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Modern media is often wrong, vapid, and easy to manipulate

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Re: Modern media is often wrong, vapid, and easy to manipulate

#31

Post by ryanholiday »

calibraxis wrote: post #20
ryanholiday wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, in the book I go much earlier. Upton Sinclair wrote a book of media criticism in 1912 that was the genesis for my theories. Yellow journalism predates Bernays by more than a few decades.

Thanks, I'll get a copy of your book. BTW, you might be interested in the work of media historian Bob McChesney ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._McChesney ), if you haven't checked it out already. One thing he argued is that before professional journalism, the media was much like today's blogs; everyone knew their content reflected the owner's biases. Then with the consolidation of newspapers (due to economic…

He wrote the intro to the republished edition of The Brass Check believe it or not.

(But to address your other point, it may be. Chomsky's media criticism focusing heavily on this)

Re: Modern media is often wrong, vapid, and easy to manipulate

#32

Post by tsotha »

jstalin wrote: post #22

My own experience shows this on both sides of the issue. I have been involved in some local government issues and it's easy to get coverage in local media by just sending a press release out to a few dozen contacts. They rarely (if ever) do any fact checking. That's not to say that I make things up. In fact, that's the other side of the issue. I pride myself in researching local government issues through the use of t…

Part of the problem is the internet has taken a lot of the money out of local news. They don't check things because they don't have time. Where I live all the local papers, which were going bankrupt, were bought by a conglomerate and 90% of the staff was laid off. They're more like stenographers than reporters, and it's not their fault, either. They simply do not have the time to do anything buy bounce from one story to the next, getting the facts mostly right. Nothing that's the slightest bit complex or subtle gets the treatment it would have a decade ago.

Re: Modern media is often wrong, vapid, and easy to manipulate

#33

Post by gruseom »

ryanholiday wrote: post #31
calibraxis wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, I'll get a copy of your book. BTW, you might be interested in the work of media historian Bob McChesney ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._McChesney ), if you haven't checked it out already. One thing he argued is that before professional journalism, the media was much like today's blogs; everyone knew their content reflected the owner's biases. Then with the consolidation of newspapers (due to economic…

He wrote the intro to the republished edition of The Brass Check believe it or not. (But to address your other point, it may be. Chomsky's media criticism focusing heavily on this)

In a recent interview, Chomsky expressed ambivalence about the propaganda model that became so successful with Manufacturing Consent. It seems that he disagrees somewhat with the analysis of media content as a function of corporate interests, but is uncomfortable saying so too bluntly because it was largely the work of his friend Ed Herman. Chomsky's real opinion is that economic interests alone can't explain why intellectuals overwhelmingly serve power, since many intellectuals hold safe positions (e.g. in academia) that aren't subject to corporate bosses. I got the impression that Chomsky sees media propaganda as a special case of this more general pattern which he considers more fundamental. Don't have the link handy but can dig it up if anyone cares.

Re: Modern media is often wrong, vapid, and easy to manipulate

#34

Post by calibraxis »

gruseom wrote: post #33
ryanholiday wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He wrote the intro to the republished edition of The Brass Check believe it or not. (But to address your other point, it may be. Chomsky's media criticism focusing heavily on this)

In a recent interview, Chomsky expressed ambivalence about the propaganda model that became so successful with Manufacturing Consent . It seems that he disagrees somewhat with the analysis of media content as a function of corporate interests, but is uncomfortable saying so too bluntly because it was largely the work of his friend Ed Herman. Chomsky's real opinion is that economic interests alone can't explain why in…

Do you have this in mind? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0D0E42AA4I&t=22m18s)

Some context: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0D0E42AA4I&t=16m30s)

Re: Modern media is often wrong, vapid, and easy to manipulate

#35

Post by gruseom »

calibraxis wrote: post #34
gruseom wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a recent interview, Chomsky expressed ambivalence about the propaganda model that became so successful with Manufacturing Consent . It seems that he disagrees somewhat with the analysis of media content as a function of corporate interests, but is uncomfortable saying so too bluntly because it was largely the work of his friend Ed Herman. Chomsky's real opinion is that economic interests alone can't explain why in…

Do you have this in mind? ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0D0E42AA4I&t=22m18s ) Some context: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0D0E42AA4I&t=16m30s )

Yes! Thanks.

The whole interview is worth listening to if one can tolerate the (at times considerable) douchiness of the interviewer.

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