Page 11 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

Introduction

Understanding the News
in the "War on Terror"

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the media seems more important
than at any other time in history. In an era when globalization has accelerated
with the emergence of new technologies such as the Internet, media reporting is
not just a national issue-it is one with global implications. Papers like the New
York Times reach beyond an American audience; it is considered one of the most
prestigious papers in the world. Grassroots media movements have also grown
in strength, influence, and range by making use of new communications tech-
nology. This point is driven home in a number of academic studies. In Global
Activism, Global Media, Wilma De Jong, Martin Shaw, and Neil Stammers ar-
gue that "Media appear to be increasingly globalised, as national television,
press, etc. are subsumed in gigantic worldwide flows of information and ideas,
symbolised by the internet, which offers social and political actors new opportu-
nities for direct communication."'
Media can no longer be looked at as the exclusive realm of corporate actors
and multinational conglomerates. Increasingly, activist networks are promoting
their own definition of what it means to "report the news." Community media
activist and scholar Kate Coyer speaks specifically about the proliferation of
independent media centers (Indymedias) on a national and global scale. Immedi-
ately following the mass protests against the World Trade Organization in Seat-
tle, Independent Media Centers began to spring up throughout the country, pro-
moting an increasingly popular slogan of Indymedia throughout the world:
"don't hate the media, become the media." Indymedia is radically different from
corporate news reporting in that it represents an open publishing structure in
which grassroots activists can, and do, become involved in actively reporting the
news around them. Activists and community members are encouraged to report
for themselves what is happening in local, national, and international news de-
velopments and events, and submit those reports to their own Indymedia site.