Syntagms and paradigms explain how signs relate to each other. Syntagmatic relationships are about positioning. Paradigmatic relationships are about the substitution.
paradigms are the collection of similarly associated signs around a specific topic
syntagm is a series of signs that work together
PARADIGM AND SYNTAGM. A paradigm is a unique collection of signs. With the application of the appropriate rules, compound signs, or syntagms, can be constructed from the paradigm. The notions of paradigm and syntagm underlie many of the semiotics methods that are used in the study of human communication.
Roland Barthes‘ Narrative TheoryBarthes suggested there will be more than one of five codes that describe the meaning of a text. He suggested texts may be ‘open’ or ‘closed’. Open texts are those that are open to interpretation and can have many different subjective meanings that are individual to the audience. (Take an image off an advertisement and it won’t have meaning)
News Values- News values are criteria that influence the selection and presentation of events as published news. These values help explain what makes something “newsworthy”.
Gatekeepers- Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination, whether for publication, broadcasting, the Internet, or some other mode of communication.
Regulation- This regulation, via law, rules or procedures, can have various goals, for example intervention to protect a stated “public interest”, or encouraging competition and an effective media market, or establishing common technical standards.
Deregulation- These were principally that ownership deregulation would result in benefits for all sectors: for the traditional media, an emerging new media and the public. The traditional media would be released from restrictions, which had prevented it from competing with new media; from accessing new customers and opportunities.
Free market: The free market is an economic system based on supply and demand with little or no government control. Based on its political and legal rules, a country’s free market economy may range between very large or entirely black market
Monopolies: Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition to produce the good or service, a lack of viable substitute goods, and the possibility of a high monopoly price well above the seller’s marginal cost that leads to a high monopoly profit.
Mergers: Media mergers are a result of one media related company buying another company for control of their resources in order to increase revenues and viewership. Successful media companies usually buy out other companies to make them more powerful, profitable, and able to reach a larger viewing audience.
Media concentration: Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or mediaconvergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.
Conglomerates: A conglomerate is a multi-industry company – i.e., a combination of multiple business entities operating in entirely different industries under one corporate group, usually involving a parent company and many subsidiaries. Conglomerates are often large and multinational.
Globalisation (in terms of media ownership): media globalization is the worldwide integration of mediathrough the cross-cultural exchange of ideas, while technological globalizationrefers to the cross-cultural development and exchange of technology.
Vertical Integration: vertical integration is an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is owned by that company. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or service, and the products combine to satisfy a common need.
Horizontal Integration-Horizontal integration is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger. The process can lead to monopoly if a company captures the vast majority of the market for that product or service
Neo-liberalism: Neoliberalism is characterised by free market trade, deregulation of financial markets, privatisation, individualisation, and the shift away from state welfare provision.
Alt-Right: an ideological grouping associated with extreme conservative or reactionary viewpoints, characterised by a rejection of mainstream politics and by the use of online media to disseminate deliberately controversial content.
Surveillance: Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens
Privacy: Privacy is the right to be left alone, to control unwanted publicity. It is in direct opposition to the business of the media: they do not want to leave people alone.
Security: Social media security is the process of analyzing dynamic social media data in order to protect against security and business threats. Every industry faces a unique set of risks on social, many of which have put organizations in the press or at the center of controversy.
GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area. It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas.
The Leveson Enquiry: The Leveson inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed in July 2011.
The Cairncross Review (read these questions under consideration:
“a public space between the private domain and the state in which public opionion was formed and ‘popular’ supervision of government was established”
“The primary democratic role of the media is to act as a public watch dog overseeing the state.”
Stephan Holmes: “Doesn’t every regulation covering the media into a “neutral form” lessen its capacity to act as a partisan gadfly investigating and criticising government in an aggressive way”
Regulation should be provided by state or public. Should media be sensitised or graphic.
Structures of ownership
The role of advertising
Links with ‘The Establishment’
Diversionary tactics – ‘flack’- Make one devision seem better or more important Then the other.
Uniting against a ‘common enemy’- Combine groups of similar minded people against the same enemy
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 –
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.
| Technology and News Production | ||
| Production | Distribution | Consumption |
| > digital audio recorders / digital microphones > digital cameras > DTP / Photoshop / Adobe ie software editing packages > Blog / web applications > computers > word processor > tablets (drawing / design) > data profiling | > the internet > social media > broadcasts (statellite or terrestrial) > hosting sites > Youtube > website > wifi > IP address > VPN | > phones > televisions > i-pads / laptops / computers > radio > air-pods > Youtube > cinema > app > USB’s > digital implant > Internet of things > digital billboard/ digital displays |
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.