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The News Machine

The Machine of News

           The corporations which run the major news outlets have immense influence over public opinion. Millions of citizens receive their news from a limited number of sources. The result of this includes subconscious propaganda controlled by the corporations who have the ability to enforce a singular message. Through news broadcasts and reporting, corporations educate and propagandize their ideology to profit from viewers resulting in close-minded thinking.  Although creating an unbiased media is difficult, a possible deterrent against becoming a subject to singular ideology is to expand the number of news sources.

           News corporations use their influence and large viewership to profit. The business of media is funded by advertisers and operated by executives. The corporate structure of news media creates an inherent bias and a necessity to spread a singular message on their platform. Viewers are subject to the propaganda of capitalism. Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman highlights several causes of the bias formed from economic necessity. Five critical reasons remain a common source of bias: The corporate ownership of news, the reliance on advertising for income, the need for reliable sources, the avoidance of negative reactions to press, and the need of a universal scapegoat. Disney, News Corporation, Comcast, CBS, and Time Warner own and operate a majority of television news such as Fox News, NBC News, CNN, CBS News and ABC News in addition to many radio and newspaper media. This minority of corporations operating the majority of news outlets results in a select few executives dictating what is and is not presented on their programs which are viewed by millions. In addition, Corporations rely heavily on advertising for revenue. News outlets are unlikely to air anti-consumerist reporting or any story which may cause advertisers to revoke their support. The reliance on certain reliable sources further censors news media. The government is a common source of reporting because it fuels media with stories and events reliably. Therefore, the relationship between media and the government is critical to the business and any reporting which jeopardizes that relationship is disallowed. News media will choose to report safe stories which would not cause negative reactions from audiences or important institutions which the media relies on. In order to ensure that audiences will have a positive reaction to reporting, media frame stories in a perspective which audiences will automatically agree with. By establishing and perpetuating a scapegoat, audiences would agree with the story and refrain from having a negative reaction.  The combination of these actions results in a news media which censors itself in order to protect its own corporation, its relationship with the government, and its advertising revenue. The viewer becomes a product for advertisers and a subject to a pre-fabricated message to suppress negative reactions and establish consent.

           The widespread viewership of news programs leads to a form of media pedagogy or education. Receiving constant news from an outlet informs and educates the viewer. Gaps in learning left by traditional education can be filled by the media. In his paper, Cultural Studies and the Challenge of Disney, Henry Giroux highlights the power corporations such as Disney have over shaping perceptions by stating, “At issue for parents, educators, and others is how culture, particularly media culture, has become a substantive, if not the primary, educational force in regulating the meanings, values, and tastes that set the norms and conventions that offer up and legitimate particular subject positions” (Giroux 254). While it has the ability to be a positive educating experience, learning through news media has the ability to teach incorrect information or become a professor in ideological thinking. In his chapter titled “Ideology,” Raymond Williams outlines three definitions for the concept of Ideology being, “(i) a system of beliefs characteristic of a particular class or group; (ii) a system of illusionary beliefs… (iii) the general process of the production of meanings and ideas” (Williams 55). News organizations can use their influence to push an ideology onto their viewers to the benefit of the corporation. Viewers who learn or already follow the ideology of a news corporation become loyal consumers that indulge in the media which will tell them what they wish to hear. The news source becomes the book on that ideology and the opinions expressed will become the only opinions heard. Loyal followers will come to the defense of a news source which they believe speaks truth. While individual news outlets differ in ideological opinion, all news outlets have a bias which they will peruse and align reporting to follow. Corporations can become invested in ensuring they stay on the path of their ideology that they may leave out information in their reporting. The result is a focus on teaching simple answers which align with their ideology rather than teaching the debate and discussion. Viewers are once again expected to be ideological consumers who are given the answers to debates and not apply critical thinking. This can be seen through the differences in the format which debates such as gun control are reported. A news media which argues against gun control will educate its audience using carefully selected evidence and bypassing counter-arguments. A similar approach is taken by the other side of the debate to further their narrative. In both cases, neither side relies on the audience formulating their own opinion based on presented facts or expressing the legitimate counter-arguments of the other side. By carefully selecting only evidence and statistics which support their ideological perspective, viewers are told an analysis that they are meant to believe.

           Changes to the corporate structure of news are unlikely, however the expectation of the structure is to capture the viewer and convert them to loyal consumers. In order to mitigate the effects of the propaganda and ideology, viewers must expand their scope to include multiple sources with a variety of opinions. They must be open to skepticism and identify the evidence and opinion. By increasing their number of news sources, viewers can apply critical thinking and formulate their own opinion using evidence. News sources cannot remove their inherent biases however having two opposing views is more valuable than having an agreeable singular view. Corporations operate a propaganda machine designed to build and sell their viewership, but viewers can expand the sources from which they receive information and be able to construct an opinion independent of the messages broadcast.

 References

Giroux, Henry. “Public Pedagogy and Rodent Politics: Cultural Studies and the Challenge of Disney,” Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 1999, pp. 253-266.

Herman, Edward and Noam Chomsky, “A Propaganda Model,” in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (New York: Pantheon Books, 1988), pp. 1-35.

Williams, Raymond. “Ideology,” in Marxism and Literature, pp. 55-71. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.