Pressenza panel at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2014: From Information to Participation
In 1999, the film Matrix presented a false cyber-world, in which those included take it for “reality”. The image of a computer generated space taking over daily life resonated with millions as an allegory of their own existence, but instead of a computer the source of such false reality appeared to be the Media.
Noam Chomsky: Manufacturing Consent
(This is not new, in fact it is the same thing Shakespeare did for the Tudors, keen as they were not to appear as the usurpers of the English throne, with the play Richard III which greatly exaggerated this king’s physical deformity and blamed him for heinous acts of violence most probably committed by others)
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky
An analysis of the news media, arguing that the mass media of the United States “are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion”.
This is carried out through Editorial bias via five filters
- Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation: large firms run for profit. They must cater to the financial interest of their owners – often corporations or particular controlling investors.
- The Advertising License to Do Business: Most of the revenue of major media outlets derives from advertisers, who become the “de-facto licensing authority” with their political prejudices and economic desires of their advertisers, weakening working class media
- Sourcing Mass Media News: “the large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media by reducing the media’s costs of acquiring and producing, news”, also blocking other sources
- Flak and the Enforcers: “Flak“, negative responses to a media statement, (e.g. letters, complaints, lawsuits, or legislative actions organised by the powerful) can be expensive to the media and act as deterrent for reporting about certain issues 5]
- Anti-Communism: This was included as a filter in the original 1988 edition of the book, but Chomsky argues that since the end of the Cold War (1945–91), anticommunism was replaced by the “War on Terror”, as the major social control mechanism.
“Manufacturing dissent”: the anti-globalization movement is funded by the corporate elites (the people’s movement has been hijacked), by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research 2010
“Under contemporary capitalism, the illusion of democracy must prevail. It is in the interest of the corporate elites to accept dissent and protest as a feature of the system inasmuch as they do not threaten the established social order…
To maintain their legitimacy, the economic elites favor limited and controlled forms of opposition, … as a “safety valve”, which protects and sustains the New World Order.
To be effective, however, the process of “manufacturing dissent” must be carefully regulated and monitored by those who are the object of the protest movement.
“Funding Dissent, e.g.: The anti-globalization movement is opposed to Wall Street and the Texas oil giants controlled by Rockefeller, et al. Yet the foundations and charities of Rockefeller et al will generously fund progressive anti-capitalist networks as well as environmentalists (opposed to Big Oil) with a view to ultimately overseeing and shaping their various activities.
Whereas the mainstream media “manufactures consent”, the complex network of NGOs (including segments of the alternative media) are used by the corporate elites to mould and manipulate the protest movement.”
Arundhati Roy interviewed by Democracy Now!
“Martin Luther King made the forbidden connections between Capitalism, Imperialism, Racism and the Vietnam War.
As a result, after he was assassinated, even his memory became toxic to them, a threat to public order. Foundations and Corporations worked hard to remodel his legacy to fit a market-friendly format.
The Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, with an operational grant of $2 million, was set up by, among others, the Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mobil, Western Electric, Procter & Gamble, U.S. Steel and Monsanto.
The Center maintains the King Library and Archives of the Civil Rights Movement. Among the many programs the King Center runs have been projects that “work closely with the United States Department of Defense, the Armed Forces Chaplains Board and others”.
It co-sponsored the Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture Series called “The Free Enterprise System: An Agent for Non-violent Social Change.”
Information to participation: The sausage machine model
The human model, (Intentionality digests information and shapes participation)
The Media’s influence on the sensibility of the epoch
Silo in “Conditions of Dialogue”, Silo Speaks, points out that there exist “pre-dialogical elements [which] are also pre-logical, and act within the horizons of the era and of the society, even though individuals often mistake these simply as products of their own personal experiences and observations. And this creates a barrier that cannot easily be overcome until the sensibility of the age—that is, the historical moment in which we live—has changed. It is precisely for this reason that many contributions in the field of science and other areas of human activity have become accepted as being completely obvious and true only later on. But until we have arrived at that “later on,” those who offer these ideas and activities find themselves in a dialogic vacuum, and not infrequently facing a wall of hostility raised even at the possibility of their publicly discussing these new points of view. Once the initial turbulence has passed, and one or perhaps several new generations have made their way onto the stage of history, the importance of those contributions that were “ahead of their time” comes to be recognized by everyone, and people are surprised that those contributions were ever rejected, their importance ever denied or minimized.”
E.g., in the past the Earth as the centre of the universe, the inhumanity of slavery. Nowadays the belief that money is the most important value, that the present system can be sorted out with a few piecemeal tweaks, etc.
