Media comparative analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Media comparative analysis - Essay Example A media comparative analysis has a vital role in comprehending the various essential elements of the changing nature of the media. Such a media comparative analysis deals with the social aspects, the assumptions and logics, the industrial, the commercial contexts, the primary functions, etc of a particular media form, technology, process, or event in relation to the explicit or implied research methods, the critical framework and assumptions, the theories and logics, the methods and worldviews etc of a specific reading on media and media function. This media comparative analysis paper focuses on a comparative discussion of Megan Boler's "Introduction" to Digital Media and Democracy: Tactic in Hard Times in connection to a particular media form, i.e. an internet radio station. This paper deals with a comparative study of the explicit or implied assumptions about the nature, scope and role of media forms in each of the media discussions, and attempts to bring together the assumptions o f both the media reading and the media form. Megan Boler's main concern in the article is to bring about the connection between media and power and to contribute to the debates about media and democracy within the digital media landscape and the discussions about the internet radio station can help one realize the underlying elements of the media form. As an introduction to the vital assumptions of the discussion, Megan Boler presents his exchange with Tim Russert as illustrative of how the media in the contemporary world functions in terms of truth and power. From the platform of this account, the author goes on to make his significant assumptions about media and power as well as the debates about media and democracy within the digital media landscape. "The story of my exchange with Tim Russert highlights two key challenges about media and power: (1) how to alter the axes of domination so that those with little or no power have a seat at the table, and (2) how to conceive of media (whether dominant, grassroots, or tactical) with the capacity to intervene at the level of public perception, and that can challenge the perverse manipulation of 'facts' about something like global warming." (Boler 2008, 171). According to the author, there is an essential connection between media and power and there is a very scarce chance to gain reali ty through the power of media. Power in media tries to overtake realities about facts and there is fierce competition to accumulate power in media. The author is essentially forceful about the influence of power in media in the contemporary digital era of media where there is fierce competition and the raw material is no longer in short supply. In this background, realizing reality through digital media is much more complex. There have been significant opinions by experts in the field that media is more powerful than any bomb in the contemporary background and this can be realized on the basis of the famous maxim the 'pen is mightier than the sword'. The powerful influence of media over the lives of several modern human beings can be understood in this background. The major focus of the work by Boler is to