Media Bias and Propaganda in United States Essay

Media Bias and Propaganda in United States - Essay Example As such, the power that media has upon the lives of individual around the globe is dynamic and likely will increase as globalization and media integration continue to be evidenced. However, for purposes of this brief analysis, the author will not specifically focus upon the globalizing power that media has; rather, the focus will instead be upon the way in which self-censorship, bias, and seemingly uniform actions; even without overt coercion needing to be applied. As a function of seeking to understand the impact that media has on stakeholders within society, the following analysis will engage the reader with some of the most prominent ways in which media impacts the way in which people think, act, and define/constrain their lives. Through an exemplification of the way in which propaganda and bias are represented throughout the media, it is the hope of this author that the reader can come to a more profound and nuanced understanding of the way in which these very real and prescient issues impact upon the way in which society interacts with the world, defines it, and seeks to understand it. Firstly, in order to understand this uniformity of approach that so many media outlets throughout the current market exhibit, it is necessary to seek to understand the way in which media control exists within the current dynamic. Whereas it is true that television media only accounts for one way in which the individual is exposed to information, is necessarily a microcosm of media proliferation and can adequately help an individual to understand the way in which power dynamics and bias are represented with regards to the information that is consumed. Ultimately, the current television media is 90% owned by six main corporations within the United States. These corporations are as follows: GE, Newscorp, Disney, Viacomm, Time Warner, and CBS. Such a level of realization helps to denote the fact that a virtually oligarchical level of control exists over television news media. Ul timately, this level of oligarchic competition was not always exhibited. Even two decades ago, a litany of different companies owned the television news media and allowed for a great level of diversity of opinion. However, due to the fact that diversification of ownership was not maximizing profitability and reach, not to mention marketing potential, the six key firms that have been denoted previously engaged upon a definitive program of buying out the competition. Yet, before the reader comes to the assumption that television media is somehow a unique entity and therefore should be understood differently than newsprint, radio, or other forms of media, the fact of the matter is that the same level of consolidation has taken place within these industries over the past several decades. For instance, if one briefly reviews radio and considers the way in which consolidation has taken place over the past few decades, Clear Channel and a handful of other powerful media moguls have defined the way in which current radio programming is presented to the listener. By much the same token, one need not perform a high level of analysis into the newspaper industry in order to understand the fact that individual such as Rupert Murdoch and others have brazenly set out to acquire almost each and every newspaper within the United States and place it under a central banner. Although this process of