‘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.’

Definitions:

• Ideology – A system of ideas which form the basis of economic or political theory.
• Media Watchdog – A group of people or more who watch over the states when the state watch over …
• Public Sphere – Habermas defines the public sphere as ‘a virtual or imaginary community which does not necessarily exist in any identifiable space’. The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together too freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.
• Private Sphere: Habermas describes the private sphere as ‘a sphere of bourgeois society which would stand apart from the state as a genuine area of private autonomy’. The private sphere is ones own opinion and ‘space’ to think about their own views on social problems.

Media creates balance.

The Printing Press:

• A mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink.
• One of the most influential events in the second millennium as this mechanical device allowed the spread of ideas and information, as well this influenced most people to learn how to read and write.
• The printing press introduced the era of mass communication, which permanently altered the structure of society.
• Johannes Gutenberg was the inventor of the printing press and began experimenting with printing in Strasbourg, France in 1440 and later his experimenting lead to the start of the Printing Revolution.

Quotes:

1. ‘Once the media becomes subject to public regulation it will lose its bite.’ This meaning, that once the state starts to regulate media, the media watchdogs will no longer be necessary and will not have a certain degree of power over public regulation. As well this could mean, that once media is owned by the state / public regulation, media will no longer be free to write / discuss and have their own opinions of social problems. (Public regulation is the States/government).

Theorists:

1. Jurgen Habermas – A German philosopher and sociologist whose work introduces communicative rationality and the public sphere. His first book was focused on the public sphere – The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.

• He argues that the growth in newspapers, journals, reading clubs, Masonic lodges, and coffeehouses in 18th-century Europe, all in different ways, marked the gradual replacement of “representational” culture.
• Habermas states that a variety of factors resulted in the eventual decay of the public sphere, including the growth of a commercial mass media, which turned the critical public into a passive consumer public.

1. James Curran –

• Wrote a book about how the media landscape has fallen under the control of a handful of global media conglomerates and reflects on contemporary concerns relating to digital media.

1. Noam Chomsky – An American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historical essayist, social critic, and political activist and he is critical of the media, claiming that the media is hand in hand with the government.

• He presented in the documentary, ‘Manufacturing Consent’.

Noam Chomsky- The 5 filters of mass media:

• Structures of ownership: There are a three companies which links to the establishment and high. An ownership structure concerns the internal organization of a business entity and the rights and duties of the individual holding the equitable or legal interest in that business.
• The role of advertising: Advertisers get paid for the audience
• Links with ‘The Establishment’:
• Diversionary tactics – ‘flack’: Flak refers to the negative response to a media statement (Chomsky & Herman, 1988). Diverting someone else’s attention to something else.
• Uniting against a ‘common enemy’:

AGENDA SETTING

FRAMING

MYTH MAKING

CONDITIONS OF CONSUMPTION

Essay Structure:

Intro:

1. Definition – Ideology
2. Introduce The i and The Daily Mail – when they were founded / who is the owner , founder / What are they?
3. Use a quote