Theorists

orttung and walker

Authoritarian regimes don’t fully control media; they maintain enough control to reinforce legitimacy & weaken opposition. Target 4 groups:

1. Regime elites – Show strength, punish defectors.

2. General population – Instill fear & apathy.

3. Opposition & civil society – Discredit dissent.

4. Regular internet users – Control political content online.

simon

3 strategies for media control:

1. Repression 2.0 – Censorship, imprisonment, intimidation.

2. Masked political control – Repressive actions disguised as democratic (e.g., anti-terror laws).

3. Tech capture – Digital surveillance, website control, state trolling.

• Possibly a 4th: Self-censorship (fear-driven).

baker

China forces VPNs to be state-licensed, blocking global content.

stier

Democracies = higher media freedom than autocracies.

putin

"Power vertical" → strict laws, jailed bloggers, website blocks.

roth

Resistance is key to stopping autocrats.

robinson

Globalisation = final phase of capitalism; MNCs & TNCs thrive under neoliberalism via FTAs.

mcchesney

Neoliberalism demands deregulated commercial media.

jensen

Traditional & new media are increasingly owned by TNCs.

whale

Media owners focus on global trade, not content; readers shape newspapers.

berners-lee

Web once diverse, now dominated by a few platforms.

miliband

Media controlled by the ruling class to justify inequality, suppress left-wing views.

gramsci

Cultural hegemony makes dominant ideology seem natural.

harvey

Media shapes discourse, making ideology seem like common sense.

Herman & Chomsky – Propaganda Model

Media serves elite interests via five filters (ownership, ads, sources, flak, anti-communism).

galtung and ruge

Journalists use news values (e.g., negativity, elite focus, unambiguity) to determine what’s newsworthy.

hall

Interpretative frameworks shape how issues are presented.

hall et al.

Journalists rely on official sources, limiting perspectives.

o’hara

Right-wing governments frame poverty as personal failure.

GUMG

TV news aligns with government views, portraying strikes as disruptive.

philo and berry

UK media frames Israel-Palestine from Israel’s perspective.

curtis

UK media distorts Britain's role in global affairs, reinforcing elite narratives.

War of the Worlds (Welles & Theatre)

Media hysteria exaggerated by newspapers fearing radio competition.

Katz & Lazarsfeld – Two-step flow model

Opinion leaders mediate media influence.

Blumler & McQuail – Uses & Gratifications

People use media for diversion, relationships, identity, and surveillance.

Wood

Teens use horror films for excitement.

Lull

TV satisfies both connection and avoidance within families.

Morley

Audiences interpret media in three ways: Preferred (agree), Negotiated (partially agree), Oppositional (reject).

Philo

Media can dictate narratives when audience knowledge is low (e.g., Gulf War).

Kitzinger

Audience activity doesn’t negate media influence.

Baumberg, Bell & Gaffney

Media exaggerates benefit fraud, shaping public perception.

philo

Mainstream media allows people to express complaints but avoids presenting real alternatives to the status quo.

lyotard

People reject grand narratives (big, all-encompassing explanations like Marxism, religion, and science) and instead embrace fragmented, multiple perspectives.

foucault

Challenges Marxist ideas of ruling class ideology and false consciousness. Believes knowledge and power are intertwined, shaping "discourses" (ways of talking about and understanding the world) that serve those in power. There is no objective truth.

baudrillard

We live in a media-saturated world where media creates simulacra—representations of society that don’t reflect reality. Media signs and symbols are detached from the real world, making entertainment and information feel more real than reality itself.

turkle

Expands on Baudrillard, arguing that TV is part of a culture of simulation, paving the way for virtual reality.

philo and miller

Challenge postmodernism by arguing that media images can still be compared to reality to expose inaccuracies and misrepresentations.

hill

Found that while audiences recognize some reality in media (e.g., reality TV), they also understand it is shaped for entertainment purposes.