4.1 ownership and control of the mass media Flashcards
1
Q
What is meany by traditional media?
A
- the mass media that communicated uniform messages in a one-way, non-interactive process to very large mass audiences, which were assumed to be homogenous
2
Q
What is meant by new media?
A
- the interactive, screen-based, digital technology e.g. computers, e-books, DVDs, social media
3
Q
In what ways does the law limit the media’s freedom?
A
- The laws of libel
- The Official Secrets Act
- Defence and Security Media Advisory Notices
- The Racial and Religious Hatred Act and the Equality Act
- The Obscene Publications Act
- Contempt of Court
4
Q
How does The Laws of libel limit the media’s freedom?
A
- they forbid the publication of an untrue statement about a person which might bring him or her into contempt, ridicule, dislike or hostility in society
5
Q
How does The Official Secrets Act limit the media’s freedom?
A
- it makes it a criminal offence to report without authorisation any official govt activity which the govt defines as an ‘official secret’
6
Q
How do Defence and Security Media Advisory Notices limit the media’s freedom?
A
- they are issued by the govt as requests to journalists not to report defence and counter-terrorist information which the govt believes might be damaging to national security
7
Q
How does The Racial and Religious Hatred Act and the Equality Act limit the media’s freedom?
A
- the forbid the expression of opinions which will encourage hatred or discrimination against people because of their ethnic group or religious beliefs
8
Q
How does The Obscene Publications Act limit the media’s freedom?
A
- it forbids the publication of anything that a court considers to be obscene and indecent and likely to ‘deprave and corrupt’ persons who are likely to read, see or hear it
9
Q
How does Contempt of Court limit the media’s freedom?
A
- it forbids the reporting, expression of opinions or publications of material about cases which are in the process of being dealt with in a court of law and which is likely to jeopardize or prejudice a fair trial
10
Q
What is Ofcom?
A
- established in 2003, it is a powerful media regulator
11
Q
What are Ofcom’s responsibilities?
A
- furthering the interests of consumers
- securing the best use of the radio spectrum
- ensuring that a wide range of TV, radio, electronic media and communications networks are available in the UK, with high-quality services having a broad appeal
- protecting the public from any offensive or potentially harmful effects of broadcast media and safeguarding people from being unfairly treated in TV and radio programmes
12
Q
How does the BBC operate?
A
- the BBC is financed by the state through the TV licence fee, plus income from a series of private spin-off companies
- the state can therefore have some conrol over the BBC by refusing to raise the licence fee
13
Q
What does the Independent Press Standards Organisation (ISPO) do?
A
- they seek to monitor and maintain the standards of journalism set out in what is known as the Editor’s Code of Practice, which deals with issues such as accuracy, invasion of privacy, intrusion into grief or shock and harassment
14
Q
Who owns and contorls the ownership and content of UK national daily and Sunday newspapers?
A
- Rupert Murdoch owns News Corp, which produces The Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The Sunday Times
- Lord Rothermere owns DMG, which owns The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and The Metro
- Richard Desmond owns Northern & Shell that produces The Daily Express and The Sunday Express, The Daily Star and OK! Magazine
- Alexander Lebedev owns The London Evening Standard, The Independent, and the I newspaper
- The Barclay Brothers own The Telegraph Group
15
Q
What does Bagdikian(1989) argue?
A
- the concentration of media ownership meant that handful of global media companies and moguls, what he called the Lords of the Global Village, dominated the world’s mass media and controlled every step in the information process
16
Q
What are the features of media ownership, according to Bagdikian?
A
- concentration of ownership
- vertical integration
- horizontal integration
- global ownership
- conglomeration and diversification
- global conglomeration
- synergy
- technological convergence
17
Q
What is meant by concentration of ownership?
A
- most of the media of all kinds are concentrated in the hands of a few very large companies
18
Q
What is meant by vertical integration?
A
- there is concentration of ownership within a single medium, such as one company owning several newspapers and owning all stages in the production and distribution of a media product, like a film company that also owns the cinema chains showing the films
19
Q
What is meant by horizontal integration?
A
- media owners have interests in a range of media, such as newspapers, magazines, book publishing, cable and satellite television,etc
20
Q
What is meant by global ownership?
A
- media ownership is international - the owners have global media empires, with interests in many different countries of the world
21
Q
What is meant by conglomeration and diversification?
A
- media companies are often part of huge conglomerates - companies that have a diversity of interests in a wide variety of products besides the media
- e.g. Virgin has an airline, a train company, a bank and other financial products and mobile phones on top of its widespread media interests
22
Q
What is meant by global conglomeration?
A
- not only is media ownership international but the conglomerates they are part of are often also global conglomerates
23
Q
What is meant by synergy?
A
- when media companies produce, promote and sell a product in a variety of forms, through all the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate in collaboration with other companies
e.g. the Spiderman films may be promoted by advertising in newspapers and magazines, appear as a book, sold as a DVD,etc,
24
Q
What is meant by technological convergence?
A
- media companies try to maximise sales of their products by promoting and making them available in a variety of formats which can be accessed on a single device
25
Q
A
