Marxism & Pluralism: Alain de Botton on the news

Marxism & Pluralism: Alain de Botton on the news

1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News?

To some extent i do agree with Alan de Botton's views, as it is clear that celebrity news is often on the front page whereas more intellectual news like politics is pushed further back, however this can't be said for all newspapers as some like the Guardian focus more on things like politics. Although i can see that gossip does make the front pages i believe it is entirely dependent on the newspaper and its audience type. This arguably useless news reflects its audiences and 20-30 years ago people like Katie price wouldn't make front page news but with this sought of news being spread around is it suggesting the population is becoming less sophisticated? and this is where i agree with Alan as more useful news is being pushed back and is actually stuff people need to know but choose not too possibly because they have become used to seeing celebrities on the front pages.

2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?

Alan de Botton criticises the news by saying that they spoon feed their passive audiences news without them questioning it which also links to the hypodermic needle model. This links to marxism and hegemony because it reinforces the idea of one dominant social class owning the news and flooding it with their own ideologies and views, and this is what a passive audience tends to believe.

3) How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?

Pluralism would suggest that we have the power to choose what we decide to read and from where so that we arent influenced by one dominant social class. But also because of new technologies we are capable of creating our own news-user generated content via social media like twitter and facebook.

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. 

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2237337/inside-the-home-on-estate-where-tv-icon-lived-that-has-gone-on-sale-for-1million-and-can-you-guess-which-one/ this pointless news story would support de bottons views on useless news being put infront of more useful news like the appointments that president elect trumps has been making this week which is something that affects the whole world but isnt a priority.