Doing Marxist Analysis of the Mass Media - Essay Example

Entertainment Weekly is a publication with a circulation of almost two million which has been continually published since 1990 (Singleton, 2011). The primary topics covered here are aspects of popular culture, such as film, television, music, and theater, and the focus is on critical reviews rather than general celebrity gossip. Time magazine has a circulation of over three million and has been published for almost a century (King, 2011). The time focuses on general news and publishes many special editions throughout the year dedicated to various things, one being “Person of the Year”. There are many different editions of Time, including a European and an Asian version, but this analysis focuses on the United States edition.

Time is published on a fortnightly basis, whilst Entertainment Weekly is published weekly. It is worth noting that both these publications are owned by the Time division of the Time Warner corporation. The function of this essay is to illustrate that both publications share patterns of ownership due to belonging to this division. Both publications also show a clear profit motive by having a distinct focus on advertising revenue, and both appeal to specific socio-economic groups which helps to shape the advertising within the magazine and reveal the underlying ideologies of the magazines.

Marxist analysis is particularly useful in showing the political and economic focus of the mass media and shows that there are distinct social inequalities within the field (Singleton, 2011). It is evident that there is a profit motive within both these publications from the outset. 60-70% of the profit of the magazines in the Time Warner group comes from advertising revenue, which includes the two magazines in question (Time and Entertainment Weekly). Advertisements within this area of the company account for around 8% of the entire company worth (King, 2011), ensuring that any change in advertising revenue will have a direct impact on the company's share price.