The development of new/digital media means the audience is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view.
In this essay I'll be exploring the different ways that the development of new digital media has changed the power that the audience has but also the consumption and production of information that audiences consume.
Consumers over the years have now become more powerful in terms of the consumption of news that they intake. The institutions that we have are losing the power that they had. This can be seen with the decline with the newspaper industry. Since the news has become something that we can access online more and more people have drifted away from accessing the content from a traditional platform such as the newspaper. This can be because of the convenience of accessing it online because of the advances in technology and people want to get the news for free rather than going out and paying for it. Castells 1996 says "technological blossoming of the culture of freedom, individual innovation and entrepreneurialism"; this highlights the advances of technology throughout the years which shows the power of consumers growing. News stories in the media about Japan building the fastest computer shows the advances that we have in technology because people are using it more. We have now become more accustomed to getting eveything quickly people want news faster so there'll be more advances in technology. Marxists would say that this information revolution has done little to benefit the audience.
Pluralists would say that E-media is a useful thing for people who want to set up cottage industries who want to produce news content. Al Gore states "The internet is an empowering tool... an exciting and revolutionary prospect." The internet has now allowed people to start posting their own news online citizen journalism, this is another example of how the audience has gained more control over the years because there is nothing to restrict them from posting online. Citizen journalism allows people to post news online which can be accessed from all around the world on social media websites and even news programmes like BBC news, channel 4 ect. use citizen journalism as well for there news stories. This shows how advances in technology have affected traditional media as they incorporate online scources on their news bulletins. One of the first cases of this was Rodney King who was a black man which was beaten up by the police and recidreded by a man which gave the video to local news stations to be aired. Apple have always created new phones and these have better quality and advances which makes it easier for people to record. This will improve the quality of citizen journalism as people won't be recording with old technology.
The audience have now gotten more news for free online and the institutions need to bring a paywall so that the journalists don't lose their jobs and news becomes unreliable. James Murdoch quotes "It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it". The journalists are losing their jobs because people aren't paying for news anymore they're going online and getting news for free. This changes the accuracy of the news that people are receiving because it can be bias due to one person sharing their view whereas the BBC has to be impartial. Marxists however say that the institutions still have most of the power.
Pluralists view is that society is classesless. People in society are now gaining more power because of their power that new technology has given them such as being on social media websites, this gives people more access to more information which gives the consumers more control. Negroponte (1997) "the monolithic empires of mass media are dissolving into an array of cottage industries." People are communicating more online now and having an increase in power.
In conclusion, I think that consumers are in power more now because of the advances in technology have meant that they have more freedom and can do exactly what institutions do.
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