Sociology- Media revision

• Flew: internet has influenced development of a shared global culture- increasingly similar norms, values, and news offering a global outlook rather than national issues.
• Kellner: Media has power to globally produce images of lifestyles that become part of everyday life and form identities. (EG. Perfume adverts + celebs)
• News Agenda- Galtung and Ruge: journalists and editors draw on experiences, what the audience expects, what will have a major impact on public consciousness and importance. - Negativity / Size / Uniqueness / Elite Persons / Currency / Recency / Personality /
• Mediation- achieved through selection according to news values, organisation according to news codes and conventions and focus on the news angle (ideological). (EG- extinction rebellion as "crazy" and "hippies"
• Anchorage- fixing meaning with captions (EG- "anti-capitalist cult- The Telegraph). All true at the same time but the choice of headline fixes the meaning we attach.
• Agenda setting- journalists assist with the construction of the news through this and gate keeping. Different news corps set different agendas and contexts depending on audiences and corp priorities. This made be done subconsciously.
• Gatekeeping- Gans: what's a story and for how long. Editors act as gatekeepers because they decide what is and isn't news. It's a filtering process based on practicality, political and cultural values.
• News as hegemonic- through codes and conventions.

  Codes: formal clothing / direct address / calm, factual language / music.

  Conventions: headlines / presenters / actions / lighting / colours

  EG: BBC at 10- red banner / formal speech and clothing / no effects
• Media agenda:

  1. Re-presents creators ideologies.
  2. Re-presents institutions ideologies (BBC / FOX news)
  3. Shapes how audiences understand the world due to appearing truthful, factual, immediate, direct and unbiased.
• Vertical integration: a media organisation controls all aspects of their industry- production, distribution and interface in order to maximise profit.

  EG: disney
• Horizontal integration: a corp acquires different kinds of media. May diversify into other areas (EG. Apple). = Fears of a monopoly.
• Synergy: two-fold process.

  1. Media companies produce and sell (a film) but also produce products associated with it (merch) to increase profit.
  2. Produce a product and advertise it by their own means (eg. Disney and Marvel / Barbie).
• Bagdikian- The Media monopoly: ownership and control of the media is intensifying.

  USA: 1983- 50 corps, 1922- 22 corps, 2004- 7 corps
• Public service broadcasters- not subject to political or commercial influence and have to remain without bias. For entertainment, education, diversity etc.

  BBC- funded by a license fee.

  Channel 4- advertising.

  AO3: last chair of the BBC was appointed by Boris Johnson.
• Formal and informal controls: UK media is largely free from state censorship but there are formal controls (eg. newspapers can criticise gov but TV can't be subjective).

  Countries with restrictions: NK, Russia, Hungary
• Legal constraints: Equality act- 2010

  Libel and Slander- defamation laws- eg. Kiera Knightley v Daily mail / Vardy v Rooney
• Regulatory constraints: OFCOM- can remove licences / ASA- can uphold complaints on adverts (eg. Harold Shipman and DeadHappy) / IPSO- made for newspapers by newspapers.
• Ethical constraints: right or wrong. Hard to enforce journalistic codes- doubt to what is public interest or simply interesting. (Eg. politicians dating lives / Russel Brand fired from BBC).
• Leveson Inquiry: "phone hacking" scandal of Milly Dowler- tampering with evidence. Involved Celebrities (eg. Hugh Grant) and others (eg. Madeline McCann's parents). Police involvement was also shown through bribes they'd been given. Rupert Murdoch- "I have failed" - and news of the world was closed. Rebekah Brooks- ex-editor of NOW had multiple relationships with different politicians (eg. Gordon Brown). Paul McMullan- former NOW journalist- "privacy is for paedos".
• Gov controls: to ensure positive portrayal, good international relations, security.

  EG: "Bury bad news"

  Control through: press conferences / spin doctors / only selecting certain journalists / blocking websites (facebook).
• Miliband- editors and journalists depend on owners for jobs and so don't use any apparent autonomy that they have in order to resist the dissemination of bourgeoisie ideology.
• Curran and Seaton- found evidence of media owners interferring and manipulating content.

  EG- Rupert Murdoch and Iraq / Murdoch and John Major
• Jones: there is a range of media opinions and owners + managers are more concerned with profit, attracting audiences with what they want.
• Gramsci- hegemony: persuaded to see the dominant ideology as consensus through persuasion.
• Owen Jones: working in media is a "closed shop".

  51% are privately educated.

  94% are white.

  0.4% Muslim, 0.2% Black.

  Worsening as the decline of local news has removed the wc route into journalism.
• Ritzer: Mcdonaldisation
• Hall: responses to globalisation.

  1. Homogenisation
  2. Hybridity (eg. Bhangra music)
  3. Resistance (eg. Welsh and Scottish TV channels / "the tape" movie)