Iori Tada, OCU
Today, we live in a society where truths are concealed by
politicians and the elite. Do you think your mind, thoughts, opinions, ideas,
conceptions, and notions are really yours, or do you acquire those ideas
because you have been influenced by someone or something? “Media Control” by
Noam Chomsky, will shock readers who will finally see how they have been
tricked. Any media that we have seen on the television, in newspapers,
magazines, or advertisements, works for politicians’ profits and major
company’s incomes. We must see and recognize this truth and find a way to
protect our lives from their tricks. Every citizen should learn something about
media control.
If you look at the function of the media, you can see the
real world and you can begin to recognize that you have been controlled by the
media unconsciously. Media only profits the politicians and the wealthy. In
Chomsky’s view, major companies and conglomerates that invest, produce, or
allocate goods make important decisions that benefit them, and they send people
to the government and control it with the media. Of course, this means they are
controlling the media too. They have overwhelming power in society, as they sit
in prominent positions in society’s major institutions.
Now, I would like to give you an example of how they
trick us by using media. Around 1908, because of mass production, companies
wanted to sell a lot of their products. Therefore, they used media and proposed
that consumption equals fullness of life and happiness. This is how our current
consumer society was born. Even though we could use products longer, we have
learned to use them in the short term and to live in a cycle of constant
consumption. This system creates an economic gap between wealthy and underclass
people.
In the past, when we were at war, we didn’t need to
control people’s minds. What politicians and wealthy people did was make people
terrified with political violence. However, when they lost that power, they
couldn’t control people anymore. People started to learn their rights and no
one would obey them. Those in power needed another way to control the masses,
but then how did they do it? They used propaganda.
The target of propaganda is the 80% of people who are not
politicians and wealthy people. In other words, the targets are us! They want
us not to think, or be concerned, but to just obey them. If we obey without
question, we become victims of their propaganda. Major media companies decide
how to frame the news and incidents and local media companies follow their
orders. The corporate media serve them. They have control over choosing, deciding,
shaping, controlling, and qualifying, all for profits of societies leaders.
Moreover, media corporations are major companies, and
they make money from other major companies. Their market is advertising
sponsorship and that means other companies, not their audience. Media’s
earnings are based on advertising rates. So, they try to sell other companies’
products to earn higher advertising rates. The more we buy these products, the
more major companies and media companies make money and again the economic gap
between wealthy and underclass people increases.
These are part of the forms of information that I
learned from the book, "Media control,” by Chomsky. There are more truths about
media control, and we should learn about them. We must see and recognize
this truth and find a way to protect our life from their tricks before it is
too late.
