ABSTRACT
Research into media production has underlined the fact that most media organizations operate in an environment characterized by a high degree of public exposure and are subject to numerous, sometimes conflicting, demands from society, from their economic and commercial supports and partners and from their audience. Gerbner (1969) has portrayed mass communicators as operating under pressure from various external ‘power roles’, including clients (e.g. advertisers), competitors (other media), authorities (political and legal). We can add to these: investors; owners; other social institutions; the suppliers of content (news agencies, rights holders, etc., and advocates, pressure groups and public relations sources). Some of the authorities and influential social institutions have a dual power: they may have leverage in their own right and they may also be needed by the media as sources of news.
