essay about power of media and information

English Compositions

Short Essay on Power of Media [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

In today’s lesson, you will learn how you can write short essays on ‘Power of Media.’ There will be three different sets of short essays on the same topic covering different word limits. 

Short Essay on Power of Media in 100 Words

The term ‘’media’’ is derived from the word ‘’medium’’, which refers to the way through which information is transferred from one person to another. Media as the collection of several types of equipment enable the spreading of news and messages far and wide.

Several modes of communication like television, telephone, radio, internet, newspaper, advertisements, allow us to impart knowledge about important issues in our life. Media is extremely powerful in its speed of spreading accurate information. At any specific time, we observe how media personals work at several places and give us the news most required. Any scandal, rumour, facts,  everything is noted by the media and explained to us in due course. 

Short Essay on Power of Media in 200 Words

Media is the way of mass communication and entertainment. It is the process through which the masses of people are communicated and united under one single piece of information. Media or the several forms of information medium fall under the group of information technology.

All of them act together to deliver error-free news and information so that democracy is not disturbed by fake information. Media includes newspapers, magazines, telephone, television, internet, advertisement, emails, messages, cinemas, and others. Media acts through both audio and visual effects to create the maximum effect. 

The biggest power of media lies in its potential to persuade people to take necessary action. When we hear a newsreader dictating the news, then the listeners are swayed by the intonation of the reader. The person speaks in order to claim the truthfulness of the piece of information. In the exact same manner, a newspaper is organized to direct the opinions of the readers in a certain course.

Advertisements are the most powerful ways of media. We are highly influenced by it and inspired to take ready actions that are necessary. At present, the internet is the media that share all news with the greatest speed. 

Short Essay on Power of Media in 400 Words

The influence of media in our lives is of immense importance. It not only imparts us news and pieces of information but is the biggest source of entertainment. Cinema and music as parts of media give us pure joy and happiness, which also enables us to entertain ourselves. Yet the majority of the media is concentrated on gathering correct information and delivering it to the country.

Media includes newspapers, radio, T.V., telephone, internet, advertisements, placards and posters, and others. All these are our constant companions that allow us to form our opinions on different issues regarding life, society, and country. 

Media is powerful in its mode of persuasion. The biggest capacity of any media equipment is that it can easily manipulate the opinion of people and allow them to form a specific sort of perspective. The best weapon in this regard is the newspaper. The way a newspaper is arranged and the headlines are prepared, makes this persuasion quite easy. The visual and literal aspects of a newspaper are the sole power of media. The same goes for the advertisements as well.

The visual and written content of advertisements equally influences us to buy a product or service. For the newsreaders, their intonation is the power. The way they narrate a news story enables listeners to realize the significance of the news. The diction of a newsreader is important in this regard that helps to grab the attention of the people. Media is the potential way to unite the country under one principle and equal opinion. The issue lies with the efficiency of the journalist.

He risks every danger so as to collect authentic news for the benefit of mankind. The efficiency of the strength of media lies at every stratum of collecting the information and converting it into the news. Be it the print media or the audio method, all require this adept nature to strongly create a safe environment for news channels.

Media is both effective and effective. In this regard, the nature of the internet can be considered. Even in the most difficult circumstances internet becomes the den of evil and fake news. It creates unnecessary commotion among innocent folks and is equally responsible for disrupting the peace and stability of the nation.

The capacity to create public opinion is used for dangerous purposes and the power of media is wasted for the benefit of evil people. It is thus the knowledge of the people to not accept all news blindly. Media is effective in spreading the news within the shortest period. However, careful utilization of this power is expected.

Hopefully, after going through this session, you have a  holistic idea about writing short essays on the topic ‘Power of Media.’ I have written these essays in very simple words for a better understanding of all kinds of students. Kindly comment down your doubts, if you still have any. 

Keep browsing our website to read more such short essays on various important topics. And don’t forget to join us on Telegram to get all the latest updates. Thank you. 

Management Notes

Power of Media – Major Points Explained in Detail | Media and Society

Power of media.

Table of Contents

Media power refers to the enormous influence and impact that print media, broadcast media, and digital media have in shaping public opinion, disseminating information, and driving social and cultural changes. A powerful tool for communication, education, entertainment, and mobilization, the media play a significant role in modern society.

By reaching vast audiences, shaping public discourse, and influencing individual and collective behaviors, it can influence the lives of individuals and communities.

A media outlet’s power lies in its ability to gather, create, and distribute information, frame narratives, and shape public opinion. In order to promote media literacy and responsible consumption of media content, we must understand the power of media.

The power of media can be explained in the following way:

Information Dissemination:

Media acts as a primary source of information for individuals, providing news, current affairs, and factual information. Media’s power comes from its ability to gather, verify, and disseminate information to a wide audience. Keeping people informed about local, national, and global events is the responsibility of journalists and news organizations.

People are able to make informed decisions, understand complex issues, and participate in democratic processes when the media provides timely and relevant news coverage.

Agenda Setting:

The media can set the agenda and determine the issues that need to be addressed and discussed. Public opinion and conversations are shaped and directed by media outlets’ coverage of specific topics, editorials, and investigative reporting.

In order to set the agenda, the media must frame issues, shape narratives, and shape public perceptions. In bringing attention to neglected or marginalized topics, media can shape public opinion and bring about societal change.

Influence on Public Opinions and Attitudes:

The media has a profound impact on public opinion and attitudes, influencing how individuals perceive their surroundings. News stories, documentaries, and opinion pieces can influence public sentiment and shape attitudes regarding social, political, and cultural issues through media outlets.

In order to influence public opinion, media must be able to present information, frame stories, and evoke emotions. Public discourse and societal norms may be influenced by media, which contributes to the formation of collective beliefs, values, and behaviors.

Educational Tool:

Media serves as an educational tool, providing a platform for knowledge sharing and learning. Educational programs, documentaries, and online platforms facilitate access to information and promote lifelong learning. The media can spread education, foster critical thinking, and contribute to the dissemination of knowledge from a variety of fields, including science, history, culture, and the arts.

It is the ability of media to engage audiences through visual and interactive formats that makes complex concepts more accessible to learners and enhances their learning experience that makes it a powerful educational tool.

Entertainment and Cultural Influence:

Media plays a significant role in shaping cultural values and trends as well as serving as a powerful source of entertainment. Popular culture is shaped by movies, television shows, music, and digital content, which influence societal norms, fashion, language, and lifestyle choices.

It is in the ability of media to capture the imagination, evoke emotions, and create shared experiences that media has the power to entertain and influence cultures worldwide. In addition to reflecting and reinforcing cultural values, media introduces new ideas, challenges social conventions, and provokes social change.

Mobilization and Activism:

The media is an essential part of social mobilization and activism. It provides a platform for people and communities to advocate for change and mobilize collective action as well as raise awareness of social issues. Protest organizers, activists, and communities have become increasingly reliant on social media platforms to organize, spread, and mobilize.

By amplifying voices, connecting like-minded individuals, and generating public support for social causes, media can play a significant role in social mobilization and activism. Coverage of social movements can highlight injustice, increase awareness, and inspire people to act.

Advertising and Consumer Behavior:

The media, especially advertising, play an important role in influencing consumer behavior. Through advertisement, media influences consumer behavior, purchase decisions, and brand perception. Advertising is shaped by the media’s ability to shape consumer desires, promote products and services, and stimulate economic activity.

The use of media platforms allows companies to reach potential customers and influence their buying decisions through persuasive messaging and creative storytelling.

Influence on Democracy:

The media plays a crucial role in democratic societies, serving as a check on the government and other powerful institutions. Transparency, accountability, and citizen participation are promoted by the media, which inform the public, scrutinize policies, and encourage political debate.

In democracy, media facilitates the free flow of information, encourages diverse viewpoints, and holds those in power accountable for their actions. In order to facilitate free exchange of ideas and opinions, media freedom and independence are essential for a functioning democracy.

The media has significant power and influence, but it is also responsible for maintaining ethical standards, accuracy, and fairness. Despite media power, there are challenges associated with it, including media bias, sensationalism, misinformation, and manipulation.

In order to navigate the vast media landscape, evaluate sources, and distinguish between reliable information and misinformation, individuals must be literate in media literacy and critical thinking. The ability to understand the power of media empowers individuals to be informed consumers and active participants in shaping society.

• Influence of Media on Society – Mass Media Influence | Media and Society
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The Impact of Media on Society Cause and Effect Essay

Introduction, role of media in the society, impact of media on society, works cited.

Media is one of the world’s power and force that can not be undermined. Media has a remarkable control in almost every aspect of our lives; in politics, social and cultural or economic welfares. Perhaps the best analysis of the impact that media has played in the society is through first acknowledging its role in information flow and circulation.

It is would be unjust to overlook the importance of information to the society. Information is the significant to the society in the sense that, all that happens in the society must be channeled and communicated among the society’s habitats. Without media, the habitats or else the population will be left clueless on what is happening or what is ought to happen.

From another perspective, the society benefits from the media in a number of ways and as well it derives a lot of misfortunes from the society. However, regardless of the impact that is made by media on the society, the media remains to be one of the strongest forces that influence the pillars of the society. This essay paper highlights the impacts that media has continued to assert on the society either in a positive or in a negative manner.

The most common role that media has played in the society has been; to inform people, to educate people and sometimes to offer leisure or entertainment. The role of media in the society is stretched back in the ancient traditions when, there were approaches on which media role in the society was perceived. Some of these approaches included a positive approach, critical approach, production approach, technological approach, information approach and finally a post colonial approach.

A positivist approach assumed that media’s role in the society was to achieve predetermined objectives of the society, usually from a beneficial perspective. The critical approach assumes that media is pertinent can be used in struggle for power and other issues in the society that were preceded by a spark of a new or old ideology.

The production approach is that media plays a greater role in society by providing a new experience of reality to the masses by providing an avenue of new perceptions and visions. The information approach assumes that the key role of media in the society is to provide information channels for the benefit of the society (Fourie178).

With the above roles being achieved in one of the most remarkable means over centuries, media has some solid impacts that have been imprinted on the society. Some of these impacts and effects are to remain for ever as long as media existence will remain while others require control and monitoring due to their negative effects on the society. The best approach to look at this is by first describing the positive impacts that media has had on the society (Fourie 25).

The development of media and advancement of mass media is such positive impact that media has accomplished in recent times. It has been proven that mass communication has influenced social foundation and governments to means that only can be termed pro-social (Preiss 485). An example of such can be use of mass media in campaigns to eradicate HIV and AIDS in the society.

Mass communication through media avenues such as the internet, television and radio has seen great co-operation of government, government agencies, non-government organizations, private corporations and the public in what is seen as key society players in mutual efforts towards constructing better society. In this context, media has contributed to awareness, education of the society and better governance of the society.

Were it not for media, the worlds most historical moments would probably be forgotten today especially in the manner they reshape our contemporary society in matters regarding politics, economics and culture (Fourie 58).

However, media has had its shortcomings that have negative influence on the society. These negatives if not counterchecked or controlled will continue to ruin the values and morals of a society that once treasured morality and value of information.

These negative impacts include: media has contributed to immense exposure of violence and antisocial acts from media program that are aimed at entertaining the public. Media roles in the society have been reversed by merely assuming a role of society visibility thus controlling the society rather than being controlled by society.

Media has continued to use biased tactics to attract society attention and thus having a negative impact on the society’s culture due to stereotyping of other cultures. Media has continued to target vulnerable groups in the society such as children and youths be exposing them to pornographic materials that has sexual immorality consequence on the society’s young generations.

