in his book “The Third Wave” Alvin Toffler summed up the transformation of societies national in three phases: the agricultural until the First World War, the industrial, between the First and the Second, and the postmodern or post-industrial, based on information and propaganda.
In addition, Harold Lasswell defined the interaction of countries in four dimensions; the diplomatic, the economic, the military and the informative or psychological, the latter is the one that concerns us in this analysis.
In a globalized world, the interests of nations cross borders and it is that the relationship between governments will depend to a great extent on the popularity that a nation enjoys among the members of another, since it will facilitate possible alliances or in its case it will hinder them, since the leaders of a nation will always seek to please their interests without its popularity will be hindered or better yet, increase.
That said, this is where the importance of the concept put forward by the American geopolitical scientist Joseph Nye the “soft power” or “soft power” what is the ability of a state to persuade other countries by avoiding the use of force or coercion, using more subtle means, such as their culture, their social model or their political values.
When a nation keeps the majority of its population isolated and lacks access to universal information without prior authorization, but at the same time uses different mass media and strategies to influence the collective mood of other nations, it is not only violating the stability of others its convenience but at the same time, by keeping its population captive and lacking elements that allow it to be compared, it uses all soft power in its favor, without suffering it against it.
There are several nations that invest large capital in the creation of a “country brand” that allows them to create affinities around the world, without their information being refuted by their own inhabitants, which also creates great discontent in more democratic nations, by falling into the game of big interests.
To this we must add that “soft power” is no longer only exercised between nations, but also between large communication corporations vs. Nations or communities, the content that is censored on social networks, (which are the new great communication channels) is at the discretion and interest of individuals and it is overwhelming as today everything that appears in these media is taken as true, and what does not appear there, simply did not happen.
From my point of view, the media they had never had as much power in the field of international relations as they do today. The curious thing is that the greater the exchange of information or propaganda between countries, the nationalist tendencies increase, which is ironic.
What is kept in constant flux are precisely the means, but the bottom line is the same, the management of the masses for the benefit of the elites.
#media #international #agenda #part