This document discusses mass media ownership and its effects on society. It addresses the following key points: 1) A small number of huge corporations, like Time Warner and Disney, own most of the major media outlets in the U.S. This level of consolidation can have negative effects on the diversity of viewpoints and agenda-setting. 2) The propaganda model suggests that corporate media serve the interests of owners and advertisers rather than ordinary citizens. Reporting is framed and filtered in ways that maintain the status quo and limit debate. 3) Case studies of the Gulf War and East Timor coverage show how national media sometimes downplay atrocities committed by allies while exaggerating those of enemies, for political and

1. MASS MEDIA AND ITS EFFECTS ON
SOCIETY – OWNERSHIP,
PARTICIPATION AND FRAMING
Sabith Khan.
First Year PhD. P.G.G
Virginia Tech
khanpgg@vt.edu

2. Contents
• Mass media and its reach – some background
• Ownership and its implications – Propaganda
• Framing
• Case studies :
• Gulf War II – Weapons of Mass Destruction
• East Timor
• Independent media
• Questions

3. Mass media ownership and reach
• “Serving the public interest is part of a long-term welfare policy of government; it
helps to build socially healthy society”. (Shmykova. 2010)
• Simone (2005) identifies different levels of meaning: process, principle and policy.
• Free media is a key part of any democracy ( the fourth estate)
• Croteau and Hoynes (2001) identify two perspectives on mass media– market
model and public sphere model – which affect the way the public interest is seen
• Mass media are seen as capable of affecting people’s behavior (Lippmann,
1965).
• In 2004, Bagdikian's revised and expanded book, The New Media Monopoly,
shows that only 5 huge corporations -- now control most of the media industry in
the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth. ( Source :
http://www.corporations.org/media/)

4. The big 5 media houses
• Time Warner
• Disney
• Murdoch's News Corporation
• Bertelsmann of Germany
• Viacom (formerly CBS)

5. PR/ Lobbying firms - WPP
• WPP (“the Group”) describes itself this way in its 2011
annual report:
• “ There are more than 150 companies within the Group – and each is
a distinctive brand in its own right. Each has its own identity,
commands its own loyalty, and is committed to its own specialist
expertise. That is their individual strength. Clients seek their talent
and their experience on a brand-by-brand basis. Between them, our
companies work with 344 of the Fortune Global 500, all 30 of the Dow
Jones 30, 63 of the NASDAQ 100 and 33 of the Fortune 50” .

6. Ownership effects
• Agenda setting media, national press – how they shape and control information
flow
• Sources to which they go
• 60% ads and 40% news - ratio
• Studies found that the editorials of the big chain-owned newspapers were more
likely to
• express positions on some issues and less likely to vary in positions taken than
editorials of nonchain-owned newspapers (Akhavan-Majid, Rife & Gopinath,
1991)

7. • Necessary Illusions, Myth makers to keep the ordinary
person on course – Neibuhr
• You need to control people, when there is democracy.
Propaganda needed. Reduce people to apathy
• Primary role of media to rally support special interests
• Who is in a position to make decisions how society
functions ?
• The key influencers are the ones who have a say in how
life takes shape. Political and ideological system is
dominated by their interests

8. Propaganda inc ?
• If those in our society in charge can dominate our ideas, they will not need soldiers
marching on the streets, we will control ourselves – Howard Zinn
• “Growing up, I saw a lot of media experts, who made us feel scared, and make us
turn to them to explain the world to us “ – Nancy Snow
• “George Bush and Karl Rove borrowed ideas of propaganda from Harry Truman
and George Creel to map out America’s war destiny” – Snow
• Propaganda is most effective when it is least noticeable
•

9. Framing
• - Framing refers to “interpretive schemata that offer a
language and cognitive tools for making sense of
experiences and events in the world “out there”
(wiktorowicz 004:15)
• Frames are action-oriented sets of beliefs and meanings
that inspire organize and legitimate the ideas, activities
and identity of an organization and framing is the
construction of these sets of meaning ( Benford and
Snow, 2000 : 614)

10. Propaganda Model: Noam Chomsky
• Filters are national media – who set the general framework. Local media adapt to their
structure
• Selection of topics, filtering of information, binding limits on a debate
• Control, restrict information to serve the interests of the owners
• “History is shaped by NYT:” – certain things appear, issues be framed in a certain fashion.
• Ownership – corporations – integrated with others – conglomerates Eg. Westinghouse, WPP
• Advertising model ( Eg. Rigging of Miss World in India)
• Voices excluded which do not serve the purpose of the establishment

11. Case study – East Timor
• East Timor – invasion and genocide by Indonesia
• 1975-78 – Jimmy Carter – provided arms and support to
the Indonesian regime
• Daniel Patrick Moynihan – UN – no resolution against
• Killing of over 200,000 Timorese killed
• Profits were to be made – Oil
• Suppressing facts – NYT – scale of East Timor – and play
up atrocities by enemies – Eg. Cambodia
( Source: Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky)

12. Case study 2 : Gulf War II – Saddam
Hussein and WMDs’
• Televising of war – CNN – Gulf war I – watching people being
killed with equanimity
• 99 % of discussions don’t include peaceful settlement
• Media never questioned the presence of WMD – in Iraq
• Researchers found that heavy TV watchers were more likely to
support the war. They were also less likely to be well informed
about its causes and consequences. ( source : medialit.org)

13. Case study 3: American propoganda in
M.East – Radio Sawa and Al Hurra
• Charolette Beers appointed
to head it
• $ 520 mn dollars initial
investment
• Competing with Al-Jazeera,
other local Arab channels
• Aimed at showing the
Arabs how “ tolerant and
Open” the U.S truly is
• It is an abysmal failure
• My own experience dealing
with them is not positive

14. Proof that this is true ?
• "We are in an information war and we are losing that war.
Al Jazeera is winning, the Chinese have opened a global
multi-language television network, the Russians have
opened up an English-language network. I've seen it in a
few countries, and it is quite instructive," she stated.( Source :
http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2011/03/hillary-clinton-us-losing-information-war-alternative-media

15. Is there hope ?
• Growing alternate media – both print, digital and
publishing
• Global south media is emerging in a strong way – Eg. Al-
Jazeera, China's CCTV and RT
• Emergence of alternate voices ( writers, intellectuals) who
are questioning authority despite risks

16. Global shift in media voices
• People demanding divergent voices
• Arab spring is an example of this – social media
revolution
• Social media emerging in a big way as an alternative
• Wikileaks
• Changing role of the U.S globally – shift of power theory

17. Questions