This echoes Tony Benn’s quote: “The way change occurs to begin with, if you come up with a good idea, like healthcare, you’re ignored. If you go on you must be mad, absolutely stark-staring bonkers. If you go on after that you’re dangerous. Then, if the pressure keeps up there’s a pause. And then you can’t find anyone at the top who doesn’t claim to have thought of it in the first place. That’s how progress is made.”
It is the role of social media to promote the new sensibility that will make conditions of dialogue (the core of nonviolence as a methodology for change) possible and prepare the epoch for ideas “ahead of their times”.
The Fourth Estate
This expression was coined by Edmund Burke in 1787. He would have been making reference to the traditional three estates of Parliament: The Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal and the Commons. It implies acknowledgment of the media as one of the Powers in society.
The Media exerts its power by creating an illusion of the “real world”. But it is itself an illusion, that power resides with the media, when in reality it’s the power of the big corporations and the plutocracy, who own Big Media.
“Tell me something I don’t know!” We all know!
But what can we do?
Social, Alternative Media, e.g., Pressenza et al.
A direction and ethos away from the dehumanisation of the corporate world, contributing to the global, humanist, nonviolent revolution, based on the Humanist Attitude, information at the service of:
The human being rather than money (and celebrities) as the central value
Affirming the equality of all human beings, (e.g., celebrities opinions are not more important than the opinions of ordinary people)
Recognising personal and cultural diversity, rejecting discrimination, promoting the convergence of diversity
The continuous development and free dissemination of human knowledge away from established “absolute truths”, (e.g., the neoliberal mantra “this system is not perfect but is the only one possible”)
Sustaining freedom of ideas and beliefs, (media containing different views)
Rejecting violence in all its forms: physical, economic, psychological, sexual, racial, religious, ecological, moral, etc. (violence may sell papers but newspeople have to live in this world!).
Social media and consciousness
Human consciousness is active, intentional, open to the world and moved by profound inspirations, always searching for ever increasing freedom. The role of Social media’s is to support such search for freedom:
To detect and echo the new sensibility in social movements working towards the Universal Human Nation, nonviolent and diverse, based on cooperation and compassion.
To acknowledge a new spirituality already present in these social movements as a source of inspiration, based on human experience, rejecting dogma and fanaticism
To denounce Big Media’s intention to send human consciousness into a slumber with propaganda instead of information and the culture of celebrity as a substitute for meaningful aspirations, in order to serve Big Business
The alternative media’s role is also to awaken, inspire and provide tools to elevate the level of consciousness of the population, the only way to differentiate information from propaganda
Mainstream Media
- In general it is unidirectional (although now trying to emulate social Media through blogs, readers opinions, etc, to give room for, or (an appearance of) facilitating participation)
- All or nothing, pragmatic view (only successful actions are worth reporting on: e.g., it has declared that the Arab Springs, Indignados and Occupy “have all failed”)
- Idealises super-leaders (Obama, Pope Francis, Malala) beyond any realistic possibilities.
- The population remains uneducated and manipulated
- If it doesn’t sell papers it is not news! (and violence sells more)
- On the other hand, their bias is generally well known, people choose what to read by affinity
Social Media
- Multiple feedback, includes citizen-journalism and networking across borders, cultures and models
- Understanding processes that build movements over the years, moving ahead with successes and learning from failures, the voice of the voiceless
- Reports on and promotes bottom up activism, everyone a leader, “nobody in charge”
- Growing population awareness and intentionality in action
- Focus on what’s important for people (room for nonviolence)
- However, false flag journalism and astroturfing become easier (Views expressed by the establishment posing as the opposite faction or ordinary “concerned” citizens)
True media independence from manipulation by the System
- Funding: Funded and run by volunteers (e.g., Pressenza), crowdfunding, or following very carefully the money trail and reject editorial conditions attached to funding or advertising
- Creative Commons License
- Decentralisation
- Internationality
- Diversity of views
- Networking and partnerships: A resonance box that can give alternative media the same level of influence as corporate media
In Sum
There is a, humanist, nonviolent global revolution beginning to emerge in many points of the planet:
It is social, psychological, political, cultural and spiritual
The Human Being has a direction that pushes from the most profound in consciousness towards overcoming pain and suffering, finding inspiration and meaning
Corporate Big Media is, for the most part, an integral part of the dehumanised system that enslaves people into a money and celebrity worshipping meaningless existence
Social, alternative Media is increasingly showing its power to counteract misinformation and propaganda, putting itself at the service of the humanist revolution through networking, citizens journalism, self-funding and remaining open to diversity as well as promoting its convergence
Its role, not just as a source of unsuppressed information but also as a tool to elevate the level of consciousness of the population and echo the arising new sensibility puts it at the centre of the budding new society, the Universal Human Nation.
