Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values. To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

Audiences now have a greater variety of views and values, this is because of the internet and how pluralists believe that we live in a classless society, also how we have much more freedom and are able to rebel against co operations and governments, although this can have a downside as it can affect the news we get as a whole. Marxisists believe that the elite control bodies and are able to control our views, in a sense this is true as recent studies show that newspapers have helped the general election. Also how "top 5% of all websites accounted for almost 75% of user volume" (Lin & Webster, 2002) Also, marxisists believe that the internet is dumbing us down and that  its like a million monkeys typing nonsense. 

I still believe that the internet will also have a minority of media producers that will serve the mass media, controlling views. Although at the same time I agree with the fact that pluralists are able to argue with the media very well, for example with the recent Paris terrorist attacks, new and digital media such as social media has proved that the Internet has allowed for a much more easier and vital way to express opinions and feelings. 

The Islam community has always had a negative effect in the media, showing that the elite are able to create a propaganda and are able to control our views on Muslims, although now, many of us know that this is the case, and there was a social outburst on Twitter, many people Muslim and non Muslim tweeted negatively towards the media how unfairly they treat religions. Many tweets were published explaining how no religion intends to kill innocent people and that everyone is equal. This was a prime example of how new and digital media has allowed us to challenge the elites views in media & that more and more people may be becoming pluralists because of this. Its also proving that Marxists may be the ones that are dumbing down because they're tactics to control the media just aren't working well enough.