I don't know who is still reading this this but I found this article interesting. I guess Israel has finally gotten with the program and stepped up their media out put. They still have a lot further to go but this is a start.
Oh and one interesting note, an article on yahoo news says
Since the ground assault began, 64 Palestinian civilians have been killed, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a Health Ministry official. The new deaths brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip to more than 512 since Dec. 27. The tally is based on figures from the U.N. and Palestinian health officials as well as a count by The Associated Press.
I this its interesting how they point out that 64 civilians have been killed but don't say how many non-civilians presumingly Hamas militants and if there have been a total of 512 killed that means 448 were militants. They are not pointing out that while so far in Israel campaign 12% of the killed are civilian while when Hamas targets Israel it is usaly 100% civilian.
Although it is true that American news media serves as entertainment for its audience, the primary responsibility of media is to inform the public. Media is sometimes described as a fourth branch of government, with the role of serving as a checkon the three branches of government described in the Constitution. A media that serves in this `role is a necessary component to a healthy democracy. Media is the conduit by which information about the government and policymaking is disseminated to the people. In the absence of a functioning conduit citizens are ill prepared to serve their role in democracy. America's conduit is broken, the media has failed to play its role as a check on government. According to a the study An Exploration of Correct Voting in Recent U.S. Presidential Elections by Richard Lau, David Andersen and David Redlawsk, about one fourth of Americans vote incorrectly. By incorrect voting they mean that Americans are unknowingly voting against their expressed preferences. There is also a link that with greater political knowledge there is a higher likelihood of voting. Not all of the American people are adequately equipped to thoughtfully participate in the American democratic process.
The Mainstream Media’s Responsibility
The mainstream sources of news like, television, newspapers, and radio should be places where Americans can easily access information and analysis on politics. Since the Internet is so different from these classical forms of media it will be addressed separately. It is the responsibility of the media conglomerates to gather information on the government’s activities and process it into a form that is easily digestible by the American people. This is especially important during election seasons since it is a time when citizens vote on issues affecting both the local and national governments. However, even when citizens are not casting ballots politicians are making decisions for us and whose activities need to be checked by the media. The American public needs to be kept informed about all these activities and it is the media’s responsibility to provide this information.
During the election season, Americans are charged with the duty of voting for candidates and policies. Many citizens do not have the time or ability to fully research each candidate and ballot proposal. However, industries within the media have the resources necessary to investigate everything on the ballot and provide the people with what they need to make an informed decision. This gives the American people the tools to make informed decisions when they vote.
Since there is not always an absolutely right or wrong way to vote it can be difficult for media to stay unbiased. The media corporations or even the reporters may have a stake in voting one way or the other. The reporter or station may be pushing a certain agenda that influences how they present various polices. Remaining unbiased is less important than remaining intellectually honest. It is only harmful to the consumer when a report is presented as unbiased when in reality it is trying to push an agenda. It is near impossible to present an argument relating to politics that is unbiased and it is not necessarily a disservice to the people as long as the presenter is intellectually honest.
Even during times when there is not an election, the American people still need to be kept informed because important decisions are still being made by politicians. Since it is an elected officials job to server the people it is the people responsibility to let the their elected officials know what they want. But it is the media’s responsibility to keep the public informed about what is happening in the government. According to Robert McChesney as he states in his book The Problem Of the Media “When policy is left to be fought over by powerful commercial interests behind closed doors with no public awareness or participation... one gets what one would expect: a media system that serves powerful corporate interests first and foremost.”
McChesney describes one situation where corporate interests almost superseded the public interest during what he coined as The Uprising of 2003 when media corporations tried to pressure congress into further deregulation. The public was vastly unaware of this and the media failed to report on it. Through holding public hearings the commissioner of the FCC, Michael Copps lead a campaign to inform the public of on the inner workings of the government. He picked up the responsibility the media failed to keep. He made sure the public was aware of what the media corporations were trying to do. Because of his actions an informed public was able to pressure congress into voting against the deregulation.
The media is in a failed state.
The media has become an institution driven by profit and self-interest. The media corporations hide behind a guise of free market capitalism to claim nobility in their motives. When criticized for their actions they claim they are following a Laissez-Faire philosophy saying it is in Americas best interests. They have used this excuse to accumulate immense amounts of wealth and power at the expense of the American people. Massive consolidation has put practically all mainstream media into the hands of five corporations: Disney, Aol-Time Warner, Viacom, General Electric and News Corporation. These are the companies who make the managerial and editorial decisions about what Americans can watch on the television, radio and in print. In 1910, 689 cities in the United States with competing daily newspapers- by 1990 there were only 21. While America has over 500 channels on cable television it is mainly controlled by five corporations. And after the deregulation in 1996 Clear Channel went from accounting 1.3 percent of the radio industries revenue to 20 percent in 2001.
Media Conglomerates are able to accumulate this unfairly massive amount of wealth and balanced only when left unchecked by government. In order to keep a free and fair market it is the governments job to ensure that large companies don't grow to monopolistic sizes and smother competition. What has happened is that media interest groups got into the pockets of politicians and coaxed them into passing legislation which favors the large media corporation. The legislation can take the form of tax breaks or cutting back on existing regulation placed deliberately to promote competition.
