The thesis written by Teun A. Van Dijk talks about how the western media takes a one sided view- portraying minorities, immigrants etc in a negative light while still trying to prove itself independent of any bias. He explains that although neo-liberal discourse may now be prevailing, but it also exhibits conflicts and contradictions.
The optimistic rhetoric of a New World Order after the Cold War is replaced by deep-seated doubts about how to manage current world problems.While the deeper causes of various political events in the south and the East also affect the North, we are also facing an Increasing ethnocentrism and racism in Europe and North America as people are escaping to this part of the world. Wild capitalism thus combines with wild ethnicism and racism in a frightening mixture of policies and social practices that result in keeping many people or even whole countries and continents, down and out- this is manifesting in the phenomena of ethnic cleansing with immigration restrictions.What is the role of the media in this complex contemporary framework of social, economic and cultural forces? Markets, politics, policies, exploitation, and marginalization all need an ideological basis. Such ideologies require production and reproduction through public text and talk, which in our modern times are largely generated or mediated by the mass media.
The fortresses of Europe and North America are not merely socio-economic palaces of the rich, but also mansions of the mind, that is, ideological constructs.The fundamental question is are the mass media siding with the force that thrives on racism and ethnocentrism, where or is it really trying to work towards real democracy. Most mainstream media will reject extremism, violence, and blatant discrimination and exclusion. Though they claim to follow the official ideology of equality propagated by national Constitutions in actual practice the role of the media is quite contradictory.
It has frequently been documented that ethnicism and racism are exacerbated by at least some of the media. On several occasions in history radio and television was used as a mode to incite ethnic hatred mong the people.Prejudices in the media are used to create the collective states of mind which puts Us the strong and rich against Them the poor and weak. .Though violently denied, racism has reached the top, both in politics and the media. Unemployment among minorities is two to four times higher than among majorities.
Bias against immigrant communities settled in the west stems from the stories splashed in the media about crime, violence, terrorism ethnic conflicts, fundamentalism and other forms of uncivilized backwardness in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and large parts of Asia.As long as they are overlooked, ignored or denied, ideologies are most devastating while all sensible people are against violence, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and fundamentalism they conveniently ignore the deeper causes of such evils by the same ideologies that have given rise to them. Public discourses, and public opinion, are unimaginable without the presence of a proactive media.Hence, our first impression seems to suggest that the media with its dominant news values, headlines, stories, op-ed articles, topics, metaphors, and descriptions that could be used as the basis for the legitimisation and naturalisation of ethnic and social inequality has proved media to be far from innocent or impartial. The media blatantly ignores other relevant stories in rich countries about racism, especially among the elites; cultural ethnocentrism; the position of women in our societies (and not only in Muslim society); the consequences of imbalances in world trade; and the legacies of colonialism and ongoing forms of neo-colonialism.The writer then moves to describe about Media power and mind control.
Control of actions of dominated group, by (members of) a dominant group implies loss of some freedom and this hence presupposes mind control. This is the essence of persuasive social power, and typical of the power of the media and of other types of public discourse. Another important factor under media power is access. Which groups have more or less access to the media, and what are the consequences of such access for media discourse?Ordinary people have active access only to everyday conversations with other people and passive access to the media. The elites, on the other hand, are literally the groups that have most to say in various social situations and institutions. They are the ones that have preferential and active access to public discourse, in general, and to that of the media, in particular It follows that the role and power of the media should be defined both, in terms of the mind control of the public (including the elites), and in terms of the management of the very conditions of this influence.
who controls media discourse, how is access managed, and what are the relations between media elites and other power group.Ideological Control: ideologies are like “the schemata that groups have about themselves and about their position in the social structure” explains the writer- Ideologies control the opinions about social events represented in personal models of social actors; these models, finally, govern the specific social practices of social actors- So, where do different models come from?Models are mental representations of experiences; they are inferred from social perception and interaction, in general, and from discourse about social events. Dominant media stories and their structures are the key source for common models and for the specific public opinions. Dominant media discourses provide insight into the models, which indirectly influence the development of new attitudes and ideologies.
Instead of learning by personal experience or stories, media users may directly infer elements of new attitudes and ideologies from media discourse.Except for experts, the public, in this case, will largely have to rely on the mass media for its models and social representations. The end of the cold war ushered in some democracy to Eastern Europe, but the victory of neoliberalism also challenged the ideals of social justice and equality. This has led to a conservative revolution in the USA.
Due to increasing difficulties in the South, immigration is peaking in the North.In face of this the North, has reacted with xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and racism. The media has also reflected this as ownership of the media has increasingly come in the hands of large, often multinational corporations. Although there are some sections of media that are liberal the majority are conservative, and cater to the white, conservative majority. These conservative ideologies weaken ethnic pluralism and equality contributing to the growing racism on society to the lower class
