Print Media Institutions

Dissecting Print Media Institutions Using Communication Theories MARK-DARREL D. CONTRERAS, ERIKA LIM, JUSTINE ESPINOLA De La Salle University - Manila In this paper, we explore print media insitutions from various points of view using different communication theories. The purpose of this paper is for compliance in our theories of communication subject.

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rint media is considered as powerful as visual and radio media. Despite having the World Wide Web, educational institutions still consider books and journals as the best source of secondary information. Books and journals ensure credibility above everything. Published works from scholastic printing presses ensure the reader that the information is verified and its authors are true scholars and experts. Readers still need to filter the information they get from the Internet because the sources may not be credible. The so-called experts being interviewed in TV may not be real experts. Availing print materials is cheaper. Radio and visual media would need mediums like television and radio to access information. People would need electricity and broadband connection. Paying these is more expensive in the long run. Paying for volumes of encyclopedias is also expensive, but you don’t need to spend again. The publishing house is a print media institution that satisfies the audience’s thirst for knowledge. Publishing houses and printing presses take pride in mass producing print media to educate people

who are economically-challenged. We may take them for granted, but our basic knowledge came from textbooks. NOTE: We definitely have to admit that Theoryc was a fun subject. From moral panics to the public sphere, it seemed that every step was always like learning something new. Thanks for everything Sir Jace.

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Theoryc

Media Text Theories: Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs. We take these signs for granted that we fail to see their importance. Corporate Signatures convey the values and traits of the organization. It conveys the company’s identity to the audience. Signs are abundant in print media because they deliver knowledge through negotiated use of diagrams and formats. For example, textbooks have parts emphasized by asterisks. The asterisk is an indication. It signals the readers to take note of the publisher’s clarification on a word or topic. It denotes an explanation about the political correctness of the term or topic, cultural reference, or an acknowledgement of a source. Some Taiwanese textbooks say that Taiwan is a separate independent state from China. Some say Taiwan is a part of mainland China. Publishing houses show their political leaning (preferred relationship between the signifier and signified) by choosing which type of information to publish. Political leaning is the preferred relationship between the signifier (Taiwanese publishing houses) and the signified (Taiwan).

“Our preferential reality whether what types of information to publish are actually coded experiences which have been structured so that we may share the same experience (Thayer 1982).”

Publishing houses and printing presses having constructive powers (privilege to encode reality in a certain sense) is a scary thought. What you see is not really what you get in all forms of media. Imagine the capability of these print media organizations to propagate misinformation (selective publishing). “Discussions about the signifier-signified relationship is so overrated that the sign-sign relation ship better known as the horizontal relational system is neglected (Singer 1984).” Textbooks depict signifier-signified relationships by showing an illustration (signifier) and a concept (signified). It is rare to see an illustration (signifier) being related to another illustration (signifier). We can infer that print media institutions prefer absolute relational systems when they choose the signifier-signified model as the predominant paradigm in producing educational print media. Aside from the signifier-signified model, semiotics also has the sign-sign relational model also known as syntactics. Educational print media deals with semiotics that “tries to elicit a certain behavior through the learning process”. Textbooks are supposed to provide readers basic knowledge. Therefore, the type of semiotics involved in textbooks is not just a typical semiotic approach but absorbed semiotics.

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Learning through print media involves absorption. This means that the readers take in what they can from the educational material, which is full of signs and meanings. These coded experiences can have varying effects to the reader: The readers react (interpretant) to the material by completely agreeing to the coded experience. They can make a new meaning for the sign or completely oppose the sign. “It is worth clarifying that the interpretant is not necessarily a person but the initial reaction of the person corresponding to an inferred neural code (Sebeok 1976).” The interplay between preferential signification (chosen link between the signifier and signified) with graphics design should be a primary consideration for future studies. Media institutions specializing in print media should be furnished with better check and balance systems. Extensive studies on preferential signification of publishing houses will ensure that print media institutions will not overstep their bounce of dominion within the circle of media jurisdiction. This also applies to other types of media institutions. Media-regulating bodies should conduct more studies about the privilege of media institutions to encode experiences. Through the studies, they can formulate an effective guideline to manage the extent of media’s depiction of reality through selection and encoding.

