The material following this cover page is protected by copyright and has beenshared with permission from the copyright holder. This copy may only bedistributed in a password-protected environment such as eCentennial and onlyfor the students enrolled in the course listed.GNED500Learning OUTCOMeSChapter 5LO-1 Define media literacy in the context of inequalityand social justiceLO-2 Identify forms of … Continue reading “context of inequality and social justice | My Assignment Tutor”
The material following this cover page is protected by copyright and has beenshared with permission from the copyright holder. This copy may only bedistributed in a password-protected environment such as eCentennial and onlyfor the students enrolled in the course listed.GNED500Learning OUTCOMeSChapter 5LO-1 Define media literacy in the context of inequalityand social justiceLO-2 Identify forms of bias in how media messages areconstructedLO-3 Identify stereotyping through media representationsLO-4 Understand how ideological power is maintainedthrough ownership and regulationLO-5 Critique the effects and impact of media on societyand social changeMedia LiteracySabrina Malik and Jared PurdyIntrOductIOnWhen we hear the word media, a range of formats might come to mind. Mediacan refer to newspapers, the Internet, magazines, television shows, blogs, socialmedia sites like Facebook and Twitter, movies, advertisements, and so on. Fromthe time we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, we are constantly surroundedby and engaging with different forms of media. However, the pervasiveness of themedia means that we tend to take it for granted. We might assume, for example,that the news stories we consume are reliable sources of information about theworld in which we live. We might dismiss advertisements as forms of media thataffect other people, but not us. We might also think of social media technology assimply constituting a new way of sharing information and connecting with ourfriends. Furthermore, we might insist that the movies and TV shows we sit downto watch function merely as entertainment—as a way to escape after a long day. But,as we will see throughout the chapter, the media as an institution does not existoutside the realm of power, ideology, and social structures. When we think aboutthe media, we might begin by asking some critical thinking questions. How doesthe media feed into existing structures of power? Whose interests does the mediaserve? What does the media tell us about ourselves and those around us? Answeringthese questions means engaging in a process called critical media literacy.critical medialiteracyThe ability to analyzeand evaluate how mediamessages influence ourbeliefs and behaviours.In this process, theviewer is not a passiverecipient of thesemessages, but an activeparticipant who is ableto critique the contentcommunicated bymedia.Chapter 5 Media Literacy 95NELcrItIcaL MedIa LIteracyWe use and consume media for a number of different reasons: to gain information,to be entertained, to express our thoughts and opinions, and to keep us connectedto our social network. In order to illustrate just how pervasive media is, think aboutthe last time you travelled using public transit. Chances are you read a numberof advertisements posted in the subway and on billboards, perhaps used socialmedia to chat with a friend, checked email on your mobile device, or watched yourfavourite television show online. Maybe you picked up a newspaper to get caughtup on local and world events. Media messages can be found everywhere, and it isdifficult to escape the impact these messages have on how we view ourselves andothers.What Is MedIa?Media can be defined as “all the forms of communication that reach a huge audience, such as newspapers, radio, TV, magazines, film, and the Internet” (CollinsGage Canadian Intermediate Dictionary, 2006).*Although we may have many reasons to consume media, the media itself has oneprimary goal: to persuade us to buy things. Advertisements are not just selling usproducts, but also lifestyles, values, norms, and ideals about how we should be. Ourexposure to media is vast. We are bombarded with approximately 3000 media messages daily, about half of which are advertisements. Young people view more than40,000 ads per year on television alone and are increasingly exposed to advertisingon the Internet and in school (Kilbourne, 2010). The availability and popularity ofsocial media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have the potential to greatlyincrease our exposure to advertising and market research. Advertising creates themost revenue for all media companies; therefore, most media messages are constructed to maximize profit. These messages are not just created to sell us products,but also to sell us ideas about what it means to be human and promote unattainableideals that can make us anxious about our current lifestyle.Critical media literacy is an approach to thinking about media and learning toread media text. In this context “read” means to critically analyze the direct andindirect messages, to probe further, and ask what is not being told. What is missingcan have as much or even a greater effect on our understanding as what is told.Reading is active, it is not passive.