'The News' is propaganda.

national | arts and media | opinion/analysis

Wednesday June 01, 2005 16:21

by saoririseoir - indyradio

Reclaim our Media I

The best television and newspaper ratings go to light entertainment. Looking at the news, it’s easy to understand why. It’s nicer to feel happy, albeit brain-dead, than depressed and powerless; though the two are not mutually exclusive. Most of us take for granted the whole concept of ‘news’, so much so that the question ‘what is news?’ almost seems ridiculous. Yet, when we reflect honestly on the unaccountable agenda-setting power of news editors over everyday conversations in parks, pubs, the canteen etc., we can only conclude that news has a tremendous influence over the thought of the public, and the question becomes more obvious, as does its variant; ‘who decides what’s news?’ News editors are deciding what we should think is important, and in doing so, defining each of our situations for us, as well as the situation of the World around us.

Truth tellers or mouthpieces for 'Official' Sources?

‘The News’ is Propaganda.

A survey of radio news reports for three days last week found the primary news sources to be gardaí/PSNI, stars in the political soap-opera, and reports or surveys (mainly by state-funded institutions). This survey however, didn’t include talk-based programmes which, no doubt, would have hosted authors selling their latest book, as well as purveyers of mostly recycled opinion.

When the mass-media report a story from a garda source, they almost never say so, despite usually quoting verbatim from what has been given to them. Even, by the media’s own self-proclaimed standards, this sourcing is problematic for two reasons.

Firstly, it calls into question the impartiality or objectivity of a media industry which is so reliant on police forces for a steady flow of stories, that, for example, The Irish Times was the only mainstream Irish newspaper to question the shooting of two post office raiders in Lusk on Friday May 27th – this, despite our voting to abolish the death penalty in June 2001. The gardaí are generally revered and unquestioned to such an extent that it is politically safe, and even prudent for politicians to say they want more of them on the streets.

Secondly, the integrity of our jury system is surely undermined by the almost instantaneous reporting of the arrest of individuals for whatever reason, since the garda version is always given first and in most cases never seriously questioned. A neighbour of mine first found out about the arrest of his brother-in-law on illegal possession of fire-arms charges through a radio news bulletin at nine in the evening. Innocence was not presumed in the broadcast. Some suspects are even flagged before arrest (e.g., Seán Haughe re Omagh bomb charges, April 2005). The fact that such coverage, and worse, is not held by defence lawyers to be prejudicial is a matter of some wonder. The worst media offenders in this regard are the Sunday papers, whose crime correspondents one suspects make more from crime than most criminals.

The daily stream of what one politician has said in response to another might be seen as good public service broadcasting if much of what is said was not so inconsequential and inane. Even outside the high-political arena we can’t escape it. Bertie’s private life is one thing, but the use of tragedy to aid the legitimation process is grotesque. After the bus-crash in Co. Meath the movements of Ministers of State were relayed, along with their condolences; the same people whose inaction has at least been partly responsible for such accidents. Their empty words continue to do us no favours and should not be reported ad nauseum as is common-place today.

Surveys and reports tend to be closer to the truth, but there are two provisos. First, asking the right question will always get you the answer you want to hear. Surveys about the economy may ignore inequality, or questionaires on a new postal codes neglect to mention to those questioned that An Post have already designed an advanced type of postal code before this latest committee was set up.

Secondly, where the truth is broached, however obvious it has seemed to the rest of us for so long, reports are never acted upon, not even those commissioned by the government itself. Yesterday, we heard a report telling us that the Children’s Courts do little in keeping their wards out of the cycle of crime and institutions. I suggest we don’t need a report to tell us that prisons and the whole justice system doesn’t work. If it did, most of its practitioners would not be in that line of work.

It may be some time before it becomes clear that some long-awaited report or other has not been acted on, but most of their recommendations play safe, and recommend a tinkering with the system – mindful that their conservative audience may commission yet another report in the near future. Whole forests have gone into dead reports, and a lot of wasted resources.

An example of a more top-down approach is ‘opinion’. It is to be found in the rantings of columnists and editorials in print, but worse still, the numbing vacuity of the same pundits (usually other journalists) on talk radio. That this opinion is anodyne is bad enough, but it is usually recycled by people who have no peronal experience and very little knkowledge of what is being discussed. Arguably, one might include in this, the sending of RTÉ’s ‘finest and best’ to report on the tsunami. What could they add to the common fund of knowledge? Better had resources been put into exploring and explaining why such regions had such an infrastructural deficit; but bad news sells better than analysis, and the public is encouraged to lurch from one paroxism of pity to another, each one supplanting the last in its apparent magnitude and importance. The tragedy of 800 million starving in the World each year is always there, but not newsworthy.

