INTRODUCTION
To paraphrase the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis[1],
the structure of language has embedded within it, a particular way of looking
at the world. In short, the language that we learn shapes our understanding of
the world, our rituals, our culture and customs. In essence, it is our language that helps to
shape our reality. It is also the main mechanism by which that reality is
socially constructed. Furthermore, it is
the labeling effect that makes the whole notion of the constructivist argument
relevant, even possible. Yet, in order to have any of this construction and
organization of society, of culture, through language, it is necessary to have
a clear understanding and acceptance of what that language means. This understanding is broadly labeled a
collective consciousness, or collective conscience. This collective interpretation of the world
is often the foundation on which there can be academic discourse, civil
discussion and cordial disagreements. We are allowed to have a debate over
complex critical issues because we’ve agreed that there are certain concrete truths,
which act as a foundation for every social interaction, a baseline we all can
fruitfully build upon one conversation at a time. However with the rise of the Trump
Administration and the existence and use of fake news, sponsored content and
“Alternative Facts”[2] we
have lost the collective conscience. It
was murdered in front of us during the campaign in 2016, and now Dead horse
beater President Trump has mastered the doublespeak with such precision that it’s
positively Orwellian. To unpack how we got to this space, we need to look at
the media as a propaganda tool, whom are those who run it, and some examples of
the overall fallout of the media’s duplicity. A fact that President Trump has
exploited allowing for the myriad of unprecedented executive orders. The least
of which is the Government agency gag order the administration enacted within
the first 7 days[3]
THE PROPAGANDA
MODEL
As a definition, the Propaganda Model is an analysis of the media by Linguists Noam
Chomsky and Edward Herman whom states that The media’s power[4]
is in its ability to persuade. It is that manipulation, often rebranded from
the common political adjective of charismatic when applied to candidates, that
allows for, according to Chomsky, the “ filter[ing] out the news that is fit to
print, marginal[izing] dissent, and allow the government and dominant private
interests to get their message across to the public (Chomsky 1988)[5]
Propaganda Model:
Five filters
1. Size, Ownership and Profit
Orientation- There are only 6 companies[6]
that make up over 93% of all media in the United States. The top companies are
Disney (Bob Iger), Viacom (Robert Backish), Comcast (Brian Roberts), Time
Warner (Jeff Bewkes), News Corp (Rupert Murdock) 20th century Fox (
Jim Gianopulos), Honorable Mentions: CBS
(Leslie Moonvest (male)) Netflix (Reed Hastings) and Amazon (Jeff Bezos). These companies are run by white men, only
seeing the world though that prism
2. Advertising: License to do business-
It is through advertising that many companies “Manufacture Desire” for their
product in the minds of the populace. It is through advertising that we are
sold the aforementioned large quantities of “nothing” and many of the objects
and trinkets we by that we don’t need. Advertisers maintain high consumer
demand through Consumeristic
Philanthropy which inevitably leads to Commodification
and Commodity Fetishism[7]
3. Sourcing Mass Media News-
Major media conglomerates have special access to news and the government. Thus
they can literally shape the way that people understand what is happening in
the world. This is heightened to an
absurd level in the way that a close relationship with the Government can mean
the difference between legitimacy or illegitimacy.
An example of this is when The Trump
Administration deciding which news organizations are more reputable than
others: Decrying others (that do not side with the administration) as Fake News[8]
This lead to the coining of the term
Alternative Facts[9]This
is a practice known as “Gaslighting”[10]
which is very effective since it is coming from An Upper Class White Male (with
all of the privilege that entails) who also happens to be The President.
Another tactic is Dog Whistling[11]
Which is a common tactic used against people of color.
4.
Flak
and Enforces- This is the use of lawsuits and other
bureaucratic means to silence unwanted or unpopular opinions in order to
maintain social control of the populace. EX: Trump and the Muslim ban Supreme
Court case, The gag order for scientific and other research based
organizations, Sean Spicer limiting control of the media by sticking to talking
points regardless of “facts”
5.
