Denotation
expression of value confl icts (see deviance).
Th e media play a signifi cant role in the estab-
lishment and maintenance of ‘we feeling’, that is
communal solidarity and oneness; equally they
may work towards the alienation of sections of
the population who are traditionally discrimi-
nated against – women, blacks, asylum-seekers,
etc.
At critical decision-making times, such as elec-
tions, people have become increasingly depen-
dent on the media, especially TV, for election
information and guidance. Ball-Rokeach and
DeFleur argue that the greater the uncertainty
in society, the less clear are people’s frames of
reference; consequently there is greater audience
dependence on media communication.
With the coming of the internet and its
empowerment of individuals and groups, the
role of traditional mass media as shapers and
influencers is being examined, researched
and questioned, particularly with regard to
the challenge newspapers, TV and radio face
from the Net’s power to tap off readership and
audience and, perhaps most critically, adver-
tising. Dependency in terms of information
and opinion could become a thing of the past,
with only entertainment holding its own. See
ball-rokeach and defleur’s dependency
model of mass communication effects,
1976; blogosphere; demotic turn; effects
of the mass media; mobilization. See also
topic guide under communication theory.
Deregulation Describes the process whereby
channels of communication, specifi cally radio
and TV, are opened up beyond the existing
franchise-holders. Another term in current use,
‘privatization’, emphasizes the practical nature
of the shift, from public to commercial control,
driven by the development of video, cable
television and satellite and accelerated by
digitization. Regulation is associated with
public service communications, for example
public service broadcasting (psb), deregu-
lation with the ambitions and practices of the
private sector of the communications industry.
See communications act (uk), 2003;
conglomerates: media conglomerates;
consumerization.
Deregulation, fi ve myths of In ‘Th e mythology
of telecommunications deregulation’ (Journal
of Communication, Winter, 1990), Vincent
Mosco of Carleton University identifies five
infl uential assumptions about the deregulation
of telecommunications, which he describes as
myths (see here Roland Barthes’ defi nition of
myth): deregulation lessens the economic roleing, or, contrastingly, exploitative. He sees the
media as a force for identity-making (or identity-
challenging) and draws the reader’s attention to
the impact of Western-generated programmes
featuring the demotic turn on other cultures
such as those in the Middle East, Malaysia and
China, resulting in localization (or indigeniza-
tion) or censorship.
On the issue of populating the airwaves with
‘ordinariness’, seemingly giving power to the
people as well as visibility, Turner is sceptical,
seeing ‘democratainment’ as an ‘occasional and
accidental consequence of the “entertainment”
part and its least systematic component’.
He reminds us that ‘celebrity still remains a
systematically hierarchical and exclusive cate-
gory, no matter how much it proliferates’. Access
may be broadened as far as ordinary people are
concerned, but this does not necessarily connect
with democratic politics: ‘Diversity,’ believes
Turner, ‘is not of itself intrinsically democratic
irrespective of how it is generated and by whom.’
Denotation See connotation.
Dependency theory The degree to which
audiences are dependent upon the mass media
constitutes one of the chief debates about the
functions and eff ects of modern communication
systems. In ‘A dependency model of mass media
eff ects’ in G. Gumpert and R. Cathcart, eds, Inter/
Media: Interpersonal Communication in the
Media (Oxford University Press, 1979), Sandra
J. Ball-Rokeach and Melvyn DeFleur believe
that ‘the potential for mass media messages to
achieve a broad range of cognitive, aff ective, and
behavioural eff ects will be increased when media
systems serve many unique and central informa-
tion systems’. Th e fewer the sources of informa-
tion in a media world, the more likely the media
will aff ect our minds and thoughts, our attitudes
and how we behave. Further, that infl uence will
have increased potential ‘when there is a high
degree of structural instability in the society due
to confl ict and change’.
However, just as the audience may be changed
by the information/messages it receives, in turn
the media systems themselves are changed
according to audience response. It is not one-
way traffi c. In the cognitive or intellectual sphere,
the authors cite the following possible media
roles: (1) resolution of ambiguity, and relatedly
limiting the range of interpretations of situations
which audiences are able to make; (2) attitude
formation; (3) agenda-setting; (4) expansion
of people’s systems of beliefs (for example, the
tremendous growth in awareness of ecological
matters); (5) clarifi cation of values, through the