Evaluate Pluralist Theories Of Ownership And Contr

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Evaluate pluralist theories of ownership and control of the media. (33 Marks) The mass media is the means by which messages and images are communicated to a mass audience, it does this through its various Mass Communication Technologies (MCTs), and for instance the Internet is a very powerful and influential MCT communicating worldwide. MCTs educate, persuade and inform as well as entertain their audience. Media is geographically dispersed and has no limits due to its global domination. It is also culturally diverse and socially mixed. Pluralists believe that the mass media is reflective of social reality, and acts as a 'mirror'. They state that it has a functional role in meeting the demands of its mass audience, and thus owes a duty to the people. Marxists on the other hand would argue that the media constructs desires and creates social reality. The term ‘mass’ is a reference to the large numbers of people, to which traditional broadcasts are aimed. The spread of interpersonal media systems means that, “modern communication has become less mass in character. However, the term is still relevant for many influential media systems. The pluralist view of the mass media is that society is made up of a complex of competing groups and interests , all of which interact with one another. The groups are important to an idealistic democratic society, where a benign and neutral state allows them equal access to resources and influence. The mass media are free of government control, and the audience is in turn free to choose the version of reality that they absorb. Audiences provide feedback (and hence affect media content) by conforming, accommodating or rejecting a particular medium’s view of reality. In this way, different parts of the media cater for different parts of society. Because the media is seen as reflecting society, it does not have a significant role in
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