ANALYZE THE CHOICE AND CONTENT OF NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
The New York Times newspaper has been recognized both in the United States and internationally as one of the greatest producers of high quality journalism, incorporating modern and new technologies in the process (Corneo, 2005, p.37). This is an American daily newspaper first launched in 1851 and is continuously being published to date. The New York Times has its motto reading All the News Thats Fit to Print and includes sections such as Business, Science, Features, Sports, Style and News (Emery, 2000, p.77). Other features included in the newspaper are Health, Multimedia on Biology, comics and political toons as well as Weather.
METHODOLOGY
This involves choosing a particular theme from an appropriate news or current affairs outlet in addition to analyzing five articles that explicate the content on different occasions.
Theme
The theme addressed is False Publications in the name of Propaganda.
Propaganda can be defined as a form of communication with the aim of having influence or coercing the attitude of a society toward a certain cause or position (Hanitzch, 2007, p.367). When using propaganda, the facts presented are selective and biased in order to encourage a specific synthesis as compared to encouraging production of rational response to the information that is being presented (Ritchie, 2006, p.61). Majority of organizations and individuals, political groups, political candidates and government organizations are applying this form of communication using different mediums for instance television, newspapers and posters (Aldridge Evetts, 2003, p.547). Mass media and propaganda critics have suggested that all broadcast media incorporates some form of propaganda in one way or another, influencing the attitudes of the general society.
Print media propaganda is usually communicated in mediums such as magazines, posters or newspapers using political cartoons. Use of such cartoons can sometimes be positive or negative for instance when cartoon images of Mohammed were published in 2006 by a Danish Newspaper, tensions were ignited between members of the European press and Muslims who perceived the images as blasphemous (Briggs Burke, 2005, p.57). Propaganda unconsciously influences or coerces the general population to act or behave in a manner in which they may not have if they had not been exposed to the information to begin with. In other words, print media influences peoples opinion as concerns medical, societal, economical and political issues whereby majority of them believe everything they read without pausing to question the subject matter (Gillmore, 2004, p.15).
Timing, News outlet and Segment Choice
There are a few occasions where the theme of propaganda has been used in the New York Times newspaper, the data collected between May 2005 and May 2010. The segment choice was that of International news.
Example One
A recent article published in the New York Times, published in July 2009, talks about the print media being defended as regards the role of retired officers. In this article, the author states that congressional investigates argued that the Pentagon had not violated a federal prohibition on propaganda by incorporating military officers in the promotion of the Bush administrations war policies in the news media (Ackerman Sandoval-Ballesteros, 2006, p.86). Apparently, a dispute had come about in the previous year when the New York Times newspaper reported that the Pentagon officials arranged meetings with majority of the retired officers in a bid to discuss the wars in addition to other national security topics. However, the Defense Departments Inspector General did not find sufficient evidence as to conclude that the conduct was improper and therefore the report was withdrawn as a result of inaccuracies in the information (Hanitzch, 2007, p.368).
Example Two
In yet another example of how propaganda has been used by the print media, an article printed in the New York Times in May this year (2010) discussed about message battle that had occurred in Bangkok. Followers of Thai soap operas have been exposed to pro-government political messages that scroll on the bottom of the television screen while the soap operas are going on (Gillmore, 2004, p.16). Some of the messages depicted include the fact that Thai citizens are not fearful when they go to war despite them being peaceful. As the political battles are being waged through the media, the local government is enhancing its public relations message in an effort to try shutting down the oppositions media (Dizard, 2000, p.14). This technique has so far not worked out for the better as majority of the citizens believe that the government is lying to them and therefore cannot be trusted.
Example Three
An article published in 2008 in the New York Times spoke about how an earthquake opened gap in controls on media. The article focused on an earthquake that had taken place in Shanghai and where a powerful order had been handed instructing media not to send any reporters to the disaster zone (Gillmore, 2004, p.17). However, majority of reporters were already at the airport awaiting flight by the time the order arrived. Despite most of these reporters being called back, two Shanghai newspaper reporters managed to board a plane and report from the heart of the disaster zone. Their article was viewed and read the following day and included graphic description and pictures of the area. As a result, Chinas censors were uncharacteristically hamstrung when trying to micro manage news coverage as regards the earthquake, making it a big challenge on the heavy-handed propaganda system (Aldridge Evetts, 2003, p.548). According to the article, those editors or publishers who constantly defy the spirit or letter of propaganda guidance are replaced, sometimes prosecuted or punished.
