Average communication television that dominates the masses
Author’s review
Manuel Castells Oliván, born in Hellín (Albacete) in 1942, is a sociologist, economist and professor in different universities such as the University of California in Berkeley. He is the Interdisciplinary Internet director at the Open University of Catalonia, in addition to presiding over the Academic Council of Next International Business School.
He is the author of more than 25 books related to sociology, economic evolution and political, social and cultural transformations in the framework of information theory. One of the most outstanding pieces of him, our object of analysis, communication and power (Editorial Alliance, 2009). He is an expert, in addition to reference in his field of study, of the information society.
He was exiled to France in 1962 due to his disagreement with the Franco dictatorship, and became the youngest professor at the University of Paris with only 24 years. In addition, in the 70s he developed his concept-theory of "collective consumption", related to Marxist urban sociology. Later, in the 80s, he left his Marxist convictions to focus on the study of new technologies and the information age.
Summary by chapters
Chapter 1: The power of the network society
The author defines power as a fundamental process of society that covers the relational capacity of a social actor to influence other social actors so that such influence favors their will, their interests and their values. From this moment, once the concept of power has already defined, begins to question the means to achieve it, raising options from the point of view of violence or strength, supporting authors such as Max Weber or Michel Foucaulr, between others.
The author starts from the statement that “a nation is a community of feelings that would manifest properly in its own state; Therefore, a nation is a community that normally tends to create its own state ”, to begin its analysis of power relations in a state or between several states. Therefore, he concludes that nations, or cultural communities, produce states and make it claiming the monopoly of violence within a limited territory.
For networks, Manuel Castells states that they are interconnected nodes, with greater or lesser relevance for their whole, being the most important called "centers". For social life, he concludes that these networks become communicative structures.
The author introduces the concept of society as a global network, since he affirms that the network society is that whose social structure is composed of networks activated by digital technologies of communication. He explains that this concept can only be understood in a global, or globalized society.
Castells wonders, what constitutes the value in the network society? What motivates those who appropriate value and control society? He understands this value within a capitalist society, in which materialism and benefits in monetary terms can buy everything else. Therefore, according to the author, this would be the value of society, which in fact would be, an expression of power.
Chapter 2: Communication in the digital era
The author defines communication, or the action of communicating, such as sharing meanings through information exchange. Following this concept he develops different concepts of the communicative process, such as interpersonal communication, mass communication or the transformation of the communicative process as we know it, within the technological framework.
Thirdly, it analyzes the cultural dimension of the multilevel transformation process of communication, including the intersection of two opposing trends: the parallel development of a global culture, and therefore, of multiple identity cultures, and the simultaneous rise of individualism. He affirms that this transformation is due to the expression of social relations, therefore, of power, existing in the digital divide that exists between different countries and within them.
On technological convergence and the new multimedia system, he analyzes the technological paradigm based on information and communication technologies that arose in the seventies and that, according to the author, had a decisive influence on the form of communication. Communication networks, computers, and radio or television, converged thanks to digital networks, optical fiber or satellite communication. The way of communicating, while increasing the diversity of diffusion platforms and the concentration of media ownership, led to the gradual formation of a new multimedia system at the beginning of the 12th century. The author analyzes television, radio, Internet boom and the diversification of these platforms.
About television, medium that defines as the archetypal medium of mass communication, it was since the first years ninety transmission capacity, governed by competition given by the rapid multiplication of channels and stations. The author analyzes the gradual (time) penetration of television in the countries of the European Union and the United States, both at the technical level and its audiences. He concludes with the statement that, although television remains the dominant mass communication, ”technology, business and culture have been deeply transformed”. He later develops the diversification of this platform and the interconnection of his networks, not only of the small screen, also of cinema or advertising.
Chapter 3: Networks of mind and power
Manuel Castells defines explains that communication is produced by activating minds to share meaning, understanding ideas as mental image configurations (visual or not), which correspond to neuronal brain patterns. He analyzes all kinds of mental ideas, from bodily to those of the outside world, understanding them as a construction of reality in the face of real events, not only as their reflection, but as products of a mental process with agreement with their own models.
From this, he develops the interrelation of the human mind with language, stating that it is activated with language to access brain maps. Communication, in its different modalities, according to the author, plays a fundamental role in activating the corresponding neural networks in the decision -making process. He explains it following the so -called "mirror neurons", which represent the action of another subject, and that allow us to understand the emotional states of other individuals. This, according to Castells, is essential for communication in social animals.
He continues with the analysis of political cognition, developed following the previous point, related to emotion, since he demonstrates that the integration between cognition and emotion is essential in political decision making. This concept, in terms of Castells, is a decisive factor in the evolution of humanity, promoting cooperation and collective decision -making in the search for survival and well -being. He also analyzes the relationship of this interconnection (feelings and cognition) in political campaigns, being the feelings towards a much more decisive party or politician in the vote of citizens than the political convictions themselves.
About the policy of beliefs, the author concludes that the basic materials that make up public opinion are of three types: values, provisions of the group and personal material interests, and that the available studies show that predispositions and values influence the formation of political opinion that material personal interest. The prioritization in the formation of public opinion is determined according to the information frameworks, which are determined by the media, which in turn are governed by other elites, governments, and the same public opinion.
He also points out that the frames of the news, once built, feed back political elites. To exemplify this statement, the interaction between framed and contracted in the configuration of the human mind through the communication process, the author creates a whole section with a specific case: conquering the minds, conquering Iraq, conquering Washington: of the misinformation to The mystification.
