Session 7 Rise of The Prosumer: Democratization of Media Content Making or Labour for Free?
m.metykova@sussex.ac.uk
32153@mail.muni.cz

Who controls what gets into the media?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWuc18xISwI


The example of journalism
- a profession that has developed over a couple of hundreds of years
- undergoing significant changes as technology impacts on all its aspects: funding, practices,
relationship with audiences, skills set, structure of newsrooms etc.
http://www.eyerevolution.co.uk/blog/bbc-new-broadcasting-house/

Important question for political economists of communication
Do these changes result in more democratic journalism?
Does control shift significantly away from journalists/editors?

How do journalists understand their profession?
Public service
Autonomy
Objectivity
Immediacy
Ethics

 What gets into the news?
ÒGatekeeping
ÒDavid Manning White’s seminal gatekeeping study conducted in 1949 – how and why an individual
editor selects certain news stories sent by the news agencies while rejecting others (about nine
tenths were rejected), White’s conclusion: through studying his overt reasons for rejecting news
stories from the press associations we see how highly subjective, how based on the gatekeeper’s own
set of experiences, attitudes and expectations the communication of news really is.
ÒSubsequent studies pointed out that White disregarded organisational and institutional influences
in the course of gatekeeping (news values: drama/surprise, importance/relevance/magnitude,
entertainment, proximity, negativity/bad news etc.)

News – cultural/ideological dimensions
ÒAgenda setting
ÒAgenda-setting is the creation of public awareness and concern of salient issues by the news
media. Two basic assumptions underlie most research on agenda-setting: (1) the press and the media
do not reflect reality; they filter and shape it; (2) media concentration on a few issues and
subjects leads the public to perceive those issues as more important than other issues.
ÒSource:
http://www.utwente.nl/cw/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Mass%20Media/Agenda-Setting_Theory/

News – cultural/ideological dimensions cont.
ÒFraming - linked to the agenda-setting tradition of research
ÒFraming as a theoretical concept can be understood as the way that media emphasize certain aspects
of issues or events at the expense of others when defining social processes, issues or events
(Kerbel et al., 2000; Tankard, 2001). Gitlin summarizes this well by saying: ‘Frames are principles
of selection, emphasis and presentation composed of little tacit theories about what exists, what
happens, and what matters’ (1980: 6). Dimitrova, D. and Stromback, J. (2011). “Election news in
Sweden and the United States: A comparative study of sources and media frames.” Journalism 13(5).

Framing of terrorism
ÒTHREAT frame – a new form of threat that requires special measures
ÒRIGHTS frame – critical of the military intervention in Iraq – breach of international law;
Guantanamo Bay inmates held unlawfully
ÒREDRESS frame – developed by the terrorist groups themselves – redressing real/imaginary wrongs
and injustices
ÒDeacon et al. Researching Communications

Who sets the agenda/keeps the gates closed?
Mainstream media – audiences can comment, contribute contents to some extent – is this change
radical enough to justify saying that journalism is more democratic now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iU0gpS739w

New players – amateur and professional appear
Deca – a co-operative of journalists
http://www.decastories.com/
Refugees Deeply
https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/
Citizen journalism:
https://www.bellingcat.com/

Old players experiment with new tricks
VR – New York Times
Using technology for in-depth reporting:
http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/

Technology plays a role in gatekeeping and even production of news
Facebook – who does the gatekeeping for News Feeds? Algorithms or human editors?
Robots replacing journalists?
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2015/11/robot-journalism-human-reporters-15111509
5033120.html

Who sets the agenda?
In some cases those outside the media (and that on a global scale):
Wikileaks
NSA leaks
Panama Papers

https://theintercept.com/2015/11/12/edward-snowden-explains-how-to-reclaim-your-privacy/?utm_source
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