WK9 – The Social Construction of News

Dr. Carolina Matos

Government Department

University of Essex

Key points

• Walter Lippman and public opinion

• “The picture in our heads” and stereotypes

• Chomsky’s propaganda model

• Chomksy’s Manufacture of Consent and critique of Lippmann

• The objectivity debate and the ideal of objectivity

• Essay feedback

• Tips for essay writing and future work

• Seminar questions and activities

• Group presentation

• Readings for week 10

Readings for week 9

Required texts:

Herman, E. S. and Chomsky, N. (1988, 2002) Manufacturing Consent – The Political Economy of the Mass Media, 1-37

Lippmann, W. (1922). Public Opinion. New York: Free

Press

Additional:

Bennett, L. (2002). News: The Politics of Illusion. New York: Langman.

Matos, C. (2008) Journalism and political democracy in Brazil, Lexington Books, chapter on partisanship and professionalism

Group presentation:

• Schudson, M. (2000) “The news media as political institutions” in Annual Review of Political Science, 5, pp 249-269

Walter Lippmann - Public opinion and published opinion

• * Pioneer of the agenda-setting process (“The World Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads”) • • * Conducted one of the first content • analyses, the New York Times coverage of the 1917 Russian Revolution • “The pictures inside the head of these human beings…are their

public opinion. These pictures which are acted upon by groups of people…..are Public Opinion with capital letters” (Lippmann, 1965, 18, in N. Neumann, 143).

• People with different attitudes see the same events differently “...the pattern of stereotypes at the centre of our codes largely

determines what group of facts we shall see....”

Lippmann: on public opinion

• Walter Lippman examined the coverage of newspapers and saw many inaccuracies

• In 1920, he stated that the New York Times’ coverage of the Bolshevik revolution was biased and inaccurate

• Lippman was one of the first to state how journalists tended to generalise about people based on the “ideas” or “images” in their heads about them

• Lippmann was worried about civic participation in democratic life and that voters were largely ignorant about policies

• Lippman thought that citizens needed to be governed by a “specialized class” (elites or experts) who had enough knowledge to make more rational and less biased decisions

Walter Lippman’s Public Opinion

• News versus truth • Lippmann (1922, 126) also pointed out how one tends to

belief in the absolutism of ones own views. “For while men are willing to admit that there are two sides to a “question’’, they do not believe that there are two sides to what they regard as a “fact’’’’.

• “The function of news is to signalise an event, the function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts, to set them in relation to each other, and make a picture of reality on which men can act.”

• Lippmann (1922) has been, according to critics like Schudson (1978), one of the most forceful spokesmen for the ideal of objectivity.

• Criticised for his elitism (i.e. Chomky’s Manufacture of Consent is a reference to his use of the phrase)

Lippman on stereotypes

• Walter Lippmann(1922) argued that people spent little time informing themselves. Most people had confused ideas in relation to politics and interests beyond their small circle of friends.

• “We are told about the world before we see it. And those preconceptions, unless education has made us aware, govern deeply the whole process of perception”.

• “Each of us lives and works on a small part of the earth’s surface, moves in a small circle, and of these…..knows only a few intimately. Of any public event that has wide effect we see …only a phase and an aspect. This is true of the eminent insiders who draft treaties, make laws and issue orders….Inevitably our opinions cover a bigger space, a longer reach of time, a greater number of things, than we can directly observe.”

• “We have seen that our access to information is obstructed and uncertain, and that our apprehension is deeply controlled by our stereotypes…”

The problem with democracy and lack of civic participation

• Stereotypes provide us with only a partial truth and they can also serve as a mechanism for self-defense

• For Lippman, the basic problem with democracy was the accuracy of news.

• “The world that we have to deal with politically is out of reach, out of sight...It has to be...imagined.”

• People make up their minds before they define the fact

• “The only feeling that anyone can have about an event he does not experience is the feeling aroused by his mental image of that event.”

• Public opinion is volatile, and shifts in response to the most recent developments.

