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Essay Available:
Pages:
4 pages/β‰ˆ1100 words
Sources:
1 Source
Style:
APA
Subject:
Communications & Media
Type:
Essay
Language:
English (U.S.)
Document:
MS Word
Date:
Total cost:
$ 15.84
Topic:

The Idea of Critical/Radical Media and the Democratic/Participatory Media

Essay Instructions:

Please follow the instructions. If you have any questions, please contact me.I already uploaded the week 2’s reading.

Length                   2.5 to 3 pages (NOT including headers and bibliography)

This assignment asks you to summarize, analyze and discuss the differences between the two critical definitions of Alternative Media presented in Week 2. The goal of this assignment is to familiarize you with these concepts and the various scholarly arguments used to justify them.

Your task in this assignment is to:

  1. Summarize and explain both the idea of critical/radical media (from the Sandoval & Fuchs reading) and the idea of democratic/participatory media (from the Hamilton reading).
    1. Provide a brief discussion of their similarities and differences, using short quotations (i.e., no more than a sentence or two) from each article to illustrate your answer.
    2. Find ONE scholarly article NOT written by these authors that draws upon and illustrates either Sandoval & Fuchs's idea of critical/radical media or Hamilton's idea of democratic/participatory media and discuss how this reading relates to the assigned reading.
      1. Identify which of these two approaches you think is stronger and explain why. Ideally, your researched article from Q3 above should help you in answering this.

Like the Reading Analysis assignment, your summaries summaries should encapsulate the author's main arguments and illustrative examples, your analysis should provide a cogent assessment of these arguments, and the comparison should examine how their ideas or arguments relate to and connect with each other in light of class discussions. In other words, you MUST look beyond basic descriptive similarities or differences (e.g., stating they write about the same or different topics) to explore their substantive similarities or differences (e.g., focusing on what the authors have to say about what they’re writing about).

 

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Summary, Analysis and Discuss the Differences Between the Two Critical Definitions of Alternative Media Presented in Week 2
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Summary, Analysis and Discuss the Differences Between the Two Critical Definitions of Alternative Media Presented in Week 2
The media industry is one of the most crucial globally because it facilitates the exchange of information, ideas, and instructions. It serves three primary functions to educate, inform and entertain. The media is divided into two distinct categories; the mainstream media and the alternative media. They are further subdivided into print media, broadcast, and internet media. The mainstream media comprise the large mass media establishments that impact a larger audience. Most scholars agree with the mainstream media's definition and composition. However, the definition and functions of alternative media raise debate among various scholars. Generally, alternative media comprises the mass media outlets that do not fall under the mainstream media. Other scholars believe that alternative media's primary function is to critique, while others believe it promotes democracy and inclusion for people to air their opinions. This paper discusses the definitions of alternative media according to Sandoval and Fuchs (2009) and Hamilton (2000). It also discusses their similarities and differences besides suggesting the best definition of the two.
Sandoval and Fuchs (2009) use the idea of critical/radical media to define alternative media. In their article, "Towards a critical theory of alternative media," the authors argue that alternative media "structures enable and constrain the actions of media actors, who again through their actions shape the media structures" (p. 145). This means that the alternative media counter the capitalist media, the mainstream media. It is referred to as the capitalist in this article because wealthy sections of society own it, and their operations are motivated by commercial reasons. They exist to make a profit. In this definition, two distinct features of alternative media emerge, contrasting the mainstream media. First, alternative media provide non-commercial services and critical and complex content, unlike mainstream media, which are commercialized and provide standardized ideological content. Secondly, the alternative media does not recognize the difference between the producers and the consumers as it comprises a pool of prosumers. This is the opposite of the mainstream media, which has a production team with exclusive functions to produce news content.
Hamilton (2000) bases his definition of alternative media on democracy and participation. According to him, alternative media gives voice to the majority who are left out by the mainstream media. Hamilton (2000) argues that media can organize social movements. These social movements have the same plan, tactics, and form. They have materials produced and circulated in large numbers for them to have a significant influence because it reaches many people when distributed. Therefore, it is evident that alternative media need money to be effective, according to the author.
The above definitions are distinct but have similarities and differences. ...
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