Ownership and Control

Three major developments that led to increased concentration

● Vertical Integration: the process by which one owner acquires all aspects of production and distribution of a
single type of media product
○ E.g. Hollywood’s dominance in film industry
● Horizontal Integration/Cross Media Ownership: the process by which one company buys different kinds of
media, concentrating ownership across different kinds of media
○ E.g. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation has interests in a range of other media, such as book
publishing (Harper Collins) and film (20th Century Fox)
● Transnational ownership: the ownership by a single company of media organisations which operate in two or
more countries
○ E.g. Rupert Murdoch’s 175 newspapers around the world
The Traditional Marxist (manipulative) view of ownership and control
Marxist view in general
● The media as part of the superstructure (Karl Marx) transmits the ruling class ideology
○ Encourages people to accept the unequal society they live in
● Althusser: ‘Ideological state apparatus’
○ Media is part of the ISA to produce messages that reinforces bourgeoisie ideology
■ This induces the people into a false class consciousness → to accept their position and status
within the Capitalist society

Who controls the media?

● The media is CONCENTRATED, it is controlled and owned by a very small group of people
○ This allows for a very narrow range of media content to be presented
● The owners of the media directly control and manipulate its content → allows the ruling class ideology to
prevail
● Miliband → manipulative/instrumentalist approach
○ Media is the “new opium of the people”
■ Media is a hallucinatory drug which keeps the working class quiet and encourages them to
accept a system which exploits them
○ Owners directly control media content
■ Manipulate content and media audiences to protect their profits and spread the dominant
ideology
■ Journalists would self-censor their own work
● Curran and Seaton
○ Found evidence that suggested media owners did interfere and manipulate newspaper content
■ E.g. all 175 newspapers of Murdoch supported the War of Iraq
● Williams
○ The concentration of media organisations
■ “fewer and fewer large companies own what we see, hear and read”
● Bagdikian
○ ‘The Media Monopoly’
■ By 1983, 50 corporations were involved in media ownership → by 1992, 22 corporations
controlled 90% of media outlets → by 2004, 7 corporations controlled 90% of media outlets
● Tunstall and Palmer
○ Governments are no longer interested in controlling or regulating media conglomerates
■ Offer ‘regulatory favours’ in return for support/disinterest in government policy
● The Leveson Inquiry
○ Uncovered a range of links between media owners and governments
■ The media often gave support to political parties in return for favourable policy

Criticisms of the Traditional Marxists

● The state regulates media ownership
● The audiences are not as easily manipulative/passive as the Traditional Marxists suggest
○ People accept/reject/re-interpret media messages
Pluralists
● The rise of new digital media and internet → the growth of citizen journalism undermined the traditional
influence
● There is a wide range of opinions in the media + the media’s owners and managers are mainly concerned with
making profits
○ Attract large audiences to gain advertisers → the only means of this is to provide what the
audience wants
The Neo-Marxist (hegemonic) view of ownership and control
Who controls the media?
● Meanwhile, traditional Marxists says its in a few hands, e.g. Rupert Murdoch
○ The neo-Marxists take the view that it is impossible for one like Rupert Murdoch to directly control
all his 175 newspapers and media outlets
■ They only play the role of allocative control (making key financial decisions, rather than day-
to-day control)
● The neo-Marxists say that it is actually the MEDIA PROFESSIONALS (editors/journalists) that are
controlling the media
○ They have similar beliefs as their owners → transmit hegemony
● Agenda setting and gatekeeping
○ An agenda of what will be discussed in society is set
○ Some stories get in the gate, some don’t
■ Those that gets in transmits r-c ideology
● Golding and Murdock
○ Operational control (day-to-day)
○ Allocative control (financial)
● The Glasgow University Media Group (GUMG)
○ Journalists are typically white, m-c, male → produce content which supports the dominant,
capitalist values
○ Affluent and educated background → more likely to produce content that is ‘middle of the road’ →
match with the media owner’s view
■ E.g. explains why the cause of the 2011 Riots (social class division) remains unreported,
meanwhile, more attention was given to what damage was caused
○ Found that 54% of journalists were privately educated, many of them were Oxbridge educated
● Philo
○ Studied the media coverage of the global banking crisis
■ Found that the media portrayed solutions by those who created them in the first place

Gramsci
● Hegemony: a dominant way of thinking (r-c ideology) is constantly reinforced and proclaim within society

