Emancipatory use of the mediaA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWto rule, Marxist analysis stresses the continuing
and increasing polarization or separation of the
ruling from the ruled class. Marxist analysis
of the media therefore concentrates upon the
role of the media in propagating the ideas of
the dominant class in order to create a false
consciousness, or to create hegemony, which is
instrumental in subjugating the rest.
The liberalist-pluralist school of analysis
sees the media as a kind of fourth estate
pressuring governing elites and reminding them
of their dependency on majority opinion. Other
commentators have pointed to the role played by
social elites in media coverage. Th e emphasis on
the activities and perspectives of leading politi-
cians, celebrities and the royal family would be
examples here. In Mass Communication Th eory
(Sage, 2010) Denis McQuail discusses the study
carried out by Bennett et al (2004) of media
coverage of the ‘Great Globalization Debate’
during the World Economic Forum meetings
held in 2001, 2002 and 2003; one fi nding was
that the coverage focused disproportionately on
the WEF elite as opposed to those of activists
and protestors and, further, that coverage of the
elite was signifi cantly more positive in tone. See
commanders of the social order; domi-
nant discourse; establishment; guard
dog metaphor; news values; power elite.
▶W.L. Bennett, V.W. Pickard, D.P. Iozzi, C.I. Schro-
eder, T. Lago and C.E. Caswell (2004), ‘Managing the
public sphere: journalistic constructions of the great
globalization debate’, Journal of Communication, 54
(3): 437–55.
Ellul’s theory of technique See technique:
ellul’s theory of technique.
E-mail See electronic mail: e-mail.
Emancipatory use of the media Te r m
employed by Hans Magnus Enzensberger in
‘Constituents of a theory of the media’ in Sociol-
ogy of Mass Communication (Penguin, 1972),
edited by Denis McQuail, to contrast with what
he defi nes as the repressive use of the media.
He characterizes the emancipatory use of the
media as follows: decentralized programme (as
opposed to the repressive mode of a centrally
controlled programme); each receiver a poten-
tial transmitter (as opposed to one transmitter,
many receivers); mobilization of the masses (as
opposed to immobilization of isolated individu-
als); interaction of those involved, and feedback
(as opposed to passive consumer behaviour);
a political learning process (as opposed to
depoliticization); and collective production,
social control by self-organization (as opposed
to production by specialists, control by propertyE-mails are also very public statements, open
to the scrutiny of those not intended to read
them. Th en there has been the growth of junk
e-mails – spam – and more seriously, phishing,
using spam e-mails to redirect users of online
banking to fake sites, often with devastating
financial consequences for the victims. Even
more serious still is spoofi ng, where spammers
use header information to convince you that
their message is genuinely from your bank or any
other confi dential source.
Th e eff ectiveness of Net industries will increas-
ingly depend on systems of authentication, that
is making sure that all communications sent
are valid and legitimate, while at the same time
blocking unwanted sources. See topic guides
under digital age communication; media:
technologies.
Elite A small group within a society who may be
socially acknowledged as superior in some sense,
and who infl uence or control some or all sectors
of that society. Several defi nitions of the term
elite exist, and these infl uence the precise focus
of research into the relationship between the
media, elites, and society.
Early writers generally saw the elite as a ruling
group or oligarchy whose power is general and
aff ects most aspects of society. Writers such as
Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) and Gaetano Mosca
(1848–1941) regarded elites as being inevitable,
whatever the political system. C. Wright Mills in
a study of elites in US society entitled Th e Power
Elite (Oxford University Press, 1956) points
to the similarity of backgrounds, attitudes and
values, and power skills of the members of the
three elites which, he argues, dominate Ameri-
can society: the military, the economic and the
political. He also comments on the degree of
personal and family contacts between elite
members and the interchangeability of person-
nel between top posts in the military, economic
and political elites from which the ‘power elite’
is recruited.
This concept of elite cohesion has been of
interest to media researchers who have sought to
investigate links between members of economic
and political elites and those who own or control
the media, and the eff ect such links might have
on media output.
The notion of a ruling elite or oligarchy
contrasts with the Marxist concept of a ruling
class. Whilst elite theorists point out the
necessity for the elite to recruit from outside
itself, to remain accessible to the infl uence of the
non-elite and to maintain a consensus among
the non-elite which legitimates the elite’s right