Mass Media + Radicalizing Liberals

[Masha]

Hello there,

I help run a weekly community philosophical discussion group, and this week I was thinking it would be interesting to do it about the mass media.

It's a very liberal group mostly, so I want to get everyone out of their comfort zones of the low-hanging fruit of advertising bashing etc. Do you know of any essays or videos or ways of framing the discussion that would help us go deeper, and understand the media's role in our society, say, from a Marxist perspective?

What is a key controversy about the media's involvement in our lives that you think isn't so obvious or hasn't been rendered banal by over-discussion without any arena for action?

Part of my goal with this group is to radicalize already left leaning people more. Any tips on doing this?

Also, what other philosophical topics do you think, as a revolutionary left, would be good for a community discussion group of this sort?

[cyu]

Get them to question information from any source that is organized in a hierarchical pyramidal structure (which is just about every corporate and government structure). This is the type of human organizational structure that enables this:

[Synergy]

A few things you might want to discuss:
- (Assuming you're in the US) 90% of the media is controlled by 6 giant corporations, which means the leftist perspective is almost non-existent to the average person
- Those corporations are beholden to the interests of advertisers and rich executives
- News stories are framed in such a way to promote right-wing ideology
- Root causes of problems (like capitalism or discrimination) are often ignored and journalists that are brave enough to mention them are often fired or moved to less visible jobs.

[The Idler]

Whats the liberal answer to ownership of mass media corporations?
Why has journalism become churnalism, churning out unedited press releases?

[blake 3:17]

The Left has been poor on keeping on media. Robert McChesney is good on this.

You might be able to use this article on Seymour Hersh: http://www.mintpressnews.com/how-sey...alists/205542/

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Though not Marxist, I'm pretty sure that Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent" is still the obvious go-to on this. Bonus: It exists as a film!

[The Idler]

Having thought about this some more, I suspect the liberal (in the US sense of the term) answer to ownership of mass media corporations being in the hands of the few would be more regulation can ensure a healthy press reporting accurately and accountably. So I suppose anticipate this answer and if they can be convinced minority ownership of the media is a bad thing, try to establish why or what can be done about it.
I would also second recommendation of Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent but I'm sure there are other films.

[Bala Perdida]

In my experience sometimes you can get liberals to nod their heads, but when you challenge them too much they get just as violent as anyone else who's ideas are challenged. Overall I don't think anyone should focus on turning anyone. All of this trying to associate liberals and radicals is really only counterproductive. Especially since liberalism is the core of Western conservatism and 'liberalism'

[Hit The North]

Showing the film, Manufacturing Consent, is a bad idea as it is three hours long and quite boring when you consider that Chomsky's and Herman's model could be adequately explained in three minutes.

[Masha]

Showing the film, Manufacturing Consent, is a bad idea as it is three hours long and quite boring when you consider that Chomsky's and Herman's model could be adequately explained in three minutes.

How would you explain it, briefly?

[Full Metal Bolshevik]

How would you explain it, briefly?

I haven't seen the movie, but this video seems to explain it well.

+ YouTube Video