“Text” refers not just to words, but also images, sounds, and video taken as awhole message. Media literacy is the ability to analyze and evaluate how mediamedia textRefers not just to words,but also images, sounds,video, taken as a wholemessage.* Collins Gage Canadian Intermediate Dictionary, 1E. © 2005 Nelson Education Ltd. Reproduced bypermission. www.cengage.com/permissions96 Chapter 5 Media LiteracyNELmedia consolidationThe process ofconcentrating theownership of mediaoutlets by a smallnumber of largecorporations.media regulationGovernment control ofmass media throughlaws for the purpose ofprotecting the publicinterest or promotingcompetition amongmedia outlets.messages influence our beliefs and behaviours. The literate viewer is not a passiverecipient of these messages, but an active participant who is able to critique thecontent communicated by the media. We are encouraged to look beyond what isimmediately presented to us and find the hidden messages through the analysis ofform and content. In order to become critical observers and consumers of media, itis crucial to ask who created the message, why the message is being communicatedand how the message is presented to us. By asking these questions, we begin tobecome aware of the perspectives and biases hidden in these messages, as well astheir effects on us as individuals and in society more generally.MedIa BIasMedia bias generally refers to a particular slant or perspective on specific issues.Bias can be seen through a national viewpoint. For example, Canadian news mediatend to focus on issues that are particular and relevant to Canadians. Bias is alsoclosely tied to media ownership and regulation as those who control the mediadecide what content we have access to and what is left out through the processes ofselection and omission.If we look at media in Canada and the U. S., we can see that most of the newspapers, radio stations, and television stations are owned by a few very large corporations. This is referred to as media consolidation. From a critical media literacyperspective, we must ask what issues arise when one company owns so many subsidiaries. For example, are most media messages constructed to gain and maintainpower by maximizing profit for these few conglomerates?In addition to media ownership, media regulation also determines what content we have access to. In Canada, broadcast and telecommunications media arecontrolled by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Companies that want to operate radio and television broadcastingnetworks must first apply for a licence from the CRTC. The CRTC is responsiblefor overseeing media content in the interest of the people. In addition, companiesthat want to buy or take over other broadcasting companies must receive approvalfrom the CRTC. The problem is that the CRTC is largely powerless against corporate interests that have pressured the government and influenced policy decisions to suit their own interests (McChesney, 2008). Through media consolidation,television, radio, print media, and increasingly access to the Internet have becomeconcentrated into the control of fewer and fewer owners. Thus, cross-productionand promotion of mass media products, as well as journalistic integrity come intoquestion when we consider the excessive amount of amalgamation of today’s mediaoutlets (see Figure 5.1).When ownership and regulations are considered together, an analysis of ideologybecomes central to understanding media literacy. An ideology is a set of beliefs orChapter 5 Media Literacy 97NELViacomTimeWarnerNews-CorpGeneralElectricDisney60 Minutes Jeopardy NFL.com ShowtimeSmithsonianChannelMiramax PixarCNN HBO Time Warner Bros.FoxComcast Focus FeaturesNew York Post Wall Street JournalNBCABC ESPNMarvelStudiosUniversalPicturesCBSNick Jr.ParamountPicturesBET CMT MTVMedia ConsolidationThe “Big 6” are:90% of American media was controlledby 50 companies in 1983:That same 90% was owned by only 6companies in 2011:Figure 5.1 Media Consolidation98 Chapter 5 Media LiteracyNELmediarepresentationThe way in whichthe media portraysparticular groups,communities,experiences, ideas, ortopics from a particularideological or valueperspective (Universityof Minnesota, n.d.).ways of thinking that shapes how we see the world. Ideologies are linked to poweras they are used by those who own media to decide which representations of peopleand events we see and hear about. Media representation refers to how people,events, places, and stories are presented to us. Think of your favourite televisionshow or film. How are various groups of people represented? Are the portrayalsrealistic? Are positive and negative roles distributed equally? Why is this importantto think about?MedIa effects and IMpactMost of us are resistant to the idea that media messages shape how we think andbehave. We might think “That ad doesn’t work on me!” without realizing that mediaeffects are pervasive and cumulative. We don’t necessarily experience