How Media Controls You
Most people’s beliefs are heavily influenced by the media. For hundreds of years, advertisers and politicians have known this. Media companies inform the public and serve the public so that we can better engage in the political process. These Media companies tell us what those in power need them to tell us. so we can fall in line. In fact, the Media manufactures our consent.
This influence of media is a bigger problem now than it has ever been. Because we are living in a time where we spend most of our time with mobile devices.
Social media plays a huge role in this. Corporations like Google and Facebook are just as powerful as governments in their ability to influence people’s minds. Market competition can no longer destroy these big corporations. Facebook has already figured out how to “hack” people’s emotions and influence their thoughts.
The media controls the majority, of non-caring, non-thinking minds, which is the majority of the world. The media is slowly but steadily gaining control of our minds, which will eventually lead to control of our every thought, action, and, ultimately, our life.
In 1988, Noam Chomsky co-authored a book with Edward Herman called “Manufacturing Consent.” Also known as the “most influential books ever published about the media,” explains the “propaganda model” in great detail. Despite the fact that the book was written in the 1990s, the five filters that determine editorial bias still work today, in the twenty-first century. It helps us in understanding how the news is organized.
Media operates through FIVE filters
1. Ownership
The first filter has to do with the size and the ownership of mass media. Mass media firms are big corporations. All they think about is profit. so it’s in their best interests to do whatever guarantees that profit.
2. Advertising
The second filter is the role of advertising. Media costs a lot more than consumers will ever pay. So, who steps in to fill the void? Advertisers.
What do the advertisers get paid for? Audiences. So, in reality, while the media is trying to sell you a product they are also selling their advertisers your personal information.
3. The media Elite
The third filter relates to the sourcing of mass media news. Because of economic needs and the exchange of interest, the mass media are drawn into a symbiotic relationship with powerful sources of information. Even huge media companies like the BBC can’t afford to have reporters placed everywhere. They focus their resources on areas where news stories are most likely to occur.
Business corporations and trade organizations are also reliable sources of stories considered newsworthy.
Editors and journalists who insult these powerful news sources, possibly by questioning the truth or accuracy of the provided material, can say goodbye to their media life as a journalist. As a result, the media has been unwilling to publish articles that will harm corporate interests that provide them with the resources that they depend upon.
4. Flak
If you seek to challenge the power, you’ll be pushed to the margins. The fourth filter is known as ‘flak’ which Herman and Chomsky define as “negative reactions to a media remark or [TV or radio] show.” It can be in the forms of letters, telegrams, phone calls, petitions, lawsuits, speeches, and Bills before Congress and other modes of complaint, threat, and punitive actions. The term “flak” has been used to describe what Chomsky and Herman see as efforts to discredit organizations or individuals who disagree with or cast doubt on the prevailing assumptions that are favorable to established power.
Business organizations usually come together to form flak machines. The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) in the United States, is made up of oil giants and automobile companies such as Exxon, Texaco, and Ford. The GCC was started up by Burson-Marsteller, one of the world’s largest public relations companies, to challenge the credibility of climate scientists and myths about global warming.
5. The Common Enemy
To manufacture consent, you will need an enemy – a target. The fifth filter is the common enemy. Communism. Terrorists. Immigrants. A common enemy, a devil to fear. This helps to control the public opinion.
In the end, it is all about media manipulation, but whether we believe it or not is up to us, and that requires a level of critical thinking that most people seem unwilling or unable to exercise.
