Media as A Tool of Propaganda

My particular passion, television and music, is of particular interest to the theory of media as propaganda. In particular, both in Western countries, television and music tends to be particularly liberal and anti-conservative. For example, most recently the election of Obama demonstrated this viewpoint particularly prominently; the vast, vast majority of Hollywood, the center of television and music in the USA, was voting democratic, and the influence of liberal leanings was evident everywhere. For example, Katy Perry, a famous singer, held several concerts directly before the November 6th vote in the USA advertising Obama’s candidacy.

In particular, I agree with Chomsky, Herman and others that state that media is predominantly politicized and used as a tool of propaganda. There is a hard divide between conservative and liberal media outlets in the USA, along with the shows they tend to popularize and the commentary on their opinion shows and newscasts. For example, FOX News is a notorious Republican, right-wing news station, and frequently uses its popularity and audience to attack gay marriage, illegal immigration and other right-wing focused topics. For example, news media, including television stations, are owned by billionaire owners, who typically polarize themselves quite strongly to a particular political spectrum. For example, Robert Murdoch, the billionaire Australian-American media titan, owner of various newspapers and media outlets such as FOX News, is a well-known conservative. More liberal media sponsors are also prominent, such as New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and proprietor of Bloomberg LP, the premier supplier of financial news and terminals on Wall St and other financial centers around the world. Bloomberg has a noticeable left-leaning bias in terms of political and geo-political articles. Anyways, my point is that the United States is rather extreme in its politicization of media outlets; it is commonly known, accepted and not only widely acknowledged, but at times even bragged out. Virtually all media outlets in most democratic countries in the world tend to take a neutral or non-politicized tone when it comes to political rhetoric. Not so in the USA. Television presenters, politicians, and singers commonly come out with strong political viewpoints and overtones.

Certain songs are written, broadcasted and popularized with an ultimate political objective in mind. The USA seems to be rather extreme in the viewpoints it takes. In particular, we can see the vast divide between Republicans and Democrats, or Conservatives and Liberals as they are known in Canada. Yet in Canada, even the Conservatives are Left of what the Democrats preach.

In Canada, we have the CBC; a tradition from the BBC, the public broadcaster in Britain. The CBC does a relative good job of producing relatively-politically neutral shows. The CBC is primarily a rebellious news broadcaster, not an overly politicized one, as we see in the states. The CBC airs Canadian music videos and artists, regardless of political affiliation. The Conservative Government tends to be a bit more careless in their choices of public funding and politicization, with a recent snafu of having funded a rapper who advocated killing Canadian soldiers.

Politicization is always a by-product of media, regardless of intent.