Lecture 05 | The cost of Adopting Media Logics

In our last blogpost, we discussed the strategies of movement actors in overcoming asymmetry between the relationship between media and social movement. Social movement actors usually adopt four strategies to overcome  this asymmetry. This lecture continues the same topic and extends it by focusing on impacts when social movement actors adopt media logics. 

After getting frustrated, when movement actors adopt media logics, they always have to pay a cost for it. Adoption to media logics (creating stunts, timing and drama) may most likely succeed movement actors in gaining media coverage, yet it also bears negative consequences for social movements.     

Since we know that social movements are not organisations, they are launched by small groups of people without any substantial resources. Movements have lesser human and nun-human resources. Firstly, too much focus on positive media attention is most likely to drain movement actors' limited resources. At the start and even at the zenith, movement actors do not afford to waste resources on anything else but their objectives. This is the first impact.

Secondly, when movement actors are concentrating more on gaining media attention, they are striving to reach distant audiences. This action is good in the sense they get a better opportunity to reach distant audiences. However, it has a downside for near audiences. Increased concentration on distant audiences is likely to put a shadow on the efforts and activities which movement actors are supposed to take for near audiences. Thus simply we can say that movement direct outreach activities to near audiences are likely to be greatly affected. 

Finally and the most importantly, there is a possibility of greater risk that while focusing too much on media attention, movement actors might get engaged in measuring their movement success in terms of amount of media coverage instead of the outcomes just like changes at policy level or legislation. It is very dangerous. The risk is most likely to divert attention of movement actors from their real objectives to media attention.      

In summary, mainstream media is highly capable of influencing various aspects of social movement. Sometimes, mainstream media leave those influence without letting movement actors to notice it. Most permanently, media influences movement actors' leadership, performances, strategies, framing activities and discourses as well. 

Lecture 04 | Strategies of Movement Actors to Overcome Asymmetry

Here we have seen and discussed that the relationship between mainstream media and social movements is asymmetric one. We have also discussed the possible reasons who cause this asymmetry. In such situation, it becomes a great challenge for movement actors to overcome this imbalance. For it is necessary to do so if movement actors want themselves heard among public and policy-makers. According to Dieter Rucht (2004), a German sociologist, in such circumstances social movement actors usually adapt following different strategies to overcome such asymmetry: 

First, when movement actors see that they are not getting enough media attention they become frustrated with it and in order to overcome that asymmetry, they find new ways of communication. social movement actors abstain from interaction with mainstream media and focus instead on micro-communication. This communication is mainly aimed at the inner circles of social movement such as activists, supporters, and allies. In other words, the audience of such communication is near audience who are part of social movement. 

Second, when movement actors do not get media attention as desired by them, they start attacking mainstream media. Those attacks are not violent or physical but verbal and discursive. Hence mainstream media becomes protest target and is blamed for not paying enough attention to social movement. Major disadvantage of this action is diversion of movement actors from movement to media coverage.

Third, in above-mentioned situation, movement actors create alternative channels of communication in order to bypass mainstream media and reach their audiences.  Via these alternative channels movement actors strive to the reach their near as well as distant audiences, supporters, sympathisers and potential members. Thus they bypass mainstream media and those alternative channels are based on a different types of media logic such as blogs, facebook pages, twitter accounts etc. 

Finally, movement actors get frustrated with media attitude toward their movement and in order to get mainstream media coverage they adapt mainstream media requirements in terms of newsworthiness, timing and drama. This may result in increasing the possibility or likelihood of obtaining media coverage. 

The final strategy has many negative consequences for social movements and movement actors as well. We shall discuss those repercussions in the next lecture. 

Rucht, D. (2004).The quadruple “A”: Media strategies of protest movements since the 1960s. In W. B. H. J. van deDonk, B.D. Loader, P.G.Nixon, &D. Rucht (Eds.), Cyberprotest: Newmedia, citizens and social movements (pp. 25–48). London, UK: Routledge.

