Willeford1

Patti Willeford
Rob Griffith
10/24/04
Formal Argument Essay
Wagging the global dog (Barry)

Being part of the current media audience I am constantly in a controlled state of

learning; subjecting myself to only eight views for all external news that shape my
opinions of the world events unfolding daily. Most of us are subject to the phenomenon
known as the human condition and are ripe for the molding. Watching Michael Moores
docudrama Bowling for Columbine immediate reactions after watching the movie
normally are: That America is a horrible place, a bunch of gun toting crazies running
around our country, and we need to do something about it. After a little research about
the facts presented in the movie, views will shift and now we will think that horrible
Michael Moore and then we will wonder why he would try to dupe everyone like that.
We have to start thinking critically about what is true and what is not true. We are
exposed daily to selective news and we are swallowing it whole, not taking any time to
evaluate its contents. You or I cannot afford to continue to believe everything we read in
the newspaper, or read in a magazine, or watch on television or look up on the internet.
We need to question the facts and view the news in a critical fashion.
At times there is no right or wrong answers and the event reported will be a matter
of view and opinion. For example, in American History we read in our textbooks about
historical events, when looking at these events critically and evaluating first hand

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accounts of people who actually participated in the event. Both accounts are true but the
facts are stated differently, no two people will experience the event the same way.
Keeping this in mind and watching an interview in the news, we can now understand how
being exposed to only eight views for all accounts of current events could be slanted by
opinion in one direction or another.
Being subject to only eight views for the news should have you scratching your
head and thinking seriously about the news you are exposed to. Im betting that you did
not know eight goliath organizations own the media, we now need a little history on how
this has come about. On June 2, 2003 the FCC (Federal Communications Commission)
revised its limits for broadcast ownership. (Media Ownership Policy Reexamination)
These eight media goliaths rule the United States media market as well as the Global
media market.
According to Robert McChesney writer for Nation, and referring to Christine
Barbour and Gerald C. Wright who are the authors of a current textbook used for Political
Science 101 currently at Ozarks Technical Community College which contains a
breakdown of ownership:
In short order, the global media market has come to be dominated
by the same eight transnational corporation or TNCs, that rule US media:
General Electric, AT&T/Liberty Media, Disney, Time Warner, Sony, News
Corporation, Viacom and Seagram, plus Bertelsmann, the Germany-based
conglomerate. At the same time, a number of new firms and different
political and social factors enter the picture as one turns to the global
system, and the struggle for domination continues among the nine giants
and their closest competitors. But as in the United States, at a global level
this is a highly concentrated industry; the largest media corpora- in the
world in terms of annual revenues, Time Warner (1998 revenues: $27
billion), is some fifty times larger in terms of annual sales than the world's
fiftieth-largest media firm. (McChesney 11) (Barbour et al. 592-593)

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Now that we understand media ownership and realize that selective news occurs
daily. We dont get a full view of current events only a selected few which are presented
to us, The media are objective only when the issues are trivial or do not challenge the
beliefs of those who manage and own the media. While reporters may report their stories
objectively, their innate biases show through in the way a story is framed and
crafted.(12a) a couple of examples of this media selection are:
The author claims double standards are used to further a liberal social
agenda. He cites the beating and death of Matthew Shepard, a gay student
at the University in Wyoming in 1998. The crime was headline news for
weeks. When, however, a 13-year-old boy died, bound and gagged, as a
result of "games" engaged in by two gay roommates a few months after
the Shepard case, the mainstream media ignored the story entirely.
(Hannaford 24)
A second example of selection in regards to Michael Moores docudrama
Bowling for Columbine researched by Daniel Lyons and reporting for Forbes
magazine:
TITLE: Moore titled the movie Bowling for Columbine because, he
suggests, the two kids who shot up Columbine High in Littleton, Colo.,
went to a 6 a.m. bowling class on the day of the attack. ACTUALLY:
Cool story, but police say it's not true. They say the shooters skipped their
bowling class that day. MISSILES: Moore wonders whether kids at
Columbine might be driven to violence because of the "weapons of mass
destruction" made in Lockheed Martin's assembly plant in Littleton.
Moore shows giant rockets being assembled. ACTUALLY: Lockheed
Martin's plant in Littleton doesn't make weapons. It makes space launch
vehicles for TV satellites. WELFARE: Moore places blame for a shooting
by a child in Michigan on the work-to-welfare program that prevented the
boy's mother from spending time with him. ACTUALLY: Moore doesn't
mention that mom had sent the boy to live in a house where her brother
and a friend kept drugs and guns. BANK: Moore says North Country
Bank & Trust in Traverse City, Mich., offered a deal where, "if you
opened an account, the bank would give you a gun." He walks into a
branch and walks out with a gun. ACTUALLY: Moore didn't just walk in
off the street and get a gun. The transaction was staged for cameras. You

