Communication Media and Social Change (5.1)

Communication Media and Social Change

In the first centuries of mass communication people accommodated their needs from media through what the older media technologies provided. Today’s media systems enable opportunities for people to use media to create experiences that are meaningful. Instead of accommodating to media as in the past today’s audience is actively able to make media accommodate to their needs. This freedom for people to make their own meaning from media content is known as semiotic democracy. The capability of today’s media systems to span great (worldwide) distances enables an interconnectedness that is has the capability of transforming social orders around the world. A fairly recent example of this is the presidential election protest in Iran. Protests stemming from the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to the country employing media censorship. Today’s communication technologies enable people to creatively use the media to facilitate their own needs. Due to media literacy complete media censorship could not be achieved. Many protestors used social networking communication sites such as Twitter, Face Book and YouTube to chronicle their experiences. The result was that active media use enabled worldwide attention. This is a direct example of communication technology use in the transformation of social order because worldwide attention was not facilitated through larger governing forces but rather the collection of individual experiences opposing those governing forces. This example also shows that through the use of current communication technologies (that enable worldwide interconnectedness) the division of cultural boundaries as well as social order boundaries are not as black and white. Individuals can get as well as offer an intimate look/insight into each others lives that previously may have been inaccessible.
I found several of the sites useful for my project which focuses on educating middle school children about environmental awareness and sustainability. Earth Island Institute is a wonderful site. It definitely gives me hope that people are striving for positive social change. This was inspiring for me to see that ideas are being supported and given a chance to succeed as mentioned on their site EII "provides an opportunity for a committed environmental activist with a good idea to launch a project with us, or to gain sponsorship for an existing project. Starting and running a non-profit campaign requires a great deal of administrative and logistical effort. This limits the time and energy that can be applied toward actually carrying out campaign objectives". One of the important things about this site is that they are using media to integrate a mission of community mindedness which I think is vital for positive social change "As an alternative to dozens of separate nonprofits, each duplicating basic administrative functions, EII is a consortium of more than thirty grassroots campaigns, each functioning independently while sharing resources and benefiting from the synergistic exchange of experience, ideas, and energy". From the site The Ecology of Media from Storytelling to Telecommunication I was able to gather a lot of information which I can directly apply to my project. The information on new media provides hope that mass change is possible. For my project I will incorporate some of the information presented to show how media has changed dramatically with the rise of new technologies. As active participants in our own media use we can find ways to promote and integrate positive connections. This is basically what I am trying to do in my project promoting community mindedness for young children.