Short Essay #4: How the Media Works to Divide the Progressive and Libertarian Movements. The media plays a role in developing the perception of division between the Progressives and Libertarian movements. At times, that division is real; other times, it is fabricated. The main stream media is run by the largest corporations in America. These corporations benefit from peoples’ perception of a divided America. The main stream media presents terms such as “the left,” “progressives,” “the far left,” and “liberals” almost interchangeably. Similarly, they use “the right,” “libertarians,” “the religious conservatives,” “conservatives,” and “constitutionalist”. An add-on to any of these terms is the word “radical” for extra emphasis. These terms are used to create the perception of division. When any of these terms are used in news sources, the majority of the population immediately understands that the news source is talking about “the others” (the bad people in society). “The others” are never presented in a positive light. The media tends to cast issues in black and white terms. Through these false dichotomies, the media promotes specific instances instead of holistic points of view. Part and parcel with this approach, the media intentionally uses polarizing figureheads to represent their issues. This method of presentation refuses to promote common points of view, but instead magnifies differences. The finial intent behind much of the main stream media is to create situations where a creed, party, or ideology is presented as either “correct” or “incorrect”. When issues are presented in this way, the “incorrect” faction, party, or ideology is very easy to view as the “enemy” to our society. In this constructed process, we begin to see the differences between us and our neighbors, instead of the commonalities that inherently bind us. As long as we focus on the differences between us and our neighbors, we are stridently limited in our ability to unite with our neighbors to overcome the very obvious problems that impact us on a local level.
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 22:15:25 +0000
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