Pluralism, pluralist
choices and many interpretations of meaning.
It follows that the Internet is a pluralist medium,
at least for the present. In recent years it has
been the target for conglomerate ownership
ambitions; in the view of some commentators
putting the freedoms enjoyed by the Net at risk
through acquisition and control based on the
search for profi tability.
Operators in media services seek control
by extending ownership. This allows for a
wide range of cost benefi ts – TV, for example,
supporting an organization’s press, its online
services drumming up publicity for its TV
channels. Cross-promotion, bundling of content
(a newspaper to go with a TV subscription)
and favourable advertising terms constitute
vital benefits in highly competitive markets.
See british sky broadcasting (bskyb);
murdoch effect.
Podcasting ‘Pod’ derives from the apple macin-
tosh iPod downloading music system. A
podcast is a radio equivalent of blogging. It
allows individuals and groups to run their own
radio broadcasting service, downloadable onto
the internet. As Ken Young points out in a
UK Guardian article, ‘One-man band’ (21 July
2005), ‘with podcasting, the one man radio
station was born’. Podcasts can be delivered by
an automatic news feed system known as Really
Simple Syndication (RSS) enabling broadcasts to
be automatically downloaded whenever a station
is being broadcast. Problems concern copyright
on music and the risk that the authorities will
seek to impose licensing regulations.
Polarization Refers to the tendency to think
and speak in terms of opposites (see wedom,
theydom) or what have been termed binary
oppositions. Th e English language abounds with
terms denoting opposition. Reality, however, is
more complex, and arguably few things can be
seen meaningfully in terms of polar opposites.
Our language then may tempt us into mislead-
ingly simple perspectives.
As Gail and Michele Myers in Th e Dynamics
of Human Communication (McGraw-Hill, 1985)
argue, ‘Our language supports dividing the
world into false opposites. Polarization consists
of evaluating what you perceive by placing it at
one end of a two-pole continuum and making
the two poles appear to be mutually exclusive ...
If you are honest, you cannot be dishonest.’
Whilst there are situations in which genuine
opposites are found, what we should be wary of
is applying this perspective when it is not appro-
priate; and in so doing denying the complexi-
ties of a situation, or debate, and the range ofoften arise out of women’s inability to completely
control their own lives’. Consequently they are
able to ‘recognize and to feel at an emotional
level the price of oppression’.
Key to resistive soap opera groups is talking,
the very act of which ‘indicates the importance of
connectedness to others’. Brown acknowledges
that soaps are a genre ‘designed and developed to
appeal to women’s place in society’ and largely to
keep her in that place, yet ‘although soap operas
work at isolating women in their homes and
keeping them busy buying household products,
in fact many observations indicate that they
actually bring women together’; thus, it would
seem, paradoxically undermining hegemony
while aiming to underpin it.
Pluralism, pluralist The view that modern
industrial societies have populations that are
increasingly heterogeneous, that is different
in kind, divided by such factors as ethnic,
religious, regional and class diff erences. Such
heterogeneity, it is argued, produces a diversity
of norms, values interests and personal
perspectives within such societies. Technologi-
cal developments, such as those fostered by the
digital revolution, make it increasingly possible
for the media and cultural industries to address
and access the heterogeneous nature of audi-
ences, niche advertising being but one example
of this.
It can also be argued that a plurality of groups
compete for power and infl uence within society.
Power is seen, therefore, as being increasingly
diff use in terms of its distribution within these
societies. Th is perspective is not without its crit-
ics. Some groups are likely to have more power
than others and will be in a better position to
impose their values upon other groups. As far
as the fi eld of media studies is concerned, recent
concentrations in media ownership throw some
doubt on the degree to which power is becoming
more diff use in its distribution.
However, as populations increasingly embrace
the digital age and communicate with potentially
vast audiences via the internet, as they post
comments and news on facebook, set up
blogs, tweet comments on twitter or transmit
their images on youtube, bypassing traditional
modes of interchange, it could be argued that the
Net – at least potentially – serves the advance
of pluralism (see blogosphere; mobilization;
net neutrality).
Th e term pluralist means many modes, many
alternatives; in media terms, diversity – of
ownership, style, content and standpoint. A
pluralist society is one in which there are many