Transcript Devereux, Chs. 1 and 5

Devereux Chapter 1
“Political Economy and Cultural
Studies Approaches to the Analysis of
Media”
Political Economy
• The forces (government and corporations) which
shape media content also promote the
“dominant ideology of the ruling classes.”
– There is social stratification
– Some have more freedom to speak than others
• Money determines access to the media, thus freedom to speak
and be heard
– The focus is on production
• Media conglomerates pursue “the bottom line”--profits
• There is conglomerate control over content and meaning
Cultural Studies
• Studies how the audience uses cultural artifacts:
“as individuals have the capacity to undermine the
intended meaning of texts, they can therefore
subvert the relations of power within which they
are located.”
– The focus is on consumption
– Messages are interpreted by audience members “to
make sense of their lives”
• Formation of personal identity
• Formation of beliefs
• Formation of attitudes
Devereux, Chapter 5
“News Content Studies, Media Group
Methods and Discourse Analysis: A
Comparison of Approaches
Glasgow University Media
Group (GUMG)
• For decades GUMG has studied the relationship
between media
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News
Documentaries
Game shows
Soap operas, etc.
• And public understanding of important issues
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Politics
Economy
Health care
Employer-employee relationships, etc.
Qualitative vs. Quantitative
Content Analysis
• GUMG rejects TOTAL reliance on
traditional approaches to content analysis,
which are completely quantitative
– Counting words, events, times, . . .
• GUMG focuses on context and meaning
• This qualitative analysis can be followed up
by a quantitative one, if it is warranted
“More Bad News” (1980)
• This book published by GUMG
– Balanced news is an illusion
– News is presented in such a way that only one
side “makes sense”
– In this study of the miner’s strike, only the
government’s side made sense
– In reporting any controversial issue there are
alternative and competing ways to describe
events
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in
2000-2002
• News reports of the intifada clearly
demonstrated Palestinian leaders as making
anti-semitic remarks in defense of the
violence
• Israel choose to ignore this, and, instead,
focused on the ‘war on terror’
Reasons for Focusing on the War
on Terrorism
• In interviews, researchers learned that this focus
was more likely to gain sympathy for Israel from
the West
– Us vs. Them conflict
– Them (persons rejecting Western values)
• The focus allowed Israel to divert attention away
from it’s own problematic actions of violence
GUMG’s Two-step Method of
Analysis
• Step 1: identify ALL arguments on the issue
which are available for journalists to select
from
– What is selected is “the preferred account”
• Step 2: identify word associations which
have become habitual
– Globalization=economic progress
– Inflation=excessive wage demands
Consumers of News
• Are not likely to have the historical background
knowledge to identify alternative accounts and to
recognize selection and association
• Are not likely to look up original statements to see
if the words used in a paraphrase reflect what the
source actually said
• Are not likely to know what has been excluded
(what they are NOT being told)
Reports on the Shooting of
Mohammed al Durrah
French media released a videotape of
a boy and his father crouched against
a wall. The voice-over reported that
they were shot by an Israeli soldier.
Israel’s Version of the News
• The boy was shot by Palestinian rioters
– The rioters were only armed with rocks
• Palestinian police could have cleared the
square
– ???
• The boy was “caught unintentionally in the
crossfire”
– This became the preferred account
Jamal al Durrah’s Version
• “They shot at us until they hit us”
• “I saw the man who did it, the Israeli
soldier”
GUMG’s “News Game”
Research
• Subjects were divided into small groups and given
16 photos illustrating news stories-- one was the al
Durrah photo
• Subjects were asked to write the news story each
photo illustrated
• Most repeated the “caught in the crossfire” line
• Some included events that had not happened at the
time of the shooting and used them to explain the
Israeli response which caused the shooting in
which the child was killed
FrontPageMagazine.com
• Nine years later a conservative online site
argued the video was a hoax and neither
father nor son was harmed
• French media have asked for an
investigation and are suing