The Impact Of Digital Communication of Class Inequalities & Marxism

Question 1

Mertens and D’Haenens

Answer 1

• digital divide in Brussels and found a clear link between class and internet usage
• Those from the lower social classes used the internet less (81% were users as opposed to 94% of middle class people).
• found a difference of how digital devices were used
• hose from the lower social classes used technology as a form of entertainment, whereas the middle classes used devices more to boost their knowledge and to research different information.
• 79% lower class owned a games console
• 65% higher class owned a games console
• social class was the biggest factor affecting digital inequality as opposed to issues based on gender or ethnicity.

Question 2

Helsper

Answer 2

• researched youths and the use of digital technologies and found evidence to suggest that a digital underclass is forming in Britain
• This lack of devices can lead to disadvantages and inequalities in contemporary society and can mean that they face less social capital as a result
• Those who have lower education levels and no employment appear to be those left behind in the growth and use of the internet
• government plans to make public services ‘digital by default’ meaning that these individuals will be unable to access them. They also found out that children from poorer homes are becoming victims of a “digital divide” because their parents lack the skills to help them use the internet as effectively as their middle-class counterparts, says research
• Children from better-off backgrounds not only had greater access to the world wide web at home but were more likely to exploit its array of resources

Question 3

marxists main claim about digital communications and globalisation

Answer 3

• In other words, digital communication is just a new addition to the superstructure (an evolution of mass media) – it is used to further the needs of the capitalist system
• Digital technologies further capitalist exploitation and the maintenance of cultural hegemony/ideological domination
  Digital communication provides a new form of surveillance

Question 4

Digital technologies further capitalist exploitation and the maintenance of cultural hegemony/ideological domination

Answer 4

• Marxists are critical that ruling class-owned businesses have taken control and been allowed to monopolise the most important industry in contemporary society - big tech and communication
• Apple – Market Value - $926.9 billion
• the internet was seen as having the potential to wipe-out the pre-existing capitalist infrastructure, and replace it with something new that originated among the people as opposed to the establishment.
• Amazon and ASOS killing the high street
• However, as time has gone by we can argue that internet and tech companies have not destroyed the capitalist infrastructure, they have become the capitalist infrastructure
• Therefore, there are growing concerns about the lack of control over what occurs as a result of digital communication. Marxists argue that digital communication is being used to further cultural hegemony and exploit the working classes

Question 5

Cornford & Robins

Answer 5

• argued that digital communication is just nother way in which we can be ideologically controlled by capitalists who own and control this form of media
• argue that we are presented with social media in a way that makes us think we have freedom, democracy and equality but it is just another way capitalists can make money and control us
• They state that digital communication threatens individual freedom as information is collected about us through sites such as Facebook (eg. Cambridge Analytica scandal)

Question 6

katz & lazarsfeld

Answer 6

• They suggested the interpretation of messages encoded in media can be influenced by an individual audience member’s relationship with other audience members
• Media figures and media companies can become opinion leaders – people whose interpretations of media are trusted by others
• Opinion leaders can interpret their views of the text onto other audience members who respect them
• We as audiences can respond both passively and actively to the opinion leaders interpretation
• The opinion leaders’ views can be internalised as the individual’s own view on the subject
• This can be used to explain a limited range of audience interpretations and how media can influence public opinion and maintain cultural hegemony

Question 7

boyle

Answer 7

• media convergence
• media convergence has led to a greater platform for shaping the working class’ ideas, encouraging them to accept capitalism and not question inequalities that they face
• Therefore digital communication helps to reinforce and maintain inequalities and ideologically control people in new, subtle ways

Question 8

Digital Communication Provides A New Form Of Surveillance

Answer 8

fuchs

Question 9

fuchs

Answer 9

• there has been a rise in ‘Big Data capitalism’ - Where even data has been commodified (a product to be bought)…
  He explains that surveillance occurs where companies collect, store, control and analyse ‘Big Data’ of internet users. - discusses the importance of the work carried out by Snowden, stating that it did reveal the existence of a ‘global surveillance system’ that secret services use to monitor communication between individuals in real time.
• The companies implicated in this surveillance system included internet companies such as AOL, Apple,

Question 10

positive impact on class inequality

Answer 10

• castelle: network society
• Kirkpatrick: facebook allows people to create online movements etc
• Granovetter: weak ties related to employment strengthened by digital communication

Question 11

negative impact on social inequality

Answer 11

• Mertens & D’haenens: digital divide
• Cornford & Robins
• Katz & Lazarsfield
• Fuchs