Power and Media Industries - James Curran and Jean Seaton

Power and Media Industries - James Curran and Jean Seaton

• 'Diversity is in the public interest - but modern societies suffer from collective attention deficit disorders[...] the public interest has to work harder to be noticed, and we need agile but resourceful media to do that.' - James Curran and Jean Seaton

• In this day in age, we get distracted by our phones, and constantly check them throughout the day, it is digital technology, they in which have connection to the wifi therefore resourceful, attracting the audience.

• Monopoly - The exclusive ownership or control of something.

Who owns UK newspapers?

• Conglomerate - a large corporation consisting of multiple smaller companies.
• Subsidiaries - a smaller company owned by a large corporation.

Curran and Seaton on Monopoly

• Advantages to forming a Monopoly
• reduces competition
• audience manipulation
• 'It [extends] their range of business and political connections, [increases] their corporation's prestige and, through audacious editoral appointments, [contributes] to the maintenance of public opinion favourable to private enterprise.' - James Curran and Jean Seaton 
• It is essential to remember that conglomerate are primarily driven by the logic of profit and power.

• Issues with conglomeration
• Not much diversity
• Make their products look great
• e.g News Corp own 20th Century Fox and The Sun so when 20th Century Fox release a new movie they'll use the Sun to give it good 'fake' reviews.

• Key Facts with conglomerates and monopoly
• Having a monopoly means domination of multiple media industries
• If the focus on creating profit, generally conglomerates dont take risks with the media products that they produce.
• This often results in limited variety, creativity and quality.

• 'Anti-monopoly media regulation is needed not only to maintain fair competition but also to prevent the distortion of democracy.' - James Curran and Jean Seaton 

 What are the alternatives to conglomerate ownership?

• Partnership opposed to ownership
• Limit on how many companies you can own
• Boycott
• Make our own media

• 'Media policy should seek[...] to create the conditions of greatest possible competition, thus enabling consumers to exercise sovereign control. This produces media that people want, a wide range of choice, and media independence from government.' - James Curran and Jean Seaton

• Independent Producer
• free from outside control

• Institution
• A media industry with its own identity. 

• Industry
• The whole media industry

Quiz Pt.2

Mini Quiz Pt2

1. Name 3 keys differences between a broadsheet and a tabloid newspaper?

• Broadsheet is bigger than a tabloid.
• Broadsheet is 'actual news' whereas a tabloid is more gossip.
• Broadsheet is aimed at more higher class.
• Tabloids tend to have a red masthead.
• Tabloid's tend to have more images than 

2.  Define Polysemy

• Multiple meanings, there are different ways in which we can read them.

3. Define Bias

• Bias is the way that a certain media text is presented unfairly to one side due to the producers ideologies and beliefs. Favours one group over another.

4. What are two ways newspapers can be biased?

• Selection
• The photos used.
• The language used.
• Admission
• Leaving important stuff out.
• Positioning
• Front page news is more important to the producer.

5. Define agenda

• The aim of the newspaper
• Newspaper producers potentially try to manipulate the audiences ideologies.

6. What is ideology?

• The beliefs and ideas that the producer believes in.

7. What are the four steps of representation?

1. The group, place or issue on which a media text is focusing on.
2. The way that the producer presents these people through the use of media language.
3. The message behind this presented group.
4. The impact this presentation has on us as the audience.

8. Define Hegemony

• Where one group has power over another through consent.

9. What is the difference between sexualisation and objectification.

• 'astion' is a process, sexualised is a process of making something sexual, objectification is where you dehumanise something and make it into an object. 

10. What does Liesbet Van Zoonen theorise about gender?

• The idea that women's bodies are in the media to be looked at in the media by males to seem attractive.

11. What, arguably, is the difference between sex and gender?

• Sex is what you're born as however gender is what you view yourself as, people argue it is a performance and an act.

12. What is the biggest selling newspaper in the UK?

• The Sun

Introduction to the Times and Constructing Representation

Introduction to the Times and Constructing Representation

• What advantages are there to a newspaper demonstrating a particular political/ideological bias?
• System of control and power.
• Hegemony.
• Having an ideology means you can attract more of a target audience.
• Helps to be part of your identity.
• To gain the support of a political party.
• Our ideas are challenged and this is repeated over and over again.

• Whats the difference between a Tabloid and a Broadsheet?
• Tabloid is more gossip whereas Broadsheet is 'actual news'.
• The Daily Mirror is aimed at working class people.
• Less eye catching images in the broadsheet compared to the Tabloid.
• The tabloids slang term is 'a red top' as they have red titles, and broadsheet is known as the 'serious press'. 
• The headlines on the Tabloid are larger than the Broadsheet.
• The level of literacy is below GCSE level to read the Daily Mirror (Tabloid) whereas the level of literacy is above GCSE to read The Guardian (Broadsheet).
• Broadsheet has a story on the front page, apart from the masthead and above it just looks like the inside of a normal newspaper.
• Broadsheet's are much more expensive than Tabloids which gives an idea of the income of their target audience of the higher social groups.

Polysemy - Polysemic

• Polysemy
• Not everything has a single meaning. One of the best ways of applying Media Theory, is through suggesting two or more possible meanings.

• In creating a newspaper, producers typically attempt to avoid polysemic readings. The process of forcing an audience in to a particular reading is called anchoring.

• Anchorage 
• The 'fixing' of a particular meaning to a media text, often through the use of captions.

• Taking inferences from a un captioned image.
• Strength, Anger, Power, Hope, Unity. 

The Sun - Right Wing VS. Morning Star - Left Wing (Communist)

• The Sun is going for a slating the opposition approach, not saying what good conservatives will be, but rather what bad the labour party will be. Whereas, the Morning Star say how good the labour party will be and dont mention the conservatives.
• The Sun also use mise-en-scene to portray their ideas of Corbin as they have set him in a dirty council housing street and placed him in the bin.
• The Sun is also using direct address towards the audience saying 'we've had enough' they've positioned the audience into the text and in a direct mode of address.
• 'Terrorists Friend' shows the key information and the main point of the back story.
• Morning Star is much more positive.
• They both use the bullet points.
• In the Sun he is looking quite shifty and looks silly whereas in the Morning Star he is looking happy and good.
• Heroic language through the Morning Star's language.
• The sun is a very blunt and brutal.
• The sun has gone to an effort to make sure that he is seen horrible and brutal through words and choice of image whereas the Morning Star is portrayed that they haven't actually tried to hard and they've still managed to make him seem good.

Bias and Agenda

• Bias
• You favour one opinion over another when you are biased.
• Agenda
• Trying to do something with your opinion, doing something for a reason.

Discourse Analysis - How to Assess Bias

• Bias through selection and omission.
• Bias through placement.
• Bias by headline.
• Bias by photos, captions and camera angles.
• Bias through use of names and titles.
• Bias through statistics and crowd counts.
• Bias by source control.
• Bias through word choice and tone.