Media And Power Analysis

To understand the theories and concepts by certain authors you must first look at the key features of media and power. Each of these terms are easily defined and understood when used in separate contexts, but when used together they mean a different term altogether. Media and power is looking at how different parties are engaging in a struggle for a multiple of reasons including influence, control, legitimation, status and most important of all profit. Politicians and institutions have interesting relationships with the media, if we consider Rupert Murdoch, a multimillionaire, who is closely linked with many British politicians and who owns certain influential newspapers in the United Kingdom and worldwide. The revelation of the phone hacking

This is a term which is used to describe the changes in the media and political system in past fifty years and also looks at how society and culture has changed in relation to this. Politics in itself has become a much more mediated sector, politicians are now obsessed with their media image and try and influence the media as much as possible as the media in turn influence society (Strömbäck 2008). The media have become the most important source of information and it shapes public opinion as individuals become passive followers thinking about what the media tell them to. The media don’t have the power to the the public what to think but they are able to tell them what to think about and this can be a dangerous form of power as individuals themselves do not realize they are being influenced. Strombach (2008) looks at four different phases of mediatization. In the first phase he realizes that politics is mediated, and this phase is important for other levels of mediatization. According to Strombach, this phase is essential for the media’s power over its audience in terms of influencing attitudes, opinions and perceptions, if people didn’t take the media’s view into account then their power would be minimal. Politicians also need to take the media into account when they are trying to shape the public’s opinion. In the second phase, Strombach states that the media have become more independent from government and political bodies, the media themselves are now using media logic rather than political logic. The media now make their own judgements and because of this the freedom of the media has increased from the first phase. It has become semi-independent from political