Global MediaMAC373

news | globalisation | imperialism

Typical attitude

• “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.”

Marx & Engels,The German Ideology (1845)

Typical attitude

• Globalisation of media• Globalisation of ideas• Power• New World Order• Media ownership• Cultural imperialism• Bias/self-serving

interests

Typical attitude

• “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions [sic] everywhere”Marx & Engels,The Communist Manifesto (1847)

Globalisation

The rapid increase in cross-border economic, social, political, cultural, and technological exchange under conditions of capitalism.

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Historical dimensions

19th – 20th centuries Mass

Urbanisation Industrialisation Production Consumerism

Economies of scale Fordist production

techniques

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Early global media:News agencies divide up the world

Reuters: Britain Empire, and the Far East

Havas: French Empire, Italy, Spain and Portugal

Wolff: Germany, Austria, Scandinavia and

Russian territories

American contenders: 1893 – Associated Press (AP), United

Press Association (UPA)

1907 – UPA became United Press International (UPI)

1934 – Reuters signs agreement with AP. Havas collapses (succeeded by AFP), Wolff collapses

Mid-20th century onwards

1. The role of multinational communication conglomerates as key players

2. The impact of new technologies

3. The uneven flow of products in the global system

4 structural trends in the media

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1. Growth

2. Integration

3. Globalization

4. Concentration of ownership• (Crocteau & Hoynes, 2005: 77)

Patterns of ownership

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‘What you are seeing is the creation of a global oligopoly. It happened to the oil and automotive industries earlier this century; now it is happening to the entertainment industry’ (Christopher Dixon cited in McChesney, 2003: 261)

First tier

General Electric AT&T/SBC communications Sony Disney Time Warner AOL News Corporation Viacom Vivendi Universal Bertelsmann

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Production

Distribution

Consumption

Publishing Radio Television Press

Vertical integration

Horizontal integration

Second tier

Dow Jones Mediaset Pearson Reuters Havas Reed Elsevier

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Patterns of ownership

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‘The global media system is better understood as one that advances corporate and commercial interests and values and denigrates or ignores that which cannot be incorporated into its mission’ (McChesney, 2003: 266).

The McDonaldization of news?

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Efficiency minimise time

Calculability objectives should be quantifiable

Predictability (Standardisation) uniform, repetitive practises

Control Mechanisation

• See Bob Franklin, 2003 “McJournalism”: The McDonaldization Thesis and Junk Journalism

Reuters today

94% of revenue = financial & commodity information and services

Revenue multiplied 40x between 1977-1995 ($4.7 billion)

Revenue from media service multiplied 16x

By 1993 had 10x turnover of AP

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Ownership issues (US)

Network Stylistic devices

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Viacom owns CBS Disney owns ABC Time Warner owns CNN News Corp owns Fox

Dramatic music Special effects Computer graphics Re-enactments

•Further info:•http://www.takebackthemedia.com/owners.html •http://www.ejc.nl/jr/emland/uk.html

Shift in content?

Neil Hickey on Time and Newsweek: overall total for straight news dropped from around 45%

in 1987 to 20% in 1997

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Shift in content?

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‘There has been a shift towards lifestyle, celebrity, entertainment, and celebrity crime/scandal in the news and away from government and foreign affairs’ The Project for the Excellence in Journalism, 1998 (a 20

year study from 1977-1997)

Shift in content?

[Audiences] ‘prefer live reports from global trouble spots to other types of international news stories, including background reports and interviews with world leaders’. Pew Center, 2002

‘By making the live and the exclusive into primary news values, accuracy and understanding will be lost’ MacGregor (1997: 200)

‘[This leaves journalists] little time to investigate a story, research and reflect on it before it is transmitted. Their editors want to make the story as timely and dramatic as possible.’ Thussu (2003: 120)

News as a form of ‘infotainment’? Thussu, 2003: 122

Sky News ‘offers a more dynamic package, complete with computer graphics, a one-person presenter (sometimes standing, sometimes sitting), an interactive screen, complete with the occasional online vote’ Hargreaves and Thomas, 2002: 95

‘This business of giving people what they want is a dope-pusher's argument. News is something people don't know they're interested in until they hear about it. The job of a journalist is to take what's important and make it interesting.’ Reuven Frank, Former president of NBC

News

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Corporate media?