the effectsimmediately; instead, the messages build up and become part of our worldviewgradually through constant exposure and repetition. We are socialized into particular belief systems, ones that often perpetuate social inequalities. Furthermore,it takes time to reflect and critically analyze the messages we are exposed to. Thisis not a practice that most people engage in. In our fast-paced world, we are onlyable to consciously perceive about 8 percent of the roughly 3000 media messageswe are bombarded with daily (Kilbourne, 2010). That means more than 90 percentof these messages are being processed below our level of awareness.Media messages are created intentionally. The media portrays our reality; thus,much of our view of reality is based on media messages. However, the media givesus a very limited and often false representation of our world. We have the power topick and choose which messages are truer to us or more representative of our livedreality than others. It is therefore important to access a variety of sources to includediverse perspectives and realities.stereOtypIng In the MedIaThe media enforces and reproduces stereotypes about gender, race, class, ethnicity,religion, ability, sexuality, age, etc. These stereotypes support and perpetuate socialinequalities. For example, media representations of the homeless or people livingin poverty often feed into victim-blaming. These representations tend to framehomelessness or poverty as individual problems. As such, we are encouraged tobelieve that if we work hard enough, we can overcome any barrier regardless of oursocial location. Those who are struggling are often framed as leeching off socialsupports or not working hard enough to improve their social class. Often we seemedia representations of wealthy and affluent lifestyles. These do not reflect thereality of most citizens, who are working class: the vast majority of American andChapter 5 Media Literacy 99NELCanadian citizens work in service, clerical, or production jobs (Croteau & Hoynes,2003, p. 218). The media portrays the social world as heavily populated by themiddle class, especially white middle-class professionals. These images are mostobvious in advertising. Ads do not typically feature working class or poor people;they predominantly portray images of white, middle class, and affluent upper-classpeople (p. 218). These messages make us feel anxious about our current lifestylewhile offering ways to fake our social status by purchasing luxury products andbrand names. A question to consider is how these advertising campaigns feed intoconsumerism.representatIOn In the MedIa: race, gender, andsOcIaL cLassRace and the MediaThe media often recreates inequalities that exist in our society. But what it choosesto reflect is very selective. An example of this is the continued portrayal of Africaas a region marked by corruption, famine and, civil war. While those issues havecertainly been present throughout Africa’s history, much else has gone on rangingfrom successful community development initiatives to private development suchas the booming and prosperous movie industry in Nigeria. Similarly, seldom dowe hear about Aboriginal leaders in Canada and the positive work that they havedone for their communities. Usually when we hear about First Nations, the focusis on corruption on reserves, suicide, and alcoholism. In both of these examples,the media has chosen to be selective in what it shows, and as a result we don’t getthe whole picture; we get a picture that reinforces stereotypes that we already hold.“Historically, the U.S. [and Canadian] media have taken ‘whites’ to be the normagainst which all other racial groups are measured” (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003,p. 201). White culture in general is not looked at as being a culture; rather, it is normalized and becomes a standard. “Culture” becomes something that is over there,something that “others” have. Whiteness is thus assumed to be the yardstick thatevery other cultural group is measured against and usually found lacking. American anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise (2007) demonstrates this pointwhen he says that we don’t have a white history month, we have several, and theygo by the “tricky names” of September, October, November, December, or January.Any month that is not designated as someone else’s (e.g., Black History Month) iswhite history month. The same applies to art, music, or poetry. It is not referred toas white art, nor are the creators white artists; it is just art and they are just artists.Historically, in the U.S., African Americans have been discriminated against invirtually every facet of their lives. When a story was told about people of Africandescent, it was told by a white narrator who would often portray them in the nega100 Chapter 5 Media LiteracyNEL1. Perhaps one of the best commentators on this issue in the 20th century was Marlon Riggs. Riggs wasa tenured professor at UCLA Berkley and was most well-known for his analysis of the portrayal ofAfrican Americans in the motion picture and television industry in the