The global resurgence of right-wing authoritarianism in the political arena alloyed with the continual disengagement of the masses with democratic political functioning has called to question the functionality of the so-called fourth estate of democracy- the delicate art of journalism and media. I argue that the complicity of modern-day media houses with larger capitalist structures of oppression has inhibited their ability to constructively act as a free forum of dissent and dialogue. To elucidate, I take the example of the Black Lives Matter protests in America that have exposed the racial fault lines of American polity and brought to the fore the problem of institutional and structural racism present in American society. Theoretically, I correlate this phenomenon with Gramscian hegemony rooted in the ideational power of journalists to legitimize or sanction a specific idea or narrative. On a corollary, Foucauldian governmentality is manifested in the contemporary paradigm, evident in how journalists act as one of the many capillaries or ‘technologies of government’ that render citizens ‘governable’ by manipulating their perception of reality. Thus, the lack of reliable journalism has fundamentally altered the constitution of democratic citizenship. The vacuum left by big media houses has led to the increased dependence on social media and citizen journalism as a legitimate source of news.
The undeniable political reality today is one of extreme political polarisation. Every individual is deeply enmeshed in their own echo chambers, where they only interact and communicate with politically like-minded individuals, diminishing the propensity for across-the-aisle dialogue to negligible extremes. The manufacturing of underlying biases through constant reinforcement of beliefs, prevent constructive dialogue resulting in increased villainization of the other side and the perpetual evasion of addressing underlying structural disparities. Echo chambers function through profit-driven media houses where the news is treated as ‘info-tainment’ concerned with entertaining the viewers instead of informing them. As a result, the Trump supporter will follow Fox News, who will augment the anarchic tendency of the Black Lives Matter movement while the Democrat will consume CNN’s sensationalised version of the other side.
However, the fourth pillar of democracy, the media, plays a pivotal role in initiating channels of dialogue by providing spaces for discussion. Unfortunately, the calculus of expressing dissent through today’s corporatized mainstream media has significantly diminished as market considerations take precedence over the ethics of journalism. The media is itself a victim of structural racism, evident in the allegations of racist comments made by ABC News executive Barbara Fedida, who has now been placed on administrative leave. The power of state patronage, financial benefits of siding with the capitalist class and the tendency to adopt a pro-statist tone manifest the Gramscian notion of a hegemonic media that parrots the view of the hand that feeds them. This information industrial complex has a deeply discursive effect on democracy as it enables Foucauldian governmentality whereby the peddling of falsified narratives create ‘reality-formats’ (M. Stauff, 2010) that present transformative processes to individuals in such a manner that viewers of cable news are offered possible goals and methods for modifying their own conduct and their own individuality. Thus, people live their life in the manner TV journalists dictate. The most veracious example of this phenomena is the public debate that has erupted in the US over the use of face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
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Given this vacuum, the Black Lives Matter protest has seen the emergence of social media as the more impactful decimator of news since it provides a platform for citizen journalism. The heinous video depicting George Floyd’s death first gained attraction on a social media site, when no other news outlet was covering it. The Black Lives Matter Movement also, first emerged on social media platforms. While the problems of frivolous performative activism, manufacturing of echo chambers through social media algorithms and the menace of fake news persists, social media provides a relatively democratic platform to start conversations and is a public forum of popular engagement that highlights issues neglected by corporate media houses.
However, the key question at this juncture is how does the diminishing faith of the people in large scale media houses and their journalists affect democratic citizenship. For starters, citizen journalists do not have to adhere to the same legal standards that other journalists need to follow. For example, the issue of libel cases and defamation charges remain largely unregulated in the online arena and in the context of unregistered news outlets. This has an adverse effect on the quality of reporting, amplifying the problem of ‘fake news’ and aiding the construction of a post-truth world. Thus, we can note the seepage of governmentality’s discursive forces in the so-called emancipated spaces of citizen journalism and social media as well. Thus, from a policy angle it is the need of the hour to engage with the crisis faced by global journalism and to formulate regulations that can curb the menace of fake news that is often circulated in the garb of citizen journalistic practices. Government intervention becomes key in this context since social media companies like Facebook have refused to moderate content on their forums as they refuse to be ‘arbiters of truth’.
However, government policy in this context must be formulated with caution as heavy handed policy moves may function as agents of control that will effectively stifle the voice of critique in a democracy. Thus, the sustenance of democracy exists in a paradigm where one can amplify oppressed voices. If the collective society and state is persistently negligent of this concern and gradually decimates democratic spaces of dissent, the absolute breakdown of communication in a polarised society between the people and the state will breed violent activity leading to the dismantling of democracy. The sustenance of a culture of listening, responding and perceiving those you disagree with by providing a platform to the disadvantaged through the channels of journalism and the media should be the direction policy initiatives must take. This will grant individuals the agency to voice their concerns in a highly stratified society where systemic oppression functions through discursive channels and may be an effective antidote to the gradual political disenchantment people are succumbing to world over.
References
- Foucault, M. (1991). The Foucault effect: Studies in Governmentality. University of Chicago Press.
- Gramsci, A. (2000). The Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916-1935. NYU press.
- Stauff, M. (2010). The Governmentality of Media: Television as “Problem” and “Instrument.” Media, Culture, and Mediality: New Insights into the Current State of Research, 263-284.
- Steinberg, Brian. "ABC News Executive Barbara Fedida Will Leave After Investigation." Variety. July 21, 2020 https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/barbara-fedida-leave-abc-news-investigation-1234711571/
WRITTEN BY SUHASINI DAS GOOPTU
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