Evaluate Marxist Views of the Ownership and Control of the Media

Evaluate Marxist views of the ownership and control of the media (20 marks) max eddleston

Mass media is defined as the forms of communication in a society that operates on a large scale and is a very significant tool in communicating ideas globally. Media owners spend millions of pounds annually; targeting specific demographics in order to persuade them to act or think of something in a manner that favours them- transmitting messages to try and infiltrate our subconscious does this. There are various views on the ownership and control of media, all of which have some validity.

Traditional Marxists view the media as owned and controlled by the bourgeoisie. They see the media as a tool used by the ruling class to spread ruling class ideology throughout society, they believe the owners directly control and manipulate media output to benefit themselves- not only through wealth but also by changing the ideas of the working class to suit themselves. Miliband argued that the bourgeoisie use mass media to control the proletariat by portraying capitalism as a positive and necessary system therefore making inequality seem inevitable and justifiable whilst making a profit. He goes on further to state that media has replaced religion and has become “the new opium of the people”. Similar to religion, the media diverts the proletariat’s attention away from the exploitation and oppression they’re being subjected to.

However, where Marx argues that religion distracts the proletariat with the promise of an afterlife, Miliband argues that the proletariat are prevented from thinking critically of their status or important social events with the distraction of the media and popular culture.

The Traditional Marxist view of the ownership and control of media has been criticised for being too generalised. The idea that the main objective of media owners is to gain profit as a united bourgeoisie is flawed by the fact that there are 7 different media corporations that are in competition with each other to gain the most profit. The Pluralists argue that Traditional Marxists ignore the variety of perspectives that are offered in the media, including those that criticise the powerful support this. However it has been recognised that alternative views are either not presented at all or are much criticised. Bagdikian’s study of media concentration noted the decline of media corporations from 50 in the 1980s to 7 in the present and this can be used to support the Traditional Marxist view that the rapid concentration of ownership and control in media reinforces the dominant group’s ideology as there’s little room for alternative interpretations and opinions of actions and circumstances. The ultimate flaw in the Traditional Marxist view of control and Ownership in the Media however is its overstated, conspiratorial view of social class and its relation to the role of the ownership and the negligence of other factors such as gender, ethnicity and sexuality.

 Neo-Marxists or Hegemonic Marxists react to the weaknesses of the Traditional Marxist view and recognise the other factors in their view of control and ownership in the media. Firstly, Neo-Marxists, unlike Traditional Marxists, don’t see ownership and control as interlinked in the same process with the same objectives. They use hegemony to show how both owners and controllers are locked into a symbiotic relationship where the owners and controllers have core values such as the importance of profits and capitalism that join them together but may disagree on the means to achieve and promote those core values. Managers and editors are allowed a certain amount of freedom to make decisions on how to run the media corporations as long as they reflect the views of the ownership. However, where Traditional Marxists see them as part of the united bourgeoisie with the same goals, objectives and aims, Neo-Marxists recognise that more often than not, controllers are rather employed by the bourgeoisie owners to run the companies for them and they may even ignore the policies implemented by their supervisors if they don’t agree with them as long as they make a profit.

 Neo-Marxists, like Traditional Marxists are also interested in how the ruling class culture shapes the activities of people in society but with the focus on hegemony. Hegemony is defined as the dominance of particular ideas and is apparent in all social institutions including the media. They reason that most of the controllers are white, middle class men who have similar educational backgrounds and therefore share a similar perspective of the world and this is reflected in anything they produce. Hall et al. analysed ways in which media controllers create media products that reflect and reinstate the power structure of society without overt influence or control from the media owner. In Policing the Crisis, Hall stated that the media supported the role of the police and other legal structures. Fairclough’s study of Crime Watch supports this. It maintains that Crime watch portrays the world to be an idyllic one in which the police and the public work together for the greater good but doesn’t refer to any of the crimes committed by the police force or concerns of feeling alienated from the police.