College Notes Media, Society and Politics (S_MSP) Making Sense of Media and Politics
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Media, maatschappij en politiek (S_MSP)
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Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
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Making Sense of Media and Politics
Comprehensive Lecture Notes for "Media, Society, and Politics" Exam - December 16
Unlock your study success with these detailed and well-organized lecture notes designed for the Media, Society, and Politics course. Perfectly tailored to help you prepare for the upcoming exam on December 16, thes...
College aantekeningen Media, maatschappij en politiek (S_MSP) Making Sense of Media and Politics
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Media, maatschappij en politiek (S_MSP)
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Summary Lectures MSP
Created @November 30, 2024 10:05 AM
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Lecture 1: Power of the media
Media & politics:
3 perspectives:
1+2: political actors
3+4: media (journalists)
5: public (users) and effects
“Politics is above all a contest” - Wolfsfield
The nature of what they call the ‘media’ may have changed considerably after the creation of the
internet, but the need to be heard remains a central part of the political game.
Media provides the audience
“If you don’t exist in the media you don’t exist politically”
become known
mobilise supporters
influence public opinion
influence policy
5 principles in political communication:
exam question
1. “political power can usually be translated into power over all forms of media”
2. “when the powerful lose control over the political environment, they also lose control over all forms
of media”
3. every political story that appears in every form of media is biased”; “there is no such thing as
objective journalism (nor can there be)”
Summary Lectures MSP 1
, 4. “all forms of media are dedicated more than anything else to telling good stories and this can often
have a major impact on the political processes”
5. “many of the most important effects of the various forms of media on citizens tend to be
unintentional and unnoticed”
Competitive symbiosis:
The relationship between political antagonists/actors and the news media can be described as a
“competitive symbiosis” in which each side of the relationship attempts to exploit the other while
expending a minimum amount of costs. Each side has assets needed by the other to succeed in its
respective role.
Mutual dependence: publicity vs info
They need each other:
the media needs content: important people/speakers
politicians need the media to send their message.
How much structural power do power-holders have?
Political power = media power:
“front door”: the powerful are always relevant and thus get more/automatic media access and
positive media coverage
positive media power: you can twist the message in your advantage if you have power (see
also below)
“back door”: ‘powerless’ have to work hard/make themselves relevant/interesting to get into the
media
most political contests are unequal
Summary Lectures MSP 2
, The more powerful get covered more often and more positively → media bias in favour of the
powerful
Elites also get more positive coverage → obsession with elites limit the range of political discourse (a
lot of voices are being excluded)
Sidedoor: civil disobedience
principle of cumulative Inequality: the political actors who most need access to the news are the
ones that find it the most difficult to obtain
who needs it the most?
Centralized media: Russia’s media is now totally in Putin’s hands
→ All media biased towards the incumbent
Difficult to control public media in the Netherlands, it’s very diverse
Inequality is not accidental, but structural (also in media):
Education differences: Higher educated people have more media access than lower/practical
educated people
Economic differences
political economy is missing in Wolfsfeld:
Noam Chomsky: political economy of mass media
Edward S. Herman: Developed the ‘propaganda model’ of media criticism arguing that
“marketing forces, internalized assumptions and self-censorship” motivates newspapers and
television networks to stifle dissent.
the media is driven by market forces: it’s in the business of reproducing powers that are
already there
full frontal attack on the liberal model → naive liberal model
Summary Lectures MSP 3
, they argue that the US media are businesses that sell a product (audiences = consumers)
to other businesses
Media as ‘democratic watchdog’:
media takes initiative
investigative reporting
independent scrutiny
documenting, questioning, and investigating
provide public and officials with timely informations
A well functioning media is of paramount importance for democratic societies:
report events objectively as they occur, to allow citizens to make informed political choices
control power-holders and unearth abuses of power through investigative journalism
Herman and Chomsky: US media fails to perform democratic task and are basically akin to
propaganda systems in totalitarian states:
“It is much more difficult to see a propaganda system at work where the media are private and
formal censorship is absent. This is especially true when the media actively compete, periodically
attack and expose corporate and governmental malfeasance, and aggressively portray themselves
as spokesmen for free speech and the general community interest”
Chomsky and Hermann consider that the media is often involved in misinformation, and argue that
the media has ‘extended’ the Cold War. Chomsky even contends that the media is in essence
against democracy
In an often-quoted remark, Chomsky states that “propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is
to a totalitarian state”
‘Unlike totalitarian systems, where physical force can be readily used to coerce the general population,
democratic societies like the US can only make use of non-violent means of control.’
Michel Foucault
‘Power is everywhere’: diffused and embodied in discourse, knowledge and ‘regimes of truth’.
Norms are embedded beyond our perception - causing us to discipline ourselves without any
willful coercion from others.
Panopticism: the systematic ordering and controlling of human populations through subtle and
often unseen forces (surveillance techniques)
Power of the elite is everywhere
what is right and wrong?
Summary Lectures MSP 4
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