NDM News: Marxism and Pluralism - Alain de Botton on the news

Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News?
I agree with Alain de Botton's views on the news as he argues that the audiences are bombarded by masses of news and stories which almost makes them feel overwhelming. An example could be the recent shocking news about Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulting and harassing females in the Hollywood industry; this story was eventually exposed by the female victims and it overwhelmed the readers as they eventually got flooded with so many different stories on the same topic. 

2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?
Alain de Botton argues that the news is controlled by the ruling class; they control and maintain the news which leads to the general audiences being passive and believing whatever is presented to them. This links to hegemony as the news is dominated by the ruling class and they are the ones that choose what news present to the general public. The users in the modern world now accept "fake news" through them being passive and not choosing question the contents of the source but instead allow the articles to flood them with fake news which they essentially believe. 

3) How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?
De Botton's views on the news is that the news is dominated by the ruling class. However, traditional media has been challenged by the rise of the new digital media and citizen journalism. This links to pluralism of how news is also handed to us to report. Also, it is an idea of pluralism as it allows more than one states to coexist and report news to the masses. We, normal people, can play a huge part within the news just by providing evidence through videos.

4) Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supports de Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control. 
A story that supports de Botton's views is the recent Harvey Weinstein scandal as the audiences were eventually flooded with so many stories. The stories about him sexually assaulting and harassing females in the Hollywood industry was a huge talk within the general public but there weren't no talk about the punishments he would take. The audiences are so distracted by the masses of information that they receive that it makes them a passive audience and they don't challenge.

A story that challenges his beliefs is that the BBC has adopted a new style such as clickbait and is focusing rather more on the celebrity gossips and is focusing more on the non serious news.

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