Media is a mediator, on the one hand, media is a communication channels such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, billboards, telephone, fax, and internet. Media is used to broadcast or narrowcast messages or information to audiences. In addition, media texts are produced by media institutions (media institution is an established, often profit-based organization, which deals in the creation and distribution of advertising, entertainment and information services.) mostly in order to make money because the media owners do not care about the audiences-economy or education, they just want to sell the number of audiences to their sponsors. Due to media is very close to every class of people and easy to consume; therefore, media absolutely affect people in terms of understanding, belief, and life style so media are often used by a group of people to manufacture consent.
Manufacturing consent
When we are talking about manufacturing consent, the name of Chomsky usually pops up in our brains. Chomsky and his colleagues, Edward S. Herman tried to infer that in countries where the levers of power are in the hands of a state bureaucracy, media are used by the government and group of elite dominants in the field of propaganda. There are statements from Chomsky indicate propaganda in the public mind. The following statements indicate that people are convinced to follow whatever the institutions direct:
Anyone who has had any dealings with children knows that they're curious and creative. They want to explore things and figure out what's happening. A good bit of schooling is an effort to drive this out of them and to fit them into a mold, make them behave, stop thinking, not cause any trouble. It goes right from kindergarten up ... People are supposed to be obedient producers, do what they're told, and the rest of your life is supposed to be passive consuming. Don't think about things. Don't know about things ... Just do what you're told, pay attention to something else and maximize your consumption. That's the role of the public. (p.19)
People not only receive the custom, tradition practices and belief from school or academic institutions but also media. Media play an important role to convince or brainwash people who consume the media. Due to rich or powerful people own or occupy media therefore the media are used to manufacture their consent. For example, the KFC Corporation has faced with a problem of its chicken. The KFC was accused about using meat from a genetically engineered mutant bird-like creature or the method of slaughter but many people would not know that much because the media did not pay intention to present this issues or there must be something else that make this not interesting, maybe money? Therefore, the KFC still has its consent to feed the chicken in the same way.
On the one hand, the rich or powerful people manufacture their consent through media according to the propaganda mode of Chomsky and Herman for example:
The magnitude of the public-information operations of large government and corporate bureaucracies that constitute the primary news sources is vast and ensures special access to the media. The Pentagon, for example, has a public-information service that involves many thousands of employees, spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year and dwarfing not only the public-information resources of any dissenting individual or group but the aggregate of such groups. In 1979 and 1980, during a brief interlude of relative openness (since closed down), the U.S. Air Force revealed that its public-information outreach included the following:
140 newspapers, 690,000 copies per week Airman magazine, monthly circulation 125,000 34 radio and I7 TV stations, primarily overseas 45,000 headquarters and unit news releases 615,000 hometown news releases 6,600 interviews with news media 3,200 news conferences 500 news media orientation flights 50 meetings with editorial boards 11,000 speeches
This excludes vast areas of the air force's public-information effort. Writing back in 1970, Senator J. W. Fulbright had found that the air force public-relations effort in 1968 involved 1,305 full-time employees, exclusive of additional thousands that "have public functions collateral to other duties." The air force at that time offered a weekly film-clip service for TV and a taped features program for use three times a week, sent to 1,139 radio stations; it also produced I48 motion pictures, of which 24 were released for public consumption. There is no reason to believe that the air force public-relations effort has diminished since the 1960s. (Chomsky & Herman, 1988)
This example shows only one branch, Air force and there are the other three branches. The Pentagon control significant media such as radio and television so the information of these sources usually are the same way for the main issues so the government can maintain their consent through the media as usual because they have more power.
The reason why the rich or powerful people have to manufacture their consent is benefits. The reason of invading Iraq on March 20, 2003 from the United States and the United Kingdom is the President Saddam Hussein harbor and support Al-Qaeda including the Iraq government abuse human right but on August 30, 2005 the former President George W. Bush answered the antiwar protesters that the reason to continue fighting in Iraq is for protection of the country’ vast oil fields and preservation of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Even though this issue was widely criticized but another new issues are produced by the media under the government replaced this negative issue in a short time. Therefore, the US government benefit from the people ignorance.
Chomsky has argued that the people in a society can be divided into two different classes: the top 20 per cent and the remaining 80 per cent. The top 20 per cent of the whole population is called as a professional class; this group of people has good education and they are more or less participate the government policies such as judges, lawyers, company manager, teacher, engineer, doctors, and intellectuals. The remaining 80 per cent is a working class. They are less interested in politics as long as they have enough money to support their satisfaction. According to Chomsky, the top 20 per cent is the group with money and power; therefore, as a social institution, media is classified as part of the 20 % of the professional class according to Chomsky’s proposition because the rich people only own media and people who working for such media usually are well-educated as well.
I have now talked about the definition of media, media institution, and the role of media in manufacturing consent including the propaganda model according to the work of Chomsky and Herman then the media classification. Now I would like to come up with how the media, as a one institution, work together with other institution in order to make a change in a society and political.
The United States of America in 2008, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has defeated Senator John McCain from Republican in the presidential election and he has become the American’s 44th president. What is a key success of this election?
The President Obama has used social media such as MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. during 2007 in order to canvass and this presidential campaign was work. The other media such as television programs and radio responded this modern strategy. Actually the Obama’s team has created and worked together to show the Obama’s charismatic. Moreover, Obama used the media in terms of marketing purposes and regular people who were thinking that they were too far from the presidential candidate have changed their attitudes. Therefore, this issue was wide-spread overwhelmingly and all media were also spread news until the end he won this election. According to this case study, it is absolutely that the President Barack Obama has received many benefits from using social media as a mediator among himself and other people.
Media is just like a coin which has two sides. People who own the media can use it for their own benefit (manufacturing consent) or for social benefits. However, we as the audiences have to consider and choose what messages or information are believable, trustable, and beneficial for avoiding being a victim of the interest person or group of people.
1,376 words
References
Peter G. & Graham M. (2000). MEDIA INSTITUTIONS: Key areas and their implications for understanding media. London: Arnold, pp. 5-43.
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