2. FIND OUT THE FOLLOWING
• top 20 highest grossing films of 2018
• top 20 biggest selling albums 2018
• top 10 national newspapers with highest readership
2018
• top 10 most listened to podcasts in 2018
• top 10 most played songs and artists on the radio in
2018
• top 20 most viewed YouTube videos of all time
3. REVIEW
• Do you notice any patterns?
• What might this tell us about the media
industry?
• Why might this be problematic, and for
whom?
4. OBJECTIVES
• To know and understand the basis of Curran
and Seaton’s theory
• To be able to apply theory points to media
industries we have studied
• To evaluate the extent to which theory can be
applied
5. MARXIST VIEW OF
SOCIETY
• Society as a power struggle between
the ruling elite and the proletariat class
• The rich and powerful use their
resources to maintain their economic
power and support the values of
capitalism
• Media texts are used as an ideological
tool to maintain this status quo and
keep the working classes docile and
unaware of their exploited status in the
capitalist system
6. PLURALIST VIEW OF SOCIETY
• view society as less black and white
• society is made up of several autonomous but
interdependent groups which either share power or
continuously compete for it
• Pluralists argue that the digital revolution has shifted
power from the hands of the big institutions and into
those of smaller independent institutions, and the
audience
• Audiences have become producers, or ‘prosumers’,
creating their own content
• Prosumers can challenge the power of the
established media institutions through the
widespread use of social media
7. CURRAN AND SEATON:
POWER IN MEDIA
INDUSTRIES
• argue that patterns of ownership and control are the most
significant factors in how the media operate
• media industries follow the normal capitalist pattern of
increasing concentration of ownership in fewer and fewer
hands
• this leads to a narrowing of the range of opinions
represented and a pursuit of profit at the expense of quality
or creativity
• media is controlled by a small number of companies
primarily driven by profit and power
• media concentration generally limits or inhibits variety,
creativity, and quality
• more socially diverse patterns of ownership help to create
the conditions for more varied and adventurous media
8. THE PRESS
• Classical liberal theory says the
freedom to publish in the free
market ensures the press reflects a
wide range of opinions and
interests in society.
• The free market is also argued to
make the press a representative
institution
• The market-based press is
independent because it owes
allegiance only to the public – the
press is the people’s watchdog –
the 4th Estate
9. THE PRESS
• Newspapers should reflect the interests
of an audience, otherwise they will go out of business
• they should be liberal and anyone should be able to set one up
• it is extremely expensive to set up a newspaper meaning there are
far fewer newspaper owners than there are readers, meaning an
audience only receives a small amount of opinions
• Many hoped that the internet would make this fairer, due to lower
costs, but Curran and Seaton believe this hasn’t happened in
practice as big news organisations control the majority of online
news.
10.
11. THE 4TH
ESTATE?
• “The free market makes the press a representative
institution…newspapers and magazines are to respond
to the concerns of their readers if they are to stay in
business.”
• “The press is the people’s watchdog, scrutinising the
actions of government and holding the country’s rulers
to account”
• Since the press has been industrialised, the assumption
that ‘anyone is free to start a paper’ is an illusion
• Press used to be independent of outside financial
interests, but most British press was bought up in the
60s and 70s by conglomerates
• The press have become subsidiaries of these
12.
13.
14.
15. ANTI-
MONOPOLY
• Anti-monopoly legislation has been ineffective,
allowing the creation of large media
monopolies, which allows individual companies
a great deal of power
• they can publicise a message to vast amounts of
people
• Curran found evidence that media owners did
interfere and manipulate newspaper content at
the expense of the independence of journalists
and editors
16. WEB 2.0
• Curran has discussed how the Media
project an illusion of freedom through
digital technologies and web 2.0, however
this industry is still dominated and
controlled by large powerful media
institutions that reach mainstream
audiences.
17.
18. ISSUES OF MEDIA CONCENTRATION
• Conglomeration creates monopolies
• 1. Media becomes loyal to sponsors, rather than to public
interest
• 2. Fewer diverse options and voices available for the
audience
• 3. Small number of companies representing the interests of a
minority elite control
• for minorities and others, few opportunities are available for
voicing their concerns and reaching the public
• 5. healthy, market-based competition is absent, leading to
slower innovation and increased prices
