Power And The News Media - Teun A. Van Dijk

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1Power and the NewsMediaTeun A. van DijkUniversity of AmsterdamINTRODUCTIONIn the study of mass communication, there has been a continuous debateabout the more or less powerful effects of the media on the public.1Instead of reviewing these positions and their empirical claims, thischapter examines in more general terms some properties of the socialpower of the news media. This power is not restricted to the influence ofthe media on their audiences, but also involves the role of the mediawithin the broader framework of the social, cultural, political, or economic power structures of society. In order to focus this discussion better, I limit it to the news media, and in particular to the press, thusignoring the undoubtedly pivotal role of television and other media genres in mass communication.2

10Political Communication in ActionThe theoretical framework for this inquiry is articulated withinthe multidisciplinary field of discourse analysis, a domain of study inthe humanities and social sciences that systematically examines thestructures and functions of text and talk in their social, political, and cultural contexts.3 Applied to the study of mass communication, thisapproach claims that in order to understand the role of the news mediaand their messages, one needs to pay detailed attention to the structures and strategies of such discourses and to the ways these relate toinstitutional arrangements, on the one hand, and to the audience, on theother hand.4 For instance, topics or quotation patterns in news reportsmay reflect modes of access of various news actors or sources to thenews media, whereas the content and form of a headline in the pressmay subtly influence the interpretation and hence the persuasive effectsof news reports among the readers. Conversely, if we want to examinewhat exactly goes on if it is assumed that the media manipulate theirreaders or viewers, we need to know under what precise conditions,including structural properties of news reports, this might be the case.POWERA brief conceptual analysis is needed in order to specify what notions ofpower are involved in such an approach to the role of the news media. Ilimit this analysis to properties of social or institutional power andignore the more idiosyncratic dimensions of personal influence, forexample, those of individual journalists. Thus, social power here will besummarily defined as a social relation between groups or institutions,involving the control by a (more) powerful group or institution (and itsmembers) of the actions and the minds of (the members) a less powerfulgroup.5 Such power generally presupposes privileged access to sociallyvalued resources, such as force, wealth, income, knowledge, or status.Media power is generally symbolic and persuasive, in the sensethat the media primarily have the potential to control to some extent theminds of readers or viewers, but not directly their actions.6 Except incases of physical, coercive force, the control of action, which is usuallythe ultimate aim of the exercise of power, is generally indirect, whereasthe control of intentions, plans, knowledge, beliefs, or opinions that is,mental representations that monitor overt activities is presupposed.Also, given the presence of other sources of information, and becausethe media usually lack access to the sanctions that other such as legalor bureaucratic-institutions may apply in cases of noncompliance,mind control by the media can never be complete. On the contrary, psychological and sociological evidence suggests that despite the pervasive

11Political Communication in Actionsymbolic power of the media, the audience will generally retain a minimum of autonomy and independence, and engage more or less actively,instead of purely passively, in the use of the means of mass communication.7 In other words, whatever the symbolic power of the newsmedia, at least some media users will generally be able to resist suchpersuasion.This suggests that mind control by the media should be particularly effective when the media users do not realize the nature or theimplications of such control and when they change their minds oftheir own free will, as when they accept news reports as true or journalistic opinions as legitimate or correct. Such an analysis of social powerand its symbolic dimensions requires going beyond a narrow social orpolitical approach to power. It also involves a study of the mental representations, including so-called social cognitions such as attitudes andideologies, shared by groups of readers or viewers. If we are able torelate more or less explicitly such mental representations, as well as theirchanges, to properties of news reports, important insights into mediapower can be gained. Well-known but vague notions such as influence or manipulation may then finally be given a precise meaning.Within a more critical perspective, many analyses of socialpower, including those of media power, usually imply references topower abuse-that is, to various forms of the illegitimate or otherwiseunacceptable exercise of power, given specific standards, norms, or values. For instance, manipulation as a form of media power enactment isusually evaluated in negative terms, because mediated information isbiased or concealed in such a way that the knowledge and beliefs of theaudience are changed in a direction that is not necessarily in its bestinterest. To distinguish legitimate or acceptable power from powerabuse, I use the term dominance to refer to the latter. Dominance usuallyinvolves processes of reproduction that involve strategies aimed at thecontinued preferential access to social resources and the legitimation ofsuch inequality.ACCESSAnother important notion in the analysis of (media) power is that ofaccess. It has been shown that power is generally based on special accessto valued social resources. This is quite literally also true for access topublic discourse, for example, that of the mass media. Thus, controllingthe means of mass communication is one of the crucial conditions ofsocial power in contemporary information societies. Indeed, besides economic or other social conditions of power, social groups may be attrib-

