Just how much is the Media independent?
The media is comprised of both independent and non independent parts. The people are needed to support the media, but the media can do what they like. Although the media has the freedom and the right to print and do what they like they have to interest the general public who fund their businesses, either buying or selling items on their behalf. If the public doesn’t like what they media company is doing they will not buy anything and the business will fail. So to some extent the people control the Media and can influence themselves what is published on TV, magazine or adverts etc.
The Media generally only sells and publishes things that people are interested in, the more people that buy the piece of Media the more it will be published due to its previous success. This is why I think that generally there are more tabloids and other magazines that sell in huge numbers in comparison with the broadsheets
Looking specifically at news papers, there are two different types; Tabloids and broadsheets. Tabloids are in my opinion filled with rubbish for the shallow minded people. Yet for the more intellectual, there are broadsheets. Examples of tabloids are “The Sun, News of the World and Mirror.” These are papers that have many pictures and huge obtrusive titles. These grab your attention immediately and are generally more sellable compared to broadsheets. As I said people who have little opinions; they buy tabloids regularly. They do not have the mental capacity to read, understand and develop their own ideas. The tabloids are for a brief read and to entertain for short periods of time. They always have pictures and information exposing someone be it a celebrity or a respected member of a community.
Broadsheets are in my own opinion a better read but take much longer due to the vast amount of information to either read/browse through. The front covers are always on the topic of the future. Be it about Global Warming or Financial data, there is always something that interests me truly unlike the tabloids. Generally I find that older and younger people buy tabloids. They do not need to know all the things going on in the world and generally are not as intelligent and wise about what’s going on around them. You may think that the media is the only organisation that takes advantage of breaking news to increase sales and popularity. The government uses these ‘distractions’ to take less emphasis on what they do, they may lower pensions ever so slightly, or raise certain taxes etc. The government is clever but sly. They don’t miss a trick! As the saying goes the people in parliament are usually ‘Male, Pale and Stale’ meaning Male, White and Old.
As there are different types of media owned by different organisations publishing different kinds of media, I think that the most useful media is the influential media. People buy money to publish adverts on TV or in magazines, as well as the magazine itself or the paper using its own publishing power to influence people to buy their product and not anyone else’s, there is a huge market in the advertising industry. Examples of influential advertisements used are on: Bill boards, Flyers, Emails, TV, Radio, Endorsements and Post. These are all examples of advertisement and where it is most commonly used. A real life example of this is:
In the 1980’s, tabloid newspapers were known for their overwhelming support for the Conservative party. The Mirror was identified as the only popular paper fully committed to the labour party. In the 1987 election, the conservatives lead increase by over 50% politically uncommitted Sun and Star readers not all among Mirror readers.
These figures appear to suggest that newspapers have a significant influence over their readers when it comes to an election. Of course, it could be argued that it is difficult to say who is truly ‘politically uncommitted’ and it is more likely that people who buy the Sun or the Star would have Conservative leanings anyway. 1997 saw the biggest landslide victory ever, Tony Blair was elected with the Labour Party with over 70% of the votes, whether this is co incidence or not the Sun newspaper said for its readers to Vote Labour! Although the conservative party were terrible at the time, the Labour party won with such a big amount of the votes which makes the efforts of the Sun paper seem to have had a positive effect.
Tabloids are generally bold headlines, large photos and pages half the size of the broadsheets – talking about more serious topics at length. It’s a positive having different papers which gives us a choice as to which we want to read depending on our mood etc. But if someone always reads the same paper and they have been doing all their life, does that mean they will be a lot easier to persuade to do certain things. Their perception of current affairs will be much easier influenced to which ever way the paper points in, their own personal views will be very limited and they will become more a lemon than a human being who thinks for themselves! So my message is read something more controversial than the plain old boring rubbish about celebrities having a face lift or someone getting an ASBO. Read things about world politics so you aren’t blind to what's going on, these things that affect the world, they affect you. A big example of something that is becoming more of a serious issue and is being addressed by more and more people is Global Warming. Recently there has been a great increase in coverage it’s receiving and something needs to be done, it’s a shame that it’s taken years to get so much attention.
Although the Media in most cases is classed to be quite independent, it is only independent to a certain level. This all depends on how Media ownership is distributed. If one person owns lots of them media then it will be less balanced. For example Report Murdoch has a very large share of the UK’s print media and is trying to expand his empire to own more and more of the world’s media. He currently owns 35.7% of the UKs print media; this includes The Sun, The Times and Daily Times, Sunday Times and News of the World. There are not always plus points of 1 individual being the main owner of the media, this is a worrying view. This was foreseen and a limit was put on how much one person could own and this affected their influence on people. For example if one person owned all the media companies in the UK they would be able to print what ever they wanted and when ever they anted, people would not have the right to choose their own preferred magazine, paper or radio station. People would find it harder to develop their own opinions and views without being heavily influenced or most likely totally bias views. They would be subjected to daily bombardment of 1 sided views, this is dangerous because we could be under the affect of Propaganda. Propaganda is spreading mass information what usually only tells one side of the story and what they want the reader to know, Propaganda generally only appeals to peoples emotions and not their intellect and personal views. China is already under the affect of this and is very tightly run by their government, China limits almost every single piece of information entering and leaving their country. Almost all countries available in the world have the use of ‘Google’ but china had recently banned their website because of the other views on the internet on how countries should be run. Some examples would be that you have to work for equality and that you make the competition to be better than anyone else at what you do. PROPAGANDA!
At both sides of the political spectrum there are different governmental parties, different leaders and Communism and Capitalism.