Propaganda in American Media One of the greatest revolutions in the twentieth century was not political in nature, however, it aided in many different political revolutions. This revolution was the communications revolution. The twentieth century has experienced one of the greatest changes in means of communication including technologies such as radio, motion pictures, the Internet, advanced communications and most importantly the television. Sadly, political leaders and the government to convince or persuade the masses that their ideas supercede those of others have utilized these technologies. Television, more so than any other form of communication, has been the ultimate tool of the propaganda effort. It is the trustworthiest medium to give us the subjective validity of our beliefs which can not be proven physically. It is the ultimate source from which we get evidence about objective reality, motivated by our desires to form an accurate view of this reality and to act correctly. United States is the biggest economical power in the world today, and consequently has the largest media and news industry. The gatekeepers of the American news industry control all the information, and decide what to publish or broadcast, based on the ideology and the structure of the institution. Therefore, whatever is presented in the news would probably be a part of the popular culture (created by the entertainment industry) or would serve it since the popular culture itself is created for the growth of the capitalist economy and the homogenization of the society, which are essential elements for a stable system. That is why the American media is terribly bias in many respects, especially in the matters of foreign affairs, driven by self b... ... middle of paper ... ...een an important part of human history. I however believe that the way American media presents implements propaganda in the news is appalling to my sense of reason and my belief in the freedom of press. There is no freedom in American press and media, and if there was, we would be offered an unbiased view of the world events and the U.S. involvement in foreign affairs. It is obvious though, that we are offered this limited view in an effort of the American government to mobilize the minds of the masses in a favorable direction. This issue concerns and saddens me at the same time as I am resolved to tune into foreign newscast to be able to see both sides of the story. We must learn to find the truth through various sources, and not accept what is fed to us through Television or we are at a threat of becoming the horrific dystopia George Orwell envisioned in 1984.
People around the globe rely on the media to interpret the events that occur in the world. They get the latest information about national and global news from the radio, television, and newspapers that have correspondents waiting to tell the story. People also heavily rely on the media during times of crises like war, economic insecurity, or other global events that affects their lives. One of the most impactful times Americans depended on the media was during World War II, which illustrated the triumphs and defeats of the war and its impression it left during the post-war era. It was around this time, movie clips and radio shows geared its messages towards patriotic themes that persuaded Americans to support the war.
The media has been a part of the daily life of the American people for the longest time, because of this fact, the media influences the decisions and views of how people should live. One big part of the media that tends to start to develop a sense of how the day-to-day American should live is Disney. Since kids are the main source of Disney’s billion dollar industry children have become an important dimension of the social theory (Giroux 1999: 65). “Within this context, television emerges as a consumer-oriented medium that reflects advertisers’ desire to reach a young, upscale, and primarily White audience” (Goodale1999; Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 100). As a result other races and ethnic groups other than white Americans are often put aside when it comes to the social media view of how Americans should live.
Since the advent of television networks, Americans have relied on local and national newscasts to inform them of the world’s happenings. In the 1950’s there were no other mass informational outlets besides the network news and newspapers. Today we have the internet, which allows independent research, but the majority of Americans still depend on network and cable newscasts for their local, political, and foreign news. With the responsibility and power of informing an entire country, are television newscasts as reliable as most Americans assume them to be? Most Americans don’t consider where their news is coming from or who is producing it. Network and cable news are owned and operated by people and thus are not as objective and unbiased as we would like to think. In light of the war in Iraq and the most recent presidential election, critics of television network administration are voicing their concern for today’s presentation of the news. Increasingly more Americans are demanding a rehabilitation of newscasts, starting with ownership.
In “Reporting the News” by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry, the main idea is how the media determines what to air, where to get said stories that will air, how the media presents the news, and the medias effect on the general public. “Reporting The News” is a very strong and detailed article. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers of what goes on in the news media. This can be inferred by the authors’ tone. The authors’ overall tone is critical of the topics that are covered. The tone can be determined by the authors’ strong use of transitions, specific examples, and phrases or words that indicate analysis. To summarize, first, the authors’ indicate that the media chooses its stories that will air
What does the word propaganda really mean? For most of us we assume that it is a word for negativity use. Just to assure those that think of propaganda as a negative word. Propaganda does have a positive objective if used correctly. The word propaganda is defined in a few different ways, But in the most general usage, it varies from bad to good persuasion of our minds. It is used during election time to our daily lives on television to our newspaper stands. According to Donna Cross’s essay, “Propaganda: How Not to Be Bamboozled,” there are thirteen different types of propaganda; this paper will discuss six varieties. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney used primarily every sort of propaganda to influence the citizens; therefore, our national society needs to develop awareness in the propaganda used by such politicians so that they can make wise decisions intelligently.
Today, many types of media bias are used as a strategy by reporters and politicians to sway the public into agreeing with their views. They have gone far enough to make the U.S. public recognize the bias and distrust the Media. First off, there is bias by omission. This consists of leaving out one side of an article to make their views seem more credible. For example, a republican may focus on facts that support conservative beliefs, and leave out liberal supporting facts. Next, there is bias by selection of sources. In this bias, the selected source will support the views of the selector. For instance, a republican would choose a conservative “expert” to report. Another bias is that of story selection. For this bias, an individual would highlight and share stories supporting their views and ignore the stories against their views.