12Political Communication in Actionuted social power by their active or passive access to various forms ofpublic, other influential, or consequential discourse, such as those of themass media, scholarship, or political and corporate decision making.8Thus, ordinary people usually have active and controlledaccess only to everyday conversations with family members, friends, orcolleagues. Their access to dialogues with officials or professionals, suchas lawyers, doctors, or civil servants, is usually constrained in manyways. Although ordinary people may make use of the news media, theygenerally have no direct influence on news content, nor are they usuallythe major actors of news reports.Elite groups or institutions, on the other hand, may be definedby their broader range and scope of patterns of access to public or otherimportant discourses and communicative events. Leading politicians,managers, scholars, or other professionals have more or less controlledaccess to many different forms of text and talk, such as meetings,reports, press conferences, or press releases. This is especially true fortheir access to media discourse.9 Journalists will seek to interview them,ask their opinion, and thus introduce them as major news actors orspeakers in news reports. If such elites are able to control these patternsof media access, they are by definition more powerful than the media.On the other hand, those media that are able to control access to elitediscourse, in such a way that elites become dependent on them in orderto exercise their own power, may in turn play their own role in thepower structure. In other words, major news media may themselves beinstitutions of elite power and dominance, with respect not only to thepublic at large, but also to other elite institutions.Access to discourse and communicative events may take manydifferent forms. More powerful social actors may control discourse bysetting or selecting time and place, participants, audiences, possiblespeech acts (such as commands or requests), agendas, topics, choice oflanguage, style, strategies of politeness or deference, and many otherproperties of text and talk. They thus may essentially determine whomay say. (or write) what, to whom, about whom, in which way and inwhat circumstances. It is hereby assumed that social power of a group orinstitution (and their members) is proportional to the amount of discourse genres and discourse properties they control.The social power of elite groups and institutions as defined bytheir preferential access to discourse and communication is effectiveonly if it is further assumed that such discourses are important or influential. Thus, controlling access to the discourses of government sessions,board meetings, or court trials is a manifestation of power because of theconsequentiality of such discourse and decision making, that is, becausethey may seriously affect the lives of many people: The more people

13Political Communication in Actionaffected, the larger the scope of the enactment of discursive power. Morespecifically, public discourse may affect the minds of many people.Hence, the degree or modes of access to the news media are usually alsoa measure of the degree of elite power.INFLUENCE AND SOCIAL COGNITIONSpecial access to the minds of the public does not imply control. Notonly does the public have some freedom in participating in the use ofmedia messages, it may also not change its mind along the linesdesired by the more powerful. Rejection, disbelief, criticism, or otherforms of resistance or challenge may be involved and thus signal modesof counterpower. In other words, influence defined as a form of mindcontrol is hardly unproblematic, as is the power of the media and of theelite groups that try to access the public through the media.In the same way as forms or modes of discourse access may bespelled out, the ways in which the minds of others may indirectly beaccessed through text and talk should also be examined. Such anaccount requires a more explicit insight into the representations andstrategies of the social mind. Although I am unable to enter into thetechnical details of a theory of the mind here as it is being developed incognitive and social psychology, the very processes of influence involvemany different, complex steps and mental (memory) representations, ofwhich I only summarize a few.10UNDERSTANDINGReaders of a news report first of all need to understand its words, sentences, or other structural properties. This does not only mean that theymust know the language and its grammar and lexicon, possibly including rather technical words such as those of modern politics, management,science, or the professions. Users of the media need to know somethingabout the specific organization and functions of news reports in thepress, including the functions of headlines, leads, background information, or quotations. Besides such grammatical and textual knowledge,media users need vast amounts of properly organized knowledge of theworld. A news report about the Gulf War, for instance, presupposes atleast some knowledge about the geography of the Middle East, as well asgeneral knowledge about wars, international politics, earlier historicalevents, and so on. This means that a lack of education may seriously limit

14Political Communication in Actionnews understanding, as is shown by much empirical research. In otherwords, powerlessness may involve limited (passive) access to massmediated discourse due to a failure (fully) to understand news textsthemselves or the events such texts are about.MODELSA notion that is crucial in the study of news understanding is that of amodel. A model is a mental representation of an experience that is, anevent people witness, participate in, or read about.11 Each time peopleread a news report, for instance, about the 1992 disturbances in LosAngeles, they form a new (or update an already existing) model of thatevent. Thus, understanding a news report means that readers are ableto construct a model in their minds of the events the news report isabout. Such a model may also include their opinions about the event.Although such models represent readers subjective understanding ofevents, for example, those in Los Angeles, they embody particularinstances of socially shared knowledge and opinions, about such thingsas riots, inner cities, poverty, blacks, or racism. Thus, the knowledge andattitudes of the social group of the reader will determine the models ofwhat he or she reads in the newspaper.We are now better able to define the informational and persuasive functions of news. It is the aim of a news report and its authors thatthe readers form a model of the news event in the report. Essential forthis discussion is the fact that the structures and contents of such modelsmay be manipulated by the structures and contents of news reports.Journalists themselves have a model of each news event, and they willgenerally write their reports in such a way that readers form a modelthat is at least similar to their own model of such an event. Well-knownnotions in critical news analysis such as preferred meaning or preferred understanding may be explained in terms of such models.Indeed, we may henceforth simply speak of preferred models. Suchpreferred models form the core of processes of persuasion, disinformation, and the media control of the public, especially if they are inconsistent with the best interests of the readers, but consistent with the interests of the elites.One of the many ways to influence the structure of a model (andhence, the understanding of a news event) is to manipulate what information is important, by displaying it more or less prominently in thenews report, headlines, leads, or photographs. Conversely, if journalistsor their elite sources want less or no attention paid by the public to certain aspects of a news event, they will make sure that such information

