Is the excessive amount of fake news we’re subjected to daily the result of a left-wing plot to overthrow global democracy and destabilise the world?
You’d think so from some of the opinions expressed about it, but cast your mind back through history and you’ll find that “communication manipulation” pretty much goes back as far as we can remember. Even if you think back to the years when we lived in caves and communication was a series of grunts and hand signals, the leaders of the clans weren’t exactly selected for their honesty and intellectual eloquence. Those who were able to convincingly force their power on others led the clans. Simple.
How different is it today?
Well, you could argue that for some (names excluded intentionally but feel free to think of whoever you wish), all that’s changed is the tone of the grunts and the style of the hand signals, but you can’t argue that mankind (which includes womankind and LGBTQkind and racekind and religionkind) still seeks to be powerful and will do whatever it takes to be more important than the others in the group. The search for power and control over one’s own destiny is often closely tied to exerting control over others.
While we often talk about the “good old times” when the media was impartial, we overlook the facts: No matter where in the world you look, the dissemination of “information” has regularly changed and increased its reach and with those changes, the controllers gained more power. From town criers to the printing press to radio to television to the internet.
It didn’t take a genius to work out two things – control of the information source gives unlimited power to sway opinion and people will pay for access to that power.
The printing press started the information revolution. Look back and follow the money. It wasn’t the average bloke in the street who owned newspapers or radio stations etc. It was the rich and influential – or governments.
You don’t need to look too far away or too far back to find that in New Zealand, head office for the then New Zealand Broadcasting Service was once located in the office of the Minister of Broadcasting and of course the paymaster sets the governance.
The transition to NZBC was a conjuring trick pretending independence. Policy still came from the Minister. Sound familiar today?
In the 1960s when a bunch of Kiwi entrepreneurs set up Radio Hauraki, starting the revolution of “private” radio in New Zealand, they were independent of government. But without advertisers, they had no business and if advertisers didn’t like smart-arse deejays’ comments about social issues of the day – they could withhold their advertising dollars.
People often talk about today’s media bias as though it’s something new. It isn’t. It’s gone on forever in some way shape or form.
Investigative journalism was always going to be and still is like walking a tightrope and editorial control will always ultimately rest with owners – he who does the paying does the saying.
Media organisations are eventually accountable to owners and shareholders to turn a profit. That leads to cost-cutting. The first thing to go is the biggest expense – experienced staff. Automation, networking, fewer people with experience are left in control.
And then along came the internet which allows anybody to produce very believable stories, disseminated widely through social media within minutes of being posted, without a single check on validity.
Each click is worth money. The more clicks the more money. Can it be a surprise that the most sensational garbage gets the most attention? People with no knowledge of ethics and no interest in truth, publish whatever they like for attention. The overworked mainstream media journalists today often copy and paste from Twitter or Facebook or other sites without checking. They too have to get clicks on their websites.
But follow it through to its logical conclusion: The final power rests with the consumer. If the masses don’t buy it, there’s no point in doing it. You – we – can disempower media that easily.
Reward the responsible and punish the liars and manipulators.
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