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have to buy a long-term CD, then go to a gun shop to pick up the weapon
after a background check. (Lyons 59)
Media selection is not the only bias we are exposed to, advertising in the media
shapes what we buy, eat, wear, and what we think about almost every issue in the world.
If we dont think objectively and critically about what we read or what we hear or watch,
this is our only source of information.
So we need to be skeptical when it comes to the media and ask some questions,
do some research and verify the facts presented to us. Dont take information or visual
effects at face value, some of those visual effects can anchor themselves right into our
emotions and rip your heart right out. An example I remember seeing on television a
long time ago was starving and dirty children with flies buzzing on their bodies and for
pennies a day I can save one. This is a powerful message and viewing it for the first time
I could be dialing the telephone and giving my money away before getting the actual
facts. Whenever I think about this critically I realize pennies a day is not likely to save
anyone. But I acted on emotion alone and didnt think critically about what I had viewed,
I would just write a check and send it in, feeling good about saving a child.
If the content will be sellable a profit is going to be made, whether it is an
advertisement or the news; and the research for media ownership and the advertisers who
invest in them are so intertwined and overlapping into so many media types, I start
thinking, grandmas brothers cousins sisters child this is how related the eight great
conglomerates have become. And the advertisers have mixed their investments in them
all and now it seems like one giant monopoly due to the conflict of interest of the
ownership by the investors who are out to make a buck. Yes, they will try to influence

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what we think, what we buy, what we drink, and by selective programming and content to
combine our opinion and their opinion into a public opinion which is their opinion.
It is not by accident that certain commercials air on television with certain
programs, a lot of research goes into information about viewers such as: age, sex, ethnic
group, class, politics, hobbies and the list goes on and on. So advertisers can target the
audience they think will buy their product. Even when we shop in the city of
Springfield, Missouri at a Wal-mart, think about the scanning of our items in the check
out lane, when these items are scanned information is gathered and recorded. Advertisers
know and learn exactly how and who to target. Computers are becoming a gold mine for
gathering information about consumers and what they are viewing, looking at or buying.
Advertising is just one method of media bias.
Another method of media bias is propaganda in which the news sources frame the
news in a manner to convince us that facts presented are absolute and should be taken at
face value. We need to question these facts and evaluate the sources and decide if the
facts presented are true or not. Michael Moore, a genius when it comes to propaganda
currently is trying to use Fahrenheit 9/11 a docudrama he made to defeat George W.
Bush in the election and according to Thomas Arnold of USA Today that Moore stated
after creating Fahrenheit 9/11 that, Since then, defeating Bush in November has become
Moore's mission, so he pushed for the DVD to come out before the election.I thought as
many Americans as possible should see it before they vote in the election," he says.
(Arnold Life 3d) Moore is trying to control the election of the President in our country
this is serious propaganda since Moores reputation for selecting certain facts that suit his
needs to gain the desired result from the audience occurred in other films he produced.

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Before researching and looking at the facts on issues being presented to us I
would not have thought this was possible. But it can be done; the audience can be
persuaded to believe almost anything, especially if emotionally motivating material is
used. What you are seeing, says Christopher Dixon, media analyst for the investment
firm PaineWebber, "is the creation of a global oligopoly. It happened to the oil and
automotive industries earlier this century; now it is happening to the entertainment
industry. (McChesney 11) Oligopoly is a market dominated by a small number of
participants who are able to collectively exert control over supply and market prices. ()
As a current, more educated member of the media audience watching television
for entertainment I remember a movie called Wag the dog. (Barry) It was all about
duping the public into believing a news story that wasnt true, but the news and pictures
of the newscasts were very graphic in the movie, sitting at home and watching KY3 ( ) or
another one of the local channels portraying the national news, I would believe the events
being shown to me. As you sit and watch the evening news, think critically about the
message being given to you. If enough of us question the media we see, hear or watch, a
lot less wagging on a global scale will go on, so lets break that dog by critically thinking
about what we see, hear and watch!

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Works Cited
McChesney, Robert. "The new global media." Nation 11/29 1999: 11.
Barbour, Christine, and Gerald Wright. Keeping the Republic. 2nd ed. : Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2003.
"Media Ownership Policy Reexamination." FCC. Federal Communication Commission.
23 Oct 2004 <http://www.fcc.gov/ownership/>.
, . "Media bias shows through in reporting." USA Today 09 2003, 12a.
Hannaford, Peter. "Dissecting Liberal Media Bias." Human Events 10 2004: 24.
Lyons, Daniel. "Bowl-o-Drama." Forbes Dec 9 2002: 59.
McChesney, Robert. "The new global media." Nation 11/29 1999: 11.
Arnold, Thomas. "Moore and more documentaries." USA Today 05 Oct 2004, Life 3d.
1997-2004. investorwords.com. WebFinance, Inc.. 24 Oct 2004
<http://www.investorwords.com/3404/oligopoly.html>.
Barry, Levinson."Wag the Dog." Movie, . 1997. CD-ROM. 24 Oct 2004 <>.
, ."Evening News." KYTV , Springfield. . Broadcast. 24 Oct 2004 <http://ky3.com>.