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As capitalism gathered impetus, it moved from calls for reform of the state to the take-over of the state…

Summary so far…

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Original function of the media is to ‘check’ dominant powers, free from state intervention

Shift towards a corporate-owned media, repositioned audience members as consumers

Monopolies and decreasing number of key players are the order of the day What are the implications?

What about the UK news media?

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Nick Davies, 2008, Flat Earth News, London: Chatto & Windus (chapter 2)

Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams & Bob Franklin, 2008, ‘Four Rumours and an Explanation: A political economic account of journalists’ changing newsgathering and reporting practices’, Journalism Practice, Vol 2, No 1.

Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams, Bob Franklin, James Thomas and Nick Mosdell, 2006, The Quality and Independence of British Journalism, commissioned report for the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

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Year Ave. total employees Ave. editorial employees

Average Profit Margin (%)

2004 1130 741 9.4

2003 1169 713 1.7

2002 1105 651 13.8

2001 1049 583 8.3

2000 1118 623 12.2

1999 986 523 11.2

1998 937 502 10.6

1997 932 500 8.5

1996 976 530 6.5

1995 1033 533 7.3

1994 957 497 11.7

1993 1010 497 12.2

1992 1027 513 8

1991 941 545 -9.6

1990 1012 947 12.4

1989 1351 552 13.3

1988 1571 461 15.5

1987 1899 427 6

1986 2808 555 0.2

1985 4337 786 5.7

Average employment for UK national newspaper companies versus profit (adapted from Lewis et al, 2006)

London-based reporter (1/3)

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The owners of my newspaper made a £70million profit in this country in 2003. Yet year after year the union chapel has painstakingly to negotiate a pay rise simply to match inflation … the office has no PA wire, reporters are blocked from phoning overseas or even using the directory inquiry services, copies of our own newspapers are rationed in the office, and a current sort of Stalinist stationery embargo means journalists are expected to buy their own notebooks and fax paper…

Source: Samuel Pecke, 2004, ‘Local Heroes’, British Journalism Review, Vol 15, No 2., p28-30

London-based reporter (2/3)

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Perhaps one of the most worrying and frustrating aspects of life on local newspapers is being so office-bound. Of all the impressions I had of the profession before getting my first job, relying on telephone interviews and the internet for so much written work was not one of them. Journalism must allow relationships developing with contacts, whether or not there is a story at stake, and getting to know your patch inside out. Put simply, only lazy reporters spend their days behind desks. Yet such on-the-streets reporting was described to me early on as “a luxury”.

London-based reporter (3/3)

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The newspaper did not have enough journalists to allow staff to go daily to court, let alone out and about. The paper had to be filled and could not wait for as-yet unwritten stories and features to arrive. While the editor preached the virtue of “interactivity” with the community, the management’s own reluctance to employ more staff or give its journalists enough free rein hampered basic reporting. Quality, it seems, is not an issue. Yet across local newspapers, regurgitating press releases and sticking a couple of opposing quotes on the end has become the norm

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Churnalism

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“We are churning stories today, not writing them. Almost everything is recycled from another source … It wouldn’t be possible to write so many stories otherwise. Yet even more is expected; filing to online outlets is considered to be part of the job…”

Churnalism

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“…Specialist writing is so much easier because the work is done by agencies and/or writers of press releases. Actually knowing enough to identify stories is no longer important. The work has been deskilled, as well as being amplified in volume, if not in quality” Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor, The Times in Lewis et al , 2008

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‘Commercial logic is not necessarily destructive … But, applied to news, that logic is highly damaging, cutting out human contact and with it the possibility of finding stories; cutting down time and with it the possibility of checking; thus producing stories in greater numbers at greater speed and of much worse quality’ Nick Davies, 2008, p62

Problems of the press?

