Noam Chomsky is perhaps one of the best known post-modernist philosophers. He, in his seminal work, Manufacturing Consent, outlined the modern media environment and enlightened readers as to the inextricable relationship between media, capital, and capitalism. Free media, while a “democratic” institution works to reinforce and continually sustain media monopolies. The free-market media is inextricably linked to corporate bodies and corporate interest— working through a “propaganda” model that manufactures consent to the general public, lending the general illusion that consent and support from the general public is organic, and in no way coerced.
The propaganda utilizes several prongs to prime audiences to ensure both their implicit and explicit consent. Notoriously, in journalism, this exists in the covering of foreign policy by the United States. While the illusion of choice may appear, foreign policy commentary is extremely limited.
In most foreign conflicts, journalists have limited access to unfolding conflicts. Several factors lead into this, general bureaucracy that disallows press involvement, general safety, as well as high expenditures involved with foreign coverage. Thus, coverage of conflict often only comes from a singular source, that being the united States government.
This can be historically analyzed by the limited criticisms voiced by media during the Iraq and Vietnam War. Most prominent news sources blindly followed reports released by Washington. Support for both conflicts were virtually ubiquitous. I am fascinated by the media’s role in foreign policy.
During the Vietnam war, a prominent New York Times editor only criticized the conflict after the corporate tide had generally shifted against the conflict— a liberal editor supported a war criticized so heartily by many Americans. I hope the irony is not lost. While journalists are often supposed to mount an adversarial position in regards to issues, when in relation to foreign policy journalists, due to lack of information and the necessity to preserve the trust of high-ranked sources, the media acquiesces to the narrative set forth by the government.
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/world/from-the-editors-the-times-and-iraq.html
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