Dissecting Print Media Institutions Using

Communication Theories
MARK-DARREL D. CONTRERAS, ERIKA LIM, JUSTINE ESPINOLA
De La Salle University - Manila

In this paper, we explore print media insitutions from various points of

view using different communication theories. The purpose of this paper
is for compliance in our theories of communication subject.

P rint media is considered as power-

ful as visual and radio media. Despite
having the World Wide Web, educational
who are economically-challenged. We
may take them for granted, but our basic
knowledge came from textbooks.
institutions still consider books and jour-
nals as the best source of secondary infor-
mation. NOTE: We definitely have to admit that
Books and journals ensure credibil- Theoryc was a fun subject. From moral
ity above everything. Published works panics to the public sphere, it seemed
from scholastic printing presses ensure that every step was always like learning
the reader that the information is veri- something new. Thanks for everything Sir
fied and its authors are true scholars and Jace.
experts. Readers still need to filter the
information they get from the Internet
because the sources may not be credible.
The so-called experts being interviewed
in TV may not be real experts. Availing
print materials is cheaper.
Radio and visual media would need me-
diums like television and radio to access
information. People would need electric-
ity and broadband connection. Paying
these is more expensive in the long run.
Paying for volumes of encyclopedias is
also expensive, but you don’t need to
spend again.
The publishing house is a print media
institution that satisfies the audience’s
thirst for knowledge. Publishing houses
and printing presses take pride in mass
producing print media to educate people
1 Theoryc
Media Text Theories: Semiotics
Semiotics is the study of signs. We take
these signs for granted that we fail to see
their importance. Corporate Signatures
convey the values and traits of the orga-
nization. It conveys the company’s iden-
tity to the audience.
Signs are abundant in print media
because they deliver knowledge through
negotiated use of diagrams and formats.
For example, textbooks have parts em-
phasized by asterisks. The asterisk is an
indication. It signals the readers to take
note of the publisher’s clarification on a
word or topic. It denotes an explanation
about the political correctness of the
term or topic, cultural reference, or an
acknowledgement of a source.
Some Taiwanese textbooks say that
Taiwan is a separate independent state
from China. Some say Taiwan is a part of
mainland China. Publishing houses show
their political leaning (preferred relation-
ship between the signifier and signified)
by choosing which type of information to
publish. Political leaning is the preferred
relationship between the signifier (Tai-
wanese publishing houses) and the signi-
fied (Taiwan).
“Our preferential reality whether
what types of information to publish
are actually coded experiences which
have been structured so that we may
share the same experience (Thayer
1982).”
Publishing houses and printing presses
having constructive powers (privilege to
encode reality in a certain sense) is a
scary thought. What you see is not really
what you get in all forms of media. Imag-
ine the capability of these print media
organizations to propagate misinforma-
tion (selective publishing).
“Discussions about the signifier-sig-
nified relationship is so overrated that
the sign-sign relation ship better known
as the horizontal relational system is
neglected (Singer 1984).”
Textbooks depict signifier-signified
relationships by showing an illustration
(signifier) and a concept (signified). It is
rare to see an illustration (signifier) being
related to another illustration (signifier).
We can infer that print media institu-
tions prefer absolute relational systems
when they choose the signifier-signified
model as the predominant paradigm in
producing educational print media. Aside
from the signifier-signified model, semiot-
ics also has the sign-sign relational model
also known as syntactics.
Educational print media deals with
semiotics that “tries to elicit a certain
behavior through the learning process”.
Textbooks are supposed to provide read-
ers basic knowledge. Therefore, the type
of semiotics involved in textbooks is not
just a typical semiotic approach but ab-
sorbed semiotics.
2 Theoryc

Learning through print media involves

absorption. This means that the readers
take in what they can from the educa-
tional material, which is full of signs and
meanings. These coded experiences can
have varying effects to the reader: The
readers react (interpretant) to the mate-
rial by completely agreeing to the coded
experience. They can make a new mean-
ing for the sign or completely oppose the
sign.

“It is worth clarifying that the inter-

pretant is not necessarily a person but
the initial reaction of the person cor-
responding to an inferred neural code
(Sebeok 1976).”

