The Content of Mass Media Is Determined by Those Who Own the Media

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There is reasonably common agreement that there is an identifiable capitalist or ruling class. Marx pointed out that the capitalist or ruling class own the means of material production and consequently also manage the means of mental production. Their ruling thoughts and ways of looking at the world filter down to the rest of society. Marx's unique view has been developed by neo-Marxist such as Hall et al examining the late-twentieth-century role of the mass media. They propose an explanation in terms of the way the influential ruling class set the agenda for their domination ideas and direct or indirect control. Also they influence the content of the mass media. To put it another way, capitalist and mass media are seen as having common interest to preserve the status quo. Hall showed how the sources of information coming from the police and legal authorities in relation to the crime of `mugging' in the 70s acted as primary definers for media personnel such as journalism. They present a biased view of the world as fair and just when in fact it is founded on inequality and injustice. So big business and the profit motive are presented uncritically as working in the best interests of the whole of society. Nay challenges or threats this as these are focused on as deviant. More recently neo-Marxist have pointed out that not only do the media reflect capitalist ideology, values and interest but such media themselves become capitalist enterprise a means of making vast profits. There are three main ideas relating to questions of ownership and control of the mass media. Firstly, leading-on from the outline of technological development, we need to consider the extent to which ownership allows powerful individuals and groups to explo... ... middle of paper ... ...this problem by buying a film studio (20th Century Fox) and using it to supply Sky with "first run" films plus a back catalogue of classic films. Having successfully broken this oligopoly, Murdoch was also able to use the newspapers he owned to provide "free" advertising for his satellite station. This advertising took the form of "paid" adverts and, more usefully, publicity in Murdoch papers through competitions, special offers and "feature articles" masquerading as "news." On this basis, our beliefs about the world are grounded in our experiences of and in that world. In short, when we are exposed to new ideas, we try to assimilate them in terms of our current beliefs and to achieve this we try and match these ideas to our experiences. Thus, ideas that somehow seem to fit in with our experiences will have a greater chance of being incorporated into our beliefs.

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