Have you ever wondered where power lies in the media world?
The following is an short excerpt of a paper I wrote reflecting on the piece written by Herman and Chomsky regarding the ownership and structure of media in today's world:
"A study in the early 1980's stated that the 'dominant media firms are quite large businesses; they are controlled by very wealthy people or by managers who are subject to sharp constraints by owners and other market profit-oriented forces' (Herman & Chomsky, 1988, p. 289). Hence, Herman and Chomsky believe that size, ownership, and profit-orientation are dominant players in filtering news choices. However, advertising also serves as a powerful mechanism in influencing and filtering media news choices.
The power that lies with advertisers 'stems from the simple fact that they buy and pay for the programs' (Herman & Chomsky, 1988, p. 291). Therefore, they state that media must accommodate the requirements and demands of these advertisers if they are to succeed. Powerful sources can also 'turn out a large volume of material that meets the demands of news organizations for reliable, scheduled flows' (Herman & Chomsky, 1988, p. 293). These powerful sources, such as corporate institutions and the government, regularly take advantage of media and manipulate them into following a special agenda. However, when stories deviate from this special agenda, a negative response is triggered by corporate institutions and the government.
Flak, the fourth filter, 'refers to negative response to a media statement or program' (Herman & Chomsky, 1988, p. 298). The authors state that institutions are set up to produce flak where some of them attack media whenever they fail to align themselves with the foreign policy. This filter plays a big role in limiting news choices as advertisers 'are cautious not to offend constituencies' (Herman & Chomsky, 1988, p. 298).
More recently, though, communism has been viewed as an insult to these constituencies. The Soviet, Chinese, and Cuban revolutions have propelled anticommunism to become an ideology that serves as a 'political-control mechanism which can be used against anybody advocating policies that threaten property interests or support accommodation with Communist states and radicalism' (Herman & Chomsky, 1988, p. 301). Therefore, this anticommunism filter can exercise a profound influence on the mass media and its news patterns and choices."
