How Powerful is the Mass Media?

Our rulers can’t fool all of the people all of the time, argues Sadie Robinson

The idea that the mass media controls our ideas is a very common one. According to this theory, the media acts as a kind of syringe that injects propaganda directly into our minds.

People are seen as sheep that follow the media more or less unthinkingly. The conclusion is that we are powerless in the face of mass propaganda that brainwashes us into compliance.

This view of the media does not just exist at the margins of society. It’s also a dominant idea within mainstream politics. Leading figures in all the main political parties see winning over the mass media as the key to winning elections – rather than having decent policies that ordinary people could support.

The notion that the media is all-powerful is also used to write off any sense that people can fight back against the system, or that they can be won away from racist or sexist ideas.

All this raises two questions. Who actually controls the mass media? And how much impact does it really have on the ideas people hold?

Under capitalism the mass media is owned by a handful of rich and powerful people that form part of the “ruling class” – the tiny number of people at the top of society who own the factories, offices and other workplaces.

Rupert Murdoch, for instance, owns over 175 print publications across the world, including the Sun, the Times and the News of the World here in Britain.

The Battle of Algiers (Full Version)

Winner of the 1972 BAFTA award and nominee for three Academy Awards, this film, commissioned by the Algerian government in 1967, shows the Algerian revolt against French oppression from both perspectives, including the use of ‘terrorism’ and torture. Arguably one of the best pieces of cinema ever produced and one that is more than relevant to this day and age.

La Battaglia di Algeria/The Battle of Algiers (1967)

(110mins) Produced by Casbah Film. Hosted at Google Video.

Shelley - Song to the Men of England

Percy Shelley, lover to the legendary Mary Shelley,  friend to the infamous Lord Byron, should be remembered as one of the English language’s most adept poets. Shelley’s politics, like Blake’s, were revolutionary for the time and the following piece represents his plea to the English working classes.

Song to the Men of England
P.B. Shelley (1839)

Men of England, wherefore plough
For the lords who lay ye low?
Wherefore weave with toil and care
The rich robes your tyrants wear?

Wherefore feed and clothe and save,
From the cradle to the grave,
Those ungrateful drones who would
Drain your sweat -nay, drink your blood?

Wherefore, Bees of England, forge
Many a weapon, chain, and scourge,
That these stingless drones may spoil
The forced produce of your toil?

Have ye leisure, comfort, calm,
Shelter, food, love’s gentle balm?
Or what is it ye buy so dear
With your pain and with your fear?

The seed ye sow another reaps;
The wealth ye find another keeps;
The robes ye weave another wears;
The arms ye forge another bears.

Sow seed, -but let no tyrant reap;
Find wealth, -let no imposter heap;
Weave robes, -let not the idle wear;
Forge arms, in your defence to bear.

Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells;
In halls ye deck another dwells.
Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see
The steel ye tempered glance on ye.

With plough and spade and hoe and loom,
Trace your grave, and build your tomb,
And weave your winding-sheet, till fair
England be your sepulchre!

Harold Pinter: Nobel Lecture 2005

Harold Pinter: Nobel Lecture 2005

(46mins) © THE NOBEL FOUNDATION 2005

Harold Pinter is one of the foremost literary figures in Britain today. He is both a playwright, poet, novelist and political activist. His most important works include The Birthday Party (1957) - also made into a film directed by William Friedkin - The Caretaker (1959), The Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1968); as well as various screenplays and adaptations such as The French Lieutenants Woman (1981).

In 2005, Pinter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, but due to ill health, Pinter delivered his speech to the world via video tape. The result was a scathing critique of American imperialism and the failure of the free world in agreeing to the so-called War on Terror.

Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.

As every single person here knows, the justification for the invasion of Iraq was that Saddam Hussein possessed a highly dangerous body of weapons of mass destruction, some of which could be fired in 45 minutes, bringing about appalling devastation. We were assured that was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq had a relationship with Al Quaeda and shared responsibility for the atrocity in New York of September 11th 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.

The truth is something entirely different.

(Harold Pinter, 2005)

The full transcript is available HERE.

Do You Know Who We Are?

Do You Know Who We Are?
T.D. McDonough, 2007.

 

You know who we are:

 

We are your daughters,

We are your sons,

We are your lovers,

We fire your guns.

 

We are your workers,

We are your guards,

We are your cooks,

We drive your cars.

 

We know your secrets,

We’ve heard your lies,

We’ve smelt the blood,

We’ve felt the cries.

 

We are your fighters,

We die in vain,

We are your martyrs,

We die in pain.

 

We’ve taken the worst,

We’ve lost the best,

We laugh when we lose,

We pass the test.

 

We’ve been forgotten,

We’ve been undone,

We’ve been ignored,

We’ve lost sight of the sun.

 

We are watching:

We see inside,

We are waiting:

We’ve no need to hide.

 

We stand with good reason,

We stand without pride,

We stand for freedom,

We stand above lies.

 

We are united,

We are as one,

We are the people:

Without us, you’re gone.

 

*This came quickly, completely out of nowhere, a Kubla moment, so I thought it deserved to live.

© T.D. McDonough, 2007.