Virginia Boucher

Cindy Rouzer

Soc1DE1

Las Positas College

26 May, 2006

Media

Mass media is an emerging social institution (Henslin, 100).  In old Hawaii, the dissemination of information, reporting of events and molding of public opinions was done orally through story-telling, songs and dance.  The hula was and is a story-telling dance with the motions relaying action and emotion.  The dances were used in celebration and in religious ceremonies as well.  There were hulas that traced ancestry and told the stories of heroes.

 The storytellers would travel from the lands of one chief to another, much as the bards and minstrels of Europe, to share news and praise the exploits of heroes.

Actually, there was no written Hawaiian language until the missionaries arrived and identified the alphabet and began to maintain written records.  Among the first to study with the missionaries, John Papa Ii grew up to write articles for Kuokoa (an Hawaiian language newspaper) between 1866 and 1870.  Since he and his age companions had grown up during the kapu system, his stories and articles were a reflection on the culture as it underwent vast changes. 

“Hawaii was left with a unique and invaluable record when John Ii wrote of his childhood and youth while the ancient regime was still in force, telling of the events he witnessed during the early years of the great transition which followed the crumbling of the ancient order” (Ii, ix).

Modern day Hawaiian media is essentially the same as other parts of the United States.  As everywhere, depending on the news source the views are slanted either to the left or right and locating a factual and uncolored accounting is not easy.

From a Functionalist perspective, communication fills the need for a sense of community.  Even before written language was available, the sharing of information was important enough for there to be a special place in the society for those with good memory and the ability to tell stories.

From a Conflict perspective, it is very easy to see how stories might be “adjusted” to show someone in a more favorable (or less favorable) light in order to manipulate public opinion.

From the Interactionist perspective, the symbols adopted as a written language and the status given to those who master it have a substantial impact.   Written language, although not always purely factual, does provide a somewhat permanent record so memories and stories aren’t lost.