Samenvatting/Aantekeningen
MEDIA, MAATSCHAPPIJ EN POLITIEK/ MEDIA, SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Vu - December 2024- Januari 2025
Lecture notes, Gadi Wolfsfeld Making Sense of Media Politics (2022) and all other articles
Lecture 1 - 28/10/24 0
Gadi Wolfsfeld - Making Sense of Media Politics (2022) 7
Introduction 7
1. Political Power and Power over the Media 7
2. Political Control and Media Independence 11
3. Every Political Story is Biased 14
4. Telling a Good Story 15
5. The Media Get You When You’re not Paying Attention 15
Mullen & Klaen - The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model (2010) 16
Blumler - Mediatization and Democracy (2014) 18
Fording & Schram - The Cognitive Emotional Souces of Trump Support: The Case of Low-information Voters (2017) 20
Boukes & Vliegenthart - A general Pattern in the construction of economic newsworthiness? Analysing newsfactors in popular, quality, regional and financial
newspapers (2020) 20
Norris, Garnett & Grömping - The Paranoid Style of American Elections: Explaining Perceptions of Electoral Integrity in an Age of Populism (2020) 22
Bennet & Segerberg - The Logic of Cognitive Action(2012) 23
Mundt, Ross & Burnett - Scaling Social Movements Through Social Media: The Case of BLM (2018) 24
Morris - From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter (2021) 24
Howard & Hussain - Introduction + Digital Media and the Arab Spring (2013) 25
Tuckers et al., - From Liberation to Turmoil: Social Media and Democracy (2017) 26
Wählstrom & Thörnberg - Social Media mechanisms for Right-wing Political Violence in the 21st century: Discursive opportunities, group dynamics and
co-ordination (2021) 26
Van Prooijen et al., - Populist Guilibility: Conspiracy Theories, News Credibility, Bullshit Receptivity and Paranormal Beliefs (2022) 28
Van Prooijen & Krouwel - Psychological features of Extreme Political Ideologies (2019) 28
Hoorcollege 1 - 28/10/24
Media is veranderd door het internet. Maar het blijft een centraal onderdeel van het politieke spel.
“media provides the audience”
“if you don't exist in the media you don’t exist politically
- become known
- mobilise supporters
- influence public opinion (positively and negatively)
- influence policy
they need to know you're there but also need to know your interests
you can’t depend on local communities, you need mass media
The 5 principles in political communication (wolfsfeld)
1. “political power can usually be translated into power over all forms of media”
2 “When the powerful lose control over the political environment they also lose control over all
media”
,3 “Every political story that appears in every form of media is biased”
→ “ there is o such thing as objective journalism (nor can there be)
4 “All forms of media are dedicated to telling a good story → invloed op politieke processen
→ commercial bias
5 “many of the most important effects of the various forms of media on citizens tent to be
unintentional and unnoticed”
→ iedereen interpreteert het anders en haal er andere betekenissen uit. Dus er kan geen
consensus bestaan
Competitive symbiosis
= each side of the relationship attempts to exploit each other while expending a minimum amount of
cost.
- each side needs something from the other one to succeed
Media dependency
- publicity
- information
Interaction between
- political power
- media power
the question is/; “How much structural power is there from the large companies over what the media
says. Is it in the hands of companies?
Wolfsfeld vindt dat politieke power = media power
Politici hebben een ‘front door’ → the powerful are always relevant, thus get more authentic media
acces and positive media coverage.
- twist the massage in your advantage
‘Back door’ → normies moeten deze gebruiken. the "powerless" have to work hard/make themselves
relevant
“most political contest are unequal”
Wolfsfeld: political power kan media power worden dus: the more powerful get covered more often
and more positively: “media biases are powerful”
Elites also get more coverage: obsession with elites limit the range of political discourse
- veel mensen/kanten onderbelicht. Media becomes narrow on what’s being heard.
Principle of cumulative inequality: the political actors who most need access to the news are the ones
that find it the most difficult to obtain.