Lecture 03 | Relationship between Media and Social Movements

Since protest events are not in resonance with certain amount of newsworthiness in the eyes of media workers and organisations, they do not come with a certain amount of predetermined  newsworthiness. This is how attitude of media towards social movements is often justified by news workers. Studies on social movements show that only one feature is successful in gaining media coverage and that is size of demonstration. More the number of demonstrators/protestors, more coverage is obtained by social movements. Apart from this no other features of help social movements in obtaining media attention.  

Studies throughout the world have indicated towards limited capacity of social movements to influence mass media and gaining coverage. The main reasons behind this attitude of mainstream media towards social movement are: (1) media's selection and descriptive bias while covering protest; (2) news-making routines and journalistic news values; (3) news workers' reliance on dramatic and visible events and ; (4) journalists' reliance on authoritative sources. 

Now we are going to discuss these aspects individually.

Firstly, in the past media was considered to be the mirror of society, however a considerable number of studies showed that media presents news selectively. Descriptive bias refers to media organisation's differing definitions of news in terms of their ideology, political and social leanings. In summary, we can say that media organisation decide what is and what not a news. 

Secondly, news-making routines and journalistic news values play a greater role in determining newsworthiness of a protest event. Firstly, news workers have a set routine which can only be disturbed in case of emergency or a great disaster in a country. If a journalist comes to know another important incident has happened while covering the protest, he will most likely leave protest and cover another event/incident. Secondly, journalistic news values often focus on authoritarian sources for information, magnitude of an incident/event etc. A greater body of studies also show that under-privileged sources are often ignored or given less space and time in the mass media. 

Thirdly, news workers invariably rely on visible or dramatic events and authoritative sources. Since social movements are serious phenomenon, very rarely they produce any dramatic event which may succeed in gaining media attention. 

Finally, as already stated, social movements present an alternative world view which is why movement actors are always against the authorities and no authorities are found in their support or with them. These two are also main reasons behind lack of coverage of social movement by mainstream media. In line with this, an amount of competition between different media organisations also play a greater role in ignoring social movements. 

In summary, the connection or relationship between mainstream media and social movements is often called and considered asymmetrical by media as well as social movements scholars. Activists need to be visible in the mass media and, quite contrarily, mass media do not rely on social movements for production of news. 

Lecture 02 | Media, social Movements & Politics

Being a media student, we are fully aware that every one needs a forum for getting heard and reaching to the desired audience. Mass media invariably provide a platform for discursive opportunity structure to social movement actors. It also constitutes essential opportunities and constraints for social movements. It may always be kept in mind that social movement actors always act in what Ferree et al. (2002) have aptly described “media master forum” which highly receives greater influence from political actors. Politicians always have a greater sway on mass media. For instance, trivial activities or misspellings of political actors succeed in making news on media channels. If citizens of an area launch a movement in any areas of Sindh for provision of safe drinking water, proper medical facilities etc, they will be considered to be a competitor by local political actors.

Political organizations succeed in organizing their voters and party workers in any event. On the other hand movement actors propose their discourses and put forth their demands to gain attention, support and sympathy from a wide range of publics on “media master forum”. Social movement actors need as greater support as possible because they movements are not based on any organizational level. In this way, political spectrum and public opinion is the target of attention of movement actors.

When movement actors in gaining attention of media, public and politicians, they come in direct competition with more institutionalized political actors. When movement actors propose their discourses on local environmental, economic, cultural issues of community and movement finally come to a logical conclusion, they become competitors of mainstream political actors. Political actors feel threatened by the movement actors. This competition is not violent but based on discourses.

At this stage it becomes utmost important for movement actors to frame their beliefs, demands and objectives which is in resonance with greatly and widely held societal beliefs. This framing helps movements to get greater support from a wide range of public. Moreover, such framing of discourses in such a way will also be essential for gaining symbolic power which eventually becomes fundamental for political mobilization. If the discourse is framed otherwise, it will directly affect the movement itself. 

In this context we may take example of recent Women Movement in Pakistan which started in 2018. Indeed those movement actors were strongly criticized for forming slogans like “Khana mein garam kar lun gi, bistar khud garam kar lena”, “Agar dupatta itna pasand hai to aankhon per baandh lo” and few other slogans on sanitary pads etc. Such slogans did not expand scope of the movement and turned it subject to criticism. On the other hand, in 2019 the slogans were much better like “Mere jahez ki naheen meri taleem ki fikr karo”. No portion of society will go against this demand because in a traditional society like ours such slogans are more acceptable.