USA. His most famous workswere documentaries, one in 1987 titled Ethnic Notions and another in 1989 titled Tongues United, whichgarnered him international recognition. In the mid-1990s he was advocating for a much more inclusiveand representative portrayal of African Americans on television and released a documentary titled ColorAdjustment, which traces over 40 years of African American depictions in television.2. In this context narrative is referring to the historical, social, cultural, and political contexts of the storybeing told. Narratives, it is argued here, are political by nature because of who gets to tell the story. This isconsistent with what Herman and Chomsky have talked about in Manufacturing Consent, as well as in whatChimamanda Adichie discusses in “The Danger of a Single Story.”tive, stereotypical roles of nanny, servant, criminal, or buffoon living illiterate andimpoverished lives.1 In both Canada and the U.S., Aboriginals have been characterized as savages, riding bareback on horses, with bows and arrows, or as the “Indianprincess.” Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern men have often been stereotyped as sinister warlords or terrorists.If we are to understand the topic of representation in the media, we need toconsider it from three different levels: inclusion, roles, and the production processitself (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003). We can see examples of the lack of inclusion ofdiverse groups in all forms of mainstream media. Consider these questions: Whenyou see news accounts of businesspeople, are they representative of the diversedemographics of our society? Which groups of people do you notice on magazinecovers? When you see representations of criminals in movies, do they come froma broad spectrum of the population? This last question also considers the roles ofthose depicted, as in the job or activity they are portrayed doing.While there have been gains in the frequency of appearances of racial minoritygroups in movies, for example, there have not been equal improvements in thetypes of roles they play (i.e., representation). There were not many parts for blackactors in the 1930s and the few that existed were either entertainers or servants. Bythe time television came of age in the 1940s and ’50s, their situation had changedlittle. In the 1960s through to the late 1990s, we gradually saw the number of blackactors on television and in movies increase (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003). And yet, asbell hooks (2005) points out, there has been a continual representation of blacks instereotypical roles where women are portrayed as promiscuous, the men are violent, and both are overly sexualized with a consistent theme of poverty and crimerunning through the narrative.2Other marginalized groups such as Latinos, Asians, or Aboriginals, as well aswomen, gays and lesbians, and disabled people have been underrepresented andmisrepresented in the media. As an example, Croteau and Hoynes (2005) note thatAsians have had proportionally fewer and less-diverse roles in movies and daytime television, even when the location of the program has a high percentage ofAsians, such as San Francisco. They also discuss the way in which Arab AmerChapter 5 Media Literacy 101NEL3. Islamaphobia refers to the fear or hatred of Muslims and their cultures. It can refer to general intolerance(e.g., the disapproval of Muslim women wearing the burqa or hijab, the screening of Muslim men andwomen at border crossings). It can also include overt racist characterizations of Muslims in popularHollywood movies, such as Under Siege, True Lies, Homeland, and Argo. This attitude suggest that Islamis a monolithic faith, that is unchanging and universally oppressive towards women, it does not fit in withWestern cultural norms, and that it is a religion of violence.icans have been stereotyped and maligned in movies such as The Siege (1998) andRules of Engagement (2000), which resulted in protests led by the Council on American-Islamic Relations over the racist and Islamaphobic3 portrayals of Muslims inAmerica.Gender Representation and the MediaGender in the media is no less contentious than race or social class and often intersects with both. A review of advertisements depicting women from the mid-1900suntil today shows a striking display of how women have been defined, described,and characterized. This includes how they have been emotionally profiled andobjectified as a body type and body parts. Women have been characterized as weak,emotionally fragile, infantile, and vulnerable.In a 1950s print ad for a coffee company called Chase & Sanborn, there is animage of a woman lying over the lap of her husband as he is spanking her for notbuying the right coffee. A Schlitz beer ad from the same era shows a woman inthe kitchen with a smouldering pot on the stove. She is upset because she burnedthe supper. Her emotionally stable and strong husband is trying to console herwhen he says, “Don’t worry darling, you didn’t burn the beer.” These advertisements reinforce the stereotype of the dutiful housewife whose job it is to serve herhusband.Advertising campaigns started to change with the rise of the women’s movement in the 1960s. In many cases women were still portrayed as weak and generally incapable of functioning without a man or husband, but the images startedto introduce sexual elements. From the 1970s through to today, there has been aradical change in the way women are portrayed. Advertising has become heavilysexualized. Women often appear with little to no clothing at all and are frequentlyreduced to nothing but a prop to showcase the item that is being sold. In otheradvertisements, violence and possibly rape are implied themes as was the case inseveral ads by U.S.