ESSAY & ESSAY PREP

Exam Question: Ideology can be defined as a collection of values and beliefs. To what extent do media products target audiences by constructing an ideological view of the world?

Key Things to talk about / keep in mind:

  • Make sure your essay is consistent, coherent and complete. In other words, this should be a full answer to the question. Try not to consolidate your ideas too early!
  • Must have an introduction, a central argument and a conclusion.
  • Authoritarianism, Libertarianism, Right wing, Left wing. Use secondary sources (ie quotation) to help to support your knowledge and understanding.
  • Knowledge of media regulation – you can draw upon Livingstone and Lunt (pp 141-152). Feel free to include any ideas from Hesmondhalgh (pp 153-163)
  • Make sure you show some institutional knowledge of both papers – ie structures of ownership, history, purpose, intention etc.
  • Make sure you are aware and able to discuss ideas by Habermas, Curran and Seaton’s Ideas around the liberal press
  • Know about Chomsky and have quotes on him.
    – “He who controls the mind of the media controls the public”
  • Make sure that you are able to include specific detail about both Papers

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Developing your argument or line of reasoning
  • Conclusion
  • References

Essay:

Introduction

In this essay I am going to talk about how media products such as the ‘Daily mail’ and ‘The i’, being our CSP’s construct ideological views on the world. The Daily Mail and The I are both newspapers, with The Daily Mail being founded in 1896 and The I being founded in 2010. The issues I am going to explore with this essay is “How the public’s mind is controlled through the media corporations” – Noam Chomsky, and strategies media uses to control the public. First of all The Daily Mail is seen to be as a Authoritarian right winged newspaper and The I being a Libertarian left winged newspaper. I will discuss how media is regulated through Livingstone and Lunt’s theory and how media companies minimize risk with David Hesmondhalgh theory.

Paragraph 1

The Daily Mail is owned by the Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT) and also by Lord Rothermere it was originally created to tell people what is happening with the world which was what the Public Sphere was, they were said to be aware of what was going on in the world with democracy being around, Habermas said. But once The Daily Mail realised they can use media to control people and give them certain beliefs they changed to this with the end of the public sphere due to which Habermas believed came with Mass Media globalisation reduced the effectiveness due to fewer voices, this can be seen today with the DGMT owned not only The Daily Mail but also The I. This is done to reduce ‘the risky business’ – David Hesmondhalgh which comes with owning a media company, this is done through Vertical integration whereby in this case the DGMT owns both newspaper companies.

Paragraph 2

I would argue that The Daily Mail as long as The I are right wing as The I was adopted by The Daily Mail, however its editor Oliver Duff can be seen as someone who is left winged as he is young therefore he is more likely to have more left wing views. For example with The Daily Mail newspaper on Monday the 6th of June 2022 you can see the queen smiling looking her best on the front page which is backed up by the quote of ‘the Queens poignant message’ which shows bias and shows that this paper is potentially a pro-royal family newspaper, the reason this is done is to show the public how great the royal family is and you can even further tell that The Daily Mail is pro-royal family as Lord Rother mere has the title ‘Lord’ in his name which can only be given by the royal family, you can also tell that the paper has old fashion values with the font of the newspaper looking medieval, whereas with The I the royal family is seen with them not looking the best, backed up with a quote on the front page ‘Vote on Johnson future turning toxic for Tories’ which tries to bring your attention away from the royal family and towards libertarianism, the font of The I is also to be seen as more modern suggesting more modern and new thoughts this is seen throughout more of the paper with it further being backed up with the quote ‘You should be reading this in the front page (The hidden horror of the hunger crisis in east Africa)’ from page 16 of The I this can also be seen as more serious news which shows the audiences the reality of what is going on in the world with them also allowing journalists and advertisers to endorse more critical thinking, however they have also done this as a advertisement to minimize the risks again.

Paragraph 3

Linking back to paragraph 1, The Daily Mail can be seen as a mass media corporation with its website attaining over 360 million unique users every month. A reason why so many people may view it is because they seek for Hedonism whereby they are seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Exchanging please for pain if that pleasure isn’t easily accessible then that pain will be greater. With the papers less serious news, this can be seen on page 6 ‘Hilarious and barmy… final parade was so very British’. It is said that the DGMT annual revenue is around £1bn. Most of the money gained from this is through advertising inside the newspaper and advertisers look for less serious news to sell there product as they don’t want controversy like The I newspaper surrounding it.