In these circumstances of discursive competition between movement actors and political actors, focus of both the actors remain at gaining ability to affect mass media for obtaining symbolic power for two purposes: (1) mobilising masses politically and; (2) becoming and establish themselves autonomous sources of conflict. 

 

Lecture 01 | Social Movements Defined

Social movements are (a) mostly informal networks of interaction, based on (b) shared beliefs and solidarity, mobilized around (c) contentious themes through (d) the frequent use of various forms of protest (Dellaporta & Mattoni, 2016).

(a)   Informal Network of Interaction

When one reads this definition deeply, he/she can realise that factor of communication holds a vital and central role in all those four definitional aspects of social movements. Let's see how. 

Social movements are informal networks of relations. Participants, sympathisers, supporters of movements are composed of heterogeneous population. They belong to various class, race, gender, lingual group, nationality and ethnicity. Participants are scattered and most often weakly connected because social movements are not organisations. Although they are some times organized by organisations but most of the time they are not organisations. They are networks of relation of diverse actors. However, movements are more or less structured from an organizational point of view. Social movements are composed of weekly connected and scattered individuals who feel they are part of a collective effort.

Thus, in this situation communication becomes vital and equally significant. Movement actors are engaged in the flux of information and exchange of ideas which must be structured and restructured in accordance with changing characteristics of the network. The narrative of movement must be intensified in times of visibility and fragmented in times of abeyance.

(b)   Shared Beliefs and Solidarity

Collective ideologies are constantly constructed and reconstructed within a social movement and, again, communication is of utmost importance in this process. Above mentioned networks of relations constitute a social movement when their members share a common belief and solidarity. Shared belief nourishes solidarity and collective awareness. Collectively social movements produce an alternative world vision or narrative which challenges the already existing dominant vision or narrative.

Social movements are considered as an agent of social change; therefore, they can not afford to limit their vision within movement. They have to spread their vision to outside: protest targets, public, sympathizers, supporters, potential allies, bystanders, spectators and even opponents. Their primary should be to reach and influence public opinion as well as policy decision-makers. In this regard, communication strategies become essential to address strategic dilemmas in order to gain visibility as well as support from concerned quarters.

(c) Contentious Themes

Movement actors are mobilized around the definition of conflict. Many scholars of social movements have defined them as actors in new conflicts. Communication within social movements has an essential role in shaping and framing contentious issues on which movement is based. Those issues are called contentious because of participation of heterogeneous population ranging from diverse backgrounds, cultures and indoctrinations.

That communication becomes more important while mobilising a population which is based on diverse actors belonging to different languages, culture, racial groups, social positions, political culture and economic conditions. Here we feel a dire need of communicating effectively for elaborating common frames around the definition of conflict. Movement actors are responsible for framing issues in a way which keep all movement participants intact. When movement actors start considering media platforms – freedom of information and communication rights –as a relevant field for discursive struggle, communication becomes essential.

(d) Protest

The fourth and final definitional aspect of social movements is frequent use of protests by social movements. Indeed this one aspect characterises social movements and makes movement actors distinct from other political actors in terms of exercising pressure over authorities, so view many social movement scholars. Protest is defined as a non-conventional form of action that interrupts daily routine. Everyday routine is an instrument of communication and by disrupting it social movement actors attract attention of the public. Such performances always provide a platform to protest organisers and protest targets. The interaction between organisers and targets facilitates passage of information and holds strong communicative elements which are targeted at opening various channels of communication with diverse public, decision-makers, sympathisers and supporters.

For instance, public concern do not reach decision-makers until public perform some protests order to get heard. Authorities notice concern of public when protests are held. Here again communication becomes essential in terms of choosing an appropriate form of communication for propagation of message of the social movement.

