Under geopolitical changes, western media prejudice is complementary to national interests

Author: Wu Fei (Professor of the School of Journalism and Communication of Jinan University)

Source: "Young Reporter", No. 11, 2022

The stability of the global order during the Cold War was the product of reconciliation between the principles of development and the asymmetry of power, and the news principles were rooted in the development of the media. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the world's relative strength shifted to the West, but after the US financial crisis in 2008, as the east rose to the west, the strength of the East began to rise. The scope of influence is weakening. The West will have to adapt to the new normal, either incorporate their actions into the scope of the new international norms, or it may be able to separate from the global system on a large scale. In reality, media bias in Western countries are getting worse.

The relative effect and influence of the West in the construction of the world order is weakened, and the global power model is being re -adjusted. Professor Graham Ellissen proposed in the concept of "Xiu Cataldide Trap": In 16 cases of power transfer in the past 500 years, 12 have led to war. Western countries have won power when dealing with the rising power. Out of morality. Western media prejudice is part of the power to show power, and there is very little sound of criticism and evaluation of this.

Western countries maintain prejudice for their own interests

International realist politics is to establish and maintain the dominant international order standard structure through the interaction of power, thought and values. In October 2002, former US President Bill Clinton stated in a private activity in Los Angeles: "As the world's hegemon, the United States is facing a fundamental choice, doing everything to maintain a leading position, or using its unlikely dominant dominance status Come to create a world that can be suitable for a comfortable life in the West. "

The stability of global order is the function of universal ethical principles and power asymmetry in national policies and international institutions. These principles and power relative nature are embedded in it; as emerging powers have transformed from regulatory recipients to makers and enforcement For those, they will continue to seek re -adjustment of their own voice when formulating global rules; as relative power transfers to other countries, Western countries are of great urgency for consolidating order -based order, and more and more norms of global order are increasingly subject to For the restrictions of dual standards, news reports are dual -standard hardest hit areas.

Western media is a popular media that serves the national interests of the Western world. It is just that the United States is more focused on business culture and cannot lose money while serving national interests. Europe pays more attention to the inheritance of multiculturalism. During the Cold War, Western media was in sharp contrast to the Soviet media. "New Left Comments" editor Tarick Ali believes that the news concept of Western media in the 20th century has evolved into a model of Western and the Soviet Union. After that, Western media mainly show their superiority by accommodating different voices. As far as the content and display of Western media, the diversification of Western media reached its peak during the Cold War.

Bosah ebo, a professor at Ryder University, believes that during the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union launched a fierce media diplomacy designed to shape each other's international image. Voice of America and Liberty Europe were the main news media of the United States against Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

In the 1970s, the communication scholar Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Jeremy Tunstall and Elihu Katz put forward the view of the "media empire", and believed that there was an improper flow from the information output from the first world to the third world. The media of the economy can substantially influence the culture and consumption of the Third World, leading to cultural hegemony that is conducive to individualism and consumerism. During the Cold War, the media empire not only reshaped the image of Western countries, but also took into account profit.

In 2015, the former editor -in -chief editor of Times Now, the most popular English news channel in India, Arnab Goswami criticized Western media hegemony that had destroyed the balance of power, and the United States and Britain jointly contributed global news. The source of 74%, while the entire Asia contributed only 3%, mainly due to the exclusiveness of news reports in Western countries.

Mainstream Western media keep prejudice

Get political and economic interests

The mainstream media (MSM Mainstream Media) is used to collectively refer to various large -scale popular news media that affect many people, that is, media that reflect and shape the trend of mainstream ideas. After the Cold War, the mainstream media created by Western countries are more concentrated and open the era of prejudice in news reports. The concentration of US media ownership has caused homogeneous views of news audiences and caused media prejudice during public media news reports. Media prejudice is a prejudice of reporters and news producers in the public media and how to report the reports and how to report. After the Cold War ended, the phenomenon of media prejudice was more prominent and common, and the direction and degree of prejudice of American media were controversial.

The United States printing media is mainly private, but the US public broadcasts dominate in broadcasting and television. The United States is the only developed country supported by advertisers since the beginning of broadcasting and television systems. Western European models regard public media as "representatives of national culture."