Wolfsfeld: er is ook een sidedoor
1
,→ civil disobedience kan via the sidedoor
in autoritaire systemen is er meer direct control of the media. Geen mutual dependence.
Verschil state (public) media en private media. Hoeveel control over de politiek?
- lastig in NL omdat het een divers land is
Inequality is not accidental but structural, also in media (acces). To enter into the media and make
your case is structurally unequal. People with more resources (economic inequalities) have far more
access to media and resources of power.
change cus of vergrijzing. en erven van
The political economy of mass media mist in wolfsfeld’s text.
Vandaag wel over the politieke economy van massa media
Manufacturing consent: the political economy of mass media → edward herman en noah
chomsky
- Zij ontwikkelden een propaganda model voor media kritiek
- Beargumenteerde dat “market forces, internalized assumptions and self-censorship” wat
kranten en televisienetwerken stifle dissent
US media als een bedrijf wat een product (het publiek) verkoopt aan andere bedrijven
Naive liberal model: justice, equity, freedom and representation
Media als democratic watchdog
- media takes initiative
- investigative reporting
- independent scrutiny
- documenting, questioning, and investigating
- provide public and officials with timely fashion
Well functioning media is of paramount importance for democratic societies:
- report events objectively ass they occur, to allow citizens to make informed political
choices….
“media are in west democracies a propagandy system, net als in totalitaire statren. Maar is niet
makkelijk te zien, want in een democratie, sometimes they do get out and elites do get punished. Maar
dat is per ongeluk., het is niet structureel,. most power elites gaan niet ten onder. media doet zich voor
als “free speech etc etc maar ze gaan telkens naar dezelfde bronnen” → chomsky idee
- non-violent means of control
Michel Foucault
- Power is everywhere: infused and embodies in discourse, knowledge and regimes of truth.
Norms are embedded beyond our perception - causing us to discipline ourselves without any
willful coercion from others.
2
, - Het panopticon: the systematic ordering and controlling of human population through subtle
and then often unseen forces (surveillance techniques)
Power
= the intentional production of causal effects
Power is the ability to achieve one’s goals or objectives. Power is also the ability to overcome
opposition to exercise control over people
Power is hierarchical: A gets B to do something that B would not otherwise have done” (Heywood)
Here is always someone more powerful. It's not horizontal. Somebody is deciding. Its nor always the
same hierarchy but it's never horizontal.
Principle & Subaltern
Power relation are hierarchical/asymmetric relations between a superior (principle) and subordinate
(subaltern)
In order for there to be power there needs to be an intentional action of a superior
Teh subordinate always has some room and freedom and choice to resist
4 forms of power
the first 2 are corrective forms of affection and the options for actions. The other 2 are persuasive
forms acception the reasons for actions
1. (physical) force or coercion on decisions or compliance (ero-sum): literally limiting options
2. the ability to change the basis of choices: just not put them on the table.
3. preference shaping via institutions: Shaping meaning and significance of things
4. value shaping: via idocoligal hegemony
- physical coercion based on negative bodily….
Propaganda in Pop culture, subliminal messaging
“all media content is full of subliminal messaging” → voorbeeld rocky
- manipulation and propaganda: the principal changes the bases on which the subaltern
perceives the rational bases of action without the subaltern noticing it
- subaltern chooses on ‘rational’ grounds what the principal wants
- → propaganda, advertising and political campaigns
Signification and cognitive symbolism
“power relations are arrivulations of meaning (a particular logic of the signification process)
- connotations to the message
- problems: als er 1 heel dominant is, dan is er geen mogelijkheid om alternatieve wereld
ideeën te begrijpen/accepteren. "that's why the media don’t go through the dominant frame. “
zeggen herman en chomsky
Words matter: Tax ‘relief’
Dit is framing.
