MEDIA A LEVEL 9699 APPIAH HEMLATA 2021-2023

9.1 Traditional and new media

Defining the media
Media refers to forms of communication aimed at a wide audience. Examples
include magazines, newspapers, television, radio and billboards amongst others.
• Differences between the traditional media and the new media.
There is a distinction between old and new media. Old media refers to
newspapers, magazines, books, television, radio and film. New media refers to
contemporary channels of communication like mobile phone and personal
computers that are characterised by their interactivity, individualisation and
networks capabilities.
Characteristics of old media:
1. Impersonal: the sender of the message does not know the receivers
2. Lacking in immediacy: the audience has no involvement with the
production
3. One-way: from the producer/creator to the consumer/ audience
4. Physically and technologically distant: everyone receives the same
intended message
5. Organized: it requires a vehicle such as a television receiver, printed page
or internet connection which allows messages to be sent and received.
6. Large scale and simultaneous: the global audience for something like the
football World Cup numbers hundreds of millions.
7. Commodified: it comes at a price. You can watch the latest films of you
can afford a television and a subscription to a satellite or cable company.
Characteristics of computer based technologies
1. The capacity of communication is one to one like email
2. The capacity of communication is one to many like Facebook, twitter or a
blog.
3. Many to many like group conversations on WhatsApp
One similarity between the old and the new media is the nature of ownership and
control.
• Trends affecting the organisation of the media, including cross-media
ownership, digitalisation, media conglomerates and social media.
One similarity between old and new media is the nature of ownership and control.
Two processes that are common to all forms of media behaviour in modern
industrial societies are concentration and conglomeration.

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Concentration of ownership: this refers to how the media is increasingly owned

by a relatively small number of large corporations and powerful individuals.
COMPAINE 2004 notes that the global media market is dominated by seven giant
corporations including Disney, News International and Bertelsmann.
However, consumers are offered a limited range of similar media products in
relation to content though there can be several channels. Compaine argue that
media organizations are not static entities but they develop, grow, evolve and
disappear. 15 years ago, Amazon did not exist but today it is one of the world’s
largest media outlets. Founded in 2003, Myspace was the most visited social
networking site in the world until 2008 when it was overtaken by Facebook which
by 2013 became the most successful internet site.
Conglomeration
Conglomeration involves the same company developing interests across different
media through a process of diversification. One example of this type of cross
media corporation is Fininvest. It has a diverse range of interests that include
television, book, newspaper and magazine publishing. In terms of new media,
Amazon, the world’s largest bookseller has diversified its interests over the last
few years into areas such as publishing, with the development of the Kindle range
of digital book readers, and book review websites, with the acquisition of
Goodreads in 2013.
Digitalisation
Digitalisation is the changing of media from analog to digital form. For example,
in Mauritius, newspapers like Defi plus and L’express have online publications.
Music and be listened and downloaded online rather than being bought as CD.
Even TV has been digitalized with several channels being broadcasted
simultaneously. Digitalisation offers benefits like programmes can be watched on
demand or through catch up services. TV can be used to access the internet like
smart TV.
Social media
Digitalisation, the expansion of the internet and the use of computer technologies
have made interactive media possible. Interactive media is where people can
communicate with each other both sharing and consuming information like
websites and applications like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. Social
media allow users to create their own content and their own networks. Social
media can take many forms like social networks, social gaming, video sharing,
blogs and virtual words.

• Debates about who controls the media.

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There is a debate about the extent to which the media are controlled by their
owners or others. There are two types of media owners:
1. Private ownership refers to companies that are run for profit by individuals,
families or shareholders. Rupert Murdoch owns a controlling interest in
News Corporation, a global media company that publishes newspapers,
books, films and magazines and broadcast satellite TV programmes.
2. State ownership involves government controls that differ between
societies. In china, for example, the government directly oversees the
content of state-run television and tightly regulated access to the internet.
In other societies, public broadcasters have greater autonomy
Owners have the potential to decide what sort of information an audience
receives. Censorship is the deliberate suppression of communication or
information. Private owners may decide not to publish information critical of
their company, whereas state owned companies may be subject to political
control over what they can broadcast or publish.
On a daily basis, media owners have less control over content than senior workers
also known as controllers. Controllers such as the editor of a newspaper manage
a company on a daily basis and are known as a technocratic managerial elite by
Galbraith. While they may be shareholders in the company on a daily basis, they
do not own the company for which they work.
WHO OWNS AND CONTROLS THE MEDIA?
1. Marxism
Marxists believe that the ruling class owns and controls ideological institutions
gives it the power to decisively shape how people view the social world. The
media is part of the political and ideological superstructure in capitalist society.
Its role is to propagate values that support the status quo, shaping how people see
the world through a range of legitimating ideas. These include:
1. Support for capitalism
2. Rationalising and justifying social inequalities
3. Defending the concept of private property
4. The private ownership of profits
5. Negatively labelling alternatives to capitalism
The media is a tool or instrument used by a ruling class to teach an ideology that
favours the interests of bourgeoisie. As Milliband argues, this is possible because
members of the ruling class share a common economic and cultural background,
which is created and reinforced through educational and family networks. Thus,
owners control a company while managers are employed to oversee day to day
operations.

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Owners and controllers use the media to manipulate subject classes see the world
to create the belief that societies work in the interests of all rather than the
interests of a few. In this way, the media creates a false consciousness: the lower
classes cooperate with a ruling class in their own exploitation against their own
interests. In the UK, for example, following the global financial crisis in 2008,
the media has characterised recovery in terms of austerity and the need for
everyone to work together to make sacrifices to pay off the national debt.
Evaluation
However, the media is not always a willing tool in the hands of the elite as the
recent 2011 phone hacking scandal at News International showed. The media is
also critical of many forms of capitalist behaviour, from greedy bakers to
environmental crimes. The usefulness of concepts like a dominant ideology and
false consciousness have also been questioned. People in contemporary
democratic societies have a wide range of media choices that offer different
economic, political and ideological viewpoints. The development of new media
makes it increasingly difficult to see how the flow of Information can be tightly
controlled by a ruling class.
2. Neo- Marxism
The hegemonic approach questions the idea that the behaviour of subject classes
is directly manipulated through the media. The media is not without influence
but such influence is hegemonic not manipulative. The concept of hegemony is
used to show how both owners and controllers in modern capitalist societies are
locked into a mutually beneficial structural relationship based around economic
profit. For example owners must make profits if their business is to survive.
Managers rely on profits for their jobs, salaries and lifestyles.
Hegemonic control suggests that beliefs are not simply imposed from above by a
ruling class. Strinati argues that dominant groups maintain their position through
the consent of subordinate groups. This occur through the ideological state
apparatus that involve socialisation process, both personal and political, which
are carried out by cultural institutions like the media.
Evaluation
Criticism of Neo Marxism focuses on the hegemonic significance of the media
and its ideological role. The development of new global media forms limits the
ability of national governments or private owners to control information as they
may once have done. In the digital age, most populations are no longer restricted
to information which they receive passively from the media.
3. Pluralism