Anti-Communism/War
on Terror This is a major social control mechanism. This is when
ideological forces are deployed to support powerful investments based upon
soci-cultural beliefs. This could be against Communism, Islam, and supporting
Christianity (Chick-fila) and Capitalism (Fox News and Starbucks).
6.
*My Addition another filter that has
cropped up in recent years is “sponsored content” otherwise known as Native
Advertising[12] This is stories or articles typically written
on the internet that can masquerade as news content. Since a Majority of
individuals get their news from online sources[13]
or Social media, they are susceptible. Especially because recent reports show
that millennials passively consume news through social media[14]
not requiring any critical analysis. Ads and News become one in the same.
The
result of the propaganda model is the manufacturing
of consent[15] from the public.
In the political context, this acquiescence manifests itself through voter choices.
A clear technique of manufacturing consent is Fear Mongering.
1)
Repetition[17] “There is
something going on.” “Eminent” “tremendous” “Systematic” and Handful[18]
2)
The Depictions of
Isolated incidents as trends “They are bringing drugs, they are
bringing crime.”[19] Logical
fallacy of a Hasty Generalization
3)
Misdirection[20]
Trump
used it when NOT condemning David Duke[21]
Sean Spicer talking about the Immigration executive order[22]
Manufacturing
Consent (Desire) is also a mechanism of the powerful, to control the non-powerful
(This theme we will come back to) but
this only happens after the people relinquish their power to those in higher
status positions by voting or not voting.
There
are two ways that you get people to relinquish their power:
1) Fear
We are living in a tremendous culture of fear that puts us in a constant state
of unrest that we will freely give up our civil liberties in order to feel safe
again.
2) Convenience If
it means that we can have an easier time day to day. If our needs and desires
are satiated faster than before, we are willing to give up our privacy,
autonomy and agency. When people are lulled into a state of complacency by the
shiny new things and forms of entertainment they have around them, this is a road to social and political
apathy
STORIES VS. FACTS
The
consent that is achieved through fear mongering tactics polarize people and
make the issues not about “facts but about Emotional feelings”. This is
compounded by the blurring of the line between factual news stories and
editorials thanks to Sponsored content, Donald
Trump gained and maintains support regardless of what he says, and no
Amount of “facts” will stand in the way of that belief. This is an example of what
Sociologist call constructionism
Social
Constructionism contends
that individuals within society are defining, and therefore creating, the world
around them through social interactions as a type of “communal exchange”
(Cheung 1997:2). Therefore, our
understanding about the world cannot take place without other people. It is a
social process that produces knowledge.
Knowledge,
therefore “is developed, transmitted and maintained in social situations”
creating a distinct reality (Berger
and Luckmann 1966:3) for particular individuals.
The
mantra that is often used to illustrate this in sociology is twofold:
1)
“What
is real is real in its consequences” W.I. Thomas
2)
Something
has meaning because we (in society) give it meaning Herbert Blumer
Media Role in
Social Construction
One
mechanism by which we give things meaning is through the media. The media
embraces its role as the arbiter of knowledge (what Sociologist call an Agent
of socialization) when they are advertising something, they whole heartedly
seek to change behavior and self-identity if it means the consumer buys their
products. They will clearly link product consumption with emotional
fulfillment, gender identity while giving us normalized imagery of Race social
class, satisfaction, drive and desire. However, due to the normalization of
social media and the rise of hyper subjectivity online (which blurs the line
between opinion and evidence) when it comes to politics, many media outlets
will give opposing viewpoints, regardless of their scientific or other
evidential validity,[23] Or
be oddly non-committal in their political analysis thereby passing the buck on
the their viewers
What is unfortunate is that a politician
who understands this social process (of knowledge production) well, can tap
into the emotions of the populace, stoke their flames of fear and ride the tide
of tyranny right into office. Such a
politician understands that with a lack of an agreement of what is considered
true, belief can TRUMP facts. Yet, the
most problematic, and dare I say “deplorable” use of language, is in the
obliteration of a group of people and their culture.
