Quotations from Fake News vs New Media (J. McDougall)

• Can be applied to CSPs:
  • Maybelline “That Boss Life”
  • Hidden Figures
  • Common – Letter to the Free
  • Word of the Worlds Radio programme

• “There are always points historically where populations have been discontented or economic hardships have been exacerbated”
• “The government were selling it politically through manifestos, through political speeches, the usual kind of forums where the speech of a minister is reported by The Times”
• “We know ordinary people acquired their knowledge of understanding from the news from in the 1930s from cinema newsreels first and foremost”
• “The British are very concerned at this point in terms of their external propaganda…”

Quotes from Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Anthony Giddens)

• Yet because of the “openness” of social life today, the pluralization of contexts of action and diversity of “authorities”, lifestyle choices is increasingly important in the constitution of self identity and daily activity.
• In modern social life, the notion of lifestyle takes on a a particular significance
• Reflexively organised life planning, which normally presumes consideration of risks, as filtered through contact with expert knowledge, becomes a central feature of the structuring of self identity.
• Which consists in the sustaining of coherent, yet continuously revised, biographical narratives, takes place in the context of multiple choice as filtered through abstract systems.

Semiotics

• Sign = A mark, sign or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, object, or relationship. For example, a love heart could be a sign of being in love.
• Code = These are loads of signs that create a meaning of something. Media codes include the use of camera, acting, setting, mise en scene, editing, lighting, sound, special effects, typography, colour, visual composition, text and graphics to develop a TV advert.
• Convention = The ways media codes are used and combined to form individual or generic media styles.
• Dominant Signifier =  The most important thing we see on a piece of media. It also provides anchorage (signs with a fixed meaning
• Anchorage = when a piece of media uses another piece of media to reduce the amount of connotations in the first, therefore allowing the audience to interpret it much more easily

Ferdinand de Saussure:

• Signifier = the physical form of a sign (such as a piece of media from a magazine)
• Signified =this is the actual meaning or idea that has been explored by a sign.

C S Pierce:

• Iconic sign = a sign that looks exactly like its object.
• Indexical sign = a sign that has links to the object
• Symbolic sign = a sign that has a random link to an object.

Roland Barthes:

• Signification = the process of signifying signs by identifying what the sign means.
• Denotation = the translation of a sign into its literal meaning
• Connotation = what signs we can associate with a piece of media.
• Myth = a story that has a false belief or idea, but people believe it to be true

You will also need to understand these key terms:

• Ideology = a system of ideas and beliefs, which forms the basis of an economic or political theory and policy.
• radical = radical texts challenge the dominant ideology
• reactionary = reactionary media follows the dominant ideology

• Paradigm = the relationship of signs, however, one sign could be replaced by another.
• Syntagm = the relationship of signs in sequence or in parallel that create a meaning

Answers are likely to consider:

General points:

· The significance of economic factors, including commercial and not-for-profit public funding, to media industries and their products.

· How media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of audiences nationally.

· How media producers target, attract, reach, address and potentially construct audiences.

· How media industries target audiences through the content and appeal of media products and through the ways in which they are marketed, distributed and circulated. The Liberal theory of press freedom (eg summarised by Curran & Seaton)

· In this view of freedom of expression, it is the interests of the press, not of its readers nor of the subjects of its coverage, which are fundamental. (‘Free enterprise is a pre-requisite of a free press’)

· Based on the assumption that democracy is best served by the free exchange of ideas, for which freedom of expression is vital. (‘the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market’)

· In the case of the press, with certain limited exceptions, no legal restriction is placed on the right to buy or launch a newspaper. (This ensures, in liberal theory, that the press is free, diverse and representative (Curran and Seaton 2003: 346-7).

· ‘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).

· ‘press freedom is a property right exercised by publishers on behalf of society.’ Any other form of regulation simply distorts the market, operates against the interests of both producers and consumers, and violates the private property rights on which this whole edifice rests.

The i newspaper

· The i launched to pose a challenge to existing ‘quality’ newspapers with low cover price and tabloid format.

· In the context of declining newspaper sales it made a bold statement: “condense, re-format, repurpose – and produce a terse, intelligent summation of the day’s news that busy commuters can enjoy” (Peter Preston).

· It has battled to remain ‘cheap’ or at least ‘cheaper’: the weekday edition rising from 20p to 50p.

· Historical lineage going back to a much-missed ‘parent’ paper, the Independent, now defunct in print form: A significant number of staff joined the team from The Independent.

· It has maintained a reputation: named National Newspaper of the Year in 2015.

· Actually this link was broken when it was purchased by regional publisher Johnston Press (this has not affected its identity).

· It has a distinct ‘independent’ register, crisply edited: aimed at “readers and lapsed readers” of all ages and commuters with limited time: you don’t have to ‘identify’ yourself as a reader of a newspaper.

