“Five Frames Dominated in Media”

Organized labor continues to be a critical institution of American life. The news media's coverage has been characterized as rotten because it focuses on what will help them rather than reporting actual incidents in the workplace.
Spectral range Since March 28, Time-Warner employees have been on strike (News7nj, 2017). Employees have begun to march outside the Time-Warner building in Brooklyn. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local Union 3 has attempted to negotiate a new contract on behalf of the workers. Charter Communications purchased the company and renamed it Spectrum. During the strike, there have been various arguments in the media concerning this strike on both parties involved. This essay will depict the media treatments on the issue of the strike to find out what they are really interested in concerning labor (Alexander, 2017).

How Labor Gets Framed

Commercial presented a stereotypical labor-management. Media have had exceptions in general indifference to labor. The Spectrum, for instance, has been covered thoroughly. However, the media is just distributing to attract attention from the customers. The media have not covered well the laborers who are on strike. Instead, what they have concentrated in are the conflicts and street demonstrations. Most of the workers expect media to cover the most important aspect of their lives, since their job is defined their life. In addition, they have found it useless, since the most important information is not covered.

According to what is covered in daily newspaper, the Spectrum is dedicated to prove great services and products to their customers. Consequently, they are committed to increasing their salary so that they can continue offering the usual services. Besides, they grow to be highly skilled to provide the great services to their customers. However, the media fails to focus on the exact salaries that are being offered to the employees that the company claims to be committed in giving.

Media’s consumer point of view on labor movement conflict. According to Martin (2004, p.2), from the point of view of labor political activity, the myth of the latter and class relations in America are affected by labor movements. Media focuses on the strikes and protests based on the conflicts and that is exactly the case with the Spectrum Company. The media have focused on the strikes and protests which are relevant to the consumers. They do not show the working conditions, the pressure to work more for fewer wages and the overseas shipment of jobs.

Media organizing themes in deciding which labor stories to tell and how they tell them. As Martin informs us (2004, p.11), media has organized stories on which to tell the public. They do not like expanding the issues of controlling labor costs, famed stories of consumers’ inconvenience and expenses. They hide the critical labor action and support the capitalists’ one. The media have not covered the environment for the striking workers. Instead, they have reported on the interviews done with the management while in their offices and the Union representatives on their meetings. There have been no workers being interviewed as they can expose the bad image of the company and maybe lead to loss of customers. There is the image that media wants to cover that will attract customers and not protecting the laborers.

Frames resulted in critiquing labor’s actions and in support of the capital’s actions. The strike has been covered only by the union. It is covered in length in most of the news media. They seem to be covering what is exciting for them to sell the news to as many people as possible. They have covered some of the effects that have been experienced by the general public. They have regularly been clarified, if clarified by any means, route down in strike stories. What for the most part checks to the media is the means by which a strike influences the overall population – how it bothers general society. When a strike breaks out, and without any doubt, journalists circled enthusiastically with notepads and cameras close by. They take some photographs and video film of pickets walking around and converse with a number of individuals in the city about how appallingly bothered they are.

Without a careful clarification of why strikers made the radical move of strolling off the work, little say of the money related penances has a little premise to choose whether to help specific strikers (Martin 2004, p.19). It involves the overall population including different laborers. Individuals frequently know just of the inconvenience they may have caused the others thus contradicting them. Particularly, if the strikers are open representatives, whose walkouts constantly are assaulted by media editorialists.

Media portraying business stories and their interests. The workers of Spectrum working conditions have not at all been covered by any media. The forced labor that the employees undergo is not taken into account as the media is focusing on streets, talking about low pay and the company is concern about downsizing. Media has organized its key information that is presented to the public. They want to be short precise and attractive because they are after impressing their customers and not passing information.

Labor coverage in the news in scarce. The administration activities that provoke the strikes which are regularly the disgraceful treatment of employees ordinarily are scarcely covered on media. It is the unions that are referred to as the cause. Its unions are considered to call for strikes. Its unions are depicted as aggressors - frequently as irrational aggressors, striking for simply greedy reasons.

Additionally, the administration makes “offers” to the strikers. However, they make “demands” that their unions are driven by “supervisors.” Hence, the administration is drove by “executives” (Martin 2004, p.19).

Labor at the Millennium (Structural and Historical Reason for Decline of Labor)

Another issue which the media have concentrated on is how these workers are violent and destructive. They cover all the information that is on the streets. However, they fail to cover the main reason because they want to impress their masters. They want to cover the information that will make their customers buy their products and not to help the workers pass their information clear to the world.

Decline in strikes. Since the strike was declining, the coverage was now weak than the union was and how the number of members of the union has decreased (Martin 2004, p.23). At any rate, daily newspaper and the broadcast media are very little inspired by the issues and off camera exercises that would satisfactorily disclose composed work to the overall population. They do not need to talk about insightful investigation of work issues. They need activity. The less complex and more sensational their scope is, the better.

The contracts negotiations have been exhausted and excessively convoluted. The very idea of aggregate bartering appears to get away from the media’s understanding. The media are very little intrigued on such issues as the genuine perils looked by numerous specialists. Then, the poor authorization of the well-being laws intended to ensure them.

The rundown of other essential work issues dismissed by the media is many. Daily papers, for instance, tells the readers that the union participation is contracting. Simultaneously, if at any point the report with a primary purpose behind that is the disappointment of the legislature to authorize the laws. The latter ensure laborers the privilege to unionize without manager’s obstruction. It has also been another issue in the Spectrum strike (Martin 2004, p.31).

