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'Assess the Marxist explanation of the relationship between the ownership and control of the mass media’

Marxists argue that the economic system of the UK, i.e. capitalism, is deeply unfair because it generally benefits a minority – the capitalist class – at the expense of the majority. Marxists believe that inequalities in wealth and income (therefore poverty) are the direct result of the way capitalism is organized. They argue that the wealth of the capitalist class is obtained by the exploiting the labor power of the working class. Thus, resulting in the capitalist class being able to ensure that class inequality is transmitted down through the generations through inheritance and private education.

The Marxist view of society is often interpreted as viewing the upper classes negatively; therefore it is no surprise that they apply the same argument when discussing the control of the mass media. ‘According to this Marxist view, the aim of owners in controlling output in this way is ideological – the function of the media is to turn out pro-capitalist ideology’ Marxist believe that media owners aim to transmit a conservative and conformist ideology in the form of news and entertainment. This creates an ‘ideological smokescreen’ and the public adopt a false class-consciousness coming to believe (wrongly) that the capitalist system is fair.

They argue that the main function of the media is to convince the general public that the ruling class ideology is ‘truth’ and ‘fact’. In other words, as Miliband (1973) argued, the role of the media is to shape how we think about the world we live in. We are rarely informed about the important things issues such as why people live in poverty. We are never encouraged to criticize the capitalist system. Marxists argue that owners of the media ensure that we only get a narrow range of ‘approved’ views and knowledge, resulting in the ‘alternative’ critical points of view are rarely heard. Marxist argue that the media is...