Commercial Media System Research Articles

Patronage Media in Post-Communist Mongolia

We provide a historically informed analysis of the media in post-communist Mongolia thirty years after the transition. In 1990, Mongolia chose a peaceful transition towards liberal democracy following the seventy years of the communist regime. Our analysis first establishes that amid the challenges and changes since the new constitution was adopted, a plural and commercial media system has undeniably been established. However, only a few established themselves as independent media with editorial, business, and ethical norms. While the plurality of media outlets created a media landscape aberrant from the socialist-time propagandistic media, the media market failures, along with rudimentary legal and professional institutions, contributed to the media instrumentalization and media capture in Mongolia.

Producing PSAs on consumer culture: youth reception of advertising

ABSTRACTThis study is a qualitative analysis of Public Service Announcement (PSA) storyboards produced by 177 fourth and sixth-grade students as part of a Media Literacy Education program on advertising and commercial culture. The program curriculum addressed the ubiquity and hidden nature of ads, as well as gender portrayals, violence, and nutritional messages in advertising content. Textual analysis revealed differing patterns in student reception of the varied lesson topics. Students called for specific behavioral changes in PSAs for the topics of nutrition and gender, although most were limited to non-media-related behaviors such as improving eating habits and encouraging fluidity across roles more traditionally associated with masculinity or with femininity. The analysis also suggested responsibility for the problems students identified with advertising were largely based on individual, consumerist perspectives rather than on collective or social, citizen-based terms. Fourth graders’ storyboards especially indicated an apparent mimicry of mainstream commercial productions and practices. The analysis further explores these fourth and sixth graders’ underlying orientations toward the U.S. commercial media system as well as the potential strengths and limitations of a production component in MLE programs to promote outcomes associated with critical media literacy.

SKAM som social utopi

In this article I discuss the Norwegian teen drama series Shame, broadcast by the public service broadcaster NRK 2015-2017. In the Scandinavian countries the series was targeted to a young audience around 16 years old but it became extremely popular among viewers of all ages, among men and women, and moreover, streaming made it available globally. The article discusses TV production for a youth audience within a public service and a commercial media system. The argument is that the series, expressing the ethos of social responsibility of Scandinavian public service broadcasting, represents a social utopia and that it in several ways has much in common with the long tradition for Scandinavian realistic drama production for young audiences. Thus, the article argues that the drama series of Shame is based on a narrative of inclusion – in contrast to popular TV-shows for a young audience on commercial channels, for instance reality gameshows, which are often based on a narrative of exclusion. The theoretical framework draws on Erving Goffman’s micro-sociological considerations of the social dramaturgy of face work, and is inspired by the theory of recognition by Axel Honneth. Analytically, the face work and interactions of the main characters of the Shame-series are used to exemplify how the drama series creates a narrative of inclusion while addressing critical issues such as face loss, emotional rejections, and shame. In conclusion, the series is an example of successful public service programming that is able to address young people.

United States news media and climate change in the era of US President Trump.

The Donald J Trump administration's strategy to disengage and downplay the Paris Climate Agreement will likely result in a slight decrease in the already low levels of US news media global warming coverage. This is because significant limitations with the news media's ability to adequately cover climate change predated the administration. First, studies indicate that advertising interests and editors have always challenged journalists' abilities to adequately report on climate change issues. Instead of climate change stories, editors often prefer more sensational topics that garner higher ratings and approval with advertisers. Second, the journalistic norm of balance and the role of sourcing give climate skeptics exceptional media exposure, which creates a "false balance" or equivalency between skeptics and scientists. Third, the massive power and influence of the fossil fuel industry's public relations arm has also had a tremendous impact on public (mis)understanding of climate change. Fourth, a trend toward declining climate change coverage and "climate silence" in US media is developing. Media corporations have substantially eliminated the number of environmental journalists that cover climate change. The overall effect of these limitations distorts public understanding of climate change and delays potential government action. Moving away from a predominantly commercial media system to one with a substantial noncommercial component can improve US journalism, whereas using advertising to increase rates for environmentally unsound products and services may also help mitigate global warming. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:202-204. © 2018 SETAC.

Pólitísk markaðsfjölmiðlun

Flokksfjölmiðlun þreifst hér á landi fram undir síðustu aldamót og sú umbreyting sem Blumler and Kavanagh (1999) kölluðu "Þriðja skeið pólitískrar boðmiðlunar" og felst m.a. í aukinni sérfræðiþekkingu í boðmiðlun innan stjórnmálaflokka og mikilli fagvæðingu blaðamannastéttarinnar og fjölmiðla, hefur haft styttri tíma til að þroskast en raunin var víða í nágrannalöndunum. Í þessari grein eru birtar niðurstöður úr frambjóðendakönnun sem gerð var meðal frambjóðenda allra stjórnmálaflokka í öllum kjördæmum fyrir Alþingiskosningarnar 2013. Niðurstöðurnar sýna með afgerandi hætti að íslenskir stjórnmálamenn hafa litla tiltrú á fagmennsku blaðamanna, óhæði fjölmiðla gagnvart stjórnmálaflokkum og þeirri óhlutdrægni sem alla jafna er talin fylgja markaðsvæðingu og umbreytingu frá ytri yfir í innri fjölbreytni í fjölmiðlun (Hallin and Mancini, 2004). Þvert á móti virðast stjórnmálamenn sjá íslenskan fjölmiðlamarkað í pólitísku ljósi þar sem flokksmiðlun og ytri fjölbreytni er áberandi mikilvæg. Leidd eru rök að því að þessar niðurstöður styðji að til hafi orðið kerfi "pólitískrar markaðsfjölmiðlunar" á Íslandi, m.a. vegna mikillar sögulegrar nálægðar flokksfjölmiðlunar, bernsku í fagvæðingu blaðamannastéttarinnar, fárra og frjálslegra reglna um fjölmiðlamarkaðinn, mikillar samþjöppunar eignarhalds á fjölmiðlum og samkrulls eigendavalds og flokkspólitíkur.

