Marxism and Pluralism

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 developments?

New and digital media has brought many advantages to the audience because it has allowed them to have access to more views and values. This has allowed audiences to feel empowered due to their ability to gain more knowledge and information through NDM and the internet. Accessibility to these resources and sites has empowered audiences over institutions because of their ability to gain information from several sources allowing them to create opinions and views of their own.

Audiences are empowered by being able to access a wide variety of news and opinion using a single device such as their phone or tablet with speed and convenience. This empowers the audience massively because it gives them the ability to access the BBC or Guardian (sites) with ease and most importantly for free, meaning the convenience of this for the audience is at an all-time high giving them knowledge resulting in power, authority and a chance to form and share opinions of their own to the public i.e. online comments. NDM has allowed audiences to become equal because it gives all people the equal chance to input their opinions and ideas on social media sites such as twitter for free. This links to the pluralist view that we live in a classless society because NDM has given everyone the chance to voice their opinion in front of everyone without being punished or held against it (to an extent). This may also challenge the pluralist view to an extent because it empowers audiences and minimizes power from the newspaper industry who are struggling to make sales due to NDM's ability to give people access to news and information free of charge and also more fast than ever before with live news feeds constantly updating. 

Another way that NDM has given audiences a sense of empowerment is through its ability to educate audiences. NDM educates audiences through its ability to update people with on the go news and weather updates etc. This level of technology has empowered audiences because it has given them the chance to access information while going to work, school etc. This is a huge advantage because audiences can now have information literally in their hands giving them the ability to act accordingly i.e. news update. This challenges the Marxist view which state that the elite control and have power over the lower classes. This is because with NDM increasing and getting better constantly, this has given the lower class a sense of authority which has placed them in the same boat as the elite which challenges the Marxist view and supports the pluralistic side. However, it can be argued that the elite are now able to control and 'chose' what to feed the audience with in terms of information. This then puts the elite in control because they are able to control what the lower classes see which dis-empowers them due to a chance of unreliable information or misleading news being consumed by the audience. 

To conclude, NDM has given audiences the ability to access news, entertainment and many different content with ease and for free. This has given audiences a sense of empowerment and superiority due to their widened knowledge, views and values that NDM has allowed them to experience. It can be argued that empowerment for the audience through NDM has brought more of a pluralist view due to us living in a ‘classless society’, meaning everyone is seen as equal. This idea of pluralism has meant that empowerment for audiences has increased and left institutions such as news distributers below audiences. This is because NDM has allowed audiences to share their personal opinions on social media sites allowing them to share but also see and experience different opinions from others.