, not only with this work, but others written by members of the Institute, as a figure of considerable encouragement and guidance. He stands out, furthermore, as a remarkable figure showing intellectual integrity and commitment to the idea of book publishing as a cultural activity whose central purpose is to advance the world of learning - would there be more Alvarados.
We gratefully acknowledge the time given so generously by those who agreed to be interviewed in the media industry.
Biographies
David E. Morrison is currently Professor of Communications Research at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds. He gained his PhD in Mass Communications from the Centre for Mass Communications Research, University of Leicester, and has held several university research appointments. He has also worked in market research holding the position of Director at Research International where he was Head of Media. He is the author of twelve books and numerous learned papers.
Matthew Kieran is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Leeds. His main research interests lie at the inter-sections of art, ethics and moral psychology and he is the author of various articles and books including Revealing Art (Routledge, 2005) and Media Ethics: A Philosophical Approach (Praeger, 1997).
Michael Svennevig is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds. He has a wide range of experience in the media and research industries, having worked in the Research Departments of both the BBC and the IBA, and has held directorships at Research International UK and Counter Point Research. He has published a range of articles and books on various aspects of media use.
Sarah Ventress is currently Research Officer at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds. She has a degree in English and an MA in Communications Studies from the University of Leeds. She has worked as a researcher on several audience research studies.
Prologue
Each new medium has been accompanied by research into its performance. The 1920s saw research undertaken on cinema, 1 the 1930s and 1940s saw interest shift to the study of radio, and the 1950s, with the introduction of television, moved the centre of research interests to the new medium. Interest in television continues, but from the late 1990s, with the spread of the Internet, an increasing number of researchers have turned their attention in that direction. Nevertheless, the primary focus for communications research is still that of television. We have omitted newsprint from the above list of research areas, although, in fact, it has always been a subject of enquiry. That enquiry, however, has tended to be a rather narrow one, generally examined for its political content. Indeed, given the political partisanship associated with newspapers, such a focus is not surprising. Yet, the research that forms the basis of this book shows that in one area, and not political reporting, newspapers (according to our respondents) occupy centre stage of concern; namely, the intrusion of privacy. Concern rested not so much on the influence that newspapers might have on the structuring of political discourse, but on the ethics of performance, of what right they had to expose aspects of individual s lives which individuals themselves wished to keep secret or private. It was also clear from the research that in the modern, or information, age, as it is sometimes referred, the individual could not expect freedom from surveillance.
Modernity is configured on communications. What we refer to as modernity (and often contemporary life as late or heightened modernity) is in large measure the story of developments that have taken place in the technology of communications. Yet, whilst the technology of communications may have underpinned and even structured contemporary social, political and economic association, and given rise to questions concerning the effects of communications, the moral framework within which such changes have taken place requires examination. Or, rather, since nothing operates in isolated spheres - social change influences moral frameworks and vice versa - we need to ask how people morally judge the communicative world.
In its turn, each new medium has given rise to new research efforts, most usually based around the concerns raised by the new medium. The basic concern has been the social roles that the new medium might play in the development of attitudes and behaviour. Not surprisingly, therefore, the dominant tradition within mass communications research has been the study of effects, most notably on anti-social behaviour, violence in particular. The association between moving images of violence and real-life violence has been strong in public accounts of causation. For example, the reporting of outrages, such as the running amok of Michael Ryan in a shooting spree, in the country town of Hung