New/Digital Media

UTOPIAN

Del Sola Polle (1977)

Suggests new media will facilitate a positive media world

A wider range of media texts can be produced that meet the needs of many more groups in society.

Provides individual citizens with the capacity to produce/publicise texts themselves.

This facilitates the growth of different media representations.

DYSTOPIAN

Habermas (1991)

Argues that media texts should provide a space for citizens to debate and criticise government actions & form public opinion.

Suggests new media outlets produce similar sorts of representations that focus primarily on celebrity and trivia.

Alternative Media Forms

New media technologies facilitate small-scale media productions.

This provides for alternative views that challenge dominant ideologies/values of society.

The Royal Commission on the Press (1977) defined alternative media as:

Dealing with the opinion of small minorities

Expressing attitudes hostile to widely held beliefs

Espousing views or dealing with subjects not given regular coverage by publications generally available at newsagents.