Inside the Image Factory: Theories Of Media

Organizations And Media Work

 Levels of Organzitional
analysis

Through a Complex Process: What we see, hear and read in

the media is the end of the product.

Economic pressures, organizational structures and

occupational culture are key factors in shaping this
production process.

Scholars argue that the study of media organizations and

work enables us to build a more complete picture of the role
of media in the re-production of Ideology. Rather, They see
Media simply as businesses and analyze them in terms of
economy and industry.
 Most Mass and Communication Theories has
been used in the Context of Media
Organizations and Media Work

1) Agenda Setting Theory: has been used to examine how

newsroom routines and editorial decisions in uence the
news agenda.
2) Cultivation Theory: has been used to explore how
media professionals' values and perspectives are shaped
by their work and the media they produce.
3) Uses and Grati cations Theory: has been used to
explore how media professionals understand and
respond to audience needs and preferences.
4) Social Learning Theory: has been used to explore how
media professionals learn and develop skills through
on-the-job training and socialization within the workplace.
 More 3 Theories
5) Framing Theory: has been used to explore how journalists and
other media professionals make decisions about which stories to
cover and how to present them to their audiences.

6) Symbolic Interactionism: has been used to explore how media

professionals negotiate and construct meaning in their work,
particularly in relation to issues such as bias, objectivity, and
ethics.
7) Critical Cultural Studies: has been used to explore issues such
as media ownership and control, representations of race, gender,
and other social identities in media, and the ways in which media
professionals negotiate and resist dominant cultural norms and
values.
-- Actor-Network Theory (ANT): This theory views the world as a
network of actors (both human and non-human) and focuses on
how they interact to produce social order. In the context of media
organizations, ANT can be used to examine the complex
relationships between people, technologies, and other entities
within the organization.
 References
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Research Center.
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grati cations approach. Sustainability, 10(3), 712.
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Communication, 6(3), 1-14.
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ideas. Journalism Studies, 18(10), 1330-1346
 Roots of Studying Media
Organizations and Work

The roots of studying media organization and work in the

early observations of journalists undertaken by Weber and
Park in 1918 & 1923.

Leo Rosten in 1937 and 1943 studied the Washington

Press Corps, and examined Those working in the movie
industry in Hollywood.

Rosten focuses on the personal attitudes and social

background of Media practitioners.
 The Studies were Delayed
till 1950's

Due to number of factors outside media studies, It was not

until the late of 1950’s where that systematic study of media
organizations and occupations began.

1)The emergence of sociology of complex organizations in

1950’s yielded theories that could be applied to a study.

2)The struggle between functionalist-pluralist and

neo-marxist approaches.

3)The political climate of 1960’s increased attention paid to

the role of media in politics.
 3 Di erent Levels
The empirical research generated since this time on media organizations and work and
their impact on media content has been conducted at three different levels.

1)Focuses on the individual media worker and his preferences, social background and
experience, professional ideologies and his daily practices.

Sheomaker and Reese (1991) identi ed 3 different kinds of factors in uencing the
performance of the individual media worker: Personal attitudes, values and beliefs;
social background and experience; and professional orientations and practices.

Also, there were studies that have examined the psychological and political
disposition of individual workers who act as decision makers in the production and
editorial process.
2)The in uence of organizational structures and routines on Media
practitioners and their work. Media organisations are complex entities
whose goals, structures and rhythms determine the production process.

Media content is less shaped by individual actions, enterprise and

creativity than it is more the outcome of the routines and policies adopted
by media organisations to inform and entertain

Media organisations, like other large organisations, are characterised by

hierarchy, division of labour, and routinisation of working operations
through relatively standardised rules and procedures according to Paletz
and Entman (1981)

Golding and Elliott in 1979 concluded from their study of newsrooms in

Ireland, Sweden and Nigeria, ( news changes very little when the
individuals who produce it are changed ).
 3rd

3)The third level is the interaction between media

organisations and the wider social, political and cultural
environment within which they operate.

Shoemaker and Reese in 1991 identi ed factors such as

the media's sources of information, revenue sources,
technology, political and legal environment, and
perceptions of what audiences want.
 RQ

There are overlaps between these levels but at each of them empirical research has wrestled with one
overriding concern:

1) who has the power to influence the processes by which media messages are produced and how is this
power exercised?

Each level of organisational analysis identifies a broad question addressed to this concern:

2) To what extent do media workers influence media content and the working of media organisations?

3) How far do the structures and processes of media organisations influence what media workers do and
what they produce?

