Michelle K. Lawrence Dr. Littleton English 1020 July 21. 2014 How Corporations and Governments Influence the Media How do corporations influence the media; is that influence real, and are the effects noticeable. Some would argue that the media is not at all influenced by corporations, as with the director of the news room, for the morning broadcast, for the local ABC affiliate, owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. She said when asked briefly was the media influenced by corporations, and did the media produce propaganda in response to that influence? V.Lawson, responded clearly to the question. She quickly answered that the media is never influenced by corporations, and the media does not produce propaganda. Is the local news director for the morning broadcast, correct in telling us the media is not influenced by corporations, or is it just her wishful journalistic response to believe; thus declare that in her opinion, the news outlets are objective, and unbiased in its reporting of the news? A recent ZBN study conducted; findings, illustrates how media conglomerates, are producing less investigative news reports, due to rising cost and declining viewership. Also how the corporate media conglomerates were changing their strategies to increase profits, and produce cheaper news stories. This also included ZBN. These changes in reporting were due to the many different, smaller business mergers with giant media-conglomerates. The report questions the validity of actual unbiased news reports, because now media conglomerates have their own commercial business interest, to protect. In a recent ZBN study, Representatives of corporations will say that good journalism is good business, and so there is no conflict. It is true that a news outlets credibility is one of its assets, which can be eroded by blatantly biased reporting. But to corporate owners, the value of that asset may be far outweighed by the gains to be made by using their media to promote their other lines of business. As news operations become smaller and smaller parts of ever larger conglomerates, which trade-off will become more profitable--and news decisions will more often be subordinated to corporate strategies (Naureckas, 1995). These facts are really showing how much corporations owned by media conglomerates get favoritism, by the media conglomerates, by which they are owned. This evidence does not support V. Lawsons claim that corporations are not influencing the media, on the contrary, they are doing just that, influencing the media. How much are these corporations controlling? Who are these corporations and how much good do they serve, and how much damage have they caused, today and in our world history. Discussing the history of how corporations have been influencing the media, including governments leads us down a very long road. There are many case examples of how corporations and governments have influenced the media and in turn how the media has used that influence to produce propaganda warfare, on an unsuspecting public. Before we go further, lets look at the definition of what is the effect of corporate influence. Starting with what is the meaning of propaganda? Wikipedia clearly defined “Propaganda as- Propaganda is a form of communication aimed towards influencing the attitude of a population toward some cause or position. Propaganda is information that is not impartial and used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively (thus possibly lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or using loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. Propaganda can be used as a form of ideological or commercial warfare. Propaganda techniques are used in character assassinations, or even used to create the feelings of patriotism. These techniques, are swaying the emotions of the masses, and can effectively control and alter, an enormous amount of peoples emotions, in a single broadcast. Propaganda has been used in world history for mass murder, such as in the history of Germany Third Reich; propaganda techniques, influenced the media, so much so, that the Nazis in Hitler Regime, used propaganda to cause the Holocaust which in effect killed twenty-six million people within a very short amount of time. This is dangerous, and it has been used to perpetrate murder against millions of innocent civilians, the media has been influenced by corporations, regimes, governments, and government paramilitaries. The arm of the media-generated propaganda machine-can produce an almost world domination affect. American children, for the past one-hundred years, American children are being prepared through the media, and through the use of toys, to participate as very young children in war games. They are also being taught tactical procedures that teach the children about the importance of being good soldiers. The propaganda produced by toys maker and the media are continuing to targeting American children to accept the military, and through role-play using toys such as G. I. Joe, for over one-hundred years. These toy corporations and manufacturers use the media through television advertisement, and television programming. They are able to reaching their target audience- young children. There are other instances in American history where our own government influenced the media such as in the early days of the Central Intelligence Agency, after WWII, and the battle between America and Russian to lead as the worlds Superpowers. Also how the CIA employed an American filmmaker to make a film about George Orwells book, Animal Farm, and provided the funding to produce the film. Clearly proves, that as early as post- WWII the US government; corporations were influencing the media to generate propaganda through the making of propaganda films for the American people. The American Government and the filming of GEORGE ORWELLS ANIMAL FARM in the 1950s is an another example how corporations such CIA influenced the media, That the CIA paid for the first filming of George Orwells Animal Farm in the 1950s is relatively well-known among scholars of the cultural cold war. The writer also quotes another journalist, as journalist Evan Thomas pointed out; many CIA records leak. As a result of such leaks, it is now possible to document at least partially the genesis of the movie and who was involved in its production. The United States Government involvement in censorship and propaganda during the building of the atomic bomb issuch a mentionable case how the government has influenced the media. They were distributing a publication to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In 1943 the Army was concerned about the citizens who were not allowed to talk about their jobs, who were unhappy and so they created a community journal, to help them. They created a publication that helped to create community, and develop new interest with the workers, and their families. The publication was influenced by the government, thus propaganda and censorship occurred, during a very important time in American history in which the publication-media was influenced. We can