416 - War is Peace, Slavery is freedom, Ignorance is Profit (America's Orwellian Media)

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Episode #416 - War is Peace, Slavery is freedom, Ignorance is Profit (America's Orwellian Media)

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⌚ Sun 22 June 2008  ☻Robert Kane Pappas, Edward Jay Epstein (reading)

Download Hour1 Download Hour2The battle over who controls the mass media, which ideas and information will reach a broad public is central to the question of whether rule by the people can or will exist. This show explores how the American mass media has failed to truthfully inform the public since the commercialization of radio in the early 20th century. We adapt Robert Kane Pappas 2006 documentary, Orwell Rolls in his Grave, for radio and conclude with a reading of Edward Jay Epstein's "diamond invention".

In a media system based on profits from advertising revenue, the attention of the audience becomes the product sold to the advertiser. The ideal audience is therefore not only large, it is one not in the habit of thinking critically . Critical thinkers will maintain their habits of mind through the commercial breaks, and that's bad for business. Fomenting ignorance and passivity through the manipulation of language was one of the key themes of George Orwell's dystopian novel of a totalitarian society, "1984". Robert Kane Pappas 2006 documentary, Orwell Rolls in his Grave, compares the manipulation of ideas by media in 21^st century America to Orwell's totalitarian state. I have adapted it for radio for your listening pleasure this week as we administer an antidote to the propaganda flowing hot and heavy in this election season. We conclude with a reading of the "diamond invention" - a 1982 article by Edward Jay Epstein on how a decades long advertising campaign by De Beers successfully changed the global culture of courtship to their own selfish gain.
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