The media has fundamental influence on the way we perceive reality, experience the world. It is difficult to find an honest critique of this increasingly powerful element in our lives. I mean, where would you read this critique, in the newspapers? In the news on TV? The media critiquing the media happens only when the Western media talks about Chinese or Russian propaganda. “They” spin reality, “we”, in the free west, report facts only. Seriously? No hype, no filter at all? No PR, spin doctors or interest groups looking to stir public opinion in the west?
I worked in the media as a salesman and loved it. In my late 20s and as a nobody, I had access to very high level decision makers in private equity and quickly got very comfortable amongst them. My job was selling online data but my company was a pretty cool B2B outfit, a mid-sized company in London that grew through acquisition, it bought magazines, conference organisers and online information portals, including the venerable private equity Unquote magazine. Sufficiently established and well known to have the clout needed to open doors and laid back enough to have a funky, fun loving working culture where I could be as free as I was.
And the media is glamorous and fun, high profile and exciting to be part of. You can be the editor of a small industry magazine with relatively limited revenues and yet very well known and sought after by the rich and important in that industry.
The MD of my division got lots of invitations to reception parties, Christmas dos and spring events he was more than happy to pass on to me. It was 2006-7, London was the place to be and I averaged more than a conference a month, in the City and Europe alike.
I quickly became a bit of an evening corporate party goer too. Having a laugh with private equity partners, senior corporate finance directors and lawyers? Dinner with bankers and institutional investors, finger food and Moët & Chandon at Somerset House? Clifford Chance’s summer reception? Unigestion’s drinks at their Mayfair office? I never said no.
When running a B2B industry media outlet your function is to help a segment of that industry advertise and sell to another segment. Service providers like lawyers, accountants, strategy consultants work with private equity houses on transactions. Private Equity houses raise funds from investors. Who are the top guys by annual return? The most active due diligence specialists in each country or segment? The biggest deal, the most profitable exit are celebrated on paper and at the annual awards dinner. The media appeals to the ego, shines light on achievements, besides providing a platform to exchange information.
The most memorable event I attended was the EVCA Symposium, held in 2006 in Monaco. A 3 day long conference where la creme de la creme of European private equity met and cheered. The various panels discussing trends and developments were engaging enough but, at a coffee break, I’d be the first on a standing round table waiting for people to join in for a mingle.
Lunches and dinners were my favourites, when participants would have a drink and relax a bit more. On the final evening, wearing my hired tuxedo, I joined some 600 delegates at the Salle des Etoiles for the gala evening. 3 courses and a few glasses of wine later, I witnessed in awe the roof sliding open, revealing a starred black sky and a spectacular fireworks show, sponsored by the Prince of Monaco himself.
B2C or mass media serves a different sort of advertisers and is meant to appeal to a more generalist audience. Consumer goods corporations buy lots of “media” through specialist agencies owned by conglomerates such as WPP, Omnicom, Publicis. Through their advertising spend, they have leverage over the editors they fund. The political implications of writing for the masses are obvious.
Hollywood is arguably the largest cultural export of the USA. It reinforces the concept of the American dream, portraits a model of success linked to looks, money, power. Who reads tabloid newspapers or watches product placement filled Hollywood comedies? Who doesn’t.
In 1982, 56.9% of Americans had read at least one work of creative literature in the previous twelve months. The proportion fell to 54% in 1992 and to 46.7% in 2002. And it’s been dropping ever since. This means more and more people are trading the enlightening work of art of literature for easy to read, short stories and videos. And, of course, everyone consumes a ton of news.
In a sense, pretty much all news is a filtered version of reality, manufactured to grab attention, create emotions, sell products, stir consensus. Most of it is not fake as the base is factual. The art of turning small stories into big news is the craft of the modern journalist.
It was January 2019 and the Western media started to popularise a typhoon which, according to them, was going to badly hurt my tropical paradise island Koh Phangan. This Guardian newspaper headline “Thailand: tourists flee as Tropical Storm Pabuk set to bring seven-metre waves” turned out to be a bit of rain and wind for a couple of days. The electricity was down for 1 hour or so, not unusual in the rainy season. Noone would have noticed, if it weren’t for a media led hype that made tourists panic and leave in droves.
Fear, shame and guilt are basic emotions the media knows how to manipulate. The belly and the heart are easily triggered into action. The action of commenting on, sharing the article, telling friends and family. People love to report the news, parroting the latest headline, but who decides what’s news and what’s not?
Noam Chomsky’s 1988 book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, is to date the most famous and one of the most authoritative critiques of the media.
