cultural pessimism Flashcards
1
Q
candyfloss culture
A
valueless cultural products
2
Q
tabloidisation
A
simplified and sensational stories
3
Q
conglomeration
A
different companies owning a range of different products
4
Q
cultural pessimist
A
- examines negative effects of new media and its influence on society
- see new media as an evolution not a revolution- control is maintained by elites
- looks at the impacts of new media and the expansion of unregulated capitalism, lack of censorship and misinformation
5
Q
concentration of ownership
A
- Bagdikian (2004)- lords of the global village- the amount of companies controlling mass media decreased from 50-22 between 1983 and 1992, today it is around 6 companies
- 90% of UK newspaper circulation is dominated by OMG, News UK and reach.
- 80% of all UK online subs are accounted for by netflix, amazon prime and disney+
6
Q
vertical integration
A
- different copmanies working together at different stages of production process
- newscorp tv, film studis, and the satellite tv that shows them
7
Q
horizontal integration
A
- working with different companies at the same stage of production process eg distribution by Sony AND eONe
- Newscorp owns papers in UK, USA and Australia like the times and the sun
8
Q
global ownership
A
- conglomerates owning media companies outside of their national boundaries, which have been eroded by the globalisation of economics and culture. they are therefore transnational and seek to monopolise ownership
- sony, samsung have invested in bought up companies outside their country of origin
9
Q
conglomeration
A
one huge company owns a wide variety of products within the media and beyond, eg virgin
10
Q
conglomeration and diversification
A
big businesses own a range of different companies outside their main organisation eg virgin (media,holidays)
11
Q
synergy
A
media transnatoinals using their diversity to package the same product in several different ways therefore increasing profit eg ghost, twilight or harry potter, black panther
12
Q
technology convergence
A
combine different media technologies in one single device eg apple products, smart TVS
13
Q
main views of cultural pessimists: evolution not revolution
A
- conford and robins (1999)- new media evolved from existing media
- use of phone lines, studios and news agencies that were present before digital revolution
- traditional media have utilised technological changes to maintain market share (eg BT from telecommunication -> mobile tech)
14
Q
main views of cultural pessimists: media conglomerates
A
- Jenkins (2008)- most new media platforms are an extension of existing media giants
- disney’s expansion into other areas of the media, growth in texh giants like amazon and google maintain power in a few hands.
- independent media declines due to mergers of newspapers, radio and provision of internet.
- leads to cultural homogeneity and candyfloss culture
15
Q
main views of cultural pessimists: commercial interests
A
- new media has led to development of targeted advertising through algorithms enabling the spread of capitalism
- surveillance of people’s personal usage = companies being able to target people with goods and services
- Conford and Robins say that this offers more choice, but at a cost to personal freedoms
16
Q
main views of cultural pessimists: control by elites
A
- targeted propaganda given to individuals during US presidential elections in 2016 and EU referendum
- 3rd party cambridge analytica sold details of facebook usage of millions of people to political groups which generated targeted stories in order to influence undecided voters
- wikileaks revealed that surveillance technologies were being used by the UK and US government to monitor individual usage of smart technologies, breaching human rights
17
Q
main views of cultural pessimists: lack of regulation
A
- lack of regulation of internet spaces allows the growth of extreme views
- major technology companies rarely able to censor views that are hateful.
- growth of internet trolling of individuals has led to changes in the law to combat online abuse
18
Q
evaluations of cultural pessimist views
A
- new media can act as a form of release for individuals ie videogames and also encourage creativity
- aided in capturinf prejudiced behaviour + promoted changes in attitudes on issuees
- hold those in power to account ie wikileaks or led by donkeys
- questioning the reliability of info, fake news
19
Q
what are the 8 views of cultural pessimists from the sheet?