Framing: The core idea is that frames “shape individual understanding and public opinion concerning
an issue by stressing specific elements or features of the broader controversy” (Nelson, Clawson and
Oxley, 1997)
3
MEDIA, MAATSCHAPPIJ EN POLITIEK/ MEDIA, SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Vu - December 2024- Januari 2025
Lecture notes, Gadi Wolfsfeld Making Sense of Media Politics (2022) and all other articles
Lecture 1 - 28/10/24 0
Gadi Wolfsfeld - Making Sense of Media Politics (2022) 7
Introduction 7
1. Political Power and Power over the Media 7
2. Political Control and Media Independence 11
3. Every Political Story is Biased 14
4. Telling a Good Story 15
5. The Media Get You When You’re not Paying Attention 15
Mullen & Klaen - The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model (2010) 16
Blumler - Mediatization and Democracy (2014) 18
Fording & Schram - The Cognitive Emotional Souces of Trump Support: The Case of Low-information Voters (2017) 20
Boukes & Vliegenthart - A general Pattern in the construction of economic newsworthiness? Analysing newsfactors in popular, quality, regional and financial
newspapers (2020) 20
Norris, Garnett & Grömping - The Paranoid Style of American Elections: Explaining Perceptions of Electoral Integrity in an Age of Populism (2020) 22
Bennet & Segerberg - The Logic of Cognitive Action(2012) 23
Mundt, Ross & Burnett - Scaling Social Movements Through Social Media: The Case of BLM (2018) 24
Morris - From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter (2021) 24
Howard & Hussain - Introduction + Digital Media and the Arab Spring (2013) 25
Tuckers et al., - From Liberation to Turmoil: Social Media and Democracy (2017) 26
Wählstrom & Thörnberg - Social Media mechanisms for Right-wing Political Violence in the 21st century: Discursive opportunities, group dynamics and
co-ordination (2021) 26
Van Prooijen et al., - Populist Guilibility: Conspiracy Theories, News Credibility, Bullshit Receptivity and Paranormal Beliefs (2022) 28
Van Prooijen & Krouwel - Psychological features of Extreme Political Ideologies (2019) 28
Hoorcollege 1 - 28/10/24
Media is veranderd door het internet. Maar het blijft een centraal onderdeel van het politieke spel.
“media provides the audience”
“if you don't exist in the media you don’t exist politically
- become known
- mobilise supporters
- influence public opinion (positively and negatively)
- influence policy
they need to know you're there but also need to know your interests
you can’t depend on local communities, you need mass media
The 5 principles in political communication (wolfsfeld)
1. “political power can usually be translated into power over all forms of media”
2 “When the powerful lose control over the political environment they also lose control over all
media”
,3 “Every political story that appears in every form of media is biased”
→ “ there is o such thing as objective journalism (nor can there be)
4 “All forms of media are dedicated to telling a good story → invloed op politieke processen
→ commercial bias
5 “many of the most important effects of the various forms of media on citizens tent to be
unintentional and unnoticed”
→ iedereen interpreteert het anders en haal er andere betekenissen uit. Dus er kan geen
consensus bestaan
Competitive symbiosis
= each side of the relationship attempts to exploit each other while expending a minimum amount of
cost.
- each side needs something from the other one to succeed
Media dependency
- publicity
- information
Interaction between
- political power
- media power
the question is/; “How much structural power is there from the large companies over what the media
says. Is it in the hands of companies?
Wolfsfeld vindt dat politieke power = media power
Politici hebben een ‘front door’ → the powerful are always relevant, thus get more authentic media
acces and positive media coverage.
- twist the massage in your advantage
‘Back door’ → normies moeten deze gebruiken. the "powerless" have to work hard/make themselves
relevant
“most political contest are unequal”
Wolfsfeld: political power kan media power worden dus: the more powerful get covered more often
and more positively: “media biases are powerful”
Elites also get more coverage: obsession with elites limit the range of political discourse
- veel mensen/kanten onderbelicht. Media becomes narrow on what’s being heard.
Principle of cumulative inequality: the political actors who most need access to the news are the ones
that find it the most difficult to obtain.
