Political Significance of the News Media - Essay Example

The central point in our paper will try to close upon the actual significance of news media in registering and reflecting the socio-political transitions against a global mirror. By comparing and contrasting the viewpoints of the libertarian socialist Noam Chomsky, who concentrates on the aspect of totalitarianism practised by the radio stations, television, newspapers and cables in the name of global voice and that of the Glasgow Media Group, which adapts a somewhat open approach to critically define the nature of media coverage by the developed part of the world.

There is an astonishing disparity between the news and the story featured by most of the popular media groups for public presentation, thereby manipulating the political discourse in an unprecedented manner. Keeping this in mind, we will take the discussion ahead with the similar and contrasting views on News Media of Noam Chomsky and the Glasgow Media Group. Noam Chomsky has been one of the leading authorities on linguistics, political thought and philosophy of the 20th century. Always known for his unique thoughts, Chomsky has written a great deal about the role of mass media in a democratic state.

Asserting that the world of the News Media was dominated by the rich and the wealthy, Chomsky highlighted the narrowness of perspective of this medium (Stark, 1998). In discussing about the media, Chomsky further pointed out that newspapers which reached the masses at large, have witnessed a dwindling of their significance with the sudden surge of the television. With televised news and advertisements being controlled by the wealthy corporate, newspapers have become costlier to the regular reader.

Chomsky raised his voice against this very 'corporatisation' of the media. Instead of serving as a strong vehicle of providing real news, the media has almost become a money making machine. Depriving the common man of stirring social and political problems and belittling other important issues, (Scannell, et al, 279), the media has simply become a marketing tool, catering to the needs of the so-called buyers and sellers. Press conferences have attained an unprecedented significance, supplying news continuously, in turn publicizing the role of the government and other business groups.

Talking about world politics, Chomsky mentioned that the media championed the U.S government policies, underlining the benevolence of the country. Moving away from these sycophantic assumptions, Chomsky described the role of the News media in analyzing US foreign policy. The news media was strongly influenced by government policy making (Institute of Communication Studies, 2001). In Chomsky's words, the U.S. foreign policy was marked by unique patterns. Adding on to the four freedoms, which Roosevelt propagated during the World War II, of speech, worship, want and freedom from fear, Chomsky spoke of a fifth freedom in U.S. foreign policy.

He called this freedom, the right to rob and exploit. Chomsky and co-author Hermann affirmed that the U.S. encroached upon the human rights of a few dependant economies,