{"id":142071,"date":"2014-11-18T17:24:23","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T17:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=142071"},"modified":"2014-11-18T17:24:23","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T17:24:23","slug":"propaganda-propaganda-western-media-monopoly-vs-alternative-non-western-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/media-news\/propaganda-propaganda-western-media-monopoly-vs-alternative-non-western-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Propaganda? What Propaganda? Western Media Monopoly vs Alternative and Non-Western Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em> Peter Lavelle<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"b-article__lead\">We have recently been hearing a lot about information wars, propaganda and bullhorns. The pitch of this kind of belligerent rhetoric has increased sharply since the advent of the western-induced crisis in Ukraine.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"b-article__text\">\n<p>The mainstream media\u2019s echo chamber claim about\u00a0Russian media goes something like\u00a0this: \u201cRussian media is powerful and effective because it is well-funded propaganda.\u201d Really? Having worked in\u00a0Russian media for\u00a0well over\u00a0a decade, I observe it focussing on\u00a0foreign audiences in\u00a0a very different way: it challenges the West\u2019s hegemonic grip on\u00a0shaping and controlling the global media agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Up until\u00a0recently, western media outlets enjoyed near\u00a0monopoly in\u00a0defining the news agenda. It also worked in\u00a0lockstep with\u00a0the powers that be. Reading the op-ed pages of\u00a0the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times one will quickly notice they closely mirror the foreign policies of\u00a0western governments. It has been a cozy arrangement too. A pliant media whitewashed foreign policy adventurism. In return, major media outlets were given a front row seat to\u00a0cover wars to\u00a0be packaged as\u00a0the West saving the world. This model worked reasonably well until\u00a0the power of\u00a0the Internet made itself felt, and until\u00a0the financial crisis hit, failed wars were exposed, and new and alternative media began to\u00a0emerge.<\/p>\n<p>I am often asked why new outlets like\u00a0RT are so popular with\u00a0audiences around\u00a0the world. There may be many reasons for\u00a0this but\u00a0the short answer is that they offer a refreshingly different perspective.<\/p>\n<p>I believe it important to\u00a0understand how western media beat the drum of\u00a0war on\u00a0behalf of\u00a0George W. Bush. The echo chamber demonstrated it could be counted on\u00a0to back acts of\u00a0aggression around\u00a0the world with\u00a0impunity. How many people in\u00a0media lost their jobs when lying about\u00a0Bush\u2019s Wars (or Obama\u2019s war for\u00a0that matter)? We are told to \u201cget over\u00a0Iraq.\u201d But there is a strong sense today that western media lied to\u00a0their audiences.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalresearch.ca\/propaganda-what-propaganda-western-media-monopoly-vs-alternative-and-non-western-media\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Lavelle We have recently been hearing a lot about information wars, propaganda and bullhorns. The pitch of this kind of belligerent rhetoric has increased sharply since the advent of the western-induced crisis in Ukraine. The mainstream media\u2019s echo chamber claim about\u00a0Russian media goes something like\u00a0this: \u201cRussian media is powerful and effective because it is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-142071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-media-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}