This Hyper-Commercialism, as coined by Robert McChesney, only hurts the American people. He claims. “The major historical development in the U.S. Media has been the corporate domination of the media system, which was created and protected primarily by corrupt policy making.” Since the media landscape is primarily controlled by only five conglomerates there is little room to challenge the norm which they have constructed. The norms are news productions like the televised evening news on CBS, NBC, and CNN. In this norm there is a lack of substantive information being disseminated to the public. They say that they are only providing the people with what they demand. They create focus groups and take polls to show that they provide what the American people crave. What passes for news and political coverage is mostly substantiveness providing little to its viewers. According to Jan Leighley as she states in her book Mass Media and Politics, campaign coverage in the mainstream media is primarily concerned with the horserace of politics rather substantive content. In her book she has a chart showing how 74% of the CBS Evening News, 71% of the NBC Nightly News, 66% of ABC's World News Tonight and 47% of CNN Prime News is non substantive coverage.
Political discourse in the news often takes a tone that negatively affects the peoples perception of politicians. Television and radio is full of abrasive political discourse. Although these type of programs may make for more entertaining shows it comes at the cost of trust of politicians. In their study, Effects of Televised Incivility on Political Trust, Diana Mutz and Byron Reeves show that uncivil political discourse leads to mistrust of politicians and the government. “In this study we examined the hypothesis that it is the manner in which such disagreement is presented that discourages positive attitudes toward politics and politicians. The results of these experiments show that uncivil political discourse has detrimental effects on political trust.”
One thing the media and candidates love to do around election time is take polls. New polls seem to come out on a daily basis during election season. Polls are taken to give people a better idea of which candidate or policy the public seems to be favoring. Polls have inherent flaws that can be mediated but not removed. Some of these flaws involve underrepresentation of the lower economic class, bias in the wording of the question and the sample size. Despite the many flaws the media presents polls like scientific data and create reports to explain the results.
There is an illusion of objectivity in the media. News broadcasters present biased information as if it were unbiased. In the early years of newspapers in America they were often highly partisan but they did not present themselves as anything but partisan. Today, whole stations such has Fox News which have a tag line of “Fair and Balanced” but in reality they are pushing an agenda making their presentations far from far or balanced.
While newspapers may tend to be better at providing substantive information less people use it as a news source compared to televised news. The printed medium is better suited than television to provide detailed information about a wide array of topics. According to the Pew Research Center television is the dominate source of election news at 72% while only 29% of people got their 2008 election news from newspapers. What is most interesting is the huge leap in using the Internet as a election news source, in 2004 election about ten percent of Americans used the Internet and during the 2008 election that jumped 23 percentage points to 33 percent.
The Internet
The media landscape is starting to change through the Internet. The Internet as a new source has the potential to fill the gaps left by the mainstream media. The Internet has already become a major source for people looking for campaign news. The Internet makes it easier for people to gather information and share their own opinions with others. There are millions of people actively blogging about anything and everything. While there are so many blogs only a fraction of them get serious readership such as, Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, and MyDD. But these websites still get far less traffic than CNN, New York Times, MSNBC and Fox news.
What makes the Internet so different from the traditional media sources is the resources required to participate. The resources required to start a newspaper, make a TV or radioshow are to great for the vast majority of Americans. On the other hand the one can start a blog or website for free and have zero operating costs. The time commitment can be substantially less. One can update a blog or website in a matter of minutes from any computer with an Internet connection.
Independent blogs and website are gaining popularity. More and more people are turning to websites like the Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos for election coverage. It was the Drudge Report who broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998. And Nate Silver from FiveThirtyEight has developed a way to use polling data better than how the mainstream media uses it. As Americans are looking more to the Internet to get their election news coverage untraditional sources like these blogs will gain popularity.
There is so much potential in the Internet to fundamentally change how the media works. Because of the Internet people are no longer limited to just what the corporate media provides. Now with the Internet at the people disposal there is access to an a near limitless amount of information. One can choose to look at the mainstream corporate medias online news or choose to look at independent websites or blogs. Even the sources like CNN, MSNBC and FOX have blogs and places where readers can participate in the discussion. Internet users are also more politically active than people who do not use the Internet. According to the article Log On, Tune Off? The Complex Relationship Between Internet Use and Political Activismby Grant Reeher
“Occasional Internet users consistently reported the highest levels of participation; frequent users usually reported the second-highest levels; non-users usually reported the lowest levels.” So aside from the Internet enabling people to easily to participate in political discourse it also seems to promote political participation.
Even though the Internet has such a potential to change things for the better it is not guaranteed. The current issue of Network Neutrality is a vital one. Net Neutrality is the concept that the Internet stay free of restrictions. Cable and telecommunication companies want to imposes restrictions on Internet usage and develop a tiered system to take further profit while stifling competition. Moyers says on his website, Moyers on America that “Net neutrality advocates argue that changing this system will give unfair advantage to deep-pocketed content providers, while start-ups, small businesses, and nonprofits who can't pay the piper will be unduly punished.”
What Now?
