On the Role of Corporate Mass Media On Public Opinion &Al-Jazeera's Passion for Truth:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Thesis:
On the Role of Corporate Mass Media
On public opinion
&
Al-Jazeera’s Passion for Truth
By: Peter S. Lopez
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Main Entry: the·sis Pronunciation: 'thE-s&s, British especially for 1 'the-sisFunction: nounInflected Form(s): plural the·ses /'thE-"sEz/Etymology: in sense 1, Middle English, from Late Latin & Greek; Late Latin, lowering of the voice, from Greek, downbeat, more important part of a foot, literally, act of laying down; in other senses, Latin, from Greek, literally, act of laying down, from tithenai to put, lay down -- more at DO1 a (1) : the unstressed part of a poetic foot especially in accentual verse (2) : the longer part of a poetic foot especially in quantitative verse b : the accented part of a musical measure : DOWNBEAT -- compare ARSIS2 a : a position or proposition that a person (as a candidate for scholastic honors) advances and offers to maintain by argument b : a proposition to be proved or one advanced without proof : HYPOTHESIS3 : the first and least adequate stage of dialectic -- compare SYNTHESIS4 : a dissertation embodying results of original research and especially substantiating a specific view; especially : one written by a candidate for an academic degree
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++





THRUST OF THESIS:

The main thrust of this Thesis is to present the cogent argument that Amerikan corporativism (the conglomeration of all its main corporations):

1. Controls the so-called mass media;

2. Manufactures public opinion;

2. Attacks, in both direct overt and indirect covert ways, any really powerful News Agency opposed to its global domination agenda, as exemplified by the persecution of the Al-Jazeera News Agency.

THE CORPORATION:

Lexical Definition:
Main Entry: cor·po·ra·tion Pronunciation: "kor-p&-'rA-sh&nFunction: noun1 a obsolete : a group of merchants or traders united in a trade guild b : the municipal authorities of a town or city2 : a body formed and authorized by law to act as a single person although constituted by one or more persons and legally endowed with various rights and duties including the capacity of succession3 : an association of employers and employees in a basic industry or of members of a profession organized as an organ of political representation in a corporative state

The concept of a corporation and many aspects of modern corporate life are actually remaining remnants of an ancient past. In human history, the oldest surviving business corporation could be Sweden's Stora Kopperberg, founded in 1288 and now known as StoraEnso. The oldest surviving corporation of any sort is the Benedictine Order of the Catholic Church, founded around 529 A.D. with concepts and language borrowed from Imperial Rome, including the fundamental idea of the corporation, which can be traced back to guilds of artisans, brigades and merchants back to the eighth century BC. Called ‘corpora’ or ‘collegia’, they were also employed by the ancient Romans for many civic tasks.

Fast forward: In 2006 A.D. the Amerikan corporate-capitalist economy is controlled by the power of corporativism utilizing the modern profit-motivated corporation as a legal entity and social-economic model for doing business on a large global scale. The corporate ruling class matrix controls the mass media and thereby manufactures public opinion.

CORPORATE MASS MEDIA:

The corporate mass media is the most powerful means of mass communication ever invented by man to impact, influence and actually manufacture so-called public opinion. It controls the ways, means and processes of mass communications.

Definition: Media (the plural of medium) is a truncation of the term media of communication, referring to those organized means of dissemination of fact, opinion, entertainment, and other information, such as newspapers, magazines, cinema films, radio, television, the World Wide Web, billboards, books, CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, computer games and other forms of publishing.

Where do our ideas, analyses and opinions come from on a global level? Is this statement just a Leftist exaggeration of a paranoid pundit or a rational reflection of connected reality?

To show the rapid control process of corporate mass media consider the following:

In 1983: 50 corporations controlled the vast majority of all news media in the U.S.

In 1992: Fewer than two dozen own and operate 90% of the mass media" -- controlling almost all of America's newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies.

In 2000: The number had fallen to six with more mergers and the scope has expanded to include new media like the Internet market. More than 1 in 4 Internet users in the U.S. now Login with AOL Time-Warner, the world's largest media corporation.

In 2004: Only 5 huge corporations -- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) -- control most of the media industry in the U.S. General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.

