Theoretical foundations of the media culture study as a socio-communicative phenomenon

Scientific novelty. As a result of the study, an original classification of media culture research methods was proposed, which emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach.

Practical meaning. The results of the study will be useful for those who study media culture as a sociocommunication phenomenon with an emphasis on the theoretical and practical aspects of its analysis.

Keywords: media culture, methodology, analysis, methods, communication, social communication, culture.

Зражевська Н. І.

Теоретичні основи вивчення медіакультури як соціокомунікативно- го явища

Мета дослідження - окреслити, структурувати й описати традиційні та новітні методи дослідження медіакультури.

Методологія дослідження. Під час дослідження використано такі методи, як аналіз джерельної бази предметного поля, класифікація, узагальнення та синтез понятійно- категорійного апарату вивчення медіакультури. За допомогою комунікаційного, соціологічного, культурологічного та філософського підходів осмислено та класифіковано ключові методологічні інструменти аналізу медіакультури.

Результати. На основі аналітико-синтетичного опрацювання здійснено класифікацію методів дослідження медіакультури як явища метакультурного. Запропоновано оригінальну класифікацію методів дослідження медіакультури, яка робить акцент на міждисциплінарному підході до її вивчення. У статті подано класифікацію основних напрямів дослідження медіакультури, методи дослідження медіатекстів, класифікацію теорій масових комунікацій (за Д. Мак-Квейлом), класифікацію методів, що стосуються розгляду медіа в контексті культури.

Наукова новизна. У результаті дослідження запропоновано оригінальну класифікацію методів дослідження медіакультури, яка робить акцент на міждисциплінарний підхід.

Практичне значення. Результати дослідження стануть корисними для тих, хто вивчає медіакультуру як соціокомунікаційний феномен з акцентом на теоретичний і практичний аспекти її аналізу.

Ключові слова: медіакультура, методологія, аналіз, методи, комунікація, соціальна комунікація, культура.

Zrazewska N. Teoretyczne zasady badania kultury medialnej jako zjawiska spoteczno- komunikacyjnego

Celem badania jest okreslenie, strukturyzacja oraz opis tradycyjnych i nowoczesnych metod badania kultury medialnej.

Metodologia badania. Podczas badania wykorzystano nastqpujqce metody: analiza zrodtowej bazy pola przedmiotowego, klasyfikacja, uogolnienie oraz synteza analityczno-syntetyczna aparatu pojqciowo-kategorialnego badan kultury medialnej. Za pomocq komunikacyjnego, socjologicznego, kulturalnego oraz filozoficznego podejsc przeanalizowano i klasyfikowano kluczowe narzqdzia metodologiczne analizy kultury medialnej.

Wyniki. Na podstawie analityczno-syntetycznego opracowania dokonano klasyfikacjq metod badania kultury medialnej jako zjawiska metakulturowego. Zaproponowano oryginalnq klasyfikacjq metod badania kultury medialnej, ktora robi akcent na interdyscyplinarnym podejsciu do jej poznania. W artykule podane sq: klasyfikacja gtownych kierunkow badania kultury medialnej, metody badania tekstow medialnych, klasyfikacja teorii komunikacji masowych (wedtug D. MCQuaila), klasyfikacja metod dotyczqcych rozpatrzenia mediow w kontekscie kultury.

Nowosc naukowa. W wyniku badania zaproponowano oryginalnq klasyfikacjq metod badania kultury medialnej, ktora robi akcent na podejsciu interdyscyplinarnym.

Zadanie praktyczne. Wyniki badania bqdq przydatne dla osob zajmujqcych siq badaniem kultury medialnej jako zjawiskiem spoteczno-komunikacyjnym z akcentem na teoretyczne i praktyczne aspekty jej analizy.

Sfowa kluczowe: kultura medialna, metodologia, analiza, metody, komunikacja, komunikacja socjalna, kultura.

Introduction

The active development of the modern media environment actualizes and constantly expands the methods and methodology of the scientific paradigm of studying media culture in accordance with how media and culture change in the modern world.

In the theory of social communications, the issue of media culture is also actualized in connection with the involvement of the achievements of modern communication studies, sociology, and culturology in the problems of media discourse. Theories of postmodernity, such as phenomenology, poststructuralism, discourse theory, narrative theories, etc., began to develop the problems of the new socio-cultural environment, taking into account the special state of the media in modern culture. The strengthening of the communicative component in culture and the characterization of society as informational, post-informational, and information-driven actualize the research and understanding of those cultural and civilizational consequences that the mediatization of the socio-cultural environment brings with it.