Conclusion

In conclusion The I and The Daily Mail are both newspaper which construct different ideological be beliefs of how the events around the UK should be viewed. Where The Daily Mail can be widely seen as a Authoritarian Right winged newspaper and The I can be seen as a Libertarian Right winged newspaper both endorse in advertisement and both are regulated. Both fall under Chomsky’s ideas of how they try to passively change your thinking with his 5 filters on the mass media.

Noam Chomsky

Chomsky explains how propaganda and systemic is biased function in corporate mass media.

5 filters of mass media machine –

  • Structure of ownership – most media companies are concentration of ownership through vertical and horizontal integration, most media owned by mass media conglomerates
  • The role of advertising – To produce money to cover the cost of production and distribution of media through advertisement and sponsors. You need advertisers to fill the cash gap.
  • Links with the establishment
  • Divisionary tactics – ‘flack’ – disposal of unwanted news negatively surrounding the patriarchy
  • Uniting against a ‘common enemy’ – your enemy’s enemy is your friend, uniting against something we don’t like, media exploiting stereotyping something that is commonly disliked in the area to attract attention and exhibition.

Essay prep

 The i and the Daily Mail attempt to establish a distinctive identity within this free market

Free market =  free market is a system in which the prices for goods and services are self-regulated by buyers and sellers negotiating in an open market without market coercions

Curran and Seaton: Liberal theory of press freedom

To discuss key concepts such as Authoritarianism, Libertarianism, Right wing, Left wing. Use secondary sources (ie quotation) to help to support your knowledge and understanding

Show some knowledge of media regulation – you can draw upon Livingstone and Lunt

Definitions

Libertarianism is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state’s violation of individual liberties; emphasizing free association, freedom of choice, individualism and voluntary association.

Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting.

Hedonism comes from the ancient Greek for ‘pleasure’. Psychological or motivational hedonism claims that only pleasure or pain motivates us. Ethical or evaluative hedonism claims that only pleasure has worth or value and only pain or displeasure has disvalue or the opposite of worth.

The Frankfurt School was a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), during the European interwar period (1918–1939), the Frankfurt School comprised intellectuals, academics, and political dissidents dissatisfied with the contemporary socio-economic systems (capitalist, fascist, communist) of the 1930s. The Frankfurt theorists proposed that social theory was inadequate for explaining the turbulent political factionalism and reactionary politics occurring in 20th century liberal capitalist societies. Critical of both capitalism and of Marxism–Leninism as philosophically inflexible systems of social organization, the School’s critical theory research indicated alternative paths to realizing the social development of a society and a nation.

Habermas and the Public Sphere

The emergence of an independent, market-based press, created a new public engaged in critical political discussion.

The 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 public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to openly discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.

‘Habermas argues that the development of early modern capitalism brought into being an autonomous arena of public debate.’

‘He argues, the public sphere came to be dominated by an expanded state and organised economic interests’.

‘Created a new public engaged in critical political thinking’.

Newspapers

CHOMSKY

Chomsky explains how propaganda and systemic biases function in corporate mass media. The model seeks to explain how populations are manipulated and how consent for economic, social, and political policies, both foreign and domestic, is “manufactured” in the public mind due to this propaganda.

Stereotypically there are two ends of a political spectrum, authoritarianism in countries such as China, and libertarianism in countries such as the US, however Chomsky says that we are being controlled by the mass media (because people in power produce their ideologies and distribute it through mass media) to manufacture the general publics consent- while big conglomerates also own most mass media heavily reducing the public sphere by narrowing the beliefs of other companies and people, as people are being told “facts” from media without comprehending the idea that media will also have a political compass. The I for example might seem more leftist however it is still right winged just less right winged from the daily mail – both are owned by DMGT which the 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman for (70% of newspapers are owned by just three companies) and Lord Rothermere was also friends with Adolf Hitler which we can say is a link to the establishment regarding Chomsky’s theory of the 5 mass filters of media. As the public gains knowledge from the media- they are also being programmed through advertisement and media exhibition (Laswell’s passive consumption model- hypodermic model) to view the world through the political compass of the media product. Building on Lasswell consumption model Shannon and Weaver adapted the model and introduced the idea of noise and error disrupting the passive model, active consumption can be enabled by educating yourself about the tactics of the media and start thinking your own thoughts and to keep an eye out on the Chomsky theory of 5 Filters on the mass media machine- and how those filters prevent media from representing all sides of the political compass and how they are mostly right winged authoritarian. Link to Roland Barthes and semiotics presented in the media and how that manipulates public consent.