Update: As of March 6, 2006, there has been the mega-billion dollar merger of AT&T and BellSouth, the latest and certainly one of the biggest deals in a telecom industry that has been undergoing a corporate realignment since the turn-of-the-century bust. This will result in 10,000 plus lost of jobs post-merged and conceivably trigger more future mergers, especially while a corporate-elected pliable President in cahoots with the Oval Office Cabal is seated in the White House.

INDIVIUUAL PERSPECTIVE:

In 1951, the year I was born, the first color televisions went on sale and transformed TV. Until 1951, TVs were only sold in black-and-white. With the addition of color, production companies could also entertain people with bright and vibrant colors. Thus, was born the one-eyed Cyclops known as the color TV. The presence of a TV in a home is a sign of normal civilized existence in the modern world.

As I grew up, in relation to the mass media I mainly watched regular TV (before cable channels) and was even a walking TV Guide. Our main form of any semblance of family togetherness was when we were all gathered together in the living room around the big TV as the center of family life, the same as millions of other American families.

Along with my friends, I heard the radio, mainly AM stations, then, later FM stations. Back then we had little battery-operated transistor radios with earplugs and only a few stations. Now there are many radio stations including via global satellite. Back then we had the old phonographs with the needles and vinyl record albums, which are a rarity today. I usually went to the movies on weekend and enjoyed Walt Disney Movies. Nothing like the variety today with Blockbuster, Net-Flix and so many other sources for movies, including online.

Later on, came small cassettes and videos, which evolved into compact discs (CDs and DVDs). Many of us have large music collections whose package may become obsolete with the rapid changes in technology. See the rapid transition from the old video players to the new DVD players. What we buy today seems designed to be obsolete in the future, especially as wireless technology becomes more prominent in home settings.

Nowadays, any thorough analysis of communications media should include such devices as cell phones, Palm Pilots, I-pods and other sources of ordinary one-one conversations, image sharing, daily information, and general education. Let us not forget that much of this media are great distractions offered for popular entertainment with a subliminal social engineering agenda.

INTERNET POWER:

The big breakthrough in mass media communications came in 1995 with the launch of Internet friendly Windows 95 when the Internet explosion hit with the World Wide Web, along with the short-lived ‘.com’ revolution. Thus, global mass communications reached a level of worldwide diversity and intensity never known before in human history!

Modern civilization was forever changed by the emergence of Internet Power and it has become a kind of education-information equalizer that competes with the near-monopoly of the corporate dominated major news agencies of the world. Every day and night there are countless millions of Emails, Instant Messages; there are thousands of online groups and thousands of blogs and bloggers all growing exponentially, though, there are hints of possible attacks on the people’s usage of Internet Power by the governing state powers.

Before the computer chip, the satellite and Internet Power, big business could dominate and control all the basic information transmitted to the masses. Rough estimates are that there is now around half a billion people with Internet access. For now the genie has come out of the bottle, has created its wizards and it cannot fit back in!

Al-JAZEERA & QATAR:

In Arabic ‘Al-Jazeera’ means ‘The Island’ - a term also used to refer to the Arabian peninsula of Qatar – the home base of Al-Jazeera. The country of Qatar juts out from the Arabian mainland into the Persian Gulf and is about the size of Connecticut. Some say the TV station's name refer to Qatar. However, in a narrow sense ‘Al-Jazeera’ refers to Mesopotamia, the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, north or northwest of the bottleneck at Baghdad in modern Iraq. Nevertheless, the global headquarters for Al-Jazeera is in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar from where Al-Jazeera began broadcasting in 1996.

Qatar is a rich country with its huge gas reserves of around a trillion cubic feet of gas and potentially a trillion-dollar economy– the largest known natural gas reserves of any country except Russia. Qatari people have one of the highest per capita incomes in the world with only about 610,000 souls.

The United States has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its defense system in Qatar. It has two U.S. military bases, out of which was launched the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and from where the U.S.-led Coalition Central Command gave its daily war briefings to the media press.

The government of Qatar is an autocratic one now ruled by benevolent Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani who is un-elected, un-accountable and all-powerful in a relative sense, but he is also a benevolent progressive ruler as Middle East rulers go. Political parties are outlawed and opposition is not tolerated. However, the Emir, with an American-educated first lady, promotes free speech, public education and other relevant social reforms, along with an ambitious foreign policy that seeks alliances with others in Arabia and throughout the world as it strongly maintains its own social, economic and political independence.

