Imagine a world where our knowledge of the world’s problems and issues are controlled by one body. Where we only know only what this body lets us see. What if they abused this power, withheld truth and manipulated to sway public opinion. Well that world is the world we live in now, and the body I am talking about is the media. The media is our only window to the world we have.
Therefore you would think it is there responsibility to deliver us all the major stories relevant to every person in the country. But this is not the case. The newspapers and news programs are constantly filled with distractions. Stories that have very little meaning to the average citizen but are presented as the most important pressing issues of the time. A prime example is last year’s coverage of the Qantas strike.
The time taken to present this story was almost a minute less than the story covering troops returning from East Timor. What is the reason for this? Why worry about these pressing issues why not hear about these government friendly stories with happy soldiers and families, or why not hear about the latest celebrity gossip or the latest new found terrorist of the month. With these relatively unimportant stories in the forefront of our minds the establishment media distracts us from more important stories, which may be detrimental to the government. Is this a coincidence or is the relationship between the government and the media greater than we think. The term used when media manipulates to sway public opinion is called manufacturing consent. This is done with enforcing one view of an event through use of information at the expense of all other views.
The Essay on World Issues: Population
With 6,300 deaths an hour and 15,000 births an hour for 24 hours a day, the earth's population is rapidly increasing. There has not been much recent attention around this subject, but with such a rapid increase in numbers, if a blind eye is turned problems can occur. The population as a whole could be beneficial or ultimately one of the world's greatest disasters. There are many factors that play ...
The best examples of this technique used in the media are the recent stories on the war in Iraq. The prime minister had backed America in this campaign; this stirred mixed feelings in the country. Some were for and some were against. In the media pictures that were shown to Australia included that of troops liberating towns with cheers from the local people with pro-American chanting, troops ripping down Saddam Hussein statues with the help of the locals again. Clearly we see the point of view that this war was a good thing, hardly do we ever see images of the towns in rubble, the children with no homes left or the weeping of victims losing a family member. To maintain credibility though, these pictures are still broadcast on occasions but still rarely and not for long periods of time.
The media can almost be seen to manipulate the truth to suit the governments point of view. This is basically used as media propaganda. Propaganda serves to rally the people behind a cause. The media achieve this through many techniques… They use a range of selective stories that come over as wide covering and objective. They reinforce reasons and motivations that question the individual’s security, basically creating a feeling of fear with an individual…
They usually use a narrow source of so called “experts” to provide insight into the conflict. This creates one perspective that is not verified or researched… They demonize the enemy, further emphasising the sides of good and evil… They use a narrow range of discourse, which means what they write about has a narrow focus, and there judgements are often not discussed, which serves the interests of the propagandists. It would be interesting to view the Al Jaz heer network in Iraq. The images they would be televising and the propaganda they would be using would be the totally opposite to America’s, but with the same effect.
But the media not only manipulates the truth, they also withhold the truth. In 1975 President Gerald Ford told the editors of The New York Times that he had forbidden any inquiry into CIA foreign operations. Such revelations, he said, “‘would ruin the US image around the world,’ ruin the reputation of every President since Truman, and shock the American people. These operations included everything, even assassinations of foreign leaders.” This blatant media cover up highlights the control of media government has and how directly the government can manipulate our opinions and feelings. During the cold war the media’s main ploy was to create an elite ideology. An ideology is a set of beliefs or principals, on which a political party or organization is based.
The Essay on Media Control By Noam Chomsky
Media Control by Noam Chomsky Noam Chomsky wastes no time and begins his work with his definition of the concept of democracy. He states, ...Let me begin by counter-posing two different conceptions of democracy. One conception of democracy has it that a democratic society is one in which the public has the means to participate in some meaningful way in the management of their own affairs and the ...
Since the Cold War was against a Communist Country the media created an anti-communism feelings in its stories. It was deemed appropriate for media to frame the issues as us versus the communists. Since the media is based around a corporate ideology any ideology against this must be assumed to be incorrect. This is the view taken by the media and in doing so they can almost take total control of society. The mass media control our knowledge. It is difficult for us to base arguments on issues because we are not certain of all the facts.
We are not often presented with both sides. By constantly being fed these distractions we forget the pressing issues, we are led away from questioning our freedom and rights. The propaganda uses positions us to side with the government’s views and if we wish to side differently it is difficult to base it on evidence we are given. It is only now another medium for news is being provided. Although most articles are sometimes unreliable the Internet now provides another source for insight. Articles on the most pressing issues can be found where truth is not withheld or manipulated because the internet is not yet a controlled body, and if it becomes controlled and tied to the government it may also lose its integrity and reliability leaving us with a world full of lies and deception..
