Ownership and control of media

Media is all about communication
1. Media is used to convey ideas and information to other people
2. 'The media' includes all different forms of communication that society uses to inform the public
  1. Newspapers
  2. Radio
  3. Websites
  4. Cinema
  5. Advertising
  6. TV
3. Organisations who own these methods of communication are part of the media too.
4. One of the main functions is to deliver news to society
  1. Uses to educate, inform and provide entertainement
Sociologists disagree over what counts as 'The media'
1. Some theorists would include all mobile phone technology
  1. Others would only include it when its used to communicate to large audiences
2. There have been huge changes in the media since 1980s
  1. Now more specialist media outlets communicating with smaller niche groups
3. New media allows audiences to interact with media providers
  1. Communication isn't one way anymore
  2. Some media are more of a multi-network, e.g. the internet
4. Some theorists include a lot more things when they talk about 'the media'
  1. Marshall McLuhan (1964) included any kind of technology that helped people communicate- even cars and clocks
Sociologists analyse and research the media and its effects
1. Content Analysis
  1. Formal, quantitative measuring
  2. Most suited to written texts or transcripts
  3. Can be used to investigate the relationship between two phrases or themes
  4. Main downside is that it takes a long time. Doesn't take context into account
2. Semiotics
  1. A sign is anything that can be used to mean something else
  2. Looks at meanings of signs in a piece of media
  3. Advertisements are particularly open to semiotic analysis
    1. Ads use signs to associate their products with positive things
  4. Open to subjectivity and bias. Values of a researcher may influence how they interpret a sign
3. Experiments
  1. E.g. Monitoring people's behaviour after watching a violent film
  2. Short experiments don't tell you about long-term media effects
  3. People behave differently when they know they are in an experiment
  4. Audience research means things like showing media to a sample audience, then interviewing or giving a questionnaire
    1. Have to formulate good interview questions to get useful, meaningful results and avoid bias
The media is owned by a few powerful companies and individuals
1. Media is produced and transmitted by media outlets
2. The same companies own different forms of media
  1. This is called cross-media ownership
3. Media companies diversify
  1. Buy other companies that make different types of media
    1. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp
      1. TV, Newspapers, Websites, Book and magazine publishers
    2. Silvio Berlusconi
      1. 3 National TV channels, advertising agency
4. Some media companies own media in several different countries
  1. News Corp
    1. Austrialia, Britain, USA, Europe, Asia
5. Last 30 years
  1. Media ownership has become concentrated into fewer hands
  2. Bagdikian (2004)
    1. American media was now mostly owned by five huge corporations
  3. Most recently Comcast and CBS have replaced Bertelsmann and joined the four remaining companies
    1. Own 90% of the media in US
  4. Individuals who own these companies have huge power and influence
    1. Silvio Berlusconi was voted in Prime Minister for third time in 2008
Some messages get removed from the media
1. Process of controlling the content of the media is called censorship
2. Media messages which are considered harmful or offensive to society can be removed
3. Censorship can be done for moral, political or security reasons
Marxists say media ownership controls media content
1. Traditional Marxism
  1. Owners of the media exploit their power position to manipulate the content of the media
  2. Capitalist media owners tell news editors what stories to cover and what views to put across.
  3. Miliband (1969)
    1. These messages encourage proletariat to be subordinate and happy to service the bourgeoisie
  4. Media owners control what we see in the media
  5. Control of ideas doesn't just happen in the news or on factual programmes
    1. E.g. family entertainment programmes are presented as light-hearted fun but actually present a specific idea of British Family life
2. Neo-Marxism
  1. Media reflect the ideas of the ruling class
  2. Control over the media is indirect
  3. World view of the elite class is broadcast and reinforced by the media
  4. Values and ideas of ruling class are presented as the natural, common-sense views to have
  5. 'Cultural hegemony'
    1. One set of ideas dominating over another
  6. People who work in the media are trained to present a certain view of the world
  7. Alternative views are allowed and not supressed
  8. All views get a fair shout

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	Created by Gabriella Parlato about 9 years ago