Criticisms of the Neo-Marxists

● Neo Marxists are criticised for underestimating the true power of media owners
○ It is the owners who have the final say in the appointment of media professionals
■ Can dismiss those they view as stepping too far out of line
○ Former Murdoch editor, Beecher: the consistent ideology of Murdoch’s newspapers is maintained “by
phone and by clone”
● Stuart Hall: although the dominant class will control the ideas within the media, they will never have total
dominance, as a result society can change
The Pluralist approach of ownership and control
Who controls the media?
● The AUDIENCE
○ The media has to make sure they appeal to the audiences to attract viewers → revenue
● Media is democratic
○ E.g. Libel Law holds media accountable for accurate reporting (individuals can seek legal remedies
when false information harms their reputation)
● Reflection theory
○ Media reflects a range of competing interests
○ There is no single individual/group that has a monopoly of power
● Media content is decided through consumer choice
○ Audiences can now pick ‘n’ mix or reject media outlets
● David Gauntlett
○ The audience moved from being consumers to being prosumers
■ Taking up both the role as producers + consumers
● We are now actively producing media outlets ourselves (e.g. Youtube) → not
controlled by media owners
● Whale
○ Range of media sources available → diverse options of media-outlets available to audiences
■ People can choose according to their personal political view or taste

Evaluation of the pluralist approach

● Illusion of choices
○ Barnett and Weymour: repetitive information across different media outlets
● Clear evidence is seen in society that there has been a rise of social networking sites
○ This is not only being used as building social relationships but also to create media content
■ E.g. Instagram reels
● Media professionals are not as free as Pluralists suggest
○ Traditional Marxists: they often have constraints placed upon via managers and media owners
■ And that it is them that is truly controlling media content
The selection and presentation of the news
What causes selectivity and bias in the news?
● Infinite numbers of events taking place each day
○ Selective content
○ Subjective account of what’s happening in the world + partial picture of events defined as news

The construction of reality in the news

● McQuail: news is socially manufactured (constructed) → ‘gatekeepers’ e.g. editors and journalists make
choices and judgements about how much coverage they will give to certain events
Critics
● The process of news selection is biased, it is dependent of 3 influences: 1. organisational/bureaucratic
constraints 2. the new values held by media organisations 3. ownership, ideology and bias

Institutional factors
News diary
● Schlesinger: this is a record of forthcoming social, political and economic events → plan coverage, book
experts and make practical arrangements
Organisational/bureaucratic routines (collection)
1. Sources of news
● Many newspapers and TV news producers gather their stories from agencies who sell news items, e.g.
the Press Association (PA)
● They may also receive press releases from pressure groups/government agencies who wish to
publicise their activity
2. Financial causes
● It is clearly very costly to keep sending news reports as often there is very little activity
● This has led to superficial treatment of events in developing countries, esp. Asia and Africa
● The influence of the financial year on budgets is also a factor (April to April)
3. Time/space available
● Certain events may have to be excluded
4. Deadlines
● TV news has advantage over newspapers, doesn’t really get affected by deadlines
○ Can be transmitted live
● Newspapers must stick to deadlines, e.g. news that is to be shown in newspapers the following
morning must be gathered by 10pm
5. Immediacy and actuality
● Events are more likely to be shown on TV news if it's a speech, a film clip, footage etc.
○ This adds an element of drama to the event
6. Competition
● News producers are desperate to be the first to ‘break the news’
○ They cut corners (e.g. accept evidence from sources w/o properly checking or relying on
official sources) → biased view in favour of the official side of the argument
7. Audience
● The time of a news broadcast will influence the selection of news
○ E.g. a lunchtime broadcast is more likely to be viewed by women → supermarket prices
would have more coverage

Culture
News values
● Spencer-Thomas
○ News values are general guidelines/criteria that determine the worth of a specific story (e.g.
newsworthiness)
 ■ These assumptions may differ between, e.g. BBC and Channel 4
■ These are important as they determine the success/failure of the paper
● Galtung and Ruge’s news values:
1. Extraordinariness
● Unexpected/unusual = more worthy than routine events because they are out of the ordinary
2. Threshold
● The bigger the event the more likely it will be reported (world wars)
3. Unambiguity
● Easy to understand = more likely to be reported than open to interpretation
4. Reference to elite persons
● Stories of the famous + powerful = more newsworthy than that of general public
5. Personalisation
● Association to a particular celebrity/leader with the specific event
○ E.g. Iraq war in 2003 presented as Bush and Blair vs Saddam Hussein
6. Negativity
● Bad news appears to be more exciting to journalists
● Gatekeeping: the work of journalists to decide whether an event is ‘newsworthy’ → only a small minority of
events get through the gate onto the next stage appearing in the news
● Narrativization: news broadcasts oversimplifies + uses a narrative structure (beginning, middle and end) with
key figures (heroic vs evil figures)

