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.
Marxist + Pluralist + Hegemony
- Citizen Journalism +UGC
- News Values
- Paywalls + decline of newspaper industry (Google + Facebook)
- Hyper-reality + Alain de botton
- Ofcom + news consumption in UK
(social media etc.)
Key Words
- Consumption
- Empowerment/Power
- Production
- Audience
- New/digital media
ESSAY
There are many reasons why new/digital media has empowered audiences in terms of consumption and production. However, there are also reasons that counter argue this and show that audiences still do not have some degree of control over what they consume and play no part in the production of media.
Pluralism argues that new/digital media has allowed audiences to be able to voice their opinions and be heard, in a sense, giving them more power through social media platforms. With the increase of the usage of social media more people have taken to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to spread awareness to things they may be passionate about. They are able to produce information that may interest other people and therefore encouraging to also share their own opinions. This has been evident especially with the recent Daily Mail backlash. In which Paperchase apologised for running marketing campaigns with the Daily Mail after their 'divisive stories on trans people'. This can be seen as empowering in the sense that the audience have some control over what they as a consumer want to see. It highlights the fact that the audience are not passive and are expressing their opinions which are in turn being seen as Paperchase then tweeted out that they were sorry and that the audience has been 'listen to' and as a result have decided to stop their campaigns with Daily Mail.
Citizen Journalism can be argued for this statement as it highlights this pluralist view that audiences are becoming more powerful. This is clear because of the fact that major news organisations often depends on user generated content to back up what they publish. This shows that the way news is consumed in this generation has changed and that audiences are having more of an input as they are producing the evidence, whether that be through livestreams, 10 second snapchat videos. The first videos we saw for the terrorist attack in France were user generated. Therefore this shows that audiences are becoming empowered as they are producing that major news organisations wouldn't be able to have access to with such immediacy.
Despite the fact that social media has allowed us to voice our opinions and make it seem like society is becoming more pluralist with the idea that audiences are becoming less passive an more involved in media consumptions and production, this may not be the case. There are different techniques now to raise awareness to issues through social media for example using hashtags. This gets news to spread rapidly. However, the recent Paradise Paper news in which they expose that the elite have been keeping offshore accounts to avoid taxes is an example of how the audiences do not have power in new/digital media. This is suggested with the lack of follow up news on the subject and how nothing was done t question the elites. This shows that the audiences are not in control of what they consume. That, according to the Marxist perspective, they are given the 'illusion of power'.
We as an audience can be seen to still not hold any power in reference to new/digital media. The production of news as a whole is still controlled by the major news organisations in the sense that we do not chose what news we are given which could link to the idea of hegemony an the fact that we do not argue or go against was we as an audience are shown. Through different news values like familiarity and continuity we are bombarded with constant news ,by elite companies, such as Brexit that make us think that this news is useful and relevant when in reality this is just another way in which major news outlets are shaping news in order to bring in mass audiences. This in turn highlights that despite how news has changed we are still in a way made to be passive using these consumption techniques which allows the news organisation to manipulate us even further. This makes us less empowered as we are seen to have no contribution to the production of news.
EDIT- It can be argued that we as the audience still do not have much control over what we see nowadays in new and digital media. In term of the Hegemonic view that we do not argue or go against what we are shown as an audience. In relation to news, we are seen as a passive audience as Alain de Botton's view on news claiming that it is 'dumbed down' for the simple reason that they are trying to bring in mass audiences. In a sense this gives the feeling that audience are not active consumers of news and large organisations decide what information they want audiences to receive. However, it can also be argued that audiences are not passive and that they are more involved with news. News nowadays have adapted to the changed that new and digital media brings. Almost 60% of all Twitter users in the UKfollow some form of newsbrand content. Therefore this shows that social media sites allow audiences to interact more with news and the fact that amongst newsbrand followers 78% follow more than one handle and may cover a range of brands, specialist areas and specific journalists or columnists shows us they are not a passive audience and that the choose what news and journalist they want to follow.
It can also be argued that the decline of the newspaper industry could be a sign of the audiences having an increase power of their consumption and the production of media. The fact that new/digital media has changed how audiences access their news. This is evident in the fact that The Independent has now complete stopped printing. This shows that traditional media like print have to now adapt to the changing ways in which audiences now prefer to receive their information, especially with the convergence of media. This new development has also allowed new companies to take over such as Google and Facebook. Google allowing easy access to numerous amounts of information at a click of a button and that it also allows audiences to promote their own blogs in which they may post news which shows that new/digital media has allowed audiences to then have some control in production of media through these aspects of the internet regardless of whether it is as big as the major news companies like The BBC. It will still have an impact on the niche audiences it attracts.
In conclusion, I believe that new/digital media has allowed audience to gain more freedom in what they say and have some sort of influence/contribution to the media. However, they are still held back by the elite group that still have the upper hand in the control of media.
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