Media Literacy

Media Literacy Essay

By Jason Barnett

In this essay I will discuss corporate ownership of the media, who owns these media outlets, and there tools of deceiving the public. There is a great group out there called "Project Censored" and this group "shows important news stories that aren't being covered properly" (project censored.org) "Every year for the past three decades, Sonoma State University's Department of Sociology has produced a powerful little book called "Project Censored", reporting on the "top 25" censored stories ignored or suppressed by our corporately-owned commercially-financed mainstream culture of "news". (Project Censored 2006). Why is this? It is because of what they call "Junk food news" (http://www.answers.com/topic/junk-food-news); news that has no relevance to anything but trying to sell us more cars or just fill our minds with filler. "The "Junk News" section reminds us what stories dominated the headlines, Ashton and Demi, the Michael Jackson imbroglio, etc. Ð'- no need to remind you of them

As the United States enters the 21st century, however, its third century as a so-called constitutional Republic, most mainstream American journalists, out of fear, ignorance, or denial, refuse to acknowledge a simple fact about our great country. The state of our "news" culture is deeply troubling. The United States is now the most powerful Empire in the world. And, as citizens of the most powerful Empire in world history, Americans had better know what the hell is going on. But when it comes to "news," Americans live in one of the most heavily censored societies in the world. We've got dozens of television stations, hundreds of magazines, thousands of radio stations, millions of web sites. Pay no attention to the fact that most Americans surveyed claim to get all of their news and information about the world from television.(http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7162) Or that we see, on average, more than 3,000 advertisements each day. Or that 90% of our media content is owned by one of six transnational corporations. (Project censored 2006, project censored.org) "Or that millions taxpayer dollars are funneled into dozens of federal agencies for the express purpose of manufacturing of corporate-friendly "news" VNRS (video news releases) broadcast daily on millions of American TV sets without being identified as such". (http://www.robwilliamsmedia.com/blog.php?id=98).

"Denial" is not just a river in Egypt. Fortunately, though for those who care about investigative journalism, and what a year 2005-2006 was for obfuscation, diversion, spin, on the screens and in the pages of the U.S. mainstream press. Want to know how many Iraqis have been killed more than 100,000. Wondering if any lingering questions about the 911 "terrorist" attacks exist? How Ð''bout that "Oil For Food" program? Concerned about Big Brother, the Patriot Act, and the arrival of a post-911 "surveillance society"? What happened during the 2004 presidential "election" anyway? Questioning why the new Department of Homeland Security seems incapable of rooting out the bad guys here. Meanwhile, the theft of the 2004 presidential "election", and the cozy relationship between the military/industrial complex and corporate media owners, to name but a few. This now brings me to how this information comes to be and the evil tyrants who control the media. These news channels have what are called "Conglomerates" which are a "corporations made up of a number of different companies that operate in diversified fields". (Webster's dictionary) What this means is, say the New York Times, wants to write a story about how the new Ford f-250 has a steering problem. This story will be buried before it gets told because The New York times are affiliated with the Ford Motor Company. It is examples like this that make it hard to ever hear any news because, guaranteed a news story will have something to do with a corporation investments or interest.

In politics, "the public interest" is generally recognized as a code phrase for "what I want." It is less widely understood that the word "deregulation" can be another kind of obfuscation, aimed at persuading a different set of onlookers. Many rules governing media have been loosened or repealed in the last 30 years, and this can be presented as a deregulation of the media. Remove the frame, and it becomes obvious not only that new regulations have arrived as the old ones disappeared, but that they've often been backed by the same people who present themselves as the promoters of deregulation.

This now brings me to the tools of these media outlets in deceiving the public. Noam Chomsky, and others, has written quit a few books on the issue of "Engineering Opinion" and "Necessary Illusion". Chomsky's basic idea of Engineering Opinion "is also necessary to whip up the population in support of foreign adventures. "Usually the population is pacifist, just like they were during the First World War. The public sees no reason to get involved in foreign adventures, killing, and torture. So you have to whip them up. And to whip them up you have to frighten them...." (Noam Chomsky,http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/chomsky03.htm) He also feels that propaganda and democracy are necessary in the functioning of state affairs. He compares it with a totalitarian state, where the government can use the military to keep the population in order. In a "free" society, Chomsky believes, ideas are the state's weapons of control. "What you can't control with force, use manufacturing consent (propaganda in the old days) to control what they [people] think." (Noam Chomsky,http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/chomsky03.htm) He offers the theory that the American media has, "through the production of "convenient myths," allowed the government to play a role in global affairs that is far more influential, party-motivated, and repressive than the people believe" (Noam Chomsky,http://www.chomsky.info/articles.htm). He feels the primary purpose of mass media in today's society is to bring together support for interests of government. He also expresses his concern for the trend in mass, corporate-based media which recognizes the main purpose of the media is to make people follow orders and not think for themselves.