thestig, 4/5

The propaganda model is a very interesting map of how information reaches a wide audience. In short, you need to be extremely rich and extremely powerful to get your message across to the general public. Adorno and Horkheimer also touched upon this, and in paraphrasing, they are making the point tat anyone can sell anything, but unless you ave a ton of money, you can’t get it out into the public domain. Though this is becoming less true with the internet, it is still astronomically expensive to get an item onto the publix shelf (68, 3/24). Alright, we get it! Only the “big wigs” can get their product to be advertised on big networks during primetime.

But we have to understand that the only way these media companies can stay afloat is if they charge an arm and a leg for advertising. Let’s not forget that the media business is extremely expensive. The cost of equipment and labor is probably one of the most costly of any business in the world. So the issue is, and what I found to be most interesting about Tuesday’s lecture, is the “buying mood,” and how much more complex the media web really is. What we found is that the advertiser doesn’t just pay for the ad to be on the television, but that the ad is going to be placed just before or just after a program or news piece that in some way, shape, or form is connected with the product being advertised. And I never noticed this until it was pointed out in Tuesday’s class. I went home for lunch, put CNN, and was greeted with a Lockheed Martin advertisement about how their military technology is so innovative. I immediately said to myself, “Well, I bet we’ll see some news segment now on military technology.” Drum roll please! The first segment was on technology being developed for amphibious warfare so soldiers can “see what’s on the other side of that hill without going over it.” The product was like a small airplane that could be thrown into the air, fly, and take pictures of what’s below, and in real time show it to the soldiers who just threw it. A pretty remarkable technology.

So then, it seems that the problem is not with who is advertising, or why they are advertising, but the close working relationship and agenda the media has with advancing the sales of their advertiser to the extent that their programming is dictated by the advertisers wishes.