Media, Capitalism, etc.
1. Several of our commentators have suggested that the media engage in "self-censorship". What does this mean and how is it accomplished?Self-censorship is one of the least discussed, and most routine, media constraints in the United States. The mass media are able to numb us, in a sense, dispensing anesthesia along with selected information. Stories that are damaging to the financial interests of news organizations, along with stories that go against the values of capitalism, democracy, and warfare are very intentionally avoided. No one needs to instruct the editor of a magazine dependent on cigarette-ad revenue not to launch a crusade against the tobacco industry; they already know not to do so. The news is filled with footage and descriptions of cruise missiles, F-117 Stealth bombers, F-16CJ jets and other ultramodern aircraft. Their awesome technical prowess is publicized in detail. But don't expect much coverage or description of exactly what happens to people when the bombs detonate, whom we are aiming to kill with the bombs, or of what the real reasons are behind the bombing. Meanwhile, media conflicts of interest are unacknowledged. For example, if Brokaw and his NBC News colleagues marvel at the exploits of F/A-18 H
4. Why do we have homelessness? Explain and discuss. In contrast to state censorship, which is usually easy to recognize, self-censorship by journalists tends to be obscured. It is particularly murky and insidious in the emerging media environment, with routine pressures to defer to employers that have massive industry clout and global reach. One of the ways the mass media accomplish the backing-up of their routine way of proving the "news" they provide, is by having certain, paid specialists confirm what their report states. They use these few specialists over and over to prove a huge array of different stories. These specialists rarely ever provide views expressed by the working class; they are usually part of the wealthy capitalist class. Homelessness is a big problem in our country today, and my suggestions for solving this problem might as well just be dreams. Many more things will have to change before something serious is done to help the homeless out. 2. In a capitalist system income inequality is inevitable and necessary. Explain and discuss. Another way the government can help better the homeless people is to tax people according to how much money they earn. If a person makes over a certain level of income, then the government should make it mandatory to donate so much of their money to a charity that can help people less fortunate. For instance, Bill Gates is the wealthiest man in the world. He has a net worth that tops over ninety billion dollars. If he were to donate thirty billion dollars in helping out the poor, he could place hundreds of homeless people in homes and still have enough money to feed thousands more homeless people. This policy should be enforced to make sure that the balance of money is shifted a bit more equally. 3. A free press is one of the bulwarks of American democracy. Explain and discuss. Thus, equality does not exist because in modern society where wealth is produced by the intervention of capital paying wages to labor, the growth of the population outstrips the growth of production, which results in the supply of labor necessarily surpassing the demand and leading to a relative sinking of the level of wages. Production thus constituted, monopolized, exploited by bourgeois capital, is pushed on the one hand by the mutual competition of the capitalists to concentrate evermore in the hands of an ever diminishing number of powerful capitalists, or in the hands of joint-stock companies which, owing to the merging of their capital, are more powerful than the biggest isolated capitalists. The power of mass media to persuade the population cannot be understated. If the media gives greater coverage, or sensationalizes only one theory, the population sways in the direction of the information supplied. The same is true for downplaying, or covert negativity in coverage. How and in what tone information is supplied to us can influence our opinion in a positive or negative way. Economic systems do not exist in moral or political vacuums. Simply because capitalism tells us that its only possible definition of a "fair" income distribution is whatever income distribution falls out of market transactions is no reason for us to accept that definition. The other obvious way of keeping vital news out of easy reach for the working class is by simply omitting stories, as mentioned in the first paragraph. One who wants to find expanded information on subjects that could be beneficial to the working class, or even to the middle class, has to dig deep. There are sources in which to find these types of stories, but they are not highly publicized nor equally distributed over the nation's states. Self-censorship in the mass media is not going anywhere soon; it i
Some common words found in the essay are:
AOL Warner, Hoynes Unfortunately, F/A-18 Hornet, Dependent Children, Brooks White, Urban Development, , Croteau Hoynes, Bill Gates, F-117 Stealth, homeless people, mass media, help homeless, croteau hoynes, free press, poor homes, poor people, explain discuss, media persuade population, media chooses, relationship media, help homeless people, help poor homes,
Approximate Word count = 2510
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
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