Different Media Theories And Its Peculiarities

Normative Media Theory

Normative media theory refers to the composite of transmitting information based on social, political and philosophical principalities which organize the collected ideas and concepts in a manner that the prospective recipients are satisfied. The theory focus about the relationship between media and society. The theory is also concerned with the effects of media to the society with regard to the information conveyed to the society (Black, 2018). In general, the concrete ideas and concepts about the theory of mass media reveals the consistence of ethical and unethical practices in the society. It is through mass media that people are able to understand the occurrence of activities in the world as well information insights by the society. Consequently, the press and the media house, in their view of information transmission, reflects the basic beliefs and all the relevant assumptions that the community holds. Therefore, the normative media theory focus on the effects of information broadcasting to the society and the perception of society towards the conveyed information.

It is worth noting that, the news media are those components of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. The components and elements of the media news include, printing newspapers and magazines as the published articles to convey information to the public. The news elements also include broadcast news such as television and radio (Zeng & Sparks 2017). They also include social media news and internet news such as twitter sentiments, google analysis, as well as new blogs. News media is strongly associated with broadcasting of information to the words through use of broadcasting channels. Consequently, broadcasting is the conveying of audio and video signals and programmed channels to the prospective number of recipients who are the receivers and listeners that is indeed a larger group of people. The prospective group includes people of the public or a relatively a large number of recipients within a community.

For instance, internet sources of information and channels normally distribute information and news across the entire world as long as the target recipients are connect to internet services. Also, public address system in a workplace may broadcast very limited ad hoc soundbites to a small population within its range. Indeed, in broadcasting channels such as televisions and radios, journalists or reporters are also involved with editing the video material that has been shot alongside their research, and in working on the visual narrative of the story (Vartanian 2011). Broadcasting personnel normally ensure that the story appear in a convenient manner from the begging of the story to the end. They also ensure that the possibility of biasness in the story conveyed is limited. There has been rampant cases in the most recent years about media reporting fake and bias news that it has no root of truth or evidence. The issue of fake news have attracted attention from many people about the integrity of media houses across the whole world. It is the responsibility of every country and particularly government to ensure that every information conveyed to the members of the public is free from bias is often a reliable information.

Mass Communication Theory

Consequently, in television context, broadcast journalism, news analysts and news casters examine, analyze, interpret and convey information received from different sources to the people of the public. The information collected from all the parts of the country should be clear, concise and free from bias for the confidence of the society. News anchors present all the information collected as news, either videotaped or live, through transmissions from on-the-scene reporters who are known as correspondents (Ellinger, Marsick & Watkins 2009). It is prudent to note that, news films and the concerned emerging trends which are generally referred to as clips have a variation in length according to the specification of the news reporters as well as requirement of prospective recipients. For instance, these clips can vary in length in a way that some may take long time while others take the shortest time possible. The variation in length of the clip is caused by the content of the information therein.

It is prudent to note that, currently, transmission of information through news channels have launched an hostage mechanics to host and present special documentary films that stretch for much longer durations and are able to explore a news subject or issue in greater detail (Atkinson, Bellis & Sumnall 2013). Nevertheless, newspapers are light and daily published articles which are disposable publication which its purpose is to serve the prospective customers for a short period of time generally one day. Newspapers are usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. However some newspaper are specific in nature which indeed are published daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly.

Some specific newspapers such as general-interest newspapers are usually journals of current news on a variety of topics. The proclaimed newspapers contain specific information such as occurrence of political events, crime, business, sports, and opinions which can be either editorials, columns, or political cartoons. Some newspapers also contain information about weather forecasting and the associated news concerning weather. However, newspapers have indeed increased the use of photographs and decorated photoshoots to bring visual illustration to the readers of the story (van Keulen & Krijnen, 2014). The newspapers also include comic episodes and other entertainment, such as crosswords. A news magazine are normally published on weekly basis which in turn feature all the relevant articles and activities of the week in one published article.

The mass communication theory articulates that among other important sources of information is online journalism. These are the reporting journals and other important materials produced or distributed via the Internet. The Internet has allowed the formal and informal publication of news stories through mainstream media outlets as well as blogs and other self-published news stories. Indeed, the media team working on the Internet have been referred to as internet bloggers. They edit the information posted to the internet, trim and change some concept and then transmit it to the public. The information published by bloggers is always biased and thus the theory highlights some of the sensitive issues of biased information.