· Appearance is vital: USP: inside and out: compact, “matrices” for news, business and sports— small paragraphs of information which are expanded upon in full articles further on in the paper”.

· Its title reaches back to ‘independence’ but also forward to internet: i-pad, i-phone, i-player, i!

· The paper is active on social media, reinforcing its youthful feel: there is also a discounted student subscription that lasts for one academic year

• History
  • It was founded on the 26th October 2010

• Format
  • The ‘I used to be a physical newspaper you could purchase, however, they now have an online edition, where you can get 3 issues of the newspaper for 99p.
  • The titles are written in a sans-serif font, which is clear and easy to read.

• Editors
  • The ‘I’ was originally produced by 3 Daily Telegraph workers – Andreas Whittam-Smith, Stephen Glover and Matthew Symonds.
  • On the 16th November 2018, the Daily Mail bought the ‘I’ newspaper for £49.6 million

• Political stance
  • Its political alignment is seen as very centrism
  • The I newspaper is known to be very liberal

• Cost
  • It originally was 60p an issue, however the price rose up to 80p
  • In some airports, such as London Gatwick Airport, there are newspapers stand that offer a free ‘I’ newspaper. This is because the ‘I’ newspaper company had created a deal with the airport.

• Target Audience
  • The target audience of this newspaper is very all rounded an is targeting adult target audiences of multiple interest. This is shown by the newspaper covering reports on sport, politics and general breaking news.

• Circulation
  • There are approximately around 221,083 ‘I’ Newspapers in circulation (as of October 2019)
  • In March 2016 The Independent decided to close its print edition and become an online newspaper
  • the last printed edition of The ‘I’ was published on Saturday 26 March 2016

• Profit
  • The newspaper originally was sold at 30p in 2010, however this rose to 60p in 2016 and is currently selling at 80p.

In the introduction, we explained the inadequacies of the traditional left-right line.

If we recognise that this is essentially an economic line it’s fine, as far as it goes. We can show, for example, Stalin, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot, with their commitment to a totally controlled economy, on the hard left. Socialists like Mahatma Gandhi and Robert Mugabe would occupy a less extreme leftist position. Margaret Thatcher would be well over to the right, but further right still would be someone like that ultimate free marketeer, General Pinochet.

That deals with economics, but the social dimension is also important in politics. That’s the one that the mere left-right scale doesn’t adequately address. So we’ve added one, ranging in positions from extreme authoritarian to extreme libertarian.

Both an economic dimension and a social dimension are important factors for a proper political analysis. By adding the social dimension you can show that Stalin was an authoritarian leftist (ie the state is more important than the individual) and that Gandhi, believing in the supreme value of each individual, is a liberal leftist. While the former involves state-imposed arbitrary collectivism in the extreme top left, on the extreme bottom left is voluntary collectivism at regional level, with no state involved. Hundreds of such anarchist communities existed in Spain during the civil war period

You can also put Pinochet, who was prepared to sanction mass killing for the sake of the free market, on the far right as well as in a hardcore authoritarian position. On the non-socialist side you can distinguish someone like Milton Friedman, who is anti-state for fiscal rather than social reasons, from Hitler, who wanted to make the state stronger, even if he wiped out half of humanity in the process.

The chart also makes clear that, despite popular perceptions, the opposite of fascism is not communism but anarchism (ie liberal socialism), and that the opposite of communism ( ie an entirely state-planned economy) is neo-liberalism (ie extreme deregulated economy)

The usual understanding of anarchism as a left wing ideology does not take into account the neo-liberal “anarchism” championed by the likes of Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman and America’s Libertarian Party, which couples social Darwinian right-wing economics with liberal positions on most social issues. Often their libertarian impulses stop short of opposition to strong law and order positions, and are more economic in substance (ie no taxes) so they are not as extremely libertarian as they are extremely right wing. On the other hand, the classical libertarian collectivism of anarcho-syndicalism ( libertarian socialism) belongs in the bottom left hand corner.

In our home page we demolished the myth that authoritarianism is necessarily “right wing”, with the examples of Robert Mugabe, Pol Pot and Stalin. Similarly Hitler, on an economic scale, was not an extreme right-winger. His economic policies were broadly Keynesian, and to the left of some of today’s Labour parties. If you could get Hitler and Stalin to sit down together and avoid economics, the two diehard authoritarians would find plenty of common ground.

A Word about Neo-cons and Neo-libs

U.S. neo-conservatives, with their commitment to high military spending and the global assertion of national values, tend to be more authoritarian than hard right. By contrast, neo-liberals, opposed to such moral leadership and, more especially, the ensuing demands on the tax payer, belong to a further right but less authoritarian region. Paradoxically, the “free market”, in neo-con parlance, also allows for the large-scale subsidy of the military-industrial complex, a considerable degree of corporate welfare, and protectionism when deemed in the national interest. These are viewed by neo-libs as impediments to the unfettered market forces that they champion.

