The propaganda model argues that there are 5 classes of ‘filters’ in society which determine what is ‘news’; in other words, what gets printed in newspapers or broadcast by radio and television.
Excellent article. Quick summary of the quick summary:
For something to be “news” it has to avoid being filtered out by
- The interests of the owners of the news media
- The interests of the advertisers
- The credibility disparity between “official” spokespeople for governments and corporations, and everybody else
- The fear of ‘flak’ — various forms of legal retaliation from powerful interests and their various think tanks and interest groups
- The worldview pitting Us Against The Evil Enemy — once Communism, then various dictators, now Terrorism or Islamofascism.
UPDATE:
Come to think of it, I think Billy Bragg covered this territory once..
It says here, that the unions will never learn.
It says here, the economy’s on the upturn.
And it says here, we should be proud that we are free
And our free press reflects our democracy […]
And it says here that we can only stop the rot
With a large dose of law and order and a touch of the short sharp shock […]
If this does not reflect your views, you should understand,
that those who own the papers also own this land.”— Billy Bragg, “It Says Here.”
There is no “news” if what we’re calling news is the stuff they are putting in our papers and on our TVs. I’ve never been so thankful as when I gave up my TV and habitual newspaper reading / radio news listening.
I think, perhaps, “news” is designed – at least here in America – to be an opiate. Staying “informed” makes us feel like we are doing something while we stay too-busy trying to be productive cogs.
“I’m too tired, too busy to be activist,” I might be tempted to say, but I’m doing my best, I’m informed! Yeah. About the Mitchell report.
The scary thing is that our “news” is really just fark on a different medium. A diversion. What are we allowing ourselves to be diverted from?