Ownership and Control of The Media

• The ownership of mainstream media in the UK is concentrated in very few hands, with a small number of corporations owning the bulk of media companies
• Features of media ownership in the UK

  • Horizontal integration
  • Media convergence
  • Global conglomerates
• There is debate over whether media owners directly control the content produced by their media organisations
• Traditional Marxists


  Argue that those who own the media also control it
• Traditional Marxist view


  • The media is owned by members of the bourgeoisie: very wealthy business owners
  • These bourgeois owners instruct editors and journalists to put across particular messages to the audience
  • These messages spread the dominant ideology which seeks to justify the power and privilege of the bourgeoisie
  • The media is able to contribute towards creating a false class consciousness
• Manipulative/instrumental approach


  The idea of direct control by owners, associated with the writings of Ralph Millband
• Editors and journalists in newspapers and other media organisations depend on the owners for their jobs and therefore will not use any apparent autonomy they may have to resist the dissemination of bourgeois ideology
• Examples of owners directly interfering with the content of the media

  • Richard Desmond, former owner of the Express, apparently regularly visited the newspaper offices making clear demand of what should be included
  • Rupert Murdoch claims he only took large, long-term decisions, but former editors have suggested a much more hands-on approach
• Curran (2003) found lots of evidence of owners directly manipulating media content
• In the middle of the 20th century, "press barons" were quite open about their propagandist role, and also that there have always been a lot more Conservative-supporting newspapers than those critical of that party, which reflects them serving the interests of their wealthy owners
• In the later 20th century and today owners are, if anything, even more interventionist, with again Rupert Murdoch being the obvious example
• Politicians clearly believe media moguls to have a great deal of control over media content because they try to get on the right side of them
• Tony Blair famously flew to Australia to meet with Rupert Murdoch and was rewarded with the support of the Sun. Several years later, David Cameron repeated this with the same outcome
• Neo-Marxist view


  The role of much of the media is the dissemination of bourgeois messages and ideology, but this is not because of the owners micromanaging the day-to-day content, but because the editors and many of the journalists come from privileged backgrounds too, and were employed by the owners or the company who generally choose to employ people whose opinions and values are a good fit with their own
• The Glasgow University Media Group (GUMG) found that, in the 1970s, the vast majority of journalists working in the national media were white, middle-class (usually upper middle-class) men
• The GUMG have identified numerous examples of the media taking the side of the powerful in various disputes, even when the media is apparently attempting to be neutral and objective
• Hegemony


  The process where bourgeois ideology becomes viewed as common sense, and alternative views are often seen as either extremist or ridiculous
• Staying within the "common sense", middle-of-the-road set of views is also down to commercial considerations: an attempt to offend as few viewers or readers as possible
• Traditional Marxists would question the idea that journalists themselves necessarily share the right-wing views of their owners
• Pluralists argue that the views and approaches contained within mainstream media is not a result of the social background of editors and journalists, but instead a result of the market demands of the audience
• Pluralists argue that there is a diverse array of media companies and media outlets, and while the most popular might present a particular worldview, there are plenty of other media outlets that present alternative worldviews
• It is very hard to prove that the media helps to establish hegemony, just as it is hard to establish if people are manipulated or indoctrinated
• Pluralist view


  Editors and journalists are professionals with ethics and integrity who would not allow themselves to be manipulated by owners
• Pluralist view


  The concentration of media ownership is not a sinister ideological plot, but rational economics - companies want to maximize profits and minimize costs
• Pluralist view


  The audience has a lot of choice in terms of what it wants to consume, particularly today with new media providing a very wide range of different viewpoints and approaches
• Pluralist view


  The audience are active choosers, exerting real control over the media through their consumer choices
• Marxists argue that the audience is manipulated and the media deliberately creates false needs
• Marxists and neo-Marxists argue that people's choices are not really about the content, but rather about branding or liking the presenter
• Marxists and neo-Marxists argue that the media market has tended to result in a dumbing down of media content, in order to keep hold of enough audience members and keep advertisers happy
• Postmodernist view


  Significant changes in the nature of society-the move from modernity to postmodernity-have fundamentally changed the nature of ownership and control, making it impossible to argue that owners or editors control the media
• Postmodernist view


  The extent of choice that the audience has over the media they wish to consume is greater than ever, and the audience is the group who has the most control over media as they have some freedom to choose which media they consume
• Postmodernist view


  Ownership of the media is not concentrated but rather fluid, and the gap between producer and audience has been so eroded that people can easily reject any hegemonic messages from the powerful and create their own narratives
• Postmodernists


  Talk about media saturation - in a society where people are exposed to media messages all day, every day, from every possible quarter, it is impossible for individual owners or editors to control what is out there
• Audience


  Has the most control over media as they have some freedom to choose which media they consume
• Media saturation


  Increasingly cannot distinguish between real life and a media version of real life (what Baudrillard calls hyperreality)
• Levene's view


  Ownership of the media is not concentrated but rather fluid - there is so much media, and the gap between producer and audience has been so eroded, that people can easily reject any hegemonic messages from the powerful and create their own narratives
• People can use social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter to put across their own narratives (what neo-Marxists might call counter-hegemony)
• Professional journalists and editors will often construct articles entirely from messages on Twitter, or online comments: the audience making their own narratives and subsequently influencing "official" narratives
• In the UK, the BBC and Channel 4 are parts of our media that are not owned by private companies or media moguls but are instead owned by the government
• BBC


  Funded by the license fee, operates largely independently of state interference