‘a Major Shaper of Public Opinion, and Thus Vital to Any Understanding of Modern Politics’. Discuss the Validity of This Claim About the Mass Media.
‘A major shaper of public opinion, and thus vital to any understanding of modern politics’. Discuss the validity of this claim about the mass media.
Mass media can be described as forms of communication that allow a message to be sent through a medium to a large audience. But what does it exactly mean to shape public opinion; does it mean changing people’s opinions on events or just to persuade people about an issue on a matter they know nothing about? Gerry Stoker believes ‘our understanding of the key issues that face our societies are substantially influenced by the concerns, focus or even the obsessions of the media’. In this paper, I will tackle the question primarily from a Marxist prospective, evaluating the predominant view that the media performs an important, positive role in society.
Classical Marxism believes that the media perpetuates the ideology of the dominant classes, helping to create a false consciousness. The dominant classes own the means of production and also own the media. Consequently, they can manipulate the working classes into believing the dominant ideology, even though it does not reflect their true interests. Additionally, it can be said that the media is used as a tool to distract the masses. By concentrating on foreign affairs, such as wars, and entertainment, the masses are distracting from realising their material circumstances. This is best typified by Noam Chomsky when he wrote, ‘if people are no longer just glued to the tube, you may have all these funny thought arising in their heads, like sickly inhibitions against the use of military force’. Classical Marxist theory agrees that mass media is a powerful tool, thereby a major shaper of public opinion. But as it is a tool dominated by the bourgeois to further oppress the masses, it is not desirable in its current form.
Communism in practice furthered Marx’s view on the media by trying to utilise the media to educate, engage and arouse the masses. Lenin recognised the
Mass media can be described as forms of communication that allow a message to be sent through a medium to a large audience. But what does it exactly mean to shape public opinion; does it mean changing people’s opinions on events or just to persuade people about an issue on a matter they know nothing about? Gerry Stoker believes ‘our understanding of the key issues that face our societies are substantially influenced by the concerns, focus or even the obsessions of the media’. In this paper, I will tackle the question primarily from a Marxist prospective, evaluating the predominant view that the media performs an important, positive role in society.
Classical Marxism believes that the media perpetuates the ideology of the dominant classes, helping to create a false consciousness. The dominant classes own the means of production and also own the media. Consequently, they can manipulate the working classes into believing the dominant ideology, even though it does not reflect their true interests. Additionally, it can be said that the media is used as a tool to distract the masses. By concentrating on foreign affairs, such as wars, and entertainment, the masses are distracting from realising their material circumstances. This is best typified by Noam Chomsky when he wrote, ‘if people are no longer just glued to the tube, you may have all these funny thought arising in their heads, like sickly inhibitions against the use of military force’. Classical Marxist theory agrees that mass media is a powerful tool, thereby a major shaper of public opinion. But as it is a tool dominated by the bourgeois to further oppress the masses, it is not desirable in its current form.
Communism in practice furthered Marx’s view on the media by trying to utilise the media to educate, engage and arouse the masses. Lenin recognised the
Bibliography: Seymour-Ure, Colin The political impact of mass media (London : Constable, 1974) Stoker, Gerry Why politics matters (Houndmills, Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) [ 5 ]. Pippa Norris, A virtuous circle: political communications in post-industrial societies (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 311 [ 6 ] [ 7 ]. Michael Parenti, Dirty truths : reflections on politics, media, ideology, conspiracy, ethnic life and class power (San Francisco : City Lights Books, 1996), pp. 101 [ 8 ] [ 9 ]. Michael Parenti, Dirty truths : reflections on politics, media, ideology, conspiracy, ethnic life and class power (San Francisco : City Lights Books, 1996), pp. 118 [ 10 ] [ 11 ]. Gerry Stoker, Why politics matters (Houndmills, Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), pp. 128 [ 12 ] [ 13 ]. Michael Parenti, Dirty truths : reflections on politics, media, ideology, conspiracy, ethnic life and class power (San Francisco : City Lights Books, 1996), pp. 104