Media Rituals and Representations - Assignment Example

Media Rituals and Representations Name Institution Total Word count Excluding Title page, Reference page and headings is 1,611 Media Rituals and Representations Part 1: Media Rituals and Representations How professional communicators and their rituals create representations of the social world According to Deuze (2005, p444), representation implies to an edition of certainty. The professional communicators make use of their rituals to represent their ideologies to the social world through the creation of webs of meaning. Whether it is in politics economy education or in any aspect, communicators aims to ensure that the social world gets a meaning of what they are representing. According to the arguments and assertions of Muller and Gawenda (2010, p 75), professional communications with the social world are guided by some ethical standards one being that the social world should be able to get on face value the meaning of what is represented to them without any ambiguity. The same opinion is shared by Deuze (2005, p 451) who states that the social world apply this webs of meaning to make sense of their lives and their position within society. In the modern times it is worthwhile for people to be positively influenced by whatever communication they obtained. How production of representations is related to manufacture and management of power relations, legitimacy and ‘definitions of reality Legitimacy refers to the act of establishing the authenticity of a claimed fact; in this case establishing the authenticity of representation or of a reporting. In the event that a representation is not legitimate, it simply implies that it is not factual. Regarding the question of legitimacy and reality, communicators or journalists ensure the authenticity in representation of their power related reporting by selecting what to represent and what not represent. Harrington (2010, p 180) opines that professional communicators are agenda setters. The agenda they set on the table is based on factual substantiation to guarantee reality and legitimacy. How media rituals and representations communicate the value and importance of the media and the ideologies of media professionals The media ritual on communication of value and ideologies is cantered upon transparency reporting. In addition, this is what set the outlined progress in society and technology to one side in their influence upon current journalism (Deuze, 2005, p 443). Transparency refers to the openness in reporting without hiding any factual information. This in a sense is a professional code of ethics of professional communicators and media personalities. Transparency relates to the increasing ways in which people both inside and external to journalism are given an opportunity to scrutinize, verify, carp and even intrude in the journalism field (Deuze, 2005, p 443). Part 2: Operation Bounce Back as a Media Ritual The Origin of Operation Bounce Back Operation bounce back is a synchronized revival operation that was aimed at attracting trades volunteers. The volunteers were to help out in the mending and restoration of communities who were experiencing the impacts of Queensland disaster (2bouncebackannounce.wmv). The idea was commonly agreed upon between the government of Queensland and sunrise news channel. This idea was enacted in mid January 2011. The collaboration between the government and sunrise brings out clear the idea of hegemony. Sunrise appears the dominant since it is the leading group in this cause contrary to what the government expects. Logically since the government wields power, it should be the one taking a leading role in this scenario. However, as seen in preliminary parts, it is important that sunrise takes this central role purposely to ensure it creates a webs of meaning to social world regarding the OBB initiative. The Key Players As mentioned above one key player in operation bounce back is the government of Queensland. The key role played by the government at the time of operation bounce back establishment was to ensure that the coordinate movement was a licensed movement to carry out restoration exercises in Queensland. Secondly, the governments also played a role of providing logistical support to the tradesmen offering their services to restore back the communities living around Queensland (Sunrise, 2011). The second key player in the operation bounce back is the Sunrise. This is a news channel whose main function in the revival movement was to offer periodical reporting. The purpose of these reporting was to update the people of Queensland concerning the revival mission. It also acted as a means of creating awareness so that more tradesmen would join the operation bounce back movement. This is in line with the media representations and rituals as well identity. By doing this sunrise wants to ensure that the public understands the information provided regarding OBB and that they can draw a sense from it. Based on media professional identity, this role was played well by sunrise in the sense that there was utmost transparency. What the government and Sunrise appear to want out of Operation Bounce Back The basis by which the initiative was formed was to roll out a recovery strategy for the victims of the Queensland disaster. According to the views of Anna Bligh the Premier, the government in a way felt responsible for the unfortunate catastrophes that rocked Queensland leading to the deaths of a number of citizens (Sunrise, 2011). Hence through this initiative the government appeared to be saying that it could have done better had it known what to do. Additionally this initiative could imply that government is very mindful of the well being of its citizens whether in good times or in challenging times. This tells us how power struggle takes a centre stage whenever there is need for one party