The weblog of Christiaan Briggs
U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media
The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to “engage and inspire” the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government.
I love how they refer to it as “Pro-American Publicity.”
Many of you will know I’m not exactly a fan of the market economy. In fact I think, one day, it may come to be known as the single worst invention humans have devised. And one area where it does the most damage is the mainstream media.
I’ve had arguments with newspaper editors and other commentators about the homogenisation of discourse in the mainstream media and invariably I’m accused of proffering conspiracy theories. While I have nothing against the proffering of conspiracy theories you don’t need a conspiracy theory to explain the filtering that takes place in the media. People get to their positions for many reasons but one reason you’ll find pervasive in the mainstream media is passive agreement of the idea that profits are largely sacrosanct. Challenge this idea in any significant way and won’t find yourself part of the mainstream media. It ends up framing our entire discourse.
Check out the latest on this from Media Lens: Intellectual Cleansing: Part 1, Keeping The Media Safe For Big Business
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber explains why he thinks the management of some of the closed aspects of Apple’s iPhone App Store are flawed.
And if that interests you, you might also be interested in this interview with Jonathan Zittrain and a review of his new book, The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop It.
Ben Kuchera, of Ars Technica, writes about the relationship between game software developers and game reviewers, and the mechanisms each have at their disposal to manipulate the other, namely paid advertising and access to information.
It’s a good practical example of some of mechanisms that corrupt a “free press” in a capitalist society and, of course, similar mechanisms are at play with governments and news media.
The writer says there is no easy solution except for reader beware. He’s correct, there is no solution under capitalism, because it’s an inherent problem of capitalism. The only proposed solution I know of is under a different economy.
Update, 7 Sep 2008: Here’s a recent example of a politician doing the same thing. i.e. manipulating news media by withholding access to information, thus ultimately lowering the ability of the targeted new media organisation to make profits.
Davis insisted that “there are no strings attached” to media access to McCain. Yet just this week, McCain abruptly canceled an interview with Larry King as punishment for a tough CNN interview with one of his spokesmen. What’s more, top McCain aide Mark Salter said that “only the good reporters” would get the best seats in the new campaign plane. “You have to earn it,” he said.
Update, 22 Sep 2008: Changed Parecon link from Wikipedia to Znet.
Jane Clifton muses on the emergence of blogging and it’s relationship with old fashioned journalism, complaining that “it’s hard to tell whether the information providers are accurate, biased or simply malicious.”
“The Blogerati” responds in good fashion, but what I like that blogging brings to the table is exactly what Clifton fears: uncertainty about who is telling the truth. One of conventional journalism’s biggest traps is that it purports to be the conduit of truth, when in fact—and certainly from my experiences of being reported on as part of a story—this claim couldn’t be further from the truth.
Journalism, especially in the form of for-profit media, should have never staked this claim, and it now has much to answer for.
Blogging and the internet encourages us all to treat everything we read with a critical eye; not simply to accept something because it’s written down. And that’s a good thing Jane.
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