What is the difference between consumer-orientated regulation and citizen-based regulation?

Consumer-orientated regulation is initially designed to encourage media plurality and to ensure that a diversity of broadcasters operate within the media landscape.

Livingstone and Lunt argue that citizen-based regulation provides a content focused framework that directs media makers to “contribute to the enrichment of cultural and social life and the potential for self-development of individuals, groups and communities”.

In other words…citizen-based regulation takes everyone into account.

What impact did the 2003 Communications Act have on media regulation?

Communications Act designed by Labour government in order to modernise the UK’s regulatory systems and help UK TV industry to become more competitive in globalised media landscape of late 20th century. The Communications Act significantly diluted public service requirements of TV broadcasting. Independent TV production companies were freed up to produce content that was more commercially viable. This resulted in production of programming lacking civic-minded republicanism that had been fostered within previous regulatory frameworks.

What is the drawback of a self-regulatory system?

Most media organisations construct their own self-regulations which isn’t beneficial and doesn’t help to resolve issues (possibly put forward by members of the public) regarding their media.

Star formatting – foregrounding of star power in order to gain an audience – Sarah Lund (The Killing)

Genre formatting – genre is the category of a certain type of media (film, book, etc..), the format is how the genre is structured – crime, mystery, thriller, drama (The Killing)

Steralisation – includes a prequel/sequel – No Offence has 3 seasons and The Killing has 4

Multi-sector integration – vertical & horizontal integration – The Killing was originally shown on DR (a Danish broadcasting corporation) but is now available on Amazon Prime and BBC (and was shown on Netflix)

-public speaker, writer, filmmaker and activist who is  internationally recognized for her work on the image of women in advertising

“Ads sell more than products. They sell values, they sell images. They sell concepts of love and sexuality, of success and perhaps most important, of normalcy. To a great extent, they tell us who we should and shouldn’t be.”

“Women’s bodies continue to be dismembered in advertising. Over and over again just one part of the body is used to sell products, which is one of the most dehumanizing things you can do to someone. Not only is she a thing, but not one part of that things if focused on.”

“Get what you’ve always wanted” imperative, command, demanding you do what the advert says

Man is higher than the women, suggesting he is more important

Man shown with a gun, portraying his masculinity, women shown wearing minimal clothing, suggesting that they are submissive to the man

Advert mentions the verb “groom” which holds negative connotations that you most likely would not see in an advert today

“Score” suggests the man’s aim is to “score” lots of women, the advert in general is portraying the idea that buying the hair cream allows you to receive a lot of female attention

OPERANT CONDITIONING – B.F Skinner – “the fiction of free will?” We decide to do something because the idea has already been planted in our minds by someone/something else. Free will is an illusion.

Propaganda vs persuasion

Propaganda – overtly political and manipulative

Persuasion – concealment, strategy and manipulation

Harold Lasswell – Propaganda Technique in the World War (1927) – highlighted “subtle poison”

Shoshana Zuboff – behaviour management – persuading people to engage in certain types of behaviour

We can connect with media messages through one-to-one communication

Individuality and personal freedom vs behaviour modification – “the behavioural technology being developed in the United States today touches upon the most basic sources of individuality and the very core of personal freedom…”

Cambridge Analytica – Alexander Nix – influences people through adverts on social media

Hypodermic model (passive consumption) – model proposes a clear linear (maybe even altered) connection between a message sent > message received

Paul Lazarfeld said that a simple, linear model may not be sufficiently complex to understanding the relationship between message sent > message received. Lazarfield developed the Two Step Flow model for communication, which took account of the way in which mediated messages are not directly injected into the audience.

Katz – Uses and Gratifications theory

Escapism, social interaction, educate and inform, identification

Maslow – Hierarchy of Needs

Self actualization, esteem, love and belonging, safety, physiological

Cultivation theory – effects over time…

George Gerbner and Larry Gross developed this theory that notes the distinct characteristics of television in relation to other media forms. They suggest that “television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that sued to be acquired from other primary sources.”

Theory of preferred reading…

1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message
2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

Stuart Hall suggested we can reject media messages.

Clay Shirky – the end of audience

No mass audience, only a large group of individuals

The I and Daily Mail ownership – Daily Mail and General Trust

Conclude and summarise

Chomsky’s theory consists of the idea that there are five general classes of “filters” that determine the type of news that is presented in news media. These five classes are: ownership of the medium, the medium’s funding sources, sourcing, flak and the common enemy.

In terms of advertising, The Daily Mail (especially online) is full of adverts which have been deliberately included to persuade and encourage the target audience to buy. The adverts shown online are more personal as they have access to a persons likes and dislikes, therefore they can advertise things you are interested in.

– The I is published by The Daily Mail.

– Aimed at “readers and lapsed readers”.

– The Daily Mail recently bought The I on the 29th November, costing £49.6 million.

– The I was named British National Newspaper of the Year in 2015.

SIMILARITIES…

– Both published by The Daily Mail and General Trust.

– Both newspapers have online services.

– Both are published daily.

– Both are middle-market newspapers.

DIFFERENCES…

The Daily Mail is increasing in revenue and the I is decreasing.

– The I only began publishing in the last 10 years, The Daily Mail has been around since 1896.

– The Daily Mail is more right wing whereas as The I is more left.

– The Daily Mail is a tabloid whereas The I is a broadsheet.

– The I is aimed at all ages, classes and genders, The Daily Mail is aimed at low/middle class British Women.

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market newspaper published in London. It follows a tabloid format and has been around since 1896.

The Daily Mail is owned by Viscount Rothermere, a chairman and controlling shareholder, formerly associated with newspapers and a media conglomerate.

The Daily Mail has been noted for its unreliability, criticized for printing inaccurate stories of science and medical research and for copyright violations. In 2011, the Daily Mail published a report stating that “just ONE cannabis joint can cause psychiatric episodes similar to schizophrenia as well as damaging memory”. It was after said that the Daily Mail had not used medical or scientific research.

The Daily Mail has faced racism, homophobia and sexism accusations over the years from newspapers such as The New Yorker. In August 2020, a group of Palm Islanders from Australia made a complaint about the Daily Mail under the Racial Discrimination Act for publishing inaccurate and racist reports.

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