Marxist View Flashcards
Marxist view of society
Dominant ideology reflects the values of the dominant class.
Justifies the advantages of the wealthy and powerful, and disadvantages of the less wealthy.
Spread through ideological state apparatuses (ISAs), such as the media, which create false class consciousness.
Role of media in spreading dominant ideology - Miliband
Miliband argues that the media is key in spreading the dominant ideology.
Media controls access to societal knowledge, reinforcing inequality.
The media portrays those challenging the system as unreasonable or extreme.
Control and manipulation of media content
Media owners directly control and manipulate content to protect profits.
Media spreads dominant ideology, e.g., portraying society as meritocratic.
Media serves as an agent of ideological control.
Examples: Negative portrayal of asylum seekers and welfare claimants.
Government censorship
Government censorship (e.g., DSMA Notices, Official Secrets Act) controls information.
Censorship prevents challenges to the dominant ideology.
Curran and Seaton’s research
Found evidence of media owners manipulating content to protect their interests.
Curran and Seaton’s research - Murdoch example
In February 2003, Murdoch strongly supported the Iraq war in interviews.
All 175 of his newspapers shared this view.
Murdoch admitted in 2007 to exercising editorial control on key issues (e.g., which party to support in elections, policy on Europe).
Leveson inquiry + example
Uncovered links between media owners and governments.
Media support for political parties in exchange for favorable government policies.
Example: Links between PM David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks (Murdoch’s former editor).
Why do journalists follow owners ideology
Dependence of Journalists: Editors and journalists must follow owners’ directives due to job dependence.
Commodity Fetishism
Focus on “must-have products” distracts from critical social issues.
The manipulative/instrumentalist approach
assumes the media audience is passive and unquestioningly accept the interpretation of the limited range of opinions and reports found in media content.
The public is fed dumbed down content which stops them focusing on serious issues
encourages them to interpret serious issues in ways favourable to the dominant class.
The media performs ideological functions in many ways:
We see favourable representations of (rather than critical commentary) the wealthy – for example Royalty, middle-class lifestyles, Kardashians
It spreads the myth of meritocracy – Dragons Den and The Apprentice are two examples
The news often dismisses radical viewpoints as extremist, dangerous or silly and a conservative (ruling class) view of the world as normal e.g. JustStopOil
Negative portrayals of ethnic minorities and immigrants serve to divide the ruling class and discourages criticism of the ruling class e.g. summer riots
Entertainment distracts the public from thinking critically about important political issues e.g. football
Media ownership is concentrated at the hands of the rich and powerful e.g. Murdoch
Criticisms
The state regulates media ownership so no one person or company has too much influence. By law, the media have to report news impartially.
Audiences are not as gullible and easily manipulated as the manipulative approach suggests. People can accept, reject or re-interpret the preferred content of media messages.
Pluralists
suggest the new digital media and citizen journalism has undermined the influence of media owners.
Media moguls’ interests are not always done to support the ideological apparatus but for the purpose of making money
