This blog is written as a response to a task assigned by Prof. Dilip Barad, Department of English MKBU. In this blog there is discussion on Cultural Studies. How media shapes the society and how power dynamics works word wide that is the core of this blog. For further information you can visit this Blog.
1. Media and Power:
How does the blog articulate the relationship between media and power in contemporary society? Provide examples from the blog and your own observations.:
In contemporary society media plays a vital role in giving power to any person or institution or party. In the ted ed video there is a term “partisanship”. As an individual one identities oneself with a group which follows the same ideology. It happens in many ways: religiously, politically, nationally and ethnically. One tries to be with one ideology. Problem arises when while being in the group one loses his/her own individual thinking process, one has to follow what the majority of the group say or the leader of the group says. The state of euphoria takes place and an individual loses his/her reasonable mind.
There is an example of sports, if one supports one team and that team tries to cheat in the game which is wrong because one supports that team he/she will try to justify it or see as nothing wrong has happened. In contemporary times in newspapers we find people are on strike for so many days. In particular, states where the opposition parties rule, the whole nation criticises the government, but the same incident happened in Gujarat and everyone is mum not a single word, because there is a ruling party. One can see it another way also that the cases of rapes have been happening in India from long period of time nobody becomes too serious but when it happens to a person who belongs to an elite group or higher class of job everyone becomes too serious on that topic. It happens only when a person belongs to a party or the group one reacts not caring about the other.
There is a term used in the video “Cognitive dissonance” which means that a person starts to think as the group believes. It happens because of the news channels and social media. In social media the algorithm works in a way that an individual likes in the same way one sees the same type of content over and over and there are people who believe the same that makes one more confident about one's ideology and a whole bunch of people can be manipulated through the news channels and social media. As we know sometimes the news channels try to show the reality as it is. They try to work in a decent manner but the channel like NDTV is purchased by a billionaire whose interest is different. Now the news channels will show only the content which is pro-government. News channels debates that go on all day try to brainwash the people that their religion is in danger, their nation in danger and if they don't make one party win the election the others will destroy everything.
Role of Education:
The blog discusses the qualities of a "truly educated person." How does this concept challenge or align with traditional notions of education? What qualities do you think define a truly educated person today, especially in relation to media literacy?
In the beginning of the Ted.ed video there is a test in which there are two identical questions one is related to the math and other is related to the political ideology. Even though they are in the same line but most of the people who arw good at maths not able to answer second question correctly. This shows that our cognitive ability perhaps be good in maths and othe lr subject but in political and media literacy we still have to work. So our traditional knowledge and system may not help us in that.
There are various things that one can do to go near the truth. We are more biassed than we think so whenever any new information comes to us we have to do fact checking. Is it the right information or not? There are times when our mind will say that this is the right thing. One has to challenge our own beliefs on what basis we believe that this is true. In group one has to identify the false information and try to put one's opinion on something that could be different. One has to understand that people with different points of view exist and one has to live with them without hating them and we have to co-exist together. We are living in the post-truth era where there is information, misinformation, half-truths, mix-truths and lies also, so everything is supposed to be checked twice before believing. And one also has to keep looking that the ideas that seem true today may be different in future. So self critique and analysis is also necessary.
“To be truly educated means to be resourceful, to be able to “formulate serious questions” and “question standard doctrine, if that’s appropriate”…. It means to “find your own way.”
Cultural Practices:
Media often shapes cultural norms and practices. Discuss how media representation influences cultural identities, specifically marginalized groups, as per the blog’s argument. Can media also act as a tool for resistance against dominant power structures?:
Media plays a crucial role in shaping society. Noam Chomsky puts it very clearly that media houses are business. They are owned by the big companies, in other words they are corporations that run on the basis of profit, and where their profit depends on that is the advertisement that is also another business. So the media houses’ work is not to telecast the right or or the truth they telecast what raises their TRP. On that basis they will get the money. So basically there is not a question that the media house are conservative or liberal they own the industry and they can sell what they want to it does not have to have the truth or spreading the right information. It deals with the fact that more and more elite people see the channels so they also see the advertisements and media houses can earn more money as simple as that.
Other examples he gives are ‘The New York Times’ , which is the most important newspaper of the USA. The newspaper that is daily produced is also stored. And whenever the people want to see the past they can access that newspaper so in creating past, present and future newspaper and media houses play a vital role and it belongs to a corporate house that works for the business. So one can understand whatever information we get through media, newspaper and Social how truthful it can be.
If we consider the video then the media can not act as a tool for resistance against dominant power structures, because it is owned by the elites. For example the NDTV in India owned by Adani, how can we expect that the media house will report something against the policies of that company or political ideology that Adani group follows. But any channel that works on the noble cause they have the power to serve the marginalised people and their problems but then they might not get that amount of profit.
4. Critical Media Consumption:
Reflect on your media consumption habits. How does the media influence your worldview and daily choices? How can a critical approach to media consumption contribute to becoming a truly educated person?
As we have discussed, we live in a post- truth where there are more possibilities that the information that comes to us that is false or half-truth. And whatsapp forward or facebook message one can not rely blindly. One has to double check it on the authentic material. As we know that Instagram, Meta and Whatsapp three of them are run by the same company. So whatever we see and search on through that we get the advertisement. If we search something on Google the next ad we see it on Instagram. Today we rely more on a few seconds reel instead of reading the book. So our source of information is short and shallow. There is a higher possibility that whatever we consume is wrong and truth can be the opposite.
If we see the news channel that is also controlled by corporations and politicians. So one can not rely on that too. One has to be critical in each and every single detail that one gets through media. And even speaking about the truth is also important, otherwise the false information spreads faster than the truth. So in the WhatsApp sharing chain one has to stop the flow and try to be as critical as possible and explain to others that this is not the right way to share information.
There is also a positive side of social media. That gives us freedom of expression, one can post whatever one thinks and wishes. In that one can share the right information one can also create an archive of family or personal life. One can inspire others to do the same. A YouTube like platform provides a space for individual creators to share their insights. One should have media literacy and one should be able to interpret the power dynamics in the world and also one should understand the power and execute it.
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