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Question: Does your case study suggests that new and digital media have had a positive impact by offering audiences a more diverse range of values and ideologies (48 marks)

The exploration of the primary case study of the ‘impact of new and digital media on the news industry’ has revealed many positive impacts, but also negative impacts, of NDM on audiences. This also goes for the secondary case study of ‘Instagram’ which has more of a focus on social media and its impact on audiences.

In the news industry, a pluralist perspective may highlight, has been positively impacted by NDM. The increase in user generated content, especially that of citizen journalism, has meant that audiences are receiving more of a diverse range of values and ideologies. This is due to the fact that a wide range of audiences, who all have different voices expressing different thoughts and opinions, can now express themselves communicating on a one-to-many scale. Therefore, audiences collectively have access to various types of thoughts and opinions on particular matters. For example, Laura Bates’ everyday sexism project encompasses the concept of user generated content. The campaign has set up an official website where anyone and everyone can share their experiences of sexism resulting in an otherwise ‘ignored’ and ‘hidden’ topic coming to surface and attracting a huge popularity as audiences add their own experiences (producing content) where other audiences can understand the issues of sexism that have usually been ignored by society. In terms of citizen journalism similar activist campaigns have been encouraged allowing for issues otherwise ignored to come to the surface. For example, the #blacklivesmatter campaign has become extremely popular on social media thus coming into audience view when cases of amatory content went viral. For example, the early video of Eric Garner highlighting the issues of police brutality in America. This, due to the interconnective nature of NDM and the globalised society we live in, managed to spread around as more and more audiences became aware of these issues. Therefore, citizen journalism gives audiences an increased range of views and values as awareness is raised in a way in which audiences are encouraged to identify with, as they may see themselves as part of the represented group, or a personal relationship, as they begin to sympathise with the matter. This therefore leads to much greater social and political change too within countries, e.g. Facebook aiding the Arab Spring revolution, as diverse and alternative views are presented to audiences that are against the traditional oppressive ideologies aiding them in challenging the status quo – which is the aim of many news outlets, to give the audience the knowledge they deserve to know.

These opposing view-points are more predominant on NDM platforms such as social media as there is less regulation and gatekeeping with prevents the censorship of potential voices that have the right of freedom of speech. For example, for countries that have state regulation of media outlets for example in Syria, this lack of regulation is extremely beneficial as it leads to more freedom of voices that aid political reforms.

However, this lack of regulation and gatekeeping has many implications for the news industry. One of which is the increased issue of fake news, starting to be discussed by politicians everywhere, especially trump. The label in itself, of ‘fake news’ has made audiences very sceptical of news in general, even the well-established and un-bias sources such as the BBC, causing audiences to perhaps be more likely to ignore these variety in opinions and values as they may just (incorrectly) label them as ‘fake news.’ Much of this stigma comes from the potential impact ‘fake news’ stories had on the 2016 US general elections. There where much instance of fake news, such as the pope supporting trump (facebook), that went viral during the elections. Therefore, the rise of NDM has meant that it’s much easier for audiences to post and share unmediated content which is more likely to be false thus, not only providing audiences with incorrect information, but also discrediting the news industry as a whole. This is also evident in the concept of a journalist, as audiences feel, due to the rise of ‘citizen journalism’, that anyone can be a journalist as anyone can be a journalist, therefore resulting in cuts in their pays (according to the guardian) etc. which demotivates these professionals to produce investigative journalism – which is also very costly and would be hard for newspapers to fund now due to mass circulation decreases and the rise of audience preference of free content-  which disadvantages audiences as they would therefore not receive the professional range they would have otherwise been able to receive. This concept is further supported by Andrew Keens opinion on the increased ‘blogging’ nature (i.e. Representative of UGC) of the internet expressing it is the equivalent of “a million monkeys typing nonsense” highlighting the issue of credibility and reliability of the content we receive online.

Moreover, the increased necessity, e.g. Seen by local newspapers, in order to produce ‘viral content’ reveals that audiences may not be receiving valuable content in the first place. For example, the decreased circulation seen my newspapers has meant that they need to establish a larger audience, usually done through online profiles and accounts, in order to still attract advertising revenue from producing free content. This has therefore meant that content is tailored to the ‘mass’ and therefore leads to the dumbing down of content so that a vast audience can consume it, e.g. reporting on ‘soft news’ stories such as the issues of feeding local seagulls instead of discussing local council legislations. Therefore, there has been a negative impact on audiences as they receive less of a diverse range of values and ideologies, due to the viral nature and financial strains within the news industry.

A Marxist perspective may highlight further the disadvantages to the audience. As Pareto’s law states, a small minority of media producers seem to own a vast majority of media. This therefore means that individuals such as Rupert Murdock and Mark Zuckerberge, who own various conglomerate companies can push certain views and ideologies within audiences and limit the amount of verity they receive. For example, during the EU referendum both Murdock’s publications of the sun and times encouraged audiences to vote leave. The likes of Zuckerberge can limit content further as he owns the major social media players, facebook and instagram, if he promotes certain news and ideologies on a platform on which audiences spend a vast amount of their time, he would be able to push forth particular views and values to a fairly passive audience. This is supported by recent studies finding we most absent middle use our phones and last year, the accumulated time spent on social media was higher than the time spent on TV for the first time. Therefore, an increasingly passive audience being drip fed certain ideologies (hypodermic needle model) would mean that audience aren’t receiving a verity and its having a negative effect on audiences.

Mark Zukerberge owns the secondary case study that will be being explored – Instagram. Instagram can be a case study that both proves and disproves the statement. Instagram allows audiences to express themselves through visual content and interact on a global scale which is evident in Instagram’s American audience only making up 40% of its audience. This therefore means audiences can interact with different cultures to them and gain new thoughts and opinions on facts they may have not otherwise known. Moreover, its makers have also expressed how images transcend the international barriers of language as an image can reveal a story to a vast audience. However, the algorithms Instagram uses does mean that a variety of ideologies isn’t really encouraged instead audiences are recommended pictures and accounts based on their current interests, likes, followers and interactions. This therefore means audience are more likely to get stuck in a form of ‘echo chambers’ where they hear their own thoughts and opinions being agreed with. This may explain the filter bubble individuals were during the Brexit vote as the majority of online support was that for remain.

Overall, the impact of NDM on news and its audiences access to values and ideologies seems overwhelmingly negative, as the globalisation and Americanisation of cultures mean there is increased hegemony across cultures leading to a lack of verity rather than an increase. In terms of the secondary study, it is presented so audiences are satisfied which they usually are with simple and tailored content.