COMM 10 Lecture 11: 10-24 lecture
Document Summary
Major issues around the role of the media in society. The media can make us behave in a certain way by exercising control. Race and sexuality and national belonging become controversial. View of the media as the fourth estate, in the us context, the other three are the branches of government. The fourth estate is independent from and performs a watchdog function over the other three. These have consequences for the fourth estate function of the media. If media are publicly owned their primary responsibility is to the public rather than to state or government. If the media are state-owned, they may be biased toward the state. If media are privately owned, their dependence on private funding may bias them directly or indirectly toward their source of funding- e. g. advertisers. If media are concentrated in the hands of one or a few owners, they may be biased towards these owners.
