After class on Wednesday when we discussed Chomsky and Herman’s model of propaganda, it is totally believable to think that we are being fed only the information that the government wants us to here via the mass media. The explanations were eye-opening to me, but at the same time, it felt like I was reading what I’ve known all along. Many forces outside of media-producers have power over what we see on television. It kind of made me want to boycott the news, but it made me think that if we do not watch the news, how will we stay connected with the world, and how will we even get the alternative information?
Thinking about this reminded me of a news production company that we watched a few clips from in CMC 200 last year called Aljazeera. They are an independent news company that started in an Arabic country, Qatar, in 1996. It founded its US branch in 2006. On their website, one of their self-identifying descriptions is: “The network challenged established narratives and gave a global audience an alternative voice one that put the people back at the centre of the news agenda and quickly made it one of the world’s most influential news networks.” There are a few questions here after reading Chomsky and Herman’s reading including, where are they getting the funds to contribute such work/journalism, and how do they deal with flak?
The video we watched in CMC 200, if I remember correctly, discussed fracking in the United States and how it was destroying the water supply of many neighborhoods. I remember being shocked while watching this video because I had never really seen such footage before that which directly challenged multiple facets of the government. It was a super powerful news package, and it showed many failures in the bureaucratic system that was supposed to provide the people with clean water to drink.
I particularly enjoyed your connection of Herman and Chomsky to outside news organizations such as Al Jazeera. To partly address your questions of where exactly they receive their funding, Al Jazeera is not nearly as independent and bi-partisan as they may seem. As an outlet in sharing news of the US, it is not a bad international source. However, as a regional journalistic force, Al Jazeera is extremely biased towards Qatar, its founding [and funding] country.
ReplyDeleteI think this is important to note, because even those sources that proudly assert themselves as without bias and without agenda, have a narrative to promote and encourage. While influential, and indeed one of the higher tier news organizations, Al Jazeera is not without narrative and bias, especially when it is funded by a global superpower like Doha.