#communication study

Noah Chomsky explains that there are restraints of information which violently hold humanity’s progress of advances in the spheres like moral and also technology but also in the spheres of politics. These groundbreaking theories of his are all laid in the pages of his book called “Manufacturing Consent”, originally released in the year of 1988. 

The simplistic explanation of his theories is as follows. Firstly, media, which supposedly to be the channel of all information to flow, are controlled by the capitalistic motives. These motives can be instinctively and intuitively developed since media companies start. However, these motives can also be ushered by the relentless competitiveness of the capitalist world. With so many competitors out there, the chance for a media company to strive is getting smaller. Therefore, some companies, in order to increase their audience, take up funding from interested parties.

These parties most of the times are not altruistic, however. The funding that they are giving is so that they have control over the information that can be published by the very companies they are funding. Such funders are usually those of top decision makers in the government or business. The funders can filter the information and decide to share only those information that can cater to their interest. These limitations can range to saving the bad controversies that can destroy their image or more violent ones such as publishing or even creating themselves the controversies that can actually destroy opposition parties. 

These phenomena don’t just happen in the ‘company level,’ but this is widespread and structural systems that are happening all around the world. These ‘evils’ are dictating the information, precious ones, from most of the people. We never know if there are such findings of a fault enough to impeach a president. We never know if there are medicines that can already cure most of the deadliest diseases in this world which information are hidden from us so hospital and health-care providers can keep flourishing. 

This asymmetrical system then only perpetuates the cycle of ‘evil’ that we don’t even know to exist in the very first place. There might be a very close public figure or women/men in power that we hold dear in our hearts who are actually the people who pull the string of the most problematic problems around us.

In conclusion, there is a lot of honest publications we see that we can freely access from the internet but there will be very rarely a fully honest publication that will cover all layers and perspectives of a phenomenon. How do we beat this then, when there is little that we can do to change the system other than a rapid, ultrahigh cost of progressive revolution?

First, we can do this through carefully researching the platforms we are getting information from. Progressive parties are now on the rise. These people who appreciate truths fund or make a company to spread information that has no bias towards any party because they only want the truths to be known to the world. Carefully selecting which platforms like news channels or even youtube channels that are not profit-oriented can make a whole difference of the kind of information we get.

Second, absorb information from experts that have little controversies in the past. Controversies of someone can give us clues if a certain individual is spreading information, although true, only with the purpose of elevating only the parties he or she is interested in or not.