It is through such shortcomings that the cognitive behavior’s which shape the moral fiber of the society gets threatened by media (Berger 106). However, regardless of the impacts of the media on the society, the future of the media will evolve with time and its role in the society will unlikely fade.

Berger, Arthur. Media and society: a critical perspective . Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. 2007.

Fourie, Pieter. Media studies: media history, media and society . Cape Town: Juta and company ltd. 2008.

Preiss, Raymond. Mass media effects research: advances through meta-analysis . New York: Routledge. 2007.

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IvyPanda. (2023, October 29). The Impact of Media on Society. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-media-on-society/

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IvyPanda . 2023. "The Impact of Media on Society." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-media-on-society/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Impact of Media on Society." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-media-on-society/.

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IvyPanda . "The Impact of Media on Society." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-impact-of-media-on-society/.

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The Significance and Impact of the Media in Contemporary Society

• First Online: 10 March 2018

Cite this chapter

• Faith Gordon 3  

Part of the book series: Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies ((PSLS))

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This chapter explores the significance of the media and the impact it has on the meaning-making processes in contemporary society. It draws on key national and international academic literature and previous studies on the role and functions of the media. This includes the key theoretical debates on deviancy amplification, folk devils and moral panics. It assesses the media’s impact on criminal justice policies and on public opinion of, and support for authoritarian ideologies and policies. In particular, it will focus on exploring how the media can influence popular culture and the impact of media portrayals of crime on societal perceptions, responses and reactions directed towards social groups, in particular children and young people ‘in conflict with the law’.

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It has long been acknowledged that the media are difficult to capture and define (Craig 2004 : 3). As outlined in Chap. 1 , the terms ‘media’ or ‘mass media’ refer to the traditional definition of the media, as consisting of newspapers (the print media), radio (broadcast media) and news bulletins and programs (televised media). While choosing to focus on the contemporary media, this book acknowledges from the outset that there is an extensive body of work existing on the historical origins of the media; mass communication and its impact, and the role of technological development (see Downing 1980 ; Frost 2000 ; Curran 2002 ).

There has been much criticism of pluralist theories on the media, including the arguments that pluralism is an ideological justification for the media and that the basis of the theory is not grounded in evidence. Rather the pluralist model assumes that the content of the media is diverse, without presenting evidence to reinforce or prove this theory (see Blumler and Gurevitch 1995 ).

Rupert Murdoch’s ownership of a range of media outlets in the United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) is a prime example of the concentration of power and the influence of owners on media content (see Golding and Murdock 1991 ; Horrie 2003 ; Cole 2005 ). Further to this, academics such as Barker ( 1999 : 46) argue that conglomeration has aided a general concentration of media ownership, with research such as Bagdikian’s ( 2004 ) stating that the US media were controlled by 50 corporations in the 1980s, and by 2003 this had been reduced to five controlling the majority of the 178,000 media outlets. Significantly as Tait ( 2012 : 518) observes, the ‘scale and intensity’ of the phone hacking scandal in 2011, saw the resignation of the chief executive of one of the UK’s most influential newspaper groups, the resignation of one of the UK’s most senior police officers, the arrest of Andy Coulson, who had acted as the then Prime Minister, David Cameron’s head of communications, the resignation of two senior executives from key companies in the Murdoch empire, as well as the collapse of the takeover deal in relation to BSkyB and the closure of the News of the World (see also Keeble and Mair 2012 ; McKnight 2012 ; Watson and Hickman 2012 ).

As Barrat ( 1994 : 61) notes, the majority of media organisations are influenced by ‘a variety of commercial influences’, including the need to be profitable and also obtaining revenue through ‘advertising’. Some media outlets are part of the public sector, such as the BBC and they have the requirement ‘to provide a public service’, by ‘informing, educating, and entertaining audiences’ (Barrat 1994 : 61).

Tait’s ( 2012 : 520) analysis of the phone hacking scandal asserts that it has ‘revealed some fundamental issues in British political communications, the political system and the practice and regulation of journalism’. His analysis also documents ‘a secret history’ between Murdoch and British politics (Tait 2012 : 520–523).

Semiology provides a suitable vehicle for studying the meanings behind media content (see O’Connor 1989 ; Hall 1997 ; Berger 1998 ; Barker 2000 ; Schirato and Yell 2000 ). In contemporary literature it is now referred to as semiotics and was first developed by the Swiss linguist, Saussure, who proposed that meaning was ‘produced through … language systems’ (Schirato and Yell 2000 : 19). He focused on the ‘linguistic sign’, which he divided into the ‘signifier’, ‘the signified’ and the ‘sign’ (Schirato and Yell 2000 : 19).

As the findings of a number of content analysis studies highlight, the media exaggerate the levels of crime, in particular violent crime in the UK (see Ditton and Duffy 1983 ; Schlesinger and Murdock 1991 ; Williams and Dickinson 1993 ; Callanan 2005 ; Greer 2005 ; Reiner 2007 ).

Dorfman and Schiraldi’s ( 2001 ) research found that 76 percent of the public said they formed their opinions about crime from the media, whereas 22 percent reported that their knowledge of crime was formed through their personal experiences.

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Gordon, F. (2018). The Significance and Impact of the Media in Contemporary Society. In: Children, Young People and the Press in a Transitioning Society. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60682-2_2

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More Americans now see the media’s influence growing compared with a year ago

Americans’ views about the influence of the media in the country have shifted dramatically over the course of a year in which there was much discussion about the news media’s role during the election and post-election coverage , the COVID-19 pandemic and protests about racial justice . More Americans now say that news organizations are gaining influence than say their influence is waning, a stark contrast to just one year ago when the reverse was true.

When Americans were asked to evaluate the media’s standing in the nation, about four-in-ten (41%) say news organizations are growing in their influence, somewhat higher than the one-third (33%) who say their influence is declining, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 8-14, 2021. The remaining one-quarter of U.S. adults say they are neither growing nor declining in influence.

To examine Americans’ views about the influence of the news media, Pew Research Center surveyed 12,045 U.S. adults from March 8 to 14, 2021. Everyone who completed the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology . See here to read more about the questions used for this analysis and the methodology .

This is the latest report in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

By comparison, Americans in early 2020 were far more likely to say the news media were declining in influence . Nearly half (48%) at that time said this, compared with far fewer (32%) who said news organizations were growing in influence.

The 2021 figures more closely resemble responses from 2011 – the next most recent time this was asked – and before, in that more Americans then said the news media were growing in influence than declining. Views could have shifted in the gap between 2011 and 2020, but if so, they have now shifted back. (It should be noted that prior to 2020, this question was asked on the phone instead of on the web.)

What’s more, this shift in views of the media’s influence in the country occurred among members of both political parties – and in the same direction.

Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are about evenly split in whether they think news organizations are growing (40%) or declining in influence (41%). This is very different from a year ago, when Republicans were twice as likely to say their influence was declining than growing (56% vs. 28%).

And Democrats and Democratic leaners are now much more likely to say news organizations are growing (43%) than declining in influence (28%), while a year ago they were slightly more likely to say influence was declining (42% vs. 36% growing).

Overall, then, Republicans are still more likely than Democrats to say the news media are losing standing in the country, though the two groups are more on par in thinking that the media are increasing in their influence. (Democrats are somewhat more likely than Republicans to say news organizations are neither growing nor declining in influence – 29% vs. 19%.)  

Trust in media closely ties to whether its influence is seen as growing or declining. Those who have greater trust in national news organizations tend to be more likely to see the news media gaining influence, while those with low levels of trust are generally more likely to see it waning.

Americans who say they have a great deal of trust in the accuracy of political news from national news organizations are twice as likely to say the news media are growing than declining in influence (48% vs. 24%, respectively). Conversely, those who have no trust at all are much more likely to think that news organizations are declining (47% vs. 33% who say they are growing).

Black Americans are far more likely to think that the news media are growing in influence rather than declining (48% vs. 19%, respectively), as are Hispanic Americans though to a somewhat lesser degree. White Americans, on the other hand, are about evenly split in thinking the news media are growing or declining in influence (39% vs. 37%, respectively). And while men are about evenly split (39% growing vs. 38% declining), women are more likely to say news organizations are growing (43%) than declining (29%) in influence.

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

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Jeffrey Gottfried is an associate director focusing on internet and technology research at Pew Research Center .

Naomi Forman-Katz is a research analyst focusing on news and information research at Pew Research Center .

Americans’ Changing Relationship With Local News

Introducing the pew-knight initiative, 8 facts about black americans and the news, u.s. adults under 30 now trust information from social media almost as much as from national news outlets, u.s. journalists differ from the public in their views of ‘bothsidesism’ in journalism, most popular.

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A definition of media power, contradiction.

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Paradigms of Media Power

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Des Freedman, Paradigms of Media Power, Communication, Culture and Critique , Volume 8, Issue 2, 1 June 2015, Pages 273–289, https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12081

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Media power is a crucial, although often taken-for-granted concept. Does it express the economic impact of the industry, the political influence of particular “media moguls,” or the media's capacity to modify attitudes and beliefs? Does it refer to the ability of media to provide state or corporate actors with a valuable tool to assert their own dominance or to the diffusion of symbolic resources? Are we to believe that the media are increasingly the locus of power or that they constitute the space where power is decided? In order to address this dilemma, this article identifies 4 paradigms—consensus, chaos, control, and contradiction—that best express established ways of conceptualizing the flows and relationships related to media power.

There is an emerging, and healthy, public debate about the definition and implications of media power. From Mexico, where young people have taken to the streets to protest at the partisan coverage of the two main television networks, to the United Kingdom, where the Leveson Inquiry has daily revealed the intimate details of collusive relationships between top politicians, media executives, and police, the behavior of media corporations and executives has come under increasing scrutiny. In particular, the issue of concentrated media power—the grip of large media businesses over public discourse—is starting to preoccupy not just politicians, civil servants, and activists, but ordinary citizens concerned about the ability of communication conglomerates to stifle and distort wider democratic processes. Media power, as exercised by News Corp, Globo, Disney, or Google, is seen to be disturbing precisely because it hands definitional, analytical, and interpretive authority to unelected organizations and undermines the ability of citizens freely to acquire and exchange the material necessary to make informed decisions about public life. The media's political economy, in other words, gives them their privileged position in the world ( McChesney, 2000 ; Mosco, 2009 ).

But what sort of power does this refer to, particularly in the context of the classic tension between theories of power that stress domination and subordination and those that emphasize power in terms of the ability to structure action and outcomes (see Scott, 2001 )? While accepting that the power of the media—institutions, channels, texts, and practices that rely above all on symbolic interactions ( Thompson, 1995 )—needs to be understood both in its productive and legitimating roles, this article adopts Manuel Castells's definition of power as referring to “the relational capacity that enables a social actor to influence asymmetrically the decisions of other social actor(s) in ways that favor the empowered actor's will, interests and values” ( Castells, 2009 , p. 10). It further draws on Joseph Turow's argument that power involves “the use of resources by one organization to gain compliance by another organization” ( Turow, 1992 , p. 24) and his emphasis on the interconnections between the “power roles” embedded within the communications process and those of society as a whole. This means that the economic, political, technological, and cultural dimensions of media power are not insulated from but reinforce each other in their application to specific cases.