Problem statement and research methods

The purpose of the study is to outline, structure and describe traditional and modern methods of media culture study.

During the research, such methods as analysis of the source base of the subject field, classification, generalization and analytical-synthetic synthesis of the conceptual-categorical framework of media culture study were used. The key methodological tools of media culture analysis are analyzed and classified using communication, sociological, cultural and philosophical approaches.

Results

The theoretical foundations for the study of modern media culture and its role in the cultural and social life of society were established by the «global village» (M. McLuhan), «future shock» (A. Toffler), and special theories of mass communication: mass media as a manipulator and myth- maker (H. Schiller); culture as a simulacrum (J. Baudrillard), etc.

Modern international studies of media culture are represented by the works of D. Kellner «Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics Between the Modern and Postmodern» [15], J. Bignell «Postmodern Media Culture» [12], N. Stevenson «Understanding Media Cultures. Social Theory and Mass Communication» [18], D. Duncan «The Possibility of Freedom in a Post-Modern Media Culture» [13], J. Lull «Media, Communication, Culture: a Global Approach» [5], D. McQuail «Mass Communication Theory» [7].

Gradually, with the formation of communication sciences, media culture began to be explored by disciplines that are to some extent related to communication studies, and involve such areas of analysis as cultural research, postmodern methodology, phenomenology, semiotic analysis, mass communication theory, cultural sociology, etc.

For the first time, media culture was comprehended in the status of a general socio-communication phenomenon, and not just a separate type of mass media culture in the works of the famous cultural and communication scholar H. Innis [14]. He revealed a natural connection between the development of civilizations and the means of communication, proving on the basis of extensive historical material that the media are closely intertwined with the social and cultural processes of society and largely influence them. H. Innis had a great influence on M. McLuhan, the famous communicologist of the twentieth century. M. McLuhan also, combining the concept of culture with its communication and technical nature, argued that «social life depends more on the nature of the means by which people communicate with each other than on the content of the messages» [8, p. 341]. In particular, the method of communication based on book printing contributed to the separation of people, individualization, and specialization. With the development of technology, a new era is coming where human autonomy ends and a person becomes part of global networks. M. McLuhan was convinced that the means of communication are the basis of society's existence. In pre-written eras, the basis of communication was hearing, speech. But the most important thing was speech, which united people into communities. The phenomenon of the book creates a new European culture and civilization, based on an autonomous «ego», individuality. According to M. McLuhan, literacy changed European culture and became a catalyst for capitalism and industrialism. M. McLuhan considers the ideological component of the new media culture, linking it with the means of communication and its discourse. Communication, discourse is power itself, it produces direct agents of power [8, p. 135-142].

Media culture in the context of communication theory began to be considered in terms of the place it occupies in the communicative act structure. It is known that the elementary scheme of communication implies at least three participants: the subject that transmits (communicant) - the object (message) - the subject that receives (communicant). Consequently, communication is a kind of interaction between subjects mediated by a certain object. Communication participants can range from two subjects, an individual or a group of people, to the entire society.

The subjects of interaction do not aim to exchange material objects but to communicate meanings that have an ideal nature. The carriers of meanings are signs, symbols, and texts that have an external, sensually perceived form and an internal one, comprehended through the worldview process.

It is here that we are faced with the phenomenon of media culture, or the culture of transmitting meanings, signs, and images in the society of people. In fact, media culture encompasses not only mass media but also all phenomena related to the intermediary mission in the transmission of information. Therefore, media culture occupies an important place in social communications in different directions.

Since that time, the change of historical epochs has been understood as a revolution in the development of culture, when a new system-organizing object of culture began to take the lead: the media, which have a decisive influence on a person and which completely subordinate the previous cultural discourses. The culture of the twentieth century is defined by the ontological status given to it by the modern mass media industry.