THE AL-JAZEERA CHANNEL:

The original staff of Al-Jazeera were first recruited from the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) which had launched an Arabic TV channel a couple of years earlier, only to close it down as a result of censorship attempts by Saudi Arabia, which controlled the relevant satellite.

Al-Jazeera was given free independent rein and a measure of editorial freedom unknown before in the Arab world, although funded by the Qatari government, despite its own efforts at also obtaining advertisement revenues via its Channel broadcasting.

The honest, objective and balanced professionalism of its news coverage, plus studio discussions which raised many ‘hot’ taboo issues, such as government control and censorship of the news, won it a huge audience in the Arabic-speaking countries. Plus, it became an increasing threat to Arab regimes dominated by the Muslim religion and opponents of open discussions and free speech elsewhere in the world.

THE GROWTH OF AL-JAZEERA:

Al-Jazeera, from the original vision up to its launch pad, was built on a staff coming from Arab countries, including Qatar. They already had experience working with Western media from the-BBC and the US media and all were Arabs. They took their past professional experience from working with other media and with their background as Arabs adapted their collective experience to the Arab world at large. As Arabs, they knew the mentality of Arabs—but also wanted the expatriate Arab audience, who are used to Western-European media.

The key difference between Al-Jazeera and the Western media is that they concentrate on Arab news and Arab issues with an Arab mentality from an Arab perspective yet with a larger global overview and understanding of connected realities.

One of its most popular programs, ‘The Opposite Direction,’ hosted by a British-educated Syrian named Faisal Al Qasim, is exemplar. Similar to CNN’s Crossfire, the show invites guests with opposing views. The host often goads the panelists to draw out differences in opinion and instigate a public debate to clarify issues. Most importantly, the topics of the show are unusual and controversial for the traditional-minded Arab public and both educational and entertaining.

One Arab commentator observed, as demonstrated in much of its regular news coverage and programming, “Al Jazeera has been credited with revolutionising public opinion and the media in the Arab world by virtue of its resoluteness in maintaining its independence from the censor, something quite alien to traditional Middle Eastern media” (“Al Jazeera: The Satellite Station”).
In 2001, Al-Jazeera began to attract widespread attention in the west. It was the only TV station with a permanent 24-hour satellite link to Kabul during the Afghan war. Many western channels used its sole exclusive footage. It also became famous (or notorious) for broadcasting videotaped messages from al-Queda leaders. Its broadcast of messages from clandestine al-Queda messengers gave Al-Jazeera a popular but false image as a media terrorist front for Osama bin-Laden and al-Queda terrorist network, especially inside the xenophobic United States.

All of sudden, Al Jazeera was not only delivering the news to its thirty-five million viewers (at the time), but it was also telling the world's top story to billions of people around the planet via an international media that had no other choice but to use Al Jazeera's pictures.

After the dark Tuesday of 9-11-01, which forever transformed geo-political global relations, Al Jazeera’s popularity, importance and exclusive scoops became obvious to the world, especially when it was granted exclusive coverage of the war in Afghanistan. It had already positioned itself by having developed good relations with the Iraqi people based upon mutual respect that none of the Western/European reporters had bothered to cultivate as a news gathering team.

When the US-led strikes began in Kabul, Al Jazeera alone offered the images of bombing and warfare that the global public demanded. Moreover, two weeks after 9-11, when a videotape of Osama bin Laden was anonymously “dropped off” at Al-Jazeera’s Bureau in Kabul, Al Jazeera had exclusive access to the message of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, guaranteeing that the world, and especially America, was tuning into its Channel. Al-Jazeera had come into its own on a global scale.

ATTACKS ON AL-JAZEERA:

The independent voice, honest reporting and critical coverage of Al-Jazeera did not come without dire consequences from the U.S.A.:

* In 2001, the United States bombed Al-Jazeera's bureau offices in Kabul, Afghanistan
during the Afghan war, as was its bureau in Baghdad during the US-led invasion of Iraq.

