marxist views of news

Question 1

instrumental marxism

Answer 1

ownership most important filter - affects funding and source

• owners may not shape day to day content but shape broader context by setting policies
• power to hire and fire chief executive officers and other high-ranking officials - exercise direct control
• owners generally appoint senior officials who share ideology - lower ranking media professionals avoid publishing content for fear of losing jobs

rupert murdoch

Question 2

instrumental marxism eval

Answer 2

strength
- herman and chomsky - tested hypothesis - eg applied it to contemporary examples such as iraq evasion
- plenty of evidence of ownership filter - david cameron and theresa may struck deals with murdoch family

limitations
- newspapers not owned by large conglomerates eg the guardian
- in countries where news media undeniably manipulated - stories of powerful groups dont appear, but they do here
- media users have similar values to owners so not false consciousness

Question 3

hegemonic marxism

Answer 3

hegemony - dominance in society of one set of ideas

• set of ideas is created purely for intention of maximising profits and protecting the ruling classes economic interests
• media helps to recruit and maintain support for single set of attitudes - agenda setting
• seen as normal - false class consciousness
• opinions not spread in a conscious way - simply what those in media or press consider as reasonable
• come from small section of british society - establishment
• no voice to those who want radical change

all about profit but dominant ideology is by-product

Stuart Hall - media define for majority population what significant events taking place - offer powerful interpretations
news items operate according to hierarchy of credibility (Becker) - police are primary definers

Question 4

hegemonic marxism eval

Answer 4

strength
- hegemonic marxism recognises journalists may not be consciously aware and explain why media believe police

limitation
- instrumental marxists - ignore the conscious relationship between elite individuals such as politicians and journalists instilling dominant capitalist ideology
- instrumental marxists - media owners are real powerholders
- pluralists - news represents what people really want to see

Question 5

differences between instrumental and hegemonic models

Answer 5

instrumental
- owners control content of news
- bias in media created consciously
- bias result of manipulation of content and audiences by owners
- society divided between capitalist class and proletariat

hegemonic
- journalists and editors (gatekeepers) control content of news
- bias created unconsciously
- bias result of upper-class capitalist worldview of editors and journalists
- society broken up into unlimited number of groups with different attitudes - hierarchy of credibility means we trust primary definers first