Media concentration

Concentration in the mass media industry is a pattern of ownership where fewer and fewer people own more and more of the assets of that industry.  

Conglomerates

Media conglomerate describes companies that own large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, movies, and the Internet.

Globalisation

media globalization is the worldwide integration of media through the cross-cultural exchange of ideas, while technological globalization refers to the cross-cultural development and exchange of technology.

Vertical Integration

– Vertical integration is a strategy whereby a company owns or controls its suppliers, distributors or retail locations to control its value or supply chain. Vertical integration benefits companies by allowing them to control process, reduce costs and improve efficiencies.

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.

Gatekeepers- 

Gatekeeping occurs at all levels of the media structure—from a reporter deciding which sources are chosen to include in a story to editors deciding which stories are printed or covered and includes media outlet owners and even advertisers. – Somebody who exerts power. 

Regulation / Deregulation-

 Deregulation is when the government reduces or eliminates restrictions on industries, often with the goal of making it easier to do business. It removes a regulation that interferes with firms’ ability to compete, especially overseas. By banks etc prevents monopolies. – it is hard to regulate new media companies such a google and amazon. 

Free market vs Monopolies & Mergers- 

A free market is one where voluntary exchange and the laws of supply and demand provide the sole basis for the economic system, without government intervention. A key feature of free markets is the absence of coerced (forced) transactions or conditions on transactions. Monopolies-owing everything. 

Neo-liberalism and the Alt-Right – 

Neoliberalism is antithetical to the protection of group – rather than individual – interests, for example, that might be achieved through lobbying of groups, or state interventions that protect national interests via tariffs or subsidies. Neoliberalism has moved away from a centrally governed economy. ideological grouping associated with extreme conservative or reactionary viewpoints, characterized by a rejection of mainstream politics and by the use of online media to disseminate deliberately controversial content.

Surveillance / Privacy / Security / GDPR- 

lose observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal.

David Hesmondhalgh 

David Hesmondhalgh is among a range of academics who critically analyse the relationship between media work and the media industry. In his seminal book, The Culture Industries (Sage, 2019) he suggest that:

“the distinctive organisational form of the cultural industries has considerable implications for the conditions under which symbolic creativity is carried out“

A critical reflection that highlights the ‘myth making’ process surrounding the potential digital future for young creatives, setting up a counter-weight against the desire of so many young people who are perhaps too easily seduced to pursue a career in the creative industries- compliance.

Looking for work in creative industries policy. International Journal of Cultural Policy p.428

An its utopian presentation, creative work is now imagined only as a self-actualising pleasure, rather than a potentially arduous or problematic obligation undertaken through material necessity (2009, p. 417) 

Hesmondhalgh’s theory: This suggests that cultural industry companies. Minimise risk + Maximise Audiences = Maximise Profit.

Rupert Murdoch- Media empire

Murdoch’s media empire includes Fox News, Fox Sports, the Fox Network, The Wall Street Journal, and HarperCollins. In March 2019, Murdoch sold the majority of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets to the Walt Disney Company for $71.3 billion. Founded: Sky News, BSkyB, News Corp, Fox News

noam Chomsky

• press freedom
• manufactoring consent- media acts as a check on political power, informs the public and manufacture our consent.
• media and politics are intertwined
• media stages democracy
• 5 filters:
• ownership – for profit part of larger conglomerates , out for profit media journalism accuracy takes second place.
• advertisers close the gap, to create good publicity for what they support- advertisers pay for audiences.
• when the story is unconfident to the media- it is diverted.
• we think we are free however, we are being controlled and we don’t see society how it really is and are manipulated by what is told to them in the media.

Media working practices

Rupert Murdoch is so succesful that his decision to support labour, impacted the new labour party election in 1997. Becuase of his ownership of The sun, the times and news of the world. These newspapers promoted the labour goverment and leader Tony Blair. The police accepted briebs from Murdochs company to gain data from them, however nothing was ever done about it. This is an example of Murdoch’s power and the influence his media companies can have on society. 

hesmondhalgh’s theory talks about theories of the self and identity in relation to aspirational ambitions and the realities of the creative economy. He critically analyses the relationship between media work and the media industry. How it is romanticised vs the reality of the industry. academics

CURRAN AND SEATON

• Liberal theory is the freedom to to publish in the free market
• “ensure that the press reflects a wide range of options and interests in society.”- (The liberal theory of press freedom)
• “the press is the peoples watchdog, scrutinising the actions of the government and holding the countries rulers to account.” – the press is the way of providing information to the public about what is happening in the world which gives flack to the government. – curran
• the advances of technology means that nearly anyone is free to publish whatever they like for a smaller amount of money.
• In the 80’s new technologies came out and therefore should have increased the number of newspapers being produced however it didn’t, there are still the same amount of papers. This proves his theory that there is not enough diversification in the press. This can effect the American election as it may impact who people vote for. The press can do this by showing a candidate in a certain light. 
• The free market, it is also argued to makes the press a representative institution. 
• the market of press is independent because it owes allegiance only to the public
• the press complains commission (PCC) was established in 1991
• British broadcasting was started as a public service, and this proved as creative commercially as it was innovative culturally

Representation of race and identity specifically looking through the lenses of post colonialism Atlantic slave trade.