4) To what extent do other social organisations and social forces affect the workings and output of the
media?
 Individual Media Workers

Arguing media content is determined by the decisions of the

individual media worker accords widi the common-sense
assumption of media audiences and the self-image of many
of those working in die media.

Journalists, for example, often see themselves as rugged,

independent individualists, an image promoted in popular
culture.

Zynda (1981) discussed that Hollywood films seldom portray

journalists in routine, desk-bound, dead-end jobs . Films are
usually discussed in terms of the talent of their stars, the
reputation of their directors and the acumen of their
producers.
 Stars in Hollywood

Leo Rosten in his 1940s study of Hollywood highlights

the importance of the film stars in their success in
cinema.

He believed 'no group in Hollywood receives as much

attention from the public as the men and women
whose personalities are featured in films and around
whom entire movie organisations have been geared.
One of the rst ways of understanding how
the work of the individual is transformed into
media products was to conceptualise the
manufacturing process as a series of 'gates'
through which ideas had to pass.

The gatekeeper in Media decides what information should

move past them to the group and what information should not.
Examples of gatekeepers in the media are editors, producer,
reporters, directors etc. Gate-keeping as a word was coined by
Kurt Lewin in 1943, who was a social psychologist.

He identified certain points in the communication process he

called 'gate areas' when certain pieces of information are
filtered out.

Gatekeeping means 'a story is transmitted from one

"gatekeeper" after another in the chain of communication' each
of whom opens gates to let some stories through and closes
them to others.
 David Manning White

He has examined the choices made in the selection of

news stories on a small city newspaper reaching
30000 families in the Midwest of America and argued
the news selection process involves a large number of
gates through which news stories must pass.

The result of his work was that 'public information was seen
to be determined by editorial gatekeepers who chose what
news to use, with this selection procedure inevitably being a
reflection of the personal background and beliefs of those
individual's.
 White's Model

White's model of gatekeeping was widely applied to the

process of mass communication, with its emphasis on the
role of the individual not the media organisation in the
process of narrowing down the large array of messages that
can be communicated.

White's model is today seen as naive and simplistic,

dismissed as being 'of little utility' (O'Sullivan et at., 1994).

The focus on a single gatekeeper watching over a single

gate ignores the complexity of modern media organisations
as well as 'minimises the complexity of newsmaking'.
 GATEKEEPER

While the autonomy of the individual worker to make decisions shaping

media content remains part of the mythology of the media professions,
media theory began to place more emphasis on the collective nature of
the production process.

Purely individual decision making is seen as a rare occurrence and

rejected in favour of understanding the group dynamics characterising
media work.
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 Possibilites, Limitations, Challenges and Future
Recommendations
Possibilities:
1) Theoretical approaches to understanding media organisations and media work can provide useful frameworks for researchers
and practitioners to examine and analyse the production and content of media.
2) The study of media organisations and media work can shed light on the factors that shape media content, which can inform
e orts to promote media diversity and accountability.
3) Advances in digital technology and data analysis o er new possibilities for studying media organisations and media work, such
as through automated content analysis and social media monitoring.
Limitations:
1) The study of media organisations and media work can be limited by issues of access and transparency, as media organisations
may be reluctant to share information about their internal operations.
2) Theoretical approaches to media organisations and media work can sometimes overlook the complexity and diversity of media
practices, and may not fully capture the experiences of media workers.
3) Research on media organisations and media work can be constrained by funding and resource limitations, as well as by ethical
considerations around issues like privacy and con dentiality.
 Challenges and Future
Recommendations

Challenges:
1) One of the biggest challenges in studying media organisations and media work is keeping pace with the rapid changes in the
media landscape, including the rise of social media and the growing in uence of digital platforms.

2) The growing concentration of media ownership and the decline of traditional news outlets can pose challenges for researchers
and practitioners seeking to promote media diversity and accountability.

3) Ensuring that research on media organisations and media work is inclusive and representative of diverse perspectives and
voices can be a signi cant challenge.
 Future Recommendations

1) Researchers and practitioners should continue to develop and re ne theoretical approaches to

understanding media organisations and media work that can capture the complexity and diversity of media
practices.
2) E orts should be made to improve access and transparency in media organisations to facilitate research
and analysis of their internal operations.
3) Greater collaboration between academics, media practitioners, and civil society groups can help to identify
and address the challenges facing media organisations and media work.
4) Researchers should seek to incorporate new and emerging digital technologies and data analysis techniques
into their work to better understand media organisations and media work in the digital age.