Week 2

Reading Diary: Week 2

Exploring institutional contests over control of public opinion.  Journalism, PR and Power.

The power of the media to create affect as well as its ability to provide people with that power is acknowledged by many theorists.  Media guides public opinion through journalism and offers individuals the opportunity of self-realization and self-expression as well as the role of social power and reaching audiences by messages and ideas. Powerful media is the perception that the power lies in the manipulation and people could be easily affected by it. In the model, presented by Louis Althusser, it is suggested that the media is part of the ISAs (Ideological State Apparatuses) which refers to ideology or simply power of ideas.

The background reading from “Media Studies” (Long & Wall, chapter 10, Media Power) challenged a little my personal opinions and belief but also it gave me a clear identification of the ideology. Presented as a “set of shared ideas that seem, to those who hold them, to be natural and unquestionable” it could be also deemed as something natural with perception of reality. The theory by Karl Marx connects to the themes of the lecture as he “relates power to social classes and systems rather than individuals” and once the organization of society is changed, new set of ideas influence people.

In recent years, the power of the so-called “fourth estate” – journalism is threatened by the rise of the “fifth estate”. PR professionals and news agencies play an increasingly essential role in the news gathering. They influence on the contemporary journalism and their dominance is not hidden. Herbert Gans defines the relationship between journalism and PR by the meaningful metaphor: “It takes two to tango” and I agree with him. The statistics in the set reading “A compromised fourth estate?” show that well-known newspapers such as The Guardian are more likely to be resistant on PR influence and as Jullia Hobsbawm claims – “at least 60% of any broadsheet outlet has got a PR element in it”.  

To sum up, I believe that PR is taking over the majority of the press and moreover – have an influential impact on journalism. The pressure is on the specialists from the “fourth estate” in terms of increasing productivity and independent journalist investigation has become rather rare. To conduct my studies, I decided to make an interview with the students from my seminar about the power of the mass media.

Referencing:

Lewis, J. Williams, A. Franklin, B. 2008. A compromised fourth estate? Journalism studies, 9:1, 1-20

Long, P. Wall, T. 2012. Media Studies, Media Power, chapter 10