Media - General public

8/12/2019 Media - General public

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Mass MediaNews, Advertisements, Propaganda and Censorship.


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Mass MediaThe Mass media refers to

the means of communication, suchas radio and television,

newspapers, and magazines,that reach a large group of peopleor influence people widely

(www.dictionary.com)


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Scale of Study

Targeting the entire

general public

Not limited toSingapore


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Power of the Media

Google+

Over 400 Million Users

Youtube

24 hours worth of videouploaded per minute

Television

An average person spends 9

years of his life watching TV


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Positive effects

Rapidly convey importantinformation to the general public

Education

Entertainment


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Influences general public non-selectively

Not all information is reliable

Increasing importance of the mediacauses more disadvantages to theilliterate

Conflicts due to freedom of speech

Negative effects


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Media Censorship


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What is Censorship?The practice of officially examining books, movies, etc., and

suppressing unacceptable parts.

The word censorship comes from the Latin word censor,the job of two Romans whose duty was to supervise public

behaviour and morals, hence 'censoring' the way peopleacted.


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Types of CensorshipPolitical and Educational Censorship.


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Political Censorship Exists when a government attempts to conceal or

distort information that its citizens receive bysuppressing political news via news outlets.

It is also the suppression of views against the

government in power. The government often has the power of

the army and the secret police, to enforce thecompliance of journalists with the will of thegovernment to distort the story into something that

the government wants people to believe, at timeseven with bribery, ruin of careers, imprisonment,and even assassination.


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Political Censorship Soviet Union

Independent journalism did not exist in the SovietUnion until Mikhail Gorbachev became its leader; all reportingwas directed by the Communist Party. Foreign newspaperswere available only if they were published by CommunistParties sympathetic to the Soviet Union.

Examples ofhow pictureswere alteredagain and

again after eachperson fell outof favour withthe regime ofJoseph Stalin.


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Political Censorship Peoples Republic of China It was noted that China has the largest recorded number of

imprisoned journalists and cyber-dissidents in the world.

The offences they are accused of include communicatingwith groups abroad, signing online petitions, and calling forreform and an end to corruption.

The escalation of the government's effort to neutralize criticalonline opinion comes after a series of large anti-Japanese,anti-pollution, anti-corruption protests, and ethnic riots, manyof which were organized or publicized using instantmessaging services, chat rooms, and text messages.

The size of the Internet police is rumoured at more than 30,000. This is referred to as the Golden Shield Project, to monitor the

internet.

Popular search engines in China such as Baidu also removepolitically sensitive search results.


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Political Censorship

Peoples Republic of China Examples of blacklisted keywords in Chinao (democracy)

o /(human rights)

o /(dictatorship)

o (anti-communist)

o (June 4),/(Tiananmen Square massacre), /(Chinese democracy movement) - "June 4" is the usual Chinesename for the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. In contrast, "Tiananmen"refers to a geographical place and does not usually have the sameconnotations.

o (Liu Xiaobo)

o /(Jiang Zemin)

o /(falun, or "dharma chakra")

o /(Democratic Progressive Party)


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Educational Sources The content of school textbooks is often the issue of

debate, since their target audience is youngpeople, and the term "whitewashing" is the onecommonly used to refer to removal of critical or

conflicting events. The reporting of military atrocities in history is

extremely controversial, as in the case ofo The Holocaust (or Holocaust denial)

o Bombing of Dresden

o Nanking Massacre as found with Japanese history textbookcontroversies,

o Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

o Winter Soldier Investigation of the Vietnam War


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WhitewashingTo whitewashis a metaphor meaning to gloss over or cover up vices,

crimes or scandals or to exonerate by means of a perfunctoryinvestigation or through biased presentation of data.It is especially used

in the context of corporations, governments or other organizations.

Novels by George Orwell have dealt with the subject of whitewashing.InAnimal Farm, Napoleon tries to whitewash history by deleting a few

characters (such as Snowball) from the minds of the other animals. Thiswas perceived as a direct reference to the USSR under Stalin.