Ideological influences
The Glasgow University Media Group (GUMG)
● The media consistently reflect the common assumptions of the powerful in society
● Commercial market → news focuses more and more on exciting events rather than the historical context
and explanation of those events
○ E.g. Colombian earthquake (1999) featured scenes of destruction and chaos but didn’t cover the long-
term economic repercussions on unemployment and investment
● The agenda for discussion in the news is framed by ideological influences
○ E.g. coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict → lack of discussion in the news of the origins of
the conflict, and the style and form of language used reflects a pro-Israeli stance
Social construction of the news
The influence of owners
● Media conglomerates can use their power to impose their views on audiences, editors have little choice but to
go along
● Curran and Seaton: Iraq war
● Golding and Murdock: operational control

Making a profit
● More entertainment news being published → advertisers will only advertise if they know that there is a
large audience for their advertisements
● Bagdikian
○ The importance of advertising = news reports will be presented in a way to avoid offending
advertisers, with some stories repressed/killed off
■ E.g. Coca Cola as a sponsor will prevent the news company from reporting news on how soft
drinks affect health
● Barnett and Seymour
○ To attract the widest possible audiences/readership → important to appeal to everyone and offend
no one
■ This leads to conservatism in the media → avoids too much criticism of the way society is
■ Minority/unpopular views goes unrepresented in the media
● Barnett and Gaber
○ The pressure to attract audiences lead to more conformist, less informed and less critical approach to
reporting politics
● Thussu
○ The move to tabloidization/‘infotainment’ was found in TV news across the world

Globalisation, new technology and citizen journalism

● New way of access to news meant that news stations have to use New Media, e.g. videos, mobile phones and
graphic technology to complete in a global market
● Shorter news, e.g. mobile phones had made human attention span shorter
● Vibrant colours and pictures to catch audiences’ attention

Citizen journalism
● Philo and Berry
○ British TV reports on the Palestinians were over-reliant on official Israeli perspectives
■ Israeli assassinations = routinely ignored; counterstrikes by Palestinian militants = widely
reported
○ Ashuri
■ Citizen journalism can overcome the bias in established media
■ E.g. Machsom Watch were able to offer an alternative view to the official one of some events
at checkpoints by posting their own reports, videos and photos on their website
● Bivens
○ Expose offensive, illegal or corrupt activities + make their activities far more accountable to the
public

Role of social media

● Twitter has 31.6 mil. users → each tweet has a max. 140 characters
○ These snippets of info can make their way into mainstream news
● Result: news stations have to be incredibly up to date in order to compete they have to release 24 hr breaking
news and summarise info so it is easy to read
Agenda setting
● McCombs: the New Media not only tells us what to think about but also how to think about things
○ E.g. the perception of rioters/welfare benefit claimants
● The media sets an agenda by giving preference to some issues over to owners
● Philo
○ Media acted as a forum for public grumble but rarely explore solutions to problems
■ E.g. during the global bank crisis much of the media focused on the greed of bankers blaming
them for the problem but failed to explore solutions to the issue that existed outside the
existing banking structures

Norm setting
1. Encouraging conformist behaviour by rewarding people who stick to the norms and values of society
2. Discouraging non-conformist behaviour is where the media often gives sensational treatment to stories where
people do not follow the norms of society

Inaccurate and false reporting and the creation of moral panics

● False reporting through completely making up stories or inventing a few details, and the media’s tendency to
exaggerate events → creates moral panic
○ The most common with Red Top newspapers like The Sun

Hierarchy of credibility
● Becker: this is the idea that the white m-c journalists make common sense ideas of whose opinions to trust,
these tend to be the most powerful people in society, e.g. politicians
○ Hall: these individuals become primary definers → regularly feature in the media as ‘experts’ + set
the news agenda + influence what journalists define as the news and how they present it

Churnalism
● Zakir: there is a trend of churnalism → to save time and money, journalists will base their reports on
second hand information, rather than digging out news themselves and fact check
● Davies: 80% of stories of, e.g. the Guardian/the Daily Mail, comes from second hand sources
○ Only 12% of stories were generated by reporters

A propaganda model of the media

● Herman and Chomsky
○ Media participate in propaganda campaigns helpful to elite interests
○ Media performance is largely shaped by market forces and the capitalist system
■ There’s a range of filters that work to shape media output, e.g. advertisers want a supportive
selling environment and government can pressure the media with threats of withdrawal of TV
licences
● Edwards and Cromwell
○ Particular subjects (e.g. US/British government responsibility for genocide) are distorted, suppressed,
marginalised and ignored by the British mass media
○ Leaders of developing countries = uncritically demonised, whilst USA = champion of democracy
Gender representation in the media
How does the media impact stereotypes?
● Almy et al.
○ Media portrayals of gender are significant as they reinforce a dominant ideology - representing men as
superior and women as subordinate

How do different theories view the media?