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Pluralism stresses how social groups compete against one another in the
economic marketplace as they pursue their own interests. Such competition may
be economic where different newspaper groups competing for readers or
ideological where different political groups competing to promote their views.
Media owners are potentially powerful players because they can demand that
their views are expressed. However pluralist approaches argue that control of the
media is increasingly in the hands of what Galbraith calls a technocratic
managerial elite who however well remunerated remain employees rather than
employers. Many media organizations are owned by shareholders rather than
individuals. Where no single shareholder has overall control of a company,
directors and managers make all the important day to day business decisions.
Burnham argues that in a competitive world, the consumer exercises a huge
influence over organizational behaviour. The ideological content of media
messages is less important than profit. This is where media companies are forced
to compete for customers where power lies in the hands of consumers. This
economic situation results in many different types of publication from print to
digital media. A further boost to media diversity involves the rapid growth of
cheap, widely available computer technology, from desktop computers to
smartphones. These are built on a web based distribution system that has reduced
the costs of media production and made entry into the media market place open
to all.
Globalisation has encouraged diversity and competition through what Davis and
McAdam call a new economic shift. Media corporations have become networks
operating across national boundaries, with flexible organisational structures that
allow them to respond to new technological developments. Even an organisation
like Facebook originally developed and owned by a very small group of
employees including the creator Mark Zuckerberg is now owned by a wide group
of institutional and individual shareholders.
Evaluation
Major shareholders still exert control over a business. Rupert Murdoch for
example has a 35 % share in News Corporation which gives him control. Curran
2000 acknowledges that the power of media owners is qualified and constrained
by a range of people but owners remain the most powerful actors in these
organisations. They may not personally oversee the content of the media they
own, but they are unlikely to employ managers who are opposed to their social
and economic interests.
Although the internet makes it more difficult for owners to control what their
audience sees, reads and hears, old media may actually have far larger audiences
than most new media. Logan 2010 notes that while there are around 175 million

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unique blogs on the internet, the average number of readers of any given blog is
seven.
DIFFERENCES NETWEEN THE TRADITIONAL AND THE NEW
MEDIA
Globalisation has encouraged diversity and competition through what Davis and
McAdam call a new economic shift. New media corporations operate across
national boundaries and innovate with technological developments. They have a
number of shareholders rather than individual. For example, Facebook that was
initially created by Mark Zuckerberg is now owned by a group of institutional
and individual shareholders.
Modern media cater for diverse consumer needs and demands. This results in
many types of publication ranging from print to broadcasting and digital media.
Besides, the new media makes interaction easier and people can also create their
own content like through commenting on Twitter or posting pictures or videos.
THE DEBATE ABOUT WHETHER THE TRADITIONAL MEDIA HAVE
BEEN UNDERMINED BY THE GROWTH OF THE NEW MEDIA.
New technologies have not led to the disappearance of old media. Rather, it
allowed them to evolve. For example, audio which once meant only audio has
survived and remains popular all over the world. There are more radio stations as
digital allows room for more to broadcast. Radio can be listened to on PCS and
mobile devices.
Newspapers have also adapted to the new technology though some have struggled
as people now expect news available freely. Newspapers across the globe are
migrating from print to digital format through smartphones and tablet based apps.
This has resulted in a wider readership like for the website of the British Daily
Mail.
Television remains the most popular leisure activity in modern industrialized
societies. Television viewing has changed with high definition channels, on
demand and catch up services, digital video recording and the ability to watch on
PCs or smartphones. As a matter of fact, TV now attracts a greater proportion of
young viewers. However, in the past, TV used to be a unifying force for the family
where people would watch programmes together while today, households have
more than one TV and can also watch through smartphones.
The way traditional media has evolved has rendered less power to government
and private owners to control information. people are no longer receiving media
messages passively but can search the globe.
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9.2 Theories of the media and influences on media content

