ownership and control

vertical ownership

• where a company owns and controls multipul stages of the supply chain

horizontol ownership

• owning the same type of medias

what is mass media

• the main means of mass communication, such as broadcasting, publishing and the internet considered collectively. its function is too communicate various messages through various means and to dissemaite imformation to a wide audaince

types of mass media

• broadcasting and electronic = audio and video distrobution to a wide audience, greater levels of dissemination to illterate people

• print media = basic but historically the most popular, magazines, books newpapers ect

• tranditional media = local lanauge and culture

• transit media = achievement in public places such as public transportation

• ditigal media = methods of communication, easier accessibility and connection

marxism and the media

• media owner control the media for an ideological function

• primary role is to keep the audience passive and not critical of capitalism, mainting the status quo

• manpulative approach to the media

media owners control media content + ideological function (marxists)

• ruling class elite consciously manpuliate media to transfer their conservative ideologies

• therefore the media is narrow and biased

• it preveres the status quo in a number of ways

• such as its repressentations of the wealthy, myth of meritocracy (dragons den), news dismissal of anti capitalist views as radical and dangerous, negative portrayals of minority, entertianment can help distract the wc

• the audiance is an unthinking and passive mass who do not question what they see

Curren 2003

• points to historical evidence of media owners manuplating media content

• control was most obivious in the early 20th century where many owners began to consciously spread their poltical views

• murdock in the 1970’s - example of someon who controlled the media from a right wing perpective, for example supporting iraq war in 2003

critiscsms of the marxist approach

• pluaralists

• impossible/ impractical for owners of large coperations to control all day to day output

• making profit is the primary motive

• audience arent passive and unthinking

• rise of new media → undermines the manupliative approach by encouraging audiences to be more active and allow for a greater production of media content. it is just not possible for owners to control media content

example of media owners and their holdings

• murdock = new corp, sun + the times

• jeff bezos = washington post

• summer redstone = cbs + paramount

• silvio berlisconi = major italian media

• elon musk = x (twitter)

greenham common

• 1980’s womens protest agaisnt nuclear weapons

• the news reported them as tryant women who were leaving their families behind

• example of how the media, in order to preseve the status quo will villanise those who act agaisnt

ralph milband (1973) → marxist

• media plays an important rile in the false class consciousness in society and promotes the ideas of the ruling class to its audience

• those who owns the media have similar attributes, tastes and poltical ideology and intervene in the day to day running of the news papers in order to ensure that ideologies are past onto the audience

• adopting simplified postions on complex issuses, limiting audience from information

• evidence through the reports of alternatives to capitialist society, e.g - the looney left, cancel culture and woke. Ed millband labour leader sandwich destroyed his career

• audiences are passive recpient of information and internalise it as a fact, they fail to critically analyise

• results in media owners controlling the masses

rupert murdock sucession of newspaper

• handing not just his buisness over but also his poltical ideology

• the youngest sibling lachlan is given the power to control of the new trust since he has similar poltical beleifs to his father, whilst his more liberal children ceased to be beneficies

• demonstrates how media owners arent just foused on economics but also poltical ideologies

post modernist - trends in ownership and control

• the major changes in media ownership and control is the movement of media corporations into the global market place, leading to them being transnational corportations

• some media compaines are horizontal, and have a cross media ownership

• whilst other media companie have focused on increasing economic control over the production process for example film corportations ownng cinema chains -this is vertical intergration

PM → diversification

• media corportations have diversified into other fields

• for example virigin media began as a record company but how has expanded into a wide range of products and serves from transport to food

PM → synergy

• media companes often use their very diverse interests to sell their products in different formats

• e.g - films have soundtrack albums, computer games, action figures ect

• a company may use its global interests to market one of its own films through its tv channels magazines ect

PM → technological convergence

• where serveral technolgies are put together in one product - iphones

• comapines that normally work in quite seperate media technology fields are joining up or converging in order to give customer acesess to a greater range of media services

neo marxists

• media conveys a ruling class messages, but this is not from day to day owners

• editors and journalists, who are largely middle class, report on their own interests which often alingn with the owners of media

• people are employed to fit in with the values of the organisation - leading to bias

• cultural framework is contrstucted by elities and reenfirced by the middle class editors and journalists that allow for the ideology to be passed onto audeinces

glasgow university media group

• editors and journalist largely come from an oxbridge educated, white middle class backgrounds

• 51% of journalists are from private schools compared to just 7% of the population

• shifts away from the working class interest and the wealthy are shown in a postive light

Antonio Gramsci

• media are transmitting hegemoc ideas, journalists are perpetualting the status quo

• centrist, conserative

• not sharing abnormal ideas that opposed to a functioning democracy

• for example to treatment of greta thunberg

concentration of ownership

• few people actually own the media

• doyle (2002) suggests that examing who owns the media is important, since for society to be truely democratic all points need to be heard + abuses of power and influence by elites need to be monitored by a free media

• too much concentration of media ownership is dangerous because media have the power to make and break poltical careers and have influence over public opinon

• concernatratuons allows for activies to support the needs of capitalism

• boris johnson = english eccentric

curran on marxist views

• questions the marxist view and rejects the idea that murdick is part of a unified capitalist elite, owners are not colletvised

• murdochs newspapers are conservative and strongly supportive of capitalist interests

• however he argues that Murdochs motives are economic rather than ideological

• in 2021 90% of newspaper circulation was in the hands of 3 owners

global mass media shrink

• trends in ownership and control suggest that number of companies controlling mass media has shrunk the recent years

• bagdikian 2004 notes that media owership in the usa was in the hands of 7 corportations

• content of commerical terrestial television is mainly controlled by one company

• streaming servies have started to run adverstier funded subscriptions

the pluralist approach to ownership of the media

• ideological dominations in the media is prevented for several reasons

• the diversty of media products, different platforms and range of pressures that influence the production of media serve to ensure that ideological domination cannot take place

• media owners are restricted in the way that they manage information because it is shaped by consumer demand in the marketplace

• media audiences are the real power, they can buy or not buy

• mass media is essential part of the democratic process because the electorate today gain most of their knowledge of the poltical process from newpapers and tv

• owners, editors, journalists ect are all protectors of such processes

• pratically impossible for owners to interefere with the content of the newspapers and television programmes

• proffesional ethics, contrained to the power of the owners

investigative journalism

• prince andrew on trail

• concentration of ownership is an economic result rather than a political or sinster motive, driven by the need to keep costs low and maximise profits

• globalsation also impacts this

more on ownership -PBS

• signifcant share of the media market is taken up y PBS such as the BBC in britian

• the BBC has a legal obligation to inform, educate and ensure that media is pluralistic and diverse

• PBS should be impartial and objective

• power of media owners are restricred by state and goverment controls

• news papers teevation and radio and subject to lwgal controls and rules imposted on them by ofcom

whale 1997

• range of media sources reflecrs the variety of competing groups in society, all ideolgies within society can be catered for

• different newspapers and other media sources reflect the tastes and ideas of different social groups

• applies to new media growth of left leaning and right leaning independent webistes that provide alternatives to tradiional media for example novara media

• supports how interest drives provision

supply and demand

• media sources spend time and money collecting data social research into the tastes and attributes of audiences, surveys polls

• viewing figures

• most popular forms of entertianment are often repeated across different platforms

• media that does not meet demands of its audience is often removed or replaces

• even more so in new media subscription platforms cannot surive without approval no audience = no revenue