• I.e. Contemporary example – even today studies on the British electorate have shown how voters shifted to the left during the Thachter years (Bartle’s Moving Centre: 1950-2005)

The problem with democracy and lack of civic participation

People are not capable of acquiring a competent opinion about all public affairs

The real environment is too big, complex and fleeting for direct acquaintance

• “I argue that representative government, either in what is ordinarily called politics, or in industry, cannot be worked successfully, no matter what the basis of the election, unless there is an independent, expert organization for making the unseen facts intelligible to those who have to make the decisions. I attempt to argue that the serious acceptance of the principle that personal representation must be supplemented by representation of the unseen facts would alone permit a satisfactory decentralization, and allow us to escape from the intolerable and unworkable fiction that each of us must acquire a competent opinion about all public affairs.”

“The pictures in our heads”

• Why do the pictures inside mislead men in their dealings with the outside world?

• “…this same creature is learning to see with his mind vast portions of the world that he would never see, touch, smell, hear or remember. Gradually he makes for himself a trustworthy picture inside his head of the world beyond his reach. These features of the world outside which have to do with the behaviour of other human beings….., we call roughly public affairs. The pictures inside the heads of these human beings, the pictures of themselves, of others, of their needs, purposes and relationships, are the public opinions. These pictures which are acted upon by groups of people, or by individuals acting in the name of groups, are Public Opinion with capital letters.”

The news that is fit to print

• “Version” of facts which can be open to dispute?

• “For the real environment is altogether too big, too complex…for direct acquaintance. We are not equipped to deal with too much….we have to reconstruct it on a simpler model…All reporters in the world working all hours of the day could not witness all the happenings in the world. But the facts are not simple...but subject to choice and opinion, it is natural that everyone should wish to make his own choice of facts for the newspaper to print…” (1922).

• “The facts we see depend on where we are placed, and the habit of our eyes.”

Lippman as a spokesman for the ideal of objectivity

• “As our minds become more deeply aware of their own subjectivism, we find zest in objective method..... We see vividly, as normally we should not, the enormous mischief and casual cruelty of our prejudice. And the destruction of a prejudice, though painful at first, because of its connection with self-respect, gives an immense relief and fine pride when it is successfully done…. As the current categories dissolve, a hard, simple version of the world breaks up. Prejudices are so much easier and more interesting. For if you teach the principles of science as if they had always been accepted, their chief virtue as a discipline, which is objectivity, will make them dull. But teach them at first as victories over the superstition of the mind, and the exhilaration of the chase and of the conquest may carry the pupil over that hard transition from his own self-bound experience to the phase where his curiosity has matured, and his reason has acquired passion.”

The role of experts and the “manufacture of consent”

• For Lippmann, citizens must be governed by a “specialized class whose interests reach beyond the locality” (the global elites?)

• “The established leaders of any organization have great natural advantages. They are believed to have better sources of information. …..Every official is in some degree a censor. ….the official finds himself deciding more and more consciously what fact, in what setting, in what guise he shall permit the public to know. That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one I think denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to anyone who understands the process are plain enough.”

Global politics and current affairs

Herman and Chomsky’s A Propaganda Model

A propaganda system does not exist only when the media are controlled by the state

It is more difficult to spot a propaganda system where the media are private

• “The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages…Its is their function to arouse, entertain, and inform and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs and codes of behaviour that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class, to fulfill this role requires systematic propaganda. A propaganda model focuses on this inequality of wealth and power and its…effects on mass media interests…It traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print, marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant private interests to get their messages across to the public.” (Herman and Chomsky, 1988, 2002 ).

Herman and Chomsky’s A Propaganda Model

• Herman and Chomsky believe the news must pass through these successive 5 filters:

• The objectivity of journalists:

• “They fix the premises of discourse and interpretation, and the definition of what is newsworthy in the first place….The elite domination of the media and the marginalization of dissidents that results from the operation of the filters occurs so naturally that media news people, frequently operating with complete integrity and goodwill, are able to convince themselves that they chose and interpret the news “objectively” and on the basis of professional news values. Within the limits of the filter constraints, they often are objective; the constraints are so powerful, and are built into the system in such a way, that alternative bases of news choices are hardly imaginable.”