Media power refers, therefore, to the relationships—between actors, institutional structures, and contexts—that organize the allocation of the symbolic resources necessary to structure our knowledge about, and by extension our capacity to intervene in, the world around us. The crucial point here is that these relationships are situated in an environment in which access to media power—as with access to all kinds of resources at institutional and societal levels, including health, education, and employment—is fundamentally unequal and reflects structural disparities of power in wider society. Media power is both a consequence of and, increasingly, a precondition for continuing, and stratified, processes of social reproduction. It is not traceable to a single source (despite the undoubted impact of a Murdoch or a Berlusconi); it does not “belong” to Hollywood, Silicon Valley, Madison Avenue, or what used to be known as Fleet Street (although it is most certainly mobilized in all those contexts); it is not articulated solely at the textual level and neither does it emerge spontaneously out of the communicative interactions of ordinary people (even though many people may claim to be “empowered” by their use of media technologies). It is neither about gently persuading nor forcibly coercing individuals to do things they would otherwise choose not to do but about the material coordination of flows of information, communication, and culture such that persuasion and coercion, as well as expression and interpretation, are most effectively able to take place.

In recognition of this relational conception of media power, I want to identify four paradigms—of consensus, chaos, control, and contradiction—within which these different dimensions of media power coexist but where each of which theorizes the play of media power in quite different ways. These are perspectives, in other words, that map not simply how media power “works” but how one might conceive of it as a social process in its own right. As with any conceptual model, it is open to challenge—there may be additional paradigms, theorists may belong in more than one category, they may have been put into the wrong category, or perhaps there are simply too many connections between each of the categories to make them analytically meaningful—but I believe nevertheless that it will help clarify what is at stake in theorizing media power and therefore to develop a sufficiently robust analytical model to both understand and democratize the relationships to which it refers. The model is not intended to be a simple literature review but a more ambitious reframing of how we might approach the subjects and objects of media power.

Paradigms are useful ways of organizing together discrete elements into theoretical frameworks in order to analyze social phenomena; they are not naturally occurring categories but purposeful ways of ordering the world so as to better make sense of it ( Sparks, 2007 ). As such, they map quite closely onto pre-existing categories of media scholarship where the consensus paradigm may be considered to relate to liberal pluralist communication studies, the chaos paradigm to fan studies and cultural studies, the control paradigm to media political economy, and the contradiction paradigm to critical media industry studies and participatory perspectives. However, specific “disciplinary” approaches to media analysis should not be seen as homogeneous nor reduced to a particular orientation, not least in their attitude toward power. The four paradigms discussed in this article, while also not free of internal distinctions and ambiguities, nevertheless provide a more focused approach to questions of power and allow us better to examine the relationships between the economic, political, technological, and cultural forces that shape the dynamics of media power as they operate, albeit in quite specific ways, across different genres and platforms.

The consensus paradigm relates to a longstanding and highly influential notion of power that, in advanced liberal democracies, power is widely distributed, pluralistically organized, and contributes to a relatively stable social arrangement. Responding to criticism that American society in the mid-20th century was dominated by a military, political, and financial elite ( Mills, 1959 [1956]), pluralists argued that U.S. politics was instead a competitive arena in which different interests vied for power and influence but in which there was no single dominant voice, no undue concentration of power. In Robert Dahl's study of the political system of New Haven, Connecticut, Who Governs? , politics is dominated by coalitions, by rival groups of actors and interests, none of whom could be said to exercise complete control. According to Dahl (2005/1961) , “there was no clear center of dominant influence in the [political] order. No single group of unified leaders possessed enough influence to impose a solution” (p. 198), certainly not the economic or social “notables” who had only a limited and shifting impact on New Haven politics. Pluralist politics, argues Dahl (2005/1961) , is notable for its “dispersion of political resources,” the “disappearance of elite rule” (pp. 85–86), and the emergence of polyarchy, a benign mode of democratic politics.

Yet, despite the multiplicity of beliefs and the variety of channels through which to mobilize these beliefs, a degree of mutual understanding and harmony was still evident to Dahl inside American society. This was not imposed by the “notables” nor was it spontaneously present in the minds of citizens; instead, members of the political class and the bulk of citizens are engaged in an ongoing dialogue that “generates enough agreement on rules and norms so as to permit the system to operate” (2005/1961, p. 316). The consensus reached is not permanent and nor is it particularly stable but the process of consensus-building is nevertheless vital to the functioning of American democracy. Consensus, concludes Dahl (2005/1961 , p. 316), “is not at all a static and unchanging attribute of citizens. It is a variable element in a complex and more or less continuous process.”

This conception of consensus has long underpinned pluralist arguments concerning the integrative function of the free press as well as the exercise of sovereign power. Dahl acknowledges in Who Governs? the rather modest role of newspapers in fostering pluralism but perhaps the most famous expression of consensus in relation to media power are the rationales for media performance that are proposed in Four Theories of the Press ( Siebert, Peterson, & Schramm, 1963 /1956) to describe the American and British media systems. This remains the classic exposition of liberal advocacy of the “freedom of the press” primarily composed of a “libertarian” approach where newspapers are seen as “a partner in the search for truth” but where “[t]ruth is no longer conceived as the property of power” (1963/1956, p. 3). The libertarian model was modified in the 20th century to deal with the growing permeation of society by electronic media and a new “social responsibility” model emerged reflecting the view “that the power and near monopoly position of the media impose on them an obligation to be socially responsible” (1963/1956, p. 5). Both rationales, however, were predicated on an unyielding faith in market forces to nurture media systems that informed and entertained audiences, were based on professional values of independence and impartiality, and provided a necessary check on government power. A market-driven media is, from this perspective, one of the guarantors of a pluralist consensus.

This approach resonates in more recent accounts of the democratic role of the media. For example, in Dayan and Katz's (1992) notion of integrative “media events”—ceremonial coverage of “unique” public occasions such as state funerals, major sporting events, scandals, and political earthquakes—audiences are enthralled and transformed by the live coverage of these unprecedented events. “These broadcasts integrate societies in a collective heartbeat and evoke a renewal of loyalty to the society and its legitimate authority” (1992, p. 9). We can even identify the consensual dimension of media power in some nonmarket structures, for example, in accounts of public service broadcasting as an institution that serves to produce cohesive viewing and listening publics with distinctive identities but common interests. For Paddy Scannell (1989) , organizations such as the BBC “brought into being a culture in common to whole populations and a shared life of a quite new kind” (p. 138) and they remain a central part of British democratic life. Indeed, he attributes unprecedented generative power to the media: “What was public life before broadcasting?” he wonders (1989, p. 135).

A consensual media system also requires adequate competition between its different outlets and thus the free interchange of all players in an open market. Media economist Ben Compaine (2001) describes the patterns of ownership in the largely commercial U.S. media system as “extremely democratic” and notes that the media tend “to be run not to promote an ideology but to seek profit” (p. 4). Private ownership is therefore viewed as a steward of plurality with regulation, mostly confined to the broadcast sector, needed only as a last resort in order to deal with specific blockages (e.g., monopolies or oligopolies) and to redistribute media power across a wider number of players. Indeed, despite recent moves to liberalize media systems and to roll back curbs on ownership concentration ( Freedman, 2008a ), there remain restrictions on media ownership and forms of public media in almost all countries. This “mixed economy” approach reflects the enduring appeal of calls for “choice” of outlets and “variety” of media content in contemporary democracies, facilitated by a free market but underwritten by the use of limited state power.

In sum, this consensus paradigm relates to a liberal functionalist perspective on media, described by James Curran as one where the media's role is “to assist the collective self-realization, co-ordination, democratic management, social integration and adaptation of society” ( Curran, 2002 , p. 136). In the light of recent exposures of the illegal and unethical behavior of the press, desperate attempts to boost ratings at all costs, and the hypercommercialization and globalization of large parts of the media, this approach may appear better suited to an earlier period of media history. However, even with the emergence of digital technologies and “empowered” consumers, it is stubbornly resistant to change and remains the default language of policymakers wishing to nurture “open” and “competitive” media markets. Indeed, it is precisely this approach—in which economic liberalism is seen to promote individual liberty and democratic pluralism—that underpins the arguments of UK news proprietors seeking to maintain self-regulation in the light of the phone hacking crisis. For example, in one of its many attacks on calls for a new, tougher regulatory regime to promote ethical journalism, Britain's top-selling newspaper, the Sun , opined that: “Ours may be a rough old trade, sometimes scurrilous and always noisy. But without its freedom to dig dirt, embarrass the great and good, and tell unpalatable truths—and, yes, occasionally get it wrong—British democracy risks grievous damage” ( Sun , 2012 ). Despite warnings from theorists such as Onora O'Neill (2004 , p. 8) that “[a]ccording unrestricted freedom of expression not only to individuals but also to powerful institutions, the media among them, is not necessary for but damaging to democracy,” this form of media power continues to be invoked as a vital requirement for free speech and social cohesion.

Recent structural and geopolitical shifts have forced an updating of some of the foundational elements of pluralist accounts of power. While globalization and digitization have contributed to the erosion of fixed spatial boundaries and the rise of a disembedded and decentralized form of capitalism built on abundance and not scarcity, a range of events—for example, the collapse of Communism, the spread of democratization, the growth of public relations, and the weakening of deference toward elites—have precipitated a new and highly volatile paradigm: cultural chaos ( McNair, 2006 ).

The chaos paradigm is based not on the role of singular factors such as class, hierarchy, and wealth in sustaining unequal social relations, but on ideological diffusion and structural uncertainty. This reflects the dispersed and “fluid” properties of power in a digital age. According to McNair (2006 , p. 200), power

ebbs and flows between locations and centres, spreading amongst societies along the channels and pathways provided by communication media. Power pools . It evaporates, dilutes and drains away as environmental conditions change. Communication in the medium through which power resources are disseminated, and leaky channels of communication therefore mean less secure power centres.

Traditional systems of gatekeeping and ideological control have, therefore, largely broken down allowing for more interrogative forms of journalism and a flourishing of perspectives, including even the promotion of radical voices—such as Michael Moore and Naomi Klein—that would previously have been kept to the margins.

The paradigm finds its perfect expression in the collapse of an “old media” logic in the face of the digital media revolution, a situation in which business models, modes of production, and consumption patterns that were relatively stable for many years have now started to break down. We are shifting from being a population of established newspaper readers and viewers of scheduled television programs to an amorphous group of promiscuous consumers that takes its news from diverse outlets, watches television at times (and on platforms) that suit its convenience and not those of the networks, and generally cannot be relied upon to demonstrate brand loyalty for very long. Bob Garfield describes this as “The Chaos Scenario” ( Garfield, 2009 ) and argues that we are witnessing a seismic shift in media power relationships.

The first element of The Chaos Scenario . . . creates an inexorable death spiral, in which the fragmentation of audience and DVR ad skipping lead to an exodus of advertisers, leading in turn to an exodus of capital, leading to a decline in the quality of content, leading to further audience defection, leading to further advertiser defection and so on to oblivion. (2009, p. 38)

Although, judging by the revival of the advertising industry, an overall increase in television viewing and, perhaps most surprisingly, a recent increase in network news audiences in the United States ( Friedman, 2012 ), the death of “old media” is somewhat premature, the enormous growth of social media has clearly contributed to a tremendously uncertain, but no less refreshing, atmosphere of confusion in which power, it is argued, operates in far less hierarchical ways—proof, for its advocates, of the ability of forms of technological power to mediate, unsettle, or reconstititute social relationships.

The absence of governmental regulation of Internet content has unquestionably produced a kind of chaos, but as one of the plaintiffs' experts put it with such resonance at the hearing: “What achieved success was the very chaos that the Internet is. The strength of the Internet is that chaos.” ( ACLU vs. Reno, 1997 )

The Internet has since grown from an anarchic toddler to a snarling teenager with the ability still to unsettle everything around it. Larry Downes claims that disruptive technologies such as the Internet, based on very low transaction costs and virtually infinite capacity, undermine established business practices and that, “[c]onfronted with the weird economics of information, the core principles of public law, private law, and information law are being turned upside down” ( Downes, 2009 , p. 269).

