After reading Chomsky’s introduction to Manufacturing Consent and with the majority of the United States gearing up for the next Super Bowl this month, I am more (painfully) aware of the sought-after mega advertisements throughout the commercial breaks and those that couch before and after halftime.
Teachers have been going on strike throughout the US, another young, Black man has been murdered by the Police while sleeping in his own home, people who’ve been imprisoned (at Rikers Island correctional facility alone) have had to go through the pandemic with horrific confinement and conditions with infection rates for Covid-19 that has been nearly six times higher than the rate citywide. There are more un-housed families and individuals this year and there are all the children still held captive in detention centers without their families. These are just a few of the real-world events taking place in the States. And yet, millions of dollars worth of advertising has been in production attempting to sell safety and fantasy during a widely popularized & televised sport. And who doesn’t want safety and fantasy especially after these past two years living through these, dare I indulge in repetition, “unprecedented times”? All this, occurring in the States while thousands of other governmental propaganda and decision-making directly affect people globally just as Chomsky’s numerously noted accounts of the United States and its decisions in Kosovo, East Timor, Turkey, Iraq, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, etc...
Unnervingly, the realization that those people with public relations positions within government and major corporations have more power and say than journalists reporting on these events. “Journalism doesn't sell things” states Chomsky. Instead, it reveals the details of truths, and since “newsrooms have been more thoroughly incorporated into transnational corporate-empires” the budget cuts and a further reduction of the importance for investigative journalism “that would challenge the structures of power.” - the role of a journalist seems a radical act.
I’d never considered the role of a person who’s in a Public Relations role. In researching the job description, I came across the fact that there are 17 types of public relations positions. All of which is responsible for inverting information in order to maintain the facade and created a storyline of its: government/corporation/institution. It seems as if policymakers are similar to those in public relations.
There are reasons why the United States does not have a national policy for media literacy education. If you keep people clueless in reading into media, you maintain control over the people. Bulger and Davidson speak of the importance of media literacy programs. These programs should include and involve families and caregivers along with their young people learning how to critically think about the media being consumed. Too many times programs are developed around money, savings, spending, and technology where only young students are being taught. “Media literacy curricula are often targeted toward children and youth, but media literacy for adults is equally important as impacts of the “diminishing degrees of institutional support” become evident across demographics.” It is with the support of caregivers that information as such can be shared and discussed. People of all demographics are exposed to and grapple with fake news, manipulation, and disinformation and many use social media to source news and other information such as, for example, Facebook. There is a disparity with Facebook and their own public relations group working overtime, this organization has a “Journalism Project” aimed, among other things, at improving the media literacy of its users. How can one take this Facebook project seriously when Facebook consistently blocks those who post Black Lives Matter conversations and talk about racism considering it “hate speech”. The problem becomes cyclical as it takes a person to think critically of Facebook as an institution with its own need to spin information to maintain operation.
Facebook created its very first 60-minute advertisement for last year’s Super Bowl. I’m curious to see what their “spin” is for this year’s game. I’m sure I’ll see the recap on several media outlets thereafter.