Marxism
Marxists generally believe that the media serves the bourgeoisie and capitalist class. The suggest the media are a key ideological state apparatus to enforce the dominant ideology which justifies the class inequality in society.
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Topic 1: Manipulative/Instrumentalist
Control: Traditional Marxist approach – content controlled directly by owners | used to manipulates audiences, protect profit and spread Dom. Ideology | Reporters follow what owners want.
Evidence: Curran and Seaton – R.Murdock admitted editorial control over Iraq war coverage.
Audience: Passive and uncritical | Swallow prefered reading | Trivial content distracts.
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Criticisms
Pluralists: Must please audience or no profit | Rise in Citizen journalism.
Other Agents of Control: State regulates – no one person has control | TV/Radio have to report news impartially by law.
Passive Assumptions: People capable of rejecting views and reinterpret dominant reading.
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Topic 2:
Imposed on masses for profit | Social control – illusion of choice | dumbed down trivial uncritical media infotainment and escapist fantasy | Maintains ideological hegemony and power of dominant class.| Mass culture makes us vulnerable to D. ideology.
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Topic 3:
Direct control and construction | Agenda setting and gate keeping – Philo | Influences and pressures – Bagdikian | Propaganda model of media – Herman and Chomsky.
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Topic 4:
Media Gaze | Symbolic Annihilation | Stereotypes enforce dominant ideology | Stereotypes make class inequality consensus. | Stereotypes promote gender roles and targeted products – persuaded concerns.
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Topic 5: Hypodermic Syringe Model
Media injects messages instantaneously to passive audience. | Injects dominant ideology.
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Topic 6:
Inequality replicated online – Social class and global access | Rise of Churnalism and infotainment to distract and justify. Also, less validity in info. | Cultural Homogenisation – capitalism spreads. | Democracy threatened by corporate companies. E.g. Amazon. | Increase in advertising | Undermines communities.
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Neo-Marxism
Develop traditional Marxism to encompass modern society. Focuses largely on the concept of hegemony and the dominant ideology.
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Topic 1: Dominant Ideology/Hegemonic
Control: Neo-Marxists (GMG) dominant ideology spread but no direct control | Dom. Ideology persuades audiences to passively accept values and beliefs as common sense (Hegemony) | Ruling class rule without consent.
Content: limited range of opinions | Rejection of status quo ridicules | Anti-Establishment views produced to attract audience and sanitised. | Agenda setting and Gatekeeping mean little choice of content in a dominant framework.
Evidence: London riots reported – not the cause | Philo found coverage of banking crisis and found focused on view of 3 main political parties – not the cause.
Summary: Audiences unconsciously persuaded to see dominant ideology as consensus | Overtime acceptance and maintenance of dominant ruling class ideology is enforced.
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Criticisms
Underrated Influence of Owners: Former Sun editor started stated editors begin to think ‘what would Rupert think’.
New Media: Undermining traditional media influence – new content control.
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Topic 2:
Americanised celeb. culture replaces serious news and global media unable to compete with mass. | Less choice – content standardised in large quantities | Media owners promote lifestyle encouraging consumption.
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Topic 3:
False Reporting | Moral Panics | Agenda setting | Gate keeping | Presentation of News | Infotainment
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Topic 4:
Representations enforce stereotypes | By white middle class men – media gaze | Reinforces cultural hegemony of white supremacy | Scape goating and racial divide | Diverts from structure of inequality.
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Topic 5:
The Cultural Effects model | ‘Drip Drip’ Effect | Recognise both the power of dominant class but the changing of individual mindset.
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Topic 6:
Inequality in material world reflected online | Churnalism and infotainment | Cultural and media imperialism | Commercialisation and Limited consumer choice | Increasing Surveillance
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Liberal Pluralism
Consists of 3 ideas – Reflection – of reality | Autonomy – Media independent | Consumer Sovereignty – the media respond to audience desires.
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Topic 1:
Control: No domination | Driven by profit | Reflects range of values to suit all audiences | control limited to consumer choice | media must respond to audience taste for profit | Competition prevents ownership | Argue journalists are free of gov. control.
