Communication as Power

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Session 9

• Communication as Power

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Introduction

• We can look at this topic on two ways we may
  simply observe that power must be communicated to
  be effective or we can study how communication
  can be used as a source of power.
• Power can be communicated directly or indirectly.
  We may know that it is being exercised or we may
  not be aware of it.
• To a large extent we considered the direct use of
  power last session so today we will focus more on
  how communication is used to exercise power,
  especially through the media.

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Intangible Power

• In your first reading, Mowlana discusses tangible
  intangible resources of power.
• Tangible are things like economics, technology,
  politics military hardware.
• Intangible include belief value systems,
  ideology, knowledge and religion. These are
  sometimes called soft power although Nyes
  definition of soft power is somewhat narrower.

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Military Limitations

• Mowlana suggests that recent events have shown
  the limits of military power in an information
  age. Thus, for example, the US military victory
  in Iraq has stalled because of intangible
  factors.
• Knowledge ideology are major factors. Compare
  his with Foucaults ideas on knowledge as a form
  of power. Discuss.
• Control over intangible measures of information
  flow and communication now must accompany access
  to material and natural resources to obtain power
  in the international system. (p.89)

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Soft Power

• Joe Nye defines soft power as the ability to get
  what you want by attracting and persuading others
  to adopt your goals.
• He argues that attraction depends on
  credibility and suggests that the much maligned
  Hollywood often does promote values of
  individualism, upward mobility and freedom
  (including for women) which many people find
  attractive.
• President Bush said that if America is a humble
  nation people will respect it but if it is
  arrogant they will not. Has he taken his own
  advice?

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Hegemony

• In some ways, you might see soft power as a
  cousin of hegemony. In the one case, people obey
  others because their traditions tell them to and
  in the other because new concepts that they have
  accepted tell them to.
• An obvious example of this is conversion to a new
  religion.
• So you can exercise power by persuading people to
  adopt your religion, culture, philosophy or ideas
  of any kind what Mowlana calls intangible
  resources.

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Media

• The media has an important effect on power,
  especially in the international arena. You will
  get more detail on this in other courses.
• The media acts as a gatekeeper by selecting what
  news to print or broadcast, what facts to provide
  and what slant to put on the news. People dont
  always believe the media but if the media doesnt
  cover a particular foreign item, the most people
  will not know it exists.
• This ability is clearly an important source of
  power in the modern world.

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Media(2)

• Media reporting on foreign affairs tends to
  influence people more than reporting on domestic
  matters because people know less about the world
  outside.
• Obviously the media cannot report everything that
  happens everywhere in the world so it must
  select. The media selects what issues to report
  on and what slant to put on the reporting
  according to what it thinks people are interested
  in and what material is available to it.
• It may pander to popular prejudice or explain
  events in terms its readers can understand.

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Media Control

• A factor to consider is whether or not the owners
  of media outlets deliberately influence what
  appears and a specific line.
• Does the cultural background of journalists
  influence what and how they report even if they
  are not aware of it?
• If the main target audience is the USA, do other
  consumers get a raw deal because their interests
  are ignored?

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The Propaganda Model

• Hermans reading on The Propaganda model should
  be read carefully. You may not agree with all of
  it but it raises some important questions about
  the power of the media.
• Herman and Chomsky argue that the media serves
  elite interests but accepts that the public does
  not always follow the media line.
• An interesting point is the power of advertising
  in a capitalist press. Commercial outlets depend
  on advertising for their revenue which gives
  major advertisers a lot of clout no ads, no
  program.

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Ideology

• Herman Chomskys arguments about anti-Communism
  in the American media need to be updated to apply
  to anti-Islam.
• Do money and power affect media coverage of the
  Middle East? Some people argue that the Jewish
  Lobby in the US makes people afraid to criticise
  Israel and others that the US Government accuses
  critics of the Iraq war of being unpatriotic for
  not supporting our boys over there. Ideological
  lobbies can exercise power.
• As with Vietnam, the media seems to be
  increasingly critical of the Government.

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Third World Views

• The New International information Order emerged
  from UNESCO meetings and has argued that the
  major wire services and TC stations like CNN are
  dominated by Western countries which use them
  against the interests of the poor and weak.
• Bias turns potential investors away and thus
  hampers economic development.
• This is hard to prove and studies have shown that
  developing areas ignore each other too, e.g.
  Africa Latin America. Al-Jazeera is successful.

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Diplomatic Communication

• Governments communicate in many ways in
  international affairs. They may communicate by
  signals or by what they do not say or by the
  company they keep.
• We might consider who is sending signals to whom
  at present. Israel to Iran?
• There may be a conflict between what you say to a
  domestic audience and to a foreign one.

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Different Concepts

• Communication may get confused where the actors
  have different notions of power and of
  legitimacy.
• To exercise power, you have to make people
  understand what you are saying and if you are
  making threats they must be credible. So,
  communication failure can be seen as sometimes
  being a failure of power.

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Information

• Control over information and education is a very
  effective way of exercising power. We will see
  later how language is used to exercise power but
  access to education or denial of access is a
  potent weapon.
• Authoritarian governments rely heavily on control
  of information to keep the people in line and
  democratic ones have been known to withhold
  information from the public because of the damage
  it might do them.
• Are propaganda and PR attempts to exercise power
  through communication? Discuss.

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Charisma

• Some people have the ability to exercise power
  through personal Charisma. We dont quite know
  why, but we follow them.
• We might also argue that great orators exercise
  power through communication. Ronald Reagan was
  known as the great communicator and Adolf
  Hitlers ability to work a crowd is legendary.
  Others work less dramatically but have the gift
  of inspiring trust. You may appear to be ordinary
  or extraordinary.
• It can be done in different ways to different
  audiences, but some people exercise power by the
  way they communicate their message to the target
  audience.

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Imitation

• Human beings tend to ape the rich and powerful
  and always have done. Apes do the same which is
  no doubt where we get the expression.
• Conquered peoples may adopt the culture of the
  conquerors through admiration, not just force.
  Look at the colonial record. Look at the
  influence of the USA today or the Romans,
  Chinese, Indians or British historically.
• The notion of soft power draws on this to suggest
  you can exercise power by getting people to
  admire and imitate your ideas.

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Group Discussion

• Consider how power is communicated in the
  countries in your group.
• Does the media exercise independent power and if
  so how does it do it?
• Are there people in your society who exercise
  power through charisma? Is this institutional or
  personal?
• Can you think of ways that we have not mentioned
  in which communication is power?