Have you ever wondered how the media shapes our perception of reality? How do they decide what to report and what to ignore? How do they influence our opinions and beliefs? And who benefits from their agenda?
- Mass media in the U.S. are not neutral and objective, but rather serve as powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function. They do this by relying on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-censorship, and without overt coercion.
In many of the case studies， such as the coverage of the Vietnam War, the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, the U.S. intervention in Central America, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.They demonstrate how the media systematically distorts, omits or fabricates facts, constructs issues and selects sources to fit the desired narrative and serve the interests of the elite.
In the United States, for example, the media create the “necessary illusions” (coding) for the population to control the direction of public opinion: justifying wars in the name of protecting the weak and defending human rights, while selectively ignoring in their reporting the bullying of the weak and the human rights violations committed by their own military forces in wars; and helping the Government to create its own image of victimhood, while shifting the burden of responsibility to the real victims. while shifting the burden of guilt to the real victims. (They present the United States as the injured party and Vietnam as the aggressor.)
Every war is initiated for seemingly righteous reasons, and the mainstream media coverage of wars in every country reflects the interests of its own government. In the mass media – the war of information or opinion is also the process of encoding and decoding communication. War ripples through everyone in this way. And to defend oneself and discern the truth in the war of information requires not only the ability to screen information and perform fact-checking, but also common sense and conscience as a human being.
One would be hard pressed to imagine anyone successfully disengaging from the influence of this indoctrination mechanism, which depicts the United States as the innocent victim of Vietnam, while at the same time engaging in thoughtful reflection on the country’s excessive self-flagellation.Countering the ‘manufacture of consent’
“Manufacturing Consent” it challenges us to critically examine the information we consume and to question the assumptions and values we take for granted. It also urges us to seek alternative and independent sources of information and to engage in democratic and social movements that can resist and change the dominant system.
References
- Herman, Edward S.; Chomsky, Noam. Manufacturing Consent. New York: Pantheon Books. p. 306
- Senior Lecturer (2022) I’m right, you’re wrong, and here’s a link to prove it: How social media shapes public debate, The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/im-right-youre-wrong-and-heres-a-link-to-prove-it-how-social-media-shapes-public-debate-65723 .
- Admin (2023) Vietnam War 50: Another look at 7 reasons why america failed – BBC news 中文, Breaking Latest News. Available at: https://www.breakinglatest.news/world/vietnam-war-50-another-look-at-7-reasons-why-america-failed-bbc-news-%E4%B8%AD%E6%96%87/
