Media - relationship between ownership and control of the media Flashcards
List 5 media types?
newspapers, magazines, comics, social media, television
Who owns the media? (Give names)
Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Rupert Murdock (The Sun, the Times), Scott trust limited (The Guardian), Lord Rothermere (Daily Mail+ Metro+ I)
Who regulates the media? and how do they do it?
One example is ofcom: implements and enforces communications, competition and consumer protection laws.
What is a pluralist’s view on the media?
Pluralists argue that power in democratic, free market societies is spread out among diverse competing interest groups, and not concentrated in the hands of a minority economic elite. According to pluralists media owners are driven by profit, and journalists are free from direct control, providing audiences with the content they want. They thus see media content as determined mainly by consumer demand.
Simplified definition from |Hamza|- They think the media produces the highest quality news for the consumers to make profit.
What is a drawback (Ev) of the pluralist’s view of the media?
Media owners still have power to sack journalists
Owners, editors and journalists tend to share a similar, neo-liberal world view
What is a marxist instrumental view?
Media owners ensure that media content is
produced which can manipulate audiences into a
false-class consciousness and ensure the
re-production of capitalist society. They produce dumbed down content for the consumers to distract them from bigger problems in the world. E.g the the system weren’t blamed for the 2008 financial crash.
A02: During elections Rupert Murdoch hired strong Margaret Thatcher supporters who would put out news stories supporting her and in return MT ensured that Rupert Murdoch maximised his profits.
Evaluation of the Marxist view of the media ?
Rise of the new media means that audiences are no longer passive. They can comment and engage with the news through online news and social media.
What is the Neo-Marxist view of the media?
journalists and editors support the dominant ideology out of
choice, they see it as common-sense.
Gramsci- audiences are not actively brainwashed they only see the the capitalistic values and the dominant ideology as they see it as common sense .
A02: 1984 Miners strike. W/C miners went on strike because of conditions and threats to their workplace. The media portrayed them as trouble makers.
Evaluation of the Neo-marxist view of the media ?
This view underestimates the power of the owners to directly manipulate the news and the power that owners have to hire and fire journalists and editors.
