Overview of lecture

1. Media performs checks and balances on the government.

2. Media conglomerates dominate and manipulate news to increase profits

3. Mass media has the power to shape our world views and social norms.

Enduring Understanding 1

Enduring Understanding 2

Enduring Understanding 3

Media plays in significant role in democratising the world.

An important function of the media is to hold political institutions accountable

Mass media conglomerates increase profits by manipulating news to increase consumption.

What are the costs to objectivity in having a profit driven media industry?

Mass media shapes values and norms.

Does mass media empower or disempower us?

Does it make us conform to certain fashion norms, common lifestyles, common values?

We trust the media as an authority of news, information, education and entertainment.

Types of Media Bias 1. Political bias: Propaganda to promote state ideology2. Sensationalism: infotainment3. Gate keeping bias: killing off a story or keeping it under

wraps.4. Placement of stories in the newspapers

Learning point: Media’s manipulation of news compromises objectivity

Consequences of Media Bias

President Assad: Setting programs in place to rebuild what armed terrorists have destroyed(Syrian Arab News Agency SANA)

Syria accuses rebels of planning gas attack near Damascus.(Reuters)

The Worst Refugee crisis in recent history: A staggering 8.5 millions refugees displaced, prompting UN to intervene. (BBC News)

.

Learning point: state media’s censorship leads too Distrust of state mediao inability to make informed

decisionso political inaction

News Bias: Crimea Annexation

Russian troops seize Crimea airbase as Moscow consolidates control

Mass celebrations in Crimea: refute Western charges of annexation

Passive voice and Active voice Bias in Reuter headlines about Israelis and Palestinians

"Israeli Troops Shoot Dead Palestinian in West Bank (Israel named as perpetrator; Palestinian named as victim) versus"New West Bank Shooting Mars Truce" (Palestinian not named as perpetrator; Israeli not named as victim; shooting described in passive voice. OBJECTIVELY)

Learning point: State media can manipulate news headlines to propagate national ideology and sway public opinion

Compare the different headlines on the same issue

Media Bias: CHINA

1. State owns all mass media. No dissent against the CCP allowed.

2. Unverified online rumours compromise social cohesion. Internet censorship of microblogs

3. After Arab Spring, more blocks were put in place– Words like ‘freedom’ blocked on Google.– Facebook, Youtube and Twitter permanently banned– Google’s battle with China

4. Chinese are internet savvy users. Circumvent the firewall to report graft. o Citizen vigilantism: The Watch Brothers

Media Ethics

• Media as a watchdog o hold political

institutions accountable

o Political polarisation• Whistle blowing.

o Wikileaks revealed distorted information about Afghan and Iraq wars

Learning point: when the government withholds the truth from the public, we rely on the media for accurate and objective reporting.

Dynamic News Production via Social Media

Citizen Journalism as a platform for different perspectives and dissemination of ideas

Constant updating: faster than traditional media. New perspectives surface every time there is a news update

Facebook and Twitter as platform for people fighting for the same social cause to share frustrations

Dynamic News Production via Social Media

Platform to network, organise and mobilise protests

Shutting down of social media sites fuels more public anger.

Female protestors challenge gender stereotypes

Democratisation of New Media

• Citizen journalism empowers the people; challenges the state media’s exclusive rights to publish information.

• Social media as double-edged sword: platform for democracy but also as tool of surveillance of citizens.

Social media as platform for social reform

• Database of like-minded individuals petition for common causeo One Million Signature Campaign: Awareness

campaigns for women’s rightso Facebook page titled ‘We Are All Khaled Said’

Is social media a force of good or evil?• BUT people might post bigoted comments on

social media irresponsibly, fracturing social cohesion instead

Media control in Singapore

• Fourth estate in Singapore: supportive and subordinate not adversarial role unlike liberal democratic states.o Traditional media to counter slanted perspectives in the blogosphere.o Media Development Authority May 2014 ruling on internet

regulation to ensure writer’s accountability on what is posted online

• The government stance is freedom of speech must be curtailed if it compromises social harmony– Out of Bound Markers on race and religion– Elitist comments by RJC student– Public outrage of elitist comments by Anton Casey

Learning point: Are Singaporeans discerning enough to handle freedom of speech?

Media control in Singapore

• As the population becomes more educated and discerning, we question the state’s high-handed assumption that we are too ignorant to think for ourselves.

• BUT increasingly, the government has worked to address social concerns surfaced in the online community. (housing, transport, foreign workers.)

