New and Digital Media Essay

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

Technology has developed and grown over the years therefore so has new and digital media. Due to this, I believe that audiences are more powerful in terms of consumption and production. This is due to the fact that they have greater access to new and digital media e.g. through the internet, tablets, smartphones etc. This means that freedom of speech and opinions are openly expressed by audiences. Also, traditional print media has been in decline while online news continues to expand. There are two perspectives to this argument. The first is the Marxist approach, they emphasise the role of mass media in the reproduction of the status quo. Whereas, the second approach, Pluralists, emphasise the role of the media in promoting freedom of speech. 

Firstly, a Marxist perspective would argue that the so-called “information revolution” has done little to benefit audiences or to subvert the established power structures in society. 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.

In contrast, a pluralist perspective would argue that the development of new and digital media is an ‘empowering tool… an exciting and revolutionary prospect’, and has allowed consumers to become producers. They also state that we live in a classless society and media organisations are responsive to an audience and are economically determined. which supports a statement by Gurevitch et al. 1982:1, that the classless society can ‘conform, accommodate, challenge or reject’ the media they wish to consume. In contemporary society, majority of people are citizen journalists due to the fact that they film videos on their phones and upload it on social networking sites for people to produce a discussion and socially interact by expressing their opinions. The uses and gratifications theory proposed by Blumer and Katz (1974) can be associated with pluralism as it focuses on diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance. Diversion is where we escape from everyday problems, personal relationships is when we use the media for emotional interaction, personal Identity is when we find ourselves reflected in texts and surveillance is the information that is useful to us, for example, the weather. Moreover, pluralists argue that audiences are free agents and we are able to be 'free agents' through user generated content such as blogs, twitter, Facebook, instagram etc. We are able to be ourselves on these platforms and not be influenced by dominant ideologies. Due to the the developments of new/digital media “the web has the power to show people’s different views” (Kroteski 2012). It could be argued that the audience are no longer passive since they can now actively challenge dominate ideologies through social media. 

Another Marxist perspective would argue that audiences are not empowered through the development of new and digital media. This is due to the fact that Marxists argue mass media is a tool used by the ruling class/elite, although audiences have more freedom and power to create their own media online, they still use websites such as Google and YouTube which are owned by dominant corporations.. This reinforces the statement made by Gramsci, who used the concept of hegemony to describe the dominance of one social class over another e.g. the ruling class. For example, audiences feel more powerful as they can comment on articles found on online news. However, even though audiences can comment and express their opinions, the comments are still regulated by the news institutions and they have the power to take it down if they find it inappropriate. Similarly, Chompsky's theory also stems from this hegemonic view as he talks about 'manufacturing consent ‘and the ruling class brainwashing people into believing that something is 'natural or common sense' (hypodermic needle model). In addition to that, the media plays a vital role in spreading the dominate values of the ruling class as they have control access over the knowledge the audience receive. Therefore, this prompts the audience to accept that there is an unequal society which makes them powerless. 

The rise in citizen journalism throughout the years means that news institutions have become more dependent on citizen journalism in order to provide evidence for their news stories. For example, the general public have filmed stories on their phones, which have then been sent and used by news institutions who then show the footage on TV and online. This creates a sense of realism (Baudrillard) for audiences due to the fact that the footage is shaky and unclear, as oppose to it being shot on a professional camera. It makes audiences relate to the news story more as they see the perspective of someone who was actually there when the incident took place which can once again be linked the the uses and gratification of 'personal identity' or 'personal relationships'. This has also contributed to the decline of journalism since institutions use citizen journalism footage rather than professional footage by journalists  Also, it saves news institutions money as they do not need to pay a journalist to work for them.

To conclude, I believe that audiences have power to a certain extent. However, although technology and new and digital media has expanded, people are being oppressed by the elite due to the fact that they are dominating over them by making them feel weak and less powerful (class domination). The public suffer from a false consciousness as they are not aware of things due to them being influenced and manipulated by the capital. I therefore believe that the ruling class have greater power over audiences. This relates to the Marxist belief of hegemony as the elite remain the ruling class in society and hold the power.