Mass Communication Functions in a Media-Rich Developing Society

Abstract

Several research models developed in recent years in postindustrial societies are applied to a field setting in Venezuela where mass media are highly advanced but the society remains highly stratified in education, income, and other socioeconomic hierarchies. Indices of functional uses and avoidances of the media show strong consistency across media and are good predictors of media use patterns. Simple exposure to the media, rather than motivations for use or avoidance, is the better type of predictor of knowledge gained from media, however. Evidence of a "correlation function" based on a common agenda of public issues set by the media is weak.Two dramatically different images of mass communication have emerged from research in postindustrial societies and in the developing nations of the Third World. I n predominantly agricultural countries, where mass media resources tend to be limited and a high proportion of the population poor and undereducated, the media have been pictured as exercising powerful constraints over people's knowledge and thinking, and at Bobst Library, New York University on June 21, 2015 crx.sagepub.com Downloaded from [368] in stimulating the diffusion of technical innovations. By contrast, research in the United States and Western Europe has become organized around models that emphasize the degree to which use of mass media is under the control of the audience; structural variation in media content might focus the attention of different elements of a modern society on a common problem, but there are too many sources of information available for the media to control the individual's opinions and behavior.Media planning decisions in developing nations will depend to a great extent on which of these general models of mass communication is assumed. There is presumably some stage in societal development at which the media-centered models of the underdeveloped world become obsolete, and the more audience-centered models of the postindustrial world should take their place in the design of communication policy.It is not at all clear at this point in the history of research on mass communication and development how we should identify that point of transition. Modernization of a society may take place in some sectors, such as urbanization, long before it is achieved in others, such as the correction of inequable distributions of wealth or political power. In this paper, we consider the applicability of several models of mass communication in a regional urban center of Venezuela, a nation that has many of the social attributes common among the more advanced developing countries, but an elaborate mass media system. MODELS FOR RESEARCHOf the many societal functions that have been ascribed to mass communication, the broadest are those Lasswell (1948) calls surveillance of the environment, correlation of the parts of the society in responding to the environment, and the transmission of the social heritage. Although Wright (1974) points out that these functions &dquo;might or might not be carried out as...

Personal Experience Versus Media Coverage: Testing the Issue Obtrusiveness Condition of Agenda-Setting Theory in a Developing Country

“…Quantitative studies allow such comparison, help to pin point at the area of difference between developed and developing countries, and to formulate a framework of revising the existing theories. Findings in this study specify educational disparity that can be a contingent condition in media effect, and add to previous studies that found trust on the media (Al-Haqeel & Melkote, 1995) and economic attainment (Chaffee & Izcaray, 1975) as similar factors.…”

“…The original agenda-setting theory has been tested in several developing countries (Du, 2007), including Egypt (Mohamed & Gunter, 2009), Kenya (Onyebadi, 2008), Mexico (Valenzuela & McCombs, 2007), Venezuela (Chaffee & Izcaray, 1975), and Saudi Arabia (Al-Haqeel & Melkote, 1995). Those studies found that although mass media were able to significantly set the public agenda in Egypt, Kenya, and Mexico, that was not the case in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.…”

“…Those studies found that although mass media were able to significantly set the public agenda in Egypt, Kenya, and Mexico, that was not the case in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Scholars commented corruption among journalists and lack of public trust on news media could have caused the lack of agenda-setting effect in Venezuela (Chaffee & Izcaray, 1975). Authoritarian form of government and restriction in press freedom could have restrained the effect of mass agenda in Saudi Arabia (Al-Haqeel & Melkote, 1995).…”

“…In contrast, most of the developing countries have a large population with very low income and limited access to mass media and reportedly consume much lesser amount of media information (Ahonen, 2011; Thompson, 2014). Agenda-setting studies done in developing countries show when a population with limited access to the mass media are included in the study sample, little evidence is found that the public is being influenced by mass media (Al-Haqeel & Melkote, 1995; Chaffee & Izcaray, 1975). It suggests that in situations where spread of mass media and press–government relation are unlike the Western and developed countries, the agenda-setting effect may weaken.…”

Communication processes and consumerism: The case of Venezuela

“…Compared to other Latin American countries, Venezuela enjoys substantial media resources. Numerous newspapers reach most of the population, which is predominantly urban, and most homes have both television and radio (Chaffee & Izcaray, 1975;McNelly & Izcaray, 1984). Moreover, an important study found that Venezuelans depend largely on newspapers for information and rely upon television and radio for entertainment (Izcaray 8c McNelly, 1987).…”