Japan is accused of whitewashing its history of warfare andimperialism by omitting or minimising subjects such as the Nanking

Massacre in History Textbooks.


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Japanese History

Textbook Controversies In 2000, Japanese Society for History TextbookReform, a group of conservative scholars,published the New History Textbook(AtarashiiRekishi Kyokasho) which was intended to

promote a revised view of Japan.

Japan has done many in the past that it tries toerase memory from the public by downplayingand whitewashing Japans events in school

textbooks such s the Nanking Massacre, the Firstand Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japansannexation of Korea in 1910, medical testing onPOWs during WWII, comfort women andterritorial disputes.


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Why is Censorship good?The Prosof Censorship in Media.


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Pros of Censorship Censorship of violence and pornography

o Reducing violence pornographic contents to be shown on televisions,music, films (ratings) will reduce the impacts of violence andpornography from media on people (especially children and teenagers)which in turn have lesser effect on their natural growth

Censorship of alcohol and cigaretteso Alcohol and cigarettes have negative effects on the human body when

taken thus media can choose to censor such items on advertisements orinform the negative health effects of such products to reduceconsumptions and promotions of such items in the public

Censorship of harmful informationo Examples include: How to make a bomb and suicidal methods


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Pros of Censorship Censorship of negative comments and dirty laundry

o Violent speeches and negative comments are sometimes given on aparticular religion or race. Some people may try to spread nonsensicalpropaganda through forms of media. While it may take a bit to argue withtheir freedom of speech, perhaps it is best ignored.

Censorship for security of secretso It is in the best interest of a country and its people that the plans of our armies

are kept under censorship.

o One interesting example of where media censorship could have been usedwas when the terrorists attacked Mumbai in 2008. The news reporters explainedthe counter-terrorist operation in fine detail on TV and perhaps some terrorists

in the hotel, in which they were hiding, could have just flicked on his TV andcould have been pre-warned of the upcoming actions of the counter-terrorists. Hence, some things are best not known.


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Why is Censorship bad?The Consof Censorship in Media.


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Cons of Censorship Freedom of Speech is violated

o What's the point of your right to speak if there is no one to listen to what youare speaking? The concept of censorship clashes with the idea of democracy.

Prevents the spread of ideas and knowledgeo Leading to ignorance and biased beliefs

o The knowledge about the emerging technological trends and innovationsneeds to be spread among the people of the world. If knowledge doesn'tspread, then it leads to intellectual stagnation.

Usually associated with dictatorships, not progressivedemocracieso Media censorship may be done to serve the vested interests of the governing

authorities. Political censorship and propaganda can be utilised by thegovernment to control a country. Hence here, censorship is used to keep theignorant, ignorant.

Encourages publics curiosity about censored material


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Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody isallowed to read any books except the books that nobody

reads. George Bernard Shaw


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News MediaElements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to

the general public


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Examples

Print

Newspaper Magazine

Broadcast

Radio Television

News

Electronic

Internetnewslink

Blogspots

Tweets


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Relationship

NewsPublic


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Public

1. Active engagement

2. Establishment of newspaper to serve the

public sector

3. Readership determines the nature of the

news media

News Media


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1. Passive reception

2. Media is our Sixth sense

You can't possibly experience everything first hand, most of whatyou know about the world comes from the media

3. Manipulating public opinionAre we living in a global conspiracy??

PublicNews Media

l f


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General assumption of newsmedia (public's POW)

Informative sub-system to collect, sort and

spread information

Real, objective, fair coverage of news

Independent of government, opiniongroup, companies----not in favor of anyinterest group


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General assumption of news

media (media's POW)Journalistic objectivity


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Conventions to follow

(News and Journalism in the Uk

Textbook

Brian McNair)

1.Quote authoritative sources2. Pyramidical presentation of information

most important news at the top


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value judgements infuse everything in the news media Which of the observations confronting the reporter

will be ignored? Which of the facts noted will be included

in the story? Which of the reported events will become

the first paragraph? Which story will be prominently

displayed on page 1 and which buried inside or

discarded? Mass media not only report the news they also literally makethe news.

