Old propaganda techniques and the contemporary media field

Crescent International

Ramadan 26, 1442 2021-05-08

Daily News Analysis

by Crescent International

The pro-Zionist, right-wing Henry Jackson Society (HJS) has alleged that Islamic Iran set up an internet strategy to interfere in Scotland’s elections held on May 6.

It exposes the overall propaganda techniques employed in contemporary times.

HJS’s allegation were publicized, with minimum scrutiny, on May 3 by numerous British media outlets.

Some media outlets and regional experts did question the right-wing group’s allegations.

Nevertheless, many leading media organizations published HJS’s opinionated allegations and the quantitative factor provided the report an aura of seriousness.

With media organizations’ increased use of internet technologies, speed has taken priority over accuracy and depth.

Such prioritization over quality in the news world makes the old propaganda technique much more potent.

Repetition of false or seriously flawed information to establish it as truth is now far more possible than prior to modern internet-based tools used by the media.

This reality, combined with the fact that traditional media outlets act as reinforcement boosters to internet-based media tools makes established corporate media organizations far more powerful in framing issues in accordance with their interests.

The Western corporate media’s incessant demonization of Islamic Iran since 1979 has created an environment wherein publication of headlines with negative connotations become “facts” in the minds of many news consumers.

An average reader is unlikely to investigate the reliability of catchy headlines.

News reports appealing to manufactured biases are taken as truths by superficially informed masses, especially if many media outlets report the same story using similar terms.

Understanding the psychology of the masses, Western corporate news outlets use the power of quantity over quality in today’s saturated media scene.

However, this also makes the phenomenon of muffling inconvenient reports visible to seasoned observers.

Writing for the Qatari regime’s TV channel, Al Jazeera, Toronto-based journalist, Andrew Mitrovica, accurately paid attention to the fact that Canada’s leading news organizations chose not to cover Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) damning report on Israel exposing its apartheid nature.

One need not be a media expert to realize that if HRW had published a similar report about Iran, it would be presented with screaming headlines worldwide.

In the world of algorithms and trending hashtags, media manipulation is a serious issue of concern.

Unfortunately, media manipulation becomes a worry only when it disrupts Western societies.

It came to limelight once Donald Trump’s tantrums began undermining the West-centric global order.

The fact that the US State Department had a multimillion-dollar Iran Disinformation Project is unlikely to become a big headline in the Western media, but an opinionated report can become a trending news story if it suits an agenda.

As the multipolar global order continues to evolve, the media battle between the regimes melting into oblivion and the new emerging powers will only intensify.

In this environment it will become essential for Muslims to develop their own media institutions in order to avoid being victims of manipulation, which has become the norm since 9/11.