KEY DEFINITIONS:

• COLONIALISM the practice of acquiring political control over another country to exploit it economically.
• POST COLONIALISM the effect colonialism has on the country 
• DIASPORA the spread or moment of people away from their original homeland.
• BAME– used to describe ethnic minorities 
• DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY) describes the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society.
• CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM biological characteristics do not differ due to culture.
• CULTURAL SYNCRETISM  is when distinct aspects of different cultures blend together to make something new and unique
• ORIENTALISM (SAID) Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists
•  APPROPRIATION using aspects taken from another culture and using it in a different culture.
• CULTURAL HEGEMONY diverse culture which is being controlled and owned by the upper class.
• THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS)he 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.
• .THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS have a role at representing minorities in a fair way and if they doesn’t happen it can mean manority’s experience discrimination.

Theorist

EDWARD SAID

• Edward Said– theory of Orientalism – The link between culture, imperial power and colonialism . He looked at English literature and noticed how they came from the west generally white males. he suggest that culture is as important as anything else for
• ‘creating and accepted grid for filtering through into the western consciousness’
• Theorised in the 90s
• could be described as Eastsernism – they dictate through literature and culture what others are know as.
• Linking this to slavery and the holocaust he said its through literature and culture that you can legitimacy certain behaviours regardless of how displaceable.
• In theses novel in which said studied he noticed how western country/people where portrayed in certain ways.
• literature and culture is presenting this all the time.
• this can be identified in lots of texts.
• essentially he is saying literate, culture and art is a way of normalising things.

“the power to narrate or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”

Edward Said

JAQUES LACAN

• French psychoanalyst
• identity- he was interested int the first time child recognises themselves in a mirror (mirror stage)
• he spoke about we only have words to try and explain the thought we as human have and that yay are not always able to speak theses thoughts.
• we are socially constructed – we only know who we are by exploring the other as a way of exploring who we are.
• representation is constructed through the eyes of another.
• important to identify and think about what Opel are trying to say.
• for example black people didn’t feel they see themselves in the media (selective representation)

LOUIS AlTHUSEER

• Ideological state apparatus (ISA’s) they way In which structures predetermined affect us/believes. denote institutions such as education, the churches, family, media, trade unions, and law, which were formally outside state (dominate) control but which served to transmit the values of the state, to interpellate those individuals affected by
• you are trapped in ideological state apparatus and how you are hailed. – calls it interpellation.
• Hailed and called- they way people see you and they way you see yourself
• example of hailing- how white people impersonate black people (black face) which created stereotypes still prevalent today, through mocking or a race.
• the society that forms you is the society of the ruling class the dominant idea.
• ie. slavery, rich men making money of slavery wants everyone to think the same as they do.
• herd mentality concurs.
• what portrayed in the media, literature culture art etc – becomes normal eg. racist tv programs.
• interpellation- into society -pre chosen (boys will be boys ect.)

GRAMSCI

• he said that culture and power is changed,
• Gramsci’s theory of hegemony– is tied to his conception of the capitalist state. Gramsci does not understand the state in the narrow sense of the government. … Gramsci claims the capitalist state rules through force plus consent: political society is the realm of force and civil society is the realm of consent.
• Gramsci’s theory of hegemony is tied to his conception of the capitalist state.
•  Gramsci does not understand the state in the narrow sense of the government.
• Gramsci claims the capitalist state rules through force plus consent: political society is the realm of force and civil society is the realm of consent.
• he spoke about HEGEMONY- meaning nothing is fixed things moves such as culture identity power etc and that you need to change the donimnate ideology.
• media has potential and power to change
• The chance to reclaim.

FRANTZ FRANON

• In The Wretched of the Earth Fanon argued for violent revolution against colonial control, ending in socialism. These struggles must be combined, he argued with (re)building national culture, and in that sense Fanon was a supporter of socialist nationalism.- regain your old culture.
• He said that we need to fight through culture and create literature through ‘the mouthpiece of new reality in action”
  

PAUL GILROY

• Paul Gilroy is insistent that ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’ 
• He said that if you are a from a different culture but grew up in England for example how do you differentiate (cross cultural)
• hybridity- meny.
• ambiguity- the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness
• Double consciousness– Double consciousness is the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society. 

Feminist by definition is a political position. The Feminine refers to a set of culturally defined characteristics determined at feminine.

