The internet is a democratic space, where we all are free to participate equally.

Using your own case study, discuss whether the impact of new and digital media is democratic

A Marxist would definitely argue against audiences having authority allowing them to be free with sharing opinions over the internet because they believe multi-national news corporations still have superiority over us. They believe that ‘Cult of the Amateur’ (Andrew Keen) like bloggers are ‘killing our culture’. Perhaps Marxists are afraid of change where normal traditions could possibly be hindered due to the development of new and digital media. But with controversial discussions causing moral panics globally about fake news specifically with these independent news producers could be a push factor for audiences deciding to avoid bloggers and citizen journalism pulling them towards the news institutions. In this case it seems these large institutions are abusing their power to brush off their competitors in the people who want to have a voice and challenge the status quo. For example, the Guardian and other news outlets had published articles around the time of the EU referendum and US election negatively portraying bloggers as something ridiculous as ‘a million monkeys typing nonsense’ or something of that sort in an attempt to persuade audiences that independent news doesn’t have the quality or standards of news they produce. Using the hypodermic needle model it can be inferred that audiences would accept what the media are spoon feeding us as numbers of views on news bloggers could reduce. Therefore, Marxist do have evidence of the internet not being as democratic and equal as Rupert Murdoch suggests ‘the internet has given readers much more power’ or ‘...an exciting and revolutionary tool’ especially when considering a statistic like ‘57% of 9-19 year olds had come into contact with pornographic material online’ which was discovered in 2008 by Tanya Byron which has probably increased by now due the development of new and digital media. So the internet’s use by unprofessional news producers may not be taken serious because of these ‘fake news’ and ‘trolls’ on the internet so audiences would revert back to the ‘minority of media producers who always serve a majority of consumers’ – pareto’s law.