MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA

Media and Marketing Games of the Oligarchs
More than a half-century ago, Conrad Black, the former owner of The
Daily Telegraph, pointed out: What would a man gain, if he owned a newspaper
and could not influence its content? This quote has not lost its relevance
since then; on the contrary, such a question has been relevant in any era
that is (or was) dominated by the media – namely in the eras of press, radio,
television or new media. The essential meaning of the quote stays the
same even if we take into account changes in political environment, ownership
relations or metamorphoses of the creative principles in terms of media
production. It places emphasis on the basic principle related to biased,
narrow-minded and manipulative ways of processing information, on the
acquisitive intentions of ownership structures. A few decades ago, in the times
of big autocratic regimes, we witnessed the application of unconcealed
censorship practices that resulted in the possibility of producing an outright
propaganda of the centralised power; at present, in the era of democracy,
we witness a contradiction between two different realities. On the one
hand, we reflect almost dogmatically spread, textbook ideology associated
with freedom of the media, non-censorship policy, independence of the media
subjects and producers, and strict respect for ethical codes related to
journalism, etc. On the other hand, an increasing amount of professionals
and academics critically re-evaluate the activities and agenda of contemporary
– especially commercial – media. These experts place emphasis on dangers
resulting from the influence of ownership structures on decisions made
by media managers as well as they point out various defects of current media
production and journalistic work. These defects include servility in relation
with the owners, corrupt behaviour, employment of several sophisticated
techniques of manipulation associated with processing information,
plagiarism, deliberate spreading of unverified rumours, keeping important
facts from the audiences, defamation, insults, etc. Interested authors also
pay attention to considering the relevance and meaning of various, so far
unanswered questions that result from the works of Aldous Huxley and
George Orwell: Although we live in society saturated by information, are
we really able to access them freely? Are we systematically manipulated
in order to see the world in accordance with the ideas and intentions of the
media producers? Are we – as a result of contemporary informational chaos
– passive, disoriented, egoistic? The section aims to provide a space for
discussing possible answers to the questions of revealing the causes and
consequences of manipulation methods and techniques, their practical use
as well as political, economic and cultural backgrounds of the contradiction
between two realities outlined above.