ownership and control of the media

Question 1

concentration of ownership

Answer 1

less companies are owning increasingly larger areas of the media

Question 2

vertical integration

Answer 2

a company buys another that comes before or after in the chain of production
- e.g a film company that also owns the cinema chain. e.g Disney

Question 3

horizontal integration

Answer 3

a company expands its interests across the same market, e.g own different newspapers that appeal to different demographics. this can include buying out competitors
e.g news international owns newspapers that cover the populist tabloid markets (The Sun) and upmarket broadsheet sector (The Times)

Question 4

technological convergence

Answer 4

products are available in different forms that can be accessed on one device
e.g Spotify can play music and podcasts

Question 5

global ownership

Answer 5

purchasing media companies in many countries

Question 6

diversification

Answer 6

a media company buys non-media business in order to spread economic risk
e.g disney owns films, video games, theme parks etc

Question 7

synergy

Answer 7

media companies produce, promote and sell a product in a variety of forms - e.g a film, soundtrack and video game for harry potter

Question 8

traditional marxism - instrumental model

Answer 8

the media is a tool of the upper class in which they can manipulate the WC with

Question 9

ways in which media owners control content:
-marxism

Answer 9

• media owners can use their position to create relationships with politicians
• direct censorship
• self censorship
• indirect censorship
• diltering/altering content to meet the needs of advertisers

Question 10

althusser - media as an ISA, normalising capitalism

Answer 10

role of media is to shape how we thinking about the world by transmitting conformist ideology that supports capitalism

Question 11

the frankfurt school - keeping WC docile

Answer 11

medias focus on entertainment stops people from thinking about exploitation and oppression
- bread and circus
- mass culture media products do not require any intelligence to understand

Question 12

transmitting a narrow range of views about inequality - marxists

Answer 12

news focuses on street crime and benefit fraud but corporate crime is not given much attention

Question 13

tunstall and palmer - weak govt regulation of media ownership

Answer 13

govt are reluctant to break up the concentration of ownership because owners could cause a backlash

Question 14

evaluations of traditional marxist view on ownership and control of the media

Answer 14

• economic reductionist
• little evidence of ruling class ideology causing false class consciousness
• growth of new media means that owners are now subject to more surveillance and criticisms from ordinary people
• they rarely explain how an owners manipulation works in practice, evidence tends to be anecdotal and partial

Question 15

neo- marxism: allocative control

Answer 15

owners have power to define overall goals of the company and make decisions about financial resources

Question 16

neo-marxism: operational control

Answer 16

power over the day-to-day running of the business, the content of newspaper articles

Question 17

curran - neo marxist
ownership and control of the media

Answer 17

analysed british media from 1920 to today and argues there is some evidence to support the view that owners interfere with media content
- but argues owners do not aim to spread capitalist ideology but are primarily motivated by the desire to make money

Question 18

the GUMG - neo marxist
ownership and control of the media

Answer 18

• argue media content does support the interests of the owners but this is an accidental outcome of the social background of journalists and broadcasters (white, mc, independently educated) they share middle ground, hegomonic, conservative values
• ## result of the editors shared middle ground conservative values can be seen in agenda setting

Question 19

Hegemony
neo marxist
ownership and control of the media

Answer 19

hegemony is when one groups ideas are dominant in society; groups are powerful because we have been persuaded that its in our best interest to follow them. we are convinced by the media/politicians that what will benefit the upper class will also benefit us

Question 20

New media
neo marxist
ownership and control of the media

Answer 20

• argues the upper class don’t have full hegomonic control of society because their views are challenged.
• alternative ideas can be expressed through the media (e.g blogs, twitter) so the balance of power is always shifting
• owners have less control of new media, however they do point out that new media sites are being bought by global conglomerates

Question 21

media representations
neo marxist
ownership and control of the media

Answer 21

• argue the quality of Tv is becoming ‘dumbed down’ due to increasing commercial pressure not ideology
• main aim of all TV channels is to get the largest possible audience in order to get maximum advertising revenue ( the larger the audience of a programme, the more advertisers pay for a commercial in that slot

Question 22

evaluation of the neo marxist view
ownership and control of the media

Answer 22

• are vague about what constitutes ideology and the effects it allegedly has upon powerless groups
• some critics have notes that its difficult to see the difference between the instrumental marxist focus on manipulation and the hegomonic marxist focus on agenda setting
• neglects to consider that agenda setting is a patriarchal exercise that serves to limit womens roles in media production and content
• some critics see the new media and citizen journalism as having the potential to counter the influence of the establishment-orientated media identified by the Gumg

Question 23

the market model/supply and demand - pluralism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 23

the free market and pursuit of profit is always going to trump the idea that media cooperations are a means by which owners could impose their political will on audience and consumers

Question 24

audience segmentation - pluralism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 24

mass media corporations produce an amazing variety of media products aimed at different markets. pluralists therefore argue that such variety and diversity counters any attempt to influence a mass audience

Question 25

practical issues; owners lack time - pluralism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 25

diversity of media products worldwide means that it’s practically impossible for owners to influence their content
- whale suggests that ‘media owners have global problems of trade and investments to occupy their minds

Question 26

the media as a democratic mirror - pluralism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 26

pluralists claim that the range of media products available are extremely diverse and that, as a result, all points of view in a democratic society are catered for

Question 27

public service broadcasting - pluralism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 27

• a significant share of the media market in the UK is taken up by public service broadcasters, media outlets controlled by the state, which have a worldwide reputation for impartiality and which cater for every conceivable taste and opinion

Question 28

state controls - pluralism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 28

• pluralists note that the power of media owners is also restricted by state or govt controls e.g in the usa, the huge film studies have been prevented from owning film production, distribution and cinema at the same time

Question 29

media professionalism - pluralism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 29

pluralists stress the professionalism of journalists and editors, arguing that editors would never allow owners to compromise their independence

Question 30

how do pluralists defend the concentration of ownership?

Answer 30

they argue that concentration of ownership is essentially economic and that ideologies spread through media are not intentional

Question 31

evaluations of the pluralist view
ownership and control of the media

Answer 31

• curran argues that there is plenty evidence that media owners have undermined newspaper independence and balance in subtle ways by choosing the editors they want etc
• difficult for ordinary people to decide what they want to see or hear in the media provide their only source of information
• range of female voices made available in the marketplace is actually very narrow. media content = male orientated
• blumer and gurevitch; journalists are over reliant on official sources - particularly politicians and the police

Question 32

trowler - postmodernism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 32

argues media messages are polysemic - each media message or text is now interpreted in a variety of ways which makes it difficult for any one message to be more powerful than another

Question 33

growth of user generated content - postmodernism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 33

argue that there has been a shift in media production away from global corporations to individuals who are increasingly engaged in the production of new media content

Question 34

levene - postmodernism
ownership and control of the media

Answer 34

levene; the internet provides a greater diversity of information
- observes that members of society of society now have a greater choice in their access to a greater diversity of media, which makes it easier for them to reject or challenge the meta-narratives proposed by the powerful

Question 35

evaluation of the postmodernist view -
ownership and control of the media

Answer 35

• arguments are often vague, impressionistic and frequently based on anecdotes rather than research-based evidence
• fail to acknowledge the overwhelming evidence for the existence of structural inequalities in wealth and power relations
• postmodernists probably exaggerate the impact of the ‘information explosion’ on ordinary people’s capacity to bring about change. evidence suggest that media saturation has produced passive participation in mass culture in which more choice simply means more of the same