“Carry out some essential tasks for the wider benefit of society”

the public sphere- Making connections between individuals rather than all falling under the government.

A public space where individuals can challenge governments ideas.

horizontal – rather than vertical. Less hierarchy, more freedom.

rise of people= debate and challenge , Habermas believes this is healthy

mass media and globalization has effected the public sphere, don’t talk about issues face to face anymore

strength and weakness
+ communication, debate, accessible, don’t need money

-anonymity, too much infomation, quality of debate

internet similar as it transformed the public sphere. Big companies have secured control over media.

free and liberal press- curran, media shouldn’t be controlled by government. freedom is needed.

Public interest- the presumption that the media do serve the public interest. Internet is more important than any other business or service as it can share information with a wider society, especially culturally and politically. Something is in the public interest if it applies to a wider society. Trying to please a larger number of people rather than a certain group of people. Should the government (media) have public control or should it be deregulated. freedom? or control?

Making connections with each over than rather underneath the control of the government

The public sphere: a safe place for people to talk about the government

Free and liberal press: Cohan, the media shouldn’t be controlled by government. freedom is needed.

Horizontal; rather than vertical. Less hierarchy, more freedom.

Rise of people: they start to debate and challenge and Habermas believes this is healthy

Mass media and globalization has changed and affected the public sphere as people don’t discuss issues in person anymore

“a public space between the private domain and the state in which public opinion was formed and ‘popular’ supervision of government was established”

The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action, especially government

Initially Public Sphere was good as people in the same social class (horizontally) would communicate together however as large companies take over the media, they control the info to make economic profit who collaborate with the government (vertical) – very authoritarian.

This happens to both Old and New Media as newspaper and magazine can be taken over by large conglomerates, new media is taken over by companies that own Facebook, YouTube and others.

‘The media can be held accountable for what they do and do not do’

‘public control’ ‘deregulation’

• Agenda setting –
• Framing – How big conglomerates companies show their interpretation or their preferred consumption of certain
• Myth making – Averts the societies attention in order to distract them from their agenda setting, which may not be collectively agreed with
• Conditions of consumption –

• Structures of ownership – this is when there are different companies in charge. In the industry there are parent companies which own everything. Conglomerates and Monopolies come under this.

• The role of advertising – advertising is used to influence

• Links with ‘The Establishment’

• Diversionary tactics – ‘flack’

• Uniting against a ‘common enemy’

Audience Reception Theory

• Agenda Setting – the creation of public awareness to the big issues by the news media.
• Media attempts to influence audiences.
• The press and media do not reflect reality; they just filter it to make people see things the same way as them.
• Media also focuses on specific issues more than others and make some issues larger and seem more important than others.

1. Structures of ownership: The dominant media companies are large corporations and conglomerates.
2. The role of advertising: The majority of profit media companies make is from advertising, so advertisers are given much of the influence in media.
3. Links with the establishment:
4. Diversionary tactics and flak:
5. A “Common enemy”:

1. Agenda Setting:
2. Framing: The sun is pro-brexit, and so represents the brexit vote as triumphant and a good thing. The Mirror, on the other hand, paints brexit more in a negative light. Newspapers will frame an issue as good or bad depending on their stance on the issue to not only pander to those who agree, but to also push their agendas.
3. Myth Making: Newspapers will exaggerate a story to push their political agenda. This is used like the “common enemy” to divert the people’s attention away from the problems inside the country and the media hierarchies.
4. Conditions of Consumption:

Agenda Setting: Agenda-setting is the creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news media

Framing: Framing compromises a set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies, organize, perceive, and communicate about reality

Myth Making:

Agenda setting is a theory which states the ‘ability to influence the importance placed on the topics of public agenda’. it creates public awareness and concern of major issues published by the media. Different media companies will frame the stories in particular ways to attempt to influence viewers, one of the main ideas in this theory is that media does not reflect reality, it filters and shapes it. For example the sun, a right wing newspaper, article on brexit showed it in a positive light whereas the mirror, a left wing newspaper, showed brexit in a more negative light. Another main idea of this theory is that the media concentrates on a few issues/subjects that lead the public to view the selected issues as more important than other issues. As media is biased, they may partake in ‘myth making’ to try and persuade the public what that specific media organisation wants others to believe 

AGENDA SETTING – Agenda-setting theory describes the “ability to influence the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda”. Agenda-setting theory was formally developed by Max McCombs and Donald Shaw in a study on the 1968 American presidential election.

FRAMING – Framing involves social construction of a social phenomenon – by mass media sources, political or social movements, political leaders, or other actors and organizations. … This is done through the media’s choice of certain words and images to cover a story (i.e. using the word fetus vs. the word baby).