Control of New Media Flashcards
(7 cards)
1983 - 1992?
Bagdikian (2004)
1983 - 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all media in the USA.
1922 - 22 companies owned and operated 90% of the media.
Six individuals that dominate the ownership and content of UK daily and Sunday newspapers:
- News Corp (Rupert Murdoch) - The Times, Sun, Sunday Times
- Associated Newspapers (Lord Rothermere) - Daily Mail
- United Newspapers (Richard Desmond) - Daily express
- Telegraph Group (Barclays Brothers) - The Telegraphy
- The Independent (Tony O’Reilly) - The Independent
- Pearson Group (Viscount Cowdray) - Financial Times
Changes: Media companies have…
Become more transnational
Become more diverse (different forms of media)
Become conglomerates.
Pluralist approach to Media
There is a wide variety of media available from a wide variety of sources and owners.
Media content is not driven by dominant ideology, but instead the fight for profit through circulation and audience figures. (ACTIVE AUDIENCE)
Media is generally free of gov intervention and ownershup and can present whatever viewpoint they want.
Audiences are free to ‘pick and mix’ whatever interpretation suits them, they have the freedom to accept, reject or re-interpret media content in accordance with tasre and beliefs.
Manipulative Approach to Media (Marxist)
Owners directly control and manipulate the content and audiences, to protect their profits and spread dominant ideologu.
Media editors have little choice but to run the media within the boundaries set by owner.
Audience = passive. A mass of easily manipulated, uncritical robots.
**Evans ** argues that media moguls such as Murdoch undermine editorial independence and press editorial staff to adopt the same right-wing, conservative views as the moguls.
Hegemonic Approach to media (Neo-Marxist)
Although media owners have powerful influence, they rarely have day-to-day control of the media, this is left in the hands of the editors and journalists.
Staff still have some independence but still support the dominant ideology by choice, not because they are manipulated to do so.
Journalist values can go against the dominant ideology, but this is to attract audience attention.
The GUMG explore ‘agenda setting’/’gatekeeping’ which they believe is a process where some news is excluded from reporting, meaning that audiences have little choice of media content, as products are produced in the framework of the dominant ideology.
Post-Modern Approach to media
Media saturation - So much choice/availability makes media uncontrollable.
Baudrillard: Hyper-reality: Increasinly we can’t distinguish between real life and a media version of real life.
Levene - Ownership is not concentrated, people can create their own narratives instead of accepting hegemonic messages. They are not controlled by the media, they themselves control it.
