As the Media is responsible for covering news all around the world and provide insights to the public , it should be trusted and reliable but the opposite is true. Media consumers should not believe what they hear right away , they should question and find other media sources to get the bottom of the truth about the news. What makes media this way is due to how media operates , through the five filter: profit/ownership, advertising, establishment, flak and the common enemy. These filters decide which events are newsworthy , how to cover them, their placement in the media and how much coverage they will receive.
Profit/ownership: huge organizations that have control over the media, and each small organization is being controlled by one of these large organizations. As noted by Herman, E., and Chomsky, N. (1998) these dominant media organizations are controlled by wealthy people or by managers who are controlled by owners and other market-profit -oriented forces and they are closely intertwined with governments and banks. For example, in a report from Al Jazeera reported saying”Palestinians threaten to quit Oslo Accords over Trump peace plan” , it is an example of ownership because the owners of Al Jazeera reported more bias towards the united States point of view, and not a neutral both sided opinion, the effect could be the relationship Al Jazeera which is owned by Qatar has an influence on the news.
Advertising: a form of persuasive communication that promotes goods or services of an identifies sponsor, and stimulates the public to purchase the new product or service which increases the sales.
Establishment: the sourcing of mass media news, where the media focuses on getting its reliable and steady flow of information. For example, the white house and the state department are central place for news coverage. The government and corporations have a big establishment in the media because of the consistent news it provides for the media(Herman, E., and Chomsky, N. ,1998). Editors and journalists who offend these powerful news sources, perhaps by questioning the veracity or bias of the presented material, can be threatened with no access of media coverage.( Al-Jazeraa , 2020)
Flak: when the media stories are inconvenient to the huge corporate organizations, they will use “Flak” which means discrediting media personalities and sources and try to divert the public’s eye.It is characterized by concerted efforts to manage public information.
The common enemy: Communism, terrorists and immigrants are all examples of the common enemy created to shape the public opinion about subjects critical for the elite interests. It portrays the news in a different way to out put the desired fear in the public eyes. For example, the accident
Hoechsman, M., & Poyntz, S. R. (2012). Media literacies : A critical introduction. John Wiley & sons.
Beautiful Trouble (n.d.). Theory: The Propaganda Model (Blog).
Al-Jazeera (2020, January 26). Palestinians threaten to Quit Oslo Accords Trump Peach Plan. Al-Jazeera. Retrieved from: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/palestinians-threaten-quit-oslo-accords-trump-peace-plan-200126153012929.html
Media and People 