Learning point: The key is to find a balance between allowing an open communication channel with an educated and discerning populace while ensuring that policies are formulated rationally and not swayed by vagaries of public opinion.

Enduring Understanding 2

• Mass media conglomerates increase profits by manipulating news to increase consumption.• What are the costs to objectivity in

having a profit driven media industry?

Making News that Sell• Spectacularisation:

sensationalising news• Confrontainment:

focusing on scandal rather than investigation

• Sound bites: fragment politician’s discourse in catchy phrases

• Depoliticisation: marginalising substantial issue discussion

Corporate Bias

• Corporate bias, including advertising, coverage of political campaigns in such a way as to favour or vilify corporate interests, and the reporting of issues to favor the interests of the owners of the news media or its advertisers. Mass media is ultimately profit driven.

• The journalist’s main objective is no longer to disseminate ideas and create social consensus, but to produce entertainment and information that can be sold to individual consumers. Objective, factual news reporting might be compromised in order to deliver entertaining news (which is often not objective)

Corporate Bias

• Corporations, governments and media conglomerates control the mediaomould public opinion to their favour o Protect their interest: close relationship with the

governmento Block out divergent viewpoints

• News reporting that pander to the audienceo Audience prefer entertainment over educationo Brief news over long commentary

Media Conglomerates

• Acting on commercial interests, media companies merge or acquire other companies

• However, this means that media views increasingly come from fewer sources

• Media conglomerates decide on the angle and perspective the news will take results in biased reportingo headlines versus insignificant news

Media Conglomerates

• According to a recent Fortune 500 list, the top five media conglomerates in terms of revenue are:– Walt Disney Company– News Corporation– Time Warner– CBS Corporation– Viacom

• Together, these 5 giants control 95% of all the media that Americans receive their daily news from.

• These media giants dominate the top Internet news sites.

Media Conglomerates Political Clout

• The entertainment industry – television, motion picture companies, music – has put $283.5 million into federal elections lobbying in the past three years.

• Obama connecting with voters through Facebook

• Learning Point: With their political clout, media giants have the ability negotiate favourable terms in the government.

Impact Of Media GlobalizationRupert Murdoch Political manipulationo Asked his newspapers to be favourable towards Tony

Blair and the Labour Party during the 1997 elections Morality of media questioned. News of the World

involved in phone hacking scandal in 2011 Sex & sensation formula , lowering the standards of

journalism

Silvio Berlusconi: Italian PM

Unethical surveillance through pervasive media networks

• Computer databases that compile information about individuals are very valuable to governments and corporations. What is this information used for?

• Constant surveillance by the government

• Corporations want information about consumer preferences for effective marketing of products.

Learning point: Government must use the information only for lawful purposes and a certain degree of our privacy needs to be surrendered in order to enjoy greater security, especially since post 911.

Enduring Understanding 3

• Mass media shapes values and norms.• Does mass media empower or disempower

us?• Does it make us conform to certain fashion

norms, common lifestyles, common values?• We trust the media as an authority of news,

information, education and entertainment.

Construction of Reality

• Media messages: pre-constructed and have attitudes, interpretations and conclusions already built in.

• Media images: not a reflection of reality, but rather, a constructed interpretation of reality.

• Media content is filtered through society’s value systems and limits of tolerance are negotiated by content regulatory bodies and other interest groups.

Social norms

Gender stereotype

Media sets unattainable standards of beauty

Seoul to curb ads for plastic surgery

• Fuelling an unhealthy obsession with body image

• Overly sensational before and after shots will be banned

• Advertisements will also be prohibited in areas close to schools

Science links Selfies to Narcissism, Addiction and Low Self-Esteem

• A secured person will post spontaneous pictures while a person with low self esteem will edit his photo

• The more likes garnered boosts one’s self-esteem

Danny Bowman committed suicide because he was not satisfied with the quality of his selfies

Negative effects of Mass Media: Cyber Bullying [Sextortion]

17 year old Daniel Perry committed suicide after online threats to post his naked pictures online.

Victims strip on Skype and later the syndicate threaten to post their photos on Facebook pages of their friends and families if they do not transfer money

Anonymity of the internet gives victims the false sense of security.

Conclusion

• Alternative media platforms challenge traditional media bias

• Today, media conglomerates with great political clout shape media content, control the number of news sources, compromising objectivity.

• Images circulated on mass media constructs social norms and standards