A
- domination by media conglomerates
- lack of regulation
- chaos
- reinforcing elite power
- decline in pop culture
- commercialisation
- alone together
- not so new
20
Q
8 views of cultural pessimists: domination by media conglomerates
A
- due to media conglomerates, people’s potential to participate in culture + the democratic process is undermited. Opportunity for media democratisation is limited
- Jenkins- most new media has developed due to investment via corporations
- began in 1980s w the 1st phase of technological convergence
- owning different types of media products is very desireable for companies to develop content across various platforms
- the internet is dominated by a small number of corporations, like the top visited sites in UK 2015: google, facebook, youtube, amazon.
- they have the upper hand in form of industry links, finiancial backing, expertise and visibility
21
Q
8 views of cultural pessimists: lack of regulation
A
- taking free speech too far?- all points of view are represented but it’s easy to access porn, homophobic/racist sites or inciting terorrism. This is in need of state regulation (eg unregulated sites like 4chan let this flourish)
- increasing use of new media, especially by the young= new problems like global cybercrime, cyberbullying, abusive trolling of minorities
- adults sexually grooming children -> discord, titktok, IG
22
Q
8 views of cultural pessimists: chaos
A
-Keen (2003)- criticised new media and the internet saying it is chaotic with no governing moral code, the truth is selective and subject to change:
- social media doesn’t contribute to democracy, it is for narcissistic self-broadcasting where people engage in shameless self promotion
- user generated sites like wikipedia are subjected to abuse, bias and unreliability. The web has created a generation of cut and paste intellectual thieves and plagarists.
- unchecked output of new media like twitter- uninformed opinion, lies, and trolling as the norm rather than considered analysis and expertise
- the net is contributing to cultural illiteracy- young ppl are given easy access to ‘facts’ which makes them less engaged in researching the world around them.
= short attention span, poor problem solving skills
23
Q
8 views of cultural pessimists: reinforcing elite power
- conford and robins
- jenkins
- seaton
- hill and hughes
- elite power holders and class
A
- Conford and Robins- assertive tactics, alliances, mergers, takeovers, licensing deals and copyright restrictions are used by media corporations to monoplise links within the new media
- Jenkins- not all participants in new media are created equal-> corporations/individuals in corp media still exert greater power than any individual consumer or even a group
- political elite power holders like government departments, political parties, agencies, security services make sure their worldview dominates the internet, by contructing sophisticated and elaborate sites.
- class digital divide furthers inequality as they have the most genuine political grievances
- Seaton (2003)- online political involvement mirrors real life-> the effect of the net was different before it was colonised by media corporations which then resulted in the minority political views and civic discourse being marginalised.
- even when counter-cultural movements flourished, the net was only one of many ways to spread these
- Hill and Hughes (1997)- only 6% of sites are about political issues
24
Q
8 views of cultural pessimists: decline in popular culture + examples
A
- increased choice has led to decreased quality of pop culture
- Harley- digital tb has dramatically increased the number of channels, but pop culture has been dumbed down to cheap imported material, media and repeats:
- tv culture transmits a ‘candyfloss culture’ that speaks to everyone in general but no one in particular
- ITV and BBC have both experienced tabloidisation because they have to compete with sky and other channels- this decreases quality of documentaries, news and increase in reality tv
= choice is just more of the same
25
Q
8 views of cultural pessimists: commercialisation
A
- internet usage has shifted from educational to economic over past 10 years- loads of people need it for banking, bills and shopping
- Conford and Robins- yes, this tech = more choice but there are dubious side effects
- eg customer surveillance is used via cookies which allow segmenting and targeting of audiences (enhances profits)
- marxists are alarmed at this because it encourages materialism, consumerism and false needs, furthering capitalist ideology and control
26
Q
8 views of cultural pessimists: Alone together
A
- Turkle (2001)- new media users are ‘cyborgs’ because we are always conencted regardless of where we are
- people are devoted to their communication devices, like smartphones, which we constantly check
- they connect people but cause more anxiety and isolation- we enjoy continual connection but rarely have each other’s full attention
- “ties that we form on the internet are not ties that bind”
- Livingstone (2009)- children communicate more with the virtual outside world than members of their own family (eg having to message kids to get their attention at mealtimes)