The ANC's poverty of strategy on media accountability

Since its National Congress in 2007, the African National Congress (ANC) has criticised the system of self-regulation in the print media, and promoted a statutory Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). This article considers the merits of the ANC's arguments, as well as the media's counter-arguments. While there are problems with South Africa's self-regulatory system for the print media, as it could be a more effective regulator of journalism standards, the ANC's proposal for the establishment of a statutory MAT, supported by its alliance partner, the South African Communist Party (SACP), will not resolve these problems. In making this proposal, the ANC has failed to deepen the debate about media accountability, which is of global relevance given concerns about declining media standards in the wake of the twin problems of media concentration and commercialisation. The tribunal proposal will fail to address systemic problems in print media coverage, flowing from the realities of a largely commercial media system operating in a country characterised by extremely high levels of poverty and inequality, and a ‘thick, rich’ notion of accountability will not be realised without such change.

Can Government Support the Press? Historicizing and Internationalizing a Policy Approach to the Journalism Crisis

Although consensus has been reached that journalism is in crisis, few agree on the nature of its decline or the means of resolving it. After providing an overview of this ongoing debate, the author contextualizes the journalism crisis within several historical, political, intellectual, and structural processes that help highlight what is at stake and what can be done to support the journalism required for a democratic society in the United States. He concludes with an emphasis on normative considerations regarding the future of journalism and provides several policy proposals that aim to provide the resources necessary for a robust and independent press. These policies, he suggests, will help facilitate the transition from a failing commercial media system to a public-service model of the press.

The Linkage between the U.S. Commercial Media System and the Crisis of the Korean Media Industry

Reports on the Korean culture's gaining popularity among foreign audiences have filled the Korean news media for more than a decade by now. On the other hand, some observers have begun to argue that the hyper-commercialism has brought the Korean cultural industries to a crisis. By examining a brief history of U.S. commercial media system's global spread, this paper makes an effort to understand the Korean media industry within an international and historical framework. Secondly, it analyzes the processes of Korean media industry losing its competitiveness following the Korean Wave success. Based on the research findings, this paper warns against the potentially detrimental effects of commercial media system.

WARNING—The Existing Media System May Be Toxic to Your Health: Health Communication and the Politics of Media Reform

Our physical health depends, at least in part, upon the health of our media environment. Unfortunately, the commercial media system produces countless messages that not only misinform Americans about their health but also actively promote unhealthy behaviors. Rather than taking the existing media system as a given, this commentary argues that health communication scholars should work with media reformers to transform the media system in ways that advance public health goals. In particular, the ongoing regulatory struggle over low-power radio provides an important opportunity for health communication scholars and media reformers to join forces.

Newspaper editorial discourse and the politics of self-censorship in Hong Kong

In transitional societies where political pressure on the press is coupled with a commercial media system and a professional journalistic culture, the politics of self-censorship is likely to involve a strategic contest between the media and political actors. Language plays a significant role in this contest. The present study focuses on the case of Hong Kong. It analyzes how two local newspapers, facing an important yet sensitive political issue, constructed two different overall storylines and used two different sets of discursive strategies in their editorials to handle political pressure, market credibility, and journalistic integrity simultaneously. The elite-oriented Ming Pao constructed a storyline of the debate as a factional struggle in order to posit itself as an impartial arbitrator. This approach was further sustained and justified by the discursive strategies of balanced and qualified criticisms and the rhetoric of rational discussion. The mass-oriented Apple Daily, on the other hand, constructed a storyline of a sovereign people whose rights are encroached upon by a powerful entity. The paper was therefore much more critical towards the power center. Nevertheless, it also appropriated the dominant discourse, constructed internal contradictions, and decentralized the Chinese central government to smooth out the radicalism of its criticisms.

Global Media, Neoliberalism, and Imperialism

In conventional parlance, the current era in history is generally characterized as one of globalization, technological revolution, and democratization. In all three of these areas media and communication play a central, perhaps even a defining, role. Economic and cultural globalization arguably would be impossible without a global commercial media system to promote global markets and to encourage consumer values. The very essence of the technological revolution is the radical development in digital communication and computing. The argument that the bad old days of police states and authoritarian regimes are unlikely to return is premised on the claims that new communication technologies along with global markets undermine, even eliminate, the capacity for "maximum leaders" to rule with impunity.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

The Struggle Over Media Literacy

The goal of media literacy is to help people become sophisticated citizens rather than sophisticated consumers. The authors argue against a purely ‘text-centred’ approach in which media texts can be deconstructed and analyzed so we can choose among them. Instead, media literacy should integrate a textual analysis with questions of production and reception. An analysis of the structure of media institutions is particularly important if Americans are able to appreciate and argue for alternatives to a lightly regulated commercial media system. Media literacy is, therefore, a way of extending democracy to the place where democracy is increasingly scripted and defined.

The struggle over media literacy

The goal of media literacy is to help people become sophisticated citizens rather than sophisticated consumers. The authors argue against a purely “text-centred” approach in which media texts can be deconstructed and analyzed so we can choose among them. Instead, media literacy should integrate a textual analysis with questions of production and reception. An analysis of the structure of media institutions is particularly important if Americans are able to appreciate and argue for alternatives to a lightly regulated commercial media system. Media literacy is, therefore, a way of extending democracy to the place where democracy is increasingly scripted and defined.