Herman and Chomsky’s A Propaganda Model

What are the consequences of this for news?

• “The five filters narrow the range of news that pass through the

gates, and even more sharply limit what can become “big

news”….”

Media will allow stories that are hurtful to powerful interests

to disappear from public debate, suspending critical

judgement

• “A propaganda approach to media coverage suggests a

systematic and highly political dichotomization in news

coverage based on service-ability to important domestic power

interests seen in the choice of stories and….quality of

coverage.”

1 – Size, ownership and profit orientation of the mass media

• Concentration of the media is found amongst the top tier that supplies much of the national and international news to the lower tiers of the media, and this goes to the general public

• Television is the main source of news for the public

• The pressures of stockholders to focus on the bottom line are powerful, especially at a time when media stocks have become market favourites

• Rules limiting media concentration, cross-ownership and control by non-media companies have been abandoned in an increasing de-regulated media environment

• The media giants also maintain close relationships with the mainstream of the corporate community through boards of directors and social links. Many boards are dominated by bankers.

Media giants

• 1) Television networks – ABC, CBS and NBC;

• 2) The leading newspaper empires: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times (Times-Mirror), Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones), Knight-Ridder, Gannett, Hearst, Scripps-Howard, Newhouse (Advance Publications) and the Tribune Company;

• 3) The major news and general-interest magazines: Times, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, TV Guide (Triangle) and US News and World Report;

• 4) Major book publisher (McGraw-Hill)

• 5) Other cable-TV systems of large and growing importance: those of Murdoch, Turner, Cox, General Corp…..and Group W (Westinghouse).

• I.e. The Tribune Company has become a large force in television as well as newspapers

2 – The Advertising License to do Business

Advertising has played an important role in increasing concentration:

• Advertising as the primary source of the mass media

• From the time of the introduction of press advertising, working-class and radical papers have been at a serious advantage

• According to the authors, advertising also served as a powerful mechanism weakening the working-class press

• An advertising system will tend to drive out of existence the media companies that depend on revenue from sales alone

• Thus, the advertiser’s choices influence media prosperity and survival. They gain a quality edge which allows them to weaken their ad-free rivals

• It is affluent advertisers that spark advertiser’s interest today.

3- Sourcing mass media news

• Refers to the reliance of the media on the information provided by government, business and “experts”, funded and approved by the primary sources and the agents of power

• Due to economic pressures, resources are concentrated on significant areas where news often occurs, such as the main governmental institutions

• Government and corporate sources have the merit of states and prestige

• Reliance on official and primary sources supports their claims of being “objective”, and reduces expenses with investigative journalism

• Critical sources may be avoided by the mass media so as not to offend the primary sources and the powerful groups

4 – Flak and the Enforcers

• Understood as a means of disciplining and controlling the media

• Flak refers to a negative response to a media statement or pronouncement

• Flak has grown with business’ growing resentment of media criticism and the corporate offensive of the 1970s/1980s

• The ability to produce flak, especially flak that is costly and threatening, is related to power

• The government is a major producer of flak, ….”correcting” the media

• Powerful groups can thus complain to their own constituencies about the media as well as fund political campaigns and help into power conservative politicians

5 – Anti-communism as control mechanism

• Seen as a national religion and a mechanism of control

• The ideology of anti-communism helps to mobilize the populace against an enemy

• The concept is fuzzy and can be used against anybody advocating policies that threaten property interests or other forms of reduction of inequality

• This ideology also contributes to weaken and fragment the labour and left movements, and can be seen as a political form of control

• Liberals at home (US) are in a constant defensive, for being either too pro-Communist or insufficiently anti-Communist

• Occasional support for social democrats can break down when they are not harsh enough on their own indigenous radicals

• Some critics argue for a substitution of this to the “anti-terrorism” rhetoric

Some criticisms

1- Has invited criticism of a “conspiracy theory” of the powerful against everyone else

