| THEME | NEWSBEAT | WOTW |
| OWNERSHIP | BBC, Public Service Broadcasting, Government, BBC Board of Trustees (??), DG (Lord Reith), Multimedia, transnational, not a monopoly, concentration of ownership | CBS, Private Company, Multimedia conglomerate, transnational(??), monopoly(??), example of concentration of ownership i.e. a few companies own everything – oligopoly / cartel (??), vertical & horizontal integration (??) |
| HABERMAS | Transformation of the public sphere, media is constantly changing – BBC is adapting, BBC intention enshrined in their ethos, profit is not a priority – they put money back into programmes so Quality is important. Fits notion of transforming the public. Therefore more paternalistic, give you what you need instead of what you want. | Private business, likely to prioritise making profit. Quality is not as important as long as a profit is made. This profit will not go back into programmes. Does not fit the notion of transforming the public. Less paternalistic, gives you what you want if it makes them money. |
| CHOMSKY | Second filter (advertising) The BBC does not run ads in the UK | Second filter (advertising) CBS runs ads which helps them accrue profit |
| REGULATION | OFCOM, BBC Charter governed by parliament, license fee regulates BBC, BBC Ethos – educate, inform and entertain (Reith) BBC has a left wing, libertarian ideology (??) | Federal Communications Commission regulates private businesses i.e. not necessarily in public interest |
| AUDIENCE (ACTIVE/PASSIVE) | Audiences are more active, they are not just given programmes that they want but are given what they need (Paternalism) | Audiences are more passive, they are only shown the programmes that they want to allow CBS to make a profit. Hypodermic needle suggests that media can have a powerful and immediate effect on passive audiences. WOTW supports this because so many listeners became terrified of an alien invasion. |
| AUDIENCE (LAZARSFELD) | Two-step flow, people get their ideologies from opinion leaders. Newsbeat brings opinion leaders onto the show as guests. | |
| AUDIENCE (HALL) | ||
| NEW TECHNOLOGY | New Technologies mean that the BBC is faced with more competition | |
| GERBNER | Cultivation theory suggests that the more people take in media the more susceptible they become to it’s messages. This could explain why some people believed that the broadcast was real. | |
| CURRAN | Concerns about the interests of big companies – profit over social concerns | |
| SEATON |
