Developments in New&Digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values.

Developments in New&Digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values. To what extent are audiences empowered by these greater developments. 

Pluralists argue that we live in a classless society and media organisations are responsive to an audience and are economically determined whereas, Marxists believe that the mass media are a tool used by ruling bodies to maintain hegemonic control over the masses and a class divided society. Both do however agree with the fact that developments in new and digital media have meant that audiences are able to have a greater access to a variety of news and values.

Developments in new and digital have resulted into audiences having access to a greater variety of views and values, thus empowering its audiences. The empowering of audiences allows them to have their own views on a topic or even changing the landscape of the topic. One way in which this is possible is through audiences sharing and commenting on online websites such as The Guardian or The Mail; on both websites audiences are able to see news articles. Under the articles we see comments, and audiences are able to comment under the article which in a way empowers them.  If the article has a problem with it or if it offends someone then we see opinions of readers that ridicule it. This can result into the changing of the article or the complete removing of it.  An early example seen of this was after the death of the Boyzone member: Stephen Gately. The Daily Mail was ridiculed after columnist Jan Moir wrote an article that described events leading up to Gately’s death as ‘sleazy’, and she believed that the natural cause of the death was not a natural one. The article was soon removed from The Daily Mail's website and resulted into The Daily Mail being ridiculed by general readers. This showed the empowering of audiences and provided us with a way that illustrated how developments in new and digital media has not only allowed audiences with a greater variety of views and values but now it has also empowered the general audience to an extent that proves that if the they believe something is wrong and offensive, it may lead up to the ridiculing of the writer.  Another key factor that has helped embody audiences is Blogposts. Blogposts  empower audiences to an extent which allows them to get across their views and also gain a vast majority of readers. The online format is also seen through The Guardian's webpage. The Guardian allows those in job professions to weekly/daily put up a Blogpost that puts upon their current views on an issue. One example of this is through The Guardians Teacher blog, which allows teachers to speak about something funny or wrong in their school. Following this, other teachers are able to comment under this and this is a weekly thing. This social circle between teachers creates entertainment for those in that profession. It also empowers an audience to an extent which provides them with a source of entertainment further showing power in the favour of audiences.

Another way to argue that media organisations are responsive to an audience thus making them economically determined is through the new and digital aspect of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Late 2013, ex-footballer Stan Collymore took to Twitter to get his views across on controversial Liverpool player Luis Suarez and regarded him as a 'diver'. This was not taking pleasantly by many die-hard Liverpool fans also using Twitter. Seeing that Collymore once played for Liverpool they expected him to have a bit more favouritism towards them, however Collymore's impartial views were met by major racism. Collymore was taunted for his views. Many fans did not agree with him and took to backing up their own team player by racially abusing Collymore. This led to Collymore deactivating his Twitter account and calling for the major institution to do more to tackle racist and sexist abuse towards users. Collymore also received death threats and this showed how the empowering of audiences may not always be a good thing. One key aspect of Twitter is that is allows users to get their own views across and this is not met with any harm but the empowering of audiences does allow abuse to get through. Rendering the fact that even though audiences are now empowered by the developments of new and digital media, it is not always a good thing.

The empowering of audiences is further shown through 'Citizen Journalism' and Murdoch's quote where Murdoch believes that 'the world is changing and newspapers have to adapt'. Citizen journalism coincides with the pluralist way of society. Where there is a belief that media organisations are responsive to an audience resulting them to be economically determined. With the rise of new and digital media, we are able to see news events happen easier, and it is cheaper and risk less for institutions. An example of this is seen through the Woolwich murder, the murder of Lee Rigby was recorded by citizens going by their daily life, and a statement was made by one of the killers which was recorded by a citizen. This was sent into ITV and they immediately showed it on live TV, many people were able to see this statement and this was all due to the sending in of a video by a normal citizen. Citizen journalism has helped empower audiences, they can now view footage of something that is happening right at the moment. Murdoch's quote on 'the world is changing' further reverts the fact that audiences have been empowered by new and digital media. Especially by citizen journalism. Globalisation is also becoming an increasingly important concept for the media, and the digital revolution means that we can socialise differently, this revolution has also resulted in the rise of video cameras thus indicating audiences are able to record videos and send them in rendering them as citizen journalists.

On the other hand,  there is also the Marxist belief that the mass media is a tool that is used by ruling bodies to maintain a hegemonic control over the masses and a class divided society. One way in which this is done via the developments of new and digital media was through The Sun newspaper. Murdoch's newspaper has been known to reveal breaking news. A few weeks ago after the England football game, journalists from The Sun newspaper revealed on Twitter  that in the Sunday edition a gay footballer would be revealed, one who featured in the game.  This resulted into many people being the Sunday edition of The Sun, but they decided not to publish an article about this. This portrayed the manipulation of audiences and conveyed how just through a tweet and new and digital media, audiences were manipulated into buying The Sun. This coincides with the Marxist theory how the mass media is a tool used by ruling bodies to maintain a hegemonic control over the masses, it also subverts the fact that new and digital media has meant that audiences have access to a greater variety and values. It in a way renders how everything read on social networking sites must not be believed.

Another example of a Marxist belief that conveys new and digital media to have resulted into audiences having an access to a greater variety and values is through the Crimea crisis. The media has had audiences believe that Russia are the antagonists without giving them an actual view. In the day and age we live in, audiences are able to access news anywhere. Applications on phones and the 'most important medium of the twentieth century'; the internet, has resulted into audiences being able to access anything on the internet, and in the past few weeks audiences have been become infiltrated with news of the Russian invasion being bad. The manipulation of the media is being shown here and it conveys to audiences that they are not majorly empowered by these developments. Audiences are seen as bystanders when the Prime Minister comes out and regards this a bad thing, and this is usually what the news organisations lead with creating moral panic, yet it doesn't in any way empower the audiences in any ways, it just keeps them as bystanders.

To conclude, to some extent, audiences are empowered by the digital revolution. It gives them access to a greater variety of news and values, and it lets them access news anywhere and everywhere, but there is still that Marxist point of view where the mass media are the ones dominating things and they can put anything in the news and audiences are resulted into being bystanders. We see both Pluralist and Marxist theories in the rise of the new and digital media and both empower audiences to some extent, yet not to a point where they media organisations are responsive to an audience.