Global MediaMAC373news | globalisation | imperialism

Typical attitude“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.”Marx & Engels,The German Ideology (1845)

“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.”

Typical attitudeGlobalisation of mediaGlobalisation of ideasPowerNew World OrderMedia ownershipCultural imperialismBias/self-serving interests

Globalisation of media

Globalisation of ideas

Power

New World Order

Media ownership

Cultural imperialism

Bias/self-serving interests

Typical attitude“The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions [sic] everywhere”Marx & Engels,The Communist Manifesto (1847)

“The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions [sic] everywhere”

GlobalisationThe rapid increase in cross-border economic, social, political, cultural, and technological exchange under conditions of capitalism.

Historical dimensions619th– 20th centuriesMassUrbanisationIndustrialisationProductionConsumerismEconomies of scaleFordist production techniques

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Early global media:News agencies divide up the worldReuters:Britain Empire, and the Far EastHavas:French Empire, Italy, Spain and PortugalWolff:Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and Russian territories

American contenders:1893 – Associated Press (AP), United Press Association (UPA)1907 – UPA became United Press International (UPI)1934 – Reuters signs agreement with AP. Havas collapses (succeeded by AFP), Wolff collapses

Mid-20th century onwardsThe role of multinational communication conglomerates as key playersThe impact of new technologiesThe uneven flow of products in the global system

4 structural trends in the media11GrowthIntegrationGlobalizationConcentration of ownership(Crocteau & Hoynes, 2005: 77)

(Crocteau & Hoynes, 2005: 77)

Patterns of ownership 12‘What you are seeing is the creation of a global oligopoly. It happened to the oil and automotive industries earlier this century; now it is happening to the entertainment industry’(Christopher Dixon cited in McChesney, 2003: 261)

First tierGeneral ElectricAT&T/SBC communicationsSonyDisneyTime Warner AOLNews CorporationViacomVivendi UniversalBertelsmann13

14Vertical integrationProductionDistributionHorizontal integrationPublishingRadioTelevisionPressConsumption

Second tierDow JonesMediasetPearsonReutersHavasReed Elsevier15

Reed Elsevier

Patterns of ownership 16‘The global media system is better understood as one that advances corporate and commercial interests and values and denigrates or ignores that which cannot be incorporated into its mission’(McChesney, 2003: 266).

The McDonaldization of news? 17Efficiency minimise timeCalculabilityobjectives should be quantifiablePredictability (Standardisation)uniform, repetitive practises ControlMechanisationSee Bob Franklin, 2003 “McJournalism”: The McDonaldization Thesis and Junk Journalism

See Bob Franklin, 2003 “McJournalism”: The McDonaldization Thesis and Junk Journalism

Reuters today94% of revenue = financial & commodity information and servicesRevenue multiplied 40x between 1977-1995 ($4.7 billion)Revenue from media service multiplied 16xBy 1993 had 10x turnover of AP

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Ownership issues (US)NetworkStylistic devices20Viacom owns CBSDisney owns ABCTime Warner owns CNNNews Corp owns FoxDramatic musicSpecial effectsComputer graphicsRe-enactmentsFurther info:http://www.takebackthemedia.com/owners.htmlhttp://www.ejc.nl/jr/emland/uk.html

Further info:

http://www.takebackthemedia.com/owners.html

http://www.ejc.nl/jr/emland/uk.html

Shift in content?Neil Hickey on Timeand Newsweek:overall total for straight news dropped from around 45% in 1987 to 20% in 199721

Shift in content?22‘There has been a shift towards lifestyle, celebrity, entertainment, and celebrity crime/scandal in the news and away from government and foreign affairs’The Project for the Excellence in Journalism, 1998 (a 20 year study from 1977-1997)

Shift in content?[Audiences] ‘prefer live reports from global trouble spots to other types of international news stories, including background reports and interviews with world leaders’.Pew Center, 2002