M. McLuhan directly connects media and modern culture into one whole. In his «Understanding Media» book, he notes that modern mass media influence culture and determine our lives. The modern world, he writes, is compressed by the power of electricity, the globe becoming no more than a village [8, p. 7]. For M. McLuhan, the «book human» of the Gutenberg galaxy is a matter of the past, replaced by a new person who has grown up in the mosaic culture, the culture of advertising, and collage. The external expansion of a person is the penetration of technology into the human nervous system, the expansion of feelings and the mind, and a certain transition to a new cultural and even new physical paradigm. M. McLuhan writes: «The main feature of the electric age is that it creates a global network, which is in many ways similar in nature to our central nervous system» [8, p. 400]. For M. McLuhan, the fact that all elements of the communication process have been cybernetized is obvious. New technologies provide instant information processing through mutual communication, and this speed is the end of the mechanical era. The automatization and speed of information transmission bring the expansion of the media not in the direction of quantitative coverage of the audience but in the direction of its instant, inclusive coverage [8, p. 402]. It should be noted that M. McLuhan was quite optimistic about the development of media and, accordingly, the culture of the future. He writes: «the electronic age is literally the age of illumination» [8, p. 403]. M. McLuhan connected the concept of information with the way of its transmission, and the ways of transmission with the types of cultures. According to the researcher, the communication medium itself is the message: on the one hand, the mass media affects both the individual and society, as well as other «means of communication» primarily by the very fact of their existence, and on the other hand, it is subject to various influences. The actualization of the significance of McLuhan's thesis is influenced by the rapid development of both technical means of communication and the improvement of influence technologies on the everyday life of the contents transmitted by these means.

For A. Toffler, the future also appears to be a grandiose progressive society of the Third Wave, as the possibilities of working with information flows are incredibly increasing, and together with software and network development, this growth can be defined as a grandiose, defining dominance of the Third Wave culture, that is, the information society culture. According to A. Toffler, it will lead to the creation of «praktopia» the first in the history of truly humanistic civilization [10, p. 569].

This optimism is not shared by other sociologists, who consider the problems of media culture in connection with the decline of the general intellectual level against the background of the massification of cu lture. For example, D. Lukacs, a well-known American historian, considers our time to be the end of the modern era, the main factor of which was the era of the Mind, historical optimism, and faith in progress. Many of the features of the modern era, which were leading for almost half a millennium, have come to an end: the expansion of Europe, liberalism, humanism, bourgeois culture, respect for private property, Newtonian concept of the universe and physical reality, the ideal of scientific objectivity, the era of the book. The end of the modern era is associated with the development and victory of the democratic principle. Democracy has become as widespread as it is oppressive due to its unconditional agreement with the power of popularity, which is often based on the lowest standards. This situation is related both to political election practices, where the competition between candidates becomes a publicity contest, and to the imposition of certain stereotypes by the media.

J.Baudrillard noted in his «Requiem for the Mass Media» work that the mass media impose models, carry out «forced socialization» as a system of social control. Mass communication media are in the sphere of a certain communicative space, determined by its specifics and reflecting its state. They have transformed from a factor in the production and dissemination of information into a form of organization for mass information and communication processes. Moreover, they begin to determine the direction and nature of social processes taking place in society. Therefore, the study of the problems of communicative space is of particular relevance due to the fact that the mass media, functioning as an element of the social control system, performs the functions of «forced socialization» [1].

The difficulty of researching the media culture phenomenon is that its subject is divided into two categories: media and culture, so scholars have to use different methodological tools from the theory of communication, cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, semiotics, etc. American researcher M. Schudson outlined three directions in the study of mass media: 1) neo-Weberian analysis of rationality in the «production of culture», which emphasizes the issues of the mass media work organizing and ensuring the level of professionalism and sales necessary in a competitive environment; 2) neo- Marxist approach, which focuses on the study of the symbolic meaning of mass communication messages in accordance with the traditional culture of the Frankfurt School and the Gramsci concept of the cultural apparatus role as an ideological means of maintaining political hegemony; 3) neo- Durkheimian studies of «public perception,» in which collective perceptions formed by the media are considered a way to unite people through the establishment of their solidarity sense [17, p. 46]. In recent years, mass communication researchers have begun to use the methodology of phenomenological sociology more actively.

An important theory that has influenced the study of media culture is the cultural theory of D. Carey, who was the first to focus on the great role and power of the media, putting in the spotlight the everyday rituals through which people construct their experience. Culturological theories (symbolic interactionism, ritual theory, social construction of reality, frame analysis, cultivation theory) are the basis of media culture research, allowing to develop the main idea of deep, essential processes of modern society transformation under the influence of media.

Regarding the study of media texts, I. Bertnand and P. Hages, according to S. Kvit, offer the following approaches: content analysis, semiotic analysis, structural and poststructuralist analysis, literary criticism, hermeneutic analysis, phenomenological analysis, discourse analysis, and frame analysis [4, p. 19]. But it should be noted that the paradigm of each of the methods is also quite ambiguous; for example, structural analysis contains three paradigms: semiological-structural, grammar of the text, and semiotic-communicative one, while discourse analysis has at least three approaches (from the social constructionism perspective): from the discourse theory point of view (E. Laclau and C. Mouffe), critical discourse analysis, and discursive psychology.