Lecture 10 | How to prepare an outline-03

5. Highlight Your Main Points. Now that you have determined main points of your essay and put them in order, this is time to add some relevant content to support each of your idea. The objective of this step is to extend your original idea (Your Thesis Statement). This will be greatly helpful for your readers in better understanding of your argument. Here you have got a better chance to add some more details such as examples, quotes, facts, theories and personal anecdotes etc. Theses all things will support the main idea. This step may seem boring and tiring but, bear in mind, your drafting depends on it. Therefore, it is essential to do. 

Your goal in this step is to expand upon your original ideas so that your reader has a better understanding of each point. You can add more detail to each concept by including examples, quotes, facts, theories or personal anecdotes. While this step may seem tedious, it will make your drafting process much easier. You’ll save time in the long run because your paper will be more logical and focused and your ideas will be fully developed.

In the previously done exercise, we put our ideas into order, add some more information after doing some brain storming and finally my outline looked like as follows:  

Outline: Fall of Pakistani TV Serials

I.   Intro

A.      Common Trends in Pakistani Serials

a.      Far from Reality

b.      Repetitive Themes

c.       Unnecessarily Lengthy

d.      Focus on Glamourisation instead of Art

e.      Adopting Indian trends

f.        Director should focus on presentation of reality in an artistic way.

II.    Body

A.      Themes

a.      Common themes

                                                 i. Romance, Divorce, Halala, Betrayal, domestic conspiracies etc.

                                             ii. Sister-in-law likes her brother-in-law, Rich boy and poor girl or vice verca

                                                 iii. Lack of portrayal of social issues

                                                 iv. Frustrating titles of TV serials

B.      Story/Script

a.      Script does not seem to be pre-determined

b.      Unnecessary length

c.      Watage of time in Title song (OST), Music, facial expressions etc.

d.      Give an example of drama ‘Khaani’

e.      Urdu saying “Kawwa chala Hans ki chaal”

C.      Glamourisation

a.      Make up, unbraided hair, wig, expensive clothes, jewelry

b.      Drama looks like a drama instead of representation of reality

c.      Impact of such things on poor people

                                                 i. Frustration, hopelessness etc.

d.      They are far from reality

D.     Indian impact on Pakistani Dramas

a.      Trends are taken from Indian media.

b.      Consequently, we have lost our individuality.

E.      Personal Nostalgia/Why do I feel those issues?

a.      Author still remembers of TV serials aired in 90s.

b.      PTV dramas were reality-based

c.       Presented an issue and finally ended it with proper conclusion.

F.       Today dramas have become market-driven.

G.     Comments of an expert

                                    a. Comments of Mr. Agha Rafique (A renowned playwright of Pakistan)

III.                Conclusion

H.     Importance of marketing-advertising for TV channels

a.      It’s true that it is utmost important

b.      Reality-based can get equal advertising

c.     Advertising can be got through presenting a reality-based drama as well.

                                               i. Examples Cheekh, Kaneez, Udaari etc. 

6. Review and Adjust. 

Still, it may not be the final outline. Many budding writers think at step five their outline is done. But this is not always so. Writing is not an act but a process instead. All writers continue reviewing their work even their outlines in order to find the best way to express themselves. There is always room for improvement. You can still make some shuffling in the above outline, make some amendments as well. An outline is just like a roadmap which guides and directs you throughout writing process. Once you revise and review your outline, the prewriting stage of your writing is over and now it's time to start second stage: drafting or writing. 

You just have to make sure that you have included all the points in your outline and you are in better position to make a connection of all selected points with main point (Thesis Statement). Outline may seem, and indeed it is, a lengthy and tiring process but it makes your writing easier and wonderful enough to accomplish in a day. With completion of outline, all the hard work is done and you are ready to put your words into sentences and develop a well-developed, well-thought and informed essay.

All the best 

Lecture 09 | How to prepare an Outline-02

3. List Main Ideas. In this step, you decide how will you support the thesis statement. Putting it simply, you support your main argument by dividing it into various sub arguments which eventually support your main argument. 

In this part of writing process a little brain storming is needed. The primary objective of this part is to raise some important ideas/questions which you plan to address in your essay. We may write those ideas in points or in the form of questions.  For instance, you may make the list in the form of arguments, points or questions whichever suits you the best. 