THE NATURE AND ROLE OF THE MEDIA
1. Traditional Marxism
The media is an ideological institution favouring the interests of a ruling class.
It shapes how people think by controlling the nature and type of information on
which they make judgements. Based on this manipulative or instrumental
approach, owners and controllers use the media as a tool to influence public
opinion.
The media as part of the political and ideological superstructure promotes the
values of capitalist society through social control. Those whose views reflect the
interests of owners are given access to the media. Those with alternative or
contradictory views are generally denied such access. As Petersen 2008 argues,
every major US newspaper and TV news show has a business section not a labour
section.
The media represents marginalised social groups such as immigrants, minorities
and the unemployed are causes of social problems. This scapegoating is designed
to create divisions within and between groups and to deflect the blame for social
problems away from the behaviour of the elite. The role of the media is to ensure
that the views and interests of the elite are presented in ways that encourage
people to accept social and economic inequality as normal and right.
Althusser saw the media as an ideological state apparatus where owners and
controllers create a false consciousness where the working class cooperates with
the ruling class in their own exploitation. In the UK for example, following the
global financial crisis in 2008, media has emphasized on austerity and the need
for everyone to work together.
Ross 1995 argues that the media is used by both individuals and powerful elites
to create a sense of community and culture. A mass society develops a mass
culture. This is sometimes called popular or low culture. Because mass culture
is created through the media it can be manipulated to reflect the interests of a
ruling class.
However, this traditional view of Marxist has been criticised because there are
occasions where sections of the media do not simply reproduce ruling class
propaganda (biased information used to promote an ideology). The media can be
critical of many forms of capitalist behaviour like greedy bankers and
environmental crimes.
The usefulness of concepts like dominant ideology and false consciousness have
been questioned. People in modern democratic societies have a wide range of
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media choices that offer various economic, political and ideological views. The
development of new media makes it increasingly difficult to see how the flow of
information can be tightly controlled by a ruling class.
2. Neo- Marxism
Neo Marxists argue that the role of the media is to maintain the status quo by
policing and protecting core social values. The media plays a crucial role in
creating a consensus that allows people to socialise into core values. This is part
of what is known as cultural hegemony: the domination of one set of ideas over
others. Such hegemonic control is not simply imposed from above but is accepted
by the working class. This is in line with what Althusser calls the ideological state
apparatus.
Gramsci argue that elites can absorb, accommodate and even promote
information diversity through hierarchies of trust. The media holds certain beliefs
about core values that are taken for granted. In so doing, the media sets the agenda
for debate. It also steers public opinion in particular ways and is involved in
agenda setting. Another way is to use captions to tell an audience what a picture
means. At worst, this control is a form of propaganda. This is a selective, partial
and one sided forms of communication designed to influence the attitudes of an
audience towards a particular point of view. The Propaganda model developed
by Chomsky and Herman sees the main role of the media as ensuring that people
support the state and the capitalist system through news filter.
According to Hall 1995, the media encode the meanings of the powerful. They
are able to do so as they operate within a framework of consensus. This consensus
is constructed: it is an educated, learnt consent to which media are central. Studies
done by the Glasgow media group support this argument as they found that stories
are reported in a way that reproduces the viewpoint of powerful interests because
these interests have greater access to the media.
Critics question the idea about whether the media all act together in the ways
implied and that some do expose cases of wrongdoings.
3. Pluralism
Pluralists place much importance on information diversity. Owners and
controllers are continually looking for ways to improve their product. This is
because media audiences are not passive but active as they only buy what they
want. New media simply increases the choice available to consumers on a global
scale.
The role of the media is to provide consumers with the information and services
they demand. A diverse range of media exists and people can choose from
different sources of information. This applies to both old and new media: internet
access, for example, means people can get information from both national and
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global sources. A variety of media reflecting a range of views also means that
some sections will represent the interests of ordinary people and the activities of
the powerful can be scrutinised, exposed and criticised.
However, pluralism has been heavily criticized as it overstates the separation of
ownership and control in modern media conglomerates. At the senior levels of
global corporations, managers are employees in name only. As Murdock and
Golding argued, managers often own the companies they control.
Moreover, major shareholders like Rupert Murdoch’s family with News Corp still
exert control over a business. Besides, old media may actually have far larger
audiences than new media and they may be trusted more as sources of
information. Pluralists argue that media diversity guarantees consumer choice but
competition does not automatically mean media diversity. Economies of scale for
example, mean that the majority of consumer demands can be satisfied by a few
giant corporations holding great economic, political and ideological power on a
global scale.
• Factors that influence the selection and presentation of news.
FACTORS AFFECTING MEDIA CONTENT
1. Economic factors
Production and distribution costs especially for old media influence factors such
as news gathering. A national media company for example has more resources at
its disposal than a local one.
Production values relate to the quality of the product presented to an audience.
The BBC for example routinely spends more on its content than small satellite
TV stations. As a result, it produces more varied content with higher production
values. Besides, rewriting corporate press releases is cheaper than investigative
reporting. This is where churnalism occurs where news media simply use stories
already written by a company.
The delivery of some physical media, such as newspapers, magazines and booms
also places limits on content. Print media has space restrictions with additional
costs related to the production of extra pages that do not apply to new media such
as websites.
2. Political factors
Political factors in democratic societies may not have a direct influence on the
selection and presentation of media content but many governments lay down
basic rules governing acceptable and unacceptable content. China operates strict
censorship rules across a range of media and subjects; news outlets are banned
from mentioning events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests
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and web content unacceptable to the state is also blocked. Media content is also
covered by legal restrictions on what can and cannot be published relating to
things such as copyright. There is also libel what can be legally written about
someone.
3. Ideological factors
a. News values
What counts as news is socially constructed and determined- an event only
becomes need when someone worth the power to apply this label decides it is
newsworthy. Chibnall defines news values (guidelines used by workers to
decide whether and how to report a story) as the criteria of relevance which guide
reporters’ choice and construction of newsworthy stories learnt through a process
of informal professional socialisation. Senior news media workers act as
gatekeepers who make decisions about whether to accept or reject stories.
Theories
For pluralists, news values are evidence of consumer choice and diversity because
they reflect the demands of the audience. For example, people who read the Times
of India do not want pictures of topless women or trivial stories about minor
American celebrities. This idea can be extended to all forms of media content.
For Marxists, news values are evidence of how audiences are shaped and
manipulated- they learn to want whatever the media decided is newsworthy. From
this perspective, news values are shaped by the ideological demands of owners.
b. Agenda setting
In a media organization, the editor is responsible for ensuring that the news
agenda set by owners is followed. Agenda setting is a neo-marxist concept that
argues that decisions made by editors and owners about what and what not to
report set the agenda for how the general public receives and perceives news.
The role of journalists for example is not simply to gather and report the news.
Gate-keeping is the ability to limit access to the media. An editor’s gate keeping
role, for example involves making decisions about what counts as news as well
as policing the news values of particular organizations. They interpret the
meaning of an event for their audience.
c. Discourse
A discourse reflects the ideas, beliefs and values of specific, powerful groups.
Discourse is generally used by postmodernists to show how the media creates a
framework for audience interpretation. Making certain values appear legitimate
for example, structures how an audience receives information.

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• An example is Cohen’s concept of folk devils who are individuals and

groups singled out for special attention and blame because they are seen to
represent a challenge or threat to the existing moral order.
• Examples of folk devils:
1. The poor, constructed in ways that blame poverty on the individual
2. Welfare claimants who play the system to support leisure lifestyles.
3. Immigrants who fail to integrate into a dominant culture.
4. Terrorists who threaten our way of life.
Folk devils are a way of creating a sense of social solidarity in a population by
identifying people not like us; they are outsiders or the other. The selection and
presentation of relatively powerless groups as folk devils in a news discourse is
generally done in the context of a moral panic (a heightened sense of fear created
by the media which is seen as a threat to the moral order in society).
• The concepts of mass manipulation and hegemony as different ways of
understanding the production of media content.
Marxism sees owners and controllers as using the media as a tool to influence
public opinion which is known as mass manipulation. To this end, they use
stereotypes and scapegoating while reporting news.
Neo Marxists use the concept of hegemony to explain how the latter influences
media content. This is where the media play a crucial role in creating a consensus
that allows people to be socialized into core values. This occurs through agenda
setting or the use of captions.
**DEBATES ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MEDIA
AND THE STATE **
1. Marxism
As per Eriksen 2004, the media promotes and maintains values favourable to a
ruling class in 2 ways. Through its monopoly of violence, the power of the state
is used to maintain unequal class relationships. Secondly, Althusser sees the
media as an ideological state apparatus where the state attempts to directly assert
the interests of a ruling class through an interlocking relationship between the
political and economic members of this class.
The ideological relationship between the media and the state is based on three
types of selective media mechanisms:
1. Negative selection mechanisms exclude anti-capitalist ideas and proposals
such as worker control of the economy. These are rarely given prominence
or serious consideration in the media. Strikes of workers are hardly shown
to maintain order.

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2. Positive selection mechanisms promote ideas favourable to a capitalist

class. A recent given 2013 UK example is the promotion of government
welfare reforms as part of an austerity drive to repay national debt created
by the global banking crisis.
3. Disguising selection mechanisms maintains the illusion that the media is
neutral by suggesting that it reflects all points of view and the interests of
society as a whole. Antagonism to industrial action for example is
frequently couched in terms of preventing public disorder.

2. Pluralism
The state’s role is to balance the interests of a media based on ideas such as
freedom of speech with the interests of those whose activities are reported. This
involves the idea of a representative state- one that reflects the interests of
different, competing groups and represents the interests of society as a whole.
The state regulates the media in three ways:
• Politically- to ensure that where competing groups exist the state sets out
the conditions under which each can operate. For example, there are
regulations governing fair competition and levels of media ownership.
Where the media reflect plurality and diversity of ideas and interests, the
choice about which to consume is left to the individual.
• Legally- to regulate potential conflicts. The state acts to balance the
interests of businesses, groups and individuals through laws relating to
things like copyright and libel. Disputes between different interests groups
such as a newspaper and an individual or group can be settled legally.
• Socially- in the sense of maintaining the conditions under which different
institutions such as the media can operate in an orderly way to fulfil their
social functions, responsibilities and obligations.
The media is free to act out its general role in pluralist societies;
1. It helps to maintain democratic ideas and institutions through criticism and
assessment of different political parties and policies.
2. Checking the behaviour of political and economic elites by exposing things
like corruption.
3. Maintaining a separation between economic ownership of the media and
political control.

