In what ways do sociological and political economic theories of news Essay

In what slipway do sociological and governmental economic theories of news production explain the relatively easy multiplication of popula - Essay ExampleThis is a reflection of the general public disillusionment with the functioning of judicature institutions. more(prenominal) importantly, it is an indication of the distrust of mainstream media sources and the information (misinformation) being generated by them. Sadly, though, such expressions of disagreement and distrust only floor for a politically aw atomic number 18 minority, whilst a large majority of the population are subject to government propganda, orchestrated and implemented by major media institutions. Indeed, the ruthlessness and brazenness with which the Bush Administration went about achieving its strategic goals can be learnt from the following quote The issue of whether the Pentagon was waging an orchestrated domesticated propaganda campaign was first openly acknowledged in the fall of 2002. Donald Rumsfeld was asked whether the Pentagon was engaged in propagandizing through the Defense Departments Office of Strategic stoop (strategic influence is military jargon for propaganda). Military officials said they might release false news stories to the distant press, but they had to retract that when news organizations expressed concern that the bogus stories could be picked up in the domestic press. Mocking concerns about propaganda blowback, Rumsfeld informed the media on November 18, 2002, that he would eliminate the program in name only. (Goodman & Goodman, 2004, p.253) peerless might wonder why such a nexus between apparently two opposite kinds of institutions should exist and what benefits would its leaders attain in the process. There are a few sociological and political economic theories of news production that attempt to answer this most pressing question of modern democratic societies. The rest of this essay will try to encapsulate the essence of such theories and find out if they strike in the case of the Iraq War. One of the major contributions to the subject of government-media propaganda is made by Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman. Their seminal work titled Manufacturing Consent The Political Economy of Mass Media is perhaps the most illuminating work on this subject, alongside Ben H. Bagdikians another path-breaking work Media Monopoly. In Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky and Herman layout a template for how propaganda works. This they called the Propaganda Model. In it they identify a set of atomic number 23 key factors that contribute to the functioning of propaganda machinery. These are 1. Ownership of the medium 2. Mediums funding sources 3. Sourcing 4. Flak and 5. Anti-Communist Ideology. (Mcchesney, 1989, p.36) It should be remembered that during the sequence of the books publication, Soviet Union was still in existence and Anti-Communist ideology comprised the dominant American foreign constitution paradigm. In the context of the ongoing oc cupation of Iraq, one could replace it with such contrived fears as act of terrorism and Islamophobia. (Edgley, 2000) What follows is a brief overview of these five factors that helped propaganda efforts in the lead-up to the Iraq war to be successful. First, mainstream media outlets in the United States (a fact that is as applicable to most capitalist countries) is largely privately owned. Let us take the case of tv set news. The facade of diversity created by hundreds of news channels breaks down with the realization that most channels are owned by a few major media houses such as CBS,