Karl Marx (The Communist Manifesto – 1848)
PROLETARIAT
Mr Arden?
Antonio Gramsci (b.1891)
(Marxist theory repurposed as a media theory in 1967)
Bourgeoisie = media owners
Proletariat = media
consumers
Passive audience
Accepting
Content
See the world as the media producer wants them to
see it
Michael Gurevitch
(Culture, Society and the Media – 1982)
Formulated liberal
pluralism as a media
theory, bringing
together two political
theories.
Active audience
Audience educated by the media, not hypnotised by it.
Audiences approach media texts as educated, savvy people able to interpret at different levels.
Able to accept and conform to the dominant idea the media producers represent, or challenge it, or develop it, or use it for their own purposes.
Even more the case now the population are free to produce their own media texts – YouTube, etc.
Test it out!
Watch the opening to a thriller and explain how the
two theories apply.
A Marxist analysis would say the audience will blindly
accept an idea the film represents.
A pluralist analysis would say the audience may
challenge it and think something different.