Liberal Pluralism Vs. Modern Society Essay

Media sources in current culture are construed as important as they communicate the dominant ideology promoted by the bourgeois which the lower-class public should adhere to as the correct social norm (Kress, 1988). The medium which these ideologies are shown in are important, as different medium are used by different cultures. This essay will focus on comparing print with online media through analysing the Guardian and the Australian from August 31st. This will be done by looking at the types of news shown in each, the constraints and advantages of each medium, advertising, the concept of ownership, and the way the media convinces the public of their ideologies through hegemony.

In “Problems and Promise in Pluralism,” Annalee R. Ward argues for academic freedom through the lens of confessional pluralism. Ward challenges the academy to revisit pluralism to ascertain whether various denominations can have an “engagement of differences in creative ways” that allow for coexistence in scholarship” (Eck 9). Although academy insists that pluralism tugs on personal integrity, closer examination show that “authentic peaceful coexistence” is a possible outcome when approached correctly (Ward 5).

The Post Liberal Era begins with the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Although Ronald Reagan was one of the most popular president in United States history, the years he served were not beloved by many. One example of this was Reverend Jerry Falwell. Reverend Falwell believed that “our grand old flag from going down the drain.” according to the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Moral Majority Fundraising Letter. He was against homosexual people and the distribution of pornography and R/X rated movies. He seemed to believe that the sex and violence they contained were bad for America as a whole. Lastly, he brought up the controversial subject of abortion, believing it to be synonymous with murder.

Pluralism is the freedom of having many faiths accepted, while post pluralism is in a sense the new faiths that come about after time of taking in and observing other distinct religious practices and adding to one’s belief in order to shape something new and different. The author may feel that America has a oneness of religion because it seems as if even though there is no exact way everyone views and expresses religion it all still manages to come around to the same basic concept of looking up to a higher power and following a certain procedure or rituals to reach out to that higher power and express ones culture or religion. I personally have got in the routine of giving thanks every day, and in a way at times I do feel there is an oneness

Robert E. Park was a huge contributor in establishing sociology in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. His theory of assimilation was analyzing a social process and social interaction. Park argued that assimilation is inevitable in a democratic and industrial society (Healey, 2017, 50). Park strongly believed that when the American society begins to modernize, ethnic and race groups would lose importance. This theory was proven to be true in the European immigrant groups across the 20th century. Due to industrialization, the nature of work in America evolved and changed and created opportunities for upward mobility for white ethnic groups (Healey, 2017, 81). A form of upward mobility was resulted in the changes in the structure of the economy and labor market. This was called structural mobility. The descendants of European immigrants became upwardly mobile not only because of their individual ambitions and efforts but also because of the changing location or jobs and the progressively greater opportunities for education available for them (Healey, 2017, 81).

The article states, how media is operated by the upper class, which gives them power over the American people and the way American’s proceed things. The wealth media operators use their power to shape our social class structure, by only telling us things to further help them. They put a bad taste in your mouth for welfare and convince us to resent the people below us for all America’s problems. Nevertheless, they are the elite privilege, who act as a ruling government with the media being their choice of weapon against the less fortune it.

“The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception” by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer is a pivotal article in history that changed the way in which many communications scholars viewed media. Both authors were members of the Frankfurt School, a school of thought which looked further into Karl Marx’s theories about capitalism and the issues of mass production. Published in 1944, Adorno and Horkheimer revealed their beliefs that the media, much like the economy, is becoming mass produced, and is therefore turning people in society into media-consuming robots. Industrialization created work lives for people in which they would work on only one part of a larger machine. As a result, they felt less involved in the completion of the project as a whole, and therefore felt less pride in their jobs and their lives in general. Instead, these people turned to media and pop culture so that they would feel more fulfillment within their lives. Adorno and Horkheimer believed that these people had a reduced capacity for original thought because media is now force feeding them the ideas of what they can think and feel. This essay will prove that although Adorno and Horkeimer’s points were justified through the eyes of authors George Lipsitz, Lev Manovich, and Susan J. Douglas, there are still exceptions to their theories that they do not account for.