Not everything is to be welcomed in this brave new world but, generally speaking, theories of chaos are seen to express more adequately the fractured and decentralized forms of media power facilitated by digital technologies. Jeff Jarvis (2009) describes this as a “power shift” (p. 11) in which “the shift from mass [to niche] is really a shift of power from top to bottom, center to edge, them to us” (p. 67). Wired editor Chris Anderson (2009) makes a similar point about what he sees as an “inversion of power” (p. 99) from traditional manufacturers and advertisers who are rapidly losing control to newly empowered audiences: “The collective now controls the message” (p. 99). According to Anderson, we are seeing the transformation of power from label to band, publisher to author, price to free, “watercooler” moments to dispersed sharing, mass to niche and rigid to elastic while, for Tapscott and Williams (2008) in their description of “Wikinomics,” digital “weapons of mass collaboration” are “ushering us toward a world where knowledge, power, and productive capability will be more dispersed than at any time in our history” (p. 12).

This corresponds to McNair's conception of a far more fluid social and ideological environment in which traditional mechanisms for ensuring compliance have broken down under the impact of both communicative abundance and an increasing unwillingness to “tow the line.” This has significant political consequences as, for Henry Jenkins (2006) , the process of convergence makes it much harder for elites to impose their authority. He contrasts “old media's” “power to marginalize” with today's bottom-up “power to negate” (2006, p. 278) that is facilitated by new peer-to-peer networks, characterized by “presumption,” and underpinned by a collapse of deference. “Democracy has always been a messy business” he argues, but today's “politics of parody,” in which citizens use digital tools in creative and autonomous ways to express their cynicism toward “official politics,” is a perfectly logical response to the changing dynamics of authority (2006, p. 293). The most dramatic illustration of this view of dispersed media power—and of the interconnections between political, economic, and technological contexts—is to be found in claims made about the “revolutionary” role of social media in the Arab Spring of 2011, the emergence of “Twitter Revolutions” and the rise of networked protest that culminated in the Occupy movement ( Mason, 2012 ). Indeed, Manuel Castells (2009) has famously described this form of protest as “media counterpower.”

In his view of power as a highly volatile and diffuse phenomenon, McNair appears to oscillate between a Foucauldian approach, where power is seen as productive and all-pervasive, and a “new economy” version of earlier pluralist accounts where, for example, Cater (1965) writes about the “mobile and transitory” nature of power in highly segmented decision-making situations (p. 4) just as Freeman (1965, p. 25) highlights the “complex and pluralistic committee matrix within which so many decisions are reached in a decentralized fashion.” Moreover, McNair admits that the chaos paradigm is not immune from the influence of powerful gatekeepers in the sense that key actors remain determined to stamp their authority on the digital world. The problem is that, given digital abundance and ideological fragmentation, they will find it virtually impossible to secure this objective: “The chaos paradigm does not abolish the desire for control; it focuses on the shrinking media space available for securing it ideologically” ( McNair, 2006 , p. 4).

This is an interesting point, although just how difficult it is to secure some semblance of order online is up for debate. As the web grows into adulthood, the desire to control it is increasingly evident and the search for order increasingly important. In a situation in which the Internet is expected to contribute some $4.2 trillion to the GDP of the world's 20 biggest economies ( Boston Consulting, 2012 ), it is not surprising that we see attempts to regulate the chaos and to classify the confusion: Google categorizes the web, Wikipedia orders knowledge, and Facebook organizes friendships. This is partly a matter of the cyclical nature of technological evolution ( Spar, 2001 ; Wu, 2011 ), where technologies pass through different stages of development from anarchy and uncertainty through consolidation to the reestablishment of rules and the reallocation of property rights. It is also, however, evidence of the profoundly contradictory nature of technological innovation under capitalism—that it benefits the public so long as it rewards those who own or control it—and is thus likely not to stay permanently in a state of chaos.

premised on economic determinacy, whereby ruling elites are presumed to be able to extend their control of economic resources to control of the cultural apparatuses of media, including the means of propaganda and public relations, leading to planned and predictable outcomes such as pro-elite media bias, dominant ideology, even “brainwashing.”

While this simplifies and caricatures many of the arguments of “control theorists,” it does at least point to some of the mechanisms and impacts that are relevant to this conception of media power: the capturing of media agendas, the commodification of innovation, the deployment of propagandistic techniques, and the circulation of partisan media content aimed at securing compliance with existing social relations. Furthermore, McNair's emphasis on the paradigm is certainly justified considering the influence that it has long exerted over critical academics and audiences and its status as a comprehensive account of the media's failure to perform the task attributed to them by pluralists: to hold power to account.

However, it vastly exaggerates the homogeneity of those who are said to operate within the paradigm and glosses over important distinctions in a field characterized by a wide range of different perspectives. There are instead many different varieties of what McNair suggests is a fairly uniform approach to media influence on the part of these critical theorists. The “hardest” edge of the paradigm is best expressed by the propaganda model as developed by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky (1988) in Manufacturing Consent . For them, the mainstream news media are a crucial tool for legitimizing the ideas of the most powerful social actors and for securing consent for their actions: They are the ideological lynchpins of the dominant class and thus a crucial constituent of state power. Through a combination of capitalist property relations and an orientation on profit, the existence of advertising as a key source of capital, the domination of elite sources, sustained attacks on any material that challenges these sources and elite agendas, and the construction of an “enemy” (whether Communism or Islamism) around which populations (and media agendas) can unite, the mainstream media environment is structured in such a way as to control dissent and steer public action toward the interests of ruling elites. Herman and Chomsky (1988) provide detailed empirical analysis of, for example, news media coverage of U.S. interventions in Central America and South-East Asia to make a convincing case that the “societal purpose of the media is to inculcate and defend the economic, social, and political agenda of privileged groups that dominate the domestic society and the state” (p. 298).

David Edwards and David Cromwell of Media Lens, an online group dedicated to correcting the distortions of corporate news, adopt the propaganda model in their rebuttal, primarily, of “liberal” news outlets (such as the Guardian and the BBC) that, they argue, provide effective cover for what is, overwhelmingly, a partisan and conservative set of interests. Interestingly, the problem lies not simply with a corporate media system, described by Edwards and Cromwell (2006) as constituting “a propaganda system for elite interests” (p. 2), but with the individualism and complicity of citizens who refuse to withdraw their support for instruments of class rule that are instead disguised as professional journalistic values. “Control is maintained,” they insist (p. 187), “not by violence, but by deception, self-deception, and by a mass willingness to subordinate our own thoughts and feelings to notions of ‘professionalism’ and ‘objectivity.’” The media, according to this perspective, are seamlessly integrated into existing structures of power with the result that “media performance overwhelmingly promotes the views and interests of established power” (p. 178).

It can be argued that the propaganda model constitutes the most hard-hitting section of a broader theoretical movement at the heart of the control paradigm—media political economy—that assesses the structuring relationships between economic organization, political contexts, institutional structures, textual possibilities, and consumption patterns across media genres ( Murdock & Golding, 2005 ). For Vincent Mosco, political economy actually “asks us to concentrate on a specific set of social relations organized around power or the ability to control other people, processes and things, even in the face of resistance” ( Mosco, 2009 , p. 24). This is a highly productive line of inquiry that attempts to knit together what are often seen as disparate elements of the social world through, above all, privileging the material relations of power that shape the possibilities and contours of media at any one time ( Curran, 2002 ; Garnham, 1990 ; Golding & Murdock, 2000 ; McChesney, 2000 ; H. Schiller, 1989 ; D. Schiller, 2007 ; Smythe, 1981 ). It is based on the notion, paraphrasing Marx somewhat, that forms of social consciousness correspond to the sum total of capitalist relations of production and have led to illuminating critiques of vast areas of media output (see Wasko, Murdock, & Sousa, 2011 , for a comprehensive selection).

Of course there are many other approaches within the control paradigm that refute any notion of a uniform, top-down, smooth exercise of power but that does not mean that they escape from its overall logic. For James Carey (1992) , power refers to the ability to hegemonize definitions and allocations not of economic phenomena but of reality that he describes as a “scarce resource” (p. 87): “Once the blank canvas of the world is portrayed and featured, it is also pre-empted and restricted” (p. 87). Pierre Bourdieu (1991) conceives of symbolic power in terms of its ability to construct reality and endow it with almost magical qualities: the “power of constituting the given through utterances, of making people see and believe, of confirming or transforming the vision of the world and, thereby, action on the world and thus the world itself” (p. 170). Even more significantly, Bourdieu sees symbolic power as a highly efficient means of naturalizing certain preferred interpretations of the world and of legitimizing classifications based on those with most access to that power.

Symbols are the instruments par excellence of “social integration”: as instruments of knowledge and communication . . . they make it possible for there to be a consensus on the meaning of the social world, a consensus which contributes fundamentally to the reproduction of the social order. (1991, p. 166)

This is not the comfortable, democratic consensus discussed by Dahl and his fellow pluralists nor the rather more frazzled and energetic expressions celebrated by chaos theorists but a distilled version of class interests. Whether this process works in relation to the media by including or marginalizing specific perspectives, shaping and framing social narratives, influencing what narratives are told in the first place, or privileging certain individuals with greater symbolic resources (and therefore life chances) than others, it seems to me that this is still part of a quite pervasive and critical “control” paradigm.

The final paradigm, and the one that most effectively addresses both the relational and material aspects of media power, is a modification of the control paradigm. While it accepts that media power is an interested force, a set of relationships intimately tied to the reproduction of existing relations of power more generally, it seeks to avoid the functionalism with which control theorists are often (and sometimes rightly) associated. Far from media institutions working seamlessly as “totalitarian structures of power” as recent advocates of the propaganda model have argued ( Edwards & Cromwell, 2006 , p. 187), they are rather a series of groups and institutions that, while overwhelmingly tied to powerful interests (and of course the hacking scandal provides an exemplary illustration of this), are not immune from the movements and ideas that circulate in society at any one time and that seek to challenge these power structures ( Kumar, 2008 ). Crucially, as the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci (1985) , reminds us, “[a] given socio-historical moment is never homogeneous; on the contrary, it is rich in contradictions” (p. 93). What significance does all this have for the study of media power?

To provide a meaningful answer, we need to go back to Marx's conception of contradiction as a key feature of capitalist society. Throughout his writing, Marx combines a tribute to the revolutionary achievements of capitalism with an analysis of why it is systematically unable to make available the full potential of these achievements to its subjects. While the capitalist class has played a “most revolutionary part” in human history, it has done this, not because of the “genius” of individual scientists and technologists or the bravery of pioneering entrepreneurs but because it is a system based on a structural need to innovate, expand, and accumulate.

The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. ( Marx, 1975 , p. 36)

Yet just as Marx was enthralled by capitalism's dynamism, he was appalled by the means by which it is obliged to sustain itself: through destructive competition between different companies, intensive exploitation in order to extract maximum profits, increased alienation as workers are systematically separated from the fruits of their labor, and a disastrous lack of coordination that leads to bouts of overproduction and regular periods of crisis. These processes are for Marx the terrible price to be paid by the majority of people for the wonderful technological advances experienced—albeit unequally—under capitalism.

The [capitalist] division of labour results in concentration, co-ordination, co-operation, antagonism of private interests and class interests, competition, the centralization of capital, monopolies and joint stock companies—so many contradictory forms of unity which in turn engenders all these contradictions.