3. New right approaches

New right approaches are similar to pluralist approaches but they take particular
issue with the role of the government in relation to media owners. Government
ownership is seen to work against the interests of consumers by distorting

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economic markets. Government media ownership limits or removes competition

at the expense of consumer choice.
The new right believes that processes such as media convergence should be
encouraged. State regulation governing or preventing cross-media ownership
stops companies developing these new technologies. Government carries self-
regulation of media that restrict freedom of the press and there is also market
discipline where the state control the ideological content of the media.
4. Post modernism
McCluhan and Powers claim that in a global village, the media cannot be subject
to controls that restrict the free flow of ideas and information. Power in terms of
control over the production and distribution of information is no longer
concentrated within institutions such as the state or media but within social
networks where it is both produced and consumed by the same people. However,
information can be managed. Just as some forms of old media operating within
particular national boundaries, attempt to organize information in line with a
range of political, economic and ideological discourses promoted by the state, the
same is true of the state itself.
• The postmodernist contribution to understanding the media.
The postmodernist view of the media is closer to the pluralist view rather than
Marxist views as it emphasizes how social changes are bringing about greater
choice and diversity. One feature of the media today is that they have become
more pervasive. They dominate our lifestyle and shape the way we construct our
identities.
We live in a media saturated identity to such an extent that people find it difficult
to distinguish between reality and media. This is where Baudrillard uses the term
hyper reality to show how the media has saturated our lives with image that seem
more real than the original. Each reality is constructed from the way in which
people pick and choose different ideas to suit their beliefs. These realities are
known as simulacra (representations of other representations).
New media create networks within which content is produced and consumed by
the same people. Information flows between different people, thus making it
difficult to distinguish between the producer and the consumer. Therefore, this
makes state regulation and censorship difficult on both a national and global
scale.
• Censorship as a factor influencing media content.
In the 20th century, states used the media for propaganda like anti-Jewish
propaganda in Nazi Germany. In modern capitalist societies, the state has less

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control on the media as there is freedom of expression. However, the state

establishes legal rules and regulations that both preserve media autonomy and set
limits for media behaviour.
Most states have some kind of censorship of pornography and other materials that
can harm the morality of that society. The media can also self-censor where they
can decide not to broadcast or publish something that can offend the audience.
It is to be noted that the new media makes it difficult for state to censor data as
they cross national boundaries. North Korea is an exception here as it exercises
full control over their residents’ access to foreign websites. Social media have
been used in protests in some countries such as during the Arab Spring in 2011,
when Twitter was used to coordinate demonstrations an inform the rest of the
world of what was happening. Social media sites can censor their own content to
prevent images of nudity for example.

• How the media may influence the political process, including agenda
setting, opinion polls, and news reporting.
AGENDA SETTING
The media shapes political process through agenda setting. They have the power
to choose what to report and in this way select what is newsworthy or news
values. Marxists argue that the news agenda is usually constructed to ensure that
audiences remain unaware of some facts and issues so as to reduce protests.
OPINION POLLS
Opinion polls are published by the media. They are based on surveys or
interviews with members of the public and can be used to show how people feel
about particular issues. A newspaper may publish an opinion poll that suggests
that many people want the government to take action on a particular issue.
Opinion polls are often published as elections approach, showing hoe people say
they intend to vote. This leads to media stories about political members which
can influence the outcome of the election.
NEWS REPORTING
The way news is being reported and the language being used can help shape how
audiences respond. Through reporting, the media can put pressure on the
government to take initiatives or bring changes. Investigative reporting may
uncover and render public hidden cases.

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9.3 The impact of the new media

• How the new media is contributing to globalisation.
New media like websites and social networks enable global connections through
the development of information networks based on the creation and exchange of
information. A significant aspect of these global features is the ability to create
and share text, images, videos and other content without being slowed by physical
borders.
A key feature of the new media is interconnectedness of people. The development
of Wikipedia is a free non-linear online encyclopedia created by its users and
which anyone can edit. As Crosbie (2002) argue, on YouTube, the user can be
both the consumer and the producer which enhances creativity.
• The new media as a challenge to existing power structures.
1. Media industries are suffering from intellectual property theft – piracy.
2. The unauthorized access to computers and networks.

• The debate about digital optimism versus digital pessimism.

Problems with New media – digital pessimism
1. Piracy
The products of new media are relatively easy to copy and distribute digitally.
This has led to the rise of global forms of intellectual property theft that is piracy.
Solutions have been provided to such problems. There are legal prosecutions of
individual offenders and attempts to shut down illegal sites.
2. The unauthorized access to computers and networks.
Government can engage in cyberwarfare, for example, they can hack rival
government computer networks for espionage or sabotage. Individuals also make
use of viruses and malware designed to damage computers, extort money or steal
information. In 2010, US government claimed that the cyber theft of copyrights
by China remained at unacceptable levels.
3. Invasion of privacy
Social media such as Facebook makes money through advertising which can now
be targeted to individuals through the sale of users’ personal data to third parties.
Users exchange ‘free services’ for some loss of privacy where some corporations
like Facebook are able to gather personal data on a person on his ‘likes’ and his
other online content.

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There is also the rapid spread and persistence of online data. Once data is released
into the wild of the web, whether in the shape of sites, blogs, tweets or tagged
photos, it is difficult to erase or withdraw it. Media surveillance is another issue
that targets environmental activists and political parties. There is also digital
stalking and bullying.
4. Economic issues
In economic terms, free business models are only free in the sense that their costs
are hidden from the consumer. These costs include exploiting free labour, driving
down quality, privacy and copyright. Owners of internet search engines such as
Google, use various techniques to discourage consumers from switching to other
service providers.
The highly concentrated ownership of new media allows global corporations to
buy up competitors. For example, Alphabet (Google) has taken over more than
200 companies such as video sharing sites on YouTube which leads to a decrease
in digital diversity.
Digital optimism (positive)
In economic terms, there is less cost as the consumer pays nothing to use a certain
software. There is also a wide creative pools of talent where people develop new
softwares. Tapscott and Williams 2008 call this Wikinomics in
acknowledgement of the pioneering collaborative efforts of Wikipedia.
Producers have to be more responsive to consumer demands because the ability
to act as a global crowd, passing information swiftly from individual to individual
means that corporate behaviour is being monitored and evaluated. Digital
technology assists crowd sourcing.
Politically, the internet also makes it harder for the state to censor or restrict the
flow of Information. This is because populations have access to instant forms of
mass communication such as Twitter. This contributes to political socialisation
because people have a greater understanding of the meaning of issues and events.
Culturally, behaviour can be both participatory and personalised. The ideas of
various people can lead to the development of new ways of thinking and
behaving. The fact that people can be anonymous on the web encourages both
freedom of speech and whistle-blowing.

