Expressing Opinions

Continuing with my previous posting Awareness Falling, do you think there are forces at play in the news you receive?

Your news awareness may be skewed because of the propaganda model. The propaganda model is a theory advanced by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky that alleges systemic biases in the mass media.

A Wikipedia article on the propaganda model states:

Herman and Chomsky argue that since mainstream media outlets are either large corporations or part of conglomerates (e.g. Westinghouse or General Electric), the information presented to the public will be biased with respect to these interests. Such conglomerates frequently extend beyond traditional media fields, and thus have extensive financial interests that may be endangered when certain information is widely publicized. According to this reasoning, news items that most endanger the corporate financial interests of those who own the media will face the greatest bias and censorship.

It then follows that if to maximize profit means sacrificing news objectivity, then the news sources that ultimately survive must be fundamentally biased, with regard to news in which they have a conflict of interest.

I am inclined to agree with Herman and Chomsky. With news being a business and operated as such, I support the propaganda model. You only need to tune in to see it in action. A perfect example of this is the lack of reporting on the war in Iraq. In July the reporting of the war averaged 15% of the news reporting time, but by February it was down to just 3%. Why is this? Could it be that neither Republican or Democratic parties want the war to be a major part of the election because neither party has a good solution for bringing our troops home? You know if someone had a good plan for withdraw they would be spinning it to the public. So instead the spin doctors of each party spin “other” news stories to the media.

We need to look outside the so-called U.S. free press to learn the whole story and then it do it with caution, knowing you will still encounter the forces of money and power manipulating the facts.

It is only with the recent power of the Internet and the ability of people to post fresh information, does it assist in keeping the media somewhat honest. And that is no where near enough. If you would like to learn more about this topic I suggest you explore the following:

• The Propaganda Model: A Retrospective by Edward S. Herman
• Has the Internet Changed the Propaganda Model?
• Edward S. Herman - links to his many Internet sources.
• chomsky.info: the Noam Chomsky website

Thank you visiting Expressing Opinions.

How aware are you? Where do you get your information from? Is your source of information unbiased and honest? These are some of the questions researchers have about the media.

One unbiased research group is The Pew Research Center. It finds just 28% of Americans are aware of military fatalities in Iraq. Down from the 54% who knew in August. The researchers at the Pew Research Center believe this decline in awareness is due to the drop in the attention the media is giving the war.

So as you read, listen or watch the news, remember there are other news stories which are going untold. This leads me to ask why do all of the major American news media outlets always cover the same stories? Yet if you check the BBC or sources from other countries they have many stories which go untold in this country. So much for a free press.

Thank you for visiting Expressing Opinions.