The study of media culture is mainly focused on its analysis, interpretation, and criticism of media texts as well as the evaluation of their effects. It is clear that media culture is a part of political and social competition and helps to create the forms of everyday life by influencing the way people think, behave, see themselves and other people, and control the «power of identity».

One of the directions of media culture research is to study the ways in which it provides forms of ideological dominance, helping to reproduce relations of power and mass communication, and how it provides resources for constructing ways of resistance, struggle, or permission.

Since modern media culture is a postmodern culture, in this context it is also a product of postmodernity, which requires specific methods of reading it. D. Bignell, considering the basic principles of studying media culture in the twentieth century, raises two interrelated issues. The first point is the political assessment of media culture (cinema, television, and electronic communications). It concerns mainly the debates around the increasing political influence and social significance of media culture. The fact is that some believe that media culture has a positive impact on politics; others interpret media culture as dangerous for individual consciousness or even for subjectivity as such. The second point is the discursive construction of these theoretical considerations. The author is interested in how references to media culture serve as a ground for critical theories of culture in general. Sometimes some authors make references to specific media products, technologies, and practices, but most often these references are general. The author's argument is to expand these references and make them the main part of the critical formulations that constitute the assessment of the culture of the twentieth century, which mainly concerns such terms as modernism and postmodernism, modernity and postmodernity [12, p. 20-21].

The modern study of media culture is also based on the latest research methods, such as postmodern analysis, although it retains continuity with the sociological theories of neo-Marxism and behaviorism. The continuity of theoretical research in the field of media culture is ensured by its configurations, which form a certain «framework» of theoretical constructions.

The analysis of media culture was carried out by the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in the UK. This project proposes to «read» culture (the production and reception of cultural texts) within specific historical contexts. Despite the fact that British cultural studies have been at the forefront of the research of culture and society for several decades, today it is also necessary to take into account new directions of media culture research, in particular phenomenology, feminism, and multicultural studies.

For D. Kellner, media culture is a complex political, philosophical, and economic phenomenon. The most comprehensive analysis is presented in his monograph, «Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity, and Politics Between the Modern and Postmodern» (first published in 1995 and repeatedly reprinted). It is a more comprehensive study of American media culture and includes it in a broad social process, based on cultural studies and the theory of multiculturalism. D. Kellner considers media culture in the context of politics, ideology, and identity creation, offering the concept of «contested terrain,» that is, the clash of different political forces in the form of narrative and visual discourses, which has caught the attention of many experts.

We should also note the work of J. Bignell «Postmodern Media Culture» [12], which analyzes the theoretical discourse of media culture research and analyzes film narratives, children's media culture, and new media in the context of postmodernity. J. Bignell's monograph raises the question of theoretical discourses in the study of media culture and substantiates the use of the Frankfurt School, Baudrillard's methodology, the views of M. McLuhan and F. Jameson, and discourse theory in the analysis of media culture. The work presents a narrative analysis of media culture texts and an analysis of new media in the context of media culture.

The fundamental work is the monograph by D. McQuail, «Mass Communication Theory» [7], which contains chapters on media culture. The author especially emphasizes such features of media culture as its postmodern nature, commodification, globalization, connection with popular culture, etc. D. McQuail outlines the role and significance of new media and considers theories for studying media culture. The researcher, analyzing various ideas about the influence of mass media on culture, notes the lack of convincing evidence of influences: «This formulation of the problem is almost tautological, since the media (in their definitions, content, and intrigues surrounding them) are an integral part of the culture of “modern” society» [7, p. 466]. It may seem, the scholar assumes, that it is very easy to analyze the cultural impact of Western media on developing countries, and one can try, but researchers face compelling problems of conceptualization and study format [7, p. 466]. According to D. McQuail, the media are involved in social and cultural events and changes, and the spread of media influences through a number of institutional processes makes research relevant.

Among the theoretical problems in the study of media culture, D. McQuail outlined «...the essence of the new mass culture, made possible by mass communication» [7, p. 99]. This issue is considered in connection with the content, as well as with the activities types of using the media. In addition, according to the researcher, the study of mass culture has led to a reconsideration of the nature of «popular culture,» and this, in turn, has contributed to the emergence of critical cultural theory, which began to consider the problems of gender and subcultures in connection with mass communication. The next key topic in the study of media culture, according to D. McQuail, is the potential impact of «...new technologies on the perception of meaning in the new modern world in the context of the “mediation” approach. Communication technology can significantly change our understanding of society and our place in it» [7, p. 99].