15Political Communication in Actionis less prominent or absent in the news report, so that it will most likelylack prominence in the model of the news event. In the same way, newstexts may emphasize or deemphasize the causes or consequences ofevents or the properties of news actors. Thus, news about the events inLos Angeles may play down the racist causes or backgrounds of theevents and emphasize the criminal character or activities of young blackmales, in such a way that the models of the readers are influenced inthat direction.KNOWLEDGEIf news understanding or mental model building is a function of general,socially shared knowledge, then control of such knowledge may indirectly control understanding. Thus, if the news media and those politicalor other elites that have access to it do not provide detailed informationabout the interests of the United States or other Western countries in theMiddle East, the readers knowledge, and hence their understanding ofthe news about the Gulf War, may be limited. Indeed, it may well be inthe best interests of these elites that such public understanding be minimal. Similarly, it would also be in their best interests if the public doesnot have access to other means of communication that provide necessarybackground knowledge, hence, the well-known marginalization of radical media or oppositional experts and the pervasiveness of disinformation campaigns on the Gulf War as well as about other more or less overtwars in which elite nations are involved. Note though that the influenceof such campaigns on the knowledge of the public is complex and farfrom straightforward: Effective credibility strategies, such as the use ofstatistics, authoritative sources, credible eyewitnesses, photographs, andother means that persuasively suggest the truth of claims are needed.ATTITUDES AND IDEOLOGIESThe strategic control of knowledge is a crucial element in the control ofdiscourse understanding and, therefore, of discourse access and the critical counterpower of oppositional reading and understanding. Beyondknowledge, however, there are other crucial forms of what is now generally called social cognition,12 such as the schemata of socially sharedopinions traditionally known as attitudes.13 Whereas control of knowledge influences understanding, control of attitudes influences evaluation.Acceptance of a war against Iraq, as well as of the Cold War against the

16Political Communication in ActionCommunists before that, crucially depends on their legitimacy and justification, which in turn depends on the ways the enemy and its actions areportrayed in the news, which explains the pervasive and unambiguousimages of Evil Empires, terrorists, dictators, naked aggression, andother forms of perceived threat to one s safety and legitimate interests.There are many discursive means that strongly suggest suchnegative evaluations of them, including hyperbolic emphases on obviously bad behavior and other rhetorical moves, such as metaphors orcomparisons ( Saddam Hussein is Hitler ) that define us as victimsand them as evil aggressors. Information that does not quite fit suchan evaluative process and the construction of unambiguous attitudes,such as the death of many thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians as a consequence of the United States (not so smart) bombs, will be duly deemphasized, if not fully concealed.14In sum, controlling attitudes may be a result of controlling thediscourses of mass communication, as well as their topics, meanings,style, and rhetoric, whether by the journalists themselves or, indirectly,by those they accept as credible sources. Obviously, such results dependon the access to alternative sources of information, oppositional knowledge and beliefs, and more fundamental ideologies. Such ideologies arehere defined as the basic mechanism of the social cognitions of a group,that is, as systems of norms and values that control the coherence and thedevelopment of more specific social attitudes.15 Anti-Arab ideologies, forinstance, will almost certainly be more supportive of the development ofattitudes about the Gulf War, which in turn may justify such a waragainst an Arab aggressor. It will be shown how ideologies of race, class,gender, or world region control the production and understanding ofnews about minorities, women, workers, or the Third World.Once such fundamental patterns of knowledge, attitudes, andideologies are firmly in place due to repeated news reporting and otherforms of public discourse (e.g., in education), they will further act ontheir own when people have to evaluate news events. After some time,there is little need for conspicuous manipulation of specific knowledgeand opinions of the readers for each case. Once given the (carefullyselected) facts, although presented in a seemingly objective fashion,the readers will themselves produce the preferred models of the elitesand may even act accordingly: An active consensus will replace passiveor tacit consent. Ideological control in that case is virtually total, orhegemonic, precisely because persuasive text and talk are no longerseen as ideological but as self-evidently true, as is the case for muchdominant discourse in the United States. On the other hand, in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, official discourse was seenas so obviously ideological that its persuasive power was very limited.

17Political Communication in ActionRACISM AND THE PRESSAgainst the background of the theoretical framework of news mediapower sketched earlier, I now focus on more specific domains of dominance. I begin with a summary of critical research into the ways thenews media are involved in the reproduction of racism and the subsequent maintenance and legitimation of white group power.16 This analysis then serves as a paradigm for a b

Power and the News Media Teun A. van Dijk University of Amsterdam _ INTRODUCTION In the study of mass communication, there has been a continuous debate about the more or less powerful effects of the media on the public.1 Instead of reviewing these positions and their empirical claims, this chapter examines in more general terms some properties of the social power of the news media. This .

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