The 5 filters of the mass media machine:

 1.Structure of ownership

Most media companies are concentration of ownership through vertical and horizontal integration, most media owned by mass media conglomerates.

2.The role of advertising

To produce money to cover the cost of production and distribution of Media through advertisement and sponsors.

You need advertisers to fill the cash gap, we buy media for cheaper than it will ever be produced, and advertisements are being sold to us, but we are being sold to advertisers by mass media and we are the product.

3.Links with the establishment

Media representers or distributers are in debt and work with the people in power, those who go against them are pushed to the margins and not seen as much.

4.Divisionary tactics- ‘flack’

People and other media sources who aren’t helping the people in power are divided away by flack, other sources discredit their views and divert the story onto something else to make the opposing media seem unreliable.

5.Uniting against a ‘common enemy’

Your enemy’s enemy is your friend, uniting against something we don’t like, media exploiting and stereotyping something that is commonly disliked in the area to attract attention and exhibition.UNCATEGORIZED

ESSAY PLAN

Newspaper:

Authoritarianism control has a power in a leader or an elite not continuality responsible to the people

Liberalism: Is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed and equality

Right wing newspapers:

-The daily mail

-The Sun

-Daily express

-Sunday express

Left wing newspapers:

-Daily mirror

-Morning star

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky’s propaganda model: The propaganda model is a conceptual model in political economy advanced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky to explain how propaganda and systemic biases function in corporate mass media.

Noam Chomsky describes himself as an anarcho – syndicalist and libertarian socialist and is considered to be a key intellectual figure within the left wing of politics of the united states.

the 5 filters of mass media

structures of Ownership – is a Part of bigger conglomerates with an end game of profit. Push for what gets them that profit that’s their interest. Journalism comes second.

The role of advertising – Advertising products to earn money and profiting off the product, They are selling products but are also selling the audiences

Links with the establishment -the very system includes complicity. People who in power of the media will punish those who are against them. Companies who are all linked

Diversionary tactics – ‘Flak’- Getting rid of unwanted news, exposing the government, negativity surrounding patriarchy

Uniting against a ‘common enemy’ – your enemy’s enemy is your friend. Uniting against something we dont like

Agenda setting:

AGENDA SETTING -Media Agenda Setting, Politics Agenda Setting, and Public Agenda Setting

FRAMING – expands the research by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand rather than on a particular topic.

MYTH MAKING –

CONDITIONS OF CONSUMPTION – Personal consumption expenditures are officially separated into three categories in the National Income and Product Accounts: durable goods, nondurable goods, and services.

Mass media: Mass media is communication, whether written, broadcast, or spoken that reaches a large audience.

-Television

-radio

-advertising

-movies

-the internet

-newspapers

-magazines

mass media is a significant force in modern culture.

The daily mail

  • Is a British daily middle-market newspaper published in London
  • The daily mail has 218 million visitors per month
  • It has won a number of awards eight times since 1995
  • It was one of the first British papers to popularize its coverage to appeal to a mass readership
  • The Daily Mail’s print circulation has fallen below 900,000 for the first time in more than 100 years. In February the newspaper sold an average of 896,455 copies each day or 767,021 on weekdays and 1,449,049 on Saturdays – following a month-on-month drop of 1% and year-on-year decline of 7%
  • The Daily Mail Is Yellow Journalism – sensationalistic or biased stories that newspapers present as objective truth
  • The daily mail are right wing
  • the Daily mail is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), the new regulatory body for the Press set up in response to the Leveson Inquiry.

The I

  • The I is a British national morning paper published in London by daily mail and general trust.
  • Founded 26th October 2010
  • The paper and its website were bought by the daily mail and general trust on 29th November 2019 for £49.6 million.
  • The I was named British National Newspaper of the year in 2015
  • The paper had an average daily circulation of 302,757 in March 2013 significantly more than the independent.
  • At the start of September 2017, the price rose once again, to 60p for the weekday edition and 80p for the relaunched i weekend beginning later that month
  • On 11 February 2016, it was revealed that regional publisher Johnston Press, which owned The Yorkshire Post and The Scotsman, were in the advanced stages of talks to buy the i for around £24 million
  • Rothermere, the chair of DMGT, said that the paper would maintain its politically independent editorial style

Habermas and the public sphere

what is Habermas theory of the public sphere?

In its ideal form, the public sphere is “made up of private people gathered together as a public and articulating the needs of society with the state.

