SPECTACLE, SUPERSTRUCTURE, SYNERGY, OBJECTIVITY, INFORMATION BIAS, POLITICAL BIAS

 

Marxism is a theory which originated in the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and it revolves around the main idea that society is the history of class struggles. Marxism is believed to be a materialist philosophy since Marx believed that the material world precedes human thought. With this philosophy he introduced several terms which are considered to be crucial elements here. Marxism theory represents two crucial parts that make a society: the base and superstructure. Here he introduced the base/superstructure model which explains how the base (which determines society's modes of production) makes up its cultural superstructure (including religion, politics, government, education, law, and art and media). Since media is a large part of this superstructure it's no surprise that industries  develop different types of strategies aimed at attracting consumers in order to make a killing. One of these strategies is known as synergy which is when two or more media institutions cooperate to create and promote a consistent brand for a single product. We encounter this type of product marketing on a daily basis and one example would be one of many James Bond films Skyfall advertisments that were featured alongside other products like Coca Cola. Another strategy includes celebrities, high-profile public-officials, and popular artists. Since it has been proven that people would pay huge amounts of money to buy products featured by their favorite celebrities or their idols it is reasonable that corporations work with them in order to make profit. However, this has nothing to do with their talent, they are simply there because they are well-known in all parts of the world. But there comes a time when celebrities are unavailable or too expensive for media industries, and then they turn to another of their strategies known as spectacle, which is a sensational and scandalous depiction of certain events, also used to capture broad audiences and increase media's profit as well as power.

When it comes to journalism there is loss of objectivity, since, of course, media is used to make profit. Considering all the strategies and resources they use to attract broad audiences, people are being manipulated by everything surrounding them and by that they're in a way deprived of their opinion and objectivity. Information bias is a term that's important when we talk about this, since we encounter this problem all the time and never get the full truth and are presented only with what's previously been decided. Of course, politics play no small part in anything let alone media and news, and here political biases come into play. This can be seen through various tv programs and different sources which conceal the truth from people all the time.