-based men’s clothing company, Duncan Quinn (Filipovic, 2008).In other areas of the media, women have also made few gains. For example, in2001, women made up only 20 percent of American news directors compared tomen, while they made up 40 percent of the workforce (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003,p. 212). In the motion picture industry, women made up only 24 percent of theproducers and 11 percent of the directors (Lauzen, 2001). In addition, acting roles102 Chapter 5 Media LiteracyNEL4. See works such as Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa and Franz Fanon’s The Wretched ofthe Earth.for women are more limited than those for (white) men, they have a shorter actingcareer with respect to age than men, they don’t get paid as much as men, and areoften judged by a different standard than men (Croteau & Hoynes, 2003).Social Class and the MediaMedia is a driving force of popular culture. As opposed to “high” art, popular culture is perceived as art for the masses, or “low-brow” art. This negative perceptionof popular culture has its historical roots in the French Revolution, when the socialposition of those in power was challenged by the larger population. The upperclasses began relying on cultural choices as a way of distinguishing themselves fromthe majority. The use of cultural preferences as a form of social status was heightened by the Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the 18th century andeventually spread to the European continent and then to North America. By the1950s, there was a belief that industrialization (and, consequently, urbanization)resulted in people losing their strong ties to community and family of origin. Thecritique of mass culture suggests that those who consume it (i.e., the lower classes)are distracted by sex and violence, and have lost touch with virtue and morality.They are, therefore, easier to manipulate for political and commercial gains (Ryan& Wentworth, 1999, p. 48).MedIa and pOWerTo disseminate messages to a mass audience requires considerable money. Moneywields control, which also creates authority. Those with the means to disseminatestories, ideas, and information are in a position to influence not just which stories aretold but where and how they are told. In effect, they control the narrative. Nigerianauthor Chimamanda Adichie (2013) reminds us that such control and one-sidedness create the conditions for what she describes as the “danger of a single story.”Adichie is speaking specifically about the way in which Africa has been representedin scholarly publications, news, opinion pieces, and entertainment throughout thelast 500 years. As Africa was colonized by various European powers, the Europeanswere in a position to influence how many African countries and their inhabitantswere described and defined. From an early point in colonization, Africans havebeen depicted as beasts, heathens, savages, primitive, and child-like4—very similarto the way in which North American indigenous peoples have been defined bytheir colonizers. What Adichie is also saying is that the West (Europe and America,in particular) enjoyed and continues to enjoy the ability to disseminate literaturefrom its authors such that they have been widely read around the world. WesternChapter 5 Media Literacy 103NEL5. The “free press” is simply defined as a press that is free from state control, and is an expression that usuallyrefers to the media in Western nations (Western Europe, Australia/New Zealand, and North America).However, the term is contested because critics (i.e., Herman and Chomsky, 1988) point out the influence ofthe capitalist system in shaping the news and media. What this suggests is that while the “free press” maybe free from the direct influence of the state in terms of censorship and control, mainstream media derivesmuch of its revenue from advertising that is paid for by large corporations.6. “Manufacturing consent” is an expression that was coined by American journalist and politicalcommentator, Walter Lippman in 1922, but more widely used by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. Itis used to explain the way in which the public gives their consent to the government and the corporationsthat we do business with. For example, through a process of the government’s control and manipulationof certain information, they are able to manipulate messages that they then give to the media, who in turnfeeds those