Contradiction, as Ellen Meiskins Wood (2002 , p. 278) puts it, is therefore “capitalism's basic operating principle, in a way that is true of no other social form. It is the source, at one and the same time, of both the capitalist system's unique dynamism and its constant self-subversion.” While other theorists identify contradiction as a feature of all social systems, especially in terms of the relationship between humans and nature (e.g., Giddens, 1979 ), Wood insists that capitalism alone is predicated on such an inflammable and generative set of tensions.

These contradictions are played out at the level of both institutions and ideas, material as well as symbolic practices. Gramsci, in trying to understand the failure of revolutionary movements of the interwar period, discussed how there was a battle going on in the minds of ordinary people between what he called “common sense,” ideas generally distilled from the capitalist class, and “good sense,” the formation of a more progressive set of ideas developed in the course of struggling against that class. In particular, he spoke of a dual consciousness that reflects this ongoing battle. The worker

has a practical activity, but has no clear theoretical consciousness of his practical activity, which nonetheless still involves understanding the world in so far as he transforms it. His theoretical consciousness can indeed be historically in opposition to his activity. One might almost say that he has two theoretical consciousnesses (or one contradictory consciousness): one which is implicit in his activity and which really unites him with his fellow-workers in the practical transformation of the real world; and one, superficially explicit or verbal, which he has inherited from the past and uncritically absorbed. ( Gramsci, 1971 , p. 333)

This is particularly helpful in thinking about the media as a set of institutions and practices that are implicated in the regular advocacy of “common sense” and the transmission of ideas “inherited from the past.” But the model also suggests that, when pushed to do by popular mobilizations and mass struggles, the media may be able (albeit in fragile and temporary ways) to articulate strands of “good sense” and enhance prospects for change ( Ytterstad, 2012 ).

This is especially the case in moments when capitalist hegemony, understood by Gramsci to refer to the various forms of class leadership at any one time, is threatened and unstable. James Carey notes the importance of these interruptions of “normal” practice: “The production and reproduction of society is never guaranteed, automatic or mechanical, and the problematics of the phenomenon are often best revealed in moments of conflict and contradiction and in the rare but powerful episodes of coercive violence, social disorder and chaos” ( Carey, 1992 , p. 110). There have been several examples of how, in recent years, small portions of the mainstream media, despite their frequent involvement in the amplification of powerful voices and reproduction of existing relations, have also provided space to more critical or “marginal” perspectives (e.g., in relation to class, gender, or ethnicity). For example, in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq when UK audiences were clearly not satisfied with official explanations and media frames justifying a war, and marched in their millions urging the government not to invade, the popular tabloid title, the Daily Mirror , took up a radical stance in relation to the rush to go to war ( Freedman, 2008b ). Other examples include sympathetic coverage of the 1997 strike by UPS workers by mainstream media in the United States ( Kumar, 2008 ), favorable reporting in the Danish media of environmental campaigning ( Ytterstad & Eide, 2011 ), or even the recent appearance of an opinion piece by anticapitalist Occupy representatives in the pages of the business daily Financial Times (Occupy London, 2012 ). None of these examples occurred because of any inherent pluralism in the mainstream media. The degree to which there are different positions expressed in the media relates to the need, in a competitive market, to address (in however skewed a way) both the interests of different audiences and the existence of conflicts among capitalist elites as well as pressure placed on mainstream media by countervailing forces.

There are, as a result, multiple contradictions within the commercial media: a simultaneous desire for a narrow consensus and yet a structural imperative for difference; a situation in which audiences are treated as commodities but in which they do not always play this role; a tendency for those who work within the media not to rock the boat (for self-protection and advancement) but, in exceptional periods, to do precisely this. We need, therefore, a methodological approach that tackles the mainstream's embedding in elite networks of power and compensates for the control paradigm's “inability, or perhaps reluctance, to acknowledge how these contradictions account for instances of creativity, resistance and change” ( Havens, Lotz, & Tinic, 2009 , p. 238; see also Hesmondhalgh, 2013 , p. 45). We need to integrate analysis of the “quotidian practices and competing goals” of the media industries ( Havens et al., 2009 , p. 236), with the larger political and economic contexts in which these practices take place and we should neither reduce one to the other nor pretend that microlevel interactions are immune from the impact of the tensions that mark the dynamics of broader social forces.

An approach to the media that focuses on their internal contradictions can highlight not simply the ways in which everything from Hollywood movies to network news and from social media to soap operas to are involved in generating “common sense” but also how popular mobilizations—not in the discursive sense discussed by some media scholars (e.g., Fiske, 1989 )—might help produce forms of “good sense” inside the media. Recognizing and acting upon these contradictions is necessary, as Mike Wayne (2003 , p. 261) puts it, “if we are to avoid sliding into some species of functionalism or pessimism.” This requires an approach to media power that emphasizes structure and agency, contradiction and action, consensus and conflict; an analytical framework that recognizes the existence of unequal power frameworks but acknowledges that they are not forever frozen; and a perspective that takes seriously the activities of producers and audiences while recognizing the existence of uneven consciousness. In short, the contradiction paradigm is needed to compensate for the misplaced optimism of pluralism, the occasional functionalism of the control paradigm, and the unwarranted celebrations of the chaos scenario. Media power, according to this perspective, may be comprehensive but it is nevertheless always unstable and contestable.

Media power is a pervasive but difficult concept. It is too often used as shorthand for the political influence of a particular media mogul or the cultural impact of a specific technology or the affective dimension of a particular text; media power is viewed either as an irrepressible force or a diversion from more substantial threats to democracy and citizenship. This article has instead attempted to develop an understanding of media power as referring to those relationships that help organize the deployment of the symbolic resources that play a vital role in ensuring social reproduction. These relationships, however, cannot be separated from the material inequalities of society at large: Not all audiences are equally desirable to advertisers; not all individuals have the same capacity to start up a publishing venture despite being formally “free” to do so; not all readers have the same access to editors and owners should they wish to complain about something; indeed, not all citizens are able to afford the £250,000 necessary to secure a private dinner with British prime minister David Cameron in order to discuss urgent matters of public policy ( Leigh, 2012 , March 27).

Nick Couldry (2003) is absolutely right to argue that media power needs regularly to be reproduced in order to naturalize its authority so as to make its news credible and its fictions relevant and he is completely justified in focusing on the “universe of beliefs, myths, and practices that allows a highly unequal media system to seem legitimate” (p. 41). Critical media industry scholars are also completely justified in examining how “particular media texts arise from and reshape midlevel industrial practices” ( Havens et al., 2009 , p. 237). But media power refers, quite crucially, to more than the cultural processes by which established patterns of media power come to be accepted. It is also about the material relations that underlie this inequality and which then structure the complex operations of media as power holders in their own right. So just as we need to concentrate on the more “intimate” parts of media power—the circulation of meaning, the production of texts, and the characteristics of media forms—we also need to highlight and evaluate those elements that are crucial in shaping the role and impact of media in public life more generally: questions of ownership and control, policymaking and regulation, corporate strategy, and definitions of the public interest.

The paradigms I have provided are, to a greater or lesser extent, coherent frameworks for assessing these interrelationships from a range of different material positions. The consensus approach continues to provide policymakers and industry voices with a “common sense” narrative about the balance between state and market in contemporary communications systems; the chaos paradigm allows digital optimists better to theorize the nonlinearity and multidimensional nature of power flows in a digital and dispersed communications environment that challenges the logic of a centralized coordinating structure; and the control paradigm has long provided critics of a market system with a vocabulary with which to identify the democratic deficit caused by private ownership and unaccountable state coordination of the media. Proponents of the contradiction school, while sympathetic to the critiques of the control paradigm, focus on forms of contradictory consciousness together with the instability and contingency of existing forms of media control. Perhaps no single model can do justice to the heterogeneity of media flows and the complexity of power but the contradiction paradigm, with its emphasis on both the constitution of and the cracks in media power, provides the most persuasive account of how best to challenge the traditions, institutions, and practices that underpin it.

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Building media and information literacy through empowering citizens and youth with digital, media and information skills

Home | Freedom of expression and safety of journalists | Media and information literacy | Free, diverse and gender-inclusive media  | Open access to information and multilingualism | Innovation and inclusive digital transformation | Access to world's documentary heritage

Key challenges

The rise of digital technologies is having a profound impact on the ways in which information is produced, shared and used. Citizens, and youth in particular, are more connected today than ever, but many lack awareness of the mechanisms that frame their digital presence and engagement with information online and offline. Whilst online services offer new forms of participation, the digital transformation has also been accompanied by a surge in online hate speech, misinformation and disinformation. Content personalization and moderation further drive this dangerous trend, with serious repercussions for freedom of expression and democratic development.  In addition, gender-based inequalities and socio-economic disparities underpin the increasing divide in digital access and skills. In a world where new technologies are powerful levers for human development, more needs to be done to enable all countries to harness the potential of the digital transformation, bridge the digital gaps, and ensure citizens’ informed participation in democratic processes. By empowering citizens and youth with digital, media and information skills, UNESCO contributes to building media and information literate societies.

UNESCO aims to

• Develop and disseminate standard-setting resources on MIL, that support local adaptation and implementation. The focus will be on curricula and policy development, and on the integration of MIL into journalism education, media and youth organizations, as well as corporate training programmes. Resources will also address emerging themes such as artificial intelligence.
• Strengthen partnerships, networks and research on MIL, promoting international efforts to provide global citizenship education. This will include strengthening operations and outreach of the UNESCO MIL Alliance, increasing collaboration with the University Network for Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue (MILID), and expanding the UNESCO MIL CLICKS social media learning initiative.
• Organize international youth fora on MIL and lead the annual celebration of Global MIL Week, to promote and raise awareness of MIL education. These activities are designed to give youth a platform for self-empowerment as co-leaders and co-creators of MIL and support good practices in MIL knowledge sharing.
• Contribute to bridging the digital divide, closing the digital gender gap and strengthening large-scale digital literacy. UNESCO will scale up its YouthMobile Initiative, which develops youth coding skills, accelerates local engagement through technological solutions for sustainable development and empowers young women and girls through targeted projects designed to improve their digital skills. YouthMobile will also reach millions of teachers and youth on the African continent through collaborating with key partners on regional initiatives, such as AfricaCodeWeek.

Recent achievements

• Launching MIL CLICKS, a social media initiative that helps people acquire media and information literacy. More than 9,300 young people have already engaged in this peer education project.
• Supporting over 120 training institutions and 300 secondary schools worldwide to pilot the MIL Curriculum, and engaging with 140 youth organizations, of which 80 in Africa, to help them integrate and strengthen MIL in their policies and operations.
• Mobilizing its global multi-stakeholder MIL networks to develop 50 webinars on how to use MIL to address and counter the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching around 530,000 people worldwide. In partnership with IBM and SAP, UNESCO also launched the CodeTheCurve hackathon, a global, gender-inclusive initiative to empower young developers, scientists and entrepreneurs to address COVID-19 through technological innovation and digital solutions. Over 200 project applications were received by teams from countries worldwide.

