Thread by @docrussjackson

The news media is a crucial institution for democratic decision-making, providing much of the information on which citizens base their political choices.

Unfortunately, powerful interests have co-opted them to disseminate #propaganda.

#GBNews
#NewsUK

eprint.ncl.ac.uk/file_store/pro…

'Institutional processes lead the news media to propagate output supportive of dominant state-corporate elite interests... powerful agents and groups intentionally manage the news arena and thereby guide journalistic selection and production processes.'

"As a consequence, journalists produce and distribute #propaganda without intending to do so and on behalf of dominant state-corporate interests. Theoretical conceptualisations of what constitutes propaganda can be applied with validity to the content structures of media texts:

"...the prevalence of ideological media content pattern, the selective use of facts, or the emphasis and deemphasis of certain facts and perspectives constitutes #propaganda as identified by leading scholars in the field."

"The institutional processes that lead the news media to produce and distribute #propaganda on behalf of dominant elite interests should be further assessed in order to account for what Miller and Dinan (2010: 2) described as the ‘“circuit” of communication’."

"While evidence points to the commercial structure of the news media as a major concern, more research is needed to understand how outside pressures of lobby groups impact news media performance. It could be argued that these forces have obtained even more importance in the C21".

"This is so because powerful actors are currently using a range of Organised Persuasive Communication techniques to counter open spaces in the digital communication environment that potentially allows for diverse communication activities."

"The significance of the forces that are engaged in ‘organized political persuasion’ need to be further assessed in relation to the news media. Similarly, more research is needed in regard to how these interests influence public service & online news providers."

"The disappearance of #propaganda from studies of liberal democracies & their news media & communication systems inhibits critical scrutiny & constitutes a triumph of propaganda in itself."