Chapter 4: Programming communication networks: media policy, scandal policy and crisis of democracy
The author tries to demonstrate that politics is fundamentally a media policy. Based on the statements made so far, it concludes that organizations or leaders who do not have media presence do not exist for the public. Therefore, only those who manage to transmit their messages to citizens are those who have the possibility of influencing their decisions so that they lead them to power positions.
He affirms that the media are not only the fourth power, but that they are much more important: they are the space where power is created, being the space in which the relations of power between political and social actors are decided. And according to the author these are based, to subsist, on the extension of their audiences and resources through the consolidation of their audiences. There is a constant, he explains, in the convergence of politics towards media policy, and this would be a global phenomenon.
Talk about filters (or gatekeepers), as those in charge of providing access to the media, fundamental for messages to reach their audiences. Without this, he understands, there would be no democracy. Therefore, in short, the media are fundamental in a democratic society.
Following this concept he talks about censorship: the explicit or direct, characteristic of authoritarian governments as the case of China, which he explicitly analyzes. Or also the indirect, given in authoritarian regimes where governments interfere with the functioning of communication channels on which it exerts an economic or indirect influence (the case of Berlusconi in Italy or Aznar in Spain, according to the author).
Castells introduces a new term, the informational policy, which, unlike the media, is based on a mixture of intuition, hope, advice of experts and feedback of supporting networks. He defines it as the strategy that "articulates the messages that depend on the interests and values of the socio -political coalition built around specific political actors". This is born from the hand of the Think Tanks, responsible for the analysis of trends, to understand the cognitive mechanisms of the people and apply the results of their studies to design efficient tactics in order to win elections. It relies on some cases in the United States (with the Vietnam War) or the United Kingdom of Tony Blair. It later analyzes the financing of the parties, and the expense they make of the funds they collect, especially supporting data from the United States Democratic Party, with presidents such as Bill Clinton. In the European case, it emphasizes that countries such as Britain or Spain have regulatory bodies that control the financing of political parties, where there is a legal obligation to publicize contributions to political parties.
About decision making (including policies) the author affirms that they are carried out from the images and information that are processed in the media and the Internet. Therefore, he concludes that the policy of informative media is the most significant form of media policy. It links this conclusion with the fact that television is the environment to which most of the population resorts to inform themselves (since its format attracts the masses), thereby giving importance to television as a decisive agent in political development.
Chapter 5: Reprogramming communication networks: social movements, insurgent politics and the new public space
The change, both in the individual and in society, is part of life. The author understands that social change is multidimensional, but that, ultimately, it is still a change of mentality in the different individuals that make up society, which in turn influence and modify the norms and institutions that structure social practices. The changes are not automatic, he warns, but the result of the will of social actors, guided by their cognitive and emotional abilities.
The social actors who aspire to cultural change (or change of values) conceptualize them as social movements, and the processes that aspire to political change (institutional change) as insurgent policies. These social, or political movements would be given by the communication of messages of rage and hope, within the framework of public space.
To explain the process of social change in the new public space constituted by communication networks, Castells is based on two different types of social movements and two significant cases of insurgent policy:
First, the emergence of the environmental movement and awareness of the fight against climate change. In order for this conscience to settle in the minds of people, it has been necessary for a social movement to alert the population of the dangers of climate warming, because, according to the author, the precedents given by the scientific community were not enough to change The way of thinking about society’s relationship with nature. And following this social movement were the mass media or even the famous (with influence) who strengthened the awareness of the people.
Second, Manuel Castells analyzes the challenge of global movements against capitalist globalization. He affirms to the same extent that the multiple elements of the movement against the globalization of large companies were / are local and global at the same time, the local roots being the greatest opponents of this globalizing movement. The contradiction would come, in turn, that these militants with local roots need to connect to each other through the Internet to discuss, organize, act and share. And from the intervention of these media and the autonomous organization, the movement evolved. Although the author assures that, this is at least what many activists of the movement against the globalization of large companies seem to think. For these resistance movements, it is vital, the communication and expansion of the values in the public is vital, because when there is a resistance movement, the smaller the circle of supporters, the easier the disarticulation and repression of its protest and the more Fast restoration of order.
On cases of insurgent policy, first of all he analyzes the role of terror, lies and mobile phones in attacks in Madrid on March 11, 2004. The first object of analysis focuses on the loss of credibility of Aznar before public opinion following the entry into the Iraq war and the subsequent attacks in Madrid as a result of the pact with Bush, and as the Popular Party lost in a loud way its absolute majority in our country. Next, it focuses on the role played by the media on the information that circulated on the authorship of the attacks by ETA: the manipulations, lies, deceptions or omissions of information of information. The conclusion: the Spaniards concluded that the government had manipulated the information of the attacks to achieve a political advantage against their opponents in the imminent elections.
Finally, the “Yes, We Can!’: Obama’s campaign to the 2008 presidential primaries, the object of analysis focuses on the context of the moment: the wave of citizen participation and political enthusiasm that led to a resurgence of American democracy against the realities of war or presidential lies previous. Analyze high competition on the Democratic side, between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The author emphasizes the power of democracy, which lies in the ability to counteract the power of personal influence with the power of the crowd, of the majority. Also in the mobilization of young people in the 2008 campaign, since more than 6.5 million people under 30 participated in the elections.
Bibliography
- “Communication and power’, Author: Manuel Castells, Editorial: Editorial Alliance. Madrid (2009)
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