Curran – Press Freedom

– Newspapers have poured money into developing new sites, thereby pre-emptying the rise of rivals.

– The advert of the internet has enhanced the the freedom to publish by lowering entry costs.

– The freedom to publish in the free market ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions and interests in society.

– The national press was overwhelmingly right wing and manifestly unrepresentative.

Media ownership:

Capitalist media – Fox News

Public Service media – BBC

Civil Society media – Oh Magazine

ESSAY STRUCTURE

Liberal press theory: the freedom of the press is rooted in the freedom to publish in the free market. This ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions and interests in society. If a viewpoint is not expressed in the press, this is only because it lacks a sufficient following to sustain it in the market-place. 

Habermas’s theory of communicative action rests on the idea that social order ultimately depends on the capacity of actors to recognize the inter-subjective validity of the different claims on which social cooperation depends.

CAPITALISM: an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state

Curran:

“Some liberal theorists view the market as an analogue of the electoral process.”

“The press is not representative, because it is controlled and owned by the powerful.” “Newspaper`s do not represent their readers views in a literal sense, because readers buy papers partly to be entertained.”

“The PCC…..lacked moral authority because it did not enjoy the whole-hearted consent of the press industry.”

Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement.

“the main reason why reformism failed was that the press intimidated the political class”

The 1996 broadcasting act partly reversed previous policy by allowing most news-paper groups (with less then 20 percent of the national market) to expand into terrestrial television by relaxing the rules about cross-ownership of local press and radio.

The press commissions had slightly more success in seeking to keep the press and broadcasting industries separate

The press is not representative, because it is owned and controlled by the powerful.

News papers do not ‘represent’ their readers’ views in a literals sense, because readers buy papers partly to be entertained: thus survey research shows that only a large press groups to obtain the permission of secretary of state before they where allowed to purchase a newspaper.

seaton:

‘Broadcasting in Britain – monopoly or duopoly – always depended on an assumption of commitment to an undivided public good’ 

‘Beveridge suggested ‘the work of broadcasting should be regarded as a public service for a social purpose’’

‘The independence of broadcasting from the state has recently been seen as the most important condition of the services accountability’

‘The interests of the government had come, by the late 1970s, to be seen as inimical to those broadcasting’ 

‘Without a commitment to public service, broadcasters are increasingly vulnerable to detailed political interference in the content of programmed’  

Types of media ownership:

• Capitalist media: owned privately for the purpose of making  a profit. Example = Fox News (rupert murdoch)
• Public service media: owned by the government for the purpose of providing a service to the public. Example = BBC (British government)
• Citizen control media: owned by the head of an institution to inform the rest of the institution. Example = school newspaper 

“The market based press is independent because it owes allegiance only to the public.”

“However most of the British press was bought up by, or diversified into, interests outside publishing during the 1960s and 1970s.”

“By 1977, all but one of the leading publishing groups in both the international and regional press were part of larger conglomerates with holdings in fields as diverse as oil, transport, mining, construction, engineering, finance or the leisure industries.”

Capitalist media – mainstream media owned by large conglomerates which aims to make profit and revenue for example SKY.

Public service media – government owned independent media that provides for audiences and the public and aims to provide information to the public, for example BBC.

Civil society media – Media which isnt owned by large conglomerates whos aim is to provide information for local audiences and provide this information off of public interest.

The independence of broadcasting from the state has recently been seen as the most important condition of the services accountability.

The interests of the government had come, by the late 1970’s, to be seen as inimical to those of broadcasting.

Beveridge suggested that ‘the work of broadcasting should be regarded as a public service for a social purpose.’

Broadcasting in Britain – monopoly – duopoly – always depended on an assumption of commitment to an undivided public good.

Broadcasting and broadcasting institutions cannot be understood merely as a collection of separate program ‘texts’. Judging broadcasting organisations by their product ‘was … relevant but not adequate’

Capital media

Private ownership, driven by profits

Public service media

Government ownership, aim service the public

Civil society media

Small / local media

THE THEORY OF THE LIBERAL FREE PRESS

The primary democratic role of the media is to act as a public watchdog

Once the media becomes subject to public regulation… transformed… in the service of the state

Three key concepts… the media as a public watchdog, public representative and source of information

reconceptualized and reincarnated in a new form (in reference to the media/news/public sphere

Only by anchoring the media to the free market is it possible to ensure the media’s complete independence from the government.

 THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING

Creating a image of its audience as participants in the great affairs of the nation

Sources of finance did not compete … key to the possibility of political independence

Broadcasting in Britain always depended on an assumption of mommitment to an undivided public good

the power of legislation to restrain the growth of the presss concentration

THE THEORY OF THE LIBERAL FREE PRESS

Quotes –

According to classical liberal theory, the freedom to publish in the free market ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions and interests in society

The free market, it is also argued, makes the press a representative institution.

The market-based press is independent because it owes allegiance only to the public, the press is the peoples watchdog, scrutinizing the actions government and holding the countrys rulers to acoount

Its reporting of the news that keeps readers abreast of important events and developments, and enables them to exercise informed judgements by election time.

The advent of the internet has enhanced the freedom to publish by lowering entry costs. But the list of ten most-visited news sites is dominated by large news organisations like BBC News, the guardian, The Times, Sun and Telegraph. It is always possible to set up small websites, the equivalent of small corner shops. But this is not the same thing as publishing well-resourced news websites – the equivalent of supermarkets – which large numbers of people visit.

THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING

Quotes –

British broadcasting was started as a public service, and this proved as creative comercially as it was innovative culturally.

Successive reports developed the idea of broadcasting as a public service – catering for all sections of the community, reaching all parts of the country regardless of cost, seeking to educate inform and improve, and prepared to lead public opinion rather than follow it.

Notes –

monopoly = singular, Duopoly = The domination of two suppliers

Public Broadcasting Services can be defined as neither commercial nor state-owned, free from political interference and pressure from commercial forces. Through PSB, people are informed, educated, included and also entertained.

1. Jurgen Habermas and the concept of the Public Sphere
2. James Curran & Jean Seaton – the theory of the liberal free press
3. Noam Chomsky – the 5 filters that manufacture consent
4. Louis Althusser – interpellation & Ideological State Appraratus
5. Antonio Gramsci – the concept of hegemony / hegemonic struggle

1. Habermas believed democracy depended on the public and came up with the theory of the public sphere which is where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems and form a public opinion.
2. Curran and Seaton‘s power and media theory is that different media producers have different rules. For example, if the media producer is paid by the government it must remain unbiased. Liberal Free press, is free from interference and political control, therefore they can be neutral or biased.
3. Noam Chomsky says there has been debate about how the Internet has changed the public’s access to information since 1988. The theory of manufacturing consent has five “filters” that determine the type of news that is presented in the media. It is manipulating people without them being aware of it. These five filters are: ownership of the medium, the medium’s funding sources, sourcing, flak, and anti-communism or “fear ideology”. Flak is the negative responses to a media statement or ideology. But this is blocked an rejected by the media which gives them control.
4. Ideolgical State Apparatus – is a theoretical concept developed by Althusser which is used to describe the way in which society is constructed through: education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc. These form our individual subject identity. So, for example, your family and friends influence your values. In other words – He said ISA’s is what makes us, us, in society. It is a structure that we are in which is full of ideas, values and beliefs. These things construct who we are as individuals so that we become a certain person. This could be your friends, school, the government, they all shape our beliefs and make us stuck there.
5. Hegemonic struggle is a concept by Gramsci. It is the chance to reclaim. Imagine a tug of war between your own identity and what other people are telling you. Gramsci raises the concept of Hegemony to illustrate “how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others”

Noam Chomsky – 5 Filters that manufacturer consent – Chomskys 5 filters or the propaganda model shows how the media operate. which can be put into 5 categories

1. Ownership – big companies care more about money than journalism so their first priority will be how to make a profit then journalism
2. Advertising –
3. Media Elite – government, corporations and big institutions know all about media and know how to influence the news which influences us.
4. Flak – When you oppose power they will get the media to discredit your sources and trash your story.
5. The Common Enemy – to get people on your side you need an enemy something where people need to join together to hate, “corral public opinion”

Habermas Public sphere – The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to discuss and create connections with each other under the government.

Curran and seaton – the media, the press should be free from interference or ownership/ political control.

“The result was a long-term weaking of competition

Louis Althusser – interpellation theory

1. Interpellation is the idea that we are “bred” to think, act and react in certain ways.
2. Girls being portrayed in magazines playing with dolls and loving the color pink is an example of gender role interpellation
3. The point of interpellation is for a person to feed into something without even realizing that they are doing so.
4. Interpellation is used in almost every aspect of our society, especially in the marketing of merchandise

Antonio Gramsci – concept of hegemony – Hegemony is a tug of war for power and that the balance of power can be changed.

Gramsci came up with the theory of cultural hegemony. Cultural hegemony is the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class which manipulates the culture of that society so that the ruling-class view becomes the accepted norm. Simply it means that the upper-class have control over those with less power and they manipulate the less powerful to think and believe what and how the upper-class want.