Example Four
In an article talking about fake news in the United States which was published in May 2005, the authors sited some key issues revealing the prepackaged and faked news created by the US federal government departments and distributed through the mainstream media (Fenton, 2010, p.79). Some issues that were included were the fact that at times there is no mention that a video segment is government produced and that some times reports have fake reporters for instance those covering airport safety were later discovered to be public relations professionals (Corneo, 2005, p.38).
The article continues to suggest that some of the reports aired or published were produced to support Bush administrations policy objectives that were considered most cherished such as Medicare reform or regime change in Iraq (Gillmore, 2004, p.18). However, when confronted with evidence by the Times concerning this problem, some of the government officials sited that they did not believe it was propaganda or that there was anything wrong. In addition, majority of the news directors were at a loss in explaining how such segments were aired or published (Hanitzch, 2007, p.369).
Example Five
There was an article published in 2008 in the New York Times newspaper with the title Believing is Seeing, that suggested that blogs and newspapers had printed a digitally altered photograph. While similar photographs showing a picture of missiles launched by iran indicated that there were three of them, the New York Times newspaper had published a photograph indicting four missiles (Corneo, 2005, p.39). This was perceived as some form of propaganda to draw more attention to the missiles.
If a reader was to casually pass by them without much focus when the photograph first appeared on the front pages of American newspapers, the missiles are now more than ever firmly imprinted in the imagination of the citizens (Gillmore, 2004, p.19). Several other photographs were displayed by Colin Powell of Iraqi sites depicting incontrovertible evidence in regards to weapons of mass destruction. The article argues that even though there has been cases of many famous altered photographs published in America newspapers, they have in the course of time left telltale footprints that enable individuals unmask them as forgeries (Aldridge Evetts, 2003, p.549).
Justification and Reason of choice
The aforementioned examples were chosen to depict a common theme from a news or current affairs outlet, which was in this case, the New York Times newspaper. The theme, Propaganda, was particularly chosen as journalists tend to believe that news items should be aimed at providing readers with an accurate background as well as analysis of the subject matter, providing them with an option of being for or against what has been suggested (Dizard, 2000, p.16). News articles or programs that depict propaganda aim at changing the way individuals understand a particular situation or issue for the sole purpose of diverting their expectations and actions in a manner perceived desirable to the interest group (Ackerman Sandoval-Ballesteros, 2006, p.88).
Another reason as to why this particular theme was chosen is not only to illustrate that it is one of the most common themes published in the print media over the course of time, as suggested by the different publishing dates. However, it was also to illustrate that peoples understanding is transformed through deception and confusion as compared to through understanding and persuasion (Aldridge Evetts, 2003, p.549). Since propaganda is ever meant to engage in distortion and to commit fallacies, it best works when individuals fail to reason about the message being conveyed in a careful manner.
Context, Language and Audience perception of the News
For any theme regarding propaganda in the media to be considered effective, as illustrated by the examples given, it has to already take disagreement into account and as illustrated for the aforementioned examples, majority of propaganda-themed articles or programs tend to use more subtle language to make it sound indistinguishable from political speech considered respectable (Corneo, 2005, p.40). In other words, propaganda dissolves cognitive misrepresentations through reconstruction of language leading to those misrepresentations. It uses language to encourage cognitive misrepresentations that lead to hatred, anger and irrational fear that justify an action for instance the bombing of a nation (Gillmore, 2004, p.20). To achieve this end result, the audience is usually addressed in a respectable yet firm manner so as to make them vulnerable into joining the cause that is being laid before them.
Propaganda Model
Political researchers, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky has recently observed that the mass medias main objective is to mobilize support for the interests dominating the state and private support for those interests that dominate the state as well as private activity (Dizard, 2000, p.17). They offer an explanation as to how the mass media exists to serve the large propaganda requirements of the wealthy individuals within the population. The legitimacy and credibility in regards to the media system is preserved by its lack of total agreement on all issues that gives rise to vigorous debates and disputes (Hanitzch, 2007, p.374). Edward and Noam present a series of five filters that are aimed at accounting for the reason as to why the dominant United States take up the role of propagandists for the sole interest of the rich in the society. They take an in-depth look at how the mass media can have the audacity to function even in cases where a superficial analysis of presented evidence indicates the outrageous nature of majority of the stories receiving publicity in the press as well as network news broadcasts (Gillmore, 2004, p.21).