2- The media as platform for a “unified elite” is contested by some. Media are a site of contested struggle and conflict (i.e. Hallin, 2000)

2- The market and the state with the same interests? Not always. (In some new democracies the market is having a pushing for democracy)

3- Ignores other dimensions, such as the impact of journalism ideologies, journalism autonomy and the importance of resistance

4- The are also various forms of internal/external conflicts and contradictions that exist in newsrooms and in the media system (in Matos, 2008)

The debate on objectivity and balance in journalism: historical perspectives (in Matos, 2008)

• According to US historians, journalists and academics (Waisbord, 2002; Tumber, 1999; Schudson, 1978), a more sophisticated reading of the ideal of objectivity gained strengthen amongst American journalists because of their..questioning of their own subjectivity.

• Objectivity was also seen as vital for publishers and their needs to move away from highly politicized publications....

• It also began to be considered a necessity by journalists who wanted their work to be taken seriously (Tumber, 1999; Merritt, 1995; Schudson, 1978; Tuchman, 1972)

• Model of “information” and factual journalism...was mainly represented by the success of the New York Times since the 1890’s.

On the importance of the ideal of objectivity (in Matos, 2008)

• “We cannot coherently abandon the ideal of objectivity and, whatever they may think, objectivity critics do not abandon it either. To claim that a piece of journalism piece is not objective is to say that it fails to provide the truth.. How do we know that American news accounts on the Gulf War are partial, except by comparison with some other…possible accounts? We know how to distinguish between better and worse, more or less accurate accounts..” (Lichtenberg, 2000; 241-242 in Matos, 2008).

• As Hackett and Zhao (1998, 88) state, the objectivity regime persists precisely because “it does offer openings, however unequal, to different social and cultural groups”.

Essay discussions and general feedback

How can I improve my essay for next time?

• You were required to engage with the theories that we have been exploring. You are tested on this. This does not mean that you can disregard the theories. Even if it is a largely empirical essay, it needs to be sustained by a theoretical framework and some minimum theory.

• You are tested on your understanding of the theories and the core debates in your field, or the ones that your question asks you to address or make a selection of. You are also tested on the engagement with them, critical judgement of the subject and critical acumen, as well as the examination of your own examples and evidence of independent research.

Essay feedback: what now? • Do more reading of the core texts as well as additional

• Do not be afraid of engaging with the theory, and highlight more in seminars more points of the theories in your answers

• Write a draft plan and do not leave everything for the last minute

• Re-write it a few times, read it out loud to yourself to see if you understood (pretend you are a neutral reader)

• See us during office hours, e-mail drafts and do not be afraid to ask if you do not understand!

• There will be a lecture on WK17: Writing Better: Essay and Research Question.

• Tuesday 24th of January, 3-4pm, 5 N.7.21 and

• Friday 25th, 2-3pm, 4.311.

• Dr. Theresa Crowley also conducts one to one sessions.

Seminar questions

• 1) Examine Lippmann’s understanding of the relationship between the public opinion and stereotypes. How does this affect what is reported and printed in newspapers?

• 2) Discuss the ideal of objectivity. Can journalists be ever objective? Use the handout to help you as well and assess also the contribution that Lippmann made to the shaping of journalistic standards of objectivity.

• 3) Look at the five filters provided by Herman and Chomsky in their propaganda model. Focus on one filter to discuss in detail, bringing in your own examples.

Readings for week 10

Required texts:

• Archetti, C. (2008). “Unamerican Views”: Why US developed models of press-state relations do not apply to the rest of the world”, Westminister Papers in Communication and Culture 53 (3), 4-26.

• Bennett, L. (1990) “Towards a theory of press-state relations in the United States” in Journal of Communication 40 (2), 103-125.

• McCombs, M., and Shaw, D. L. (1972) “The agenda setting function of mass media” in Public Opinion Quarterly, 36, pp 176-187.

• Group presentation:

• Manheim, J. B., and Arbitron, R. B. (1984). “Changing national images: International public relations and media agenda setting” in The American Political Science Review, 78 (3), 641-657

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