wHaT Is pLuRaLiSm

Pluralism states that the individual has freedom to consume whatever they prefer, pluralist ideologies allow for different viewpoints in media texts which can lead to conflicting ideas.

Pluralism:

• audience are able to choose from a wide variety of cultural optiuons
• individual has freedom to make choices about what text to consume
• media is seen as the fourth estate
• no hegemonic message
  

Fourth Estate:

the role of the media is seen as being that of the fourth estate, whose role is to keep the public informed about what is happening in each of the other three (government, legal system and the church)

I am pluralist because i agree that the individual has the freedom to consume and interpret texts in which ever manner they choose. However, a Marxist theory can also be applied in the sense of hegemony as the media is controlled by the ruling class. For example, going back to Rupert Murdoch he controls FOX in the US and SKY in the UK thus controlling what the public view and he also owns 'The Sun' thus influencing peoples opinion through his. I agree that the media acts as a Fourth estate as it has a sort of duty to keep the public up-to-date on the ruling classes sort of.