“The large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain special access [to the news], by their contribution to reducing the media’s costs of acquiring […] and producing news. The large entities that provide this subsidy become ‘routine’ news sources and have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine sources must struggle for access, and may be ignored by the arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers”. See the cute video below 😉
Chomsky also compiled a list of 10 strategies the media uses to manipulate the masses, here summarized.
1. The strategy of distraction
To divert public attention from important issues and changes determined by the political and economic elites, by the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.
2. Create problems, then offer solutions
e.g. create a crisis to accept as a necessary evil to then stamp on social or even civil rights as a “normal” reaction to the crisis.
3. The gradual strategy and
4. The strategy of deferring are somewhat linked
During the current Covid crisis people accepted huge restrictions on personal liberty to “flatten the curve” and once this has been achieved, the media is now moving the goal to completely eradicate the disease. “Second waves” are now looming. Heard of the “new normal”? It implies we will never return to life as it was 6 months ago and people should accept new rules, created in a period of heightened chaos, confusion, anxiety and depression.
5. Go to the public as a little child
Simple arguments put with simple language and tone will induce a similar, low level response.
6. Use the emotional side more than the reflection
People are a lot more unconsciously triggered when the news appeal to the belly or the heart, not the rational brain.
7. Keep the public in ignorance and mediocrity and
8. Promote the public to believe the fact that is fashionable to be stupid, vulgar and uneducated
The media has huge influence on our culture and routinely creates and glorifies empty and vacuous personalities and celebrities.
9. Reinforce self-blame
It’s always your fault if you’re not succeeding in life. Heard of the American Dream? Yes, everyone can become a billionaire with enough hard work ;-).
10. Getting to know the individuals better than they know themselves
I wish Google or Facebook would give me access to my unique personality profile, based on the data they take from me and now own.
I am not a dogmatic person and I think the 10 rules here are not biblical in nature or set in stone. They definitely are an eye opening tool to create more awareness around what we feed our brains with (or rather bellies and hearts).
A divided, un-enlightened mass will always be easier to control and you don’t want to be part of that. Moral panics, left vs right, black vs white, man vs woman, American vs Chinese, Christian vs Muslim often serve the purpose of dividing and enraging the populace over theoretical and moral arguments that do not change the fundamental nature of the system.
Is society so bad though? How was it in history? 80% of the news report on negative issues and if you consume a lot of news you might see only danger and doom. In relative terms, the system up to early 2020 wasn’t so bad, in my personal opinion and relatively to my own personal life.
I am aware I benefit from some privilege, being a European in Thailand. Above all, I am an optimist so tend to look at the bright side. I am free to choose what I watch on YouTube, free to download thousands of amazing pieces of world literature from the OpenLibrary.org and free to write my blog as I please.
Will the system dramatically change and for the worse post Covid? Who knows. I think the kind of opportunities I have today to learn, travel and do pretty nice things are superior to my dad’s and a lot better than my grandfather’s. Does it mean I should not be interested in working for a better society, more harmony, truth and well-being among us? Should I not, at least, do my humble bit to defend the civil rights I was born with, the relative freedom I enjoyed so far?
My first brush with the media was in a different capacity. I dated Sophie for two years, a TV producer working on factual TV shows for the like of BBC, Channel 4 and major broadcasters in the UK and internationally. She once required a fixer on a 12 episodes show for the Discovery Channel, someone local and working for free who would help organise the Milan shoot.
Less than 30 minutes of program was made in one week through the goodwill of tens of people, contributors, hotel and bar owners, even a fashion school and model management agency. Everyone eager to help for the vague promise to be featured in the episode. 3 contributors (or guinea pigs) would be lined up and promised a brief role, when she needed one only. I saw an empowered, verging on the manipulating, determined can do attitude in my ex I frankly didn’t know.
We all love a bit of entertainment, a couple of hours of cinematic dream, a way to escape the routine of life. Game of Thrones is great TV and we all know it is fiction. Most people think that CNN and FOX are partisan news channels, pandering to opposite political sides, they shine light on different aspects of the same fact. Both serve the same advertisers and ultimately, similar corporate powers and elite though. Both are biased and only partially trustworthy.
And social media? Oh my… I will leave the subject to a different post.
There are at least two ways to take in reality.
1. The first and best one is through direct observation and experience. If you see it, it’s real.
2. The second level of reality is through what you read and watch. With that one, please apply a measure of awareness and scepticism.
Quality over quantity. As I stay away from fast food restaurants, soda drinks and low cost takeaways, so I don’t consume manufactured media and cheap entertainment. I read the news maybe once a week or even more rarely and only when I hear something really major has happened. I am aware of the power of influence different stimuli have over my subconscious and mental health and I practice mind hygiene. Reality is like food for me: I prefer it whole over processed and manufactured. Do you wash your hands before lunch? Switch off the screen too!