The 5 filters of the mass media machine

[C C]

Is mass media still ‘manufacturing consent’ in the internet age?
https://youtu.be/34LGPIXvU5M

INTRO: The book Manufacturing Consent (1988) by Noam Chomsky and David S Herman aimed to upend the notion of Western media as a force for public good. Rather than serving as a vital check on power and a source of reliable information, they argued, the mass media existed to sustain and protect power, making media institutions of the ‘free world’ little better than government propaganda channels of dictatorships.

Aided by some truly strange and inventive visuals from the filmmaker Pierangelo Pirak, this brief animation for the Al Jazeera TV programme The Listening Post describes the five media ‘filters’ that, per Chomsky and Herman, ultimately determine what is presented to the public as news. A landmark work, Manufacturing Consent has been endlessly debated and reevaluated in the 30-plus years since its release. Reflected on today, its arguments raise fascinating questions about how the media has and hasn’t changed since the dawn of the internet age.

Is mass media still ‘manufacturing consent’ in the internet age?

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/34LGPIXvU5M

[Magical Realist]

Excellent description of the corporate tyranny at the helm of our democracy. A tyranny that by and large remains unnoticed by the vast majority of its groveling subjects. Spend, consume, and conform to the mass superficial lifestyle transmitted thru television everywhere in America. Don't ask too many questions or you might just get cast out. Just keep smiling and playing the game. The revolution will not be televised. But it may just be streamed on the Internet.

[Syne]

And the vast majority of media props up the left/democrats. Tells you a lot about their motives.

[Secular Sanity]

And the vast majority of media props up the left/democrats. Tells you a lot about their motives.

I agree. Most democrats associate capitalism with republicans, but some of the richest people in the world are democrats and lobby for such. Money is power. Advertising companies will continue with whatever works.

My grandfather was a very private person. He would tell the census takers to get off his property. And yet, here we are giving away in-depth information for a few freebies.

How Social Media Algorithms Manipulate You

I think Stevens made some good points.

"These legal entities, he argued, have perpetual life, the ability to amass large sums of money, limited liability, no ability to vote, no morality, no purpose outside profit-making, and no loyalty. Therefore, he argued, the courts should permit legislatures to regulate corporate participation in the political process."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC

Obviously, lobbyists are going to take advantage of social media. Douse the crowds with do-goodery dopamine and lobbying just got a whole lot cheaper. Virtue signaling, and idiot compassion can be a dangerous thing. You do this or that without fixing the underlying problem, or policy, and the house of cards… *splat.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness is one example. NAMI has been referred to as an "AstroTurf lobbying organization" of the "psychopharmaceutical complex.

"The mental health alliance, which is hugely influential in many state capitols, has refused for years to disclose specifics of its fund-raising, saying the details were private. But according to investigators in Senator Chuck Grassley’s office and documents obtained by The New York Times, drug makers from 2006 to 2008 contributed nearly $23 million to the alliance, about three-quarters of its donations. Even the group’s executive director, Michael Fitzpatrick, said in an interview that the drug companies’ donations were excessive and that things would change."

Divide and conquer! Yeah, we’re divided alright, but we’re also splintering. I thought I’d be able to hang on to my faith in people, but now, I’m not so sure.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."

[Magical Realist]

And the vast majority of media props up the left/democrats. Tells you a lot about their motives.

No less than how Fox News props up the conservative right. But the overall message is the same regardless of the political spin: WE tell you what is important to talk about, and we show you how to think about it in 3 minute editorial soundbytes.

[C C]

And the vast majority of media props up the left/democrats. Tells you a lot about their motives.

I agree. Most democrats associate capitalism with republicans, but some of the richest people in the world are democrats and lobby for such. Money is power. Advertising companies will continue with whatever works. [...]

Perhaps the diminutive common ground for hard-core leftists and conservatives is that they both know what progressives are: The pretentious version of capitalists who appropriated social justice themes and propaganda from communist activists of the first half of the 20th-century (and the New Left participants of the '60s), and repackaged them for popular consumption and exploitive gain.   

Noam Chomsky - capitalism & socialism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Choms..._socialism

Noam Chomsky [...] characterizes the U.S. as a de facto one-party state, viewing both the Republican Party and Democratic Party as manifestations of a single "Business Party" controlled by corporate and financial interests. Chomsky highlights that, within Western capitalist liberal democracies, at least 80% of the population has no control over economic decisions, which are instead in the hands of a management class and ultimately controlled by a small, wealthy elite.

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The new national American elite
https://www.scivillage.com/thread-9690-p...l#pid41583

EXCERPTS: It is only in the last generation that these regional patriciates have been absorbed into a single, increasingly homogeneous national oligarchy, with the same accent, manners, values, and educational backgrounds from Boston to Austin and San Francisco to New York and Atlanta. This is a truly epochal development.

[...] Compared with previous American elites, the emerging American oligarchy is open and meritocratic and free of most glaring forms of racial and ethnic bias. ... Elite banks and businesses are desperate to prove their commitment to diversity. At the moment Wall Street and Silicon Valley are disproportionately white and Asian American, but this reflects the relatively low socioeconomic status of many Black and Hispanic Americans, a status shared by the Scots Irish white poor in greater Appalachia (who are left out of “diversity and inclusion” efforts because of their “white privilege”).

Immigrants from Africa and South America (as opposed to Mexico and Central America) tend to be from professional class backgrounds and to be better educated and more affluent than white Americans on average -- which explains why Harvard uses rich African immigrants to meet its informal Black quota, although the purpose of affirmative action was supposed to be to help the American descendants of slaves (ADOS). According to Pew, the richest groups in the United States by religion are Episcopalian, Jewish, and Hindu (wealthy “seculars” may be disproportionately East Asian American, though the data on this point is not clear).

Membership in the multiracial, post-ethnic national overclass depends chiefly on graduation with a diploma -- preferably a graduate or professional degree -- from an Ivy League school or a selective state university, which makes the Ivy League the new social register. But a diploma from the Ivy League or a top-ranked state university by itself is not sufficient for admission to the new national overclass. Like all ruling classes, the new American overclass uses cues like dialect, religion, and values to distinguish insiders from outsiders.

[Syne]

And the vast majority of media props up the left/democrats. Tells you a lot about their motives.

No less than how Fox News props up the conservative right. But the overall message is the same regardless of the political spin: WE tell you what is important to talk about, and we show you how to think about it in 3 minute editorial soundbytes.

Very few conservatives rely solely on Fox News, as it occasionally pushes the left's agenda too:

Outraged Viewers Bombard Fox News For Segment Promoting Child Gender Experiments