Essay Question

The development of new and digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view.

The development of new and digital media has made the audience both more powerful in terms of consumption and production. This is because new and digital media has adapted and been made more modernized in the world, alongside the internet being “the most important medium of the twentieth century” (Briggs and Burke). This essay will discuss both sides of the discussion.

From a Pluralism perspective the audience are now more a powerful in terms of their consumption and production to a certain extent. Because of the recent developments of new and digital media the audience have more freedom online to do what they please as there is less censorship meaning anyone’s opinion can be heard. This may come across in the form of blogs or a video which is posted online. The viewers or readers have the option now to “Conform, Challenge, Accommodate or Reject” these opinions which are given to them. This means that they are not forced to accept one dominant opinion and are allowed to form their own perspective on things. Because of new and digital media developments, user generated content such as Twitter and Facebook help subvert the view of the big companies and institutions being in control of the audience and that they consume. The development of new and digital media has meant that “The internet has given readers much more power…The world is changing and newspapers have to adapt”. There are currently 18 million blog readers which shows that there is a variety of news sources for consumers

Newspapers and other news institutions have been forced to adapt in the way they reach their audiences. They have been forced to  provide news on the internet for free as they were slow to react to the developments which has meant that a paywall attempt would result in consumers going elsewhere for their news. This has made audiences powerful to some extent as the news institutions have to give in to the consumer’s demand, as they have a variety of sources to receive news. This point can be argued by James Murdoch who believes “it is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it”. From this statement it is clear that he supports the attempt of news institutions putting up paywall’s. This would be a view from a Marxist perspective. Marxists believe that a powerful elite control the media and promote their ideologies and that there is one perception to story's in the media, and argues that Pluralism allows the chance of dumbing down the audience as the internet consist of “Web pages and blogs which are like a million monkeys typing nonsense”. This is evident in the consumption of less serious websites such as listicles on BuzzFeed and lolcats where there are cat videos and memes. These articles or stories on the internet are more about humour rather than serious news articles and is referred as ‘entertainment’ which is clearly dumbing down its audience.

A Marxist perspective would argue that the so-called “information revolution” has done little to benefit audiences. Far from being a “great leveller” (Krotoski, 2012) as many have claimed, it has merely helped to reinforce the status quo by promoting dominant ideologies. The most popular news website in the UK by a considerable margin is the ‘Mail Online’, which receives more than 8 million hits every month and is continuing to expand rapidly – with forecasts that it will make £100 million or more in digital revenues in the next three years. Similar to its tabloid print edition, the website takes a Conservative, right-wing perspective on key issues around gender, sexuality and race and audiences appear to passively accept what the Marxist theorist, Gramsci, called a hegemonic view. When one of their chief columnists, Jan Moir, wrote a homophobic article about the death of Stephen Gately in 2009 there were Twitter and Facebook protests but, ultimately, they did not change the editorial direction of the gatekeepers controlling the newspaper.          

Another Marxist argument is that the audience are being manipulated into thinking they are in control and have power. This is because “A minority of media producers always serve a majority of consumers” (Pareto’s Law). Even though citizen journalism is a part of the digital revolution for example YouTube post and Blogger, it is still owned by a media conglomerate for such as Google. This creates the perspective that they are using user generated content to voices their opinion on something but are still over powered as the media conglomerates are still in control and have the power in what we can access and see online, and they can remove or block what they don’t agree with. The development of YouTube has allowed the development of cottage industry as people can create a life and a business from it which provides the consumers with power from a Pluralistic perspective.

Furthermore a Pluralism perspective would still argue that user-generated content has become the main method in supporting the ideologies and beliefs of pluralists. UGC is allowing the internet to become a mass medium in which in which contains views and opinions and isn’t based on biased or influenced ideologies, which support major institutions and aren’t controlled by gatekeepers. This has meant that Negroponte was right when he had made the comment of saying: “Monolithic empires of mass media are dissolving in to an array of cottage industries”

Privacy has become an issue because of the amount of user generated internet out in the web, and also other sites. This privacy concern is because of all the sign up procedures to sites which ask about personal information about its users. This has allowed the audience to become weak and vulnerable. This was evident when the Apple icloud had become hacked and people’s personal information and pictures had become exposed on 4chan, which shows that the internet is a revolutionary medium but it makes us, as audiences, more exposed to the impact of privacy problems. Major Institutions such as Google can control what we see on their search engine when we search for information. Other institutions may sell your personal information for their financial gain.

In conclusion, the development of new and digital media has made the audience both more powerful in terms of consumption and production of media products to a certain extent. This is because we are vulnerable to the developments as audiences although we have more say in the current debates and issues in the world today.