Personally, to some extent I do agree with Alain de Botton's view on the way the news industry works. Through the process of gatekeeping and mediation, news institutions tend to leave out information which is then not presented to audiences. Furthermore, this starts to in a way funnel the type of information that audiences consume. I also agree that in the modern age, it has become increasingly more difficult to get audiences to care about news and current affairs that would be beneficial as information, as opposed to news that might be purely for entertainment such as celebrity gossip. I personally think this could be due to the fact that audiences have now got a lot more control in what they consume and an increase in soft news would be dominant over hard news.
How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?
How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?
Alain de Botton's views are very critical of the way news works and the content it outputs to the audiences. This can be especially linked to the ideologies of Marxism and Hegemony as they instill the idea that news is dumbed down in order to create as much of an audience turn out as possible which would create greater profits rather than hard news that is a lot more critical and creates greater autonomy.
How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?
How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?
The pluralism ideology focuses more on the idea that there is greater freedom amongst audiences and society. The use of new technology allows this and reinforces the thinking behind the ideology. Newer technology allows the audiences to have a lot more power and freedom in what they consume, which proves that news and media is not used for social control by the government but rather as a way for audiences and society to gather whatever information they want whether that is soft or hard news.
Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supports de Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control.
Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supports de Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control.
Supports: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38146394
Argues: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38151669
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