Political culture is reflection of
peoples beliefs crucially their view of regime in which they are
governed and also do they respect that regime as rightful or wrong.All the people had their beliefs play a role in promoting the stability
and survival of a regime.It is also a pattern of orientation to
political entities like parties.When Marx presents his view about how
the certain dominant class of the society spread its narrative of
things around the people they rule i do agree with it .The political
socialization that is the process of transforming,conforming and
establishing political beliefs and values is carried out by dominant
class of the society.It is carried out through the help of
institutions.One of the agents for this process of indoctrination is
mass media. In today's world if we tune into our television sets so
we can see different channels running same incident but everybody has
a different way of explaining and describing the same event.They are employing
different terminology for the same incident. Why is that? Is it just
different ideas about a same incident?
Well up to certain extent yeah but this reflection of ideas come from the minds of the people
funding the channel. Marshall McLuhan very rightly said"the
medium is the message". Now people rely on learning about things
happening in their surroundings through media.Media is controlled and manipulated
by the dominant economic class.They want the proletariat class to
reconcile their exploitation by creating myths and falsehoods.The
political views are spread through media. Media plays a big role in
forming and shaping our thoughts and most importantly our ideology .
The very evident example of this would be state owned television
channel(Ptv) and a private television channel for instance(Geo) .When
you tune into Ptv for a certain political dispute you are not told
the other side of the story. You are only told the government side of
the story. In most of the cases you wont even realize that their is a
conflict. On the other hand if you tune into Geo you would see a
complete different view of the political analysts on the matter. Both of the
channels are promoting their own (owned prefer to say) insight on the
conflict. Both the sides are so skilled that you don't even know who and what to believe in?
Same happens with the foreign media if
you for instance tune into CNN and Fox news you will see that they
are terming same incident with different words explanation for instance if they are funded by Conservatives they would promote their party interests and
interlink incidents and at the same time offer
alternatives that would promote and lead to the promulgation of
Conservative values.So it seems like the pursuit of the truth that
was as i believe the job of the media had been from its formation is
abandoned. The information is manipulated and made according to the
wishes of people who owns these corporations. Political socialization
of the people is taking place through the media of the people who
sponsor the technology and owns the means of the production .
This self serving of interests has become way too evident in the mainstream media today. We see countless examples everyday where journalism is being bought by deep pockets. A recent example is that of Jeb Bush, the grandson of the infamous George W. Bush. New York Times recently published an article about his wife and her struggle for the rights of immigrants. Clearly softening the Republican stance on immigration and planting a seed in the minds of people that the prospect of another Bush coming into a power isn't just a possible one, but too a practical one.
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