China issues report on US' democracy
(5) "Freedom of speech" in name only
In the US, the media?is?juxtaposed with the executive, the legislative and the judiciary as the "fourth branch of government" and journalists are considered?"uncrowned kings". Though US media organizations claim?to be?independent from politics and serve freedom and truth, they?are actually serving financial interests?and party politics.
A?few media conglomerates?maintain control of the US news?media?and have?morphed?into?a?political force with outsize influence.
Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the federal government is required?to relax regulation over the ownership of media?outlets. This has led to?an unprecedented wave of mergers?and?a crippling erosion of the diversity and independence of the US media. The drastic?reduction in the number of media outlets has?enabled a few companies to expand into monopolies.
In the US, a few media conglomerates are?now?in control of over 90% of media outlets, netting?them an annual profit even higher than the gross domestic product (GDP) of some developing countries.
These media behemoths, while eager to make more?business footprints, have extended?their reach?into American politics, attempting to sway political processes through lobbying, public relations campaign or political donations.
The?US?media?monopolies?have?become "invisible killers"?of civil and political rights.
Robert McChesney, a leading US scholar?in?the studies of political economy of communications and?professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, notes?in his book Rich Media, Poor Democracy?that media companies, profit-driven by nature, confine people to the world of entertainment?programs, depriving their access to diversified information, distracting their interest in public affairs,?diminishing their ability to?distinguish between right and?wrong,?and muting their voice in the decision-making of social policies.?In an American society dominated by media narratives, traditional notions of civic and political involvement have shriveled. Depoliticization has turned democracy into a political game without citizens.
A report in Miami's New Herald?argues?that?as?the media is controlled by?the?elite and conglomerates, people are not able to distinguish between facts?and?political propaganda.
The US media?is no longer?a "gatekeeper" of democracy. The?political wrangling?between the Left?and Right in the US media?has further?entrenched the estrangement and division between the?two?parties and between the elite and the mass public.?It has aggravated?political polarization?in the US, pushing the political Left further left and the Right further right. And it has fueled the spread of extremist ideologies?and?populism in the US.
According to a study by?Sejong Institute, a think tank in the Republic of Korea, over 80% of conservative voters in the US see news?reports by mainstream media outlets, such as New York Times,?as false information and have a biased trust in media.?Voters believe?in only a few media?outlets and would ignore communications at the national?level. Levelheaded?discussions and consensus-building have been replaced by megaphone politics and negative partisan strife.
The Digital News Report?2021?issued?by the University of Oxford and Reuters Institute indicates that?among 92,000 online news consumers?surveyed in 46 markets, those in the US have the lowest level of trust in?news, a mere?29%.
In the information age when?traditional media is on the decline, social media has become a new?favorite?for the general public. Yet,?like traditional media, social media?is also under the control of big capital and interest groups. To increase their website traffic, social media sites use algorithms to create "information cocoons", leaving extreme content unchecked and uncontrolled. This drives users toward self-reinforcing their existing views, exacerbates identity politics, and further divides public opinion.
In October 2021, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked tens of thousands of pages of explosive internal documents of Facebook. She disclosed to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) that Facebook would not hesitate to sacrifice public interests to keep users on its platform and make profits. Facebook has become a main platform for social extremists and is fraught with hate speech, disinformation and misinformation. Action is only taken on?3-5% of hate and about 0.6% of violence and incitement on the platform.