Journalism Theory

It is worth noting that, journalism tend to identify, carry out observation and make communication to the society about what it learns of social importance. Anything concerning new and the processed information is transmitted to the public with regard to the expectations of the society. Journalism ensures successful transmission of information by bringing the members of the public into a synchronized conversation with itself. Consequently, the theories of journalism provide explanatory frameworks for understanding a complex combination of social practice, product, and institutional arrangement (Stehling 2013). In the late 20th century, journalism tried to professionalize a high modern version of transmitting information which is still the significant aspect of message transmission. Currently, the professionalism of journalism has changed significantly and in a large number. The ongoing change of pattern of journalism sector has brought a disruptive effect of the Internet, as it has evolved to absorb other forms. Therefore, the boundaries journalist profession and news organization have been destabilized within this rapidly shifting media terrain, but still there remain productive approaches for systematically organizing knowledge around the concept of journalism.

During the early of 20th century, the perspective of journalism was very low compared to the information demand in the society. There has been a gradual development of the art of journalism with many people venturing into the sector hence expanding it. However, journalism became linked to the mass communication after a research study conducted by the university of Chicago, the school of sociology (van Keulen and Krijnen 2014). The research showed that there is a narrow media effects focus in the society and thus people need to be taught the significant of journalism. The university emphasized on community-based, multi-method participant observation. Perhaps, a sociological study of news anchor and the perspective of the society about the transmission of information is still low which is contrary to the elements of the information in the whole world now. The theory of journalism has different levels according to the gradual development of the art of journalism. Indeed, at each level, one can identify the main factors that shape the symbolic reality constituted and produced by journalism, as well as how these factors interact across levels and compare across different contexts.

A grading of inspirations and the prospective models have worked well to disentangle the relationships among different professionalism and the prospective personnel and their daily activities required from them, with regard to the news organizations that has hold them into account (Wei 2014). However, journalism has been facing different challenges, the process of stabilization has occurred at a low phase and restructuring both the units and levels of analysis in journalism theorizing. These challenges has led to slow growth of journalism sector. Therefore, journalism theories now have as much interest in process as product, in accumulation of information and transmission of unbiased news but still need to be concerned with the nature of quality of these spaces. Thus the theory of journalism focus on the development of journalism, the reasons for the slow growth of the sector as well as the challenges facing the sector. Knowledge about journalism helps the researchers to identify strongholds and weakness of the sector and find a viable solution to the problem.

Part B – Research Proposal

Introduction

Due to rapid development and growth of globalization, the range of industries that globalization has been introduced to be also growing at very high phase. For instance, basing on television sector, there is a viable global TV broadcasting format trade. The television sector has indeed witnessed a tremendous increased trend in localizing all the speculated international TV formats. The reason behind localizing international TV forms is to ensure that the TV sector succeed in the local market. Examples of TV formats that have developed due localization of TV formats include; Top Model, The Voice among other TV stations. However, the habit of localizing western TV stations has been subjected into a serious consideration and observation particularly those come from United States of America.

Consequently, there has been successful research studies conducted about the effectiveness of news media as especially localization of TV and radio stations. For instance, one of the Chinese and a global television market brings a typical situation about the issue of localization of global reality TV format. (Wei 2014). However, the truth about localizing global TV stations especially from the western countries has played an important part in streamlining the transmission of news to the respective countries as well as to the entire world. Therefore, the analysis of the importance of localizing media stations is of big concern and the benefits therein. The government should pass laws governing the transmission of information and especially to the local people before considering to reach out to many nations across the entire world.

Proposal Overview

The research proposal aims to investigate the intelligence of the news media surrounding the laws and regulations of the broadcasting media and their globalization. The research study also focus on the perception of people towards the issue of localizing international broadcasting channels and particularly TV stations. However, the primary question emanating from the research study is to identify ‘Why localizing a mass media broadcasting channels like TV stations improve the viewership of Phoenix Satellite Television? The rationale of the research object is that phoenix Satellite TV is one of the best and significant TV station in china with a lot of viewers as compared to other television stations (Godlewski & Perse 2010). The primary television has focused on promoting the reality TV formats particularly the localized broadcasting channels.

