Media’s Predicament

I’d like to start this post by asking everyone a simple question. What is the source of information for your daily/periodic dose of news and current affairs? I figure all of us cite one form of the “mainstream” media source as an answer. Mainstream media is a term used for the kind of media system which is owned by corporations whose primary motive is to maximize profits for their company shareholders and investors (or so goes my knowledge of capitalism). It becomes really hard for something like public interest to compete with these heavyweight terms like advertisement revenue, return on investment, let alone market share and the renowned TRPs (Target Rating Points).

My next question is – Are we conscious of the value of objective news as a commodity? There is an incentive for corporations which own and control the same media sources we rely on for our knowledge to introduce bias to suit their agenda, given the power of media to influence the public perception and opinion about virtually any subject. This area of media bias and corporate influence on media has been studied well in the western world. The 1988 book “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media” by Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman presents the Propaganda Model, which shows the transformation of media organizations as business entities who are interested in selling products (interestingly not news)– viewership and audience – to business interests, and advertisers favoring profit and stability of the media organization over public interest. The Propaganda Model postulates five filters (ironically, after passing through these, it rarely qualifies as news anymore) which determine the news presented in a channel or media source near you:

1. Ownership of the media source
2. Sources of funding
3. News sourcing
4. Flak (hate mail)
5. Anti-ideologies.

Issues with ownership of the source and source of funding are easy to identify and to pay attention (Not that private entities would open their account books for you to take a look). News sourcing is an important issue in the sense of limits to geographic and subject-related range of the media entity. For example, if your media source is a regional player in a state of your country, it relies on other major news sources for national and international news. An interesting note here is that despite the overcrowding of news organizations on the international scene, they depend heavily on few wire services like The Associated Press and Reuters. Flak is very instrumental in managing public information by negative responses to a piece of news. Anti-ideologies magnify threats from manufactured diabolic entities which practice them. Communism and socialism are still portrayed as infringing on individual freedom. (Ever wondered why Russia and China are preceded by the word “Communist” in the mainstream media?)

With all the power that media has to influence our perception on politics, public life, and day to day events, should they be held to the same standards as any other business corporation? We recognize several conflicts of interest in many forms when we see them – why do we simply ignore this in such an important area which feeds us with the knowledge of world around us? Aren’t we entitled to objectivity in news? What should be done to set things straight? I advocate an overhaul by making news-reporting media not-for-profit, and sever the nexus between corporations and news-media, by enacting laws barring corporate media conglomerates from owning news media.