Nick Couldry Social Theory Summary

Professor Nick Couldry currently teaches Media, Communications and Social Theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Obtaining a PhD in 1998, Couldry discovered and identified the power of media which has moulded the culture and moral ethics of consumer behaviour. Couldry’s theories reflect on social, political and economic approaches to understand the underlying connections of the media and how it continues to impact and influence audiences and consumers worldwide. He has released eleven books on the subject of media practices and has been selected for visitations in universities around the world. He argues that the exploration of media rituals places emphasis where media itself dictates the cognitive power of an individual, …show more content…
The media rituals discusses how audiences interact with the media, and how it impacts on technology to be able to communicate to viewers. The central connects the viewer to the media via social means such as television, the internet, print or other widely accessible mediums. “Media rituals are any actions organised around key media-related categories and boundaries” Couldry (2005, p. 2). The media is our access point to any social interactions, it is a safe zone for social space and gathering information from assumed trusted sources. The output of certain information through the media itself can be a ritual through various channels (newspaper, television, internet etc.). Couldry (2005, p. 3) explains there are three types of rituals, habitual action, formalised action and action involving transcendent values. The three forms of rituals Couldry discusses can be applied to social activities within and outside the home but more so towards media and how it refers to media to be the medium of producing information to a wider space. John Pauly (2014 p. 173) states rituals gain experience by repeating the same form, the notion of being habitual in everyday life leads to repetition and the outcome can be different each time. The overview shows the connection between society and media communications, where the two concepts are linked, and can closely relate with the other (society rituals and media rituals). Pauly (2014 p. 174, 175) discusses the routine production, circulation and consumption of media releases, which gradually shaped society with new social and cultural movements, and the means by which it has redefined new social activities. “There is a centre to the social world, and that, in some sense, the media speaks ‘for’ that centre.” (Couldry 2005, p. 2). Focused on the medium, the media will connect to its audience through various types of technology or print to broadcast its message across. The