The Influence and Function of Modern Media on Traditional Culture

Mass Communication and the Digestion of Traditional Culture

According to pessimists, the rapid expansion of mass media will destroy traditional culture. At the turning point of the times, the new culture will seize the main position of the traditional culture with an unstoppable offensive, then encroach on the territory of the traditional culture and eventually replace it; The culture of an economically powerful country will also become the mainstream culture in the world, drowning the regional culture of other vulnerable groups, forming the phenomenon of world cultural convergence and losing its individuality and characteristics. Bono Biscu, Croatian Minister of Culture, quipped: "Culture, like biology, is on the verge of extinction." 〔24〕

Optimists believe that although there is a phenomenon of "cultural disintegration", the historical continuity of culture itself enables it to resist the impact of mass communication and rebuild itself. In the process of building a new culture, the essence of traditional culture will remain, and a balance can always be found between the old and the new; The same phenomenon will also appear in the development of national culture, because the world cultural picture and representation constructed by media technology is only a virtual amplification of strong European culture. Although it has a strong cultural imperialism, the cosmopolitan multiculturalism that coexists with it is still generated in this framework. Of course, this must be a tortuous and complicated process.

To sum up, pessimists have seen the survival dilemma of modern traditional culture, sounded the alarm for people, and have positive warning significance, calling on us to take necessary actions to protect traditional culture, but they ignored the self-generating function of culture and fell into a one-sided quagmire; Optimists find and attach importance to the spontaneous function of culture, but lack the necessary measures to promote and maintain the spontaneous and sustainable culture, which is suspected of "laissez-faire" and "passive". The enlightenment of these two views is that we should treat the development of traditional culture rationally. First of all, we must admit that we attach importance to the status quo of "cultural digestion". Because culture, as a way of spiritual existence, is the superstructure of society and is determined by a certain social and economic foundation. If the arrival of post-industrial society has become a reality and we can't change it, then we should affirm this: a certain culture always adapts to a certain society. Of course, this cannot be a reason for us to lose confidence in cultural development. In fact, we should make a reasonable analysis of the components of traditional culture, protect and carry forward the essence of traditional culture, and seize the opportunity to promote the development of culture.

We can't erase the reality of post-industrial society, but should respond more actively to the protection and promotion of traditional excellent culture. First of all, to correctly understand the positive and negative functions of mass communication, we should not only see its negative side of creating a virtual environment and anesthetizing people's spirit, but also see its beneficial side of integrating society and spreading culture, so as to take corresponding measures to suppress and reduce the negative functions of mass communication and guide and play its positive functions. For example, press legislation, standardize information dissemination, and clean up and severely punish bad information disseminated by the media; On the other hand, it is necessary to cultivate media practitioners' sense of professional ethics and social responsibility, make them play the key role of "gatekeepers", consciously provide more excellent programs that meet the needs of the public and can enhance people's sentiments and thoughts, and take the mass line instead of the vulgar line. Secondly, we should pay attention to a key link that affects the effect of mass communication-audience. The audience's selective exposure, understanding and memory of information is an important measure to measure the communication effect. From this point of view, to protect traditional culture, we should also start with improving the aesthetic taste and quality level of the audience, and strive to educate the audience through institutions such as society and schools, so that the audience can cherish "information" for themselves, actively avoid bad information, and choose, contact and remember more "good information" that meets their needs. We should realize that mass media is a double-edged sword and will play different roles under different conditions. It can not only achieve culture, but also dissolve culture. At present, we still have a long way to go to protect traditional culture in the environment created by mass communication.

/s？ ie = GB 23 12 & amp； bs = % B6 % a 1% C3 % AE+% D0 % c 1% BA % A5+% BC % D7 % D0 % E7+% D0 % c 1% C4 % A9 & amp； sr = & ampz = & ampcl = 3 & ampf = 8 & ampwd = % CF % D6 % B4 % FA % B4 % AB % C3 % BD % B6 % D4 % B4 % AB % CD % B3 % CE % C4 % BB % AF % B5 % C4 % D3 % B0 % CF % EC % BA % CD % D7 % F7 % D3 % C3 & amp； ct=0