Power, Research and My Understanding of Ciaran McCullagh
- “Today we are saturated by media of different forms, shapes, and sizes … The dominance of media products in our lives has led people to blame the media for a range of social ills. .. This is a view of media power as total and all-embracing…” – Eldridge, Kitzinger and Williams, The Mass Media Power in Modern Britain (1997), p.10.
Ciaran MCullagh is an author who wrote the book ‘Media Power: A Sociological Introduction’. He is also Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University College, Cork. Here is a quote of his:
- “It has become both a truism and a commonplace to observe that we live in media-saturated societies … there is a feeling that this kind of media saturation is not a ‘good’ thing…” – Ciaran McCullagh, Media Power: A Sociological Introduction (2002), p1-2.
These two points above got me thinking about control and how this view of media power is potentially what makes the general public victims to it i.e. the choices they make in their lives are not actually their own or made by them, therefore, none of the general public really live their own lives. They merely exist and make albeit a fair amount but a very capable amount of fuss. My thoughts on this helped me decide what to do for my next film.
The obstruction for this piece was to have the video last exactly one minute and thirty seconds. This was a kind of challenge for me as mine was ‘reality’, but I pulled it off. Here is my piece on power:
Here’s my explanation of the video:
I take advantage of Alam, Cat and Sarah’s trust by inducing them into a state of fear in order to succeed in my own hidden agenda. This is exactly what the government does via the media (coverage on terrorism for example) which is supported by this notion of selectivity:
- “…the source of media power lies in its ability to be selective in what it tells us about the world… it controls the information that is available to media audiences and so has the potential to shape or set limits to their knowledge and to the images that they can construct of the world in which they live. This model of media power can be characterised as ‘agenda-setting’, after the formulation of McCombs and Shaw..” McCullagh (2002: 22).
Thus, the message behind my power video. Trust no one.
That was unexpected and you really did frighten me about the whole website fiasco. The ending was hilarious and just plain disgusting.
Would have loved it if you screened it in front of the whole group – would have been the best reaction of the day.
Good’un. (And I hope you feel better!!!)
Az.
What can I say? It was very misleading but it worked. Intially the idea that Big Brother is actually following me on the internet seemed very worrying but then…well you fooled me. It was certainly unexpected and well…vile. You managed to take us out of our comfort zones for both the idea of phone tracing and with the sexual activites. Well Done buddy