Media Criticism Studies About GUMG

GUMG is short for Glasgow University Media Group and founded in 1974, a little bit later than the foundation of Birmingham Media School who influenced worldwide media research. But as we move through the new century, while the Birmingham School is losing its power, GUMG still keeps its creativity and criticism. At the same time, it fouces on the Political Economy of Communication and has the same reputation as the Center for Mass Communication of Leicester University.For more than 30 years, GUMG concentrated on the study of TV news by using sociology and political/economic theory. They discuss questions of objectivity and impartiality of TV news, with which they criticize the popular opinion current in America during the 1940s that freedom in media will bring democracy and equality. And at the same time, all of the group members support the principle of British Public Service Broadcasting. It is PSB's responsibility to provide people with objective news and it is also a basic professional requirement for journalists and broadcasters. During their studies, the GUMG has developed new methods including the News Game, besides traditional qualitative and quantitative techinques. Their work has extended public debate, and they have developed techniques to link the analysis of media content with the processes by which audiences receive and interpret messages. Their appoach has been widely used by researchers in Britain and abroad.The research of the GUMG School enlightened Chinese media study and media practice, and we should learn from them and develop our own critical media theory. Their criticism of "the objectivity of the news" lead us to think more about the responsibilities of our journlists. We should point out the problems produced by the marketization process in the media production and correct them as soon as possible. Next, their study of British Public Service Broadcasting has forced us to ponder over similarities with the situation in China. The argument about establishing our own PSB has lasted for years, however, there is little progress yet. If we could establish such a system, it may be a good strategy at present to help us to solve many problems such as the vulgarization of news and the turning of it into a form of entertainment. Finally, the Audience Theory and the conclusions developed by GUMQ suggest that we should pay more attention to the Media Literacy of the whole nation. As a student of media study, we should consider issues such as how to adapt to the development of the information explosion in society, and how to raise Chinese people's literacy to deal with the mass information supplied by the media.