The public sphere is the arena where citizens come together, exchange opinions regarding public affairs, discuss, deliberate and eventually form public opinion

Mark scheme:

 The i and the Daily Mail attempt to establish a distinctive identity within this free market

Free market =  free market is a system in which the prices for goods and services are self-regulated by buyers and sellers negotiating in an open market without market coercions

Curran and Seaton: Liberal theory of press freedom

To discuss key concepts such as Authoritarianism, Libertarianism, Right wing, Left wing. Use secondary sources (ie quotation) to help to support your knowledge and understanding

Show some knowledge of media regulation – you can draw upon Livingstone and Lunt

Ideology = A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Ideology can be defined as a collection of values and beliefs. To what extent do media products target audiences by constructing an ideological view of the world?

You should refer to your newspaper Close Study Products, The i and The Daily Mail.

Noam Chomsky believes mass communication media and the government ‘are effective and powerful ideological institutions’ who rely on ‘propaganda’, ‘market forces’, and ‘self-censorship’ to indoctrinate their beliefs into their audiences. Both the Daily Mail and The I support this theory as they both project different ideological views of the world in order to reach a specific audience – The Daily Mail targets a rightist, conservative audience whereas The I targets a leftist, liberal audience.

The Daily Mail is a nationally daily tabloid newspaper launched in 1896 and is politically aligned with conservative values – the font of the newspaper title highlights this as it indexically implies this idea of archaic and dated, mirroring the perspective of the newspaper and supporting C.S. Peirce’s semiotic theory that indexical signs link to what they signify. The paper is owned by the global company DMGT, a long with many other papers, touching upon Curran and Seaton’s concerns with the media landscape falling under the control of just a handful of media conglomerates. They argue that through having direct control, proprietor owners have the power to censor news content that conflicts with their political view and instead highlight only what supports their ideology, allowing them to indoctrinate this belief into their mass audience, for example in the editorial section on page 18:  ‘the truth is that Boris Johnson is by a country mile the best person to lead the tory government and the country at this time’ – this represents conservative party as superior to other candidates, therefore promoting rightists values to their mass audiences. The editorial section of the paper reinforces the authoritarian nature of the paper as it provides only one opinion on the current events taking place, mirroring the authoritarian nature of the conservative party. further to this, their endorsement of the conservative party almost every year since 1945conveys to audiences a sense of loyalty to the party and its ideology, therefore persuading them to feel the same. By having such a disposition, audiences are forced to believe only the values being presented to them, due to just how indistinct they are, linking to Paul Lazarfeld’s Two Step Flow of Communication Theory which highlights how media messages are not always just directly ‘injected’ into an audience but also filtered through influential opinion leaders, the editors of the paper and their right-winged perspective, who interpret a message and first and then relay them back to the mass audiences. Overall, it is clear that this paper constructs an ideological view of the world, conservative, in order to engage audiences by highlighting ideas of nationalism and idolising the elite, therefore appealing to their rightists target audience.

The I is a national daily ‘quality tabloid’ launched in 2010 and is politically aligned with liberal values – the title of the paper portrays the indexical sign of the letter ‘i’ which appears modern and signifies the idea of seeing and discovering, mirroring the libertarian perspective of the newspaper and supporting C.S. Peirce’s semiotic theory that indexical signs link to what they signify. Like Daily Mail, the paper is owned by DMGT – who bought in `2019 for almost £50 million. This relates to Jurgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action whereby the public sphere has become  ‘dominated by an expanded state and organised economic interests’…’made up of private people gathered together as a public and articulating the needs of society with the state’ – as DMGT is a global conglomerate who owns many companies and operates in 40 countries across the world and therefore have the power to indoctrinate their ideology into their millions of audience members. However, despite the authoritarian nature of its ownership, The i projects a more libertarian view of the world by embracing all different types of perspectives on all different types of events – for example in the ‘Opinion Matrix’ section of the paper,  opinions and messages of all different types of readers ‘Tony Fitzjohn… Ian Birrel… John Burn-Murdoch…’ etc… are presented in order to give the common population a voice, therefore considering many kinds of ideology. The ‘Opinion Matrix’ section of the paper highlights how audience members can be seen as active, linking to Katz, Gurevitch, Haas’ uses and gratifications theory as they are actively selecting knowledge presented to them, interpreting it for themselves, and providing feedback to the paper itself. This highlights how the audience of The i seeks enjoyment, understanding self and the world, signifying that the paper’s aims of indoctrinating their liberal ideology have succeeded. Overall, it is clear that this paper constructs an ideological view of the world, liberalist, in order to engage audiences by highlighting their differing beliefs and perspectives and representing the common population therefore appealing to their leftist target audience.

