This document discusses the emergence of "We Media" and its implications for democracy. "We Media" refers to citizen journalism and user-generated content on the internet. Some theorists argue this has made media more democratic by decentralizing news production. However, others argue traditional media companies still face pressures to cater to advertisers and elites that can undermine objectivity. The future of media remains debated as both opportunities and challenges are seen in new technologies for participatory culture and grassroots reporting.

1. ‘We Media’ & Democracy

2. Topic Points:
O What are ‘We Media’?
O Where / how has ‘We Media’ emerged?
O In what way are the contemporary media
more democratic than before?
O In what ways are the contemporary media
less democratic than before?

3. In The Exam:
O Historical – dependent on the
requirements of the topic, candidates
must summarise the development of the
media forms in question in theoretical
contexts.
O Contemporary – current issues within the
topic area.
O Future – candidates must demonstrate
personal engagement with debates
about the future of the media forms /
issues that the topic relates to.

4. Theorists/Theories
O Marxist Theory:
Chomsky/Habermas
O David Gauntlett
O Dan Gillmor
O Clay Shirky
O Evgeny Morozov

5. O Let’s start at the very beginning…

6. What is ‘we media’
O ‘We the Media’ written by Dan Gillmor
O about how the proliferation of grassroots
internet journalists (bloggers) has
changed the way news is handled
O One of the book's main points is that a
few big media corporations cannot
control the news we get any longer, now
that news is being published in real-time,
available to everybody, via the Internet.

7. What is Web 2.0?
O Aspect of the web that facilitates
participatory information sharing and
collaboration on the World Wide Web
O A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and
collaborate with each other in a social
media dialogue as creators (prosumers) of
user-generated content in a virtual
community, in contrast to websites where
users (consumers) are limited to the
passive viewing of content that was
created for them.

8. Cultural Effects: Marxist
View
O The dominant ideology of a society is
the ideology of the dominant or ruling
class
O The mass media disseminates the
dominant ideology: the values of the
class which owns and controls the
media
O Notion of domination

9. Gramsci: Hegemony
O The supremacy of the bourgeoisie is
based on economic domination
and intellectual/moral leadership
O A class had succeeded in
persuading the other classes of
society to accept its own moral,
political and cultural values
O However, this consent is not always
peaceful, and may combine
physical force or coercion with
intellectual, moral and cultural
inducement
The American Dream?

10. Can the working class
achieve hegemony?
O If the working class is to achieve
hegemony, it needs patiently to build up a
network of alliances with social minorities.
O These new coalitions must respect the
autonomy of the movement, so that each
group can make its own special
contribution toward a new socialist society.
O The working class must unite popular
democratic struggles with its own conflict
against the capital class, so as to
strengthen a national popular collective
will.

11. The Frankfurt School
Modernist Approach
O Mass audience as passive and gullible
O ‘hypodermic needle’ effects model
O Pessimistic claims about media
indoctrination
O Mass culture disseminates the dominant
ideology of the bourgeoisie
O News media controls our ideas and views,
pushing their views onto us, creating a
false class consciousness – Marxist view

12. Chomsky: Manufacturing
Consent
O The main aim of a media company
is to make money
O Newspapers achieve this through
advertising revenue
O This has an impact on the news
values and news selection
O Can lead to editorial bias
O News businesses that favour profit
over public interest succeed

13. Chomsky: Manufacturing
Consent
O Further distortion through the reliance of newspapers on private and
governmental news sources
O If a newspaper displeases, they may no longer be privy to that
source of information
O They will lose out on stories, lose readers and ultimately advertisers
O news media businesses editorially distort their reporting to favour
government and corporate policies in order to stay in business

14. Editorial Bias: Five Filters
(Chomsky)
1. Size, Ownership, and Profit
Orientation
2. The Advertising License to Do
Business
3. Sourcing Mass Media News
4. Flak and the Enforcers
5. Anti-Communism

15. Size, Ownership and Profit
Orientation
O The dominant mass-media outlets are
large corporations which are run for
profit
O Therefore they must cater to the
financial interest of their owners

16. The Advertising License to
do Business
O Media outlets are not commercially
viable without the support of
advertisers.
O News media must therefore cater to
the political prejudices and economic
desires of their advertisers.
O This has weakened the working-class
press

17. Sourcing Mass Media News
O The large bureaucracies of the powerful
subsidise the mass media, and gain
special access to the news, by their
contribution to reducing the media’s costs
of acquiring and producing, news.
O The large entities that provide this subsidy
become 'routine' news sources and have
privileged access to the gates.
O Non-routine sources must struggle for
access, and may be ignored by the
arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers

18. Concept: Fourth Estate
O Is a societal or political force or
institution whose influence is
not consistently or officially
recognised
O Print Journalism
O The concept that the press is
an instrument of democracy
providing a check on the
abuse of government power
O It is the myth that the press is a
vital defender of the people? –
think about Chomsky!

