Chomsky and Hall's Theories

Chomsky: relationship between profit seeking media and govts.

The propaganda model is a theory advanced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky that alleges biases in the mass media and searches to explain them in terms of structural economic causes. 
The propaganda model focuses on the inequality of wealth and power and its effects on mass-media interests and choices. It traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print, marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant private interests to get their messages across to the public.

Propaganda model views the private media as businesses interested in the sale of a product to readers and audiences, to other businesses (advertisers) rather than that of quality news to the public. Describing the media's "societal purpose", Chomsky writes, "... the study of institutions and how they function must be scrupulously ignored, apart from fringe elements or a relatively obscure scholarly literature". The theory proposes five general classes of "filters" that determine the type of news that is presented in news media. These five classes are:

1. Ownership of the medium- The size, and profit-seeking imperative of the dominant media corporations is said to create a bias
2. Medium's funding sources-  funding generated through advertising
3. Sourcing- "The mass media are drawn into a symbiotic relationship with powerful sources of information by economic necessity and reciprocity of interest."
4. Flak-  described by Herman and Chomsky as 'negative responses to a media statement or [TV or radio] program.
5. Anti-communist ideology-  Herman and Chomsky identified was 'anti-communism'

The first three are generally regarded by the authors as being the most important.
Although the model was based mainly on the characterization of United States media, Chomsky and Herman believe the theory is equally applicable to any country that shares the basic economic structure and organizing principles which the model postulates as the cause of media biases.

Stuart Hall: Racial Clowns

"Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony is of particular salience to the exploration of racial representations in the media because of its focus on culture and ideology.
In order to see how hegemonic ideals of white supremacy hide themselves in current media, it is first necessary to illustrate the racist stereotypes which evolved in the media of a less liberal society. Hall outlines three base images of the 'grammar of race' employed in 'old movies'. The first is the slave figure which could take the form of either the 'dependable, loving… devoted "Mammy" with the rolling eyes, or the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted to "his" master' (Hall, 1995:21). The underlying message of such images is clear: the slave is someone who is willing to serve their master; their devotion allows a white audience to displace any guilt about their history of colonialism and slavery.
Although loving, the slave is simultaneously depicted as unpredictable and capable of 'turning nasty', taking us to the second of Hall's base images - the native (ibid:21). Their primitive nature means they are cheating, cunning, savage and barbarian. In movies, we expect them 'to appear at any moment out of the darkness to decapitate the beautiful heroine, kidnap the children … And against them is always counterposed the isolated white figure, alone "out there", confronting his Destiny' (ibid:21).
The last of Hall's variants is that of the clown or entertainer, implying an 'innate' humour in the black man (ibid:22). Interestingly, the distinction is never made as to whether we are laughing with or at the clown; overt racism is rare in the media rather, says Hall, it is 'inferential'. "

http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-rol6.htm