Reading and Thinking
“The link between media ownership of news organisations and news coverage is not easy to determine”
The Sociology of News Production by Michael Schudson.
Read this hand out and extract 3-4 short pithy quotes (that you could use in your exam answer) that helps to show your understanding and knowledge ie make sense to you. For example . . . .
- the suggestion that the news media ‘reinforces’ a political situation (Murdock, 1982), or the idea that
- ‘different stances different news organisations or types of organisations take toward different audiences in the marketplace‘ (Curran et al, 1980), or
- the proposition that “major media conglomerates control more and more of the world’s media. Where media are not controlled by organisations, they are generally voices of the state.”
- the propaganda model that the media ‘serve to mobilize support for the special interests that dominate the state and private activity‘ (Chomsky, 1988)
In other words, the media are biased!
In terms of setting an agenda and mapping a clear political bias watch the video below where anchors at Sinclair-owned local news stations parrot a script pushing Trump talking points and “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country.”