Regardless of your topic, this exercise provides you an opportunity to get all of ideas out of your mind and on the paper. The best and easiest way to do this exercise is developing few (12 to 15) questions about your topic and jot them down on a piece of paper. Look at those questions carefully and think about them seriously. If a question is repeated, remove it. 

here, I am presenting a list of main ideas which I developed while I intended to write a blog on "The Fall of Pakistani TV Serials".

            a. The standard of Pakistani TV serials has fallen drastically.

            b. They have highly been influenced by Indian TV serials.

            c. Glamourisation is strongly focused.

            d.  Most of the serials are not reality-based. 

            e. Most of TV serials really look like drama and fail to represent our society.

            f. Increased concentration of directors is found on glamourisation instead of raising                    any social issue. 

            g. Their main focus seems to be domestic conspiracies.

            h. Script is often poor and lengthy

            i. Few themes are repeated in almost every drama serial.

            j. Titles of serials are very frustrating.

            k. Why do I feel like this? Why other people don't think about them this way?

            l. Marketing has become main focus of Tv serials instead of art. 

            m. They have lost their identity of which they were known/popular for.

            n. Those far-from-reality scripts are having a greater negative impact on poor                              segments of society. 

            o. Which themes are commonly portrayed in Pakistani TV serials?

            p. Actresses are always wearing high-class costumes, jewelery with full make-up.

OR

You may also write those point in the form of questions as well For most of the students feel comfortable with questions. 

4. Organise Main Ideas. In third step, you keep your points in illogical order or in a sequence. In this way all the points are connected to your main point/thesis statement. As once I received an outline from one of my students. She had placed effects before causes in the outline. This is what  we plan to avoid in our writing piece. That's why we always prefer preparing an outline before we start writing. 

In this step, you arrange all your points or questions in sequence which may make sense of story line. Now that you listed all your main ideas in form of points or questions, it is time to arrange them in a proper and logical order. This exercise will make it easier for you to follow your storyline while writing your essay and guiding your readers while they read it. 

The main purpose of this exercise is to rearrange ideas which you wrote down in step 3. Putting it simply, your questions or points which you wrote at third step will be categorised and placed under category concerned. Once, this step is done, you are all set to develop the structure of your essay. 

For instance, I would like to extend the same example I have already given above. When we organise our idea, they will look like as follows: 

a. The standard of Pakistani TV serials has fallen drastically.

            c. Glamourisation is strongly focused.

            d.  Most of the serials are not reality-based. 

            e. Most of TV serials really look like drama and fail to represent our society.

f. Increased concentration of directors is found on glamourisation instead of raising any social issue. 

            g. Their main focus seems to be domestic conspiracies.

            h. Script is often poor and lengthy

            i. Few themes are repeated in almost every drama serial.

            j. Titles of serials are very frustrating.

            p. Actresses: high-class costumes, jewelery with full make-up.

o. Which themes are commonly portrayed in Pakistani TV serials?

b. They have highly been influenced by Indian TV serials.

            m. They have lost their identity of which they were known/popular for.

k. Why do I feel like this? Why other people don't think about them this way?

            l. Marketing has become main focus of Tv serials instead of art. 

n. Those scripts are having a greater negative impact on poor segments of society. 

 Now, it looks a little bit organised, it still needs to be worked upon.

Wait for my next blogpost. 

Lecture 08 | How to Prepare an Outline-01

So now we have chosen and narrowed down our topic. Another question arises what to do now? It's time to create an outline. Many young writer avoid outline because they think everything is clear in their minds. Believe me, this is not so. There is a great deal of difference between having a thought in your mind and having it jotted down on a piece of paper. Creating outline is as essential as memorising a speech in a debate competition. 

I know that the writing process is stressful especially when you have to submit it in the shape of an assignment to your teacher or instructor. You are required to write up to the expectations of university teacher. There are many dilemmas which are often faced by students in this regard. First dilemma is finding answer to the question: where to start? Don't worry, we will discuss it in the section of writing. 

