Table of Content
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| Defining 'institution' |
| Classifying media institutions |
| Applying ideas about media institutions |
| Media institutions and society |
| Ethics and values |
| Reflection |
The concept of institution in Media Studies sometimes gets rolled up with 'industry'. The concept of institution deals with ideas drawn from sociology, psychology and politics. As such, the institutional aspects of media activities are sometimes difficult to grasp because they refer to less tangible processes and relationships than, say, company balance sheets or employment contracts.
Defining 'institution'
“enduring regulatory and organising structures of any society, which constrain and control individuals and individuality - the underlying principles and values according to which many social and cultural practices are organised and co-ordinated - the major social sources of codes, rules and relations.” (O'Sullivan et al. 1994)
We all grow up within a range of different institutions. Some of these are 'formal'- education, the health service, the legal system. We are part of these institutions. We know what to expect of the services they offer; we know how to behave within them. We share their values. They are formal because we are often legally 'registered' with them. But we also belong to a range of social institutions such as the family, a church perhaps or just a group of friends who meet for social activities. Within this group too, our behaviours are controlled or constrained even as we may share ideas and values. We all act, to some extent, in an institutional manner. Everyone working with or dealing with a sector of the media industries will also be subject to 'institutional constraints'.
Many of the decisions about how films and other media products are made are economic, but others are institutional - they are concerned with how the production team work together, how they have been trained to think about 'quality', 'professionalism', 'art', 'entertainment' and the audience.
Cinema is also a 'social institution'- as audiences we share certain values with the producers and we behave in the auditorium in a particular way. In the UK we don't talk through the film and we watch it in the dark - it isn't like this in all countries.
The institutional nature of cinema means that we know how to 'suspend our disbelief' and enjoy a movie. The events of 11 September 2001 exposed the institutional aspects of cinema when distributors 'pulled' films that they believed were 'inappropriate'. Most of the time we watch buildings being blown up or hijackers taking hostages without a second thought - it is a culturally accepted form of entertainment.
Classifying media institutions
Work on media institutions is similar to that on genre - the two concepts are closely related. Like genre, institution is a fluid term. Everyone is part of several different institutions - as a family member, a student, a patient etc. In the same way anyone working in the media or on any media text needs to relate to more than one institution - more than one set of relationships and processes.
For example; 'Photography' is a media practice - an organised set of media activities which has developed over a long period and is easily accessible as a means of creating a media text. Photography is also an institution, and that means that photographers and photographs are in some way subject to constraints.
A photograph can exist as a media text itself, most of the time we come across photographs as collections in an album or an exhibition or as photographic images which are used in other media texts such as magazines, newspapers, posters, websites etc.
This dual role of the photographic image sets up a number of broadly 'institutional' questions, involving both the production and the reading of photographs:
• Is the photograph on its own the same as the photographic image reproduced in a magazine or newspaper?
• Can the meaning of a photographic image change, depending on the type of media text in which it appears?
• Do photographs have a different value or status, depending on the context within which we see them?
• Where and when might the images have first appeared?
• What is the purpose of the image in the context?
• What type of photography is this (genre)?
• Who makes the decisions about which category is appropriate for which kinds of photography?
• Who decides which category has higher and lower status?
• Can anyone become a photographer and contribute work in these particular categories?
These questions are transferable across the media sector and can be asked of any media product.
These criteria are important in excluding some people from becoming professional and in 'standardising' expectations about what constitutes a 'professional product' or even a 'good product'. They are 'institutional constraints' within which all practices develops.
• Employment status is important in that it will influence decisions about what will sell or what will meet a set brief. Most professionals are dependent on the work they produce having currency in the contemporary market.
• Training and qualifications are important in photography, which, like journalism but unlike the film industry, has had a long history of 'scientific' and 'technical' training provision, as well as more art- and design-orientated education. Students are influenced by their tutors and the traditions of the department and carry these into their future practice.
• Professional associations support members and help to 'maintain standards'. They may operate a code of ethics which modifies behaviour and puts pressure on members to conform. They preserve the status of members by lobbying government in their interest and negotiating better deals and conditions with buyers of services and equipment suppliers. They also publish journals and run conferences which act as a forum for discussion as well as the circulation of new ideas.
Applying ideas about media institutions
• Establishment - Established institutions are enduring - they are recognised as having been established for some time. They have a history that informs (and perhaps constrains) the present and the future work undertaken by them. At best, because there are no overnight institutions, they have tried out ideas and established 'support systems' for members; at worst a sort of institutional inertia can operate within their norms. Most media institutions feel slightly threatened by ideas such as convergence because they appear to undermine longestablished identities.
• Regulation - Institutions regulate and structure activities: they make rules and they suggest specific ways of working. In broad terms, institutions provide stability and preserve the status quo and of course, 'organise change'. The professional associations are important in regulating the behaviour of their members.
• Collectivism - Institutions are, in one sense, collectivist. They organise individuals and individuality in order to achieve a common goal. This is particularly important in media institutions in which individual creative ideas are prized, but may have to be sacrificed for the good of the group.
• Work - Institutions develop working practices that have an underpinning set of assumptions about the aims of the institution and its ethos. They recognise training and qualifications in the specialist skills necessary for the job and will probably have developed specific job titles and descriptions.
• Values - All the people associated with the institution - directors, managers, employees - are expected to share the values associated with the ethos and to behave accordingly in their relations with others, both inside and outside the institution. It must be staffed by recognised professionals, whose education and training will effectively exclude casual intruders as new staff.
• Status - The wider public will be aware of the status of the institution and of their own expected relationship to it. Again this is particularly important for media institutions, because the audiences for media texts are 'organised' as part of the network of relationships.
Media institutions and society
Human society has always had the means to express ideas and emotions through forms such as storytelling, dance, music and art. Modern media have extended those capacities, in terms of realism, reproduction and distribution to mass audiences. The institutional questions which arise are not necessarily 'new', but they arouse concern and interest because their potential impact is so great.
• the 'truth' of claims to represent 'reality'
• the hurt and damage to individuals caused by offensive media texts
• the potential damage to society inflicted by stories celebrating corruption and depravity
• the potential loss of national, regional and cultural identity through submission to dominant culture.
Ethics and values
One of the main institutional constraints in any media practice is a shared sense of the values. This often translates into a set of ethics, perhaps inscribed in a Code of Conduct. The difficulty with ethical behaviour is that it often runs counter to what might produce a 'good story' (another institutionalised feature of working in many media) and in turn ensure higher circulation, ratings etc. and both professional kudos and financial reward. This is the basis for the narratives of much of the literature and film based on journalistic adventures. Few media practitioners set out to behave unethically; most media organisations attempt to deal with such behaviour through some form of redress and also try to prevent it happening again.
'Journalism' is recognisable as a set of work practices and ethics which runs across different media. The process of convergence of technologies and ownership has been matched by a similar convergence of attitudes towards previously distinct forms of journalism in press and broadcasting. A useful summary of where journalism is heading is provided by Michael Bromley (1997) who argues that debate over the state of journalism and its likely future in the early part of the twenty-first century involves four interrelated areas:
• technological change
• new business structures
• the functions of news
• the coherence of journalism as an occupation.
Reflection
After researching into institutions I have a better understanding of the concept, which reflect society and how media industries have a constraint put upon them as they are institutions. I can also take the concept of how some institutions have strict rules and codes that they have to apply with when making a media product. Therefore I can use the questions above to investigate into the institution of short film and what their codes are and how I can apply them to my own product.
References:
Books
Branston, G., Staffordd, R. (2003). The Media Student's Book. Routledge
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