• The impact of the new media on social identities and interpersonal

relationships.
Identities are about the way people see themselves and are seen by others. In the
past, identities like social class, gender, ethnicity and religion were fixed.

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Postmodernists argue that today identities are more open to change as there is
greater choice and freedom made available by the media.
People can construct new identities online and are able to communicate with
various people who are far geographically. New media allow for more social
networking and sharing. It becomes easier to keep in touch with people, re-
establish lost contacts and build new online communities. This makes people
more tolerant and open minded as per digital optimists.
On the other hand, digital pessimists question the strengths of online
relationships. Online networks and communities may also reinforce intolerance.
For example, political extremists will have a platform to meet and influence
others. A lot of online behaviour is negative like trolling, cyber-bullying, abuse,
death threats.
Spending time online may take away real life interaction, with people losing the
ability to communicate in the real world and spending less quality time with
family and friends. Indeed, during family gatherings, weddings or be it at a
restaurant, people are more likely to connect to social networks via their phones
rather than having real conversation with people around them physically.
10.1 Media representations of class, gender, ethnicity, and age groups
• How different groups are represented in the media.

1. Class
There are stereotypical representations of social classes. Representation refers to
the various ways the media portray ideas, individuals and groups. Working class
in historical terms has been linked to popular costume dramas that focus on
servitude, poverty and criminality. In modern times, working class life is
represented through socially problematic behaviours such as crime, welfare
dependency, unemployment, violence and sexual promiscuity.
This is linked with culture. The mass or popular culture of the working class is
characterised as simple, worthless, mass produced and disposable. In contrast,
middle and upper class cultural life is represented as a high cultural reflection
which is valuable. For instance, they may be depicted in terms of their
professional employment, cultural associations in terms of music, fashion and art.
The Glasgow Media Group’s study of television reporting shows that
marginalisation can be seen in the way that dramas and documentaries largely
ignore working class life. These programmes tend to focus on the actions of upper
class historical figures. For example, British history is largely represented in film,

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television, newspapers and books through the thoughts and actions of royalty and
the aristocracy.
Newman (2006) argues that the media focus very positively on the concerns of
the wealthy and the privileged. He notes that the media over-focuses on consumer
items such as luxury cars, costly holiday spots and fashion accessories that only
the wealthy can afford.
Contemporary media focus only on the interests, actions and activities of business
leaders, middle and upper class politicians and philanthropists. Working class are
represented as subjects of middle class power and control. They are portrayed as
dysfunctional, dependent and socially problematic while the middle class is
purposeful, independent and socially supportive.
Stereotypes are one sided representations of working class life are aggregated that
is they are applied to the class as a whole. Examples of stereotypes are:
1. Inarticulate
2. Old fashioned
3. Uneducated
4. Lazy
5. Incapable
For higher classes, problematic behaviour like greed, selfishness or criminality is
represented as an individual weakness rather than symbolic of the whole class.
The 2008 global financial crisis is represented in terms of the actions of a few
rogue bankers rather than the social problems caused by middle and upper class
behaviour.
2. Age
Ownership and control of national and global media is often characterised as
middle-aged, middle-class and male. This idea of power and control suggests that
representations of young people are largely constructed through an adult gaze.
Children
A. Children are represented in terms of their innocent and uncorrupted nature.
B. They are represented as unruly, lacking self-control and requiring adult
discipline and guidance.
Youth
Pearson argues that the media creates moral panics regarding young people and
technology where traits like rebellion, disrespect, selfishness and obsessions with
self and sex are observed. Moral panic refers to the heightened sense of fear of
behaviour seen as a threat or challenge to the moral order in society.

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Wayne et al. found that young people were mainly represented as a violent threat
to society. They note that the media only delivers a one-dimensional picture of
youth, one that encourages fear and condemnation rather than understanding.
Moreover, they argue that it distracts from the real problems that young people
face in the modern world such as homelessness, not being able to get onto the
housing ladder, unemployment or mental health.
Youth subcultures like Mods and Rockers, Skinheads, Hippies and Punks enjoyed
a short time in the media spotlight as they were seen as abnormal youth.
Contemporary representations also focus on celebrations of youth. These might
take the form of rebellion from adult rules and responsibilities, vibrant social
change or adults’ perception of youth as a highly desirable physical state.
Stereotypes frequently represent male youth as delinquent and politically
apathetic. Representations of young working class males tend to be very different
from those of young middle class females.
Old age
Elderly is associated with a problematic status and is constructed around how the
burden of an ageing population affects the rest of society through the increasing
costs of state pensions, hospital treatment and social care. Generally old age is
related to senility, illnesses and unattractiveness. Willis 1999 showed that old
people are pictured in stereotypical images in television drama as grumpy,
interfering, lonely, stubborn, not interested in sex, silly and miserable.
However, elderly men are used by the media to add a sense of seriousness, moral
gravity, particularly in news coverage.
There is a changing nature of old age representation because elderly watch more
television than other social groups and they increasingly demand programming
that reflects their interests. Their lack of representation in areas like popular
drama and film has also changed in response to wider social changes. Today older
women are increasingly represented as fashionable, active and sexual beings.
There are two main causes for this change:
1. The elderly are an increasingly affluent population segment- around 80 % of
wealth in the UK is held by those aged 50+ and the global grey pound is
attractive to the advertisers who fund large areas of the media.
2. Television as an important mass medium is a relatively new phenomenon and
as the people who own, control and work in it grow older, their interests are
reflected in new and different representations of the elderly.

3. Gender
Representation of women

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The media had traditionally reinforced gender stereotypes where physical

representations of bodies were focused on women. Mulvey argued that the male
gaze refers to the wat that the media represent the world, and females in particular,
from the point of view of heterosexual men, with women seen as objects of male
desire and pleasure. According to Kilbourne (1995), this media representation
presents women as mannequins: tall and thin, often US size zero, with very long
legs, perfect teeth and hair, and skin without a blemish in sight. Wolf notes that
the media encourage women to view their bodies as a project in constant need of
improvement.

Tunstall (2000) argues that media representations emphasize women’s domestic,

sexual, consumer and marital activities to the exclusion of all else. The media
generally ignore the fact that a majority of British women go out to work.
Newbold’s research (2002) into television sport presentation shows that there is
little coverage of women’s sport that devalue women’s sporting
accomplishments. Men, on the other hand, are seldom presented nude or defined
by their marital or family status.

