Karl Marx (The Communist Manifesto – 1848)

BOURGEOISIE

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.