Evaluate Marxist Views of the Ownership and Control of the Media

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Although the Neo-Marxist view of media control and ownership isn’t as conspiratorial as the Traditional Marxist perspective, there are still a few major flaws. It can be argued that the Neo-Marxist View fails to recognise the growing number of media controllers that are female and or are ethnic minorities. Rebecca Brooks was a prominent media controller who fits the rest of the criteria Neo-Marxists have created for media controllers, but is female. Oprah Winfrey also is a great example of a media mogul who isn’t only female, but of ethnic minority background also which again breaks the mould of typical media controllers according to Neo-Marxists. This shows that perhaps, the Neo-Marxist view of media control and ownership isn’t as advanced and detailed as it perceives itself to be however it can be counter-argued that the two examples aforementioned are rare as 64% of media corporations members are men with 84% being white.

In addition, the development of new technologies can be seen as a tool that has been increasing the representation of a wider range of view. Pluralists would argue that this has enabled the general public to publish professional-quality media products that reflect their alternative interpretations that can contend with the hegemonic messages that are embedded in the media products created by the media controllers to reflect the views of media owners.

In conclusion, the overall Marxist view recognises that there are powers above that control the masses that change the mentality of the masses in order to favour them whether ideologically in order to legitimise and reproduce inequality or economically in order to create false needs to gain them a profit. However, in some cases, it is overgeneralised and conspiratorial. The traditional Marxist view of control and ownership is limited because it fails to distinguish the differences between the controllers and the owners and sees them as intertwined in a sinister search of a profit. This problem is solved by the Neo-Marxist perspective but even still; they neglect other factors such as gender and advancements in technology that has been having more impact increasingly in the last five years.