The Media, Friend or Foe?
by lex Wednesday, Dec 13 2017, 8:52pm
international /
prose /
post
The mass media today, which includes large IT players such as Google and Facebook, has veered dramatically from its ideal, IMPARTIALITY. In fact bias is the order of the day to the point of overt censorship of the free flow of information -- attempts to eliminate internet neutrality for instance. Vested interests -- primarily the CFR -- have harnessed the mass media in order to steer and shape public opinion/consciousness. The corporate private interests that own it outright of course utilise it to further their own private interests, which is to be expected if no mitigating factors exist. Impartiality is not a failing of the media itself, which is only a means or tool, it is clearly a failing of government regulatory bodies that were formed originally to ensure that ownership is as diverse as possible, which would allow for as many different views as possible, concentrated ownership of course allows only for following the ‘editorial policy’ of owners.
As a media and textual analyst, I am not surprised in the least that the mass media has become an overt propaganda apparatus that serves unrepresentative minority interests, as this outcome developed in incremental steps -- the slow erosion of government regulation due to the same private interests now owning governments now allow for concentrated unrepresentative ownership; media moguls are today plutocrats, such is the power they have achieved for themselves. And the results are of course biased and distorted ‘news’ designed and shaped for various purposes, primarily to facilitate the realisation of certain agendas, permanent war and conflict for instance, US world domination, etc.
I have not forgotten a lesson I learned in my student days, that good analysts are not steered, captured or shaped by any dominant cultural narratives, primary cultural discourses or any ‘givens,’ etc. Good analysis must be unfettered and completely impartial for it to succeed in arriving at accurate deductions or the ‘truth.’ I learned that the process of analysis itself captures as the focus of the analysis has already captured the attention of the analyst and is therefore able to affect outcomes, many alternative journalists today are unaware that they promote dominant cultural discourses, agreement or disagreement means little as the focus is the prime consideration, and so opposing views focus on what it is they oppose and necessarily re-enforce the binary opposite, which remains in the public’s attention, allowing for subjective acceptance or rejection, which outcome becomes a gross failure for alternative journalists.
For example, Trump saturates the ‘news’ daily though he is clearly irrelevant as he makes no decisions or policies without approval or instruction, Trump, as is evident, is merely a puppet that serves to distract from the criminal (now proven) machinations of the real rulers of America, collectively known as the deep state. And so if alternative journalists really wish to serve the interests of the public and their profession, their news could focus on the matters the mass media intentionally ignores or gives scant regard to; climate change for instance is of critical importance to every person on the globe, the forces that created it continue to pollute and poison because their actions are not the focus of the public, Trump is! Needless resource wars are another example of backgrounded news as they are presented as fighting ‘terrorists’ etc, not stealing the resources of weaker nations. But perhaps the most critical social news is that of the inequitable distribution of wealth today, which is now approaching the disparity the world witnessed in the time of the Pharaohs and Emperors of Rome, yet again, that horrid unfair reality is hardly mentioned if at all, as Trump again saturates the mainstream and alternative news. We should never forget that the primary task of all propaganda is to occupy consciousness to the exclusion of other matters discourses/narratives of critical importance to the public.
I hope the above analysis and presentation serves to awaken certain journalists that have been ‘taken’ but above all I hope that the public begins to focus on critical matters that affect them directly, not the least being the massive disparity in wealth and its grossly inequitable distribution; the real ‘enemy,’ as should be easily appreciated, is ALWAYS WITHIN.
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