Pluralism and the media Flashcards
What is pluralism summarized?
Argue that in democratic, free market economies different media companies must compete for customers
- Not only market forces but society is individualistic and seek self interests
What are the two types of competition?
Economic and Ideological
What are the definitions of the two competitions?
- E: different newspaper groups competing for readers for example
- I: different political groups competing to promote their views through the media
- Media owners potentially powerful players, in a position to demand, their views are heard and expressed
What do pluralists argue about control of the media?
The control of the media is increasingly in the hands of a technocratic managerial elite (Galbraith - 1967) remain employees despite being well-paid and regarded than employers
- employers called the media conglomerates
How does ownership work in modern media organizations?
Owned by a group of shareholders rather than 1 person
- No single shareholder has overall control of a company
- directors/managers: main policymakers, making all the important day-to-day business decision
- more supply and demand
What do pluralists point out about practicality?
practically media owners of large global corps cannot personally determine the content of all their media products
- too many products and global-level management issues to keep them occupied
Who has freedom to shape media content?
Producers, editors and journalists can, free from the control of the big bosses
What is the principle of pluralism?
Supply and Demand
Why does profitability come before the ideological content of media messages?
Bc media companies must compete for customers, it gives power to consumers
- if consumers don’t buy what is offered, the company risks going out of business
How does competition in the media marketplace affect media content?
Ensures that media companies compete for consumers and consumers decide the content by choosing what they buy
Are audiences passive or active?
Active, free to select, reject and reinterpret media content
What role do new technologies play in media consumption?
New technologies allow audiences to produce their own content, giving them more control over media
How do pluralists argue that consumers influence media content?
Consumers determine media content by choosing what to consume
> which forces media companies to adapt to their preferences to remain profitable
Who argues about media ownership rules in the UK?
Bernard and McDermott (2002)
What does Bernard and McDermott say?
Current media ownership rules in the UK prevent any one entity acquiring excessive influence in the sector, thereby ensuring plurality of voice and diversity of content
What did Globalization do to the media?
Gave a new meaning to diversity and competition through a new economic shift
Who speaks about a new economic shift?
Davis and McAdam
What does it mean by a new economic shift?
Media corps have become networks operating across national boundaries with fluid organization structures making them responsive to new tech development
What boosted media towards diversity?
The rapid growth of cheap widely available, computer tech
> from desktop computers to smart phones focused around a web-based distributed system (the internet)
What did the boost to diversity do?
- Reduced the cost of the media production
- Made entry into the media market place open to many different players
- Given producers access to potentially global audiences
How do owners, editors and journalists contribute to this democratic process?
Managers and protectors of this process
How is the media essential to the democratic process?
The electorate today gain most of their knowledge of the political process from newspapers and TV
How is owners having power a criticism?
- Can hire & fire journalists
- Can select high level editors who have similar views to themselves: may subtly influence the media agenda
Who argues that owners have power that negatively impacts the media?
Marxism
Who argues that separation of interests between owners and controllers is more apparent?
Murdock and Golding - 1977
What do M&G say as well as this?
Managers are increasingly owners of the companies they control
- think and act in the same way as individual media owners of the past
What does Collins argue?
Competition doesn’t automatically guarantee media pluralism and diversity
What’s an example of Collins argument?
Economies of scale mean that the majority of consumer demands can be satisfied by very few giant corps that wield huge amount of economic, political and ideological power (Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook)
When did Collin’s criticize pluralism?
2000
Why do owners, editors and most journalists reflect right wing ideologies thru to media?
Share an upper-middle class background and a conservative world view
How is censorship a criticism?
Apple directly controls what may or may not be sold through its online store
- if a song is deemed unacceptable = excluded from sale
- Individual song titles and lyrics subject to strict censorship
What’s an example of censorship?
iTunes had a 63% share of the global download market in 2019
- the ability to exclude products from sale gives it significant control of media content