Your Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: -4.5
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.23

Quotations:

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

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

• The public sphere and role of media in relation to it has to be “conceptualized and reincarnated into a new form”

• The media facilitates this process by providing an arena of public debate, and by reconstituting private citizens as a public body in the form of a public opinion.

• Habermas’ study can extrapolate a model of the public sphere as a neutral zone, where access to relevant information affecting the public good is widely available

• The watchdog role is said to override in importance of other functions of media and to dictate the form in which media should be organised.

• Anchoring mass media to the free market ensures that it is possible to ensure the media’s complete independence from the government.

Regulation, state or free market

Habermas’ Public Sphere theory

• A theory by Habermas, as we learn to read and write, people are able to socialize with others from across the globe, rather then limiting it to just socializing with their families.
• Habermas had written extensively on the way that information, news and events are processed in the ‘public sphere’
• Habermas believes that democracy depends on a public which is informed, aware and which debates the issues of the day
• Habermas believes that the that mas media has resulted ina reduction in plurality, there are fewer voices discussing the news
• Habermas believes the mass media and globalization has reduced the effectiveness of the public sphere.
• Habermas was the author of the Theory of communication
• A public space between the private domain and the state in which public opinion was formed and popular supervision of the government was established’
• The public sphere is meant to connect people horizontally, rather then vertically. In the past, the kings and noblemen would control the lower class.
• The public sphere explains that people can connect by going into a coffee shop. You have personal places, such as your home to communicate with your family and then social places, such as coffee shops, where you can communicate and socialize with others and see what is going on, therefore connecting beyond our family and personal relationships.
• Socializing with others in public spaces means you can transform your life and also socialize with anyone throughout the whole World.
• The public sphere excludes the poor and uneducated

Mass Media in Public Interest

• There is a fundamental presumption that the media does serve the ‘public interest’ or ‘general welfare’, whether that is by design or chance
• It doesn’t imply that the media are obliged to conform to popular will or carry out the same particular function
• A quite diverse set of expectations, from or on behalf of ‘society’ have been articulated in different fora in most countries.
• The public control of media has often been advocated on the grounds of public interest as deregulation and further extension of the free market

James Curran = created the book ‘Mass Media and democracy’

Technology and Newspapers
Production	Distribution	Consumption
– Reported by journalists – Sent in by consumers – Laptop/computer – Word processing software – telephone – pen and paper – printers – send out journalists to create the article/report – audio recorder – camera/ digital camera – photographers – email software to gather information – editing software	– paper format as a newspaper – free newspapers that are available in airports – distributed by lorries, vans and cars – air cargo distribution – distributed into shops, bookshops and newsagents – large scale printing press – stacks – shelves – display cases – paper rounds by the “paper boy/girl”	– available in paper form – available in digital form -bought from shops – available to read digital copies on electronic devices and mobile devices. – daily subscriptions – premium subscriptions (with perks such as free digital copy included)

Noam Chomsky – Manufacturing Consent

This is a book that is written by Chomsky and Edward S Herman, which proposes that the mass communication medias of the US are “effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function, by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion”.

5 Filters of Mass Media

1. Structure of ownership – Conglomerates use vertical integration to use their subsidiary to produce newspapers.
2. The role of advertising – many newspapers use advertising i n order to pay off the production costs of producing their newspaper. For example, they may charge a company money to advertise on the back page on their newspaper.
3. Links with ‘The Establishment’ – Media can link with the government and politics. Such as Sinclair (5 Filters of Mass Media machine and Donald Trump are really good friends, meaning Trump could decide to back his friend up.
4. Diversionary Tactics (‘Flack’) – Another word for flack is noise/distraction. This is when they make a story that could be seen as ‘fake news’ and distracts people from important news to cover up the newspaper company. For example, there might be the bush fires in Australia, but newspapers seem more interested in celebrities at the BAFTAs.
5. Uniting against a ‘common enemy‘ – these include communists, terrorists and anti-supporters. The newspaper might produce an article to give a bad reputation to something (ie North Korea and Kim Jong Un)

Agenda setting – the creation of public issues, but can be filtered what articles are covered in order to emphasise and spread propaganda about a certain topic and issues that might interest their target reader.

Framing – how something is presented to the audience. Factors that influence framing include Gender, Race, Politics, Age, Society/Cultural trends and the economic issues and the influence of sponsors and money.

Myth making – when you create a statement or belief that hasn’t been backed up by anything, therefore people are hesitant to believe, meaning some people believe it but some people don’t.

The Sociology of News Production

• Major media conglomerates control more and more of the world’s media
• The “velvet revolution” in Eastern Europe (1989) raises related doubts about the attributions of unlimited power to the socialist state
• The link between ownership of news organisations and news coverage is not easy to determine. It’s hard to tie patterns of ownership to specific habits of reporting.
• The political economy perspective in Anglo-American media studies has generally been insensitive to political and legal determinants of news production, it has been far more “economic” than political”