Ownership

• British print media :

  • News Corp 32% - Rupert Murdoch = the times, the sun, sky TV
  • Daily mail 24% - metro, daily mail, radio stations
• Criticism of Pluralist approach :

  • Barnett + Seymour + Curan:
  • Found increase in tabloidisation
  • People have been socialised by the media to believe they're getting what they want - hegemonic theorists
  • Whereas the media has created their tastes
• Marxist:

  • Working class experience false class consciousness =
  • Come to believe that capitalism = fair system which benefits all of society equally
  • Fail to see being exploited by system, benefiting powerful minority
  • If fail it's because you didn't work hard enough to achieve qualifications
• Glasgow University Media Group (GUMG) View of Media Ownership

  Dominant Ideology or Hegemonic Approach
• Hegemony


  The ideas from the ruling classes are dominant in society and are accepted by the rest of society
• GUMG suggests


  • The media does support capitalism but this is an accidental by-product of the social backgrounds of the journalists and broadcasters
  • Tendency for them to be white, middle class and male
  • Majority of journalists have been to Independent Schools (Sutton Report 2006) – 54% of top 100 whereas normally only 7% of population
• The Sutton Trusts asks if it is healthy for so many of those in positions of influence to have totally different educational backgrounds to the mass population
• GUMG found


  • Journalists tend to have consensus views that are non threatening and view anything different as radical or extremist
  • Those types of views are ignored or ridiculed in the media
• 'Don't rock the boat' attitude

  Profit driven
• The media does not want to put off any readers or advertisers
• This creates a tendency to 'play safe' by excluding anything that might upset or offend
• Curran agrees with GUMG and states that journalists now are a moderating influence
• High unemployment within the field also encourages part time contracts = feel the need to fit in with the existing ethos
• Sometimes however the news values held by journalists

  • Mean that they go against the dominant ideology and can be critical and anti establishment which may be more in accordance with their audiences
  • May back campaigns that uncover corruption, excessive bonuses for bankers, or wrong doing by big businesses
  • This may in itself attract audiences which benefits the owners and helps to create the pretence that the media is unbiased and objective
• Agenda setting


  The media decide what should be discussed
• Gate keeping


  The power that people such as owners hold in deciding what is discussed
• Focus may be more on

  • Celebrities
  • Less on world poverty
• Focus on


  • The main political parties
• Society is more likely to be outraged by something on Eastenders than a famine
• Encourages people not to question and limits real choices about how society should be run
• Agenda setting results in 'cultural hegemony'

  The domination of capitalism and its principles which are viewed as natural and normal
• Pluralists and neophiliacs suggest the rise in new media has undermined traditional owners with ordinary people able to report and comment on the news (citizen journalism)