CHANGES WILL BE MADE IN RED
The development of New and digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of the consumption and production. Discuss the argument for and against this view.
New and Digital media has changed the world as we know it, many agree that it has empowered audiences and created new paths for success and wealth while creating revolutions in technology and society.
In terms of consumption and production, is the internet a tool for the people or the worlds biggest surveillance device? A Pluralist would believe the internet is a free form platform and society can freely choose what to watch, browse and create, however, a Marxist believes in quite the opposite, that a hierarchy exists and humans are exposed subliminally to a form of brainwashing known as advertising.
A pluralist would argue that websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter allow the public freedom of speech and a sense of libertarian-ism which is what Pioneers of the internet think.
"The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information" - Tim Berners Lee, this quote leads us to believe that the internet was created for pure and simplistic reasons, to share information freely and available across the globe for example the ideas of youtube and twitter, however, it has become so much more, media conglomerates have taken action on the cash cow and monetized and advertised their way through to the consumers minds and wallets, in 2012 the top 1 million websites (out of 634 million) shared 43% of internet traffic this is increasing rapidly, the top 5 websites in the world generate 4250,000,000 unique hits a month .The internet is now a multimedia platform intertwining video, music, text, communication. A consumerists dream.
A Marxist view considers the fact that everything in the media has been placed for a reason, to restrict society's freedom and be formed from a young age to think and act like consumers or "mindless monkeys" not producers which is where the internet shows its pluralistic values, the internet allows users to speak their mind, for example the Arab springs, users tweeted about what was happening with the government whereby 200,000 tweets where made in the first 18 days and in its peak 200,000 tweets an hour, this created a revolution which allowed citizens of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen fight for Democracy.
Simplistically Marxists believe a man such as Rupert Murdoch, a rich elite with much power over the media can force his ideologies on society through his news and TV stations to create hegemony across the public, as he owns so much of the media a general consumer would find it impossible to not watch something created by News Corp. this is where capitalism and globalism come together, and by these two things coming together it is easier to create dominant ideologies. this follows Millband's ideas on Marxism saying the ruling class have a big role to play in the media creating ideologies and social norms, since they control all the information audiences receive.
A pluralist could argue against this point as Rupert Murdoch's paper 'The sun' one of the best selling Saturday newspapers struggles to find its place on the web, does this mean that society has found better more independent sources of news for free, from research, websites such as YouTube have channels such as 'Source fed' creating content just as fast as any other news conglomerate, this could mean that audiences are not only subject to media conglomerates but have found their own preference of news in terms of delivery and platform, however, these channels are really just replicas of the bigger chains of news stations and really they are receiving the same news just condensed, this can raise the question to whether any of us really have freedom of choice or are we just subject to the ruling class' ideologies?
The internet is developing, rapidly, and although the government, media corporations and advertising industries may not seem like they know what they are doing at all times, they are always one step ahead of the consumer, Marxist values and ideas seem to make greater sense as we are all spoon fed our entertainment, information, and even our own views and ideas are not original, as consumers we see and we replicate but until society can invent for purposes apart from money and wealth, then the most we can ever achieve is to join the ruling class.
A pluralist would argue that websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter allow the public freedom of speech and a sense of libertarian-ism which is what Pioneers of the internet think.
"The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information" - Tim Berners Lee, this quote leads us to believe that the internet was created for pure and simplistic reasons, to share information freely and available across the globe for example the ideas of youtube and twitter, however, it has become so much more, media conglomerates have taken action on the cash cow and monetized and advertised their way through to the consumers minds and wallets, in 2012 the top 1 million websites (out of 634 million) shared 43% of internet traffic this is increasing rapidly, the top 5 websites in the world generate 4250,000,000 unique hits a month .The internet is now a multimedia platform intertwining video, music, text, communication. A consumerists dream.
A Marxist view considers the fact that everything in the media has been placed for a reason, to restrict society's freedom and be formed from a young age to think and act like consumers or "mindless monkeys" not producers which is where the internet shows its pluralistic values, the internet allows users to speak their mind, for example the Arab springs, users tweeted about what was happening with the government whereby 200,000 tweets where made in the first 18 days and in its peak 200,000 tweets an hour, this created a revolution which allowed citizens of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen fight for Democracy.
Simplistically Marxists believe a man such as Rupert Murdoch, a rich elite with much power over the media can force his ideologies on society through his news and TV stations to create hegemony across the public, as he owns so much of the media a general consumer would find it impossible to not watch something created by News Corp. this is where capitalism and globalism come together, and by these two things coming together it is easier to create dominant ideologies. this follows Millband's ideas on Marxism saying the ruling class have a big role to play in the media creating ideologies and social norms, since they control all the information audiences receive.
A pluralist could argue against this point as Rupert Murdoch's paper 'The sun' one of the best selling Saturday newspapers struggles to find its place on the web, does this mean that society has found better more independent sources of news for free, from research, websites such as YouTube have channels such as 'Source fed' creating content just as fast as any other news conglomerate, this could mean that audiences are not only subject to media conglomerates but have found their own preference of news in terms of delivery and platform, however, these channels are really just replicas of the bigger chains of news stations and really they are receiving the same news just condensed, this can raise the question to whether any of us really have freedom of choice or are we just subject to the ruling class' ideologies?
The internet is developing, rapidly, and although the government, media corporations and advertising industries may not seem like they know what they are doing at all times, they are always one step ahead of the consumer, Marxist values and ideas seem to make greater sense as we are all spoon fed our entertainment, information, and even our own views and ideas are not original, as consumers we see and we replicate but until society can invent for purposes apart from money and wealth, then the most we can ever achieve is to join the ruling class.
