We are all getting brainwashed by corporations
Mainstream media is designed to mind control people to profit the corporations . I want to inform the readers about how populations are manipulated and how we are manufactured to think about political,social and economical issues in a certain manner.
In the article A Propaganda Model by Chomsky, he argues that corporations and elites have the guidelines or ‘filters’ in media in order to manipulate people. Corporations want to control us because they can sell their product much more easily. The core of this problems is that the entire mass media is owned by few companies and the media work as a tool to profit the corporations.
The monopolization of the media creates a media bias where media does not talk about the real issue that might be associated with the government or the corporation that are funding and sourcing the media. Chomsky lists five ‘filters’ that goes in into making of mass media or propaganda he likes to call it. First one is the size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth. So, this means that the corporation who own mass media are huge conglomerates that have to profit in order to stay in business. This is a problem because companies only want to present information that are related to their interest. Also, small and local news does not get the publicity as much as the mass media. This means that it is very hard for the local people to voice their problem against the corporation and the capitalist system.
Ben Bagdikian who is a media critic and dean of UC Berkeley’s graduate journalism talks about the danger of media concentration. In his article Media Ownership, he informs reader that only five companies(1. Time Warner, 2. Walt Disney, 3. New Corporations, 4. Viacom, 5. Bertelsmann) own most of the mass media. 43% percent of American’s do not have local news papers according to Bagdikian and this creates unfairness in politics. American democracy relies on informed consent but without a coherent picture of the society in which we live and especially of the real causes of events, we ‘’tend to remain static and bewildered, left at the mercy of whoever acts with power. 'He argues that media should not be the reason to stay in business but to stay in journalism.
Media and corporations are spreading materialistic ideology to profit the elites. People are getting happiness and their value of life from buying and obtaining commodities. In the article The commodity as spectacle by Guy Debord, he talks about how capitalist society values commodities as spectacles. Spectacles is delusion and fake happiness created by mass media. Media gives images to the viewers that commodities are just more than what they really worth and commodities become part of owners identity and social status. This is ideology is spread by advertisement which is critical to manipulating people.
Advertisement appeals products to customers so companies can increase their sales. However, advertisements can create false images so people are more willing to buy certain products. The products which company is trying to be sell is not only the product. It also sells the idea of what the buyer will be when he or she buys that product. The product gets beyond its materialistic value, the make believe image when it is owned also becomes a part of its value. In the article by The Magic System by Williams, he argues that advertisement is a magic. A magic to fulfills peoples desire and happiness. Advertisement is also a magic because it is making seem like to be real when it is not.
Fashion is a good example to bolster the theory: media as industry and inequality of wealth and how power effect mass-media interests and choices. Fashion is created by big fashion corporation such as clothing brands or fashion magazines. Such big corporations dictate on how fashion should look like. They advertise to make people believe that what they are making is cool and trendy. Fashion also symbolizes struggle between social classes. Designer clothing that the fashion company releases are really expensive so only upper class can afford it. Later, the new released designs will be tricked down to mainstream and become common. Fashion is getting more streamlined due to monopolization of media and vertical integration.
In addition, In Chomsky’s article, second filter he talk about is advertisement. He argues that advertisement filters out small media companies and advertisements strongly affects the content of the news. Since media companies need to get funding from companies who puts advertisements media companies need to compete with another to attract companies to advertise on their news. A newspaper which gets less advertising than its competitors is at a serious disadvantage. Lack of success in raising advertising revenue was another factor in the demise of the ‘people’s newspapers’ of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Also, the news is “filler” to get privileged readers to see the advertisements which makes up the content and will thus take whatever form is most conducive to attracting educated decision-makers. Stories that conflicts with consumers buying mood will be filtered out as well.
In conclusion, i believe media should serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It should function to amuse, entertain and inform. It should criticize and wrong doing of anyone including individuals, corporation or the government. Also, it important for us to become active audience and not to passively take in information.