I was just surfing through Anchor Man quotes to find something useful to use here after reading Herman saying that media newspeople convince themselves of professionalism and a freedom of choice in the news they report. I noticed however, that nowhere in the quotes, nor in the movie as I remember it, do you often hear the word "report". More often than not the characters say "reading the news". Quite interesting in terms of propaganda.
Quite interesting also in relation to other theorists we have read lately like Adorno and Marx. For the sake of this example at least, news anchors are even left out on the loop when it comes to the production of ideology. Adorno says we don't get to have an opinion on things, how incredibly true when it comes to news and particularly propaganda. I know I have said a million times, "I don't want to hear this crap on the news anymore", but no one listens to me. No one bothers to ask me, either, if when campaigns or advertisements come out that is the way I'd like to be marketed to..."Why, no, AXE, I really do not enjoy your complete and total exploitation of females and as a matter of fact the scent of your products makes me want to peauk not rip my clothes off and voraciously attack the next closest male."
If Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone read the news they are given, told what to report and where, we essentially as media consumers do the same thing. What is being transmitted to us live as breaking news is in the opinion of other people. No, national broadcast television people, I would not like my daily re-runs and pointless television interrupted by yet another car chase. Let me know what happens in the end.
Alas, I suppose in some ways propaganda has caught a bit of the Jameson bug with symptoms of Habermas indeed. Propaganda, news, anything conveyed by the media, is only spectacular until it isn't new anymore and the sensation has subsided. However, this cannot be entirely true since there is still murder and rape on every nightly news programming.
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Very witty blog where you capture what Herman and Chomsky discuss along with relating it to great media examples. Indeed, 'reading the news' seems to be the same time as 'reporting the news' these days. :)
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