The interplay between preferential

signification (chosen link between the
signifier and signified) with graphics de-
sign should be a primary consideration for
future studies. Media institutions special-
izing in print media should be furnished
with better check and balance systems.
Extensive studies on preferential signi-
fication of publishing houses will ensure
that print media institutions will not
overstep their bounce of dominion within
the circle of media jurisdiction.
This also applies to other types of me-
dia institutions. Media-regulating bodies
should conduct more studies about the
privilege of media institutions to encode
experiences. Through the studies, they
can formulate an effective guideline to
manage the extent of media’s depiction
of reality through selection and encoding.
3 Theoryc
Media Institution Theories: Political Economy
Classical political economy is disturb-
ing. According to this theory, media in-
stitutions should be privately owned and
unregulated by the government. They
shouldn’t interfere in any matter con-
cerning the privately owned business.
It means operating a printing press with-
out government intervention. It is threat-
ening to think that no one has the power
to regulate what the printing press is
publishing. Media is very influential. It is
assumed that people consider any infor-
mation from the media as the truth. Most
of the time, lies become true and books
are no exception.
The elite own the influence over these
mediums. The elite can manipulate the
public. They can choose to publish false
data and use it to their advantage. It is
even more alarming than the manipula-
tion per se because we can’t prosecute
the elite. This is possible because the
elite have power over the government.
They can bribe their way out of their mis-
deeds and gain more influence.
It is also possible that the elite make
use of their social status to promote the
books they publish. For example, celeb-
rities and politicians release autobiogra-
phies that they didn’t write. They claim
the books as their own, but they hire
ghost writers to do the book for them.
They can choose to disclose events in
their lives that would enhance their im-
age. Negative things that they say about
themselves are intended to seek sympa-
thy from the audience.
This strategy aims to show the audi-
ence that celebrities and politicians are
also human. They become richer and
they gain more love from the audience.
In the Philippine setting, the elites like
the Lopezes and the Gozons own the ma-
jor media institutions. They reap millions
of pesos, so it follows that these execu-
tives are profit-oriented. Following this
assumption and applying it in the printing
press, they may not pay much attention
to the quality of the articles being pub-
lished. They would concentrate more
on selling magazines and making profit.
This is even more dangerous because the
elite would not even enforce restrictions
as long as the books sell. Without the
government and the elite to change what
is written or published, it is very easy
to disseminate false information to the
public. In this sense, the media abuses
freedom of expression.
The ownership of media is concen-
trated. This means that under one com-
pany, there are various forms of media.
It could belong to one company, but the
materials will have different names,
formats, layout, titles, and content. The
variety of published works caters to dif-
ferent demands of different people at
different times and places. It becomes
beneficial to the publishing house because
they can influence more people compared
to having just one book under the printing
press.
The power of advertising can provoke
impulse buying from the audience and
provide profit to advertising companies. It
is possible for advertisers to convince the
elite to include ads in the books to earn
more money. The elite may not care too
much about the ads. They would concen-
trate more on the profit they will make
4 Theoryc
The readers are treated as passive au-
diences and are easily manipulated.
Although there is a “…clear boundary
between state and society “ (Habermas
1996), the state should impose quality
regulation to publishing houses as the
most hands-off way in dealing with print
media institutions. Print media’s disper-
sion over a period of time will inadver-
tently overshadow the pace of other
forms of media.
The previously mundane forms of
media will then rise into power and try
to dominate the media spectrum in the
same way that other forms of media have
attempted. The authors can only specu-
late on the condition of the media during
the rise of political economy.
Print media is not as powerful as visual
and radio media. In the visual era, where
people prefer instant solutions, print
media’s grasp of the audience is weaker
than the other forms of media. It seems
political economy has lost its footing to
yield to the bureaucratic powers of regu-
latory agencies.
However, the only trace political econ-
omy left is the private ownership of print
media institutions. This is neo-political
economy, a “mutated” form of political
economy. The original political economy
also provides avenues of exploitation
where large print media institutions will
drive out small-time circulating print me-
dia of other institutions.
Despite the purpose of education,
these smaller but equally significant print
media producers lose their power in favor
of large hegemonic print media institu-
tions. For example, Abiva publishing
house is considered a big-time publishing
house. It has the power to displace previ-
ous publishing contractors from a con-
tract with educational institutions. Abiva
may not sell its textbooks expensively but
we will be paying a little extra for the op-
erating expenses and intellectual patents
the textbooks have.
Unlike in small-time print media insti-
tutions, we only have to pay for the ser-
vice because the operating cost of these
publishing houses is nearly non-existent.
They don’t require too much machinery
and manpower to produce educational
print media which means they will sell it
at a reasonable price. What’s problem-
atic about this is that we will never have
a chance to realize that we are being
manipulated by experts since we leave it
to them. We accept that they know bet-
ter than we do. Print media institutions
are really not as we see them.
The concentration of media ownership
may offer us only a certain angle to look
at print media institutions. A lot of mul-
tinational media institutions don’t engage
in only one type of media. But they also
dominate other forms of media. A pub-
lishing house can run several other forms
of media.
They are self-sufficient because they
can handle their products’ production,
distribution, and publicity. In Abiva pub-
lishing house, they don’t only have the
means of production.
They also have a pool of writers who
they can enlist to produce new textbooks
according to the demand of the market.
Production, distribution and authoring
are existing concentrations of media
ownership we can find in Abiva publishing
house.
5 Theoryc

Conclusion

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