Media: Watchdog of the Political Elite or Manipulator of Civil Sectors? - Essay Sample

Introduction

There is a perception within the liberal and democratic societies that media is used as a channel for news and that it also acts as a watchdog for the political elite. At the same time, media has been seen to be less of prejudice, manipulative and is free from attributes linked to state-controlled media in an authoritarian state (Obar & Oeldorf-Hirsch 2018). This has however changed within the last two decades. Due to the growing awareness in the civil sector, there has been increasing agenda-setting in media where media outlets have been formed to create counterweight in the political, social and economic realm. There is a sense in which media has been used to spread political propaganda. Manufacturing of consent involves the creation of a system whereby the citizens become obedient, compliant and unquestioning to principles and ideologies, all through corporate-sponsored propaganda within the mass media and commercialism, different from obedience attained via strongman tactics (Moon 2018). This paper analyses the concept of propaganda and consent and assesses the main elements of Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model. Due to the prevailing changes in the media during the last decades, the propaganda model has become more valid than when it was first published.

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Propaganda Model and Consent

The idea of propaganda is highly connected to the framework of mass media and public opinion. Scholars have described propaganda as misleading and is often used to promote a political point of view (Klaehn et al. 2018). For the last two decades and with the invention of technology, mass media has transformed to be the most commonly applied and effective mode of spreading propaganda and instilling consent in a population. Mass media is used as a communication system to the general public. It is a concept for amusing, informing and inculcating people with values, believes and codes of behavior that integrates them to institutional frameworks of the larger society (Robinson 2018). It is however unfortunate that the elite in the society uses this tool inappropriately. The abuse of media in spreading propaganda has been used by autocratic regimes where there is direct control or pressure exerted over it (Mullen, 2009). Due to the dominance of propaganda in media and the intrusion of politics, media has been manipulated to the point that one cannot tell what is true and what is right. It has been propelled to the population through information management and public opinion (Davis, 2013). Rather than being seen as normal, it has changed to be a normative element in contemporary democracy and creates order in the heterogenic society. This normative concept has led to the paradox within the modern and multifaceted democracies to the point that governments base their decisions on diversity and pluralism within the public view, while at the same time depending on it (Kellner 2018). Rather than enforcing a direct control over media, consent and propaganda production in liberal states has been realized with the help of public surveys, advertisements, and public relations campaigns.

In states where the bureaucracy controls the power, monopolistic control of the media is often complemented by censorship and makes it clear that media performs the needs of the dominant group in society (Klaehn 2018). However, it has currently become difficult to assess the propaganda system in use particularly where media is private and formal censorship is not present. This has been seen where media aggressively engage, attack and exposes the corporate and political malfeasance while aggressively representing themselves as presenters of free speech and the champions for community interest. What we fail to see is that there is limited nature of critiques and a huge inequality when it comes to command of resources and its effect to the access of private media systems together with the overall performance. A productive propaganda system should highlight the power and wealth inequalities in the society whereby it influences the mass media choices and how it is operated (Alford, 2011). With propaganda, the routes of power are traced to the point that they are able to filter news, marginalize news content and allow government agencies to control the day-to-day media operation and get their message around. The primary ingredient for the propaganda model is to create 'filters' that fall within their preferences. The filters revolve around the reliance on the information given by the government, 'flak' which involves the discipline of media and 'anticommunism' which is utilized as a control mechanism (Robinson 2015). The filters interact with one another and formulate a new raw material which is news and must pass through them to get a residue that is fit for print (Alford, 2009). To this extent, they fix discourse and interpretation and the definition of what is worthy to the audience as per their preference. They are able to explain the foundation of what necessitates their propaganda campaigns.

Propaganda in Hollywood

In relation to the Hollywood sector, the Propaganda model has been applicable through five contributory factors which are also categorized as filters (Ashraf, Soherwordi, Hussain, & Javed 2016). The first filter is ownership and profit orientation; the second filter is licensing to do business; the third is the need to utilize powerful organization in information sharing. The fourth filter is the ability of these organization to issue flak while the fifth filter is dominant superiority ideology. These filters 'sensors' information from the actual world and leaves the residues that are acceptable by the existing power systems. Even though media and Hollywood serve as a channel for mobilizing support for the special interest, the omissions and choices have changed to create propaganda (Zollmann 2017). The control of the media and the relegation of dissidents that emanates from the operation of the filters happens so naturally, that media practitioners that operate with ultimate integrity and goodwill can convince themselves that they have decided on the best approaches to interpret the news in an objective manner and on the grounds of professional values and ethics.

