1000 words incl title, excl title 993

Jacob Lubbers Estrada

MEDIA SAYS POSITIVE = SOCIETY SAYS POSITIVE?
In our contemporary world, the media plays an increasingly important role in framing (certain)
events, statements and developments in a positive way. It should, therefore, not be a surprise that
many refer to it as the ‘Fourth Estate’: its ability to frame politics in a certain way is fundamental to
the democratic convivence of any country. However, if the media is so important, can it at least be
trusted to the fullest extent? Is it not moved by bias? Does private media guarantee a free, inclusive
press?

Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman’s Manufacturing Consent is a great book that shows how large
media conglomerates, in fact, do have their own bias and that it influences the content of their news
coverage. Not only are hegemonic media conglomerates ideology-driven, they are also dependent
on elite-level institutions. Chomsky and Herman explain that due to flexibilization of rules in the
1980s, the media has become more integrated into the free market, making it subject to ownership
by other, non-media enterprises. Hence, media firms “have lost some of their limited autonomy to
bankers, institutional investors, and large individual investors”. As an example, Harvard University’s
US Media Index is interesting as it provides us with what companies are shareholders of media
conglomerates such as CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and New York Times: one will find different kind
of companies, but three that in almost all cases come back as shareholders are BlackRock, Vanguard
Inc., and SSGA Funds Management. All three of them are among the globally most important
investment managers.

This, according to Chomsky and Herman, creates an asymmetrical relationship between the media
and its owners, as the media will cover news in a way that can boost the profits of its shareholders.
This is not necessarily so because the shareholders impose what coverage they want or not, but also
because the media corporations want them to be happy about their news coverage so they do not
sell their stocks, which would lead to a drop in market value of the media conglomerate. Taking the
aforementioned into consideration, one must analyse how almost all media conglomerates deem
boosters for persons that do not belong to risk-groups of COVID-19 as something undoubtedly
positive. According to CNNMoney, the shareholders of the vaccine-developers Johnson&Johnson,
Moderna and Pfizer are the same as those of the USA’s key media powerhouses: BlackRock,
Vanguard Inc., and SSgA Funds Management. Knowing this, it makes sense why there is barely any
coverage in what some call the “mainstream media” about why vaccines should remain a completely
free option. According to an article in the European Journal of Epidemiology, the Infection Fatality
Rate (IFR) of COVID-19 among people at age 25 is 0.01%, at age 55 it is 0.4%, at age 65 it is 1.4%, at
age 75 it is 4.6%, at age 85 it is 15%, and at the age of 90 it surpasses 25%. Seeing these numbers, it
makes no sense to make everyone’s access to social life depend on one’s vaccination status. Why
should millions need to accept the imposition of having to show a QR-code before entering a
restaurant, or a museum, or a university, for a virus that – in their case – is less likely to kill them and
others than dying in a car accident (ratio of 1:107)? If one also considers that the vaccinated
continue infecting others, and that the vaccines are designed for the original alpha-variant of COVID-
19 and not omicron, it becomes more unclear.

It is undeniable that vaccines are effective in protecting older people and other vulnerable groups,
but their necessity for the rest is questionable. So, why when governments on a global level impose
coercive measures which force riskless people directly or indirectly to get vaccinated – such as 3G,
1000 words incl title, excl title 993

Jacob Lubbers Estrada

2G, vaccine mandates, vaccine requirements for access to work places, extra taxes, fines, and so on –
do the media not use their role of government watchdogs and raise their voices to criticize these
decisions? There is no hard proof for it, but maybe because of what Noam Chomsky and Edward
Herman state in their book: because they do not want to jeopardize the profit possibilities of their
shareholders, who are also shareholders of the large pharmaceutical multinationals that developed
the vaccines against the coronavirus. Needing to design new vaccines for every new mutation –
because all viruses mutate – and then selling hundreds of millions of these vaccines to all countries
across the globe, mostly high- and medium-income countries while leaving out the poorest, is a
strategic business model.

While Western, corporate media applaud the rollout of boosters on a massive scale for riskless
Westerlings, there are still millions of unvaccinated in Sub-Saharan Africa who actually have more of
a necessity to get vaccinated. According to Our World in Data, in Nigeria only 2.5% is fully
vaccinated, in Sudan this rate raises to 3.3%, but in Ethiopia it drops again to 1.4%; finally, Congo-
Kinshasa has the lowest vaccination rate, namely 0.2%. Despite that even the WHO has stated that
there is no way in which European countries can booster themselves out of the pandemic and that it
is more important to allow countries in the developing world to immunize their vulnerable
populations, the coverage on booster campaigns in the West continues to be quite positive.

To conclude, it is important to understand that the media has an incredibly influential role. Not only
do they communicate to citizens what happens in society, but they set the agenda and can frame
their stories in certain ways. We also, then, tend to end up in a ‘bubble’ of information but in which
other data or views are not regarded as importantly as that of the mainstream sectors of society.
Before criticizing someone for having an uncommon view and labelling them with offensive terms,
try to listen to the ‘other’ serious voices and concerns. It would be a positive accomplishment if we
were to listen more to each other instead of just discuss.
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Jacob Lubbers Estrada

Sources:

https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=NYT&subView=institutional

https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=PFE&subView=institutional

https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?symb=JNJ&subView=institutional

https://money.cnn.com/quote/shareholders/shareholders.html?
symb=MRNA&subView=institutional

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33289900/ pdf:
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-020-00698-1.pdf

https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/buitenland/artikel/5280445/boete-voor-ongevaccineerde-canada-
quebec-geduld-raakt-op

https://www.google.com/search?
q=vaccination+rate+congo&sxsrf=AOaemvIZSc6JHfQdexkXPzgQCuUxc0ltXw
%3A1643236981748&ei=dc7xYb2ILYXckwXW5aXgAg&ved=0ahUKEwj9ltDkvtD1AhUF7qQKHdZyCSw
Q4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=vaccination+rate+congo&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQgAEMsBOgcIIxDqA
hAnOgQIIxAnOgsIABCABBCxAxCDAToOCC4QgAQQsQMQxwEQowI6BQgAEIAEOgsILhCABBDHARCvAT
oGCCMQJxATOgQIABBDOggIABCABBCxAzoHCAAQChDLAToGCAAQFhAeSgQIQRgASgQIRhgAUOcEWK
IbYIMdaAFwAHgAgAFgiAHPC5IBAjIymAEAoAEBsAEKwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz Google statistics for
vaccination rates of sub-Saharan African countries

https://erinjuryattorneys.com/odds-of-dying-in-a-car-crash/#:~:text=According%20to%20the
%20National%20Safety,in%20107%20as%20of%202019.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20211222-booster-campaigns-won-t-end-the-pandemic-
who-chief-warns-wealthy-nations

https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/futureofmedia/index-us-mainstream-media-ownership

Herman, E. S. & Chomsky, N. (1988). MANUFACTURING CONSENT: The Political Economy of the Mass
Media. London: Vintage Books.