Grant at al 2006 suggest that women face a double jeopardy of age and gender
discrimination that has a different impact on women of different ages. Younger
women face many pressures about how to look, dress and behave to conform to
media notions of feminity. Older women suffer from a diminished identity once
they lose these characteristics.
However, Westwood claims that we are now seeing more transgressive (i.e.
going beyond gendered expectations) female roles on British television.
Macdonald 2003 notes that ladettes challenge these stereotypes and breaks down
gender barriers. It does so through representations emphasising women's ability
to behave in the same way as men.
Gauntlett 2002 argues that there are positive aspects to media representations.
The traditional stereotypical representations of women have been replaced by
feisty, successful girl power icons. Gill (2008) argues that the depiction of
women in advertising has changed from women as passive objects of the male
gaze, to active, independent and sexually powerful agents
Male representations
In the past, hegemonic masculinity with its ideals of absolute toughness,
stubborn reliance and emotional silence was a main positive form of
representation of men.
Today, the media portrays the new man. The media trumpeted the metrosexual
male, a type of masculinity that was focused on appearance and fashion and

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which championed masculine values as caring and generous. The metrosexual

male was thought to be in touch with his feminine side, useful around the home
and considerate towards his female partner.
However, Gauntlett argues that there are still plenty of magazines aimed at men
which sexually objectify women and stress images of men as traditionally
masculine. Rutherford suggests that these magazines are symbolic of what he
calls retributive masculinity – an attempt to reassert traditional masculine
authority by celebrating traditionally male concerns in their content, i.e. ‘birds,
booze and football’.
• Ways that the media contribute to gender socialisation
The media is an important agency of secondary socialisation. Traditionally,
exposure to stereotypical images emphasise for girls the importance of looking
attractive and for boys the importance of being brave, may lead children into
accepting assumptions about what is normal and expected. Children may directly
imitate what they see in the media or may be influenced through exposure in the
long run.
For Ferguson, women’s magazines socialise women into a cult of Feminity by
focusing on such topics as beautification, child rearing, housework and cooking.
According to McRobbie 1981 study, the central message is that girls should focus
on capturing and thinking about boys. The male is portrayed as dominant while
the female is passive, adapting to the interests and needs of the male.
However, media representations have changes together with social attitudes. For
example, in the past, older cartoon films such as Walt Disney often featured
females as passive and helpless. Today, there are images of stronger females who
can take initiatives and can help helpless males. In the Harry Potter series of
books and films, the main female character Hermione is intelligent and confident
though the male protagonist Harry Potter himself has the most important role of
defeating the evil.

4. Ethnicity
Hall argued that overt racism has been replaced by inferential racism. Black
ethnicities are represented in ways that stress their cultural rather than biological
difference. Part of this representation involves their problematic nature that is
ethnic minorities are represented as the source rather than victims of social
problems like crimes and poverty.
There are two forms of representation: over representation and under
representation.

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Blacks are over represented in the media as victims of natural disasters such as
floods and famines and as perpetrators of manmade disasters involving wars and
corruption. They are viewed through a white, middle class and male gaze. Whites
are pictured as saviours through things lime government and public aid. This is
an example of binary opposition in which a pair of representations are opposites
of each other.

Ethnic minorities are underrepresented in areas like advertising and drama. If they
work in television drama, they often depict low status roles, e.g. Africans may
play cleaners or Asians may play shopkeepers. Another aspect of the white gaze
is the representation of ethnic minorities in terms of their otherness- how they are
different from us. This is usually constructed in terms of cultural difference as the
cause of social problems.

Blacks are seen as cultural threats that challenge a dominant, white, way of life
through practices such as arranged and forced marriages or the notion of Shari’ah
law, a legal system based on Islamic religious principles. They are also seen as
physical threats in terms of terrorism and criminality. Hall et al. 1978 for example
note moral panics about black muggers in the 1970s and more recently the claim
by the Metropolitan Police 2002 that mugging in London is predominantly a
black crime.
5. Disability
Barnes (1992) argues that mass media representations of disability have
generally been oppressive and negative. People with disabilities are rarely
presented as people with their own identities. Barnes notes several common
media representations of people with disabilities.

• In need of pity and charity – Barnes claims that this stereotype has grown
in popularity in recent years because of television appeals such as
Children in Need.
• As victims – Barnes found that when people with disabilities are featured
in television drama, they are three times more likely than able-bodied
characters to be killed off.
• As villains – people with disabilities are often portrayed as criminals or
monsters, e.g. villains in James Bond films often have a physical
impairment.
• As a burden – television documentaries and news features often focus on
carers rather than the people with disabilities.

Consequently, these media representations merely confirm social prejudices

about people with disabilities, e.g. that they are dependent on the help of able-
bodied people.

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• Moral panics around class, gender, ethnicity and age groups.

Moral panic is a wave of public concern about a particular group formed due to
media’s exaggeration and distortion. As a result, the public blame that particular
group that is known as the folk devil who is seen as a threat to society’s order.
Examples of moral panics in the UK include:
• Class – There are periodic moral panics about welfare claimants who are
described as ‘scroungers’. The media claim that they are living comfortable
lives at the expense of taxpayers without needing to work. In fact, most
people receiving welfare in the UK are in paid work.
• Gender – Moral panics about youth groups are often about boys. There has
been some concern that girls are copying some behaviour of boys, with
stories about ‘girl gangs’.
• Ethnicity: In London and some other cities, there have been panics about
gangs and knife crime. These are implicitly about Afro-Caribbean youths.
There is considerable negative reporting of Muslims, often with the
suggestion that Muslims are sympathetic to terrorists.
• Age: Youth subcultures are particularly liable to be made folk devils in a
moral panic. This happened to many groups in the late 20th century such as
mods and rockers, skinheads and punks. Their behaviour was exaggerated
and sensationalised to suggest that they posed a threat to society’s values.
• The relationship between the media and popular culture.
The growth of mass media in the 20th century gave rise to popular culture, also
known as the mass or low culture. It is characterised as simple, worthless, mass
produced and disposable and opposed to the high culture of a ruling class. It can
be manipulated by the media to reflect the interest of the elite.
Middle and upper class cultural life in terms of art, music and literature is
considered as high culture like ballet and opera. In contrast, pop music and
television soap operas form part of popular culture. Marxists argue that popular
culture is the outcome of attempts by the ruling class to find ways to entertain the
masses and distract them from the reality of being exploited. Pluralists believe
mass culture reflects the needs and interests of the mass of the population. For
postmodernists, it is difficult to distinguish between popular and high culture as
music from operas may be used in TV commercials.
10.2 Different models of media effects
• Direct effects models of media influence, including the hypodermic syringe
model.

