week 6: propaganda; plato, chomsky

Propaganda (last part of unit 1)

• Propaganda can be shaping the way in which we think, shaping the world, our values. 

• To persuade us, support govt, etc. 

• Propaganda is the systematic dissemination of info, especially in a biased or misleading awy in order to promote a cause or pov often a political agenda

• We can all potentiallly engage in propo

• 3 categories (these can be fuzzy tho)

1. A lie: a statement or claim amde by someone who knows its false

2. Spin: a statement/claim that is based on some facts but either exaggerates them or leaves out other inconvenient facts

   1. Ex, a resume. 

   2. Auth leaders will often hold fake or unfair elections etc look at slides

3. Concealment: a statemtn/claim made based on the withbolding of true info

   1. Kind of close to spin/lie. 

   2. In 2002-2003, to build publi c support for an invasion of iraq, the bush administration didnt report that al qaeda leaders did not watnt an alliance w iraqi leader saddam hussein. 

Intro to plato

• Born during hte pelop war

• Student of socrates teacher of aristotle

• The academy, the very first universities. 

• Author of the republic. 

• Hes controversial

  • Many suggest hes the founding father of a lot of things. 

  • Definitely an important thinker

The republic that we read

• We need to censor or reframe how a certain set of people talk abt the afterlife. Poets, homer!

• Expunge af

• The noble lie/grand lie

  • Makes us feel like a family connected thru a common lie. 

  • We need to convince the people that we all came from the earth, so that they need to pay the earth back by protecting it. 

• Is propaganda ever morally justified?

• Is propaganda morally justified in modern day politics?

Hisotians suggested that lying is an important part of interstate relations. State leaders often intentionally mislead eachother

Ex:

• Ww1, brit lied abt their development of the tank claiming it was designed for transporting water, not waging war

• Mid 30s, germans smthn smthn fuck

Okok time 2 lock in now fuck men

break

Manufacturing consent

• WE HAD TO WATCH A DOCUMENTARY?

• Oh oops, its cuz there was no link

• Yikes. 

• Point in all, media is a political power. Media manufactures ur consent

Video w the eyeballs

• Democracy is staged with the help of media that works as propo machines. 

• Ownership: media firms are mass cooperations w an endgame of profit. 

• Advertising: media costs money to make. Advertisers pay media. Audiences pay advertisers. 

• The media elite: complicity. Governments, cooperations, big institutions know how to manipulate the media game. They are crucial to the process of journalism. U cant challenge power. 

• Common enemy: shit like making communism fearful. 

• These 5 filters make up manufactured consent. 

Manufacturing consennt in action

• In 1984, two priests were assasnited in polan and el salvador. 

• Chomsky and herman write how the killing at the priest in poland captured 5x more media attention than the one in el salvador. 

• What explains this disparity? Why would mainstream media pay more attention to poland?

  • Core countries pay attention to core countries and peripheries to peripheries? Maybe. 

Why does the media propagate certain myths?

• Its not a govt conspiracy. Its not cuz the media is owned by the state. Its due cuz of the interaction of 5 factors taht lead hte media to report in a certain way

Factor 1

• Media outlets are owned by large profit seeking cooperations

• In 2003, msnbc phil donahue was fired for publicly opposing the us invasion of iraq. Then conveniently, msnbc was owned by general electric (arms manufacturer)

• If the public sstarts turning against the war, the govt doesnt invade, and general electric uses hella profits. Ge has a financial incentive to promote war. 

Factor 2

• Media outlets rely on selling advertising space to stay in business

• 2013, the guardian newspaper reported on leaks made by former cia employee adward snowden that documented the xtenet where us national security agency was engaged in widespread public surveillance

• Since then, the guardian went a fuck ton of significant financial difficulties. There were so many readers thought. Today, it does not exist. Business didnt wanna advertise w the newspaper. 

• The need to sell ads can incentivize media outlets to publish click bait, false/exaggerates stories generated to attract attention. 

• Like that one episode of bojack horseman where diane is a journalist but she finds out that everything is owned by “white whale”. 

Factor 3

• Journalists rely on official sources from govt, big cooperations, etc. 

• The sources of  information that journalists have to rely on corrupts their information in the first place. 

Factor 4

• Media outlets fear the flak (criticism or punishment they recieve from govt officials and their cooperate sponsors)

• Julian assange, editor of wikileaks, was charged w treason, forced into an asylum, and threated with capital punishment. 

Factor 5

• Media employees are part of the establishment dn report hte news in ways that reflect the dominant national ideologies of the time, like anti communist during teh cold war or neo-liberalism tdy (what is it?).

• Speak truth to power, but when ur buddies w politicians and ceos, ur not gonna speak ur truth anymore are u?

• Bernie sanders. He received a lot less attention from abc, cbs, and nbc than trump or hilary. Those that challenge the status quo like bernie are excluded from media attention

Second reason to doubt chomsky

• Theres been quite a few instances where ppl have uncovered govt stuff .

• Ie: the pentagon papers published by the nyt and the post. 

Third reason

• The cnn effect. Where a certain foreign policy is ennacted cuz they think the govt isnt doing enough. 

Fourth

• Because journalists rely on govt source, does it make it propaganistic? Maybe, maybe not. 

• Might be a case by case basis.