Related links

• Media and Information Literacy
• MIL CLICKS Social Media Initiative
• UNESCO’s YouthMobile Initiative
• Mirta Lourenço , Chief of Section, Media and Information Literacy and Media Development

More on this subject

Event International Conference of the Memory of the World Programme, incorporating the 4th Global Policy Forum 28 October 2024 - 29 October 2024

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Home — Essay Samples — Information Science and Technology — Digital Literacy — The Value of Being a Media and Information Literate Individual

The Value of Being a Media and Information Literate Individual

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Media Literacy - The Power (and Responsibility) of Information

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Essay: The impact of media

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Media is a very Integral part of the society. It has the power of influencing the viewers thinking and making them think of things or situations which might not even be true. Now days, mass media has grown so vast and the options have increased a lot for the people. Mass media not only includes the electronic media but it also includes the print media. Newspaper, magazines, brochures, pamphlets, books, various media channels, social web sites like face book and twitter are all means of communication. Access to things and information has now become very easy for the audiences.

Today, we are living in a global village where the mass media are an important source of information about what is going on in the world. This is an obvious fact that the news media organizations seem more interested in some events than in others. There is a direct effect of media on the audience. Media is known to be the most powerful means of communication. The electronic media, the internet and the print media are all the subsets of mass media. The newspapers, bulletins, brochures and the magazines are included in the print media, whereas the electronic media consists of the radio, television and other forms of communication. Without doubt, Internet is the fastest known way of communicating with millions of people across the globe. Nonetheless, the effects of mass media on society can be positive as well as negative. Mass media does affect the way in which the people or individuals think and act. It has a negative and a positive effect on their behavior. The positive effects are surely celebrated by one and all. But the negative effects are not favorable to a healthy society.

Media plays a very important role in shaping the traits of people. It has been seen and observed that the citizens become more sensible and skilled to shoulder their responsibility towards the nation and the society because of the media. We usually get our role models by hearing about the admiration of their great deeds from the media. Hence, our attention is further focused and our pictures of the world are shaped and reproduced by the way journalists frame their news stories.

Media affect our modern life in almost every way. With an easy flip of the TV channel or with a turn of a magazine page there at our disposal is a huge collection of potential identity replicas. In contemporary society, individuality is nonstop unstable; it must be constructed, created, and selected with suggestion to expected surrounding media traditions. There are a number of mediums from which people can pick and access information from such as TV, Internet, Radio, or cell phones. Therefore, the media grasps a very powerful capacity to set a social issue for mass audience to assume and talk about. Media can contribute a lot to a society. It can make people change their opinions, as they have access and this gives it a lot of strength.

Media is playing a very important role, which is of a watch dog. Watch dog basically means that an individual or a group of persons who work together or act as a protector and knows what ever is going around and helps the society or the people from the wrong deeds happening or saves them from the illegal acts. Media plays an important role in providing information, and also guiding the people about a number of different matters. Hence, the person who has more power over the media has the skill to leave an affect the way it wants the society to think. Media knows about everything happening around the world, and it closely monitors the happenings in all the aspects. It usually keeps a close eye on the news and the series of events happening throughout the world. Media is now considered as one of the pillars of a society, without which a society is incomplete.

Media is considered as a fourth pillar of any society and thus, it represents the society or the country in all aspects which is political, social and economic.

Pakistan is a third world country; at its developing stage where it needs to portray an image in front of the globe as a successful country and Media is the successful weapon which we have in hand

It monitors everything, whatever is going around. It shows the people what it wants the people to know about. Pakistani media pays attention to some issues and neglecting and ignoring some others. Thus, mass media has an effect on the opinions of the people. People will get to know about those happenings and issues, which are emphasized by the media and they adopt the order of priority assigned to different issues. News media organizations are not just passive transmitters of information, repeating the words of official sources or conveying exactly the events in a way as they happened. Through their daily selection and presentation of the news, editors and reporters focus attention of the public’s perceptions about the most important issues of the day. Hence, our attention is further focused and our pictures of the world are shaped and reproduced by the way journalists frame their news stories. The medium of television is something viewers watch mainly in passive way and so the news channels have a great responsibility to tell the truth and show it to the world

Pakistan has been struggling a lot with the national interests since over a decade with internal security as the main alarming cause. National security is very important at every stage for a country to provide to its people. Terrorist attacks have damaged the country to a great degree, thus, weakening its image. Any individuals entity should not be violated and the media again over here plays a very significant role and is thus, a very important asset for Pakistan or likewise any other country. Media shows everything and all aspects of a scenario, which is being watched all over the globe. There are many issues which should not be shown on the television by the media because they might damage the entity of the people or it might give them harm. Media should know what they are showing and it should not leak every secret out. Security is the first and the foremost asset which needs to be provided to the people. There are many sensitive issues which need to stay underground or are not to be leaked. Media should not always criticize the government; it should analyze it but not always provide bad remarks. It should show the reality and tell facts and figures and talk logically, but then again national interest of the country, which includes sensitive issues, should be kept a secret and the media should handle such scenarios very carefully. Media can play the role of a force multiplier for the security issues.

The Security of Pakistan is also very important, our security problems if we go back in past 1947 when British India separated in two sovereign states Pakistan faced a lot of security problems it was on the issue of Kashmir between India and Pakistan we fought three wars two border conflicts. There are some several cases happened in Pakistan which are much thought provoking about the security concerns of Pakistan. Every inch of the territory of the State being more valuable than the liberty of speech and expression enjoyed by any of its citizens, such liberty cannot on any social, moral, legal or political ground be used as ‘democratic’ means of pay a debt the State that has bestowed that liberty.

Media and security together are two concepts which can be linked from both ends. Both of these are two different and important parts of a country. The media just wants to tell the people whatever information they get to know about whereas, the security forces always want to be on the winning side so that they have to face less casualties. There are four keys tools which the media demands for, those key tools are freedom, want total access to information, do not want censorship and the last is that they want to make sure that all the stories and the happenings have reached the audiences in just a short span of time on the right moment. They want to provide all the information and making sure that nothing is hidden from the people whereas, this can lead to a lot of problems which then have to be faced by the security militants and of course the government.

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Essay On Media

Keeping up with the most recent developments is critical in today's society. People can get the most recent and important news through the media. The media is the most commonly used medium for receiving information from north to south or east to west. Here are a few sample essays on the topic ‘Media’.

100 Words Essay On Media

200 word essay on media, 500 word essay on media.

The media has an impact on the reputation of a political party, organisation, or individual. Media keeps people informed about current happenings in politics, culture, art, academia, communication, and commerce. Different forms of media help modern civilization in remaining in touch with the world in the shortest amount of time.

The media is all around us; we are immersed in it even when we are not aware of it. It is seen in newspapers, television, and technological gadgets such as cell phones. We perceive it as a tool for speeding time or distancing ourselves from what is going on in other people's lives.

Social media is a tool that has become immensely popular among all ages due to its user-friendly interface. The youth are the most prevalent social media user demographics, which is both remarkable and concerning.

Imagery from the media abounds in today's culture. We know this since we may see posters advertising well-known brands and the latest products almost anywhere we go, such as while driving on the highway. When we are drawn to advertisements, we may begin to imagine or visualise ourselves using them.

The media can tell us about a product, service, or message. Today, media influence is so powerful that it may easily influence public opinion both positively and negatively. We also live in a society that is heavily reliant on the media for entertainment and information. Indeed, pictures in the media have an effect on both people and society, especially women, men, teenagers, and young children.

Simultaneously, media such as television, broadens our perspective by providing us with access to facts from all around the world. Television may also provide us with a wide range of news and current happenings. It can also be a useful learning tool, guiding future generations in the proper direction.

The media has a large influence on our lives. We educate ourselves on a regular basis by staying up with the latest events. The news serves a crucial role in keeping us informed about current affairs and global happenings. For example, because of globalization, you can read about current happenings in the United States of America even if you live in India.

The media is the most significant communication tool. It aids in the delivery or dissemination of news. Although the media is also associated with spreading fake news, it also plays an important role in informing us about reality. We cannot deny that this world is filled with so many social problems that we require the media to spotlight these concerns so that the government or other individuals can take action to resolve these social issues.

Role Of Media

When it comes to the media, it is regarded as the fourth element of democracy. It's the most comprehensive repository of information on the globe. Everyone hope and expects the media to provide us with the most complete and accurate news in any situation. As a result, the media plays an important role in balancing all areas of our society.

It is crucial for teaching and informing global citizens about what is happening around the world. As a result, supplying readers with truthful and authentic news is vital for societal growth. The case of Aayushi Talvaar is a good illustration of how the media works.

Advantages Of Media

Education | The media educates the public. The mob learns about health issues, environmental preservation, and a variety of other relevant topics through television or radio programming.

Keeps Us Informed | People obtain the most recent news in a timely manner. Distance is not a barrier to providing knowledge to people from anywhere on the planet. People receive the daily latest news from media sites, which keep them current on the latest trends and happenings throughout the world.

Knowledge | The media can help you learn more about a variety of topics.

Amusement | It is a great source of entertainment. People are amused by music and television shows.

Disadvantages Of Media

Individualism | People spend far too much time watching or binge-watching stuff on the internet. As a result, their relationships with friends, family, and neighbours may suffer as a result.

Fraud and Cybercrime | The Internet is lurking with imposters, fraudsters, hackers, and other predators with the opportunity to commit criminal acts without the victims' knowledge.

Addiction | For most children and adults, some television shows and internet media can be quite addictive, resulting in a decrease in productivity.

Health Issues | Prolonged television viewing or internet bingeing can cause visual difficulties, and prolonged exposure to loud noises via headphones or earphones can cause hearing impairments.

Malware and Fake Profiles | Anyone can set up an anonymous account and pretend to be someone else. Anyone with access to such profiles might use them for malevolent purposes, such as spreading misinformation, which can harm the image of any targeted people or company.

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Special Issue: Propaganda

This essay was published as part of the Special Issue “Propaganda Analysis Revisited”, guest-edited by Dr. A. J. Bauer (Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism and Creative Media, University of Alabama) and Dr. Anthony Nadler (Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Media Studies, Ursinus College).

Propaganda, misinformation, and histories of media techniques

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This essay argues that the recent scholarship on misinformation and fake news suffers from a lack of historical contextualization. The fact that misinformation scholarship has, by and large, failed to engage with the history of propaganda and with how propaganda has been studied by media and communication researchers is an empirical detriment to it, and serves to make the solutions and remedies to misinformation harder to articulate because the actual problem they are trying to solve is unclear.

School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds, UK

Introduction

Propaganda has a history and so does research on it. In other words, the mechanisms and methods through which media scholars have sought to understand propaganda—or misinformation, or disinformation, or fake news, or whatever you would like to call it—are themselves historically embedded and carry with them underlying notions of power and causality. To summarize the already quite truncated argument below, the larger conceptual frameworks for understanding information that is understood as “pernicious” in some way can be grouped into four large categories: studies of propaganda, the analysis of ideology and its relationship to culture, notions of conspiracy theory, and finally, concepts of misinformation and its impact. The fact that misinformation scholarship generally proceeds without acknowledging these theoretical frameworks is an empirical detriment to it and serves to make the solutions and remedies to misinformation harder to articulate because the actual problem to be solved is unclear. 

The following pages discuss each of these frameworks—propaganda, ideology, conspiracy, and misinformation—before returning to the stakes and implications of these arguments for future research on pernicious media content.

