media Flashcards
What are the 7 features of media ownership?
1) concentration of ownership
2) vertical integration
3) horizontal integration
4) conglomeration and diversification
5) global conglomeration
6) synergy
7) technological convergence
Define concentration of ownership
A few large companies that dominate the media
Define vertical integration
A company that owns multiple stages of production within a single medium. (e.g a film studio owning a cinema)
Define horizontal integration
Cross-media ownership (e.g a film company also owning newspapers and restaurants)
Define conglomeration and diversification
Media companies that expand into different industries (e.g virgin media)
Define global conglomeration
Media companies that operate worldwide
Define synergy
Companies that promote and sell products in multiple forms. (e.g a film, sound track and a video game)
Define technological convergence
Multiple forms of media accessed on one device (e.g smartphones)
What are the three features of the manipulative/instrumental approach?
1) direct control
2) limited editorial freedom
3) passive audience
Define direct control (manipulative approach)
Owners who manipulate content to protect profits and promote the dominant ideology
Define limited editorial freedom (manipulative approach)
Editors and journalists must align with the owners interest
Define a passive audience
Audiences are seen as easily influenced, uncritical and accepting of media messages
What are some criticisms for media ownership?
- assumes a passive audience
- underestimates audience agency and critical thinking
What is Evan’s view on media moguls
Media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch influence editorial decisions, pushing their own right wing, conservative views
What are the key traditional marxist ideas on ownership and control?
- favourable representations of the working class
- myth of meritocracy
- radical views are dismissed
- ruling class views as ‘normal’
- negative portrayals of ethnic minorities
- entertainment as a distraction
- media ownership
Define media mogul
A person who owns a significant share of the media
Define media monopoly
When a few individuals control the media
Define plurality
Shared media ownership
What is Bagdikans view of media ownership
Media ownership is highly concentrated among a few global companies and moguls.
(Lords of the global village)
What is Curran’s view on media ownership and what did his research find?
British newspapers have historically been controlled by a small number of powerful individuals. In 1937, four men owned nearly half of every national and local newspapers. Today just 7 individuals dominate British national and Sunday newspapers.
What are some criticism of the traditional marxist views of media ownership?
- very outdated
- not all newspapers are right wing now
- audiences are not always passive
- Neo marxism: owners dont micromanage media so journalists and editors have some control
What are the key neo-marxist ideas on ownership of the media?
- indirect media control
- gatekeeping and agenda setting
- no micro management
Define agenda setting
Deciding how topics are framed (e.g choosing guests, shaping discussions)
Define gatekeeping
Selecting what stories are covered and what ones are ignored
What did the Glasgow University Media Group find about journalists?
In the 1970s, most journalists were white, middle class males which influences media perspectives
What was Gramsci’s view on the ruling class?
The ruling class maintains hegemony by presenting the bourgeois ideology as ‘common sense’, making an alternative seem extreme.
What are the key pluralist views on ownership?
- media ownership is economic, not ideological
- Conglomerates maximise profits
- Capitalist is not a problem
Explain the pluralist view that ownership is economic, not ideological
Companies prioritise profit, not controlling public thought
Explain the pluralist view that conglomerates maximise profits
Horizontal/vertical integration and globalisation helps businesses grow
Explain the pluralist view that capitalism is not a problem
A free market benefits consumers
What is Curran and Seatons view on audiences
Audiences have a lot of media choice, reducing elite control
Explain the pluralist view on media and politics
Media is vital for democracy, allowing for diverse voices
Give a criticism for the pluralist view on ownership
Marxism - the media manipulates control and creates false needs to maintain capitalist control
Define high culture
Intellectual achievements such as art, music, literature, poetry, theatre. These are seen as culturally superior
Define folk culture
Traditions and rituals such as folk singing, dancing and traditional costumes
Define popular culture
Mass media products: TV, films, magazines, popular music and comics. Enjoyed by the majority in capitalist societies
Define Globalisation
Increasing interconnectedness through movement of people and products
What is Barnett and Seymers view of popular culture
“Superficial candyfloss culture”
- Popular culture dumbs down intelligence, creativity and critical thinking
What is McChesney’s view on global media
Global media controlled by fewer than 10 corporations
What does the globalisation of popular culture
- Technology spreads the same popular culture worldwide
- Leads to cultural homogenisation
- Folk culture rejected in favour of mass production
What is the postmodernist view on the media
- Society has shifted from industrial production to consumption of culture
- Media now shapes identity more than class, gender, family or nationality
What is Baudrillard’s view on hyperreality
- Media creates a saturated society distorts reality
- Media presents artificial simulations of real events
What is McLuhan’s argument about the Global Village
- Technology has collapsed space and time barriers in communication
- Instant global communication is now possible
What are some criticisms of globalisation
- Assumes people approach media with no prior experience
- Poorer populations lack access to new media and free choice in media consumption
Summarise Strinati’s view on postmodernism and culture
- there is now a blurred line between high and popular culture which leads to increased consumer choice
- High culture assimilates popular culture
- New media spreads global images, logos and brands
- global consumption shapes identity and self presentation
What are the 11 news values?
