Transcript Week 2 - mnsu.edu

Distortion in Media Coverage
James Miller
Israeli Defense Forces Version
 What did the IDF have to say?
Palestinian National
Authority Version
 What did the PNA have to say?
What Happened?
 According to the CNN article, what do
you think occurred when James Miller
was shot?
 What is your general impression of the
events?
Israeli Defense Forces Version
 "This was an operation taking place at night, in which the [Israeli] force was under fire
and in which the force returned fire with light weapons,”
 an investigation is under way to determine whether Miller died as a result of Israeli or
Palestinian gunfire
 it is "very possible" the fatal shot came from Israeli soldiers.
 its troops were uncovering a tunnel
 they came under antitank missile and light-weapons fire from Palestinian gunmen.
 When Israeli troops returned fire, Miller was hit in the crossfire and killed
 Israeli forces came under fire from Palestinians, who threw hand grenades and Molotov
cocktails
 as the clash was ending, Israeli troops heard screams and spotted a woman standing next
to a man who was lying on the ground.
Palestinian National Authority
Version
 accused Israeli forces of committing "another brutal
crime,”
 "targeted and killed in cold blood, by the fire of the
Israeli tanks.”
 Miller was covering the demolition of a Palestinian
family's home by Israeli tanks and bulldozers when
"heavy shooting" erupted from the Israeli side.
Why the differences?
 What does this tell you about the accuracy
of the article?
 What does this say about your media?
 How do you explain it?
Five Filters of Propaganda
Distortion in the Media
Today
 Five Filters of Propaganda
Concentration of Ownership
Advertising
“Sourcing” the News
Flak
Anti-Communism
Students and Education
 More than 50% of students at four-year schools and
more than 75% at two-year colleges lacked the skills
to perform complex literacy tasks.
 That means they could not … understand the
arguments of newspaper editorials, compare credit
card offers with different interest rates and annual
fees or summarize results of a survey about parental
involvement in school.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-01-19-college-tasks_x.htm
Recent Media Studies
 “A new study based on a series of
seven US polls conducted from January
through September of this year reveals
that before and after the Iraq war, a
majority of Americans have had
significant misperceptions and these
are highly related to support for the
war in Iraq.”
 http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/international_security_bt/1
02.php?nid=&id=&pnt=102&lb=brus
Misperceptions Support War
Five Filters in the
Propaganda Model
 Concentration of Ownership
 Advertising
 “Sourcing” the News
 Flak
 Anti-Communism
Concentration of Ownership
 20 years ago, 50 companies controlled the vast majority of
media resources. Now, it is five.
 “These five huge corporations —
 Time Warner,
 Disney, (owns ABC)
 Murdoch's News Corporation,
 Bertelsmann of Germany, and
 Viacom (formerly CBS)
 — own most of the newspapers, magazines, books, radio
and TV stations, and movie studios of the United
States.” http://www.benbagdikian.com/
Advertising
 Advertising supports the costs of production
for media outlets.
 Outlets not able to attract advertisers are
less able to compete.
 Advertisers seek a “buying mood.”
Sources
 Media outlets attempt to save money
and time by relying on readily
available sources for news.
 Corporations, politicians and others
provide press releases, press
conferences and prepared videos for
the media.
Flak
 People and groups dissatisfied with
media coverage will attempt to change
coverage through complaints.
Complaints by pundits and editorial
writers
Complaints by organized groups
Complaints by politicians
Anti-Communism
 While the authors wrote about the concept of anti-
communism, we can see its application today.
 Both the terms “liberal” and “terrorism” are used
to dichotomize debate.
 You are either with us, or against us.
 The fear of terrorism is used to promote policies.
Five Filters in the
Propaganda Model
 Concentration of Ownership
 Advertising
 “Sourcing” the News
 Flak
 Anti-Communism
 Through these filters, the information you
receive is distorted and lacks accuracy.
 In many cases it represents the interests of the
wealthy and/or US policy.
Outfoxed
 Concentration of Ownership
 How does Murdoch and editors control news through memos?
 Advertising
 What is the “Fox Effect” on other networks?
 Sources
 Where does Fox get its information, commentators and guests?
 Flak
 Shut Up!
 Jeremy Glick
 Personal Attacks
 Richard Clark
 John Kerry
 Anti-Terrorism
 Use of terrorism to create fear to support its perspective
Coming up
 Outfoxed
Applying the Filters of Propaganda