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Media effects refers to the various ways in which the media influences people.
1. Direct effects
Models that argue that the media has a direct and tangible effect on behaviour are
sometimes called media centric.
1. Hypodermic
Hypodermic syringe or magic bullet models argue that media messages are like
a drug injected into the audience’s mind. Messages are transmitted and received
by an audience in ways that change or reinforce their ideas and behaviour.
Audiences are seen as passive receivers rather than active interpreters of media
messages. Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment can be cited here.
Cumulation theory is a variation of this basic idea that suggests that media effects
are cumulative rather than immediate. Prolonged exposure to violent films or
games can result in both changes behaviour and desensitisation. The more
someone is exposed to media violence, for example, the less likely they are to be
moved, shocked or appalled by real violence.
McCabe and Martin (2005) concluded that media violence has a disinhibition
effect – it convinces children that in some social situations, the ‘normal’ rules
that govern conflict and difference can be suspended, i.e. discussion and
negotiation can be replaced with violence with no repercussions.
2. Transmission
Transmission models developed by Shannon and Weaver suggest that the
transmission process is split into two parts:
• The information source (a government announcement)
• The transmission source (a newspaper or television report of the
announcement)
Media messages can have different sources: direct reporting might involve a
newspaper printing a speech made by a government minister while indirect
reporting involves the speech being selectively quoted to support a particular
story. The source of the message will affect how it is received. It is also possible
for audiences to be indirectly affected by a media message through their
interaction with people who are directly affected. There is the concept of noise
interference – anything that interferes with the transmission of a message.
Evaluation
Transmission models are better than hypodermic model in that they suggest direct
effects that are mediated and modified through different channels and sources.
However, Gauntlett criticises this model arguing that they see audiences as
uncritical individuals.
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The empirical evidence for direct media effects is weak as most research takes
place under artificial conditions like a laboratory. For example, Bandura et al.
Bobo doll experiment is cited as evidence that watching televised violence
produces violence in children. One weakness was that the children were rated for
violence by adult assessors that questions that objectivity of the research.
Cumberbatch (2004) looked at over 3500 research studies into the effects of
screen violence, encompassing film, television, video and more recently,
computer and video games. He concluded that there is still no conclusive
evidence that violence shown in the media influences or changes people’s
behaviour.
The focus of direct models has changed in recent times. It has moved away from
general audiences and towards the idea of vulnerable audiences like children.
Their lack of social experience and tendency to copy behaviour makes children
more open to direct media effects.
• Indirect effects models of media influence, including the uses and gratification
model, the two-step flow model, the normative model and the cultural effects
model.
2. Indirect effects
1. Cultural effects models
They stem from a neo Marxist approach that argues that although media effects
are strong in the long term, they are slow, cumulative and operate through the
ability to become part of an audience’s cultural background. Television cultivates
distinctive attitudes and orientations in its audience over time, rather than directly
determining behaviour. As per Chandler 1995, the media induces a general mind-
set around particular areas of social life like crime, taking on a hegemonic role
where some ideas are encouraged while others are discouraged. Media effects are
built up through three techniques:
• The consistent promotion of ideas
• The marginalisation of nonconforming views
• The repetition of ideas

Audience reception theory is an example of this model. It is based on the idea that
media messages always have a range of possible meanings ad interpretations,
some intended by the sender and others read into the message by the audience.
This involve encoding based on the ideas that the author wants to transmit and
decoding which is how the audience understand or decodes the message. Through
several process like agenda setting, elite discourses and myth making, the media
shapes ideologies of its members.

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2.Limited effects
Audio centric or diffusion approaches focus on how audiences use the media to
satisfy particular needs. Diffusion theories focus on how media messages spread
across an audience through a trickle-down effect. Although messages originate
with media producers, they are received by an audience in two ways:
a. Directly such as personally viewing a news broadcast
b. Indirectly through interaction with those who directly received the message,
other media sources reporting the original message.
In other words, an original message is continually relayed throughout au audience
and at each stage of the retelling, the message may be subtly changed or
reinterpreted.
3. Two step flow
Katz and Lazarfield (1955) suggest a two-step flow model in which messages
flow in two steps:
1. From the media to opinion formers – people who directly receive a
message such as a news report, are interested enough to want to relay it to
others and influential enough for them to take note of the message.
2. From opinion formers to people in their social network, those who receive
the original message in a mediated form – edited, condensed, embellished
– from people like family and friends.
This normative model (media messages are filtered through
informal,interpersonal relationships) is supported by Shannon and Weaver’s
concept of noise where the original media message is lost through social
interactions.

4. Uses and Gratifications

This normative model of media effects argues that consumers pick and choose
both media and messages. Blumler and McQuail (1968) and Lull (1995) see
media audiences as active. The media are used by audiences to gratify their own
particular uses and needs. Wood (1993) illustrated how teenagers may use horror
films to gratify their need for excitement. McQuail et al .1972 suggest four
primary uses and gratifications:
1. Entertainment – as a diversion or break from routine life.
2. Social solidarity – talking about a shared experience serves an integrating
function by making people feel they have things in common.

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3. Identity – to create or maintain a sense of who we are. It is a resource from

reading lifestyle magazines to maintaining a Facebook presence, used to
construct and maintain and project a sense of self.
4. Surveillance – providing news and information about a complex world.
Another suggested use is companionship because some research has found that
the people who use media most are those who are lonely or socially isolated. The
media compensate for their lack of social contact.
• Debates about the strengths and limitations of the different models of media
effects.
Different models make different assumptions about both media and audiences.
The direct effects models assume strong media and weak audience and can be
compared to approaches such as use and gratifications which assume weak media
and strong audiences. The direct effects model assumes immediate, measurable
effects whereas cultural effects approaches assume that effects accumulate over
a long period.
It is difficult to assess media effects as there is no broad consensus on the
definition of media. There are different types of media and there can also be
grouped into new and old media. Therefore, they will not necessarily affect
audiences in similar way. Audiences can also vary. Besides, the term effect is also
not fully defined as effects can be direct, indirect, weak or strong or long term
and short term
There are also problems and debates about the type of research method that is
appropriate for researching media effects. The direct effects approaches have
some support from experiments but they are artificial experiments and look for
short term and immediate effects.
Another methodological problem relates to the different meanings and
interpretations of media content. For example, a researcher may interpret
something in a different way to the audience. Rose (2007) argued that a researcher
requires a thorough understanding of their subject matter if they are to identify
and understand the symbols, codes and conventions involved.
The context in which media are used is also important. Livingstone and Hargrave
suggest that the consumption context affects how it is experienced and therefore
its possible effect. This relates to both physical and mental consumption. Physical
consumption relates to whether it is shared or consumed alone while mental
consumption refers to how different audiences understand the context of the
behaviour portrayed.

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Postmodernists argue that conventional effects theories look for the wrong things
in the wrong places in the wrong ways. Undifferentiated mass audiences are now
fragmented by age, gender and ethnicity. Contemporary media users are more
active and thus, question the validity of conventional forms of effect research that
saw audiences as passive.

