The Power of the Media

The Power of the Media

We're told that "the pen is mightier than the sword." In this digital age, that has morphed into the news media in whatever form - written, audio, or video - and in whatever medium - TV, websites, radio, podcasts, online videos, blogs, social media, and even still some written and printed publications. We all operate on the assumption that we have freedom of choice, that we make our own decisions - but do we really?

Each of us is shaped by our environment. We all come to the table with our own biases, which spring from our upbringing and life experiences. When we're exposed to new information, we perceive it through that lens. How we react to it is determined by our own personal biases and our willingness to try new things, accept new ideas, and embrace or reject change. The news we receive also has bias in it, and we tend to seek news whose bias matches our own and reject news that doesn't, a phenomenon known as "confirmation bias."

We also learn through repetition, and this is something the news media do very well. With the advent of the 24-hour news networks on TV, we no longer had to wait for Walter Cronkite each evening to tell us what was going on in the world. In today's society, nobody has any patience; we want our news in sound bites, in tweets we can share with others we know. We're constantly seeking news, expecting that the news we hear is true (while only seeking news that confirms what we already believe). But I've explored, in previous posts, how news can be spun to feed a bigger narrative. Control the media, and you control the world.

A Look Back at Media Influence

This was perhaps never exhibited so obviously as during the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Remember all the "hanging chads?" The world's focus was on Florida, most specifically on three Florida counties: Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. As a native Floridian, I was probably more aware of some of the behind-the-scenes goings-on during that time than were most Americans.

But to set that all in perspective, think back to the Cold War era, that post-World War II time when the United States and the Soviet Union were vying for control of most of the world. Their ideologies were diametrically opposed: the Soviets in favor of a strong central government that owned and controlled everything (a government structure known as "statism"), while the Americans favored a weaker central power, a free society in which citizens owned everything and traded with each other, with more power given to state and local governments closer to the people (known as "federalism").

Now think about the colors that represented each of those ideals in our minds: red was the color of communism, the Bolsheviks, anger, hatred, blood. "Better dead than red," was the mantra of the McCarthy era, when communists were vilified in America and the slightest association with a communist could ruin a person. Blue was the color associated with fidelity, honesty, integrity: a "true blue" person was to be admired and emulated.

Jump to 2000: due to election process mismanagement in three south Florida counties, the world is in suspense for days, dragging into weeks, over who will be the next "leader of the free world," as the U.S. President is often deemed. We're all glued to our TV sets as the news media show us the map of how the Electoral College votes are distributed. But something's different: they've represented Republican states in red, and Democrat states in blue. Did you notice that? They just completely flipped the colors associated with the values of each party. That idea was repeated daily, hourly, minute-by-minute, drummed into our heads that red = Republican and blue = Democrat. And it wasn't just one network that did this. Every major news outlet was using the same color scheme. Every. Single. One. And ever since 2000, those have been the colors associated with the two major political parties in the United States.

Did you see how easy that was? All it took was one election cycle, prolonged by mishaps in three counties (all controlled by Democrats, incidentally) to completely flip the public's perception of political parties in the United States. Can you see the power the media have to completely control the population? They certainly could.

Today's Opportunity for Influence

We're seeing this happen again today, with public panic over the COVID-19 virus, AKA the coronavirus. It's a particularly virulent strain of a relatively common virus, one that has the power to fill your lungs with fibrous tissue so you can't breathe. Its mortality rate estimates are 3% to 6% (i.e., 3-6% of the people who contract the virus will likely die from it), compared to 0.1% in the United States for influenza (rising to 0.8% for the H1N1 "swine flu" strain). But the death rate of bubonic plague, the "Black Death" of the Middle Ages, even in modern times with the latest medical care, is around 11%.

Panic seems to be more around how quickly and easily the COVID-19 virus is spread. The R₀ ("R-naught") value is the one commonly used to express the reproduction rate of a pathogen. The R₀ value for COVID-19 has so far been 2.28, according to the National Institutes of Health. In other words, an infected person would likely pass the virus on to two to three other individuals. For comparison, the R₀ value for seasonal strains of influenza averages 1.3, for the H1N1 ("swine flu") strain of influenza it was 1.4-1.6, and for bubonic plague 3. (These figures are from PubMed.gov, the government's repository for medical research papers.)

Conspiracy theorists can't help but connect a lot of dots around the COVID-19 virus: 

• It originated in China just after President Trump negotiated new trade agreements that were less favorable to them and more favorable to the United States. 
• It started in an area of China where there is a biological weapons laboratory. There is also a public meat market there selling all sorts of wild species of animals, some of which may carry who-knows-what diseases. It would be relatively easy to release a weaponized virus into such a place.
• The Chinese government is notorious for killing its own citizens when necessary for political gain. Here's a list that goes back to the triple-digit years.
• As the human population continues to grow, our impact on the planet's resources also grows and may become unsustainable. Some feel that population control of some type is necessary for the continued survival of the human race. The weakest among us consume the most resources and would be the most logical to "cull" from the human herd. (If this sounds cold, take a look at the Georgia Guidestones and their mysterious sponsors.)
• The United States is in the middle of an election year, and one in which not only the Presidency, but control of Congress based on the number of seats up for grabs, is to be decided. This puts two of the three branches of our federal government at stake in this election.
• President Trump has taken on the globalists who are pushing for one world government. They have been ineffective at stemming the wave of public support for his "America first" philosophy after 28 years of steadily advancing their agenda. He has scored victory after victory in international trade negotiations, taking down human trafficking organizations, and streamlining bloated federal bureaucracies. He challenges the power of the traditional political machine in Washington, jeopardizing the livelihood of the career politicians of both parties who have grown wealthy not from building businesses in the private sector, but from being perpetually re-elected to public office.
• Democrats, who favor the globalist agenda, failed at claiming Russian interference handed President Trump the White House in 2016, they failed at removing him from office through impeachment, and they've failed to find a viable candidate to prevent his re-election in 2020. With the nation's economy soaring, the stock market hitting record highs, and unemployment at its lowest rate in 50 years, a worldwide pandemic would be the answer to their prayers, crashing the world's economy and providing ample opportunities for them to place blame on the president's handling of the situation, no matter what he does. 

Could people be that diabolical? Some think so. Others think those are a lot of coincidences that may or may not have someone's controlling hand behind them. And you can't deny the media's role in shaping public perception of events happening around us. The 2000 election was a test-run of how effective they could be at completely transforming public opinion.

We're not facing a made-up crisis. Without drastic measures, COVID-19 could become the bubonic plague of our time. The Black Death killed 30% to 60% of Europe's population. In today's society, we travel freely around the world. An epidemic in one area of the world can easily become a pandemic, as this coronavirus outbreak has proven. Yes, we need to take precautions to prevent further spreading until a vaccine and effective treatments can be found. And the media play an important role in keeping the public informed. We must look somewhere for news about the virus and the measures we need to be taking to control it.

But be aware of the media's power to change our perception of things. There are people quick to politicize this pandemic and use it for their own gain. Some of them control certain media outlets because there is a lot of power there. While the media have a responsibility to keep the public informed about the pandemic, they also answer to their owners. Be aware of bias. Be aware of subtle attempts to influence your opinions on things. Question things and do your own research. Unplug from the Matrix every now and then to see the real world. Don't let the media dictate what you think about things.

A hashtag is currently popular on social media: #preparedontpanic. Prepare, don't panic. Heed that advice. Yes, watch the news, but do so with an open mind and an awareness that they are influencing how you think about things. Here's wishing you health and peace of mind in these trying times!