Propaganda and applied research

The most salient aspect of propaganda research is the fact that it is powerful in terms of resources while at the same time it is often intellectually derided, or at least regularly dismissed. Although there has been a left-wing tradition of propaganda research housed uneasily within the academy (Herman & Chomsky, 1988; Seldes & Seldes, 1943), this is not the primary way in which journalism or media messaging has been understood in many journalism schools or mainstream communications departments. This relates, of course, to the institutionalization of journalism and communication studies within the academic enterprise. Within this paradox, we see the greater paradox of communication research as both an applied and a disciplinary field. Propaganda is taken quite seriously by governments, the military, and the foreign service apparatus (Simpson, 1994); at the same time, it has occupied a tenuous conceptual place in most media studies and communications departments, with the dominant intellectual traditions embracing either a “limited effects” notion of what communication “does” or else more concerned with the more slippery concept of ideology (and on that, see more below). There is little doubt that the practical study of the power of messages and the field of communication research grew up together. Summarizing an initially revisionist line of research that has now become accepted within the historiography of the field, Nietzel notes that “from the very beginning, communication research was at least in part designed as an applied science, intended to deliver systematic knowledge that could be used for the business of government to the political authorities.” He adds, however, that

“this context also had its limits, for by the end of the decade, communication research had become established at American universities and lost much of its dependence on state funds. Furthermore, it had become increasingly clear that communication scientists could not necessarily deliver knowledge to the political authorities that could serve as a pattern for political acting (Simpson, 1994 pp. 88–89). From then on, politics and communication science parted ways. Many of the approaches and techniques which seemed innovative and even revolutionary in the 1940s and early 1950s, promising a magic key to managing propaganda activities and controlling public opinion, became routine fields of work, and institutions like the USIA carried out much of this kind of research themselves.” (Nietzel, 2016, p. 66)

It is important to note that this parting of ways did  not  mean that no one in the United States and the Soviet Union was studying propaganda. American government records document that, in inflation-adjusted terms, total funding for the United States Information Agency (USIA) rose from $1.2 billion in 1955 to $1.7 billion in 1999, shortly before its functions were absorbed into the United States Department of State. And this was dwarfed by Soviet spending, which spent more money jamming Western Radio transmissions alone than the United States did in its entire propaganda budget. Media effects research in the form of propaganda studies was a big and well-funded business. It was simply not treated as such within the traditional academy (Zollman, 2019). It is also important to note that this does not mean that no one in academia studies propaganda or the effect of government messages on willing or unwilling recipients, particularly in fields like health communication (also quite well-funded). These more academic studies, however, were tempered by the generally accepted fact that there existed no decontextualized, universal laws of communication that could render media messages easily useable by interested actors.

Ideology, economics, and false consciousness

If academics have been less interested than governments and health scientists in analyzing the role played by propaganda in the formation of public opinion, what has the academy worried about instead when it comes to the study of pernicious messages and their role in public life? Open dominant, deeply contested line of study has revolved around the concept of  ideology.  As defined by Raymond Williams in his wonderful  Keywords , ideology refers to an interlocking set of ideas, beliefs, concepts, or philosophical principles that are naturalized, taken for granted, or regarded as self-evident by various segments of society. Three controversial and interrelated principles then follow. First, ideology—particularly in its Marxist version—carries with it the implication that these ideas are somehow deceptive or disassociated from what actually exists. “Ideology is then abstract and false thought, in a sense directly related to the original conservative use but with the alternative—knowledge of real material conditions and relationships—differently stated” (Williams, 1976). Second, in all versions of Marxism, ideology is related to economic conditions in some fashion, with material reality, the economics of a situation, usually dominant and helping give birth to ideological precepts. In common Marxist terminology, this is usually described as the relationship between the base (economics and material conditions) and the superstructure (the realm of concepts, culture, and ideas). Third and finally, it is possible that different segments of society will have  different  ideologies, differences that are based in part on their position within the class structure of that society. 

Western Marxism in general (Anderson, 1976) and Antonio Gramsci in particular helped take these concepts and put them on the agenda of media and communications scholars by attaching more importance to “the superstructure” (and within it, media messages and cultural industries) than was the case in earlier Marxist thought. Journalism and “the media” thus play a major role in creating and maintaining ideology and thus perpetuating the deception that underlies ideological operations. In the study of the relationship between the media and ideology, “pernicious messages” obviously mean something different than they do in research on propaganda—a more structural, subtle, reinforcing, invisible, and materially dependent set of messages than is usually the case in propaganda analysis.  Perhaps most importantly, little research on media and communication understands ideology in terms of “discrete falsehoods and erroneous belief,” preferring to focus on processes of deep structural  misrecognition  that serves dominant economic interests (Corner, 2001, p. 526). This obviously marks a difference in emphasis as compared to most propaganda research. 

Much like in the study of propaganda, real-world developments have also had an impact on the academic analysis of media ideology. The collapse of communism in the 1980s and 1990s and the rise of neoliberal governance obviously has played a major role in these changes. Although only one amongst a great many debates about the status of ideology in a post-Marxist communications context, the exchange between Corner (2001, 2016) and Downey (2008; Downey et al., 2014) is useful for understanding how scholars have dealt with the relationship between large macro-economic and geopolitical changes in the world and fashions of research within the academy. Regardless of whether concepts of ideology are likely to return to fashion, any analysis of misinformation that is consonant with this tradition must keep in mind the relationship between class and culture, the outstanding and open question of “false consciousness,” and the key scholarly insight that ideological analysis is less concerned with false messages than it is with questions of structural misrecognition and the implications this might have for the maintenance of hegemony.

Postmodern conspiracy

Theorizing pernicious media content as a “conspiracy” theory is less common than either of the two perspectives discussed above. Certainly, conspiratorial media as an explanatory factor for political pathology has something of a post-Marxist (and indeed, postmodern) aura. Nevertheless, there was a period in the 1990s and early 2000s when some of the most interesting notions of conspiracy theories were analyzed in academic work, and it seems hard to deny that much of this literature would be relevant to the current emergence of the “QAnon” cult, the misinformation that is said to drive it, and other even more exotic notions of elites conspiring against the public. 

Frederic Jameson has penned remarks on conspiracy theory that represent the starting point for much current writing on the conspiratorial mindset, although an earlier and interrelated vein of scholarship can be found in the work of American writers such as Hofstadter (1964) and Rogin (1986). “Conspiracy is the poor person’s cognitive mapping in the postmodern age,” Jameson writes, “it is a degraded figure of the total logic of late capital, a desperate attempt to represent the latter’s system” (Jameson, 1991). If “postmodernism,” in Jameson’s terms, is marked by a skepticism toward metanarratives, then conspiracy theory is the only narrative system available to explain the various deformations of the capitalist system. As Horn and Rabinach put it:

“The broad interest taken by cultural studies in popular conspiracy theories mostly adopted Jameson’s view and regards them as the wrong answers to the right questions. Showing the symptoms of disorientation and loss of social transparency, conspiracy theorists are seen as the disenfranchised “poor in spirit,” who, for lack of a real understanding of the world they live in, come up with paranoid systems of world explanation.” (Horn & Rabinach, 2008)

Other thinkers, many of them operating from a perch within media studies and communications departments, have tried to take conspiracy theories more seriously (Bratich, 2008; Fenster, 2008; Pratt, 2003; Melley, 2008). The key question for all of these thinkers lies within the debate discussed in the previous section, the degree to which “real material interests” lie behind systems of ideological mystification and whether audiences themselves bear any responsibility for their own predicament. In general, writers sympathetic to Jameson have tended to maintain a Marxist perspective in which conspiracy represents a pastiche of hegemonic overthrow, thus rendering it just another form of ideological false consciousness. Theorists less taken with Marxist categories see conspiracy as an entirely rational (though incorrect) response to conditions of late modernity or even as potentially liberatory. Writers emphasizing that pernicious media content tends to fuel a conspiratorial mindset often emphasize the mediated aspects of information rather than the economics that lie behind these mediations. Both ideological analysis and academic writings on conspiracy theory argue that there is a gap between “what seems to be going on” and “what is actually going on,” and that this gap is maintained and widened by pernicious media messages. Research on ideology tends to see the purpose of pernicious media content as having an ultimately material source that is rooted in “real interests,” while research on conspiracies plays down these class aspects and questions whether any real interests exist that go beyond the exercise of political power.

The needs of informationally ill communities

The current thinking in misinformation studies owes something to all these approaches. But it owes an even more profound debt to two perspectives on information and journalism that emerged in the early 2000s, both of which are indebted to an “ecosystemic” perspective on information flows. One perspective sees information organizations and their audiences as approximating a natural ecosystem, in which different media providers contribute equally to the health of an information environment, which then leads to healthy citizens. The second perspective analyzes the flows of messages as they travel across an information environment, with messages becoming reshaped and distorted as they travel across an information network. 

Both of these perspectives owe a debt to the notion of the “informational citizen” that was popular around the turn of the century and that is best represented by the 2009 Knight Foundation report  The Information Needs of Communities  (Knight Foundation, 2009). This report pioneered the idea that communities were informational communities whose political health depended in large part on the quality of information these communities ingested. Additional reports by The Knight Foundation, the Pew Foundation, and this author (Anderson, 2010) looked at how messages circulated across these communities, and how their transformation impacted community health. 

It is a short step from these ecosystemic notions to a view of misinformation that sees it as a pollutant or even a virus (Anderson, 2020), one whose presence in a community turns it toward sickness or even political derangement. My argument here is that the current misinformation perspective owes less to its predecessors (with one key exception that I will discuss below) and more to concepts of information that were common at the turn of the century. The major difference between the concept of misinformation and earlier notions of informationally healthy citizens lies in the fact that the normative standard by which health is understood within information studies is crypto-normative. Where writings about journalism and ecosystemic health were openly liberal in nature and embraced notions of a rational, autonomous citizenry who just needed the right inputs in order to produce the right outputs, misinformation studies has a tendency to embrace liberal behavioralism without embracing a liberal political theory. What the political theory of misinformation studies is, in the end, deeply unclear.

I wrote earlier that misinformation studies owed more to notions of journalism from the turn of the century than it did to earlier traditions of theorizing. There is one exception to this, however. Misinformation studies, like propaganda analysis, is a radically de-structured notion of what information does. Buried within analysis of pernicious information there is

“A powerful cultural contradiction—the need to understand and explain social influence versus a rigid intolerance of the sociological and Marxist perspectives that could provide the theoretical basis for such an understanding. Brainwashing, after all, is ultimately a theory of ideology in the crude Marxian sense of “false consciousness.” Yet the concept of brainwashing was the brainchild of thinkers profoundly hostile to Marxism not only to its economic assumptions but also to its emphasis on structural, rather than individual, causality.” (Melley, 2008, p. 149)

For misinformation studies to grow in such a way that allows it to take its place among important academic theories of media and communication, several things must be done. The field needs to be more conscious of its own history, particularly its historical conceptual predecessors. It needs to more deeply interrogate its  informational-agentic  concept of what pernicious media content does, and perhaps find room in its arsenal for Marxist notions of hegemony or poststructuralist concepts of conspiracy. Finally, it needs to more openly advance its normative agenda, and indeed, take a normative position on what a good information environment would look like from the point of view of political theory. If this environment is a liberal one, so be it. But this position needs to be stated clearly.

Of course, misinformation studies need not worry about its academic bona fides at all. As the opening pages of this Commentary have shown, propaganda research was only briefly taken seriously as an important academic field. This did not stop it from being funded by the U.S. government to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars a year. While it is unlikely that media research will ever see that kind of investment again, at least by an American government, let’s not forget that geopolitical Great Power conflict has not disappeared in the four years that Donald Trump was the American president. Powerful state forces in Western society will have their own needs, and their own demands, for misinformation research. It is up to the scholarly community to decide how they will react to these temptations. 

• Mainstream Media
• / Propaganda

Cite this Essay

Anderson, C. W. (2021). Propaganda, misinformation, and histories of media techniques. Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review . https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-64

Bibliography

Anderson, C. W. (2010). Journalistic networks and the diffusion of local news: The brief, happy news life of the Francisville Four. Political Communication , 27 (3), 289–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2010.496710

Anderson, C. W. (2020, August 10). Fake news is not a virus: On platforms and their effects. Communication Theory , 31 (1), 42–61. https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtaa008

Anderson, P. (1976). Considerations on Western Marxism . Verso.