‘By making the live and the exclusive into primary news values, accuracy and understanding will be lost’MacGregor (1997: 200) ‘[This leaves journalists] little time to investigate a story, research and reflect on it before it is transmitted. Their editors want to make the story as timely and dramatic as possible.’Thussu (2003: 120)

News as a form of ‘infotainment’?Thussu, 2003: 122Sky News ‘offers a more dynamic package, complete with computer graphics, a one-person presenter (sometimes standing, sometimes sitting), an interactive screen, complete with the occasional online vote’ Hargreaves and Thomas, 2002: 95

‘This business of giving people what they want is a dope-pusher's argument. News is something people don't know they're interested in until they hear about it. The job of a journalist is to take what's important and make it interesting.’Reuven Frank, Former president of NBC News26

Corporate media?27As capitalism gathered impetus, it moved from calls for reform of the state to the take-over of the state…

Summary so far…28Original function of the media is to‘check’ dominant powers, free from state interventionShift towards a corporate-owned media, repositioned audience members as consumersMonopolies and decreasing number of key players are the order of the dayWhat are the implications?

What about the UK news media?29Nick Davies, 2008, Flat Earth News, London: Chatto & Windus (chapter 2)Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams & Bob Franklin, 2008, ‘Four Rumours and an Explanation: A political economic account of journalists’ changing newsgathering and reporting practices’, Journalism Practice, Vol 2, No 1.Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams, Bob Franklin, James Thomas and Nick Mosdell, 2006, The Quality and Independence of British Journalism, commissioned report for the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

30Average employment for UK national newspaper companies versus profit(adapted from Lewis et al, 2006)

London-based reporter (1/3) 31The owners of my newspaper made a £70million profit in this country in 2003. Yet year after year the union chapel has painstakingly to negotiate a pay rise simply to match inflation … the office has no PA wire, reporters are blocked from phoning overseas or even using the directory inquiry services, copies of our own newspapers are rationed in the office, and a current sort of Stalinist stationery embargo means journalists are expected to buy their own notebooks and fax paper…Source: Samuel Pecke, 2004, ‘Local Heroes’, British Journalism Review, Vol 15, No 2., p28-30

London-based reporter (2/3) 32Perhaps one of the most worrying and frustrating aspects of life on local newspapers is being so office-bound. Of all the impressions I had of the profession before getting my first job, relying on telephone interviews and the internet for so much written work was not one of them. Journalism must allow relationships developing with contacts, whether or not there is a story at stake, and getting to know your patch inside out. Put simply, only lazy reporters spend their days behind desks. Yet such on-the-streets reporting was described to me early on as “a luxury”.

London-based reporter (3/3) 33The newspaper did not have enough journalists to allow staff to go daily to court, let alone out and about. The paper had to be filled and could not wait for as-yet unwritten stories and features to arrive. While the editor preached the virtue of “interactivity” with the community, the management’s own reluctance to employ more staff or give its journalists enough free rein hampered basic reporting. Quality, it seems, is not an issue. Yet across local newspapers, regurgitating press releases and sticking a couple of opposing quotes on the end has become the norm

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Churnalism36“We are churning stories today, not writing them. Almost everything is recycled from another source … It wouldn’t be possible to write so many stories otherwise. Yet even more is expected; filing to online outlets is considered to be part of the job…”

Churnalism37“…Specialist writing is so much easier because the work is done by agencies and/or writers of press releases. Actually knowing enough to identify stories is no longer important. The work has been deskilled, as well as being amplified in volume, if not in quality”Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor, The Times in Lewis et al , 2008

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39‘Commercial logic is not necessarily destructive … But, applied to news, that logic is highly damaging, cutting out human contact and with it the possibility of finding stories; cutting down time and with it the possibility of checking; thus producing stories in greater numbers at greater speed and of much worse quality’Nick Davies, 2008, p62

Problems of the press?40Interference from press owners (eg Murdoch)Pressure from advertising declineNews production as profit making enterprise

