/>Surveillance

The surveillance need based around the idea that people feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on in the world around them. One of the genres this often applied to news. By watching or reading news, we learn about what is happening in the world, and as the news is usually bad news, this knowledge leaves us feeling more secure about the safety of our own lives. This idea might seem a bit strange, that we know about tragedies and we feel safer, but sociologists argue that ignorance seen as a source of danger, and so the more knowledge we have the safer we feel.

When looking at the news it’s easy to spot news items that give us this reaction. For example if it wasn’t for watching the news we might be unknowingly left with five rupees notes that are worthless, or become vulnerable to the latest computer virus, or end up in a hospital with an awful track record also we have not knowledge about new world record in cricket which set by South African cricket team against worldâ??s best team i.e. Australia. So, the surveillance models then all about awareness. We use the mass media to be more aware of the world, gratifying a desire for knowledge and security.

Using the Media within Relationships

Another aspect to the personal relationships model is how we can sometimes use the media as a springboard to form and build upon relationships with real people. The EastEnders strapline ‘Everyone’s talking about it’, despite being a clever marketing tactic, does hold up when looking at social uses of the media. Having a favourite TV program in common can often be the start of a conversation, and can even make talking to strangers that much easier.

The Advantages and Limitations of Media

Texts need audiences in order to realise their potential for meaning. So a text does not have a single meaning but rather a range of possibilities which are defined by both the text and by its audiences. The meaning is not in the text, but in the reading. (Hart 1991, 60)

Andrew Hart, many other theorists and researchers who identify and give value to the existence of audience in relation to the media. At the most basic level, audiences are vital in communication. It is for the audience that media constructing and conveying information, and, if it were not for the audiences, the media would not exist. The exact relationship between the media and their audiences has been the subject of debate since media were first seriously studied and emphasises the importance of audience and of their relationship with the media.

The Effects model is considered to be an inadequate representation of the communication between media and public, as it does not take into account the audience as individuals with their own beliefs, opinions, ideals and attitudes:

â??Audiences are not blank sheets of paper on which media messages can be written; members of an audience will have prior attitudes and beliefs which will determine how effective media messages are. (Abercrombie 1996, 140)â?

A new approach to the dynamics of audience/text relationship was suggested in the Uses and Gratification model. In this model, theorists were not asking how the media effects audiences, but how were audiences using media. They suggested that audiences had specific needs and actively turned to the media to consume various texts to satisfaction of these needs. The audience in Uses and Gratifications were seen as active, as opposed to passive audience in the Effects model. Uses and Gratifications acknowledged that audience had a choice of texts from which to choose form and satisfy their needs, Bulmer and Katz (1974).

The model still implies that messages are packages of information that all audience will read same. It does not consider how he messages are interpreted or any other factors affecting audienceâ??s interpretation.

â??Another criticism is that of the tendency to concentrate solely on why audiences consume media rather than extending investigation to discover what meanings and interpretations are produced and in what circumstances, i.e. how media are received. (Oâ??Sullivan, Dutton & Rayner 1994, 131)â?

In other words, media receivers want to use information in some way or to obtain satisfactions that they anticipate (Lowery & DeFleur, 1995).

A number of studies on audienceâ??s uses and gratification of various media (Berelson, 1949; Kimball, 1959, etc), early 1970s scholars in this area turned to audience motivations, developing typologies of uses people made of media to gratify social and psychological needs (Katz et al. 1973). Such typologies included such needs as strengthening understanding of self, friends, others, or society; strengthening status of self or society; and strengthening contact with family, friends, society, or culture (Lowery & DeFleur, 1995).

It’s likely has been found in the uses-and-gratification research from the West, that an individual uses media for different purposes at different times under different circumstances; and different people may seek different gratifications from media. A question for researchers is how to meaningfully and effectively categorize (typologies) those different needs and objectives.

According to Chang, Chen and Zhang study in (1993): Early studies of Chinese media focused on propagandistic and persuasive aspects of mass communication. Since mid-1880s, various social factions have used newspapers mainly as tools in their political struggles. The Chinese communists have always recognized value of mass media (Robinson, 1981). For example, the government has emphasized use of mass media for China’s social, political, and economic development (Yu & Sears, 1996). As a powerful tool of opinion and perceptions, news media are supposed to unite the people, to elevate their consciousness and spirit.

ROLE OF PRINT MEDIA

To keep abreast of what’s happening in the world around us we need information. Without information we won’t know a threat exists until it is too late. But just being offered information is not enough. We also need to be willing to take that information on board while there is still time to avoid threat.

Public information will be just one of many issues officials will have to address, and media are often perceived as being a nuisance or hindrance to response activities. However, it is essential that communicating with media is made a priority in any response planning because the media will be among first responders at the scene and will be a vital information mechanism for government bodies. The media will therefore share a significant amount of responsibility for relaying vital information to public. Although newspapers makes knowledge more accessible to all, and has had dramatic effects on our culture and society, it does not necessarily follow that a literate society is greatly more knowledgeable than a non-literate one.

NEWSPAPERS READERSHIP IN PAKISTAN

Newspaper publishers estimate that nearly six out of ten adults every day, and seven out of ten read a newspaper each weekend. By the time they seen; mostly people have already learned about breaking news stories on television or radio. Readers rely on newspapers to provide detailed background information and analysis, which television and radio newscasts rarely offer. Newspapers not only inform readers that an event happened but also help readers to understand what led up to the event and how it will affect on the world around them. Media scholar Philip J. Hanes (1996) wrote his article entitled â??The Advantages and Limitations Focus on Audience in Media Studiesâ?:

â??Audiences are not blank sheets of paper on which media messages can be written; members of an audience will have prior attitudes and beliefs which will determine how effective media messages areâ?. (P.140)

Veblen, (1994) wrote in his article entitled â??Newspaper Readership and Informational/Cultural Processingâ?: Newspaper readership is an instance of cultural participation in regard to which information-processing. Reading newspaper is more straightforward form of information processing than various other cultural activities and at the same time choice of newspaper could scarcely count as very effective kind of status-oriented `conspicuous consumption’ on account both of relatively low price even expensive newspapers and of the fact that reading likely to take place in privacy of home as in public. Consequently, evidence of a connection between newspaper readership and status, independent of information-processing capacity, would, for our present purposes of particular significance.

Most people read only one (daily) newspaper, at least on a regular basis. This means that we can here avoid complications that arise with forms of cultural participation, such as, say, listening to music, where there a wide variety of genres and an individual may have a range of preferences. As we noted above, such instances have of late given rise to debates over whether distinction of greatest relevance in regard to status is that between those participating in `high’ as opposed to `low’ (or popular) culture or that between cultural `omnivores’ and `univores’.

According to Pakistan Readership Report (2002-03) issued by Gallup survey of Pakistan, newspaper readership ratio among adults (18 years+) is only 33% and among youth (10-17years) is 21%. Province wise this ratio is: for Punjab 31%, For Sindh 49%, for N.W.F.P. 25%, and for Baluchistan 28%. Among youth (10-17years), this ration is: for Punjab 16%, for Sindh 34%, For N.W.F.P 16% and for Baluchistan 19%. Apparently the situation is, to some extent satisfactory for Sindh province but this is due