A Marxists view would be that of a capitalists society, where by the means of producing and distributing goods are owned by small groups of people, or people of a small minority. This being the elite class (Bourgeois), who dominate other classes, for example the working class (Proletariat's) working for elite class and selling their ability to work in order to get a wage from those in the elite class.
"Media is seen as a ideological arena in which various class views are fought out, although within the context of the dominance of certain classes"(Quote) This saying that one class dominates all over media, in print, e-media and broadcast. For example a Marxists view on Twitter may be that celebrities are the leading, dominating class because they are followed and admired by many people. Gaining millions of follows, and these "lower class" people follow because they admire and want to feel apart of their lives, admiring them and being influenced by the elite class.
Another example of Marxism is Rupert Murdoch with his company News Corp, Rupert Murdoch is the small minority that owns a huge majority of the media. This being a Marxist view because he is the main gatekeeper to what is published in the news, and his media products such as newspaper websites, newspapers and content aired on TV.
However, in contrast to this there is a Pluralist view (second theory) where by there are competing groups and interests, where none overcome each other, but are all predominant. "A basic symmetry is seen to exist between media institutions and their audiences" pluralism is mainly about equality with nothing and no one dominating each other. It is seen to allow audiences to manipulate the media in which ever way they want according to their needs and wants, giving the audience the power to 'conform, accommodate, challenge or reject, thinking independently.
For example, a pluralists view on twitter would be that audiences have their own free will to follow which ever celebrities they wish or not at all, allowing small arguments to arise on the social networking sites as pluralists can challenge or rejects celebrities tweets.
Debates/Issues
Being similar to hegemony, an issue that can be argued from a Marxists point of view is Rupert Murdoch owning News Corp and having control over many media companies. Rupert Murdoch is the small minority that owns a huge majority of the media. This being a Marxist view because he is the main gatekeeper to what is published in the news, and his media products such as newspaper websites, newspapers and content aired on TV.
A Marxists view on Twitter may be that celebrities are the leading, dominating class because they are followed and admired by many people. Gaining millions of follows, and these "lower class" people follow because they admire and want to feel apart of their lives, admiring them and being influenced by the elite class.
Another example of Marxism is Rupert Murdoch with his company News Corp, Rupert Murdoch is the small minority that owns a huge majority of the media. This being a Marxist view because he is the main gatekeeper to what is published in the news, and his media products such as newspaper websites, newspapers and content aired on TV.
http://www.worldsocialism.org/articles/what_is_capitalism.php
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism01.html
Theory-Hegemony
According to Gramsci, he defined hegemony as the predominance of one social class over others (Bourgeois) the ability of them more dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who are subordinated by it accept it as 'common sense' and 'natural'/'the way a subordinate class lives its subordination' (Quote)
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism10.html
Issues/Debates
Similar to Marxism, hegemony can again be applied to News Corp and Rupert Murdoch because he has control over so much of the media internationally, owning and controlling 70% of Australians newspapers. With the fear that Rupert Murdoch could "brainwash" and control what the Australian people would be seeing and reading, a vote was set against him to stop him from buying more of their media, as this could cause bias amongst the media creating moral panic amongst the people of Australia.
Another issue raised is SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act brought forward by the American congress in order to shut down piracy websites in America. This can be a huge debate as of recently because many websites and people are against the idea of stopping their freedom to speech, as the American government want main control over the internet. This is coming from a marxists views but it widely rejected by plurists because it will not be equal, as the American gorvenment will be the "small minority" that are dominating the larger majority of lower class proletariats.
Issues and debates- Pluralism
With pluralists being given the power to 'conform, accommodate, challenge or reject a text, this has allowed many argument with the media to arise. for example, Eastenders has aired an episode of a cot during last Christmas, this caused a huge uproar amongst the viewers who had seen that episode causing many debates on what had happened and how it had been shown and portrayed in the soap opera. Twitter was a social site that had brought up the issues, as many people had tweeted about their disgust with the story, and complaints of "EastEnders prompted 8,400 complaints to the corporation and 374 to media regulator Ofcom."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/07/eastenders-complaints-record-cot-death
Ben_Jardine tweeted: 'WTF are EastEnders writers doing? Plumbing new depths. Whoever wrote this story must be young, childless and trying too hard. Shame on you.' this shows that there is a more pluralist audience because they have not simply accepted the storyline, unlike a marxist most of the audience had completely rejected the storyline, of which was not intended by the producers. The most likely way that the producers encoded the text was to make the audience conform with the storyline, so that they could reach out to the mothers who may have been in a similar situation, and get the audience to agree with the possible feelings of the actress. However, pluralist audiences have decoded the text in a different way, being an active audience who recieve and interpet the media messages in different ways, similar to conform, accomodate, challenge and reject, this audience for eastenders has an opositional view on it, and therefore have disagreed with the message that is being brought across.
http://www.metro.co.uk/tv/851566-eastenders-fans-use-twitter-to-hit-out-at-sick-cot-death-storyline#ixzz1l7W8wV1T
New technology has allowed pluralists to express their views and cause debates unlike it was before, where marxists dominated much of the media. The invention of new phones such as Andriods and iPhone has created a new platform for pluralists to express their opinions to others. Web 2.0 has also allowed them to create their own content, such as blogs, to provide other audiences with their own thoughts and ideas on issues that surround our society as we know it today. Twitter has become a social network that promotes a kind of free speech hugely, twitter is now available not only on the internet with a computer or laptop but in your pocket, on your iPhone or android phone, right there for you to tweet about anything, such as something you have merely seen on the street.
"the television station has already been taken before the first brick has even been thrown, distributed into the mobile phones in everyone's pocket"
Theory- Cultural Imperialism
http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/articles/essay3mayjune04.pdf
http://gsevenier.free.fr/culturalImperialism.html
^^UNESCO= United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-tv--how-facebook-changed-the-world-the-arab-spring-bbc2-reel-history-of-britain-bbc2-2349711.html
how the use of new technology has allowed people to report things within seconds of seeing it because it is avaiable to you on your phone in your pocket.
Facebook’s Zuckerberg: “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity” http://michaelzimmer.org/2010/05/14/facebooks-zuckerberg-having-two-identities-for-yourself-is-an-example-of-a-lack-of-integrity/
Step Three
My case study will involve new technology and its audience and how it impacts new and digital media. New technology impacts this area hugely on a very wide scale. New and digital media is all about current and upcoming technology, of which technology contributes to anyway. I have chosen to study this area and create a case study on it because
why is it rich for study?
Three media texts
Youtube
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