* Soon after the United States began bombing Kabul in October 2001, the Bush Regime was aggravated by the station’s critical coverage of the war in Afghanistan. Al Jazeera’s programming even instigated a meeting between Secretary of State Colin Powell and the Qatari Emir, where Secretary Powell reportedly asked that Al Jazeera be impartial and tone down its anti-American message.

* In 2001, shelled the Basra hotel where Al Jazeera journalists were the only guests.

* In November 2002, a US missile destroyed Aljazeera’s office in Kabul, Afghanistan.
None of the crew was at the office at the time. US officials said they believed the target was a terrorist site and did not know it was Aljazeera's office, yet the Pentagon was routinely given the coordinates for Al-Jazeera stations worldwide.

* In April 2003, the Iraq Al-Jazeera Correspondent Tareq Ayoub was killed when its office was struck during a U.S. bombing campaign and became a martyr. Nabil Khoury, a US State Department spokesman in Doha, said the strike was a mistake.

* Imprisoned several Al Jazeera reporters (including at Guantánamo), some of whom say they were tortured. In addition to the military attacks, the US-backed Iraqi government banned the network from reporting in Iraq.

Then in late November came a startling development: Britain's Daily Mirror reported that during an April 2004 White House meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, George W. Bush floated the idea of bombing Al Jazeera's international headquarters in Qatar, but was discouraged by Blair. This allegation was based on leaked "Top Secret" minutes of the Bush-Blair summit.

Al Jazeera's real transgression during the "war on terror" is a simple one: being there on the scene, especially for exclusive coverage that exposed the truth with combat footage, important interviews and on-the-scene images. While critical of the Bush Regime and its foreign policy, it is not anti-American--it is independent and widely respected worldwide by other news agencies.

Criticism of the organization’s coverage has not been limited to the western world, however. Al-Jazeera has “been a thorn in the side of many Arab regimes,” a claim that is substantiated by the over 400 official complaints that the organization has received from Arab governments alone, including Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and others.

Thus, Al-Jazeera has suffered persecution from various extremists on all sides, Arabs and non-Arabs, East and West, Left-Wing and Right-Wing, including direct targeted military attacks by the U.S. Government.

AL-JAZEERA’S EXPANSION:

In response to the flood of false accusations of bias, Al Jazeera maintains its guiding mantra that it gives all sides a chance to defend their view, presents news from the diverse varied sources and has a deep passion for the truth. Indeed, the station was founded and thrives on living up to its motto: “The Opinion and the Other Opinion”.

Boiling topics and heated debates along with objective news reporting and interactive feedback are the attributes that put Aljazeera.net amongst the 50 most visited sites worldwide.

It will grow, develop and expand even with Aljazeera.net’s latest Arabic version. The new design is a first step towards the creation of an integrated network of Aljazeera websites. The upgrade is designed to offer the visitor four sources of online information: News, Knowledge, Channel, and Business.

The four key sites are integrated through a global portal that shows the latest and most important content in each site. News is an Arabic news site, which offers comprehensive coverage of world affairs and developments. Knowledge offers an in-depth view of what goes on beyond the daily flow of news through analyses, research results, and comprehensive studies. The Channel is Aljazeera’s special site. It shows the channel’s latest developments and keeps a complete record of what it produces in a huge database that is made available to the audience.



January 2001: Aljazeera.net (Arabic) was launched as the first mainstream Arabic news site and in no time, it rose to the top of the Arab media. Aljazeera.net (English) has been designed to attract readers from continents poles-apart. Not only does Aljazeera.net English offer a versatile content of news and information, but it also aims to be more interactive.

Year 2002: Aljazeera.net (Arabic) received more than 811 million impressions and 161 million visits.

March of 2003: Al Jazeera launched a website featuring its content in English located on the Internet @ http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage . While Internet hackers at first made the site inaccessible on its official debut, the website has since operated without hesitation. And while it receives a sizeable amount of “hits” from outside of the Middle East, some critics have found that the content of the English webpage is significantly different from that of the organization’s main website, which is in Arabic.

November 2003: Al Jazeera launched an Arabic sports channel called Al Jazeera Sports, which quickly grew to become the top Arabic-language sports channel. April 15, 2005: Al Jazeera also launched Al Jazeera Live, a channel that broadcasts conferences live without commentary. It is the first of its kind in the Arab world and is modeled after the US-channel C-SPAN.