Wolfsfeld: er is ook een sidedoor
1
,→ civil disobedience kan via the sidedoor
in autoritaire systemen is er meer direct control of the media. Geen mutual dependence.
Verschil state (public) media en private media. Hoeveel control over de politiek?
- lastig in NL omdat het een divers land is
Inequality is not accidental but structural, also in media (acces). To enter into the media and make
your case is structurally unequal. People with more resources (economic inequalities) have far more
access to media and resources of power.
change cus of vergrijzing. en erven van
The political economy of mass media mist in wolfsfeld’s text.
Vandaag wel over the politieke economy van massa media
Manufacturing consent: the political economy of mass media → edward herman en noah
chomsky
- Zij ontwikkelden een propaganda model voor media kritiek
- Beargumenteerde dat “market forces, internalized assumptions and self-censorship” wat
kranten en televisienetwerken stifle dissent
US media als een bedrijf wat een product (het publiek) verkoopt aan andere bedrijven
Naive liberal model: justice, equity, freedom and representation
Media als democratic watchdog
- media takes initiative
- investigative reporting
- independent scrutiny
- documenting, questioning, and investigating
- provide public and officials with timely fashion
Well functioning media is of paramount importance for democratic societies:
- report events objectively ass they occur, to allow citizens to make informed political
choices….
“media are in west democracies a propagandy system, net als in totalitaire statren. Maar is niet
makkelijk te zien, want in een democratie, sometimes they do get out and elites do get punished. Maar
dat is per ongeluk., het is niet structureel,. most power elites gaan niet ten onder. media doet zich voor
als “free speech etc etc maar ze gaan telkens naar dezelfde bronnen” → chomsky idee
- non-violent means of control
Michel Foucault
- Power is everywhere: infused and embodies in discourse, knowledge and regimes of truth.
Norms are embedded beyond our perception - causing us to discipline ourselves without any
willful coercion from others.
2
, - Het panopticon: the systematic ordering and controlling of human population through subtle
and then often unseen forces (surveillance techniques)
Power
= the intentional production of causal effects
Power is the ability to achieve one’s goals or objectives. Power is also the ability to overcome
opposition to exercise control over people
Power is hierarchical: A gets B to do something that B would not otherwise have done” (Heywood)
Here is always someone more powerful. It's not horizontal. Somebody is deciding. Its nor always the
same hierarchy but it's never horizontal.
Principle & Subaltern
Power relation are hierarchical/asymmetric relations between a superior (principle) and subordinate
(subaltern)
In order for there to be power there needs to be an intentional action of a superior
Teh subordinate always has some room and freedom and choice to resist
4 forms of power
the first 2 are corrective forms of affection and the options for actions. The other 2 are persuasive
forms acception the reasons for actions
1. (physical) force or coercion on decisions or compliance (ero-sum): literally limiting options
2. the ability to change the basis of choices: just not put them on the table.
3. preference shaping via institutions: Shaping meaning and significance of things
4. value shaping: via idocoligal hegemony
- physical coercion based on negative bodily….
Propaganda in Pop culture, subliminal messaging
“all media content is full of subliminal messaging” → voorbeeld rocky
- manipulation and propaganda: the principal changes the bases on which the subaltern
perceives the rational bases of action without the subaltern noticing it
- subaltern chooses on ‘rational’ grounds what the principal wants
- → propaganda, advertising and political campaigns
Signification and cognitive symbolism
“power relations are arrivulations of meaning (a particular logic of the signification process)
- connotations to the message
- problems: als er 1 heel dominant is, dan is er geen mogelijkheid om alternatieve wereld
ideeën te begrijpen/accepteren. "that's why the media don’t go through the dominant frame. “
zeggen herman en chomsky
Words matter: Tax ‘relief’
Dit is framing.
Framing: The core idea is that frames “shape individual understanding and public opinion concerning
an issue by stressing specific elements or features of the broader controversy” (Nelson, Clawson and
Oxley, 1997)
3
