Transcript Week 2 - mnsu.edu

Week 2
Bias and Ethnocentrism
Five Filters of Propaganda
Bias
• Each person and each professor
has their own perspective.
• Biology
– Gene Theory of Evolution
– Symbiogenesis Theory of Evolution
My Perspective
• I am a critical Political-Economist
• Like other courses you take, the content
closely follows the professor’s
perspective.
– This class is no different.
• You will, however, get a different
perspective from what you are used to
hearing!
Both Sides to an Issue?
• Some people want to give equal
time to opposing views.
– Never just two sides.
• “Balance” was ordered in coverage
of civilian deaths in Afghanistan.
– http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1031-02.htm
Value Neutral or Objective
• Some professors, journalists, or others
will say they are objective.
• Beware!
– They are either ignorant of their bias
• Or
– They are intentionally trying to deceive you.
• Remember, facts exist, but can be viewed
differently depending on the perspective.
Ethnocentrism
• Ethnocentrism is seeing and judging the
world ONLY from your personal
perspective.
• Ethnocentrism also places ourselves in
a superior position relative to other
people in order to justify our actions.
Five Elements of Ethnocentrism
• Viewing the Other as Inferior
• Dehumanization
• Civilizational Mission
• Ideological Camouflage
• Political Denial
Viewing the Other as
Inferior
• Biological Inferiority
• Moral/Cultural Inferiority
Dehumanization
• Once a group is viewed as inferior,
it is easy to dehumanize them.
– Individuals in the group are seen as
less than true people, lacking souls,
humanity, culture, etc.
– Derogatory names are used to
characterize the group.
Civilizational Mission
• Because it believes it is superior,
one group takes it upon itself to
"civilize" the “inferior” people.
– Manifest Destiny
– White Man’s Burden
– Crusade on Terrorism
Ideological Camouflage
• The subjugation and ill-treatment of
other people need justification.
• Sham science
– Bell Curve
– Eugenics
Political Denial
• Government denies responsibility
in the mistreatment of a group of
people.
– Ecuador gives indigenous people
rights to land in their territory, BUT
the government retains the rights to
what is BELOW the land!
Five Elements of Ethnocentrism
• Viewing the Other as Inferior
• Dehumanization
• Civilizational Mission
• Ideological Camouflage
• Political Denial
Five Filters of
Propaganda
Distortion in the Media
Today
• Five Filters of Propaganda
– Concentration of Ownership
– Advertising
– “Sourcing” the News
– Flak
– Anti-Communism
Students and Education
• More than 50% of students at four-year
schools and more than 75% at two-year
colleges lacked the skills to perform complex
literacy tasks.
• That means they could not … understand the
arguments of newspaper editorials, compare
credit card offers with different interest rates
and annual fees or summarize results of a
survey about parental involvement in school.
•
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-01-19-college-tasks_x.htm
Recent Media Studies
• “A new study based on a series of seven
US polls conducted from January
through September of this year reveals
that before and after the Iraq war, a
majority of Americans have had
significant misperceptions and these are
highly related to support for the war in
Iraq.”
•
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/102.p
hp?nid=&id=&pnt=102&lb=brus
Misperceptions Support War
Five Filters in the
Propaganda Model
• Concentration of Ownership
• Advertising
• “Sourcing” the News
• Flak
• Anti-Communism
Concentration of
Ownership
• 20 years ago, 50 companies controlled the vast majority
of media resources. Now, it is five.
– “These five huge corporations —
• Time Warner,
• Disney, (owns ABC)
• Murdoch's News Corporation,
• Bertelsmann of Germany, and
• Viacom (formerly CBS)
– — own most of the newspapers, magazines, books,
radio and TV stations, and movie studios of the
United States.” http://www.benbagdikian.com/
Advertising
• Advertising supports the costs of
production for media outlets.
• Outlets not able to attract advertisers
are less able to compete.
• Advertisers seek a “buying mood.”
Sources
• Media outlets attempt to save
money and time by relying on
readily available sources for news.
• Corporations, politicians and
others provide press releases,
press conferences and prepared
videos for the media.
Flak
• People and groups dissatisfied with
media coverage will attempt to change
coverage through complaints.
– Complaints by pundits and editorial writers
– Complaints by organized groups
– Complaints by politicians
Anti-Communism
• While the authors wrote about the concept of
anti-communism, we can see its application
today.
• Both the terms “liberal” and “terrorism” are
used to dichotomize debate.
– You are either with us, or against us.
• The fear of terrorism is used to promote
policies.
Outfoxed
• Concentration of Ownership
– How does Murdoch and editors control news through memos?
• Advertising
– What is the “Fox Effect” on other networks?
• Sources
– Where does Fox get its information, commentators and guests?
• Flak
– Shut Up!
– Personal Attacks
• Anti-Terrorism
Coming up
• Outfoxed
– Applying the Filters of Propaganda