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1. Interference from press owners (eg Murdoch)

2. Pressure from advertising decline

3. News production as profit making enterprise

Cutting (staff) costs

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1986 – News International switch to Wapping Early 1990s – Newspaper price war Late 1990s – Advertisers begin switch to Internet 2000s – Newspaper circulations decline (online

editions see growth)

‘In 1992 some two hundred companies owned local papers, by 2005, according to the media analysts Mintel, ten corporations alone owned 74% of them’ (Davies, 2008: p65)

Costs in context (Murdoch’s UK papers)

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1985 – pre-tax profit of £35.6 million Staff employed: 8731

1988 – pre-tax profit of £144.6 million Staff employed: 949

The Sun pagination minus ads: 1985: 19.8 pages 1995: 25 pages 2006: 54.6 pages

Questions to consider

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What impact does the push for corporate ownership of the media have on:

a) Journalist output?

b) Public knowledge?

Should we be concerned about the claims made by Lewis et al about the tendency to rely on PR/news wire copy?

Going forwards, how might new technology be both the problem and the solution for journalism?

Sources

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Stuart Allan, 2004, News Culture, 2nd Edition, Berkshire: Open University Press Oliver Boyd-Barrett and Tehri Rantanen, 1998, ‘News Agencies in Europe’ in Adam Briggs & Paul

Cobley (eds), The Media: An Introduction, Harlow: Longman. David Crocteau and William Hoynes, 2005, The Business of Media Corporate Media and the

Public Interest - Chapter 3 ‘The New Media Giants - changing industry structure’, London: Sage. Nick Davies, 2008, Flat Earth News, London: Chatto & Windus (chapter 2) Elliott, P., 1982, “Intellectuals, the 'Informer Society' and the disappearance of the public sphere”

in Media, Culture and Society, 4(3), pp. 243-253. Hargreaves, Ian & Thomas, James (2002) New News, Old News, London: Independent Television

Commission and Broadcasting Standards Commission.

Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams & Bob Franklin, 2008, ‘Four Rumours and an Explanation: A political economic account of journalists’ changing newsgathering and reporting practices’, Journalism Practice, Vol 2, No 1.

Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams, Bob Franklin, James Thomas and Nick Mosdell, 2006, The Quality and Independence of British Journalism, commissioned report for the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

Robert McChesney, 2003, ‘The New Global Media’ in David Held & Anthony McGrew (eds), Global Transformations Reader¸ Cambridge: Polity Press

Daya Kishan Thussu, 2003, ‘Live TV and Bloodless Deaths: War, Infotainment and 24/7 News’ in D. Thussu & D. Freedman (eds), War and the Media, London: Sage

The Project for the Excellence in Journalism, 1998, Changing Definitions of News, March 6. Available at http://www.journalism.org/resources/research/reports/

Images used (slide #) 2: leralle, 2008, ‘Karl-Mark-Monument’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/leralle/2502099031/ 3: adobemac, 2006, ‘Marx-Engels-Forum’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/adobemac/244170074/ 4: svenwerk, 2006, ‘Marx and Engels’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/svenwerk/286219227/ 5: 10 Ninjas Steve, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/steverideout/135270019/ 6: Lock, stock and 2 smoking barrels!!, 2008,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivek-mukherjee/2959224072/ 8-10: anjan58, 2007, http://www.flickr.com/photos/anjan58/1281306048/ 11: carlos_seo, 2009, http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlos_seo/3248928935/ 12 & 16: HarshLight, 2009, http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshlight/3235469361/ 17: miskan, 2005, http://www.flickr.com/photos/miskan/4467937/ 18: cowfish, 2004: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowfish/239613/ 21-23: Tony the Misfit, 2008, http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/3142216126/ 24: nickjeffery, 2007, http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickjeffery/402672296/ 25: Fujur, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/fujur/108798414/ 30: Amanda Hayler, 2009, http://www.flickr.com/photos/minhay/3320928908/ 31-33: psd, 2008, http://www.flickr.com/photos/psd/2423289669/ 36-37: GiantsFantastic, 2007, http://www.flickr.com/photos/giantsfanatic/355201578/ 38-38: iCampbell, 2008 http://www.flickr.com/photos/icampbellzoom/2189881602/ 40: inju, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/inju/112082907/ 41-42: just.Luc, 2008, http://www.flickr.com/photos/9619972@N08/2781329487/ 43: Oberazzi, 2006, http://www.flickr.com/photos/oberazzi/318947873/