To manipulate

mass media’s sole role?

Noam the older
“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”
— Noam Chomsky

There are a few key books to read if you wanna know more about the media and how it works and what it does. Simply put, the media is:

[1]

News outlets (papers, television and internet platforms) that report on, generate and distribute news.

However, many people believe that corporate media — owned mostly by very rich and powerful men — comprises of:

[2]

Entities that work in manipulative ways to keep rich people rich and poor people meek and acquiescent of the political structures that keep them poor.

To be honest, not all media outlets are the same as each other (see reviews of the key newspapers and news magazines here). As I say elsewhere on this site, news should be printed without fear and without favour. What do I mean by this? Well I mean that we shouldn’t need to be afraid to report the whole truth and nothing but the truth and, we shouldn’t show favouritism (especially if under duress or as a consequence of bribery).

without-fear---without-favour
Bust and words of Adolph Ochs, The New York Times headquarters. In greater, but still abridged, detail: “The New York Times will give the news in concise and attractive form [it will] give the news impartially, without fear or favour, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved, [provide] a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end, invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.”

The books I recommend are:

Manufacturing Consent
Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988).

Media and Democracy
Curran, J. (Ed). (2011).

The Shock Doctrine
Klein, N. (2007).

Public Opinion
Lippmann, W. (1922).

The Conquest of Bread
Kropotkin, P. (1892).

Manufacturing--Consent
Manufacturing--Consent2
Public Opinion--book--01
Public Opinion--book--02
Power Without Responsibility
TheShockDoctrine2
The Conquest of Bread

To end with, I’ll quote:

“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.”

— Plato

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”

— Karl Marx

“Social media is the opium of the millennials onward.”

— Anna Bidoonism

Author: Anna Bidoonism

Poems, prose & literary analysis—this is who I am.