Lee, M.A., and N. Solomon 1990. Unreliable Sources:

A guide to detecting bias in news media.


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What can we do?

IN REALITY

1. Regarding news, picture of the worldthey present were to reflect theperspectivesand interestsof certainpeople

2. Many media outlet are controlled bysole media company, they can printbiased stories.

CHECKING


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CHECKINGCREDIBILITY

1. PROVENANCE2. CONTEXTUAL KNOWLEDGE3. CROSS-REFERENCING

4. CONSISTENCY

I I te et the futu e of


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Is Internet the future ofcredibility?

1. Some observers note that news production and distribution inthe US have never been more dynamic and independentthan today. Internet enables greater and faster access to amore varied source of news. Eventually the nature and speedof the technology and increased participation help to

uncover the truth in a much more efficient way than inprevious environments. Innovative forms of journalism withbridges to readers are emerging which may make old-fashioned paper-based systems obsolete over time.

2. Print Media

Good and Traditional Way of penning down in black and white


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Advertisements


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Interesting facts More than $500 billion a year is spent on advertising

worldwide

In 2008, approximately $2.6 billion was spent onpolitical advertising in the U.S., the largest ever

during a presidential campaign. Obama'scampaign spent $70 million on ads for the primaryand $240 million for the general election. McCain'scampaign spent $10 million for the primary and

$126 million for the general election


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Well Why not?

Purpose of


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Purpose ofAdvertisements

To Promoteor Marketa product or service

To Educateand Inform

To raise Awareness


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This purpose of advertisement is largely adopted bycommercial companies.o In fact, the largest group of advertisers is food marketers (e.g. KFC, Coca-

Cola, Pepsi.)

However, promoting is not only for commercialcompanies.o There may be advertisements promoting non-commercial services to the

public, such as hotlines and counseling.


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*Note: The above CPR poster is purely for visual aid.The instructions are outdated.


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These advertisements aim to educate or inform thepublic.o E.g. First-Aid, safety precautions, emergency procedures.

These advertisements are usually created by

authorities in order to help the public in specificways by educating or informing them of a particularprocedure or issue.


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These advertisements aim to alert the public aboutan important issue such that it can receive theamount of attention it deserves.o E.g. Poverty, Obesity, Endangered species, Human trafficking.

These advertisements may appear similar to thosethat aim to educate/inform as often, they havesimilar objectives.

These advertisements are often put up by voluntary

organizations, such as the WWF.


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Cons ofAdvertising

Information shown on

advertisements are not

always true or complete.

Information depicted are usually

exaggerated or chosen selective in

order to mislead the public in viewing

the product/service in a positive l ight.

A Toyota poster depicting that aPrius has 2 units of CO2emission on a scale of 1 to 15

while a sheep has a unit of 5.


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How?Methods of advertising


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General In general, advertisements are circulated via mass

media.o Television/Newspaper/Magazines advertisements, spam emails, etc.

Media is all around us.o Many kids are plugged into some form of media for more than 7 hours a

day.

o Adults rely on media to communicate and obtain news and information.

Advertisements aimed at promoting/marketingoften uses several psychological themes to

motivate people to buy/use their products/services.


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Celebrity branding This type of advertising focuses on using celebrity

power, fame, and popularity to gain recognition forproducts by getting a celebrity to endorse a brand.

For example, in 1984, Nike signed Michael Jordanon, even before he had played a game in the NBA.o Jordans Nike shoe line earns about 5% of Nikes overall revenues in 2009.

o The Jordan Brand had a 10.8% of the US shoe market.

o As seen, even decades after the initial deal has been signed, this celebrityendorsement still continues to boost Nikes bottom line.

o This shows the power of celebrity branding.

However, when scandals surface, the companythat endorse that celebrity will suffer a dent.o It is estimated that Tiger Woods had destroyed 5 to 12 billion dollars in

market value for his advertising partners due to his scandal.


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Product Placement This type of advertisement promotes products or

goods within the context of a movie or show, oftensubtly.o For example, in the music video, All I want for Christmas, by Justin Bieber

and Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber was shown to be very excited to pick upa few of the Ninetendoslatest handheld game on his shopping trip.

