Brainwashing and the Power of Media: How They Make Our Minds (Essay Sample)

Brainwashing and the Power of Media: How They Make Our Minds
John Peters
Communication 101
Presented to Prof. Examiner
Department of Communication
Freelance University
06/10/2015
Introduction
Brainwashing is an indoctrination process which causes an impairment of independent thinking, and a disruption of beliefs and values of an individual. The mass media has been accused on numerous occasions of brainwashing the public. This is due to the massive power the media has is controlling opinions and thought systems of their consumers. Whereas this accusation does not hold true in some cases, there are many instances when the media deliberately sets out to brainwash.[Anthony E. Love, Encyclopedia of Psychology vol. 1 (New York: American Psychological Association, 2000), 289.] [Peter Clarke, The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion (Oxford: Oxford Handbooks Online), 426.]
In this paper the role of the mass media in brainwashing is briefly discussed. It emerges at the end of the discussion that indeed the mass media has played this role. Brainwashing applies especially in the realms of promoting consumerism and government interests. Traditional media, particularly television and radio, raise their income through advertisement. Consequently, they promote a culture of wide consumption of the products carried in adverts. They also tend to propagate the government’s point of view.
Brainwashing through Advertising
Noam Chomsky pointed out over fifty years ago that the prime purpose of the mass media is to rouse support for the singular interests of government and the private sector. This statement is still largely accurate for the media today. Consumerism has taken center stage in current world societies due to the aggressive advertising and promotion of products through the mass media. The main motive of the marketers is to make people feel bad that they do not have access to these products. Consequently, people purpose to gain access to the purported conveniences of the product. This keeps the products selling thus raising money for the corporates, which in turn fund the media through advertising.[Frank McCloy, "The Propaganda Model: Corporate and Political Collusion in the Creation of an Oligopolistic Mainstream U.S. Media" (Gonzaga University, 2012), 3.] [Ibid.]
Government is also not left behind in this mind control process. Through the passage of media control laws, governments have tended to monopolize the media or control it through proxy. The proxy in the United States consists of six media conglomerates empowered through The Communications Act of 1996 to control the media. In this way government and corporate interests are taken into due consideration in the broadcasting process. Information is increasingly angled to portray such interests as positive thus enhancing the public brainwashing process.[Ibid.]
During different wars involving the United States, the media in the country, some of which broadcast internationally, tend to tell the government’s side of the story. They at times completely ignore the other side of the story. In fact, the rise of the Al Jazeera cable television as an international news medium can be attributed to the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States. Al Jazeera chose to tell the side of the story of Al Qaeda which had been completely ignored by...