There are more than 100 broadcasts and televisions in the US cable TV network, controlled by 8 companies: Fox, Walter Disney (including ABC, ESPN, FX and Disney brand) (Have WarnerMedia), Discovery, Inc., EW Scripps Company, Altice USA, etc. The US public's trust in the media began to decline in the 1970s, and then suddenly declined again in the 2000s. Since the 2000s, the dislikes of the media have been polarized because Republicans' dislocation of the media is much higher than that of Democrats.

Politics, media prejudice and market forces affect each other, and the media has the ability to influence politicians, and politicians may also affect the media. This has changed the distribution of power in society, intensifying market forces, including prejudice introduced by media ownership, concentration of media ownership, subjective choices of media reporters, or perceived preferences of the audience.

In the post -globalization era after the Cold War, the audience is more inclined to choose a prejudice media based on their preferences, which is called the phenomenon of "confirmation news". There are three main factors for the audience to make this choice: 1. Entrust, the audience uses a filtering method to eliminate the prejudice they think. 2. Psychological effects, the audience chooses from the news that is prejudiced to meet their own information that they have previously considered the right, prove that they are correct. 3. Confirm that the audience will make the re -confirmation based on the previous impression and the image of the media company.

In 2000, scholars D'Alessio and Allen studied three possible media prejudice sources: 1. Report deviation, media chose to report negative news about a certain party or ideology. 2. Putting corporation deviation (also known as selective deviations), selective news reports for selectivity for ideology. 3. State prejudice (also known as semantic prejudice or present prejudice). At this time, media reports support or oppose specific individuals, political parties, and groups.

Social media comprehensive enlarged bias

In the driver of demand bias, traditional media no longer fully meet the needs of the audience, and social media can better meet readers' preferences and needs. Traditional media and social media distorted news under the drive rate and profit, leading to media prejudice. Readers are also easy to be attracted to the sensational news, although the audience itself thinks that the news is prejudiced and not real enough.

The American social media platform once again enlarged the prejudice problem from traditional media, and expanded the extreme views of the audience, causing the opposition to the audience. The American "black destiny" and "white supremacy "ism became the representative of extreme views.

According to a report from the Pew Research Center, in July 2020, 64%of Americans believed that social media had a negative impact on American society and culture. Only 10%of Americans thought it had a positive impact on society. American social media deliberately spread false information, hatred and extremism. Social media was tailored according to the interests of the audience and a circle of friends. A polls from the 2019 Picou Research Center showed that 28%of the American adults "often" obtained news through social media. 55%of the American adults " Frequent "or" sometimes "from social media. Due to the popularity of new crown pneumonia, the activities of government, political parties, and audiences are more restricted to live broadcasts online and social media, so more and more people will get news through social media.

In order to reduce news source prejudice, the Nitter Foundation and Gallop created the NewsLens website in 2020 to display news from various sources. Some people in the United States tend to give more prejudice rating to these news. 2021 2021 In January, the news platform closed.

Professor Jim A. Kuypers, a professor of Virginia University of Technology, found in the study of how to build controversial issues in the media hosted by the media in 2002: In the study of 116 mainstream newspapers in the United States, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco According to the Chronicle, the mainstream printing media in the United States operate within the scope of narrow liberal beliefs. People who express the left -wing perspective are usually ignored. People who express mild or conservative views are often labeled.

The US Fox News and the Washington Territory belong to conservativeism, and other American media generally tend to prejudice of liberalism. Advertisers are willing to pay more fees for media to the rich audience. The media may customize content to attract these audiences, but this may produce right wing prejudices. For favorable reasons, newspapers may adjust their content to attract urban readers mainly liberalism. Therefore, the US media reports more positive reports of the President of the Democratic Party that is biased towards liberalism.

After the Cold War, Western media prejudice was mainly due to the needs of the media empire. However, with the gradual division of the two parties in the United States, the dispute between conservatives and liberals in the United States enlarged media prejudice. Apricate this trend. Media prejudice first led to the social turmoil of "black life" and "white supremacy" in the United States elections, and then continued into international reports, and it was even more serious.

[This article is the 2016 National Social Science Foundation Key Project "The Construction Research on Systems in Global Governance-Empirical Research based on Sino-Russian media exchanges" (Project Approval Number: 16AZD052) phased achievement] Reference format for this article:

Wu Fei. Under the change of geopolitical changes, western media prejudice is complementary to national interests [J]. Young reporter, 2022 (11): 101-102.

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