An important theoretical area of research is the study of the political economy component of media culture, since «...media are “producers of consciousness” guided by economic logic and cultural changes» [7, p. 99]. In this aspect, the study of commodification of media culture «...in the form of “software” produced by and for communication “hardware” that is sold and exchanged in the expanding markets,» is relevant [7, c. 99]. D. McQuail calls media texts produced by the main media industries as typical culture. It is mainly a globalized culture that raises questions of cultural identity and autonomy. These issues arise at the level of subcultures and include integrative and adaptive processes of perception and use of media «...in direct cultural and social experience» [7, p. 99].

Therefore, the main theoretical issues in the study of media culture according to D. McQuail are:

1) mass culture and popular culture;

2) the impact of communication technologies;

3) commodification of culture;

4) globalization;

5) cultural identity;

6) gender and subculture [7, p. 99-100].

The cultural approach is in the plane of the postmodern scientific paradigm. The works of J. Baudrillard, M. McLuhan, J.-F. Lyotard, P. Virillo are important in the analysis of media culture. For us, it is obvious that media culture is a phenomenon of the postmodern era, although the term itself remains speculative to some extent, as it emerged on the wave of technological progress and, accordingly, the development of the media (replication, reduction in the cost of publications).

American researcher of media culture D. Kellner considers that cultural studies cannot exist without social theory, because it is impossible to understand the structure and dynamics of modern society without interpreting culture as a social phenomenon.

According to D. Kellner, media culture is a complex of artifacts united by social and political discourse that should be analyzed and interpreted, using methods of reading and criticism that articulate their embedding in politics, economics, social relations, and political environment.

The researcher expands the methodology, involving in the analysis of media culture such methods as historical, social theory, communication, and cultural studies that can explain the content and effects of popular cultural forms.

D. Kellner gives a number of examples from the Hollywood film industry that represent, in particular, the conservative ideology of the Reagan era in relation to African-American culture on the example of Spike Lee's films, rap music and Madonna's images and songs. He also analyzes popular TV series, MTV, media performances such as «The Gulf War» as well as cyberpunk literature and culture [15, p. 9].

One of the main tasks is to demonstrate how some of the more popular cultural texts are involved in current political and cultural struggles. Critical cultural studies conceptualizes society as a site of domination and resistance as well as critically analyzes domination and the ways in which media culture reproduces relations of domination and enforcement. Critical cultural studies are interested in promoting a democratic direction, reflecting on how media culture can either be a huge obstacle to democratizing society or it can also become an ally, helping democracies and freedoms. Media culture can be an obstacle to democracy when it reproduces reactionary texts, promoting racism and discrimination based on gender, age, class, etc. But media culture can also protect the interests of oppressed groups if it criticizes such phenomena as racism and discrimination.

It is necessary to know the structure and dynamics of a society to understand and interpret its culture, as society and culture are fields of competition and struggle. Consequently, cultural artefacts are produced according to the effects of the prevailing social context, and media culture within this matrix of artefact production and perception helps to identify its possible effects in the broader sociological context.

Cultural studies are best carried out in the context of critical social theory. For cultural studies, there are important theoretical innovations in postmodern theories, which contain analysis of important aspects of the present: society, mass media and the consumer, new computers, communications and information technologies, new forms of fashion and culture, new forms of power and knowledge, new patterns of subjectivity and identity.

Both cultural studies and cultural sociology need to analyze exactly the point of intersection of methods, where media culture, on the one hand, is a struggle for the dominance of classes, gender, and race, which determine culture and identity, in the direction of a more complete ideological dimension of cultural texts and assessment of the full range of their effects, and on the other hand, appears as a performance, as a tool for creating cultural codes represented through media culture, especially in its manifestations that create virtual symbols, rituals, and images.

Therefore, it can be argued that economy, technology, and ideology are the central constants of media theory. Taking into account that the dynamics of value systems in the postmodern era are based on the expansion of the media's role, in this aspect we observe a change in attitude toward tradition, the classics, ideology, and culture in general. Therefore, the theory of media culture should answer the question of why and how these changes occur.

The presented tables of media culture research methods are an analytical and synthetic study of the classifications given, in particular, in the works of M. Schudson, M. McQuail, N. Stevenson, and D. Kellner (Tabl. 1-4).

Table 1 Classification of the main areas of media culture research