September 9 2005: Al Jazeera launched the Al Jazeera Children's Channel (JCC), which is the first all-Arabic-language channel devoted for children, and it "will produce 40% of its own programs, a ratio touted as being one of the highest of any children's channel worldwide”.

Finally, in March of 2006, Al Jazeera will launch an all-English news channel to be broadcasted worldwide, called Al Jazeera International. The new channel will have broadcast centers in Doha, London, Kuala Lumpur, and Washington D.C.

Indeed, Al Jazeera has become a global media organization to be seriously reckoned with by all other major news media outlets. Regardless of accusations of bias, the size and diversity of its audience continues to rise, and its coverage continues to expand exponentailly.
As the most listened to voice representing the citizens of the Arab world, studying Al Jazeera is essential to understanding the diverse peoples, politics, and cultures of the Middle East.

Today the Island Channel that sent shockwaves through the whole Arab world from its very first day on air has become a global name which people, governments, and decision-makers cannot afford to ignore.

Now reaching over an estimated 50 million viewers, and available in any country with universal satellite capabilities (DVB-S), Al Jazeera’s growth shows no signs of slowing down. With more than 30 bureaus and dozens of correspondents covering the four corners of the world Al-Jazeera has given millions of people a refreshing new perspective on global events from an Arab mentality.

Free from the chains of government control and censorship, Al-Jazeera has offered its audiences in the Arab world sorely needed freedom of speech, independent of government doctrine, and a forum for rational dialogue. In the rest of the world, often dominated by the racist stereotypical mentality of news ‘heavyweights’, Al-Jazeera offers a fresh, new and different picture on the Middle East and current events in general. Its correspondents first opened a clear window for the world on the New Millennium’s first two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. So now when Aljazeera speaks, the world listens and “reads”.

The stated long-term goal of Al-Jazeera is to set up a more pro-active relationship with their audience, where the audience is not simply a visitor at the other end of the line, but an integral key part of the news reporting and the whole news making process.

CONCLUSION:

In these troubled times, the dominant global corporate-mass media controls the gatekeepers of the news, manufactures public opinion and presents the news slanted in favor of the governing unjust powers. As a rule it offers entertainment programs for its commercial dollar-value, not for true educational purposes. This in itself is a subtle form of mass control psychology through mass distraction, greatly sways individual consciousness and keeps the general American population docile, apathetic and uninterested in global current events.
A true democratic mass media would be owned, controlled and reported by the masses through their respected journalists, reporters and newscasters Thus, it would require a true democratic society, though, there are many independent media forms on the Internet.

American mass media has improved greatly over the recent decades, yet there is still a lot of space for further improvement in making the media accessible to all people regardless of one’s economic position or class status.

Practical short-term solutions include the continued involvement of mass educational organizations that promote mass literacy; the continued advocacy for relevant social reforms, including a true democratic mass media supported by the government; and the continued creation of a true participatory democracy that requires the mass participation of the people in electoral politics in order to exhaust all legal peaceful methods of social change.

In conclusion, Al-Jazeera has a passion for the truth and the quest for the truth is the driving force that will ultimately prove to be rational, realistic and revolutionary. It will help rekindle the willpower within every human being who strives for the sacredness of truth. Indeed, ultimately the truth itself is revolutionary.

John 8:32 (
“And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
KEY RESEARCH SOURCES:
Websources:
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/03/who-owns-media.html
http://humane-horizons.blogspot.com/2006/03/media-reform-information-center.html#links
http://key-profiles.blogspot.com/2006/03/profile-mass-media.html#links
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
http://www.friendsofaljazeera.org/
http://www.corporations.org/media/
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/7079
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020107/miller

Movies:
The Corporation: Documentary by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, Joel Bakan and Bart Simpson which examines dominant institution of our time.

The Control Room: A documentary by Jehane Noujaim about its management and reporters as they cover the unfolding story of the second Iraq War.

Book:
Al-Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That Is Challenging the West By Hugh Miles
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0349118078/qid%3D1139617781/sr%3D2-1/ref%3Dsr%5F2%5F3%5F1/203-5256955-7659107
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://humane-rights-agenda.blogspot.com/2006/03/thesis-on-role-of-corporate-mass-media.html
c/s