1) composition
2) continuity
3) elite nations/people
4) frequency
5) meaningfulness
6) negativity
7) personalisation
8) proximity
9) threshold
10) unambiguity
11) unexpectedness
Explain the news value composition
Events that fit a news outlets style, political style or journalists views
Explain the news value continuity
Running stories with ongoing impact, convenient for journalists already covering them
Explain the news value elite nationals/people
Stories about powerful nations, people or organisations are seen as more important
Explain the news value frequency
Short, quick events fit news schedules better than long, ongoing developments
Explain the news value meaningfulness
Events that resonate with the audiences and match their interests
Explain the news value negativity
Bad news is prioritised over positive stories
Explain the news value personalisation
stories that focus on individuals, human angles or celebrity involvement
Explain the news value threshold
only large, significant events with a big impact make the news
Explain the news value unambiguity
clear, simple stories that dont require extensive background explanation
Explain the news value unexpectedness
unusual, dramatic or shocking events get more coverage
What is Galtung and Ruge’s view on the social construction of news
- news is socially constructed and based on news values
- journalists and corporations decide what is newsworthy based on criteria
- different organisations have different values over time
What are some criticisms of Galtung and Ruge
- news values have changed
- visual appeal
- advertiser influence
What are some practical and economic factors in news production
- tight deadlines and budgets > prefer easily accessible stories
- limited contacts > journalists rely on the same sources
- advertising influence > news avoids criticising capitalism or economic growth to retain advertisers
Define agenda setting
When the media frames news by deciding who speaks and what questions are asked
Define gatekeeping
When editors decode what news is published and what is left out
Define norm setting
Media reinforcing social norms and isolating those who dont conform.
Encourages conformity
Define political socialisation
Media shapes political beliefs and voting behaviour through social influence
What are some political and cultural factors that affect the selection of the news
- UK newspapers follow a voluntary Press Complaints Commission code to avoid misrepresentation
- Leveson Report
- Censorship
Explain the Leveson Report (2012)
Exposed journalistic misconduct, misrepresentations and phone hacking
Explain David’s argument on the rise of churnalism
- journalists rely on press releases and news agencies rather than independent investigation
- only 12% of stories in major uk newspapers were independently reported
- leads to the blurring of news, advertising and entertainment > lowers accuracy and quality
Evaluate the selection and presentation of the news
- some news programs aim for neutrality
- the media targets the powerful
- social media provides alternative sources of information
What is the media stereotype for children
impressionable, social media obsessed
What are the media stereotypes of teenagers
deviants, social media obsessed, criminals
What is the media stereotype for the elderly
weak, defenceless, victims
Explain Chester’s argument on age representations
Advertising targets kids ‘peste power’ for games
What did Curran and Seaton argue about working class media representations?
The media portrays the working class as uninterested in public affairs, preferring exaggerated human interest stories
What are the main stereotypes associated with the working class
- dumb and stupid
- source of trouble and conflict
- idealised/romanticised communities
- demonised as chavs
How is the middle class presented in the media?
- over represented
- mature, sensible, educated. successful
- reinforces hegemonic ideology of middle class life
What is celebrity culture?
The media obsessively covers the rich, treating them as celebrities
Give an example to over-representation
The middle class is more over represented than the upper class
How are the upper class represented
well-bred, cultured, superior
What would the neo-marxists argue about the upper class representations
- The media celebrates hierarchy & wealth to legitimise inequality
How are black peoples stereotyped in the media?
- scapegoats
- deviants
- a threat
- lacking talent
Summarise Hall et al’s study on moral panics
- the media exaggerated black crime in the 1970s, creating the black mugger stereotype
- moral panic & folk devil: black men were portrayed as dangerous criminals
- distracted from economic crisis: shifted everyone’s concerns of the failings of capitalism
