SOCIOLOGY-DIVERSITY

Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.

Jim Morrison

MEDIA - A LEVEL - PAPER 4

Audience influence the content of the media. Evaluate this view. [35]

According to pluralists there is no dominant ruling class, but many competing

groups with different interests therefore all these interests are presented in the
media. Pluralists that the media is shaped by the audience as the media have to give
the audience what they want in order to survive and remain viable. The mass media
are generally free from any government control and can present whatever point of
view they want, and audiences are free to choose in a mix approach to whatever
interpretations suits them. Pluralists suggest that owners do not have direct control
over the media content, there is no single dominant class perhaps a wide range of
competing groups in society with different interest these differing interests are
reflected to the range of media.

Moreover, pluralists on the notion of social groups competing against one another in
the economic Marketplace media owners are potentially powerful players because
they can demand that their views are expressed. However, pluralist argue that
control of the media is increasing as Galbraith argues that the ownership of media
content can be termed as technocratic managerial elite. Many organizations are
owned by shareholders rather than individuals where no single shareholder has
overall control of a company directors and managers make all the important day to
day business decisions.

Furthermore, audiences can use new media technologies to determine the content
and to create their own media products and upload this to internet. New based on
digital technology and there are different types of media content such as music,
images and emails are often combined into a single delivery system. The presence of
new media and its demand has lead as consumers and no longer was trained by
television schedules which includes Sky+, Freeview and the BBC IP Player SDS
denotes how consumers of new media encourage to take an active role in the
construction of their own television schedules. All these interests and audiences
influence over new media depends that media content is determined in influence
over the interest of audience.

In addition the audience can use interactive technologies to determine the content of
the media for example voting system in TV reality shows. New media is claimed as
interactive and it let users select the stories that they want to watch. Users can also
mix their interest and what whatever they want. They can also interact with each
other through social networking sites such as Facebook users may produce their own
films and music and post it on site such as YouTube and My-Space. Not only this, user

1
AZEEM IQBAL DIVERSITY KEEPING IT AWESOME :) 0333-2822691
generated content and information sites such as Wikipedia and IMDB are popular
source of knowledge.

Other than this, audiences can comment on the media via blogs, chat rooms and
forums as Li and Kirkup found that men were more likely than women to use email
or chat rooms. Men played more computer games than women. Men were more self-
confident about the computer skills and they were more likely to express the opinion
that using computer was a common and mutual activity and skill for men. Not only
this, citizen journalism is now the norm and allows the audience to create and share
the media. Journalists write stories using news values reflecting the interest and
wishes most relevant to their audience. According to pluralist approach journalists
are not simply the pawns of their employees but have some professional and editorial
honesty and independence, and are often critical of the dominant ideology.

Apart from this, active models of media effects demonstrate that audience can
interpret the media in various different way and so determine content. The uses and
gratification model support the pluralist view of media that audiences are thinking,
active and creative and they can use media in various ways for their on various
pleasures and interests. Media audiences use the media in a whole variety of ways.
McQuail and Lull suggest a variety of uses and gratification of the media. This model
suggests that audiences make conscious choices about how they used the media and
media companies therefore have to provide a range of content to satisfy these
choices, this model recognises the active role of media audience hence contribute
over the view that media content is influenced by audience.

However pluralist approach claims that the content of the media is influenced by
audience while on the other hand traditional Marxist approach suggest that media is
owned and controlled by the capitalist class and it is the media owners and
corporations that determine the content of the media not the audience. The media
are seen as instrument of ruling class, control by the owners who are able to
manipulate media content and media audiences in their own interests. According to
Marcuse mass media is part of a culture and industry and the ideological function of
this industry is to reproduce class inequality by bringing about the false class
consciousness of the working class.

Marxist believe that the media convey the dominant ideologies in order to
indoctrinate the audience into a particular point of view. Neo Marxist suggest that
mass media spread a dominant ideology justifying and legitimizing in the power of
the ruling class. This approach emphasizes the idea of hegemony which refers that
dominant ideology of the ruling class is shared by many managers and journalists
are persuaded to accept the values and beliefs according to this Marxist approach
media professionals like editors and journalists decide the media content not the
audience. The presence of news values are thought to determine media content as
they are what the media believe will appeal and sell.

Furthermore, the hypodermic syringe model shows that the media has a direct
influence on the audience through its content. This model suggests that the media
inject the content into the media audiences hence Indians are seen as unthinking,
passive, unable to resist media. The media are thought to divert people away from

2
AZEEM IQBAL DIVERSITY KEEPING IT AWESOME :) 0333-2822691
the important issues in society through the content of trivia and gossip Marxism
claims that media is owned and controlled by capitalism who used them as a means
to control the proletariat and keep them in a state of false consciousness, this
suggests that the concentration of ownership of mass media enables the owners to
control media content. Bagdikian that in 1983 50 corporations controlled the vast
majority of all news media in USA but ownership was concentrated in 7
corporations.

Other than this, the importance of advertising revenue to the media industry means
that many believe it is the advertisers who control media content like the content of
the media must attract a mass audience in order to appeal to the advertisers. The
mass media are predominantly run by large business operations with the aim of
making money and the source of this profit is advertising, particularly in newspapers
and commercial television. The advertisements should have advertising affects that
audiences must be attracted. In order to attract the widest possible audience, it
becomes important to appeal everyone enough and offend no one. This leads to
conservatism in the media, which tries to avoid too much criticism, this helps to
maintain the hegemony of the dominant ideas in society.

Not only has this, censorship in the media demonstrated that the audience do not
control media content. Just that they work with governments and corporations to
suppress views which go against the dominant ideology by censoring anything with
challenges the mainstream capitalist worldview. For example Facebook and Twitter
censors media content because of ideological reasons as anything which harm the
owner's status and media content it should be censored. This highlights that
mainstream media companies collude to support the dominant ideology by
gatekeeping which are the hypo-critical of those in power.

Lastly, the arrival of digital divide means that not all audience members have the
same opportunities to influence media content, as according to the research 80% of
the richest households in Britain have internet access, against only 11 % of the
poorest. There is a global digital divide in which poor people and those and
development countries have less access to the internet and to the new media. People
in modern industrial societies and countries enjoy access to a greater range of new
media and services. This gap is seen as a major problem because it tends to keep the
world and individual countries unequal. Due to digital divide modern countries and
their media audiences are unable to have an influencing impact over the media
content.

In conclusion, pluralists argue that the concentration of media is exaggerated and

the idea of media content being control and influenced by owners is also
contradicted, there is no single dominant class for a wide range of groups and media
contributing over audience’s different interest denotes the influence of audience over
media content. However, Marxist approach contradicts this view and represents the
authority of owners on media content and its concentration over certain groups.
They denotes that due to advertising, digital divide and censorship media content is
represented and there is no contribution of audiences in selecting the content of the
media.

3
AZEEM IQBAL DIVERSITY KEEPING IT AWESOME :) 0333-2822691