Ownership and Content in Broadcast News: Theoretical Perspectives

Keval J. Kumar

Perspectives on Ownership and Content Liberal Pluralist Theory Political Economy Theory Cultural Studies Theory Ethnographic/Ethno-methodological Theory

Liberal Pluralist Theory

Pluralistic ownership of the media in a free-market economy competition in the expression of diverse opinions; hence no prevailing or dominant perspective in the reporting of news

News is a product and a business, so the primary motivation is profit-making rather than peddling a particular point of view or supporting particular political parties or ideologies

Influences on news result from individual news workers; the routine practices with which news is collected, transformed and distributed; characteristics of news organisations; social institutions outside of the media, and social system ideology and values (Shoemaker and Rees, 1996).

E.g. World Bank Study (2001) on ‘Effects of Ownership on Media Firms’, in 97 countries E.g. Shoemaker and Cohen: ‘News Around the World: Content, Practitioners and the

Public’ (2006) – in ten countries including India.

Political Economy Perspective

The content of the news media is the result primarily of economic factors

Hence who owns the media and what is his politics are crucial questions in the selection and processing of news

Much research from this perspective finds a ‘strong correlation’ between ownership and content, though not necessarily a direct cause- and -effect relationship.

E.g. Golding, Murdoch, Vincent Mosco, Janet Wasko, Pradip Thomas.

Cultural Studies Perspective

Charge that political economy perspective is close to ‘economic determinism’

View ownership-content relationship is not as relevant as the ‘active reception’ of the ‘text’

See ideology (‘preferred readings) embedded in texts but often these readings are ‘negotiated’ or ‘opposed’ (Cf. Stuart Hall’s model)

News discourse is a social construction and takes on meaning (ideology) only in a socio-cultural context.

E.g. Stuart Hall, John Fiske, David Morley, Philip Schlesinger

Ethnography /Ethnomethodology

Owner – Content relationship is irrelevant News channels and news bulletins are watched in a

family environment as part of everyday life. The ‘lived experience’ of watching the news suggests

that it is integrated into the daily routines /schedules of family life at home;

News is watched as we eat dinner, read the papers, work on the computer, surf the net, do the housework, etc.

E.g. Roger Silverstone, James Lull,

Questions for Discussion

1. What is the relevance of these theories to exploring the ownership-content relationship in the 211 Indian news channels?

2. What type of media ownership influences what type of news content in television? (State vs Private/Corporate ownership?)

3. Political party – owned TV channels (Sun TV, Kalaignar TV, Jaya TV in Tamilnadu; Eenadu in Andhra Pradesh; Kairali, Jaihind in Kerala; Kasturi in Karnataka) dominate in South India: a direct ownership-content relationship is obvious here. But in individual/family-owned channels (Zee, NDTV, BCCL/Times Now, Sahara, TV-18, UTV) it could possibly more subtle.

4. What happens when these team up with American news channels (NBC, CNN, CNBC, BBC, Time-Warner)? Do they begin to provide more ‘international’ news?

Questions…2

5. Indian television news has become ‘corporatised’ and ‘bollywoodised’ (Cf. Thussu, 2008).

6. How much can this be attributed in any way to ‘ownership’ (either legal or economic)? (Legal ownership comprises all individual shareholders, while economic ownership refers to those who determine the executive board and a firm’s policy).

Questions…3

7. What are the kind of regulations (or self-regulation) required in media ownership to ensure that news content is comprehensive, balanced and fair? What is the extent of cross-media ownership in news channels to be allowed?

8. The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has drawn up a code for news content but does not get into the question of regulating ownership (spelt out in the 2006 Broadcasting Bill)

Questions…4

9. At the global level, most news channels (e.g. CNN, Star News, Sky News, Fox News, NBC) are part of mega media conglomerates (Time-Warner, NewsCorp, NBC-Universal): except perhaps for NewsCorp’s Rupert Murdoch who personally calls the shots in news policy, can one sense an owner-content relationship?

10. In international news, the main sources (multinational news agencies: Reuters, AP, AFP) remain entrenched: how truly ‘international’ is the news they purvey?