Jumping on the


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Jumping on theBandwagon

This type of advertisement relies on the concept ofEverybody is buying this product, so why arentyou?

Often, people would not know whether the claims

are true that this particular brand/product is verypopular. However, since it claims that it is, somepeople would buy it just to follow the trend.o For example, an online chess website can claim that it has the highest

number of players on its server than any chess servers. It may not be true,

however, majority would not be bothered to find out whether it is true ornot. Instead, they would just believe it.


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Themed Advertising This type of advertising is spread over a series of

different advertisements. All the advertisements willfocus on a particular theme, in order to target theirdesired audience.o For example, Coca-Cola advertisements embraces diversity (depicted in

the Id like to buy the world a coke advertisement series) and also

includes a strong sense of community.

o Pepsi, on the other hand, focuses more on a young target audience, i.e.teens and children. Therefore, Pepsi tends to use music, sports, and fun intheir advertisements.


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Media and

PropagandaBlah, blah, blah,

Two Legs good,

blah, blah, blah,Four legs bad,

Blah, blah, blah

Long Live Pigs!!!


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Propaganda is Information, esp. of a biased or misleading nature,

used to promote or publicize a particularpoliticalcause or point of view

The dissemination of such information as a politicalstrategy

(Google dictionary) the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the

purpose of helping or injuring an institution,a cause,or a person

(Merriam-webster dictionary)

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimedtowards influencing the attitude of a communitytoward some cause or position by presenting only oneside of an argument.

(Wikipedia.com/en)


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USAUnitedSwine

Alliance


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Some tactics used Media management and PR

Smear techniques on search engines

Fake Informationo Politicians

o Video News Releases

o Fake reporters, authors

Media management and


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Media management andPR

PR= Public Relations

PR companies help to sell a war!

How do they do it?o Paying journalist

o Giving partial informationo Feeding stories to the press


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Example: KuwaittHe reminded the Air Force cadets that when victorious troops rolled into Kuwait

City at the end of the first war in the Persian Gulf, they were greeted by hundreds of

Kuwaitis waving small American flags. The scene, flashed around the world on

television screens, sent the message that U.S. Marines were being welcomed in

Kuwait asliberating heroes. Did you ever stop to wonder, Rendon asked, how

the people of Kuwait City, after being held hostage for seven long and painful

months, were able to get hand-held American, and for that matter, the flags of other

coalition countries? He paused for effect. Well, you now know the answer. Thatwas one of my jobs then.

~Gulf War, 1996, John Rendon ( Rendon group)


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Example: IraqDemocracy Now!radio broadcast in August 2006 that

the Lincoln Group, the Washington-basedgovernment contractor gained notoriety last

November [2005] after the Los Angeles Times first

revealed it was being paid by the Pentagontoplantstories in the Iraqi pressas part of a secret militarypropaganda campaign. A subsequent Pentagon

investigation in March cleared the Lincoln Group of

any wrongdoing.


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Smear tactics Serves to discredit, stain, destroy ones reputation

Undermine effective arguments and critiques

General Motors engaged private investigators tosearch for damaging or embarrassing incidentsfrom

his past. In early March 1966, several media outlets,including The New Republic and The New York Times,reported that GM had tried to discredit Nader, hiringprivate detectives to tap his phones and investigate

his past and hiring prostitutes to trap him incompromising situations


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Politicians The actual slides to present contain the videos

within. Actual slides will be in my thumbdrive.


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Afghanistan War The actual slides to present contain the videos

within. Actual slides will be in my thumbdrive.

9/11 attacks and


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9/11 attacks andPropaganda

Exploiting national anguish

Manufactured issue of an alliance betweenSaddam Husseins regime and al-Qaeda

Complicy of National Mediao 15 percent said that Iraq was directly involved in carrying out the

September 11th attacks and another 31 percentfor a total of 46percentbelieved that Iraq was not involved in 9/11 but had givensubstantial support to al-Qaeda.


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The EndThank you for your kind attention.

Media - General public

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