ecogitar: Taking the Risk Out of Democracy : Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty

sábado, 4 de agosto de 2012

Taking the Risk Out of Democracy : Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/32amb6ff9780252066160.html

This compelling book examines the twentieth-century history of corporate propaganda as practiced by U.S. businesses and its export to and adoption by other western democracies, chiefly the United Kingdom and Australia. A volume in the series The History of Communication, edited by Robert W. McChesney and John C. Nerone

"A uniquely important work on the 'ideal of a propaganda-managed democracy'."--Noam Chomsky "Illuminates how big business propaganda, waged by PR experts, subverts democracy and ensures corporate dominance."--John Stauber, coauthor of Toxic Sludge Is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry "A unique study of the growth and development of corporate propaganda in western democracies. . . . Timely, and useful for anyone concerned about the influence of methods of mass persuasion in undermining democracy."--Elaine Bernard, Harvard University Trade Union Program

How the Media Frames Political Issues

In The Emergence of American Political Issues (1977) McCombs and Shaw state that the most important effect of the mass media is "its ability to mentally order and organize our world for us. In short, the mass media may not be successful in telling us what to think, but they are stunningly successful in telling us what to think about."[13] The presidential observer Theodore White corroborates this conclusion in The Making of a President (1972):

The power of the press in America is a primordial one. It sets the agenda of public discussion; and this sweeping political power is unrestrained by any law. It determines what people will talk and think about - an authority that in other nations is reserved for tyrants, priests, parties and mandarins.[14]

McCombs and Shaw also note that the media's tendency to structure voters' perceptions of political reality in effect constitutes a bias: "to a considerable degree the art of politics in a democracy is the art of determining which issue dimensions are of major interest to the public or can be made salient in order to win public support."[15]

http://www.scottlondon.com/reports/frames.html