Cutting (staff) costs411986 – News International switch to WappingEarly 1990s – Newspaper price warLate 1990s – Advertisers begin switch to Internet2000s – Newspaper circulations decline (online editions see growth)‘In 1992 some two hundred companies owned local papers, by 2005, according to the media analysts Mintel, ten corporations alone owned 74% of them’ (Davies, 2008: p65)

Costs in context (Murdoch’s UK papers)421985 – pre-tax profit of £35.6 millionStaff employed: 87311988 – pre-tax profit of £144.6 millionStaff employed: 949The Sun pagination minus ads:1985: 19.8 pages1995: 25 pages2006: 54.6 pages

Questions to consider43What impact does the push for corporate ownership of the media have on:Journalist output?Public knowledge?Should we be concerned about the claims made by Lewis et al about the tendency to rely on PR/news wire copy?Going forwards, how might new technology be both the problem and the solution for journalism?

Sources44Stuart Allan, 2004, News Culture, 2nd Edition, Berkshire: Open University PressOliver Boyd-Barrett and TehriRantanen, 1998, ‘News Agencies in Europe’ in Adam Briggs & Paul Cobley (eds), The Media: An Introduction, Harlow: Longman.David Crocteau and William Hoynes, 2005, The Business of Media Corporate Media and the Public Interest - Chapter 3 ‘The New Media Giants - changing industry structure’, London: Sage.Nick Davies, 2008, Flat Earth News, London: Chatto & Windus (chapter 2)Elliott, P., 1982, “Intellectuals, the 'Informer Society' and the disappearance of the public sphere” in Media, Culture and Society, 4(3), pp. 243-253.Hargreaves, Ian & Thomas, James (2002) New News, Old News, London: Independent Television Commission and Broadcasting Standards Commission. Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams & Bob Franklin, 2008, ‘Four Rumours and an Explanation: A political economic account of journalists’ changing newsgathering and reporting practices’, Journalism Practice, Vol 2, No 1.Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams, Bob Franklin, James Thomas and Nick Mosdell, 2006, The Quality and Independence of British Journalism, commissioned report for the Joseph Rowntree Charitable TrustRobert McChesney, 2003, ‘The New Global Media’ in David Held & Anthony McGrew (eds), Global Transformations Reader¸ Cambridge: Polity PressDayaKishanThussu, 2003, ‘Live TV and Bloodless Deaths: War, Infotainment and 24/7 News’ in D. Thussu & D. Freedman (eds), War and the Media, London: SageThe Project for the Excellence in Journalism, 1998, Changing Definitions of News, March 6. Available at http://www.journalism.org/resources/research/reports/

Images used (slide #)2: leralle, 2008, ‘Karl-Mark-Monument’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/leralle/2502099031/3: adobemac, 2006, ‘Marx-Engels-Forum’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/adobemac/244170074/4: svenwerk, 2006, ‘Marx and Engels’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/svenwerk/286219227/5: 10 Ninjas Steve, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/steverideout/135270019/6: Lock, stock and 2 smoking barrels!!, 2008, http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-mukherjee/2959224072/8-10: anjan58, 2007, http://www.flickr.com/photos/anjan58/1281306048/11: carlos_seo, 2009, http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlos_seo/3248928935/12 & 16: HarshLight, 2009, http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshlight/3235469361/17: miskan, 2005, http://www.flickr.com/photos/miskan/4467937/18: cowfish, 2004: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowfish/239613/21-23: Tony the Misfit, 2008, http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/3142216126/24: nickjeffery, 2007, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickjeffery/402672296/25: Fujur, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/fujur/108798414/30: Amanda Hayler, 2009, http://www.flickr.com/photos/minhay/3320928908/31-33: psd, 2008, http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/2423289669/36-37: GiantsFantastic, 2007, http://www.flickr.com/photos/giantsfanatic/355201578/38-38: iCampbell, 2008 http://www.flickr.com/photos/icampbellzoom/2189881602/40: inju, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/inju/112082907/41-42: just.Luc, 2008, http://www.flickr.com/photos/9619972@N08/2781329487/43: Oberazzi, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/oberazzi/318947873/