• Arguments and evidence about the extent to which human behaviour is

influenced by the media.
1. Negative impacts
a. Across societies
In economic terms, large media corporations divide up global markets and
operate as oligarchies that prevent entrance to media markets, restrict competition
and limit consumer choice. Lechner (2001) argues that this creates media
homogenisation by developing a consumerist culture where standard
commodities are promoted to create similar lifestyles.
Politically, the extension of surveillance has resulted in a loss of privacy.
Governments and private companies have exploited the capacity for information
gathering. Mobile phones and satellite technology can be used to track individuals
and to monitor their contacts amongst others.
Culturally, global media is encouraging a cultural hegemony that colonises local
culture. Brands such as Coca Cola and Nike are becoming very popular across
the globe. Marxists explain this in terms of manipulation theories where the media
directly shapes audience’s perceptions. The media controls the culture industry
and manipulates the masses into accepting the ruling class culture.
b. Across social groups
c. At the individual level

10.3 The impact of the media on behaviour

• Arguments and evidence about the extent to which violent media leads to
violent behaviour.
The exposure to violent media contributes to violent behaviour. One of the most
common connections between the media and violent behaviour is imitation that
can be reflected in Bandura et al Bobo doll experiment. As per the study, children
who had watched an adult behaving violently on TV played violently with other
children. This leads to the conclusion that immature and vulnerable audience can
imitate behaviour they see.

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Based on the cultural effects model, Chandler 1995 notes that heavy media
consumption cultivates attitudes that are more consistent with the content being
consumed than with the mundane reality of everyday life. Heavy consumers of
violent films and television or those who spend much time playing violent games
develop a violent mindset.

Social developmental models reject the idea that there is a simple one way
relationship between the media and violence. Huesmann and Miller 1994 argue
that early social development is influenced by cognitive scripts that people
develop through childhood experiences that can include being victim to abuse or
violence. This will then determine how people respond to real world situations
where they can see violence as a way of dealing with problems.
Many media discourses argue that violent people consume violent media and
become violent while others show that certain people are violent as they are
socially programmed to enjoy violence. Do people play violent games because
they like it or do violent games make them violent?
Desensitisation theories are based on the development of emotional responses to
media violence. The more a person is exposed to media violence, the more he is
likely to accept violence as a normal part of life.
On the other hand, people may be sensitized to violence by the media.
Representation of violence may lead people to avoid and reject violence. This
applies to news reporting where seeing the effects of violence may lead people to
be more aware and try to reduce violence. For example, the Parkland, Florida,
school shooting on 14 February 2018, which most people only knew of from
media coverage led to demands for greater gun control in the USA.
It is quite obsolete to prove a link between media and violence as violence existed
through history, well before the advent of media. The right question should be
whether media has led to higher number of violence to which Pinker 2012 argued
in the negation. For him, there is in fact a decline in violence.

• The impact of the media on crime, including deviance amplification and

moral panics.
Wilkins 1964 developed the concept of deviance amplification to show how the
development of crime and deviance involves a feedback loop.
• Initially primary deviance is identified and condemned by the media.
• The deviant group becomes socially isolated and resentful. There is the
process of labelling by the media.
• This leads to an increased social reaction including a moral panic by the
media, politicians and other agencies of social control.
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• This develops into secondary deviance involving an increase in deviancy.

• This further encourages the agencies of social control to put new policies
to tackle these problems.
In this way, each group that is deviants and control feeds off the actions of the
other to create a spiral of deviance.
Moral panics
Cohen 1972 defines moral panic as a situation in which a condition, episode,
person or groups are seen as threats to societal values and interests.
There have been a number of moral panics in the last 30 years including:

• Ravers and ecstasy use – Redhead notes that a moral panic in regard to
acid house raves in the late 1980s led to the police setting up roadblocks
on motorways, turning up at raves in full riot gear and the Criminal
Justice Act (1990) which banned illegal parties.
• Refugees and asylum seekers – in 2003 there was a moral panic focused
on the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers entering Britain and their
motives. Elements of the tabloid press focused on the alleged links
between asylum seekers and terrorism which created public anxiety.
• Hoodies – Fawbert (2008) examined newspaper reports and found that
‘hoodies’ became a commonly used term, especially between 2005 and
2007, to describe young people involved in crime.

Cohen suggests that moral panics reinforce established moral values in two ways.
First, it sets moral boundaries for acceptable behaviour and second, it creates a
sense of social and moral responsibility at a time of change of uncertainty. Media
is therefore seen as a channel that amplifies public concerns. Media audiences are
seen as active and critical consumers rather than passive recipients of media
representations.
Neomarxists understand moral panics as political phenomena. Moral panics are
an important way for a ruling class to exercise control by condemning particular
groups as threats. For Hall et al, opportunities for moral panics occur at times of
economic, political and ideological crises in capitalist society. Their function is
to distract public attention from the real causes of such crises by generating panics
around groups and behaviour that create easily scapegoats or folk devils.
Scapegoating serves two functions:
1. It distracts attention from the real moral issues.
2. By allowing the full force of control agencies to be directed at moral
deviants, the public is both co-opted and warned; behaviour that challenges
the existing moral order will be met with force.

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From this perspective, moral panics trigger increased surveillance and control of
subject populations through both the media and other control agencies. In
addition, such steps are taken with the consent and cooperation of those being
controlled. Rather than being a cause of moral panics, deviancy amplification is
actually a cause of it. In this way, the media is responsible for creating moral
panics with the intention of controlling the behaviour of those who support action
against deviants.
Apart from the creation of moral panics, television can also shape ideas of people
through the creation of prejudice. It has also been noted that consumption of
violent pornography results in more aggressive attitudes towards women as well
as supporting the desire to watch more extreme content. The internet may also
harm people through different ways ranging from online bullying to the grooming
of children by pedophiles.

• Ways in which the media might have a positive impact on human

behaviour.
POSITIVE IMPACT OF MEDIA
1. Diversions is where people use the media positively for everyday purposes
like relaxation or entertainment.
2. Education – media can be used consciously for educational purposes like
information gathering or subconsciously during video gaming.
3. Community – The media helps people to find common issues to talk and
to further develop social networks, even if it is done virtually.
4. Identity consolidation – on an individual level, people can shape their
identity through lifestyle magazines or through consumption of cultural
products like literature. The media can also define social identities like
class, age, gender and ethnicity.
5. Empowerment – Post feminists have argued that new media can be used
for empowering particular gender and age groups as it allows greater
freedom of expression and identity creation.
6. Awareness – the media provides news and information that can be used to
keep in touch with what is happening. We are aware of economic trends
like the development of countries like India and China as important
production centres. There are political developments like the events
surrounding the 2011 Arab Spring that were reported on Twitter. We can
learn about cultural exchanges.
7. Political changes – the media may promote political changes by exposing
people to new ideas that makes them question traditional ways of thinking.
Increased media choice and diversity leads the audience to question

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authority. New media can change political representation by pressurising

politicians to act in certain ways.
• Ways in which people may be affected by media sensationalism and
stereotyping.
Sensationalism means the reporting of news stories in ways that make the
audience worried or excited rather than reporting accurately. Sensationalized
stories often involve bias, distortion and exaggeration. The stories are often not
about issues that affect many of the audience directly but rather are designed to
provoke feelings such as outrage. Sensationalism can make some news stories
into moral panics.
Stereotyping may affect both those stereotyped and audiences receiving the
stereotype. Media effects models suggest that audiences will be influenced by
stereotypes and may assume that they are accurate. For media producers,
stereotypes are useful shortcuts because they provide information to audiences
very quickly.

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