even see that in other countries that the media is under the influence of larger media conglomerates that are thus controlled by governments, such as in a case that happened in the Russian media. The media in Russia is biased because the ruling elite in Russian’s media and government are controlling the information being released to the public. Those who own and control the media want to secure political influence, not uncover political corruption. A journalist after trying to expose the Russian government was fired for trying report a story that exposed the Russian police. The writer then went public with the story after losing his job. Corruption in the media is everywhere. It is even in our history pages and currently; now being reported as unbiased, and accurate reporting of todays events and Headlines from around the world but a little investigative reporting shines a light in a darker room the media does not you to know about. A room where the so-called elite rule and decide what the public’s needs to know and what products we get to buy and very importantly - the kinds of cars we get to drive, and how much you pay for a gallon of gas. Americans need to pay more attention to the type of news it is viewing, and how the media is using emotional lures, and strategies to control, and manipulate their elite audience’s beliefs systems. The media is out to control the out-come of political events, or political oppositions, and the media also wants to gain ground so that their policies are implemented. The goal of the media is to gain control over public. The media organizations intentional creation, of political actors. These political actors, who then intentionally carry-out corporate agendas that the corporations they are working for want implemented, such as paying -off policies, lobbying politicians to help them advance their media corporate agendas. These media corporations seem to be demanding more and from the American people and from our politicians, to advance their own causes which are not always democratic or capitalistic in nature. The government saw this happening as far back as Lyndon Johnsons Presidential Administration, but more recently the Supreme Courts have tried to curb the advance of corporate interest controlling the media by political contributions within the corporations themselves such as in the case in 1978, a well-documented article written by author, Kerr, R. L. Kerr’s, accurate reporting of the decision and ruling, the Supreme Court upheld in 1978 concerning political spending by corporations, is such an example. The professor clearly lays out the difficulties the Supreme Court Justices experienced, and particularly how Justice Powell ruled, about how corporate managers, without political consensus within the corporations could not contribute to any political media outlet. Ultimately deciding that there should be some ground rules set in place for corporation mangers, wanting to make large donations to their favorite political candidates. Justice Powell ruled about how corporate managers, without political consensus within the corporations could not contribute to any political media outlet. Again bringing up the point- where is all this media control of the population headed again? If the goals of the media are to gain control over public, then the question becomes why? Are we going to end up with less rights and more personal loss of our personal data? And why are corporations, using our religious and political opinions, and what for? Is there a master-plan in place the public has yet to realize? Let’s just see who is buying who, and let’s start with you, the consumer. The media it is acquiring from sources, such as your “Facebook” account your personal data, from there the companies take your personal information from Facebook; than send your personal information to other sources outside of Facebook. This is also how the media is obtaining your religious and political opinions, which are also showing up on the Internet. This is how corporations are influencing the media, by working together with information collection companies, to obtain detailed information about you- than using your personal data to market more products for the advertisers. Who now know your likes and dislikes. They are literally “selling you”, the consumer, and paying you nothing in return. This issue of media corporate conglomerates mergers, and how this is leading to favoritism of certain entertainment products by some parents companies, opens up real concerns about the journalistic integrity of the modern journalist Who now work for news organizations own by primarily one larger media corporation. Discussing now the new mergers that took place between Apple, Steve Jobs, Pixar Animation Studios, and Disney. Was the merger with the corporation going to affect business with other companies? , A a direct quote from Jeffrey M. Bewkes, the president and chief operating officer of Time Warner, which owns the Warner Brothers studio, said Friday he did not think that a Disney-Pixar union would change his companys relations with either Disney or Apple. He and other media executives said they would view the union as just another of the many examples in which the many-tentacled mediaconglomerates simultaneously compete against one another in one area while working together in others. Of course it was going to affect every business relationship, and some political out-comes as well. The media has taken giant steps to bring the greatest creative minds, and technological advances together, to create the superior dream team. A team designed to captivate its audience, control their buying spending, and even help them decide who they like in Hollywood, and elsewhere. These are the media giants- the newly and pain-painstakingly, formed conglomerates; with so many branches, (companies); that they are in the business of protecting as their parent company. Attracting new business, and even newer relationships; staying competitive with other studios. These newly formed media conglomerates, are always working together, on many of the same projects. Yes, the corporations within the media are controlling and most of all influencing the media, to produce major profits. Showing us, just how many corporations are influencing the media, and all the many different companies merging, with so many different “entertainment products, that need equal time to be represented. It was all about using their influence over the media. Some people can see just how much influence over advertisers, and consumers, a single media conglomerate needs to have to increase their entities profit margins, every year. Branding becomes the rule, not honest reporting by the news media, because of the many companies that their parent company owns. With so many different entertainment products to promote, a single media conglomerate has to consider the financial well-being of all its corporations as a whole, if the major giant- media conglomerates, are to survive.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 02:19:47 +0000
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