It is also rare for readers of the news to be informed that unionized laborers, whatever the business, are being paid better and given better treatment over non-union specialists in similar occupations. On the off-chance that readers contemplated they may ask why union positions are contracting always and arrive at the undeniable conclusion that employers are without a doubt blocking laborers from unionizing.

The media are in any event halfway mindful themselves for declining union participation, for the low comprehension of and enthusiasm for unions by many individuals, especially the youth. Pretty much the main thing a considerable lot of them think about unions originates from the media's crude and regularly negative reports. Unions also need to blame for not informing the journalists about their problems and instead hate them. They say they will not read the newspaper because they cannot give correct information concerning their lives. They should try and press adds so that the most important information can be covered.

Poor media coverage. The principal reason behind the poor media coverage is basically that daily papers are claimed by large organizations and vast companies which are not usually fond of the unions. They work for profit which is the thing that companies are all about. Another possible reason for poor coverage is that newspaper is being advertised to gain the competitive edge. Hence, daily papers are progressively looking for readers in the generally well-off rural areas outside the downtown areas where unions and union supporters are concentrated.

The Consumer Media Emerges

Members of a highly privileged class dominate the various media institutions within the society. They usually share the associations linked to wealth and a set of common values. Political, investment, production and economic decisions are always made by these individuals. In addition, they have control over journals and members of the ideological institutions involving the positions of editorial, managers of various corporations. These groups of elites always interpenetrate one another with their shared values and associations. Due to the shared social position that is shared among these elites, they are characterized as the wealth class by the society (Martin 2004, p.47). Their outlook on the world has a significant impact on the society and their political affairs. For this reason, media will always consider them before giving any information to the public.

The work that well disposed non-predominant press does play out the fundamental assignment of educating and binding together union supporters. In any case, as fundamental as that may be, significantly more is required. Labor must present its defense to the expansive overall population if it is to win wide open help. Moreover, it can just do that through the prevailing press. Unions themselves bear a portion of the fault for the prevailing press’ poor work scope. It is justifiable that numerous unions see daily papers as foes and decline to information data to them.

There might be ideological orientation among the members of mass media concerning its staffing restrictions to the agenda held by its corporate owners who have media staffing significant control. The total outcome of it is that media have become victims of ideological orientation to conclusions and interests of the so-called elites.

Assembling popular conclusion in the help of better work scope would help tremendously. Whatever else they are, the general population who claim the media are businessmen. They are offering products and ventures, and they will offer pretty much anything people. For regardless of the possibility that better work scope gave help and solace to the media organizations' work adversaries, it would expand the enterprises’ benefits, their No. 1 priority.

The best hope improved and decent media scope of work lies in the development of unions. The consistent decrease in the level of journalists who belong to unions has influenced unions to appear to be less vital. Then, in this manner less newsworthy to the media separated from the media’s characteristic becomes hostile to unionism.

Most of the media corporations owners are also the owners most of other corporations across the globe. Some of the companies that are owned by owners of media corporations include toy companies, distribution networks and also clothing manufacturing companies (Gamson & Wolfsfeld, 1993). Subsequently, most of their decisions will be less covered because they will control the information that will pass to the public. They will not allow their names to be tarnished by their own corporations.

Employees on media to be promoted they must work hard and ensure their work impresses the management. Consequently, he also has to find the information that will attract customers as much as possible. Due to the fact, he will not cover the important information. According to the news covered on the Spectrum strike (Alexander, 2017), they are focusing only on the issues on the streets and offices and not the real life of the employees. It is because they want to impress their customers.

The media companies are competing with each other. They have been competing on who gives quality information to the public. Currently, the companies are competing on attracting the customers. It is the reason why most companies are after attracting more customers and not giving them the quality information that is the need to know. The Spectrum Company, for example, has covered the general information that is not even necessary for the public (Martin 2004, p.68).

The Internet provides platforms where labor issues can be communicated directly by the victims however it cannot be reliable since the information given sometimes might be just a propaganda that comes out of grudge between the victims.

Conclusion

To sum up, the media employers seek for reducing their responsibilities of attracting customers and expanding the business. Thus, it can only be achieved through finding shortcuts that will bring more customers. The role of media in labor issues has not been good. Employees lack a good representation of their views to the employers and the world. For media to remove this perception, as much as it is a business that looks for profits, it should play its role effectively on labor issues protect the employees. Besides, the mass media is a system of propaganda of the elite’s interests. The elites have institutionalized the mass media where they control the information of the journalists and the information given cannot rely alone on.



References

Martin, C.R. (2004). How labor gets framed. In Framed! Labor and the corporate media, 1-20. Ithaca and London: ILR Press.

Martin, C.R. (2004). Labor at the millennium. In Framed! Labor and the corporate media, 21-43. Ithaca and London: ILR Press.

Martin, C.R. (2004). The consumer media emerges. In Framed! Labor and the corporate media, 44-71. Ithaca and London: ILR Press.

Gamson, W.A., & Wolfsfeld, G. (1993). Movements and media as interacting systems. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 528(1), 114-125.

Alexander, J. (2017). Time Warner Cable union workers continue to strike in Sunset Park. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved from http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2017/5/5/time-warner-cable-union-workers-continue-strike-sunset-park

News7nj (2017). Union strike hits Spectrum-Time Warner Cable over dwindling benefits, shoddy field equipment. News7nj.com. Retrieved from http://news7nj.com/2017/03/28/union-strike-hits-spectrum-time-warner-cable-over-dwindling-benefits-shoddy-field-equipment/