To some people, the only reason we won any war was because of propaganda. They might also consider it sad that we had to manipulate America in order to get support, of course, that is their opinion. Maybe it wasn’t more of manipulation; maybe propaganda could be considered a “push” rather than a total brainwash. The U.S. is a democracy, and the survival of democracy depends on the ability of people to make decisions based on information; propaganda would be an easy and efficient way to get people this information and therefore give them the choice to support an idea or not. [ Rooij 2]
Bennett (2011) felt that one of the biggest problems with bias in the American media was its “overwhelming tendency to downplay the big social, economic, or political picture in favor of the human trials, tragedies, and triumphs (177).” Shaiko (2008) alluded to the fact that the American news media is “accountable to the corporate conglomerates” and not “to the readers, listeners, and viewers (205).” Probably the most telling quotation of all can be found in Chapter 10 of The News Media: Communicating Pol...
The Hidden Relationship Between Government and Media Rather than being a neutral conduit for the communication of information, the U.S. media plays an intricate role in shaping and controlling political opinions. Media is extremely powerful in the sense that without an adequate functioning media, it is virtually impossible for a sophisticated social structure like the U.S. Government to exist. Henceforth, all known sophisticated social structures, have always been dependent upon the media’s ability to socialize. The U.S. government generally exploits the media, often times manipulating the enormous power of the printed word. Ultimately empowering the U.S. government, strengthening it with the ability to determine and control the popular perception of reality.
The positive impact can include educational information and knowledge on certain ideas, policies, laws, or even the current events. The negative impact can impair or damage the reputation of a person, or institution or an organization based on impression. Since the impact of the media can be dictated by the content it is aired or published, this was utilized during the cold war to enhance the campaign of socialism or communism and capitalism or democracy. Further, this essay will investigate the effects of media during the Cold War on the use of television, newspapers and radio broadcasts in Russia and America. After the end of World War Two, the cold war began with Russia and America airing several propaganda with the use of the three different media such as radio, newspaper and television.
I’m a frequent traveler. When doing regular traveling one gets to compare and contrast different cultures on regular basis. Most of these comparisons include foods, clothes or simple social attributes. Lately however I have to come to realize a sharp and quite disturbing difference in US media. Whenever I have the chance to compare news coverage in the middle-east I find myself confused and parted. I often find American news coverage, TV and newspapers alike, being bias, especially those covering problems in the Israeli/Palestine conflict. It seems as if I am watching two different wars. In America I am watching a stronghold power, Israel, fighting the endless terrorism brought by Palestinians. In Europe I see a war between two nations in despair thoroughly trying to fight terror from both sides of the conflict. I consistently find myself questioning American newspapers, as they use overly strong terminology and definitions on top of puzzling omission of essential facts. This paper was made to research and analyze the cause of my questioning while comparing these causes to Europe in order to see if my questioning is justified. I found that because of small groups with pro-Israeli interests dictating this country, U.S government has a need to manipulate and slant media in order to get accord for their action. The questionable U.S actions include extremely imbalanced aid to the Middle/East conflict, favoring Israel. However, before I could draw any conclusion of a U.S bias I had to analyze whether my accusations for U.S media bias was justified. The manipulation becomes quite evident if one analyzes seven common violations of objective journalism: selective omission, misleading definitions and terminology, imbalanced reporting, opin...
...e media’s ever-powerful influence. One of my aunts from Belgium was in recently in the U.S. for business and I was interested to speak with her about the current crisis. She was concerned because she viewed our news coverage as having an American filter, and thought that that might allow the American Government to take advantage of the country’s grief and fears.
According to Mint Press News, there are 1,500 different types of newspapers, 1000 choices of magazines, 9,000 radio stations, 1500 TV stations and 2,400 publishers owned by six corporations that are managed by 270 executives. This is disturbing to know that American media is controlled by the elite members of society. This concept justifies how a small percentage of the population control and manipulate the mass. One primary example of how the media manipulates the mass is how military and media join forces to justify war that results in mass support of war that helps ratify policies to increase the forces of war production. Of course these corporations are going to provide us only with information that keeps us socially maintained and powerless so that they can maintain power by feeding us false information. By feeding us false information, they can make us do whatever they want. Mainstream media made America believe 9/11 terrorist had biological and chemical weapons in order for American voters to support the war on terrorism to ratify policies that reinforce the powers of the military. Corporations will do extreme measures to increase their profit margins, at the expense of the people. It’s quite ironic how our society emphasizes on functional aspects of society that stabilize the society, yet the
“All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to, consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be.”
Chomsky examines and explores the use of propaganda in the mass media. His focus remains on the “elite” as he would call them, or the corporations and politicians that control the mass media in our country. He speaks of how the U.S. government used propaganda in order to gain support for our country’s involvement in wars from Wilson’s presidency to Bush Sr., and now in our so-called “War on Terror” brought upon by George W. Bush. He explains how he believes this elite group of people control the minds of those that are less educated, and without an open minds. He believes that propaganda has been used through the mass media to guide this population towards supporting political interests.