History and context of journalism - Revision notes 2

Karl Marx;

-          Sensation or perception is an interaction between subject and object; the bare object, apart from the activity of the percipient, is a mere raw material, which is transformed in the process of becoming known.

-          Both subject and object, the knower and thing known, are in the continual process of mutual adaptation. He calls this the dialectical because it is never fully complete.

-          He denies ‘sensation’ – we only notice things as part of the process is acting with reference to them and any theory which leaves this out is a misleading abstraction.

Philosophy of history;

-          Believes un the dialectical process.

-          But differs from Hegel; Hegel believed the motive force call the spirit, which causes human history to develop accordingly to stages of the dialectic set forth in the ‘Logic.’

-          Marx believed it is not a spirit driving history, instead it is just inevitiable – it is man’s reaction to matter, of which the most important part is the mode of production.

-          His idea of materialism, here, becomes economics.

-          Politics, religion, philosophy and art of any epoch in human history are outcomes of its methods of production and, lesser extent, of distribution.

-          Marx substituted class, for Hegels idea of nations, to be the driving force of the dialectical.

-          This is outlined to its greatest extent in the Communist Manifesto.

-          Marx’s revolutionary ideas are identifiable in his similarities with Rousseau, in that property is the cause of class struggle and is what caused us to be civilized. The fact the proletariat are unable to possess property,

Communist manifesto;

-          Suggests that class struggle 'sprouted' from the 'ruins' of a feudal society.

-          He believed there to be a hostile divide in society, one in which the bourgeois were in possession of the proletarian; forming a new kind of oppression and struggle. These two classes were seen by Marx to be directly against each other.

-          Historical materialism for Marx shows that class struggle and desire for high exchange value have given power to the bourgeoisie, gradually, over time and that he believes this to be the reason for historical and social progression to its current state of capitalism.

-          The bourgeois ' has resolved personal worth into exchange value,' and have created a false consciousness of the proletariat through politics and religion, undermining and exploiting them further.  He believed that he bourgeoisie could not exist 'without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production,’

-          He says the bourgeois have ‘succeeded in gathering masses within the population, centralizing the means of production and concentrating property in few hands.’ Creating the Proletariat.

-          The drive for the bourgeois to create capital through the exploitation of the proletariat means the proletariat lose character; they are seen as machines to produce profitable commodities, even though they could be considered commodities themselves. 

-          He believed that the development of industry and the growing need for capital would lead the proletariat into becoming class conscious and, in doing so, will go through many changes during the progression to revolution and gaining the means of production through the overthrowing of bourgeois

-          For Marx, capitalism was inevitably doomed to collapse because it held flaws within it that would ultimately destroy itself; the proletariat will only speed up the process.

Weber – Bureaucracy;

-          Is rule from a desk or office by written documentation, and a servant of government.

-          Weber disregards bureaucracy being neutral and suggests every bureaucracy has its own interests. It is merely a means to give policy direction.

-          The modern bureaucracy came from the middle ages; kings riding on horseback with clergy men recording the journey and sending it to correspondents.

-          Weber believes armies have become bureaucratized.

-          He points out, educational institutions, churches and other institutions have a bureaucracy. They all have staff for keeping records and communications.

-          It is a pervasive feature of modern society.

-          Weber sets out an ‘ideal type’ for bureaucracies; characterised by divisions of labour trough rules, impersonally applied, and staffing by full time professionals who have no ownership to the means of administration; jobs, funds, and a salary aren’t based on labour value.

-          Bureaucrats are even further removed from property because there are no longer ‘prebends’; instead there is a salary.

-          The highest value of a bureaucracy is reliable rule following.

-          Modern bureaucrats do no own their jobs – Weber suggests a parallel with capitalist productive enterprise. Which he then compares to soldiers formally owning their weapons, now they don’t, much like workers being separated from their means of production.

-          Division of labour requires stability of staff; so the bureaucracy want educated recruits. This where Weber points out credentialism and that formal educational qualifications are an obsession of the bureaucracy.

Types of legitimate authority;

-          Weber treats bureaucracy under this heading, of which there are three types of authority.

-          Charismatic; it is regarded as legitimate because followers are personally devoted to the gifted leader.

-          Traditional authority; regarded legitimate because everyone has always obeyed the person in position of leader – no one thinks of disrupting them.

-          Rational authority; is the rule of law. It exists in a community where there is respect for the law or where the law is constituted legitimate.

-          The bureaucracy exists as this form of authority. It is seen as the most efficient way of implementing the rule of law, rules are recorded, studied and applied in a reliable way to individual cases.

-          Weber see rule of law to be rational because he believes expediency and rational values are the main forms of rationality and it employs both to gain obedience.

-          Though he views it as efficient he seen bureaucracy as a ‘distasteful triumph’ and identified negative impacts bureaucracy may have on society.

-          He believed that there will be cultural exhaustion through the rationalisation of religion, that the principle of formal equality will eventually rob each individual of nobility and any artistic genius,

-          Weber views bureaucracy in a similar way that Marx views Capitalism. Its spread is inevitable and will affect all areas of life. Though Marx insists capitalism can be overthrown for the good of the people, Weber believes and accepts bureaucracy is inescapable.

Ideal types of sociological organisation;

-          Socialism, nationalism, liberalism etc. and that behind them is a method and hypothesis and successive approximation of truth. He then compared this to social reality and came to the conclusion that there is no absolute knowledge but it is possible to be honest and have reason to able the belief.

-          This is known as agnosticism.

-          He furthered his ideas of sociological ideals with his analysis of what he what he believed to be four types of fundamental social action;

1.          Instrumental – the belief that our actions are rational in order to achieve goodness; going to university will generally get you a good job.

2.          Value – the idea of doing something because it is accepted to be good practice, and is again an example of rationalisation.

3.          Affectual – Something we do for emotional reasons.

4.          Traditional – this is something we do because society has always done it.