Chomski

Chomsky explains how propaganda and systemic biases function in corporate mass media. The model seeks to explain how populations are manipulated and how consent for economic, social, and political policies, both foreign and domestic, is “manufactured” in the public mind due to this propaganda.

Stereotypically there are two ends of a political spectrum, authoritarianism in countries such as China, and libertarianism in countries such as the US, however Chomsky says that we are being controlled by the mass media (because people in power produce their ideologies and distribute it through mass media) to manufacture the general publics consent- while big conglomerates also own most mass media heavily reducing the public sphere by narrowing the beliefs of other companies and people, as people are being told “facts” from media without comprehending the idea that media will also have a political compass. The I for example might seem more leftist however it is still right winged just less right winged from the daily mail – both are owned by DMGT which the 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chairman for (70% of newspapers are owned by just three companies) and Lord Rothermere was also friends with Adolf Hitler which we can say is a link to the establishment regarding Chomsky’s theory of the 5 mass filters of media. As the public gains knowledge from the media- they are also being programmed through advertisement and media exhibition (Laswell’s passive consumption model- hypodermic model) to view the world through the political compass of the media product. Building on Lasswell consumption model Shannon and Weaver adapted the model and introduced the idea of noise and error disrupting the passive model, active consumption can be enabled by educating yourself about the tactics of the media and start thinking your own thoughts and to keep an eye out on the Chomsky theory of 5 Filters on the mass media machine- and how those filters prevent media from representing all sides of the political compass and how they are mostly right winged authoritarian. Link to Roland Barthes and semiotics presented in the media and how that manipulates public consent.

The 5 filters of the mass media machine:

 1.Structure of ownership

Most media companies are concentration of ownership through vertical and horizontal integration, most media owned by mass media conglomerates.

2.The role of advertising

To produce money to cover the cost of production and distribution of Media through advertisement and sponsors.

You need advertisers to fill the cash gap, we buy media for cheaper than it will ever be produced, and advertisements are being sold to us, but we are being sold to advertisers by mass media and we are the product.

3.Links with the establishment

Media representers or distributers are in debt and work with the people in power, those who go against them are pushed to the margins and not seen as much.

4.Divisionary tactics- ‘flack’

People and other media sources who aren’t helping the people in power are divided away by flack, other sources discredit their views and divert the story onto something else to make the opposing media seem unreliable.

5.Uniting against a ‘common enemy’

Your enemy’s enemy is your friend, uniting against something we don’t like, media exploiting and stereotyping something that is commonly disliked in the area to attract attention and exhibition.

posters statement of intent

My key aim for my posters was too translate the message that casual nudity is not ok and should be disregarded in the media. The normalisation of nudity in the media with a particular focus on women bodies has been exploited to a point that most movies and tv shows with a heterosexual couple in question is inclined to show female skin and features that is not equally represented in males. This is why I chose to bring a modern twist to my posters by not displaying much text but relaying a message that this isn’t ok and the subject of normality within female bodily exposure has gone too far and showing our emerging generations that they should feel inclined to undress for others pleasures. My first poster includes the representation of phones, furthermore representing social media and emerging the subject of nudity on platforms. I wrote the message that your body is your and no one else’s. This is a strong message to young females that their body is precious and the idea that showing your body is a way to gain likes and followers is completely normal, But how would they know any better? They have been brought up on female body being exposed through tv shows and movies. My message is to not to tell them being nude is not ok but that they should never feel inclined to show it on platforms just because the exposure of it on the media has normalised it. My second poster is very simple and repeats my message of stop the normalisation of casual female nudity. The use of soft pinks is used to support women and to fit in with the modern aesthetic of simplicity and minimalism. My main quote is strong and simple it communicates a message without anything else people will see the message and understand it. My third posters relays a more vintage presentation by the presence of an old Tv and a 50s model, when the emergence of nudity started. It has my previous minimalistic poster in the back which furthermore relays my message but the main image of the tv and model shows the main source of media where the issue is generated. instead of putting a line through it or large red text stating this is not ok, my quotes in the background are what gives the poster its message. I aim for people to look at the model and admire her they look more intently at the message and come to the conclusion that this is what’s wrong with media and that conclusively there is a story line to a movie or tv show and not just a naked female.