What can America do to get and keep the Media it deserves? The people need to ensure the Internet stays neutral so it can continue to be a place of open and democratic discussion. The people also need to demand that policy makers stop making corrupt policy decisions against the public good. Americans need to demand regulation that promotes healthy competition and prevents monopolistic actions. And what may be the best way to solve the problems of the media and politics comes from an indirect source.
One factor that seems to make the biggest difference in how the media affects people is education. The more educated people are the better equipped they are to identify bias and spin in the media. According to Michael Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter, in their study What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters “Numerous observers have remarked on the deplorable state of contemporary public discourse over issues and the trivial and misleading style of election campaigns. These problems could be mitigated by broader and deeper public comprehension of politics.” Better educated citizens are more likely to vote and vote consistent with there views. More educated people tend to be more tolerant of others and ideas foreign to their own. They also tend to be more politically active when compared to the less educated. It is an educated, informed and politically active public that fosters healthy media and democracy.
President elect Barack Obama had a website put up were anyone had the ability to ask a question. There also people could vote for a question they liked making the more popular questions appear higher on the list. The most voted for question was this "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?" Looks like we can tell who Obama supporters are, a bunch of pot smoking liberals. But seriously this can be a great way of allowing the public to weigh in on policy. Time will only show if these questions are going to be taken into consideration by Obama and his staff. This may turn out to just be an allusion of participation, but I hope not. The people who participated on this website put up thoughtful questions that deserve an answer. The second most voted for question was this. "What will you do as President to restore the Constitutional protections that have been subverted by the Bush Administration and how will you ensure that our system of checks and balances is renewed?" So people care about more than just getting their weed they are asking question of the government which affect their daily lives.
The Simpsons is a great show that never seems to lack commentary on our society. In “Sideshow Bob Roberts” they choose to poke fun at American politics. It opens up with Homer listening to Springfield's conservative talk show host Birch Barlow who seems to be modeled after Rush Limbaugh. In the first minute they already pack several stereotypes. First the radio's intro No sports, no rock, no information, for mindless chatter were you station.This is criticizing the banter that passes for political commentary in our country. Then Carl comes in calling Birch a right wing crackpot because he said Ted Kennedy lacked integrity, he is portraying a person who is quick to anger about anything someone on the opposite side of the political spectrum says and not looking into the facts. And Lenny is the "politically correct" person yet he feels uncomfortable hearing Birch's conservative views. Finally Homer finds people who vote "fruity", all that in the first minute. There is too much in the episode to point out every political quip. But it is of stereotypes like, hate mongering republicans, pot smoking democrats and politicians who change the wording of policy to mislead the public.
This episode made reference many real life political happenings. An ad for Sideshow Bob used the revolving door ad from the 1988 Bush campaign and ironically Sideshow Bob was one of the released felons. Also the debate between Mayor Quimby (Nixon) and Sideshow Bob (Kennedy) was mocking the first televised presidential debate where Nixon looked sickly adversely affecting peoples perception of him. They also used the scene from All the President's men where Deep Throat gave Woodward information.
The Simpsons masterfully used real world examples of Americas political short comings to comment on the state of American media and politics. I would put the Simpsons and more specifically this episode in the same column that Peterson placed The Daily Show and Al Franken under Genuine Satire. Not only are the writers of The Simpsons poking fun but they are also presenting the information in a way they makes one think about the reality of media and politics.
When I first heard of Al Jazeera it was immediately associated with Osama bin Laden. And until I had a chance to see a broadcast of their news I scoffed at any notion of even considering what came from that station. Then when they launched their English channel in 2006 it gave me a chance to actually see what they were all about. I was shocked at what I saw. I was expecting to be infuriated with them but I really couldn't be, they seemed to be a fair news station.
Control Room is a real eye opener. It talks about Al Jazeera's reporting during the Iraq war, a news station that according to aim.org more than half of Americans oppose. The movie shows interviews with staff of Al Jazeera giving them a chance to defend themselves.
The movie opens up with Al Jazeera's senior produce SamirKhader saying "you cannot wage a war without rumors without media without propaganda." The movie talks specifically about Al Jazeera but makes a point about media on the whole. I think it is best summarized by Central Command's Press Officer LT. Josh Rushing "when I watch Al Jazeera, I can tell what they're not showing by choice. It's the same thing when i watch Fox on the other end of the spectrum." This quote hits at one of the core points of the movie. We shouldn't demonize Al Jazeera anymore than our own media.
There were just a few quotes that I wanted to pull from the movie. I think Hassan Ibrahim (Al Jazeera journalist) had some of the greatest insights. One I found interesting what his response to another journalist Journalist: "Who can defeat the Americans? They are so strong." Hassan Ibrahim: "The Americans will defeat the Americans. I have ultimate faith in the American Constitution." I certainly hope he is right about that. I don't know if I feel the same way. And just how SamirKhader started the movie he starts wrapping up the movie with this. "History tells us that human beings have short memories who thinks now in the united states about what happened in Somalia in 1993, nobody who thinks about what happened in Bosnia nobody thinks about it. History is written by the victors all what will left from this war are just scripts and some history books and that's it. Life will continue will go on will be other problems other things to think about"
