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A Look at the
News
As we rehearse the story of our American world view, we
constantly encounter threats of violence which threaten to
plunge our sense of order, identity, and meaning into the
chaotic abyss. Random and senseless violence is just as
threatening to our sense of well-being as is the threat of
our nation becoming helpless in the face of communist
expansion. The primary religious function of TV News is to
restore our sense of order and meaning and to prevent our
feeling helpless in the face of life's continual threats.
The triumph of injustice and the victory of wrong threatens
our sense of value and purpose. If we were to believe that
injustice prevails in our society, our morale would be
destroyed.
TV News seeks to answer these threats. Thus, it does not
merely present a body of information; it is an act of
ordering which creates and reaffirms our view of the world;
and in doing this, it allays our fears. The TV News does not
merely present the truth, but the truth as it sees it. And
in as much as the editors and reporters assume an American
ideology, they will present the world to us with
subconscious values. Thus the TV News is a Model Of our view
of ourselves, our beliefs in right and wrong. And because as
we watch it, our beliefs are reaffirmed by the very way the
news is presented and analyzed, it is also a Model For our
belief system. It continues to shape our perceptions and
understanding of the world and the way IT OUGHT TO BE! So
not only does the news correspond to reality, it also
indoctrinates us.
Beliefs of the world that TV News subconsciously
reinforces:
1) Capitalism is usually a benign system.
2) Virtue resides in small American towns (not in the
corrupt big city.)
3) That American foreign policy is essentially
altruistic - we seek others welfare and not our own
(though during Vietnam, we began to question it).
4) Welfare cheaters are a continuing menace.
5) That justice ultimately prevails. (And the TV news
constantly points out the injustices so that we can right
the wrong and restore order and good to our society.
Because of our heritage, we constantly see ourselves as
going from victory to victory, and though temporarily
threatened, we know that we will ultimately win. The
rightness of our cause and the assurance of our victory
is promised by our God)
Within the past few years, the news media has been
presenting an increasing picture of chaos and a loss of
identity. While trying to establish a new hope for order, it
has turned increasingly liberal in its prescription for the
American people. It advocates increased governmental control
over various aspects of life, from social programs, to
health reform, to gun control, to radical moral (usually
anti-Christian) reforms (pro-homosexual and radical feminist
and strongly pro-abortion). It has become increasingly
biased and strongly critical of traditional moral values,
even though the majority of Americans accept those values.
It has become propagandistic in its attempt to filter the
news coverage (One tactic is under reporting pro life events
and numbers; the most blatant example was the 1992 pro life
rally in Washington D.C. which had a minimum estimate of
600,000 people, but CNN reported the crowd at a mere 60,000.
Ted Turner has publicly stated a desire to crush the
pro-life movement and is willing to use his media to
accomplish that goal.) By creating anxiety in the people by
over reporting economic stress and by criticizing Bush and
Reagan for lacking economic compassion, the media created a
climate favorable to the election of Clinton. Now the media
has taken up gun control as its cause, and by continually
reporting on uncontrolled violence and proposing gun control
as the solution, it is attempting to force the populace to
adopt this solution.
In these instances, the media no longer seems to be
supporting the basic values of American Civil Religion,
however, when the nation is threatened, as in the Gulf War,
the media quickly retreats to a more traditional,
nationalistic perspective. Suddenly, there were hundreds of
fair and encouraging reports of people going to church to
pray for the troops. And religion was treated in a positive
light. This sudden change seemed unusual and was out of
character with recent trends.
Problems with TV News.
1] The TV was originally created as an
entertainment medium. And the TV News is a "show."
Newscasters are performers who must convey benign
authority, self-assurance and confidence that says
"that's the way it is."
2) The TV News must create interest to hold our
attention, so it invariably heightens the drama of
everyday events. (They tried to make the Bush/Dukakis
election a horse race, for example, but it wasn't even
close!) To sustain this sense of drama, threats to
justice are always made to seem like ultimate and
immediate threats.
3) The news selects news with a particular bias. What
is included is just as important as what is not included:
When 15 people demonstrate against unfair labor practices
at a plant of 100,00 employees, their story usually makes
the news. But when 300,000 evangelical Christians gather
in Abilene Texas to praise and worship God at a
convention, IT GETS NO AIR PLAY at all. Assumptions are
being made for us about what is important and what is not
important. We don't really get a say in the TV News. The
editing determines what is really important and what
isn't newsworthy; i.e., Christian gatherings aren't
really newsworthy while two dissatisfied workers gain
national significance.
4) Commercial TV News is a business with a product,
with advertising companies who purchase air time.
Therefore, the TV News must deliver an audience to the
advertisers. TV's first mission is not to inform or to
entertain, but to move the goods; to round up viewers for
the main event: the commercial. The consequence is
that
5) Content of the news cannot alienate the audience:
it cannot challenge our basic values and self-image. It
must assure us that there is still an order to our world
and that we have some control over our destiny. And the
News cannot portray us as basically sinful. It cannot
challenge our belief that our foreign policy is basically
altruistic or our belief that we are the saviors of the
world, even if those we save won't admit what a great
help we are. It cannot present the view that we are
basically a self-interested nation that uses power to get
what it wants: (Consider our actions towards the
sovereign nation of New Zealand during the Bush
administration: we threatened to cut off favorable trade
and alliances with them because they did not want to have
nuclear bases in their country. Did we act respectfully
towards a democratic country with whom we happen to have
a difference of opinion? Or were we trying to force our
self interest through a pure exercise of economic
power?)
6) The underlying theme of mass media is order vs.
chaos. The news presents our world as a series of crises
and constant dangers which threaten our lives and our
nation. The way we meet this threat and restore order is
through the use of force and violence (police stories,
military preparedness). The TV NEWS continually affirms
that the only security in this world is sufficient force
(power) to restore order and justice. Violence is seen by
the TV News as the solution to our problems and as the
answer to the violence and hostility which continually
threaten us. As we participate nightly in this ritual of
ordering, our own perceptions of the world are reaffirmed
and reinforced. We too come to assume that violence and
force are necessary means to secure our welfare. However,
this is specifically not a Christian value! Jeremiah 17:
5-8. Isaiah 31: 1-3.
Assignment: Watch the evening news on two separate
national networks on a single average news night (no
thermonuclear explosions or major earthquakes). If you can
get a Christian TV news station do that as well. Tape one,
both or all, and compare the order of news events (top
stories vs. second vs. third, etc.) Comment on the editing
and ordering process of what is and what is not considered
important for that night. Note also any commentary or
opinions on the events and what bias is being revealed.
Nelson: pp. 87-110 (chp.4).
TV: pp. 87-124.
Myers: 103-177.
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