Fox News is a perfect example of the relevance of Marxist theories in modern, Western society. Characters like Rupert Murdoch epitomise Karl Marx’s example of the bourgeoisie, with their power hungry and money fuelled quests for superior economic capital, the news broadcasting industry as a whole, is one that is extremely corrupt. Although the BBC’s aims to logically avoid these discrepancies through its ‘funded by the proletariat’ setup, due to examples and individual cases like its subtle leaning towards the ‘No’ campaign at the time of the Scottish referendum, has monumental effects on modern culture, and this stance may have been one of the key, outlying reasons that Scotland is still a member of the United Kingdom. As a medium, news-broadcasting channels are unable to avoid these issues, and are prone to manipulation and biases throughout various

Without socialization, humans would not possess the knowledge of language nor thought. James Baldwin stated in an article of the Saturday Review in 1963 that he believed “man is a social animal. He cannot exist without society.” Although man is highly dependent on and requires the presence of society for survival, society would not exist without members. While there are disadvantages to social settings, there are a large number of benefits to them as well. Numerous advantages include a higher sense of independence and individuality, a feeling of security, and an increased level of understanding and comprehension for mankind. This knowledge helps us recognize the reality of our present. We can gain insight to what humans have done in the past through studying our history. Regarding this information, we can grow and develop as a society through past behaviors by enhancing healthier lifestyles, preventing the disturbance of our environment, in addition to limiting the high number of extinctions, and more.

In his conference, he pointed that it was not his intention to say that media was the direct source of violence, but that it could not be denied that media was in fact a powerful framer of society. I find that this approach is both necessary and flawed. It is interesting and compulsory because it draws our attention to the media as source of what we consider ‘our’ culture. A culture that is no longer ‘ours’, but it is crafted by media and then sold to us. Nonetheless, insofar as the concepts of ‘masculinity’ and ‘violence’ are taught to people, so could be taught other concepts such as ‘feminism’ or ‘humanism’. I believe that by drawing the focus of attention to media as crafter of our society, we forget that we still have the power of resistance to the hegemonic narratives of identity; and that this endows us with the power to teach deviant social discourses: the Civil Rights Movement was capable or resisting racism and the Gay Liberation, homophobia. These are examples of movements that – to great extents – succeeded in making general a view that was once shared by a minority. Butsch (2015) pointed that there is a growing space for resistance to the preferred

On the other hand, it is explicit that there are some limitations for this proposition, the economic force that drives the industry and establishes profit interest over the social role became a major barrier. However, a second challenge is presented, the possibility of mass media to focus on its social role its arduous due to the economic forces, consumers have

In the following paragraphs, I will be discussing on how ideology can effect the media. The first article that I will be analysing is called “Marxism and the Media” written by Khawer Khan. Khan started the article by saying that, the mass media is found everywhere and it’s influencing our daily lives. Quoting the book “Manufactured Consent” by Noam Chomsky, he states that corporate ownership is an issue that is being represented in the media. In fact, in the United States, there are six large corporations of media outlets which are General Electric, Comcast, Disney, News Corp, CBS, and Time Warner. Apart from controlling the television, radio and newspapers, they also own the outdoor advertising.

The author goes on to explain that the public refrains from criticizing the media because they are dependent upon it. They need the culture industry in order to achieve pleasure and satisfaction and cannot imaging their lives without it. The industry preserves its power by presenting an ideal of “the good life” as reality and through false conflicts that trade him for his real ones. The industry spreads false values and establishes the individual’s willingness to be a part of society and to coordinate his interests with it. Adorno also states that the culture industry takes advantage of the weaker classes by making its content shallow and widely appealing and thus demoting the value of culture “Everyone knows that they are helpless within the system, and ideology must take account for this”

Over the past century or two it has become quite evident that elite certainly hold all the cards when it comes to what the public should know through the media which initially was supposed to be autonomous of the government and the socially elite. This essay will mainly focus on the findings of Noam Chomsky and his postulations, the works of Harold Innis and his influence on the first application of the political economy approach within the media. And I will touch base on theories by Boyd Barrett then neatly wrap it up with a bow of how influence impacts public opinion in general.

Economism, or vulgar Marxism, is a key feature in explaining the media’s role according to Marx. This is also referred to as the base/superstructure model. In economism, “the economic base of society is seen as determining everything else in the superstructure, including social, political, and intellectual consciousness.” (Marxist Media Theory 1) This maintains that the media is used as the base of society. Society is referred to as the superstructure. Clearly, media shapes society even today. Since consumers rely on the media for information and entertainment, (ex. Television and radio new, magazines, newspapers, Internet), they are shaped by whatever forms of media they chose to be an audience to. The media manipulates everything from popular fashion to the food people consume.