Exam Essay ..

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

New and Digital media has opened us up to a world of accessing any information whenever wherever; through the use of tablets and Smartphone’s the audience now feel that they are in fact in power. When considering to what extent does the development of new and digital media mean that the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production, could be argued that in real facts the audience have been subconsciously brainwashed into thinking they have control when in reality it’s the complete opposite and really the media regulator everything. Pluralists truly believe that the media offer us a variety of products, giving us freedom to do whatever we like, for example, Web 2.0 allows the audience to become producers of their own text. However; Marxists have different thoughts and ideas, they believe the media maintain the ideological hegemony and have power over the middle class society. For example, the government and police keeps an eye on what happens over the internet and so has the power to put a stop to anything.

Pluralist argue the audience are in control of the media, we have freedom to think what we want and do what we like, over 18 million people now have blogs, we have access to global information and democratisation. Audiences are perceived as capable of manipulating the media and having access to “the plural values of society” enabling them to “conform, accommodate or reject”. They believe audiences are smart enough to accept and decline anything in the media. For example, according to statistics 57% of 9-19 year olds had come into contact with pornographic material online (Tanya Brown 2008). This fact just highlights the freedom an audience have, which answers the question that the audience does have a lot of power because of new and digital media. 

However, control of the media is said to be in the hands of an elite who allow a considerable degree of flexibility in production choices therefore indicating that the audience have power but only to a certain extent, they might feel they have freedom but really they don’t because of censorship. In terms of blogs and web pages, Andrew Keen believes they’re just millions of monkeys typing nonsense. Marxist believe that the media have dumbed down their output and construct texts simply to generate mass audiences, the audiences therefore have adapted to the “dumbed down” media, which again shows that the audience is being controlled by the hegemony leaders which keeps them the ruling class and the dominant ideology. 

Rupert Murdoch says "The internet has given readers much more power, the world is changing and newspapers have to adapt" this proclamation states that new and digital media developments have changed the way the audience access the internet. For someone who is so strong minded and powerful in the media, who owns a huge conglomerate, News Corporation, to say that newspapers have to adapt because of the new and digital media shows that the audience really do have much more power in terms of production and consumption. Through New and Digital media, the more traditional ways of consuming news are dying out because audiences now turn to the online version which gives them more power when consuming the information. 

On the other hand, Marxist criticises Pluralists, they believe the mass media still maintains the dominant ideologies of ruling class. According to Marxist Millband, the media have a huge role to play in the media which is basically spreading the dominate values of the ruling class because they control all the information the audience receive. Therefore making the audience believe they have no power and are really under control of the ruling class. The Frankfurt School Study (1930’s), a group of philosophers where concerned with the rise and impact of the media industries on the society because it has a huge effect on the audience the media have the power to control a person, therefore making them powerless as they’re programmed into thinking and acting a certain way. Linking this to the hypodermic needle model of communication suggesting that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted but the audience. 

Furthermore, Pluralist argue media content isn't focused on dominate ideology but by their audience. The rise of citizen journalism and users generated content (UGC) has empowered the audience in terms of production and consumption through the development of new and digital media. Since the audience now can create the news also with the help of the new Smartphone’s and tablets which makes it easier for one to post their own news. A great example of UGC is the incident with Rodney King in 1992, a man who was almost beat to death by the LA police which was seen by a man merely looking out of his window who then decided to record everything and afterwards posted it up online therefore creating the massive LA riots, it also created the rise in UGC as people everywhere started using the development of new and digital media to their advantage and started posting their own news on websites, blogs, social networking sites and YouTube, this gets rid of censorship through gatekeepers, people who make the decision on whether something is worth mentioning in the news or not. The development of new and digital media mean that the audiences now post up their own news, they don’t rely on the traditional ways of receiving news, another point to add, majority of the teenagers today first hear the news on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. 

Overall, Pluralism and Marxism both have very effective and important points, however I personally disagree with Pluralism as I believe audience do have power but to a certain extent, Marxist believe even though we might think we have freedom we really don’t, but in reality the hegemony leaders from the ruling class control the media and train our brains from a young age into thinking a certain way. Mass media are seen as a way of entertaining the workers while drip feeding them ideologies and beliefs therefore is making the audience powerless and the ruling class to stay powerful and in control of the middle/lower class with their dominant ideologies.