Opinion can be so dense indeed that it sometimes masquerades as fact. An instance in relation to Sinn Féin and the IRA illustrates this. On RTÉ 1’s Six-One News on March 11th, 2004, following the political opportunism of Azanar’s Spanish government, RTÉ connected Sinn Féin with the killing of over 200 in Madrid, and spent most of its flagship news programme hammering home this point. When, within a couple of days the Spanish people found out that they were being lied to, and that al-Quaeda were in fact behind the atrocity, they sacked the government. Would, that news editors were so accountable, or even subject to scrutiny.

Power and knowledge are related, so if our lens on the world is so distorted as to corrupt our knowledge of it, and ergo ourselves, this is surely no small matter. Commenting on RTÉ’s handling of the Madrid bombings, an RTÉ journalist told me in an interview that RTÉ news is objective, and that at the same time it reflects public opinion in the slant of its reportage.

The propaganda model of media has moved a long way from its infancy in the days of Hitler, Brezhnev, or even present-day China. In our model the journalists themselves are so normalised into ever-shrinking ideological parameters, that their work is bereft of critical analysis. They rarely question the motives of the powerful source – for starters, a simple question like ‘you would say that wouldn’t you…’ would suffice. In the meantime, let us not be told how or what to think; each of us is best equipped with that particular responsibility, and it should not be surrendered, ever.

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Comments (17 of 17)

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just as i suspected

by saoririseoir

Sun Jun 12, 2005 04:18

TV drains you of life and intellect

check this out from indymedia.ie, 2002, April 29th - that one does it for me.

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=2858&time_posted_upper_limit=1020139200&time_posted_lower_limit=1020052800

TV3 news

by paul sherlock

Sun Jun 05, 2005 18:21

p_sherlock at yahoo dot com

TV3 news is the only news that actually report the protests in Dublin and are actually be there and I never have seen RTE attend. RTE news are just a puppet propaganda outlet of the government and usually under-estimate the amount of people and size of the protest.

Human interest

Sat Jun 04, 2005 02:40

Yet more evidence of the gulf between understanding and knowledge. Is there anyone, not so blinded by the personality or celebrity angle on things that they can read the media with another type of literacy?

Superficial is great, but culture is enormously enriched by its being given a more profound context.

Most of the media industry thinks people are suckers, and terats them that way. If its not hourly news-bulletins, talk radio or rolling news, its ads trying to part you with what's left of your money. For this article I focussed on Ireland's news, but with regard to international stories, there's a globalisation of the news, with most stories being taken from the same news-agencies, and even most headlines relating to the same angles on the same events throughout the world, albeit in different languages.

This is not conspiracy, but capitalist economics. Objective reporting is really about money-making in the professional media, the the journalists are just pawns in the game.

Even, entertainment is more globalised, with more cultural imports, and more cheap franchising.

However, technology to the rescue. The future of the media will be one of democracy, not exploitation, but more of that next week.

Marlow

by toneore

Fri Jun 03, 2005 02:52

toneore at eircom dot net

"Persuasion" - do you mean freedom?
used to be married to Fisk. wedding speeches must have been great, really great,

Update on Yesterday's News - mediawatch continued

Thu Jun 02, 2005 23:47

nb of coorse, is welcome to come down from the gallery and make a meaningful appearance; we could then see the content behind the sneering jibes, or discern the dancer from the dance. This is precisely, one of the failing points of mass media – the chaimera of inuendo and distraction is enough to consign realities and fact to netherworld existences, while the dishonest sincerity that rules overhead is aided and abetted by the likes of nb (his ‘opinion’, not his person).

The fact remains that few if any of our realities are represented in the top-down, money/status-grabbing entities that currently comprise the main-stream media. Most are made to feel inferior and relatively powerless, but are told that they can achieve real happiness if they conform to the good, law-abiding consumer stereotypes – another big lie. The prospect of human nature itself being commodified and so eternally elusive, is as tantilising as setting nb to proof-read ‘Ulysses’, and like-wise, a waste of everybody’s time.

Where indymedia is concerned, one cannot speak of propaganda, because the sources are not powerful, and the only ones I distrust are those I suspect of seeking glory by hijacking the causes of others. Indymedia is the service that some journalists are looking to now as an alternative source, but the revolution is underway. Indymedia is the model in which all of us reclaim ownership of the truth.

Linker, thanks for the contribution and appologies for my haste. Ciall ceannas de bhrí deifir ar mo shon. Relevant of course; and those of us who've experienced it first hand should not bury our anger, but do something constructive with it.

Update on Yesterday’s News.

The situation is now such that, it is difficult for any independent-minded person to listen to RTÉ without being annoyed, or finding something offensive to the very thought process.

On 2005.6.1, TodayPK had a report by Valerie Cox on the re-opening of the border canals. The amount of times there was a differentiation between ‘north’ and ‘south’ with regard to attitude, ways of doing things etc., didn’t just show a partitionist mentality, but almost demonstrated a belief that the people who live either side of the border were culturally excllusive to each other.

