Essay

The development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view.

The development of new and digital media could be argued that audiences are becoming less reliant on news institutions and more dependent on other sources of obtaining news. People are sharing their opinions and values through social media and blogs which have blossomed in the past few years but it’s where they get their information from and who influences them to become public figures. It’s the perspective of pluralists and Marxists that I will decipher in the essay to understand the difference in ideologies when arguing for or against the amount of power audiences have.

This statement would certainly be approved by pluralists as audiences have now been given the opportunity to choose the media content they want to view rather than news institutes forcing particular mediated news stories to them. As James Halloran suggested audiences now have the ability to subvert their views and values ‘conform, accommodate, challenge or reject’ with the wide range of news sources at disposal which new/digital technologies have provided them. For example, the development of social media over the years has allowed audiences to interact with one another by posting footage of events and challenge ideologies which would give people a different perspective of political stories like police brutality instead of right wing news institutions (Daily Mail) portraying these unfortunate black victims as criminals when that may not be the case. Pluralists would argue that social media has allowed groups of people to form as a unit to begin public announces and awareness like the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign which has definitely given audiences power amongst the giant media institutes as it has influenced people’s ideologies and their confidence to stand up for their rights/freedom of speech ‘the internet is an empowering tool’ – Rupert Murdoch. Especially because of the citizen journalism we see on social networking sites like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook which news institutes would revert back to so they can obtain footage of the news story depending on their target audience’s political views. This challenges the views of Marxists as Herman and Mchesney’s views on the internet are utterly different ‘the internet and digital revolution do not pose an immediate or even foreseeable threat to the market power of the media giants’ as it seems some audiences have overcome the feeling of being prisoners of these news organisations as they are gradually becoming more dependent on news on social media. So this is where a moral panic has been created with the threat of journalism becoming extinct as citizen journalism's popularity rises.

Marxists would believe pluralists overestimate the significance of technology as it hasn’t really affected the position of giant news institutes who want to reinforce their audience’s ideologies. Although digital media has been introduced, it hasn’t (completely) reduced the power of elite news institutes as Pareto’s Law informs us ‘a minority of (media) producers always serve a majority of consumers’.  So audiences are still more dependent on news institutes over other sources on the internet which could be because they have more trust with news because they are organisations with pledges which are regulated by gatekeepers. However, the ability to identify what is real or fake could depend on the age of the audience as Livingston/Bober states ‘38% of UK pupils aged 9-19 never question the accuracy of online information’. The fact that some ‘never’ challenge the information online could be manipulated by news institutes like Fox or Daily Mail to suggest audiences would be better off obtaining news from them. Therefore, giant news institutions can maintain their power and forward their hegemonic views amongst audiences and as the hypodermic needle model suggests audiences believe what they are told by the media (surprisingly similar to young audience with information online). Considering the thoughts of Mark Zuckerberg he believes fake news is becoming a problem with people and their values and has pledged to do his most to cut down on the issue on Facebook. So as long as people view the internet as a place full of jargon news then media giants will always be positioned at number one with audiences being fully dependent on them for daily news (effects theory – spoon feeding audience). Therefore, it would seem journalism in the future may not be at risk because the public will still demand stories from them as they provide more important and relevant news like accountability journalism with the Washington post. 

A pluralist’s perspective would argue that new and digital media has given/increased people’s ‘freedom of speech’ which can be used to challenge each other’s views and values. When considering the production of media content, we can see the amount of ways any ordinary person can create and/or publish news on the internet. The use of blogs is a method used by many individuals who care to share their opinions and videos of recent events. This covers the uses and gratification theory when considering the ways audiences have been able to utilise the elements of the theory to construct news. For example, audiences may produce it as they want to educate people on certain news stories but people who consume it will use it to be educated – both of which are surveillance element. This means that audiences are active users of the media so have some influence with the content they will view which is evident with Brexit and the US election with the use of social media and blogs holding numerous rants and debates. Furthermore, audiences aren’t seen as powerless because of the fact that they are now showing their ability to form opinions and discussions randomly so aren’t as gullible or reliant on the media as Marxists and effects theory suggests. ‘audiences are seen as capable of manipulating the media in an infinite variety of ways’ which emphasises the views of pluralists because it implies audiences are now able to unravel more information about a particular news story because of the development in new and digital media.

In conclusion, it seems evident that audiences are still heavily reliant on news institutions (especially large ones) when obtaining news. Although they do have some control of the media and the content they want to view, it is the media that make people believe they have power. So once giant media institutions get hold of media content, it can be mediated first and then given to audiences on the internet making them believe they have authority of what they want to see when surfacing online for information. Therefore, I side with Marxists as giant news institutions are still the most powerful and will overcome audiences as people are too dependent on them and won’t ever neglect them.

Possible consideration:

Fake news is gradually getting regulated

News on social media may be abstracted from news websites or links

Media giants still controlling what is really revealed even when there is footage sometimes