messages to us. Similarly, Herman and Chomsky argue that the constant portrayal of a middleclass, consumer lifestyle in advertising and daytime television programs influences our consent of that typeof lifestyle. It actively encourages our uncritical consent to be consumers in a capitalist system.literature and news articles are written primarily by Americans and the British, sothey get to control the narrative. This has largely not been the case for stories toldabout Africa and Africans.What this analysis is also suggesting is that world powers (including their largecorporations) are able to set the agenda in terms of what the public is taught inschools and what we consume on a daily basis through any number of media outlets (Herman & Chomsky, 1988). Critical media literacy encourages us to challengedominant forms of thinking. In light of this, we ought to ask: Does our democraticsystem actually encourage critical thought?nOaM chOMsky and ManufacturIng cOnsentNoam Chomsky and Edward Herman, American media analysts, point out inManufacturing Consent—The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988) that theso-called “free press”5 is not nearly as free as we think it is. Instead, Chomsky andHerman argue, media is constrained by economic and political decisions that can’tbe at cross purposes to advertisers who provide revenue to media outlets. Neithercan the media be in conflict with the state because the state grants them license tooperate and provides the overall legitimizing framework for profit-making businesses. Chomsky and Herman further argue that the media creates “necessary illusions” (Herman & Chomsky, 1988). These are created by broadcasting activitiessuch as sports and other forms of entertainment along with normalizing foreigncountries’ problems. Normalizing issues elsewhere in the world implies that theydon’t need our attention. We are further distracted from trying to fix more pressinglocal and national problems by the illusions of happiness and tranquillity providedby the media.The goal of manufacturing consent6 is to create polarization in the public’s mind:the world is composed of good and evil, and nothing else. Major media corporations become conduits not only for selling the capitalist dream, but also for shaping104 Chapter 5 Media LiteracyNEL* Edward S. Herman, The Propaganda Model Revisited, (1996). Found at: http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/199607–.htmpublic perception on foreign policy issues. Ideologies are built into media messages and it is our role to understand what those messages are. Without engaging incritical media literacy, we are falling in line with what the dominant media wants usto think. We need to be aware that information is subjective. We need to ask: Whoowns and produces knowledge?nOaM chOMsky’s and edWard herMan’sprOpaganda MOdeLThe propaganda model, developed by Chomsky and Herman, appeared in their1988 book, Manufacturing Consent. Revisiting the model again in 1996, Hermanstated that there are “crucial structural factors” that need to be underscored in anattempt to understand how the model works:The crucial structural factors derive from the fact that the dominant mediaare firmly embedded in the market system. They are profit-seeking businesses,owned by very wealthy people (or other companies); they are funded largelyby advertisers who are also profit-seeking entities, and who want their ads toappear in a supportive selling environment. The media are also dependenton government and major business firms as information sources, and bothefficiency and political considerations, and frequently overlapping interests,cause a certain degree of solidarity to prevail among the government, majormedia, and other corporate businesses. (Herman, 1996)*Chomsky and Herman argue business entities, government, and collectives suchas the Chamber of Commerce and various industry lobbies are able to exerciseconsiderable influence over media. The authors also suggest that, “The power ofthe U.S. propaganda system lies in its ability to mobilize an elite consensus, to givethe appearance of democratic consent, and to create enough confusion, misunderstanding, and apathy in the general population to allow elite programs to go forward” (Herman, 1996). Brewer (2011) also discusses how the general public is easilymisled on any number of political issues because of the limited sources from whichmost people get their news. The model stresses that influence over the media is notcentralized nor is it a conspiracy. Given the number of shared interests betweengovernment and corporations, there is no need for a conspiracy. “It is a model ofmedia behavior and performance, not media effects” (Herman, 1996). Herman andChomsky argue that there are five classes of filters that are used by corporate mediato determine what is newsworthy. The filters are: corporate ownership, advertising,sourcing, negative responses to a media statement or program, and creating polaropposites.Chapter 5 Media Literacy 105NELThe Five Filters1. Corporate OwnershipMajor media corporations are huge, profit-seeking entities and, as