Therefore, the case study of this research paper will be Phoenix Satellite Television based on china. The reason for selecting the case study of phoenix TV station is that it provides a deeper understanding and knowledge of rules and regulations governing the localizing of TV. The case study will also help to understand the perception of the members of the public about in regard to the localization of TV channels. Godlewski and Perse (2010) articulated that, there is an inverse correlation between the age of the recipients of information and their participation to the reality shows. This shows the younger people are more likely to be targeted as the audience of reality TV formats, since these formats are likely to satisfy their motivations, such as social learning and exciting entertainment. Also, in the context of gender, female recipients of news have an impressive preference on the programs based on fashion and familial related matters. Also the reality TV formats adapted by phoenix satellite TV station a great deal of filming famous superstars, it is likely that the audience targeted by this research will be younger females aged from 18 to 30. However, the proposed outcome of the research will bring the answer to the question asked by showing an ideal evidence that phoenix satellite TV tends to localize more foreign TV stations are that; the TV stations are more flexible and simple to comprehend under the current situation and regulation in china. Also the reality TV stations are the most significant preference by the audience in china. Therefore, it is through all these factors that have led to increase in viewership of phoenix satellite television channel.

Regulatory Concept

Perhaps, the primary aspects of the research deliverables is the rules and regulatory context where an insight will be developed into the global and national policies and regulations that shape the localization of TV content. To achieve this, the study will apply data collection method which includes documentation of retrieval of records of the past experience. These factors are the secondary sources of information. However, a number of sources of evidence can be termed as secondary data, for the purpose of this study, archival data and organizational documents are likely to be looked at in detail. The types of documents will include reports from government organizations. The analysis process of archives is grouped into five categories which are; discovery, access, assessment, sorting and cross-checking, which will ensure data obtained are the most appropriate ones for the context. It is worth noting that, the sampling technique of documents and archival records can be a bit complicated when there is large number of data from different localization television stations and thus using a descriptive statistics will reduce the bias of the information gathered and documented.

The internet sources is the easier way of retrieving secondary data. Although, the internet has made secondary data collection so much easier comparing to decades ago, there is still concern on whether special authorizations are required for obtaining the data (Vartanian 2010). Putting into consideration about the challenges of time in data collection and analysis, a total of 100 documentations from a well-known and formal organizations will be analyzed in the deeper margin and the data collection instrument for this method will be checklists, where themes or key words will be defined such as ‘support’, ‘against’, ‘neutral’ and so forth, and the frequency of occurrence of these will be recorded to generate an overview upon the localization of foreign TV formats from the regulatory context in China.

Research Design

Kothari (2004) described research design as a way the study is designed and the method to be used in carrying out the research. A research design expresses the nature of relationships among variables. The study used a case study research design which allows the researcher to narrow down into a sample to represent the entire population and descriptive research design which identifies the patterns or trends in a situation (Nyathira, 2012). Descriptive studies are the best in collecting information demonstrating relationships, hence it is relevant for this study as it seeks to answer the effects of news editing and transmission to the society and how localizing of international television will bring impact to the development of news transmission in china. An effective sample should possesses diversity, representativeness, reliability and accessibility.

Phoenix Satellite Television based on china will form the sampling unit of this particular study since it have a wide market share and it’s among the top performing banks in TV broadcasting channel in china. Additionally, availability of data was also considered as the TV channel have heavily invested in local and international market share and thus it will form a significant basis for the viable data analyzes to examine the impacts of localization of TV stations in china (Gray 2014). After the data has been collected the best fitting model will be determined using backward elimination method. Significance of localization of TV stations and its associated variables as predictors of the impacts of localization will be tested using t-test, F-test tested for significance of fitted model and Pearson correlation analysis was applied in examining association between phoenix satellite television performance and localization methods. Test of statistical significance was done at 95% confidence level and 5% level of significance.