Earlier, on Today FM, the arrest of two suspects in relation to the murder of Robert McCartney was on the news. Michael McDowell, Sinister for Injustice came on, saying that he was being kept up to date with proceedings, that he had met with the sisters of the victim, and that he knew the arrests were coming. Sheer neck and utter hypocrisy with the McBrearty family still being given shit over their mistreatment by the gardaí, not to speak of the lack of investigation into the death of Richie Barren. Guilty Attorney General, or accusor of the IRA - this is the same McDowell with a different political motive: whether he be dishonest or stupid, let not the mass-media insult our intelligence with such inconsistencies.

toneore is right, the economy of the media industry does encourage lazy journalism. This doesn’t excuse it. Financial gain and honesty are not easy bed-fellows, and they should be separated, for the good of us all. and, no more feeding off the damned by court-reporters please! It sells at little monetary cost, but is a great drain on decency.

I'm looking

by o n e t o r e

Thu Jun 02, 2005 17:30

"But then, look who she's married to..."

and I bet it's not who you think it is. Dodgy intel not uncommon for a man of your persuasion.

Well Said NB

Thu Jun 02, 2005 17:20

As for comment about "The tragedy of 800 million starving in the World each year is always there, but not newsworthy " it seems that when someone does try to raise awareness, they're hammered on Indymedia.ie for not being left-wing and not dealing with the "big issues" (i.e., how it relates to the M50 bypass, trees in Glen of the Downs, Bikes in Dublin, and War in Iraq)... (see posts re: Live 8).

Reminds me of Lara Marlowe on RTE's Questions and Answers who said that the problem with Americans was that they didn't read the newspapers and therefore voted for George Bush. Such a breathtaking piece of arrogance and stupidity that wouldn't be out of place of Indymedia. But then, look who she's married to...

Relevent links

by Spelchek

Thu Jun 02, 2005 12:35

Dont bee 2 hard on "Linker". Although the article is primarillly about radiooo the links are reallyevent, as they shew the ninnysense that was pubLIEShed beefour Mayday last ye-har. Great gas was not had by all (10,000 Dubliners) on that occcas-inion, despite the promises of the (print) meejia.
As we have seen from previous Hart-icles, the state will stoop at nuthing when trying to damage its critics.

Sources

by Eoin

Thu Jun 02, 2005 12:27

Journalists are almost always under terrible time pressure. If there's a press officer -- Gardai press officer or other -- ready to give them a quick overview of what seems to have happened, plus something that they can quote, they're almost done.

What's missing in Ireland is an organisation that can help alternative voices be heard just as easily by journalists. Alas, some journalists will still stick to their tried and tested official sources, but there are many others who might use such a service if it existed. Something like accuracy.org -- The (US) Institute for Public Accuracy.

gibber

by nb

Thu Jun 02, 2005 12:06

On second thoughts, I will listen to what saoririseoir has to say. He seems to know what he's takling about.

I like trh typos

by orthography

Thu Jun 02, 2005 08:11

remind me of being a youngsyter reading broadsheet newspapers, before microsoft when a worker (typesetter they were culled) used to put the letters (type it wasw caalled) in the
and occasionally when the paragraph just trailed off in mid-

thanks ed. and sory linker

Wed Jun 01, 2005 23:41

Yes, proof mad ed, i listened to ten news bulletins off five different radio stations over three days, and wrote down the sources.

All RTA related stories are garda, as are arrests and investigations, stepping up of security...etc.

belated appologies to linker. nb itt seems knows the spelling of everything and the meaning of nothing with regard to the article.

will do a proof later

by proof mad ed

Wed Jun 01, 2005 20:54

thanks - nice article

btw by the 'survey' you mention you mean you were watching reading etc rather than there being some rigourous statistical analysis done by someone - right?

typos

Wed Jun 01, 2005 20:35

While linker consults his dictionary, I wouldn't mind some ed with access cleaning up the typos. That's probably why i'm indyradio.

(sic)

by béal na céil

Wed Jun 01, 2005 19:59

Does linker know the difference between style and substance? Maybe, we're all victims of it to some extent.

Or on indymedia, for that matter

Wed Jun 01, 2005 18:36

"An example of a more top-down approach is ‘opinion’. It is to be found in the rantings of columnists and editorials in print, but worse still, the numbing vacuity of the same pundits (usually other journalists) on talk radio. That this opinion is anadine (sic) is bad enough, but it is usually recycled by people who have no peronal (sic) experience and very little knkowledge (sic) of what is being discussed."

Quite.

Lest we forget

by linker

Wed Jun 01, 2005 16:57

Some glorious media moments:

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64558
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64571
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64593

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Comments (17 of 17)