Bratich, J. Z. (2008). Conspiracy panics: Political rationality and popular culture. State University of New York Press.

Corner, J. (2001). ‘Ideology’: A note on conceptual salvage. Media, Culture & Society , 23 (4), 525–533. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344301023004006

Corner, J. (2016). ‘Ideology’ and media research. Media, Culture & Society , 38 (2), 265 – 273. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443715610923

Downey, J. (2008). Recognition and renewal of ideology critique. In D. Hesmondhaigh & J. Toynbee (Eds.), The media and social theory (pp. 59–74). Routledge.

Downey, J., Titley, G., & Toynbee, J. (2014). Ideology critique: The challenge for media studies. Media, Culture & Society , 36 (6), 878–887. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443714536113

Fenster (2008). Conspiracy theories: Secrecy and power in American culture (Rev. ed.). University of Minnesota Press.

Herman, E., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media. Pantheon Books. 

Hofstadter, R. (1964, November). The paranoid style in American politics. Harper’s Magazine.

Horn, E., & Rabinach, A. (2008). Introduction. In E. Horn (Ed.), Dark powers: Conspiracies and conspiracy theory in history and literature (pp. 1–8), New German Critique , 35 (1). https://doi.org/10.1215/0094033x-2007-015

Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, the cultural logic of late capitalism . Duke University Press.

The Knight Foundation. (2009). Informing communities: Sustaining democracy in the digital age. https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Knight_Commission_Report_-_Informing_Communities.pdf

Melley, T. (2008). Brainwashed! Conspiracy theory and ideology in postwar United States. New German Critique , 35 (1), 145–164. https://doi.org/10.1215/0094033X-2007-023

Nietzel, B. (2016). Propaganda, psychological warfare and communication research in the USA and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. History of the Human Sciences , 29 (4 – 5), 59–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695116667881

Pratt, R. (2003). Theorizing conspiracy. Theory and Society , 32 , 255–271. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023996501425

Rogin, M. P. (1986). The countersubversive tradition in American politics.  Berkeley Journal of Sociology,   31 , 1 –33. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41035372

Seldes, G., & Seldes, H. (1943). Facts and fascism. In Fact.

Simpson, C. (1994). Science of coercion: Communication research and psychological warfare, 1945–1960. Oxford University Press.

Williams, R. (1976).  Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society . Oxford University Press.

Zollmann, F. (2019). Bringing propaganda back into news media studies. Critical Sociology , 45 (3), 329–345. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920517731134

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original author and source are properly credited.

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Essay: the power of media and information and the responsibility of the users.

Media is considered as one of the most powerful tools in providing information to people or in society. Media is part of our daily lives. It informs, influences, and entertains us. Not only they inform us, they have also the capability in shaping our lives.

 Advertisements shown on television or even in the internet can affect the viewers. Some contains violence, nudity or anything that is inappropriate to the viewers who are children or under age. They might think the information on that certain advertisement is correct without proper guidance from the parents. In the internet, there is no censorship when it comes to information resulting to some users to take this as an advantage to spread false information all over the web. That is the reason that there are some users who were victimized by scammers, bullies and etc. Medias has biases also. They have the power to manipulate thus making viewers to believe on the information they insinuate. But all of those negativities written above can be abide. Parents must be vigilant on what their children are watching. They must ensure that it is age appropriate. Users in the internet must check the authenticity of the information. They must check the origin of it to avoid fallacy. Never post something too personal like bank numbers, address or any that might put you in jeopardy. Always consider one’s privacy. In detecting biases in media, look for the sources if it involves political perspectives. Check if the headline and actual article matches. Sometimes it contains double standards. Look who’s point of view is the article is written and find alternate point of views . Biased information tries to change your mind so as an individual we must not believe immediately.   

Our main source of to get information is the media. Without media, we will never be updated on the day-today events that is happening in our surrounding. Media is used to raise awareness but sometimes they use it for biases. In using the media, we must follow some rules and etiquettes. Information is powerful but we must not abuse it. We must turn ourselves as responsible users. Media has two sides, the positive and the negative. It can help us but it has the capability to destroy us. But it all depends on us. If we let them continue to do those negative things, we are only letting them play our lives. But if we become vigilant, we can truly avoid or stop those things. Responsibility is a big word. But it is one the things that are inevitable. Every individual plays a role in the society and a responsibility to take. There is one saying that serves as a reminder, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

“Post, like, share, comment, research, chat, and others” is something what to do now in media. Media and information is very important to our everyday lives. It gives us the opportunity to be updated and to be aware in our surroundings. It gives us the opportunity to connect with our friends and love ones. It gives us the opportunity to be citizen journalism. It gives us the opportunity to share our opinions to the other. And also, it gives us the opportunity to challenge ourselves on how to be a responsible media and information user.      

In general, "media" refers to the tools of mass communication. Media today consists of television, Internet, cinema, newspapers, radio, magazines, direct mail, fax, and the telephone. Viewers can see some form of pictorial representation of messages through certain types of broadcasting and advertising. Images are visual representations, pictures, graphics, and include video, movies. Images are very useful in media to help get across messages effectively. Today, our life will remain incomplete without media. Media influence has become so powerful today that they can easily influence people positively and/or negatively. We also live in a society that depends on the media as a source of entertainment and information. Media like television enhances our knowledge by providing access to information all over the world. We can also receive different news or daily events through the television. It can be such a powerful educational tool for the younger generation helping to put them on the right path. Newspapers have a positive influence on society. Newspapers not only give information or the latest news. They also help in the positive linkage between government and the people. On the other hand, mass media can at times have a negative influence. Images in the media can have a powerful influence on our behavior. Movies, another form of mass media, today may show violence in one form or another. Images of violence somehow influence individuals and especially the younger generation to think that violence is accepted by society when it is not. Movies can also be used to show sexual images. Such images have a powerful influence on the mind and soul of young people. People who watch these images may be influenced to react in a socially unacceptable or even criminal manner. “With power comes with great responsibility.” Cyberbullying is an issue that unfortunately society has seemed to turn its cheek on. On Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media outlet, it requires little effort to harass someone. While many of these sites were created for harmless networking and fun, they have instead turned into some of the greatest tools to harm others with. We should all be responsible social media users. Derisive comments ought to never discover their way into spots that were made to be valuable wellsprings of data and fun leisure activities. Everybody should think before we click.    

The role of the media in the contemporary society is difficult to overestimate. They have become a considerable part of our life. They report about various aspects of life, form and affect public opinion.

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8 Daily Newspapers Sue OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I.

The suit, which accuses the tech companies of copyright infringement, adds to the fight over the online data used to power artificial intelligence.

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By Katie Robertson

Eight daily newspapers owned by Alden Global Capital sued OpenAI and Microsoft on Tuesday, accusing the tech companies of illegally using news articles to power their A.I. chatbots.

The publications — The New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, The Orlando Sentinel, The Sun Sentinel of Florida, The San Jose Mercury News, The Denver Post, The Orange County Register and The St. Paul Pioneer Press — filed the complaint in federal court in the U.S. Southern District of New York. All are owned by MediaNews Group or Tribune Publishing, subsidiaries of Alden, the country’s second-largest newspaper operator.

In the complaint, the publications accuse OpenAI and Microsoft of using millions of copyrighted articles without permission to train and feed their generative A.I. products, including ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot. The lawsuit does not demand specific monetary damages, but it asks for a jury trial and said the publishers were owed compensation from the use of the content.

The complaint said the chatbots regularly surfaced the entire text of articles behind subscription paywalls for users and often did not prominently link back to the source. This, it said, reduced the need for readers to pay subscriptions to support local newspapers and deprived the publishers of revenue both from subscriptions and from licensing their content elsewhere.

“We’ve spent billions of dollars gathering information and reporting news at our publications, and we can’t allow OpenAI and Microsoft to expand the Big Tech playbook of stealing our work to build their own businesses at our expense,” Frank Pine, the executive editor overseeing Alden’s newspapers, said in a statement.

An OpenAI spokeswoman said in a statement that the company was “not previously aware” of Alden’s concerns but was engaged in partnerships and conversations with many news organizations to explore opportunities.

“Along with our news partners, we see immense potential for A.I. tools like ChatGPT to deepen publishers’ relationships with readers and enhance the news experience,” she said.

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment.

The lawsuit adds to a fight over the use of data to power generative A.I. Online information, including articles, Wikipedia posts and other data, has increasingly become the lifeblood of the booming industry. A recent investigation by The New York Times found that numerous tech companies, in their push to keep pace, had ignored policies and debated skirting copyright law in an effort to obtain as much data as possible to train chatbots.

Publishers have paid attention to the use of their content. In December, The Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of using copyrighted articles to train chatbots that then competed with the paper as a source of news and information. Microsoft has sought to have parts of that lawsuit dismissed . It also argued that The Times had not shown actual harm and that the large language models that drive chatbots had not replaced the market for news articles. OpenAI has filed a similar argument.

Other publications have sought to make deals with the tech companies for compensation. The Financial Times, which is owned by the Japanese company Nikkei, said on Monday that it had reached a deal with OpenAI to allow it to use Financial Times content to train its AI chatbots. The Financial Times did not disclose the terms of the deal.

OpenAI has also struck agreements with Axel Springer, the German publishing giant that owns Business Insider and Politico; The Associated Press ; and Le Monde, the French news outlet.

The lawsuit from the Alden newspapers, filed by the law firm Rothwell, Figg, Ernst & Manbeck, accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of copyright infringement, unfair competition by misappropriation and trademark dilution. The newspapers say the chatbots falsely credited the publications for inaccurate or misleading reporting, “tarnishing the newspapers’ reputations and spreading dangerous information.”

One example included ChatGPT’s response to a query about which infant lounger The Chicago Tribune recommended. ChatGPT, according to the complaint, responded that The Tribune recommended the Boppy Newborn Lounger, a product that was recalled after it was linked to infant deaths and that the newspaper had never recommended.

In a separate incident, an A.I. chatbot claimed that The Denver Post had published research indicating that smoking could potentially cure asthma, a complete fabrication, the complaint said.

“This issue is not just a business problem for a handful of newspapers or the newspaper industry at large,” the lawsuit said. “It is a critical issue for civic life in America.”

Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email:  [email protected]   More about Katie Robertson

Explore Our Coverage of Artificial Intelligence

News  and Analysis

As experts warn that A.I.-generated images, audio and video could influence the 2024 elections, OpenAI is releasing a tool designed to detect content created by DALL-E , its popular image generator.

American and Chinese diplomats plan to meet in Geneva to begin what amounts to the first, tentative arms control talks  over the use of A.I.

Wayve, a London maker of A.I. systems for autonomous vehicles, said that it had raised $1 billion , an illustration of investor optimism about A.I.’s ability to reshape industries.

The Age of A.I.

A new category of apps promises to relieve parents of drudgery, with an assist from A.I.  But a family’s grunt work is more human, and valuable, than it seems.

Despite Mark Zuckerberg’s hope for Meta’s A.I. assistant to be the smartest , it struggles with facts, numbers and web search.

Much as ChatGPT generates poetry, a new A.I. system devises blueprints for microscopic mechanisms  that can edit your DNA.

Which A.I. system writes the best computer code or generates the most realistic image? Right now, there’s no easy way to answer those questions, our technology columnist writes .