● Feminists
○ Liberal feminists: media representations are lagging behind women’s achievements in society → but
is improving
○ Marxist feminists: stereotypical images are a by-product of the need to make a profit
○ Radical feminists: media reproduces patriarchy → images keep women oppressed in a narrow range
of roles
● Postmodernists
○ Gauntlett: today’s mass media is challenging the traditional definitions of gender
■ Media is a force for change → encouraging a diversity of masculine and feminine identities
■ Media is not the only agency of socialisation and other factors act as ‘navigation points’
affecting one’s gender identity
● Pluralists
○ Media is only representing males and females in a manner that reflects social attitudes
■ Criticises Feminists as impressionable are easily influenced → females can resist if they
want
Female representation in the media
Stereotypical
A limited range of roles
● Gaye Tuchman
○ ‘Symbolic annihilation’: women in the media are absent, condemned and trivialised
○ Women are represented in sexual and romantic roles in the media
■ Rarely shown in high-status occupational roles, e.g. doctors/lawyers
● Even if they are → often shown to have problems in dealing w their ‘unusual’
circumstances, e.g. problems w relationships
● If they have children → successful women = irresponsible
○ However, recent trends showed an increase in the ‘stronger’ roles of women (e.g. the heroic Mulan)
Women as ideals
● Ferguson
○ Magazines are organised around ‘a cult of femininity’
■ Prompts an ideal where excellence is achieved through caring for others, the family, marriage
and appearance
○ Modern teenage magazines: moved away from these stereotypes but still tends to focus on ‘him, home
and looking good’
○ However, Winship:
■ Supportive roles of magazines in the lives of women → excluded from the masculine
world and leisure
● Present women with broader options
● Tackled problems largely ignored by the male-dominant media (e.g. domestic/child
abuse)
● Wolf: the media, especially advertisements, present a particular physical image as the ‘normal’ or ‘ideal’ body
image for women to have → creates a ‘beauty myth’
○ Orbach: linked such images to anorexia, and bulimia in teenage girls
Sexualised
● Mulvey
○ Film-makers employ a ‘male gaze’
○ Camera lens ‘eyes up’ the female characters, providing erotic pleasure for men
● Vincent et al.
○ Gender portrayal in music videos on MTV
■ Sexism = very prominent feature
■ 57% of vids classified as condescending (women shown merely as sex objects/victims)
■ Follow up study in 1989: decrease in condescending portrayal + increase in the portrayal of
women as people in their own right
● The Leveson Enquiry
○ Tabloid press has ‘a tendency to sexualise and demean women’
● Knight
○ ‘The fighting fuck toy’ → appears empowered, but her very existence serves the pleasure of the
heterosexual male viewer
Feminine identity
● Connell
○ Hegemonic femininity: feminine identity in the UK is still the product of hegemonic ideas of how the
sexes should be socialised + behave as adults
■ Very distinct roles, including the traditionally domestic one
■ Often seen as sex objects
○ The mass media plays a particular important role in reinforcing these traditional ideas
Visibility
● Newbold
 ○ TV representation of women in sports (already little coverage) = sexualised + accomplishments are
devalued

Change
● McRobbie
○ Rise of ‘popular feminism’ → a no. of positive values presented in pre-teen and teen magazines,
e.g. self-confident, ambition and independence
○ Encourages a new form of ‘assertive femininity’ that is being embedded with ‘girl power’ and is
increasingly becoming part of ‘popular culture’ → changing and challenging traditional
stereotypes of females within the media
● Inness
○ ‘Changing roles’ in TV dramas and films → females are beginning to be presented in a more
‘positive’, ‘powerful’ and ‘tough’ manner
○ HOWEVER, the females playing these roles and characters are still not moving away from the highly
glamorised and attractive women stereotype
● Wilkinson
○ ‘Genderquake’ of increased ambitions → started to affect media representation
Male representation in the media
Stereotypical
● Gilmore: “the provider, the protector and the impregnator”
● Children Now
○ Male image in TV, e.g. attention focussed on girls, violent and angry, leaders and problem solvers,
and rarely cry
● Easthope
○ ‘Masculine myth’ → impression that a real man is based on his strength, aggression and violence
■ Ideological myth as the majority of men are unable to reach this goal of true “hegemonic
masculinity”
● Rutherford
○ ‘Retributive masculinity’ → there is an attempt to reclaim traditional masculine authority by
celebrating traditionally male concerns in their content
■ E.g. birds, booze, football