19. Editorial Bias
Anyone?!

21. The state of the fourth
estate…
O Relationships between powerful people e.g.
Murdoch and Cameron mean that their
agendas are pushed forward in their
publications
O Journalists are not as free because they are
controlled by the conglomerate
O Chomsky: believes journalists were not
representative of the population but instead
influenced, hired and fired by power
corporations
O Newspapers will print stories that sell, leading to
more untrue and fabricated stories to grab the
attention of the audience; this is mostly true of
tabloid papers which focus on celebrities.

22. Key Thinking Points
O Do we have a free press?
O What constraints do journalists face
when working for a corporation?
O Who are the journalists?
O How far is news media controlled or
constrained by those in power?
O Are newspapers really the Fourth
Estate?

23. Leveson Inquiry…
O Into media ethics
O Focusing on the power of the news media
O Relationships between media owners and politicians
O Lord Mandellsson said "arguably the case... that
personal relationships between Mr Blair, [Gordon]
Brown and Rupert Murdoch became closer than was
wise".
O Tony Blair: the word "unhealthy" rather than "cosy" was
a better description of the relationship in some cases
between journalists and those in power.
O Blair: The Sun and the Daily Mail were the two most
powerful newspapers. The Sun was important because
it was prepared to shift its political allegiance

24. David Gauntlett: Web 2.0 (Making
is Connecting – key text)
O Tim Berners Lee invented the Internet with the vision that
people would be connected and creative
O “He imagined that browsing the Web would be a matter
of writing and editing, not just searching and reading” –
Gauntlett
O Web 2.0 invites users to play
O We are seeing a shift away from a ‘sit back and be told’
culture towards more of a ‘making and doing’ culture

25. Web 2.0
O Includes a social element
where users generate and
distribute content, often with
freedom to share and reuse
O Has resulted in an increasing
‘globalisation’
O The birth of a more
‘participatory culture’
O Moving from a
communication model of
‘one-to-many’ to a ‘many to
many’ system

26. David Gauntlett: Web 2.0
O In the case of the media, there
is obviously the shift towards
internet-based interactivity
O At least 3/4th of UK population
are regular internet users
O More than 1/3rd of people have
a Facebook account
O More and more people are
writing blogs, participating in
online discussions, sharing
information, music and photo,
and uploading video.

27. New Media
O Increased interactivity of audiences
O Poststructuralist theory sees the
audience as active participators in
the creation of meaning
O In a postmodern world consumption is
seen as a positive and participatory
act
O An increased ‘democratisation’?

28. Dan Gillmor: Citizen
Journalists
O ‘Big media’ have enjoyed control over
who gets to produce and share media
O Effect on democracy
O Who owns these companies?
O Are we represented?
O Gillmor sees the Internet as a catalyst for
a challenge to this established hegemony
O Gillmor calls bloggers ‘the former
audience’: news blogs a new form of
people’s journalism

29. Citizen Journalism in Iraq
O Blogs offered an alternative to the
Western media’s accounts
O Collaboration of wikispaces, children’s
news blogs and Persian networkers
using the Net for a collective voice in
a country where free speech is
curtailed
O But is it all as rosy as it seems?

30. Clay Shirky
O Focuses on the rising usefulness of networks, using
decentralised technologies for social creation
and open-source development
O New technologies are enabling new kinds of
cooperative structures to flourish

31. Utopians
O One side sees the internet as a
technology of freedom that is
empowering humankind
O making accessible the world’s
knowledge, building ‘emancipated
subjectivities’, promoting a
new progressive global politics, and
laying the foundation of the ‘new
economy’.
O The other sees the internet as an over-
hyped technology whose potential
value has been undermined by
‘digital capitalism’ and
social inequality

32. Dystopians
O The internet came to exhibit
incongruent features.
O It is still a decentralised system in which
information is transmitted via
independent variable pathways
through dispersed computer power.
O But on top of this is
imposed a new technology of
commercial surveillance which enables
commercial operators – and potentially
governments – to monitor what
people do online
O Evgeny Morozov