Class notes
Complete lecture notes - Media, Society, Politics - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Course
- Institution
Complete lecture notes from the course Media, Society and Politics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
[Show more]
Seller
Follow
mvandergreft
Reviews received
Content preview
Media, maatschappij en politiek – Aantekeningen hoorcollegesCollege 1 – Power of the media, watchdogs or lapdogs?
Er zijn 3 perspectieven:
- 1 + 2 à Political actors
- 3 + 4 à Media
- 5 à Public
• Politics is above all a contest
• The nature of what we 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
• If you don’t exist in the media, you don’t exist politically
- Become known
- Mobilize supporters
- Influence public opinion
- Influence policy
5 principles in political communication:
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 the media
3. “Every political story that appears in every form of media is biased” à There is no such
thing as objective journalism
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
Media and politics:
• Competitive symbiosis à 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 cost.
Each side has assets needed by the other to succeed in its respective role”
• Mutual dependence
• Publicity versus info
Political power= media power
• Front door à the powerful are always relevant and thus get more/automatic media
access and positive media coverage
• Back door à powerless have to work hard/make themselves relevant or interesting to get
into the media
• Side door à civil disobedience
Media coverage
• The more powerful get covered more often and more positively à media bias in favor of
the powerful
• Elites also get more positive coverage à obsession with elites limit the range of political
discourse
Media control
• State (public) media vs. free market (private) media à what level of political control?
• State media biased towards incumbents (zittende leden)
• Inequality is not accidental, but structural (also in media)
, • The political economy of mass media is missing in Wolfsfeld
• Noam Chomsky à the political economy of mass media
• Edward S. Herman à developed the ‘propaganda model’ of media criticism arguing that
“market forces, internalized assumptions and self-censorship” motivate newspapers and
television networks to stifle dissent
• Herman and Chomsky describe US media as businesses that sell a product (audiences=
consumers) to other businesses
Naïve liberal model
• Justice à fair treatment of individuals and groups
• Equity à individuals and groups have the same opportunities in life
• Freedoms à people have the right to think and speak as they wish
• Representation à elected representatives act in behalf of citizens
Media as ‘democratic watchdog’
• Media takes initiative
• Investigative reporting
• Independent scrutiny
• Documenting, questioning, and investigating
• Provide public and officials with timely information
A well functioning media is a 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.”
Manufacturing consent
• Chomsky and Herman consider that the media is often involved in misinformation, and
argues 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 (wapenstok) is to a totalitarian state. à “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 à the systematic ordering and controlling of human populations through
subtle and often unseen forces (surveillance techniques)
Power
Power= the intentional production of causal effects
• Power is the ability to achieve one’s goals or objectives and is also the ability to
overcome opposition, to exercise control over people
• Power is hierarchical à A gets B to do something that B would not otherwise have done
(Heywood)
,Principle & Subaltern
• Power relations are hierarchical/asymmetric relations between a superior (‘principle’) and
a subordinate (‘subaltern’)
• In power relations there is intentional action of a superior. The subordinate always has
some room to manoeuvre, some freedom and choice to resist
4 forms of power
Corrective forms (affecting the OPTIONS for actions)
1. Physical à force or coercion on decisions or compliance (zero-sum); literally limiting
options
2. The ability or disposition to change social relationships or to leave them intact, through
manipulation, agenda-setting and non-decisions; changing the basis of choices so it
becomes ‘rational’ to comply
Persuasive forms (affecting the REASONS for actions)
3. Preference-shaping via institutions à ‘signification’ or cognitive symbolism; shaping the
‘meaning’ and significance of things
4. Values-shaping à ‘thought control’; the spectrum of actions of the subaltern is limited via
ideological and discursive hegemony and disciplining
Force and coercion
• Physical coercion based on negative bodily and emotional sanctions
• Violent actions directed against the body or mind of the subaltern (example: torture,
beating and physical threat)
• The principle reduces the options of the subaltern to practically zero
• Non-violence directed at limiting the freedom of the subaltern (example: humiliation)
Manipulation and propaganda
• The principal changes the bases on which the subaltern perceives the rational bases of
action without the subaltern noticing it
• Subaltern chooses on ‘rational’ grounds what the principal wants (examples: propaganda,
advertising, and political campaigns)
Signification and cognitive symbolism
• Power relations are articulations of meaning (a particular logic of the signification process)
Framing= shape individual understanding and public opinion concerning an issue by stressing
specific elements or features of the broader controversy (Nelson, Clawson & Oxley, 1997)
• Frames are ideologically laden à packages of truth claims about reality
• Frames compete (in the pluralistic view)
Dominant ideology
• Ideological hegemony is a situation where a particular ideology is pervasively reflected
throughout a society in all principal social institutions and permeates dominant cultural
ideas and most social relationships
Ideological hegemony
• (Private as well as public) US media function as a mechanism of propaganda through
‘five filters’. Most news that are being broadcast have been filtered to express the
dominant ideology and interests
• Media is an ideological apparatus
, Propaganda-model
5 filters determine media-content
1. Size and ownership
• Chomsky and Herman argue that in capitalist democratic societies, mainstream media is
trapped by ownership (supervisor model), the interests of advertisers and the authority of
the government
• The size and profit-seeking imperative of dominant media corporations create a bias
• Since mainstream media outlets are currently either large corporations or a part of
conglomerates, the information they present to the public will favor these interests
2. Advertising
• Advertising as main income
- News media cater to political prejudice and economic interest of advertisers
- News is merely a “filler” to get privileged readers to see the advertisements
• Herman and Chomsky argue that the people buying newspapers/magazines are the
actual product which is sold to the businesses that buy advertising space; the news has
only a marginal role as the product
• Profit à other consequences are lower income audiences and smaller ‘market’ niches
that are less interesting for advertisers
- Increasing dependence on advertising revenue drives media-concentration and results in
the demise of more radical media-outlets catering to lower income and marginalized
groups (with limited resources and conflicting interests and ideology)
• Orientation
- Content becomes increasingly geared towards the commercial needs of the corporate
funders
- Serious criticism of the economic and political system or the ‘military-industrial complex’ is
rare (if not absent)
3. Sourcing
• Mass media need stable and reliable news-material flow (particularly as the bews cycles
get faster and faster…)
• Economics dictate concentration of resources where significant news is most likely to
occur: media-outlets are commercial companies, simply unable and unwilling to spend too
much resources on reporting
• Powerful bureaucracies are professional producers of ‘routine’ news
• Churnalism (Nick Davies, 2008) à pre-packaged and ready-to-use ‘news’
• Media mainly refers to power-holders: government officials, ministries, political leaders,
police and other law-and-order officials
• Non-routine often ignored
• Deviant opinions marginalized
• Media are ‘gatekeepers’ à moderates vs. extremists? Left vs. right?
Indexing theory (W. Lance Bennett)
• Sources and views in media are indexed according to power balance among political
institutions and actors
• Journalists mostly cite dominant actors
• Journalisits mostly use dominant views/frames
• Reasons:
- Dominant actors most likely to determine political outcomes
- Dominant actors give legitimacy to a story
- Journalists need formal challengers to keep alternative view in the news
4. Flak
• Fak à negative responses to a media statement or a TV/radio programme
• Responses may range from phone calls, to letters, to text messages all the way to threats
and court cases
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller mvandergreft. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $8.09. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
67866 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now