My last entry focused largely on introducing propaganda and the five filters of the propaganda model, provided by E.S Herman and Norm Chomsky. Tonight, I will be further detailing this concept with a case study to better illustrate how government influence permeates the news production process and how it is that we are affected by this.
First of all, governments are extremely reputable sources for journalists and there is a strong connection between state authority and those responsible for producing the news. Brian McNair, author of an Introduction to Political Communication says that McNair notes that there is a mutually interdependent relationship that exists between media actors and politicians (1995, p.64).
Strong government influence on the mass media presents various implications for the social world today. Writing for the Star newspaper, Susan Riley remarks on Stephen Harper’s decision to not lower the Parliament Hill flag for each fallen Canadian soldier. He claims that it is out of sensitivity to the relatives and he also claims that, for the same reason, Canada will not have media coverage of the dead soldiers being returned to the country for burial. Riley, however, criticizes Harper’s claims and says that they “feed concern that his real goal is to hide negative images of a war that will only get more bloody.” She also comments that throughout the on-going war with Iraq, the United States mass media have also fallen short of providing an entirely truthful account of the war by keeping negative and gruesome images from reaching and circulating amongst the U.S citizens. Riley argues that the public need to see the reality of the war rather than a veiled and incomplete version. Susan Riley makes a perfectly appropriate argument here and does a great job and exposing how government choices can effect what the mass media produce and distribute.
Ultimately, the mass media play a key role in establishing the knowledge of the public in regards to worldly events and information. If the public are only knowledgeable to the extent that state authority would like them to be, there is a problem. Voting, for instance, becomes skewed because the citizenry is not fully informed or informed correctly and cannot establish for themselves an accurate opinion and make the best, most well-informed decisions. Thus, government influence on the news-production process is extremely imperative to recognize in our social world today.
Lucy.
The Jotting Journal 