Partisan
take time away from personal relationships or
participation in community activity.
An August 2010 report by Ofcom entitled
‘Consumers spend almost half their waking
hours using media and communications’ pres-
ents a picture of a population getting their exer-
cise by pressing buttons: people are sending four
times as many texts a day than in 2004. Th e use
of smart phones has accelerated this trend, and
not just among the under-25s, for ‘the over-55s
are catching up, with half now having broadband
at home – the fastest growing age group’.
Busy as we are on our mobiles, we still, says the
report, have time to watch TV for an average 3
hours and 45 minutes a day, ‘consumers being as
attached to their TVs as they ever were and [are]
hungry for more channels and better picture
quality’. See audience: active audience;
audience measurement; effects of the
mass media; empowerment; interactivity;
pleasure: active and reactive; resistive
reading.
Patch A community-specifi c news and informa-
tion platform initiated in February 2009 by the
AOL company (America On Line), with plans
to create 500 communities within a year across
the US. Professional editors and freelancers form
a local nucleus which makes use of contribu-
tions by people in the locality – comments,
stories, photographs; participation in one form
or another (blogging, for example). Warren
Webster, President of Patch Media, celebrating
the launch of the one-hundredth site in August
2010, told the press, ‘We believe that Patch is a
revolutionary and effi cient approach to produc-
ing relevant, quality local journalism.’ http://www.
patch.com
Paternity of the text See text: integrity of
the text.
Patriarchy Society ruled by or dominated by
men; patriarch means father, thus patriarchal
relates to a culture shaped and governed in the
interests of men, with women in a subordinate,
and in some cases, subject, role. Patriarchy is
refl ected in customs, norms and values, the
law, education, commerce, industry, the arts,
sport and, not least, language. Many commen-
tators have also identifi ed patriarchy as being
assertively alive in the media, though at least at
the operative (rather than the managerial) level,
substantial advances have been made by women
in journalism and broadcasting. See news:
the ‘maleness’ of news.
Patriot Act (US), 2001 See usa-patriot act
(2001).
Pauper press See underground press.may be unaware that he/she is a researcher. Th e
advantage of this method of data collection is
that the greater involvement of the researcher
may facilitate an increased insight into and
greater understanding of the behaviour being
investigated. The role of participant observer
may require the researcher to have the compe-
tence and experience to undertake a professional
role within the context being observed. David
Deacon, Michael Pickering, Peter Golding and
Graham Murdock in Researching Communica-
tions: A Practical Guide to Methods in Media
and Cultural Analysis (Hodder Education, 2007)
note that this has been the case with a number
of studies of journalistic practice. See ethno-
graphic (approach to audience measure-
ment). See also topic guide under research
methods.
▶Philip Schlesinger, Putting ‘Reality’ Together: BBC
News (Routledge, 1992).
Partisan An adherent of a particular party or
cause. Th e term is also used to describe actions as
well as allegiances. Within media studies, much
research has focused upon the political partisan-
ship of the press and TV companies, that is upon
the degree to which they may support one or
other political party or faction, and colour their
political coverage accordingly. If such coverage
gives space to the views of two factions or parties
it is generally described as being bi-partisan; if
its tone is one of general disinterest, of being
above party politics, it is described as being
anti-partisan. Partisan perspectives may not,
though, permeate political coverage only; they
may pervade media presentations generally. See
effects of the mass media.
Participatory journalism See genre.
Passivity One influential and widely held
perception of the mass audience is that it is
largely passive and unrefl ective. Th ere is little
evidence for this, though assumptions carry
weight, and are noticeable in content selection
and approach, regardless of evidence. Modern
media commentators insist on the diversity
of response of audiences. Determinants of
response are complex and largely unpredictable,
infl uential factors being age, culture, social class
and status, gender, race, belief and education,
sickness and health, not to mention wealth (or
the lack of it) and a multitude of other distrac-
tions.
At the same time commentators have
expressed concern at the amount of time
members of the public spend in front of TV
and computer screens, raising questions as to
whether computer gaming and surfi ng the Net