In today’s Western society, and throughout the world, the news media is ubiquitous; it plays a crucial role in many aspects of our social, cultural, economic and political development, not that many of us realise that. The processes of industrialisation, capitalism, and globalisation coupled with technological advances and the growth and development of national and transnational corporations have all significantly contributed to the development of the considerable influence the media wields in society and ultimately how you form your views about the world.
What is presented as ‘news’ to audiences is the final product of a complex process of story telling that has been impacted by a potentially wide range of external sources and decision makers inside a news organisation.
The 1970's Warning
Even in the 1970's there were very switched on people, from all walks of life, who knew the colossal power the mainstream news media exerted. Not only that, there were people who warned back then of the corrosive relationship between the media and politics. Author Colin Seymour-Ure stated in 1974 that:
‘The mass media are so deeply embedded in the (political) system that without them political activity in all its forms could hardly carry on at all’.
Just think about that for a moment. Even in the 1970's when the mass media was nowhere near as advanced as it is now some people were, quite correctly, voicing concerns that the media was such a powerful communicator of political information that the entire political system could not function without its existence.
Not only that but given the media's ability to exaggerate, manipulate, distort and engineer it achieves a unique status in our society, with unimaginable power to do bad things.
This of course is deeply worrying on many levels. If ordinary citizens are relying so heavily on the mainstream media for their understanding of what's going on in the world, politically and socially, then it doesn't take a genius to figure out that wholesale mass brainwashing is possible.
In 1976 a mainstream US film entitled Network was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It explores the US television production and news broadcasting landscape of the 1970's. Billed as a black comedy it charts the struggles a television company has with constantly trying to maintain good viewing ratings. The film is very unique and there has never been anything made like it ever again. I'm surprised they even let this one out. Away from the contrived drama and dark comedy within the film there are some genuine moments of honesty in relation to all the corruption and about how that industry is managed with ethics rarely, if at all, a consideration. To this day I'm still surprised it got a general release.
Network represents those very rare moments in history where the elites let something slip through the net. Perhaps it was accidental or maybe one of the good guys somehow managed to push it through. Who knows? But once again another warning from history was ignored.
If you fancy a taster here is the official trailer. And should you be bold enough to want to watch the whole film a gentle word of advice while it starts off slowly once the film moves into the action it just never stops, so stay with it.
The Digital Paradox
Fast forward to the 2020's, the media landscape has profoundly changed again and the digital age has arrived. However, sadly it appears most of us did not head the warnings from the 1970's. The mainstream media has morphed from a beast into a monster, thanks to new technologies it has formed new tentacles that reach so far into our daily lives reality is now very blurred. Social media platforms and mobile phones being just two of 'their' new weapons.
Let's not forget what media scholar and author J. Herbert Altschull said of the media on the eve of the internet in 1995:
'No newspaper, magazine, or broadcasting outlet exceeds the boundaries of autonomy acceptable to those who meet the costs that enable them to survive.'
It is these very boundaries which explain a sometimes concealed and unpalatable truth. It strikes at the very centre of how the content we read in our newspapers or watch on our television screens or read online comes to be commissioned. Money is everything, and when the product being sold is information the two are an extremely toxic mix.
(BBC News launches BBC Verify, a 'fact checking' service to fact check their own disinformation, it is now beyond Orwellian)
Are Universities Really Society's Friend?
Now then, while I am no huge fan of the higher education system, despite being the owner of two separate degrees, I do still pay attention to some academics. Ciaran McCullagh, is an author and Senior Lecturer in Sociology at University College Cork and in 2002 he stated that:
....there is a heavy reliance on the powerful for news. Government officials and institutional sources - such as professional organisations, pressure groups, business associations and experts – predominate as the sources of media stories.
He is at least attempting to warn of the dangers of mass reliance on the media for information. However, my concern here is that while he clearly hilights the obvious in that we all rely too much on the powerful elites for sources of news, for me there is a contradiction within, as I am very suspicious of the university sector regarding as to who and what they claim they are. As far as I can tell most universities are part of the powerful McCullagh is warning us of.
This is a huge subject matter of course and I could literally write tens of thousands of words on the subject but I doubt anyone would stay with me that long! So I will leave it here for now, and I hope this post serves as a taster to remind all of us of the hidden role the media plays in our society.
Peace!