In the first filter, ownership of the mass media is greatly concentrated among some of the largest-for-profit organizations in the world. Advertising is included in the second filter and is perceived to have colonized the United States mass media and also is responsible for majority of the medias income (Corneo, 2005, p.41). Sourcing of mass media news is under the third filter where media are drawn into a relationship that is symbiotic with powerful sources of information, with the mass media being dependent on news and information provided by government and corporate sources (Emery, 2000, p.88). The development of right-wing corporate flak producers are under the fourth filter and serve as a harassment to the mass media, putting pressure upon them to follow the corporate agenda (Dizard, 2000, p.18). Ideology of anti-communism is under the fifth filter and is considered an integral to western political culture providing the ideological oxygen that makes the propaganda model operate in a vigorous manner (Briggs Burke, 2005, p.74).
CONCLUSION
The mass media has recently occupied a key role in interpretation and definition of the very nature of individuals as per specific cultural ideologies and principles as well as values. People have become more culturally and socially dependent on the mass media and it has been observed to dictate the manner in which individuals should live and behave. The media also tends to have a persuasive and political power over people where advertising and political propaganda result in ever-ending debates and concerns within the society.
APPENDIX
The data was collected from the New York Times newspaper and was focusing on the choice and content of news and current affairs media, especially in this day and age. Different authors were also used as references to provide evidence of the subject matter. In addition, information was collected in a span of 5 years to show the readers that the particular theme discussed is a constant occurrence as far as media and modern day current affairs are concerns. This is important in that it will make people pay more attention to it and also enable them to no longer ignore this fact and speak out.
The information has also been arranged in a particular way as to guide the readers to the subject matter and the content of the information collected. This is illustrated as below.
The Introduction
The main Theme
Timing, News Outlet and Segment Choice
Example One through to Five
Justification and Reason of Choice this clearly explain why the author chose this specific theme
Context, Language and Audience perception of the News
Propaganda Model which further explain the theme, and
Conclusion
The role of media and the modern day society has been a current and major concern that has brought about a number of debates. However, media has also been an instrument of communicating ideas, thoughts and feelings of different individuals, whether socially, politically or otherwise. This is perhaps the main reason as to why individuals are being shaped by the media and what it portrays as being the norm as they look up to the information being relayed for their daily lifestyles. Media has been successful in manipulating sounds, images and texts to influence the decisions and choices of people.
Example One was retrieved from HYPERLINK httpwww.nytimes.comtopicsreferencetimestopicssubjectsppropagandaindex.html www.nytimes.comtopicsreferencetimestopicssubjectsppropagandaindex.html, and the article was Pentagon Closes Office Accused of Issuing Propaganda Under Bush, published on April 16, 2009 by Thom Shanker.
Example Two was also retrieved from HYPERLINK httpwww.nytimes.comtopicsreferencetimestopicssubjectsppropagandaindex.html www.nytimes.comtopicsreferencetimestopicssubjectsppropagandaindex.html, and the article was Message Battle Heats Up In Thai Crisis, published on May 2, 2010 by Thomas Fuller.
Example Three was retrieved from HYPERLINK httpwww.nytimes.comtopicsreferencetimestopicssubjectsppropagandaindex.html www.nytimes.comtopicsreferencetimestopicssubjectsppropagandaindex.html and the article was Earthquake Opens Gap in Controls on Media, published by Howard W. French, Fan Wenxin, Li Zhen and Shi Jing on May 18, 2008.
Example Four was also retrieved from HYPERLINK httpwww.globalissues.orgarticle157war-propaganda-and-the-media www.globalissues.orgarticle157war-propaganda-and-the-media and the article was War, Propaganda and the Media, Published on March 31, 2005 by Anup Shah.
Example Five was retrieved from HYPERLINK httpwww.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com, the Opinion section, and the article was Believing Is Seeing, published on July 13, 2008 by Errol Morris.
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