Jay Doubleyou: how to spot media bias

Monday 18 August 2014

how to spot media bias

There have been several postings here on 'media bias':
Jay Doubleyou: english-language news media
Jay Doubleyou: english-language news media - part two
Jay Doubleyou: propaganda, public relations and manufacturing consent
Jay Doubleyou: english language media as propaganda in the ukraine
Jay Doubleyou: the media

And perhaps we need to consider the general question of how others can 'influence' us:
Jay Doubleyou: positive power and influence

But who influences whom?
The media or the politicians?

Here's a video from BBC for schools on the media:
BBC - Learning Zone Class Clips - The influence of the media in politics - Citizenship and Modern Studies Video

.. and some more on what the politicians do...
BBC - Learning Zone Class Clips - Politicians and the constructed image - Media Studies Video
BBC - Learning Zone Class Clips - Politics of television and the fight for control - Media Studies Video

Try this documentary for a closer look at these issues:

Orwell Rolls in his Grave (Full 3HR Documentary) - YouTube
Orwell Rolls in His Grave - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Or this:
Noam Chomsky Documentary "Manufacturing Consent The Political Consent of Mass Media" - YouTube
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Editorial bias: five filters

Herman and Chomsky's "propaganda model" describes five editorially distorting filters applied to news reporting in mass media:

Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation: The dominant mass-media outlets are large firms which are run for profit. Therefore they must cater to the financial interest of their owners - often corporations or particular controlling investors. The size of the firms is a necessary consequence of the capital requirements for the technology to reach a mass audience.
The Advertising License to Do Business: Since the majority of the revenue of major media outlets derives from advertising(not from sales or subscriptions), advertisers have acquired a "de-facto licensing authority".^[4] Media outlets are not commercially viable without the support of advertisers. News media must therefore cater to the political prejudices and economic desires of their advertisers. This has weakened the working class press, for example, and also helps explain the attrition in the number of newspapers.
Sourcing Mass Media News: Herman and Chomsky argue that “the large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain special access [to the news], by their contribution to reducing the media’s costs of acquiring [...] and producing, news. The large entities that provide this subsidy become 'routine' news sources and have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine sources must struggle for access, and may be ignored by the arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers.”^[5]
Flak and the Enforcers: "Flak" refers to negative responses to a media statement or program (e.g. letters, complaints, lawsuits, or legislative actions). Flak can be expensive to the media, either due to loss of advertising revenue, or due to the costs of legal defense or defense of the media outlet's public image. Flak can be organized by powerful, private influence groups (e.g. think tanks). The prospect of eliciting flak can be a deterrent to the reporting of certain kinds of facts or opinions.^[5]
Anti-Communism: This was included as a filter in the original 1988 edition of the book, but Chomsky argues that since the end of the Cold War (1945–91), anticommunism was replaced by the "War on Terror", as the major social control mechanism.^[6]

Manufacturing Consent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some more ideas:

The agenda-setting process is arguably an unavoidable part of news gathering by the large organizations which make up much of the mass media. (Just four main news agencies — AP, UPI, Reuters and Agence-France-Presse — together provide 90% of the total news output of the world’s press, radio and television).^[1]
Media influence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia