Institutional Analysis

The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas,

Marx, German Ideology (1845)

A key area of media studies is to look at the role of companies, organisations, businesses, institutions. This takes the form of critical analysis. In other words, it is not looking at from a Business studies perspective – organisation, profit, structure – but rather from a sociological perspective – issues of ownership, power, control, behaviour management.

Central to this kind of approach is Althusser’s notion of ISA’s (Ideological State Apparatus), which is often traced in media production by the way in which media texts INTERPELLATE (hail, call, construct, build, maintain) an ideological identity. In other words, there is a link between media ownership and media output – it is complicated so we will look at this stuff in more detail next term.

Task 4: Make a post that sets out 25 facts about Rupert Murdoch’s News UK

However, for now (our last task before Xmas and the last task of this term!!) please could you create a new post called ‘Murdoch: News UK‘ (categorise it as Institution) and basically find out 25 facts about Rupert Murdoch’s media Empire (so no personal details about him, rather facts and figures about his company / companies). Hope that makes sense?