Media Construction Of Reality

To understand the foregoing phrase, it would be best fit if we try to describe the variables involved: the term ‘reality construction’. The words may seem contradicting because according to a realist, real cannot be constructed since it is already ‘out there’, given, concrete or it is a finite thing. Others may argue that to perceive something ‘real’ one should accept that fact that it is a product of human social interaction thus, we came out with a term ‘socially constructed reality’ as pointed out by Berger and Luckmann. This social constructed reality is the biggest influence on what we perceive as reality and how we perceive it, especially in the world as we know it today. The main vehicles which convey this meaning: symbols, including language, cultural myths -- larger social meanings of objects, actions, signs, episodes, the structure and practice of our institutions, our rules for congruent action. These vehicles of meaning together construct: our world-view -- our sense of how the world works, what is valuable, why things are the way they are.
To view reality is something that is also universally accepted knowledge, ideas, actions, events and situation. One classical example is that if all Christians believe that God really exist then He is ‘real’. But this doesn’t hold true if only one person or even group of person would claim that they’d seen Jesus.
But how are these viewed realities become universally acceptable? There must be an agent that affirm or reinforced people’s view towards reality. Is this agent serves only to depict what is real or is it an effective vehicle to construct reality?
The agent that I am talking here refers to the media who serves as an active player in the process of constructing reality. According to John Pungente, the media do not present simple reflections of external reality. Rather, they present carefully crafted constructions that reflect many decisions and result from many determining actors. In his paper Media and the Construction of Reality, Stefan Weber highlighted variations in constructivism: the ontological and empirical approaches, which to him are important basis to understand more how media constructs reality. The common thread between all forms of constructivism is that they do not focus on an ontological reality but instead on a constructed reality. The ontological constructivism presupposes the ‘constructed nature of the world as an unalterable fact’. It means that construction of reality is not something made by a man because it is ‘always there, whether one wants it or not’ or simply Reality-As-It-Is-In-Itself. To apply this in the media context, I look at it as something that media will and will always have construct reality even it is not told to do so. On the other hand, the empirical constructivism as what has been proposed for instance by Walter Benjamin, is concerned with ‘constructiveness as an empirically measurable trend on the basis of a non-dualistic epistemology’. This form of constructivism asserts that media is consciously and deliberately constructs reality to the extent of turning a fiction thing to a ‘real’ thing. However, I will not set an argument between these two forms of constructivism but I will be looking more if it is really possible that media can really present the exact reality or it just merely construct for a human to perceive what is ‘real’.
To some extent I agree with the perspective of constructivism. Its foundation is analytically useful as it focuses on the processes of media’s construction of reality. However, to doubt the possibility of experiencing reality sensually would seem futile. No concrete evidences could deny the fact that reality can indeed be experienced by human beings. But to the level of extent on how media presents reality is that which I am not keen to defend. Therefore, it would be safe to say that media serves dual purposes: to present what is only ‘out there’ – the absolute reality and to re-present ‘something’ to make it real - constructed reality. To illustrate the first function, media include or cover genuine events as newsworthy items. Genuine events are independent from mass media and their reporting, they take place whether the media notices them or not and do not change in character if they do. Such events are natural disasters, crime or incidents of every day life (Scherer et.al). These particular events are reported objectively since media is beyond its control to alter anything while these things unfold and therefore it has to present only the ‘absolute reality’ of the event. On the other hand, all media products such as news and advertisements are said to be a construction of reality. Lang and Lang expose the media’s image of reality as artificial and not at all similar to what witnesses on site observe. This is particularly true in news which is difficult to be a true reflection of reality, due to many factors involved in the production of news. Human error, human interest and the fallacies of management all conspire to blur the line between truth and friction. Potter (1998) stated that “news is not something that happens; instead, news is what gets presented. We almost never see news events as they happen. Instead, we are shown the media’s manufactured construction of the events.” Moreover, the media being an agent of socialization can affect our way of thinking and change our perception of reality. We tend to believe that drinking a certain brand of alcoholic beverages as projected in advertisement can bring us real fun and enjoyment and that acquiring a unit of cellphone makes us to believe that we are “in” a society. All of these perceived realities are reflected by this powerful and influential agent – the media.

References:
1) Berger P.L & Luckmann T. (1967). The Social Construction of Reality; a treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Penguin, Harmondsworth
(2) Pungente, S.J. From Barry Duncan et al. Media Literacy Resource Guide, Ontario Ministry of Education, Toronto, ON. Canada, 1989.
(3) Scherer, Helmut., Arnold, Anne-Katrin. and Schltz, Daniela . Media’s Creating Reality: Construction as a Social Process. (Available online at www.allacademic .com)