In the digital and globalized erathe media play a fundamental role in the opinion formation and the configuration of social reality. The manufacture of consent, a concept created by Walter Lippman in the 1920s, and more recently used by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, describes the process by which media they shape the public opinion by promoting (or omitting) particular political, social and economic agendas.
This process is carried out through the selective selection and presentation of information, the repetition of certain themes and approaches, as well as the omission of alternative perspectives that challenge the status quo. At the heart of the manufacturing of consent is the control of social narratives. Factual groups with political and economic interests use their influence, direct or indirect in the media, to manipulate public perception of events, institutions and social actors. By establishing media agendas and promoting hegemonic discourses, these groups seek to legitimize themselves and consolidate their power.
The social anesthesia, a term introduced by the Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells, complements the notion of manufacturing consent by describing the effect of numbing and apathy that media manipulation and control of narratives can generate in society. As people are inundated with a constant flow of biased and superficial information, they risk losing their critical capacity and their willingness to participate in civic life. Social anesthesia manifests itself in the depoliticization of citizens, resignation in the face of injustice and passive acceptance of existing power structures.
By diluting the collective consciousness and demobilizing the transformative potential of society, social anesthesia perpetuates the stability of the status quo and hinders the reach of high-impact news such as shortages of fundamental resources, corruption scandals, or wars and genocides.
I invite those who read me today to reflect on these concepts when the media is inexplicably and drastically flooded with information about the romantic lives of giraffes, foreign sports, or gossip about artists you don't know.
Who manufactures their consent and at what cost?
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#immune #propaganda #narrative #control #social #anesthesia
