Currran – Due to price increases of some PSBs some citizens are excluded by price.

‘the United Kingdom regards press freedom as an absolute freedom.’ The government leaves it to the market forces to decide which press products survive’ (1992: 53).

Seaton –

Free Press – Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely.

Free Market – The free market is an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control. … Free markets are characterized by a spontaneous and decentralized order of arrangements through which individuals make economic decisions.

The I attempts to establish a distinctive identity –

james curran and jean seaton

james –

 2The struggle for a free pressThe remarkably resilient Whig interpretation of press history is sustained by focusing attention upon mainstream commercial newspapers, while ignoring or downplaying the development of the radical press. Only if this selective perspective is maintained does the conventional view of the rise of a free pressappear plausible

Curran and Seaton present the view that a free press relies on a free market where individual newspapers can compete through their political stances and points of view.

Analyse the ways that the i attempts to establish a distinctive identity within this free market. To what extent has this been successful?

Free press can be defined as open communication and expression in both printed and electronic forms of media, being available to the public without government censorship. Similarly, a ‘Free Market’ can be defined as an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control or a decentralised order of arrangements through which individuals make economic decisions. Curran and Seaton present the view that a free press relies on a free market, as without a free market, whereby consumers impact the products ideas and production, the government would have control and therefore influence and manipulate what the press publish.

However, as presented by Curran through the title – “The struggle for a free press” and by Noam Chomsky’s theory of the ‘Manufacturing of Consent‘; it is evident that the libertarian idea of a ‘Free Press’ is hard to obtain due to gatekeepers and strong government jurisdiction. For example, “focusing attention upon mainstream commercial newspapers, while ignoring or downplaying the development of the radical press.” is an idea presented by Curran and used by multiple media conglomerates, such as the DMGT (Owners of the i and the daily mail), in order to maintain support in order to gain profit.

In the i newspaper, the political right-winged conservative party, the ‘Tories” are somewhat disgraced on the front page via the large sans-serif font stating – “Tories braced for drubbing this week from fed-up voters“. By using the harsh noun “drubbing” the newspaper implies a slightly more left-winged ideology as they are discrediting the right-winged conservative party. However, in order to maintain support by the public the i doesn’t present a radical view and therefore contradicts the previous comment by also commenting on other political parties such as the Labour Party and the Scottish National Party. For example, “We’ve never been so divided, so let’s unite against hatred” a statement made by Jo Cox’s (Labour Party MP) sister. As well as, “Sturgeon launches new push for independence”. By having stories based on three different political parties, the i newspaper doesn’t directly show or support any political side, placing them central.

This allows the i to successfully establish a distinctive identity within this free market as it contains many political views, as well as more entertainment such as ‘sport’ which acts as a form of escapism for the viewers. In contrast to having a radical newspaper that purely supports one party, the i presents many ideas allowing more of a broader audience to be interested in their newspaper. Even though a true free press is hard to maintain, the idea that Curran and Seaton present where a free press relies on a free market can be applied to the i as it is allowed to convey multiple political stances which many audiences would support as it isn’t biased to one party.

The media do serve the ‘public interest’ or ‘general welfare’ whether by design or chance

while the concept of the public interest has been slippery and controversial a simple definition, drawn from the field of public planning, ways that something is in the public interest if it serves the ends of the whole society rather than those of some sectors of the society.

technological determinism

“the medium is the message” and the term global village, and predicted the World Wide Web almost 30 years before it was  invented. he argued that the invention of print culture made possible the creation of the public and the organization of the public into a nation.

• Media concentration- progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.

• Conglomerates- A conglomerate is a combination of multiple business entities operating in entirely different industries under one corporate group.

• Globalisation (in terms of media ownership)- international

• Vertical Integration & Horizontal Integration- A horizontal integration consists of companies that acquire a similar company in the same industry, while a vertical integration consists of companies that acquire a company that operates either before or after the acquiring company in the production process.

• Gatekeepers- A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something or policies that act as a go-between

• Regulation- a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority
• Deregulation- is the process of removing or reducing state regulations,

• Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers- an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control VS

• Neo-liberalism- ideas associated with laissez-faire

• Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR-

Network Effects= describes the phenomenon how the value of a good or service increases as more people start to use it.

Feedback loops are therefore the process whereby a change to the system results in an alarm which will trigger a certain result. they also provide information to an organization about system successes and problems.

Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit
(150) to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships

Public service broadcasting

• Broadcasting in Britain was a monopoly or duopoly
• monopoly – illegal business structure where one business owns all businesses in an industry either through vertical or horizontal integration (horizontal – owns each stage to produce a product / service) (vertical – owns all businesses of the same type eg all TV stations), monopolies can be terminated by selling one stage / business of the same type to someone else)