Read the Media Magazine article ‘Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony?'. Go to our archive of Media Magazine issues and click on MM39 - the article you need is on page 58. Answer the following questions:
1) Research the Ian Tomlinson case. What would the traditional, hegemonic view of the police be in a case like this?
The hegemonic view of the police would be to say that Ian Tomlinson was a protester, and was part of throwing missiles, thus collapsed (due to this), they wouldn't mention anything about the police hitting him - meaning that the police had tried to lie their way out of the situation they were in. However, receiving this footage from a person in New York shows that the death was a result of harassment by PC Harwood, as he had a heart-attack after having injuries to his liver.
The police officer's aquittal even after such evidence, shows that new and digital media, and user-generated content isn't taken as serious as other evidence may have. I believe the power is still in the hands of those who are elite, as a Marxist would say, because although new and digital media i..e social networking from a reliable source was used to show that PC harwood may have been the key reason for Tomlinson's collapsing and passing away - he was acquitted.
2) What does the author argue regarding whether hegemony is being challenged by Web 2.0?
The author argues that how much control is down to who in this case is really down to the hegemony, in this case police and the politics. Web 2.0 is definitely shown to be challenging hegemony, as the author believes that user-generated content is like ''traditional media''
3) In your opinion, does new and digital media reinforce dominant hegemonic views or give the audience a platform to challenge them?
New and digital media gives the audience a platform to challenge dominant hegemonic views, as their opinions can be put on the internet, for example through Twitter, or directly under news articles on news company's such as The Guardian's website, so they can give their own opinion.
However this is to some extent, because more platforms are available to those who are elite, i.e. politicians and media institutions to reinforce dominant hegemonic views, in addition, the views of the audience can easily be blocked out, most of the negative comments/reactions that stay on the internet are used to create news agenda a lot of the times, for example - ISIS related members tweeting about their 'martyred' leader, which made the news. Or this case, in which Ian Tomlisons' harassment video, has been used to gain attention - and not been acted upon as much as it possibly could have been.
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