Mass-media controls our lives more than ever before

But we don‘t know more about it today then at the time it started to

gain power!

• technical details remain with a few

• we don‘t know why certain report make the news

• we don‘t know anything about the working process in news-agencies

• we don‘t know how information is distributed on the internet

statistics

• 300.000 newspapers worldwide

• 30.000 radio-stations

• 3.000 TV-stations

• 400 Mio. people are surfing the internet – figures rising!

What does this mean?

• we are controlled by media

• without media we would have no information other than our very own proximity

• media informs, entertains and controls all of us

• „Out of TV, out of mind.“

All these so called facts are simply absorbed by us, nobody

questions them

• Who is the one to citicise?

• The consumer!?????

• We were never taught to!

• society of mass-communication

• all we know about the world ist what we get from the media

Media is an instrument of communication and power

• elections are won by the media not the officials

• society‘s most powerful instrument is TV

• what role the internet will play in future

compare

• radio needed 38 years

• tv 13 years

• internet only 4 years– to reach 50 Mio. people worldwide

The influence by media

• Choose a different route if you happen to hear about a traffic jam

• Put on a warm coat if the weather channel forecasts a chilly day

• A politician owns illegal shares, or sexually harassed women, he will have a hard time during elections or exactly the opposite.

• Without mass media this information would not influence our choices

• To talk about public opinion today equals media opinion

• Reality equals media reality

• Media creates reality!

Are we really the victims of media?

• Media educationalists think that we are hardly able to differentiate between reality and media reality– But why is there no fundamental media

education in Austrian schools???– There is a cry for competent media –

consumer but not supported

This task is up to our schools

• Point out the pros and cons of mass media

• Make them aware of technical details

• Teach them how to select, differentiate and structure their own needs concerning mass media

• The most important task of media ecucation should be to make clear that media does not represent reality

This „reality“ does not exist

• Media only represents a small part of it

• Every media consumer should know that it is the journalist who chooses which part we receive

Example: September, 11th

• The day the world trade center was target of a terror attack

• A tragedy – but a feast for media!

• Reality was constructed

• Only 3 minutes after the first attack CNN was broadcasting live from NY

• What is there to report objectively???

• Nothing but assumptions!!

• CNN was reporting live only 15 minutes after the first attack and millions of people witnesses those horrid scenes which they thought to be reality.

• Even the Austrian TV was on air for 48 hours to report, CNN for 4 days!

• What followed this so called „reality“ were assumptions, „who is the blame“ possible culprits, speculations, threats of retaliation

• We watched people jump out of the upper floor windows until they banned the scenes.– Too tragic, too brutal to show

Media does not represent reality – it can not – it doesn‘t want to!

The way of information

• It takes 3 steps to create an article– First there is the idea– Followed by the research– Then the journalist writes the article and

shapes it.

Research is fundamental for journalistic work

• We distinguish– Active research: is about answering

questions with the help of people or documents. Part of that are routine calls and interviews, for example with the police or fire-fighters,..

– Passive research: the editing office is being informed from the outside through calls or the supply with material or documents

Details

• appointments: in most cases those are press-conferences

• agency-reports: not all news will be part of the program, but in most cases they are the basis for further research

• archive: is there for you to witness what happened to a story you did some time ago

• informants: calls, letters, contacts, local editiors can be really useful sources of information

The choose

• After research you have to choose, because not everything the journalist knows by now is fit to be printed or put on air

• It depends on the time available and the broadcast medium

Journalistic selection-principle

• proximity: not only describes the proximity of location, but also how it affects the listener or reader

• benefit: how a report can be of service for society. News you can use!

• news: is secondary to the above

Headline news in radio or TV don‘t leave a lot of possibilities

to go on• you make an announcement

• write an article

• do a report

Very important for radio and TV

• you have to create attention

• the contents must be easily understandable

Basic ruling – media education

• media education is not a subject on it‘s own

• it should be integrated with other subjects like music, arts and German

• Media education acts like a mediator in the lives of students. Life at school and life outside of school

The basic ruling „media education“ has set the foundation for that in

Austrian schools

• concerning the importance of media in areas such as profession, leisure and education

• it analyses the contents and functions of media

The entire subject of media-education is subdivided in the

following

• media-didactics: is about functions and effects of media on learning and teaching processes -> it‘s all about education through media

• media-education: how we use media in a critical and reflexive way -> this is education about media

The goal of media education is to use media maturely!

• to be able to use all the technical opportunities

• to be able to select, differentiate and structure

• to be able to use all for the individual benefit

To be mature about media is also a way how to

• deal with communication in general and the ability to use it as a tool

• pupils also have to learn to see media as an economical factor and to comprehend mass media as an institution

• and they have to learn how to create media by their own.

To sum it all up

• the goal of media education is to educate people who are able to communicate and judge – to be exact to live in a society where people are critical towards media and are able to handle those tools positively

• A critical consumer should be able to– understand– judge– distinguish between what media has to offer.

The future should be a society of people who do not uncriticaly

think that what we hear and see in the media is reality.