Systemic Societal Sexism:

• misogyny – fear or hatred of women (subordination)
• sexism – discriminatory technique 
• patriarchy – male power 
• institutional (groups, organisations) perspective and individual perspective

Historical contexts// key points

• 3 Wave Feminism in the mid 90s
• Barker and Jane (2016) >
• an emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion – pluralism/ inter-sectional 
• individual and do-it-yourself tactics cyber activism 
• fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
• the re-appropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’
• sex positivity was more prevalent
• more active in cultural and pluralism – deveolopment on first 

MULVEY

• draws on the work by:
• Jacques Lacan – (identity- he was interested the first time a child recognises themselves in a mirror (mirror stage). He spoke about how we are socially constructed and that representation is constructed through the eyes of others another.
• ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema‘ – written in 1973 and published in 1975.
• Fetishism = ‘objectified‘ and ‘sexualised‘ parts of the female body.
• scopophilia = the pleasure to be had in looking(used in the media as marking tool to increase profits)
• vouyerism = the sexual pleasure found in looking
• controlling and subjective gaze  = the male gaze(term brought to relevance by MULVAY.

“In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male passive/female.”

Mulvey

narrative in moving imagery products are hooked around Time

Moving image uses linear and is chronological.

they normally have a theme with mine being random clips representing isolating showing the change in a person not sequential.

Structuralism -rules roles and convention.

Propp had the ides if stock characters performing stock functions – eg villain victim and hero

Claude Levi-strauss – narratives are structured around binary oppositions.

Seymour chatman- Kernels: key moments in the plot/ narrative structure satellites: embellishments, developments, aesthetics.

Narrative rules-

Todorov – tripartite narrative structure ; 3 part narrative structure; beginning middle and end

• equilibrium – represente
• disruption- conflict/ drama for interest
• new equilibrium-

Ideas: climax returning to the place where the actor ones was alone -reflecting isolation and a change some sort of fight causing this. theme of relationships and isolation. Difference between before becoming isolated and after. Happiness comes with others, revisit same places.

narrative – over all structure

story – themes and things included the narrative of a work, whether of fictional or nonfictional basis. The narrative threads experienced by each character or set of characters in a work of fiction. The storyline method of teaching.

plot- how you organise it the main events of a play, novel, film, or similar work, devised and presented by the writer as an interrelated sequence.

my narrative is – focusing on a main character showing various\ Montage of happy time in her life showing joy and then interjecting with clips on her own.

Barthes- Barthes‘ Semiotic Theory broke down the process of reading signs and focused on their interpretation by different cultures or societies. According to Barthes, signs had both a signifier, being the physical form of the sign as we perceive it through our senses and the signified, or meaning that is interpreted.

• Proairetic code- action, movement, causation
• hermeneutic code- reflection, dialogue,character, thematic development.
• Enigma code the way in which intrigue and ideas are raised- which encourage an audience to want moreinformation.

NARRATIVE

• Elision And Ellipsis- when you drop things out.
• flash forwards – flash-backwards: moments which break the line sequences.
• foreshadowing- rises the concept to he audiences giving them some information.
• dramatic irony- when the audience knows something the characters don’t.
• parallel- when to story lines interrupt.
• light and shade- varied intensity. moment of more light hearted moments.
• non-sequitars- a storyline which goes nowhere.

What is postmodernism? Postmodernism is a broad movement that was developed in the late 20th century in philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism, marking a departure from modernism. The term is generally used to describe a historical era said to follow after modernity and the tendencies of this era.

Pastiche – Artistic work that stylisticly imitates that of another work, artist, or time period.

Bricolage – A creation rom a diverse range of different things avaliable. 

Intertextuality – the connection of different texts and their influence.

Implosion – sudden failure of an organisation/system.

cultural appropriation – adoption of an element or elements of one culture by members of another culture. 

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1. COLONIALISM the practice of acquiring political control over another country to exploit it economically.
2. POST COLONIALISM the effect colonialism has on the country
3. DIASPORA the spread or moment of people away from their original homeland.
4. BAME– used to describe ethnic minorities
5. DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY) describes the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society.
6. CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM biological characteristics do not differ due to culture.
7. CULTURAL SYNCRETISM  is when distinct aspects of different cultures blend together to make something new and unique
8. ORIENTALISM (SAID) Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists
9.  APPROPRIATION using aspects taken from another culture and using it in a different culture.
10. CULTURAL HEGEMONY diverse culture which is being controlled and owned by the upper class.
11. THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS)he 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.
12. .THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS have a role at representing minorities in a fair way and if they doesn’t happen it can mean manority’s experience discrimination.

Ghost Town is by a British  band named the Specials and was released on 12 June 1981 and spent three weeks at number one in the uk top 40 charts and was awarded “Single of the Year” in 1981.

‘Ghost town’ was written to targeted the issue of unemployment, urban decay and violence in cities. The song specifically written about the decay where the band grew up in Coventry and places they witnessed decaying on their uk tour in terms of violence increasing and general decline in the city liveliness. The sing was rebased at a time in the uk when and increase in riots occurred due to racial tensions, and many ethnic minorities suffering from low aided jobs and bad housing conditions as well as corruption within police powers which lead to the governments attentions being raised in-order to help.

The music video was directed by Barney Bubbles and consists of bass player Horace Panter driving around London with the band intercut with views of streets and buildings filmed from the moving vehicle of around London ending with a shot of the band standing on the banks of the River Thames.