Change
● ‘New man’: e.g. emotionally vulnerable, not afraid to get in touch w/ feminine side, treat women as equals,
and care more about appearance etc.
● ‘The metrosexual male’
○ Mort: rise in male fashion magazines/products reflects the change in social attitudes of men and the
emergence of the metrosexual man (who cares about his appearance & is in touch w his feminine
side)
○ Edwards: the ‘new man’ = simply a product of advertisers to sell products to male and female
● Gauntlett
○ The ‘new man’ is emerging → men’s lifestyle magazines encouraged men to be caring, considerate
lovers, useful in the home, fashionable and funny
○ Colliers: male magazines are contradictory → there are still images of rugged extra-strong macho
man still circulate in popular culture; women are still sexualised in images in magazines
● Whannel
○ ‘Fluid masculinity’ → David Beckham is represented as both a ‘metrosexual’ and ‘retributive
masculinity’
■ ‘Fluid’ identity: good looks, football skills, and competitive spirit
Media representations of ethnicity
General features
● Tuchman: ‘symbolic annihilation’ → underrepresentation of certain groups
● Leveson Enquiry: the press perpetuates social divisions based on colour, culture, ethnicity, race and religion
○ E.g. Daily Express → coverage of Muslims = often very negative + no factual basis

Stereotypical
1. Presented as criminals
● Van Dijk
○ Black African-Caribbean’s seen as criminals in the tabloid press
● Davies
○ Study of the Daily Mail → 1. pictures were overwhelmingly of white people 2. Most black peoples’
images are of criminals; 64% exclusively of muggers, murderers and rapists
■ Creates moral panics (Hall) → e.g. London Riots appears to suggest that black culture was the
cause of the riots, which directs attention away from the problems in society
● Cushion
○ Young black men and boys are regularly associated with negative news but there is little attempt to
provide context to these scenarios/incidents and instead make the events seen irrational and nonsense
2. Presented as a threat
● Van Dijk
○ Right wing tabloid press
■ Moral panic created on the impact of immigration on jobs and housings
■ There is a lot more focus on East-European culture and concern of refugees
■ Benefits of immigrants not covered
● Poole
○ Islam has always been distorted and demonised
● Cardiff School of Media and Journalism studies
○ 2/3 media representations of muslims as a threat/problem
● Moore
○ Islamophobia in the media → 4 negative images of Islam in the media:
1. Islam is dangerous, backward, irrational
2. Multiculturalism → allows Islam to spread extremist messages to the UK Muslim
community
3. UK is presented as tolerant and democratic, Islam seen as misogynistic, intolerant and
oppressive
4. Islam is a threat to a British way of life
3. Presented as dependent
● Less developed countries portrayed to be dependent on Western countries
● Informed African experts are often ignored in favour of European and American reporters who may not be
there full time and do not have a true understanding
4. Presented as abnormal
● Poole
○ The media is ‘ethnocentric’ → marginalised groups are characterised as alien and exotic
■ A process of ‘othering’ increases social divisions → creates a sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’
● Ameli et al.
○ The discussion of the wearing of Muslim dresses is negative and seen as repressive
■ Journalists rarely focuses on the choices women have to wear it and the context in which they
wear it
5. Presented as unimportant
● Davies
○ The Daily Mail are more interested in the victims of crime if the victims are white
 ● BBC online survey
○ EM audiences are hostile to tokenism → Black and Asian people not seen as normal but shaped by
their ethnic identity
● Bennet et al.
○ Interests of EM are ignored → many EMs don’t identify with British TV
■ Media institutions are geared towards the interest of white people → those who work in it
are predominantly Oxbridge educated upper m-c white men

Changes
● Gauntlett
○ Analysis of media representations needs to be cautious as the British media is so diverse
■ E.g. the murder of Stephen Lawrence received high profile coverage in both left and right-
wing papers
● Since the 1990s, programmes such as the Bill and Eastander’s have attempted to challenge negative
stereotypes about black and asian people