to be seen powerful. Sunrise on its part is concerned about the revival mission of the initiative where its main aim is to ensure that the mission gets as much volunteers as possible through media representation and rituals. On the other hand it wants to find out how responsible and prepared the government is regarding the future occurrence of similar disasters. Again this is a question of legitimacy an aspect of media ideology where sunrise appears to be proving how legitimate the government is regarding OBB. How representations of Operation Bounce Back on Sunrise differ from how the program was actually implemented and managed In one interview with Chris Smalling regarding the revival mission of operation bounce back, the sunrise reporter cantered her inquiry on the makeup of the current operation Bounce back mission to which the respondent (Chris Smalling) indicated that it is mainly made up of young people (2bouncebackannounce.wmv). This is an aspect of media misrepresentation which taints the ideological aspect of the media because this would give an impression to the social world that young people are the preferred choice for this mission and locks out others who would have wished to join the group. Even in the previews, both young and old people in their thousands are seen volunteering for the cleanup recovery mission. The Primer herself also indicated that people of all ages should rise up and volunteer in kind and monetary towards the clean up recovery mission and to this effect, hefty donations in terms of millions of dollars were made for the purpose of this exercise (Sunrise, 2011). This is a further indication of power struggle between the government and the media where one party tries to shine at the expense of another party’s slump. Part 3: Evaluating Operation Bounce Back As a Government Media Adviser As a government media advisor, the request by Sunrise to initiate a recovery movement of this magnitude would be highly welcomed because of the need to ensure webs of meaning is created to the social world regarding the mission-when such initiatives are proposed, it is important that awareness is created so that the rest of the citizens get to know all the information (Ward. 2005, p 90). This cannot be done in any other better way than to involve a news channel which has authoritative niche in creating awareness to the people through its rituals and ideologies. However, there are potential benefits and risks associated with this collaboration. The first benefit that the government will realize is the trust it will obtained from its citizens. The moment the public notices that the government is a key player in the establishment of such an initiative, they will feel a sense of safety and satisfaction. Another benefit is that this collaboration will attract many donors both local and internationally who will be willing to donate. This collaboration will also show the degree of independence the government has accorded the media-Sunrise-which is a fundamental requirement in media representation and rituals. Lack of media independence is an impediment to awareness creation and quality reporting. The risk that could be associated with this collaboration is that there could be misrepresentation of the main objective of the initiative as a result of potential lack of transparency in the value of Sunrise reporting (Harrington, 2010, p 179). This could result to mixed reactions emanating from the public and even taint the image of the government locally and internationally. Success of the government Participation in the operation Bounce Back The objectives of the operation were comprehensively met. To begin with, at the onset of the mission, the government together with sunrise had a target of raising certain amount of money and before the actual cleanup process; millions of dollars had been donated for this cause (Sunrise, 2011). According to Deuze (2005, p 445) with full commitment between the government and the media, both parties meet their objectives. To further reveal the independence of the media, the government entrusted Sunrise news to create awareness to the rest of the public who would volunteer towards OBB by registering their details in the created website. The response was overwhelming as thousands of people turned up for the recovery cleanup. All the collected funds were effectively put into use in the recovery cleanup (2bouncebackannounce.wmv). Should there be any catastrophe that would call for this kind of collaboration, the government should still respond positively but certain guidelines will have to be in place especially regarding representation of the event by the media the government is collaborating with. To ensure this, the government may as well ensure that its media advisor works closely with the news channel or any form of media it has collaborated with. This is to mainly ensure that the potential risks associated with misrepresentation or lack of transparency and legitimacy in reporting of the event does not occur. References 2bouncebackannounce.wmv, https://www.dropbox.com/s/94hxb4ryl06nkx8/2%20bounceback%20announce.wmv Sunrise 18 Jan 2011. Transcript: Premier Anna Bligh Interview Tuesday, January 18, 2011 Retrieved from: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5dur4m1k2da5092/UnEWyO-HWN/1%20Ministerial%20press%20releases%20relating%20to%20Operation%20Bounce%20Back.pdf Deuze, M. (2005). “What is Journalism? Professional Identity and Ideology of Journalists Reconsidered.” Journalism, 6(4): 442–464 Ian Ward. (2005). Drought, News Media and Policy Debate chapter 6. University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia Stephen Harrington. (2010). “Waking up with Friends,” Journalism Studies, 11:2, 175-189 Muller, David and Gawenda, Michael. (2010). “Ethical free-for-all over Media Access to the Fire Zone.” Media International Australia 137(3): 71-77 Read More