Does your
case study suggest that NDM have had a positive impact by offering audiences a
more diverse range of values and ideologies?
It can be debated whether new and digital media has had a
positive and negative impact by offering audiences a diverse range of values
and ideologies. Using case studies on the news industry and the film
distribution industry it can be assessed whether they offer audiences the
freedom to choose and select their own set of beliefs or if they are left with
no other option.
With the rise of new and digital media came the introduction
of the citizen journalist. This involved regular or experienced people
capturing moments of importance that can be classified as news and sending it
in to verified institutions or uploading it themselves. It could be argued that
content which comes from citizen journalists is more trustworthy and reliable
because of where it comes from and the quality of the footage/content. Citizen
journalism has had a positive impact by offering audiences a wider range of
values and ideologies, for example it was successful in reporting the Arab
uprisings 'springs' in the Middle East around 2010. Social media platforms were
used and camera phones to upload footage of some violent protests and views.
NDM provided a new platform which allows users from all over the world to share
with different communities, the idea of this was theorised by McLuhan and he
called it the global village. Reasons why citizen journalism provides a range
of values and ideologies is because it doesn't have a set agenda or just one
ideology, it is raw footage from everywhere, for example similarly to the Arab
springs protests, the Black lives matter campaign took advantage of NDM and
used citizen journalists to show explicit content of what was happening in the
Ferguson riots, something which news organisation like NBC and CNN were unable
to obtain with their own journalists and camera crew. However, with citizen
journalism it may not have the positive impact that was intended as even though
it can spread a wide range of values and ideologies, there is the issue with it
being falsified (fake news).
With the introduction of new and digital media, the audience
certainly have more choice when it comes to choosing what media content they
wish to view. That is what a pluralist would argue as they believe audiences
are free to select and reject media content which they don’t believe offers
them a certain set of values and ideologies. NDM has created a new platform for
audiences to select and reject news content; this comes from social media
sites, blogs and News institution websites like The Daily mail and The
Guardian. Even though choice of news outlets may seem like it has been expanded
online, a Marxist would argue against the pluralists perspective of audiences
being free as a lot of the companies online like the social media sites are not
independently owned but fall under an umbrella of companies, for example
Facebook own Instagram; another social media site, and with total combined
users reaching over a billion what seems like a platform that offers audiences
a more diverse range of values and ideologies actually has a negative impact as
the content is both regulated and controlled to the specifications of the
parent organisation. This can be better explained with Pareto’s Law and this
states that the minority of media producers, produce content for the majority
of people, therefore masking the absence of a diverse range of values and
ideologies.
Similarly, in the film distribution and exhibition industry,
because of the introduction of new and digital media, companies have merged
together and have formed larger media conglomerates which converges the values
and ideologies that those institutions promoted. This means that NDM has had a
negative impact as the values and ideologies on offer seem to be diverse
however, they all fall under one, which could be said to be promoting hegemony
(Gramsci) as it may encourage people to consent to the general status quo. An
example of this is new line cinema (a film production company) is owned by the
distributor Warner Bros, a large media conglomerate, whilst producers usually
go and choose distributors to exhibit their films on a variety of platforms,
having no control over this would mean that the parents companies values and
ideologies would be the only ones shown off.
As mentioned earlier, NDM has paved the way for closer
communications for people all over the globe, thus creating the global village
(McLuhan). News organisations now report worldwide news and not just national
news, for example The Guardian have writers in America, Australia and England
so that their website can be updated 24/7, the continuous production of news by
organisations all around the world creates a space for a diverse range of
ideologies and values to be shared. This is a positive for audiences because
never before have they been exposed to so much, the last time this would have
happened would have been with the printing press which inspired the Gutenberg
revolution. Audiences that feel like they have a choice in what media they
consume means it may also be a positive for the
News institutions as when audiences feel able to engage with the media
product it makes them feel like they have power and control which may appeal to
some audience. However the creation of the global village has rather ironically
destroyed other villages. Local newspapers have not been helped or positively
impacted by the use of NDM and neither have their audiences, this is because
local news online and in print is suffering as the 2/3 journalists find it hard
to report on proper stories and are reluctant because of a lack of funding to
pursue investigative journalism .This means that not a diverse range of values
and ideologies are being shared locally and what affects people day to day
lives is not being reported on and everyone is thinking of the bigger picture.
In conclusion, it could be argued that based on the case
studies discussed NDM has had an overall positive impact as audiences now have
a more diverse range of values and ideologies. This Is because news institutions
in particular were struck off guard by the introduction of NDM and digitisation
of everything. They were naïve to think the print industry would remain the
same and that they would ultimately control all the media content that went to
the people. However this was not the case and the older ‘Marxist’ perspectives
are starting to go away as audiences can not only create their own content
which to an extent is un-mediated but also are free to choose from new news institutions
on a variety of platforms. Audiences are no longer passive in the media they
choose to consumer (hypodermic needle model) but active in consumption of a
diverse range of values and ideologies.
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