Audience Receptivity and Preferences

Consequently, another important aspect of project deliverables in examining the effects of localization of TV stations in china is the interest and perception of the audience. The research study will employed two data collection techniques which are content analysis of the collected information and focus group method to the target group. The two data collection methods adapted from the original studies from Part A. Content analysis will be conducted from two levels, quantitative (Wei 2014) and qualitative (Keulen and Krijnen 2014). Although Wei (2014) did not give a definite method of collection of data in the study and therefore there is no genuine statistic given. He demonstrated the methods of applying a quantitative and descriptive data analysis on the topic of localizing global reality TV format, in terms of audiences’ reception on the program especially on emotional displays.

Perhaps, the research study will commence by the content analysis method with firstly recognizing the common key or theme words of the existing adapted reality TV formats in China, for example, ‘Korean wave’, ‘kinship’, ‘friendship’, ’fandom culture’ and so forth. The sample size of collected data will be grouped into two groups of popular TV formats in china. The prospective TV stations include season 3 and season 2 types of TV stations.

A checklist will then be prepared as the data collection instrument, to record the frequency of these themes as of reviewing the popular reality TV programs. The qualitative content analysis will be deployed with the help of sensitizing concepts drawn from Keulen and Krijnen’s (2014) study. Hence those popular reality TV programs will be re-watched and analyzed from a detailed level, taking into consideration the linguistic codes (clothing, colors, story structure, etc.), cultural codes (cultural identity, traditions, lifestyle, etc.) as well as intertextual codes (product material, customs, genre features, etc.). And then valuable scenes or conversations within the show will be transcribed so the further comparison can be made.

When it comes to the focus group method, an insight into audience’s interests and preferences can be developed. Stehling’s (2013) research provides a good example of employing focus group method to understand audience’s reception of global reality TV formats. A sample of 12 focus groups which contain 50 younger women from both German and the US contexts were approached and the reality TV format discussed was Top Model, it is also worth noting that these participants were very familiar with the reality TV genre. Interviews were then organized, although the structure and process of the interviews were not discussed in the study ((Weerakkody 2015, p.259). Hence, this research will also apply focus groups as the second data collection method to develop an in-depth understanding of Chinese audience reading of a specific reality TV format comparing to Korean audience, in this case the Chinese version of Running Man localized and produced by phoenix Satellite TV channel. For the purpose of this study, the sample will be 8 focus groups (4 groups of Chinese participants and 4 groups of Korean participants), recruited from 80 female aged between 18 and 30.

Tests of Statistical significance are used to address the question of whether or not the relationship between two or more variables is caused by mere chance or not. Significance of determinants variables as predictors of localization of Chinese TV stations will be tested using Wald test. Testing H0: No statistical significance of determinants for localization of TV channels against H1: There is a statistical significance of determinants for localization of TV channels. Backward elimination method was used in determining the best fitted model, -that is, variables with p value>0.05 were removed and the model was refitted again.

Pearson Chi-square analysis was used to examine the association between localization of TV stations uptake and determinants and the impacts associated with the move of localization where P-value0.05 no association. Testing H0: No association of determinants with localization attempt against H1: There is an association between determinants and localization of TV channels. A 95% confidence level and 5% level of significance was used in testing statistical significance. The goodness of fit of the model will be determined by Hosmer Lemeshow test. This test, tests whether the model adequately fits the data. A model adequately fits the data if P-value> 0.05.

The model made the following assumptions;

1. The outcome or the dependent variable is binary.
2. The model does not need a linear relationship between the independent variable and response variable.
3. The response variables and error does not need to be multivariate normally distributed

Ethical Considerations and Limitations

A number of ethical concerns will need to be taken care of when conducting this research. Firstly, as mentioned it is important to make sure the secondary data for analyzing the regulatory context in China is accessed ethically, especially when a special authorization is required for accessing documents from official organizations. The limitation of secondary data analysis comes from the sampling size as well as the quality of the data (Black 2018), since it is hard to make sure 50 documents collected are highly relevant to the reality TV formats and with government constantly adjusting regulations, data collected previously might not be applied in the near future.

Lastly, consents from participants of the focus group will need to be obtained in terms of recording the entire interview and quoting their statements or life experiences for the purpose of reporting. A commitment on not exposing participants’ privacy and personal information to external parties will also been given. The limitation here is that due to the targeted audience, only younger female will be recruited, hence the data collected will not be able to generalize the reading of localized reality TV from other demographic groups, for instance older male audience.

References

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