LANGUAGE AS
IMPERIALISM
According
to Michel Foucault, language is a way to organize and is a source of thought
(Gutting 2005)[24]. Yet, the type and way we use language
produces a different form of knowledge and understanding. But the very way we use language to produce
and organize thought, also limits us; hindering a deeper understanding of the
world due to the rules language shackles us with. Thus, the way we construct
the world, ultimately leads to our misunderstanding of it.
The
existence of any form of inequality is solidified by the absence of language to
try and fix it, for more egalitarian language. The American English language’s
form of categorization is based on highlighting differences. Because the American value of individualism
is embedded in the language that we use. Therefore, the words that we use to describe
our world is based on vagaries of distinction, creating a language that is
motivated by separation. That separation
also motivates identity formation, forcing us to define ourselves by what makes
us unique, what makes us stand out…the inevitable result of which is a form of
toxic competition that fuels the politics of “otherness” (alienation,
segregation, discrimination)[25].
Essentially, the language that we use predisposes us to create a structural
social system that is unequal.[26] This
is then continued on when many people of color teach their child English, rather
than their native tongue. This might seem practical given the way that English
is accepted and spoken in the world, however this idea can also be reframed as
problem. One that sees the learning of English as oppressive and supportive of
an unequal racial social structure pacifying people of color through the
adoption of white cultural words, words that are given…to oppress people of color
rather than uplift them; usually through complacent acquiescence. Thus
Language is used as a mechanism of imperialism cultural annihilation and the
pacification of the public. There are the all too clear examples of
spread English by Christian Missionaries in Non-white countries[27].
The British occupation of India and Australia[28]
A practice that is often echoed in the drive for a national language in the
United States[29]
 |
| We are now living in the Upside-Down |
CONCLUSION
The Power of the media and language
cannot be overlooked, both in its role in the election of Donald Trump or the
way he has used it to cast doubt on what objective truth and facts are. For
example I do not know if President Trump is personally a racist ( Though there
is certainly evidence for it[30])
What is clear though, is that he has been able to tap into the zeitgeist of
blue collar white fear, structural racism and xenophobia that has bubbled up to
the surface after the election of Barrack Obama. Since White privilege is invisible to most
white people. They believe that their experience, opportunities and access to
resources are in line with everyone else, regardless of the truth. This is what
is known as the normalization of whiteness (or White Hegemony). Thus, when
social movements, the passing of laws and the election of the first “black”
president not only makes their whiteness visible, but begins to strip away the
privilege they didn’t believe that they had; it creates a backlash that Donald
Trump is capitalizing on; which makes him, at the very least, an opportunist.
Regardless of his motivations, Trump embodies America in the way that we are
only forward thinking not taking the time to look at our past history of genocide,
racism, and sexism, while still being racist and sexist through the
emulsification of hate into a new subtler aberration; he is the manufactured
mirror of our culture that is now clearly visible to all.
[4]
Using the Weberian definition of power being “The ability to realize your will
even when others resist
[7] the
perception of the social relationships involved in production, not as
relationships among people, but as economic relationships among the money and commodities exchanged
in market trade.
[10]
The manipulation of someone by Psychologically causing them to question their
Sanity
[11]
This is when those in authority use coded language to hide the intention or
meaning behind the words that they say. “ urban” meaning people of color “Law
and Order” meaning over prosecuting people who attack police, or higher
deportation rules “American” meaning white people.
[15] Manufacturing Consent Chomsky Herman
[24] Foucault: A Very Short Introduction
[25] This is different
than say other countries that have a more inclusive and communal Cultural
heritage that shows up in their language ( Kanji, Mandarin, Russian)
[26] This idea is, in part, an application
of Baudrillard’s understanding of meaning based upon difference, to explain the persistence of systemic
structural inequality
