Some people would say that media to them is fun and pleasure. However, there are theories which suggest that media and the use of it is not always benefiting us. I am going to talk about first of all Political Economy Of The Media. (Hardy, cited in Smith 1776,p.161) Political economy originally referred to a tradition of economic thinking that addressed the production, distribution and consumption of resources used to sustain human existence.
We can relate this as ownership of the media and how it affects us as a producer, creator or distributor. This is because when we use conglomerates such as Facebook and Instagram they are owned by people such as Mark Zuckerberg. His business Meta is one of the largest conglomerates of communication When we upload a photo, share it with friends or consume media, we are working for him for free. This implies a power of framework.
This has strong implications on us when using media, how it flows from one to the other and how algorithms show our content.
This goes back to my question what is media to us, does it bring leisure and entertainment or is it just a money making machine. which we help to drive for conglomerates.
It is important to think about how these pieces are broadcast via TV, Radio and online and how is it is negotiated and controlled.
( Winseck, 2008) states This nexus of ownership and market power spans different segments of the media and is qualitatively different from previous times. These factors have an important influence on the evolution of media technologies and markets, the work of media professionals and the character of information and media content.
In the 19th Century there was only independent outlets such as newspapers which could only reach a limited audience, now the there are conglomerates in every sector of the media reaching bigger audiences. This has created bigger work opportunities in the Westen Capital Countries. However, the employers work for the wealthy people .
In other countries like Cuba, China, and North Korea, the media is more state controlled. However in western capitalist they do have propaganda
This has all come from a theory called the propaganda model.
This model can analyse content, media and consumption.
It was created by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky . they claim that western capitalism countries and America promote their hegemonic narratives. . (. Lafferty 2006, cited Houston, 2004) The American public also suffers from this quest for profit, whether or not they are aware of the damage done. This is because in America the media outlets our owned by six media companies and are controlled by 90 percent of what US citizens consume.
Media does not give as a voice , it is interested in having audiences from buyers, are views are not listened to as a consumer, we do not even have a choice about where news comes from as it comes from people in power and how they want to be represented.
To conclude media to us is lot for leisure it is to control and miniplate us to give conglomerates income what ever part of the world we are in.
bibliography
The State of Media Ownership and Media Markets: Competition or Concentration and Why Should We Care? – Winseck – 2008 – Sociology Compass – Wiley Online Library (no date). Available at: https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2007.00061.x?saml_referrer (Accessed: 5 January 2025).
Implications of ownership: Applying the propaganda model to media ownership theory – ProQuest (no date). Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/305321435?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses (Accessed: 6 January 2025). Critical Political Economy of the Media | An Introduction |
Jonathan H (no date). Available at: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203136225/critical-political-economy-media-jonathan-hardy (Accessed: 5 January 2025).
