Information. This is what the world is being sick now. Information about new technologies, politics, economics, history and so on. And still, despite the freedom of the word that the Internet is providing, the human society suffers from being manipulated through the media sources such as websites, TV broadcasting, radio, etc.
The mass media always has an influence on portraying different things and facts. Let's get eighty years back. TV was developing, but still there were only a few channels, local newspapers, radio stations. People had no other sources to gather information, so there wouldn't be any choice for them but to rely on what those sources had given. There also was no opportunity for most of the people to prove or disprove the facts that were demonstrated through the media. Also, the fact should be mentioned that the nation's support for the government in average was higher than nowadays. Less chance for it being compromised. Ideal situation for monopolistic control.
The history is being written by the victorious. Unfortunately, it's true and there are a lot of historical facts being misrepresented by the media in different purposes. We'll consider some of them.
The first one is about US being involved into World War I. The reason for US to join the war was destruction of a British ocean liner carrying American passengers. But the fact that it had been carrying rifle ammunition and other military supplies was hidden. Also, it is worth mentioning the letter wrote by First Lord of Admiralty Winston Churchill to President of the Board of Trade, where Churchill said that this incident was the “most important to attract neutral shipping to our shores, in the hopes especially of embroiling the United States with the Germany”.
Another warped fact is so-called “sudden” Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Honolulu Advertiser predicted an attack days before the attack, and the Japanese codes had been deciphered by that time. Henry Stimson, US Secretary of War, noted in his diary the week before that he discussed with the Roosevelt how “we should maneuver them [the Japanese] into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves”. However, the media showed the attack on Pearl Harbour as “completely unexpected”. In a declassified memo from the naval intelligence the fact was demonstrated that President Roosevelt was about the Japanese threat three days before the attack.
The third fact on the list is one of the “Gulf of Tonkin incident”. The media speaked about USS Maddox being attack twice by North Vietnamese in August, 1964. It was shown as a clear example of “communist aggression”, so the Congress passed a resolution letting President Johnson to begin deployment of US forces in Vietnam. In 2005 an internal National Security Agency study showed that the second attack had never taken place. It turns out that 60000 US soldiers, three million Vietnamese and 500000 Cambodians and Laotians lost their lives because of an incident that never happened.
Unfortunately, this range can be continued for a long time. Now you may ask: “And the people cannot see the lie? Or they simply just don't care?” As I said at the beginning, the information is all around us. People hear dozens, sometimes even hundreds of facts every day. The memory is often compared with house attic. When it becomes fully filled, you have no choice but to clean it. So does the brain. When overloaded with information, you start to forget what you have heard minutes ago. Also, the average citizen has too many concerns to think about the truthfulness of facts they hear. Wash the car, do shopping, write a report and many other deals that require attention. Many people come back home after their work and go to bed because of being too exhausted. They don’t have time to seek for the real statements.
The only thing what's left to us to avoid the propaganda influence is to turn everything off – TV, radio, Internet, etc. Speak with your friends, enjoy your life and change the world with action.
Getting Your Mind Back. How The American Media Controls Your Thinking: Example Essay By An Expert Writer To Follow
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