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Media Institution Theories: Political Economy

Classical political economy is disturbing. According to this theory, media institutions should be privately owned and unregulated by the government. They shouldn’t interfere in any matter concerning the privately owned business. It means operating a printing press without government intervention. It is threatening to think that no one has the power to regulate what the printing press is publishing. Media is very influential. It is assumed that people consider any information from the media as the truth. Most of the time, lies become true and books are no exception. The elite own the influence over these mediums. The elite can manipulate the public. They can choose to publish false data and use it to their advantage. It is even more alarming than the manipulation per se because we can’t prosecute the elite. This is possible because the elite have power over the government. They can bribe their way out of their misdeeds and gain more influence. It is also possible that the elite make use of their social status to promote the books they publish. For example, celebrities and politicians release autobiographies that they didn’t write. They claim the books as their own, but they hire ghost writers to do the book for them. They can choose to disclose events in their lives that would enhance their image. Negative things that they say about themselves are intended to seek sympathy from the audience. This strategy aims to show the audience that celebrities and politicians are also human. They become richer and

they gain more love from the audience. In the Philippine setting, the elites like the Lopezes and the Gozons own the major media institutions. They reap millions of pesos, so it follows that these executives are profit-oriented. Following this assumption and applying it in the printing press, they may not pay much attention to the quality of the articles being published. They would concentrate more on selling magazines and making profit. This is even more dangerous because the elite would not even enforce restrictions as long as the books sell. Without the government and the elite to change what is written or published, it is very easy to disseminate false information to the public. In this sense, the media abuses freedom of expression. The ownership of media is concentrated. This means that under one company, there are various forms of media. It could belong to one company, but the materials will have different names, formats, layout, titles, and content. The variety of published works caters to different demands of different people at different times and places. It becomes beneficial to the publishing house because they can influence more people compared to having just one book under the printing press. The power of advertising can provoke impulse buying from the audience and provide profit to advertising companies. It is possible for advertisers to convince the elite to include ads in the books to earn more money. The elite may not care too much about the ads. They would concentrate more on the profit they will make

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The readers are treated as passive audiences and are easily manipulated. Although there is a “…clear boundary between state and society “ (Habermas 1996), the state should impose quality regulation to publishing houses as the most hands-off way in dealing with print media institutions. Print media’s dispersion over a period of time will inadvertently overshadow the pace of other forms of media. The previously mundane forms of media will then rise into power and try to dominate the media spectrum in the same way that other forms of media have attempted. The authors can only speculate on the condition of the media during the rise of political economy. Print media is not as powerful as visual and radio media. In the visual era, where people prefer instant solutions, print media’s grasp of the audience is weaker than the other forms of media. It seems political economy has lost its footing to yield to the bureaucratic powers of regulatory agencies. However, the only trace political economy left is the private ownership of print media institutions. This is neo-political economy, a “mutated” form of political economy. The original political economy also provides avenues of exploitation where large print media institutions will drive out small-time circulating print media of other institutions. Despite the purpose of education, these smaller but equally significant print media producers lose their power in favor of large hegemonic print media institutions. For example, Abiva publishing house is considered a big-time publishing house. It has the power to displace previous publishing contractors from a contract with educational institutions. Abiva may not sell its textbooks expensively but

we will be paying a little extra for the operating expenses and intellectual patents the textbooks have. Unlike in small-time print media institutions, we only have to pay for the service because the operating cost of these publishing houses is nearly non-existent. They don’t require too much machinery and manpower to produce educational print media which means they will sell it at a reasonable price. What’s problematic about this is that we will never have a chance to realize that we are being manipulated by experts since we leave it to them. We accept that they know better than we do. Print media institutions are really not as we see them. The concentration of media ownership may offer us only a certain angle to look at print media institutions. A lot of multinational media institutions don’t engage in only one type of media. But they also dominate other forms of media. A publishing house can run several other forms of media. They are self-sufficient because they can handle their products’ production, distribution, and publicity. In Abiva publishing house, they don’t only have the means of production. They also have a pool of writers who they can enlist to produce new textbooks according to the demand of the market. Production, distribution and authoring are existing concentrations of media ownership we can find in Abiva publishing house.

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Conclusion

Media theories provide the audience with perspectives on how the media construct reality. Through the theories, people can judge and select through the variety of information that media provides. A hope for a cleaner trade in media can never be accomplished. Media is a web of advantages and disadvantages. Take away the bad points, and the good points will also follow. The two-step flow model may not be the dominant paradigm today but the group believes that it is the ideal form of media effect. Opinion leaders will always try to do their best to show the people both what they want to see and what they don’t want to see. In semiotics, print media institutions will always have a political leaning in the selection of knowledge to be published. Then there will be preferential semiotics. In political economy, some of the classical characteristics are lost and some are retained. Media institutions hoard power through the concentration of media ownership. It is a very capitalistic way of looking at how media institutions maintain their influence and profit. Educational print media may be hiding their true intention under good books and claim of audience education. The regulatory power should not only rest upon the government but in the people as well. You can’t expect the media to point out every lie or blunder. You should have the initiative to find the oppressive and manipulative intentions of media institutions. You decide.

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