I have repeatedly noticed many students of mine avoid preparing outline because it seems very difficult for them. And believe me it is not that difficult but requires some practice. As I always state, writing is less about writing and more about thinking. At the stage of prewriting you need to think more about your topic and do different exercises and experiences with writing.  

An outline is simply a framework where an author organises his main and supporting ideas in a presentable way. It greatly helps in putting ideas in their proper place avoiding any type of confusion and repetition. It is also greatly helpful for writers to guide their readers and helps in clearly translating your thoughts into words. Without outline, there is a greater probability that you will confuse your ideas with each other which will finally result in utter desperation and frustration.   

So here I am presenting few tips for developing an outline:

1. Choose Your Topic wisely. During your undergraduate studies, a greater number of people will keep telling and advising you about what  you should choose. Likewise, while writing on anything, many of your friends and class fellow will advise you the topics to be written upon. Don't listen to any one's advice in this regard. For you are the master of your own destiny. Always choose the topic where your own greater interest lies instead of acting upon someone's advice. 
For instance, I intend to write on "Pakistani Media". This is a good subject indeed. After doing some brain storming on my topic, I narrowed down it as "The Fall of Pakistani TV Dramas".

2. Establish Your Purpose. This refers to "Thesis Statement" or the purpose of your writing. Why do you want to write? WEhat point do you want to prove?. This is one of the most important aspect where you are supposed to ask yourself a few question such as :Why are you going to write on this specific topic? What are you going to include in your writing piece which has not been focused so far? What will be the focus of your writing piece? What do you intend to present for your readers? What do you want to convey about your topic?. These are tricky questions and definitely demand some time. 

A considerable number of new writers often struggle hard in defining focus of their writing. It is very difficult task to come up with a focused topic from a list of possibilities. However, equally important and even larger is to understand the purpose or focus of your writing. 

So, in order to find answer to this question, one should ask himself "What is your topic or thesis statement?" In other words what do you want to focus in your writing. For example, after watching few Pakistani TV serials I developed a thesis statement that "Contemporary Pakistani dramas have lost their charm due to marketing" or "Market-driven production has caused a fall in standard of Pakistani TV serials". So, I have to prepare an outline whose sub-points or sub-arguments directly support my thesis statement (main argument).

If you do not have a goal or objective in the mind at the stage of prewriting, you will keep wandering in a strange city without a map. Having a goal or objective in mind will be greatly helpful in determining your course of writing, selecting appropriate content of your essay and setting guidelines and limitations. 

It is not over yet. Stay connected to finish outline on abovementioned topic. 

Lecture 07 | What is an Outline?

1. What is an outline

Many people think of outline as a rough idea of your draft. However, I strongly disagree with them. It is not a rough idea. Outline is a planned, organised and focused structure of your writing.  Almost all the authors find it easier to prepare and follow the outline before they start on a blank page. Outline organises your thoughts, ideas and divides them into sub-ideas. It is one of the most important tools to organise your ideas in logical order which, combined all together, support your thesis statement. Summarily, outline makes your story line clearer and elaborate.   

2. Why to make an outline

Many students often ask when our ideas are clear in our mind why to make an outline. Well, this is an assumption. When you sit to write, you will come to realise that ideas are not as clear as you had thought them to be. many things become confused with each other and, finally, you end up with wastage of time and energy. In order to avoid this sort of frustration at the end, better one should spare some time in preparing a planned outlined. 

Outline helps in determining what arguments and sub-arguments to cover and in which order. It makes your writing piece easier for readers to read and follow. It enables you to guide your readers throughout your piece. It avoids confusions in your thoughts and ideas.  For instance, many of the writing pieces I receive from my students in the course of "Creative Writing" fail to guide the reader. Repetition of argument, illogical order of ideas are the common issues with such writing pieces. That's why I usually and mainly focus on students' outlines. 

3. When to prepare an outline

Outline is normally prepared during prewriting. It means you have to make it before you start writing. For, as it is already stated, that an outline puts all the ideas and sub-ideas in their proper place with a logical order. Therefore, a well planned outlined helps a great deal in determining the story line the author is going to follow while writing.

It's not over yet. We still need to discuss about outline. Stay connected.