such, they have adirect bearing on editorial content. Mainstream media in the United States is composed of six large conglomerates: General Electric, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom,Time Warner, and CBS (refer to Figure 5.1). Together these six corporations control 90 percent of the media and in 2010 their combined profits were $275.9 billion(Lutz, 2012). Chomsky and Herman remind us that very wealthy and politicallyconnected people sit on the boards of these corporations. The authors also remindus that General Electric is an enormous multinational company that is heavilyinvolved in the production of weapons and nuclear power. Commenting on thepropaganda model, David Cromwell (2002) states,It is difficult to conceive that press neutrality would not be compromised inthese areas. But more widely, press freedom is limited by the simple fact thatthe owners of the media corporations are driven by free market ideology. Howlikely is it, then, that such owners would happily allow their own newspaper,radio or TV station to criticize systematically the ‘free market’ capitalism whichis the source of this material wealth?*2. AdvertisingAdvertising is essential to the success of any newspaper or television station becausewithout it, they would most likely go bankrupt. In this fashion, the media is veryfriendly towards capitalist and corporate business interests. Chomsky and Hermanpoint out that corporations that buy major advertising space can influence the content being printed or broadcast. These large companies have the power to withdrawtheir advertising dollars in the event that editorial content or programs are seen assending contradictory messages to what is being advertised.3. SourcingSourcing is where media outlets acquire their news. To begin, the media isdependent on the government for information relating to major issues involvingthe government. This means that this information is highly controlled. Cromwell(2002) points out that the status of the source also has a bearing on how information is chronicled and received by the public. Senior politicians, the military, police,judges, etc., are regarded as “official” and objective or neutral; whereas strikers,picketers, and protest demonstrators are seen as heavily subjective in their statements and often portrayed as biased. Clearly that kind of framing will also determine what is considered news and, therefore, what will be printed or broadcast.* David Cromwell, (2002) The Propaganda Model: An Overview. Found at: http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/2002—-.htm106 Chapter 5 Media LiteracyNEL4. Negative Responses to A Media Statement or Program (“Flak”)Flak refers to government or corporate counterattacks against those who criticizethem. A story related to the Alberta oil sands industry is an example of how flakhas been used in this way. A government flak campaign aimed at The David SuzukiFoundation (for their criticism of the oil sands project) prompted world renownedenvironmentalist and scientist David Suzuki to step down as the president of theboard of his organization in April 2012. Suzuki stated that he was worried about hisorganization losing its charitable status on account of his political outspokenness(Suzuki, 2012).5. Creating Polar OppositesThis filter has to do with how a perceived enemy is described. During the GeorgeW. Bush administration in the U.S. after 9/11, anyone who was seen to be an enemyof democracy, free market capitalism, and western values was labelled as an evildoer or a terrorist (Brewer, 2011, p. 236). Bush defined North Korea, Iraq, and Iranas an “axis of evil” (Washington Post, 2002). Brewer (2011) goes on to explain howthe White House and the major media outlets created a dichotomy of “us” versus“them” or “good” versus “evil” in the public’s imagination so that the public wouldsupport the war efforts.cOncLusIOnThroughout this chapter, we have pointed out several ways that the media worksin maintaining and perpetuating current systems of power through the use of bias,representation, ownership, and propaganda. It is also important to think of howmedia can be subversive, in particular in the context of social change and justice.We can think of examples in our recent history such as the Arab Spring or OccupyMovement that gained momentum through social media. We will return to theidea of media as challenging systems of power when we begin our discussion ofsocial action in Chapter 8.CRiTiCAl ThiNkiNG queSTiONS1. Whose interests does the media serve?2. With the influence of bias and ideology in the media,how can you separate objective information fromintentional manipulation?3. What effect does the limitation of positive news storiesfrom developing countries have on your sense of whatis happening around the world?4. How does the media feed into existing structures ofpower?5. What does the media tell us about ourselves and thosearound us?6. What values, lifestyles, or points of view do you seerepresented or omitted in the media?Chapter 5 Media Literacy 107NELreFerencesAdichie, C. (2013). 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