I believe that new and digital media has made audiences more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Within this essay I will show many ways in which this is done so, this case study is going to be about the news in which this links in with citizen journalism, user generated content and so on.
The first reason why I believe audiences are gaining more power is due to the pluralist view. Pluralists believe that there is no one elite and that the audiences get what they want by the media constructing their media to target these audiences. For e.g. right now what is most talked about is shows such as the only way is Essex and made in Chelsea and more shows like these are constantly being made as this is what the audiences want. This then relates to what Halloran said in that 'audiences are seen as capable of manipulating the media in an infinite variety of ways according to their prior needs and dispositions'. So going back to the point I made about shows such as the only way is Essex, these shows are made for the audiences needs and wants.
However on the other hand you have the views of the Marxists in that they believed in a capitalist society and class domination. By this they meant the elite and the wealthy conglomerates were to say at the top and provide all the media needed for the audiences and all the power audiences think they have is an illusion. This also links in with hegemony in that the higher social class has power over everyone else which is what the Marxists believe. This then relates to Pareto's law in which he said 'A minority of media producers always serve a majority of consumers' this also links in what I have been saying in that for e.g. the major organisations within the news such as the BBC and Sky would serve most of us the audiences about the news as they are elite and would be seen as trusted by many.
Another reason to why audiences are seen has having power over consumption and production is due to the decline of the newspaper industry. The newspaper industry is seen as going in to decline due to the developments within e media, as you can now access the news wherever and whenever you want. You can go on the internet on your phone and go to the Guardian website or you can get links through Twitter. This has majorly affected the newspaper industry in that people can access the news 24 7 now and don't have to wait for newspapers to be published and also internet news can be free if they do not have a pay wall. So there is more access to the news for audiences now and don't have to get the big elite newspapers but can go on various different sites on the internet.
Another reason why the audiences are being empowered is due to the fact we now have citizen journalism. With citizen journalism we can now generate the news in which is being made, this could not have been done 30 or so years ago. This is because of the introduction of new technology such as smart phones in which you can film incidents that are happening right in front of our eyes as news organisations such as the BBC may not make it in time of the incident and you the person who has just filmed this incident has footage of it first hand. Also it will give an idea of realism as the quality of the video may not be the best as the footage may be a bit shaky or something like this. This then gives audiences power over news organisations as they have the first hand footage.
In similar relation to citizen journalism there is user generated content. This is mainly used on e media. This is where we can comment on stuff such as the comments section on the Guardian and we can voice our opinions. We can also voice our opinions through making blogs and vlogs which may be on YouTube in which you can also express your opinions and may get coverage of yourself if you are saying interesting stuff. You also have social media in where you can make statuses as well as tweet your opinions and views on particular things in which your voices may be heard.
However on the other hand your comments and views go through regulation and these comments you may be saying could get taken down and going back to the point in which I stated before in that the audiences may get an illusion of power in that they may think they have power by commenting on things however they do not as their views could get taken down by big organisations such as YouTube.
So to conclude I do believe over the years audiences are gaining more and more power over production and consumption. This may be the result of the introduction of new technology giving us different and various ways in presenting our views and letting us the audiences voice our opinions.
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