The media industry has significantly changed, creating an illusion of choice, resonating with the issues around freedom of expression, infringement of the press; failing to yield heterogeneous liberal democracy as had been promised (Klaehn, 2018). The filters re-appropriate in Hollywood to establish a propaganda concept that results in films that fail to challenge what Chomsky refers to 'bounds of the expressible.' In this case, the mainstream Hollywood fails to assume that the US is "worthy" and altruistic in global affairs, but it endorses the use of US force against its enemies. At the moment, there are controversies in the film industry (Martin-Jones, 2010). The individual political entities belief on the filmmakers and the political tastes of audience makers. The film is a cohort of the de-radicalized texts. The content of the movie is re-radicalized through the lens of the filters to promote propaganda in the motion picture sector in totality (Scott 2010).

The constraints set by the elites are often so influential and intertwined into the system in a way that the alternative basis of news selections are hardly conceivable. In assessing a controversial story about the involvement of the government in some issues, there is a probability that the government might manipulate the news and impose its agenda, thereby diverting the attention of the public to other matters (Pedro-Caranana, Broudy & Klaehn 2018). To this extent, media has played a part in the manufacture of propaganda, functioning as ideological agencies that fail to focus on the economic elements framing production. There is an aspect of the political-economic analysis of new content which does not give significant attention to the sociological aspects of production. There is a need to advocate for a production that flows in both ways. According to Herman and Chomsky, the propaganda model creates a systematic and political dichotomization in news reportage based on the fundamental power interests (Corner, 2003). There is a systematic design and refinement of information that streams from the elite in the society to the mass with mass media as a tool for propagating propaganda. With regard to the framework, it reveals that powerful interest groups use media for propaganda and the benefit of their organizations or political affiliations. The news media forms the basis of stories and perceptions about the world of publics that is out of reach. Within the realm of propaganda, the constants of our thoughts have changed to a variable. At the moment, it is not possible to believe in the traditional dogma of democracy; that credits the need for effective management of human affairs (Belkin, 2007). When people react based on the theory of propaganda, there is a sense in which they tend to expose self-deception and create persuasion that cannot be easily be verified.

As a massive concept of entertainment, films have become highly useful in catching the attention of the mass. There is a strong power in film in not only with the apparent ubiquity but also in how it helps establish an understanding of specific events, identities, and relationship to other people (Redmond 2017). Cinematography is a space where the commoners get ideas on world politics and historical events. Through cinematography, stories are reproduced to help the audience understand what is acceptable and facilitate the understanding of what propaganda is all about. The concept of making images has been key to the war on terror across the globe, from burning of towers to the exposure of prisoner abuse. After the 9/11 incident, stakeholders in the film industry engaged on how to fight the war on terror and how to engage with the audience in understanding propaganda (Lynchehaun 2011). The film has continually shaped and molded public debates and opinion. A popular movie like "Valley of the Wolves" produced in 2006 was controversial in the US and other nations. On the flip side, the movie shows the Turkish secret agent that is determined to reinstate the honor of Turkish soldiers arrested by the United States soldiers in Iraq (Alford 2018). In actual sense, the Turkish audience received the movie with a lot of enthusiasm since it overturned the normal Hollywood concept on cinematography. This movie kindled an internal debate on the role of the Turkish government in protecting their citizens and the role in their region. At the same time, the film was criticized in the US for being anti-semantic and presented a different perception of the USA and turkey. What the film tries to portray is the role of film in convincing the audience.

There are numerous questions around the Propaganda model. One query is the extent which a set of terms were developed to explain how the American media reported the global politics to the extent that it can offer a better understanding of the media-political relations. This also includes domestic issues and a range of non-journalistic production that is political, in nations with varied media systems and political structures (Dodds, 2008). These variations include the historical progression of the socialist or social democratic political institutions. Chomsky and Herman's ideas resonated with that of the propaganda model but rejected its concept of normative. Propaganda model states that the independent media within the liberal democracies only focuses on the need of the political and corporate elite and is utilized by the elites in context to create consent. The model hypothesizes that there is a dominat...