Audiences: Range of stories needed to satisfy them | Can reject/reinterpret content according to personal beliefs | Citizen Journalism.
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Criticisms
Media owners seen sacking uncooperative editors | Owners and journalists share similar right-wing views
Media Gaze: Unequal reps. | only rich can product successful citizen journalism e.g. Russell Brand.
Infotainment: Trivialized news to attract large audiences | dumbing down and tabloidization | Lack of choice as market pressures lower journalistic standards.
Hegemony Ignored: Hegemony socializes audiences to believe they are getting what they want | Media may have created taste – what audience want is actually what owners want.
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Topic 2:
Strinati points to wider diversity of content critically responded to | Livingstone found TV soaps watch by millions inform public on controversial issues. E.g. Hollyoaks and Eastenders – homophobia/mental probs.
Globalisation: New media created and distributed by public – no longer victims/passive | Difficult for one culture or ideology to dominate – vast choice. Hybridisation of culture enabled by new media access | Promotion of democracy and cultural diversity.
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Topic 3:
Need for audience and profit mean journalists often expose corrupt and injustice | New media and Cit. J exposes atl. views across globe.
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Topic 4:
Ethnicity: Reps. Of Ems reflect values of journalists | provide what audience want | Cottle – White audiences secure identity in culture contrast.
Gender: STs occur because audiences ‘want’ it – proven by ‘The Pink Pound’ | Effective way to satisfy both audience and organisations.
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Topic 5:
Uses and Gratifications Mode
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Topic 6:
Heightened accountability | Shift in News flows | More informed consumers | Greater Democracy | Global Village | social interaction enhanced | Citizen journalism.
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Post-Modernism
Globalised media equals awareness and access to diversity of cultures – form unconstrained identities. Basically everything is a social construct.
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View of Media
Bauldrillard: Media saturated society | media images dominate and distort the way we see the world | e.g. blood and death eliminated from war and conflict – sanitised. | Iden. with media more than reality e.g. through social media | e.g. coronation street character falsely imprisoned – national outcry + campaign.
Hyperreality: Media presents Simulacra fake reproductions – replaces reality with its representation | No relationship with real world – consumed globally | Media doesn’t reflect but create reality – e.g. reality TV and social media blur the walls of reality.
Pop-Culture: Dominates our identities | Creates desires and pressures to consume | Media induced trends more important than product – conformity to brands and trends/Icon stars more important than story | Fake Fame.
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Criticisms
Assumes audiences cannot reject/reinterpret | Media imagery enforces stereotypes rather that new identity. Not all social groups can afford idealized consumer lifestyle.
Marxists: argue alleged choice is a myth – trad. media conglomerates control major communication.
Other Influences: Mass Media only one element of social construction e.g. gender/ethnicity/social experience influence our response to media.
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Topic 5:
Media Effects: Media saturated society – view formed from media imagery rather than personal experience.
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Feminism
Theory aims to highlight the inequality between men and women in the modern mass media and society.
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Topic 1:
Dominated by male ownership | Not enough females representing women | Dominant Ideology and Hegemony mean many women unconsciously submit to accepting sexism.
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Topic 2:
Pop Culture promotes females as ‘pink’ ect. | Products and content create a divide between the two genders.
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Topic 3:
Male dominated writers – females lack input into the construction of news and therefore their views and outlook are not projected.
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Topic 4:
Liberal Feminists: Product of under rep. in organisations | change will occur with a more equal role divide.
Marxist Feminists: Stereotypes used to promote gender targeted products | Reps. set example of stereotyped/nuclear roles. – Tebbel – promoted plus size models – audiences liked but advertisers withdrew as ‘unhealthy’.
Radical Feminists: Promotes patriarchy | keeps to roles to be subordinate to stereotypes | Discourage women who threaten male dominant ideology.
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Topic 5:
Being socialized as a female results in different interpretations of media than male | E.g. more affected by ads that promote appearance as society places more importance on it in women.
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Topic 6:
Females use new media equally as much as men | However new media is hard to control – results in the vast supply and demand for porn which ferociously exploits females.